Fanfiction: A Tale of Slayers : Part 5-8
CHAPTER FIVE
Despite its small size, Sunnydale did support a very productive harbor. The traffic was light but the docks serviced both commercial and private shipping, and at any given time there were always barges, freighters, tugs, and luxury yachts stationed there. Buffy only had the occasion to come down here just a few times, mostly on business, none of them really fond memories. The most prominent being the time she had accompanied Angel down here on her birthday, who was planning to stow away on one of the outbound ships to take away the Judge’s severed arm to a far corner of the Earth; in an attempt to keep Spike and Drusilla from assembling the powerful demon.
She had been filled with great sadness at the prospect of Angel being away from her for several months, perhaps half a year, or so, while he found a remote place to bury the demon limb. But they had been ambushed by some of Spike’s minions and had lost the piece of the Judge, thus postponing Angel’s journey; much to Buffy’s relief. Although the assembly of the Judge would have spelled doom for, perhaps, the entire world.
Fate had played its cruel hand, anyway, later that night, after she and Angel escaped from Spike and Dru, as well as the newly assembled clutches of the Judge. They had been tired and wet from the rain when they reached Angel’s apartment. Buffy had been in the process of removing her soaked clothes when Angel moved in close to examine a small cut she had suffered on her back.
Buffy could still recall every moment of that night. Everything that had followed. Making love to the only man, the only soul, she had truly loved with all her heart. Thankfully, the dream spared her the events that occurred after that cherished night. Instead of replaying Angel losing his soul, becoming evil and terrorizing her and her friends, she was suddenly walking along a bright sunny beach shore, holding the vampire’s hand. She didn’t question the impossibility of it all, she just enjoyed it and smiled back at him when he smiled at her.
“Buffy,” he said.
“Angel.”
“Buffy.” She felt someone shake her shoulder lightly. She opened her eyes and looked at Angel. He was behind the wheel of the Citroen; at Giles’ suggestion, actually, Buffy reflected. But then, Angel had been around when automobiles had been invented. About the time this car was invented.
“Hey,” she smiled at him.
He returned her smile and she saw they were parked just short of the docks.
“Buffy,” Giles said behind her. He was holding a stake out to her. She accepted it and hid it inside her jacket. She was now armed with three stakes. Giles was still digging into the large leather bag with the weapons they had raided from the library. He handed her a small, but deadly, silver knife in a sheath, and she stuffed it in the back of her waistband. Next, he handed a couple of stakes to Angel, who accepted with a nod.
“We should split up to cover more ground. It’ll be dawn in just over two hours, so we best hurry,” Giles said, as they climbed out, shouldering his bag.
“I’ll head south, toward the beach,” Angel suggested.
“Very well.” Giles turned to Buffy. “Buffy, you take to the north and I’ll—”
“You’ll be with me,” she said.
Giles was about to protest, but the stern look he received from his Slayer made him sigh softly. “Very well.”
“We’ll meet back here in an hour and a half,” she said to Angel.
“Be careful.”
“You too.”
They moved off in opposite directions, the vampire seeming to melt into the darkness.
“Buffy, I don’t want to slow you down. You and Angel can move much quickly on your own,” Giles said. “Besides, someone should make a sweep of the docks.”
“Don’t forget, Giles, you’re the one that said those creeps at the motel were waiting for you. They wanted to take me alive, but what if they want you dead?” He didn’t reply to that. “I just feel a lot better if you’re where I can keep an eye on you.”
“I’m the one who is supposed to look after you. I am your Watcher, after all.”
“And you’re doing a great job. I just want you to still be able to do it. So, please, just indulge your Slayer.”
“Anything for my Slayer,” he said with a small smile.
“We’ll take a quick look around the docks when we meet back up with Angel.”
Giles seemed satisfied with this and they lapsed into silence as they walked on the elevated ground, with the docks not far below them. Buffy couldn’t explain to herself why she was feeling so protective of Giles. Sure, she worried about him and did not want anything to happen to him, but never to the extent where she was afraid to leave him by himself. She figured it was due to Faith’s disappearance and that she may very well be dead. But if she was, there was no way Buffy could protect Giles against that kind of pain. Which was why this had become very personal to her.
They continued in silence, the half-moon providing Buffy with enough light to let her night vision search the area without hindrance. Giles, even with the spare pair of glasses he’d retrieved when they had made the stop at the library, could not contribute much more without a flashlight, but he still made the effort.
After a long time, Buffy said, “Giles.”
“Hm?”
“Back at the mansion, you said you didn’t know how the Council found the next Slayer, but they knew I was going to be a Slayer years before, didn’t they?”
“The Council knew you were a candidate to become a Slayer, but until you were actually `activated’ we didn’t know for sure.”
“A `candidate?’ You mean like running for president?”
“Not necessarily. At any given time there are a handful of candidates around the world with the potential of being chosen as the Slayer.”
“Well, what decides it?”
“I would imagine fate?” When Buffy didn’t respond to that, he continued. “No one knows why one is chosen, Buffy, just that there must always be a Slayer.”
“This is where that `every generation there is a Chosen One…’ comes in, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I guess you have to change that mission statement. I pretty much mucked that up when I died. From now on there’s always going to be two Slayers, right?”
“It would appear so.”
“Who do you think she is?” she asked.
“The new Slayer?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know. It is always imperative to keep a Slayer’s, or Slayer candidate’s identity secret.”
“Do you think she already knows she’s the Slayer?”
Giles mulled it over for a second. “If she didn’t know before, she will more than likely be informed very soon.”
Buffy could tell that the topic of conversation was beginning to make him a little uncomfortable, but she couldn’t stop. This was something she needed to hear, needed to get out of the way.
“Why didn’t the Watchers contact me before I became the Slayer?”
A small smile appeared on Giles’ face. “Can you imagine explaining to your parents why a fourteen year old girl would be gone for hours late at night, and missing a lot of school, or not being seen by your friends.”
“That didn’t stop you all from calling me just a year later.”
“Circumstances had changed. A Slayer was needed.”
“Oh,” was all Buffy could say. Somewhere back there she had forgotten that another girl had died for her to become the Slayer. She finally said, “Still, I sure could’ve used the early training.”
“Yes. I’m sure it would have been very helpful, but again, yours was a delicate case.”
She frowned at him. “Again with my case.' What's so special about mycase?’”
“Buffy, your `case’ is not as uncommon as you may think. The Council can usually locate a Slayer candidate when they are very young. It is, however, very rare when a Watcher is allowed the opportunity to actually start a Slayer’s training before she even becomes the Slayer.” He saw that she was really listening to him and continued. “Kendra and Faith were unique situations. Faith was —is— an orphan, and where Kendra was from, family honor provided the opportunity.”
“Kendra did say her family gave her to her Watcher when she was young. How young would she have been?”
At first, she thought Giles wasn’t going to answer. But then he cleared his throat and said, “I would imagine she would have been very young.”
“So her Watcher would have raised her. Like a daughter?” she asked, but before he could begin to answer, she went on. “No. Not like a daughter. Like a Slayer! You saw how Kendra was! She could give lessons to The Terminator on stoicism. She died with no family and no friends.”
Surprised by the anger coming from his Slayer, he said, tentatively, “Buffy, we were her friends.”
This did nothing to calm her down, however. “And what did we really know about her, Giles? As her friends shouldn’t we have known some of the things normal friends should know? Like what her favorite color was?” In a softer voice, she said, “She had never even kissed a boy.”
“She was dedicated to the cause,” the Watcher offered.
“But was it her cause? Did she have any more say in the matter than I did? Maybe she didn’t fight against her destiny as much because they got to her while she was practically a baby? When she didn’t have a normal life to leave behind.”
“Buffy, `they’ would include me.”
She knew she may have just hurt his feelings, but she couldn’t stop herself. “And right from the start, you couldn’t wait to put the stake in my hand!”
Giles was taken aback by this. “I’m sorry, Buffy. If I came on a little too enthusiastically, it was only because being posted as your Watcher was my first real field assignment. I was somewhat … nervous.”
This did make her stop. “You? Nervous?”
He nodded. “Yes. Being assigned to a Slayer is a tremendous responsibility. And I was following in the footsteps of the best Watcher of our time.”
“Merrick.”
“Yes.”
Buffy’s thoughts drifted to her first Watcher. Without anger, she said, “How many Slayers had he trained?”
“He never—?”
“No. I don’t think he wanted to talk about it. But then, we really didn’t have much time together. I hardly knew him.” She let her gaze drop.
“But you cared about him.” Giles made it a statement.
Buffy seemed to double her effort searching for cave entrances. She said, “He died saving my life.”
Giles walked by her side, letting the silence settle between them. Then he said, “You were his second Slayer.”
Buffy looked at him. “I was only number two for him? And he was considered the `best?’”
Giles seemed a bit irritated, when he said, “Buffy, Merrick is the only Watcher to be assigned to a second Slayer.”
“But he was such —a grandpa man. He wasn’t much taller than me! What was he doing out there with monsters?”
“He was doing what needed to be done.”
“But as old as he was, you’d think he would have trained more Slayers.” She looked at Giles. “Did he train the Slayer before me?”
“No. Merrick was assigned to his first Slayer in 1972. The young lady had just turned 16. He was about my age at the time.”
“How did she die?” Buffy quickly shook her head. “No. I don’t need to know. But when did she die?”
Giles paused for just a moment. “She was killed in 1982.”
Buffy stopped walking and stared at him with a stunned expression. Finally finding her voice, she said, “But the life expectancy of a Slayer—” She trailed off.
“Now you know why he was considered the best,” Giles told her.
He started to walk again, and Buffy followed. “If he was so good, why didn’t he train the next one?”
“After his Slayer died, he was assigned to the next Slayer, but he requested a leave of absence instead. Under the circumstances, he was granted leave of the Watchers.”
Buffy considered this for a while. “Did he love her?”
The question didn’t seemed to take Giles off guard. “He cared very deeply for her.”
“You know what I mean, Giles.”
“I couldn’t say for sur —” he stopped and looked at her. He said. “Yes. Near the end, I believe he did.”
Buffy said, “Do you think she and Merrick were ever … together?”
“No. Never,” Giles said, with a certainty Buffy rarely heard from him. With prophecies, demons, and monsters, there were never any certainties. “As I said, Merrick was the best.”
“Did she know?”
“I suspect she did.”
Buffy looked away. The silence stretched once more.
What Giles said next did take her off guard.
“You’re angry with him.”
Exasperated, she said, “What? Why would I be—?”
“Because he died.”
Buffy averted her eyes again. “I couldn’t save him. It’s my job to protect others.”
“And he did what was expected of him. He looked after his Slayer.”
“He did his duty,” Buffy said softly. “As you said, he was the best.”
“Yes, he was. But when he saved you, I don’t think he was doing it out of any sense of duty. He just knew he wasn’t going to lose another Slayer under his watch.”
Silence once more. It occurred to Giles that Buffy had never really mourned the death of her first Watcher. That would definitely explain her behavior toward him of late. Was she really that frightened of losing him as well? he wondered. From past experiences, that he reflected on with shame, he knew, that aside from losing a friend, the prospect of having to fight against the monsters by herself truly terrified her. That business with Ethan Rayne and the Mark of Eyghon over a year ago, had lead Giles to drink and try to hide his past from his Slayer, not only straining their relationship but scaring her by acting so out of character. Then again, a few months later, when he had gone after Angel by himself, for killing Jenny. Angel would have killed him had Buffy not arrived in time. To remind himself of his responsibility, he still replayed the scene, after she had dragged him out of the burning factory, over in his head. He had pushed her away yelling at her that it was not her fight. She, in turn, had laid him out flat with a single punch, and had yelled back at him.
Are you trying to get yourself killed?' she had shouted. He was on his hands and knees sobbing. Then Buffy had crumbled next to him, shedding her own tears, hugging him.You can’t leave me! I can’t do this alone.’
That moment had sobered him completely, and not from drinking. From that point on, he had vowed that he would never put her through that kind of pain ever again.
And seeing the tears in his Slayer’s eyes, he wanted to take that pain away more than anything. “Buffy—”
She shook her head. “We really need to be quiet.” She managed to give him a smile to alleviate some of his worry. “Having a `7th Heaven’ moment is not the way to sneak up on the bad guys.”
Giles nodded and they continued the searched. After a moment, Buffy pointed down the grassy bluff. “Let’s try down there.” she said, and they made their way to lower ground.
They had almost left the docks behind them and were approaching the north part of the beach. Not long `til sunrise, it seemed there wasn’t a soul anywhere in sight, and Giles hoped not, especially with the demons and vampires that were supposed to be close by.
“I think I see something,” Buffy said softly. She pointed to the side of the bluff but Giles could not make anything out clearly. He followed her and when they were ten feet away, he saw a jagged opening, about five feet wide, almost perfectly hidden by the shadows. “Now it’s time for a flashlight.”
“I have something better.” Giles searched his bag and pulled out a small oil lantern.
“Watcher credo: always be prepared,” she said, with a smile. “Or did you guys steal that from the Boy Scouts?”
Giles smiled and dug a lighter from his tweed jacket when he felt, more than saw, Buffy stiffen. She had an intense look in her eye she got when her Slayer sense went on alert. Despite her casual attitude toward honing such skills, he had come to trust them when she did indeed use them.
“What is it?” he whispered.
“Something’s close by.”
“In there?” He nodded toward the cave.
“No.” The Slayer’s expression was very serious now. “Above us.” Giles saw she was suddenly holding a stake. Following her lead they inched slowly backwards away from the side of the hill, keeping their attention on any attack from above. They had backed away nearly thirty feet and still saw nothing at the top of the bluff.
“I don’t see anything,” he said.
“Trust me, it’s up there.”
“A vampire?”
“I don’t know. I think so.”
“You’re not sure?” It wasn’t an accusation, or lack of confidence in her, he was just asking for more details. His Slayer didn’t disappoint him.
“It feels like a vampire, but then it doesn’t. I can’t describe it. I’ve never sensed anything like this before. The vibes I got from Oranstine weren’t this strong. But it’s very powerful and … it knows we’re here.”
“Then why doesn’t it show itself?”
“I’ll ask if I get the chance before I stake it.”
Then they fell silent when they saw a silhouette step into sight. It was a slender figure, almost five and a half feet tall, and her long hair blew slightly with the light breeze.
“Faith?” Giles whispered. Buffy didn’t say anything to contradict what he said, so maybe she was wondering the same thing. But before she could say anything, the figure reached the edge of the bluff and sprung into the air.
At first, it looked as if she were flying as her trajectory took her high over them, but then she came down quickly and her feet sank into the sand when she landed. She turned to face them as she stood up straight.
“Not Faith,” Buffy said and stepped in front of her Watcher.
“Buffy,” he said, but was suddenly aware there wasn’t anything he could advise her on. “Be careful.”
She grinned over her shoulder at him. “It’ll take just a minute.”
“I hope so,” he said, as she closed the distance between herself and the creature.
Buffy was close enough to see the creature clearly, in the light of the half moon. She looked about a year or two younger, but to demons and vampires age was a relative term. Buffy prepared herself for attack at any moment, but the creature still made no move against her. Okay, she thought, this could get really serious. She hadn’t know many vampires who would waste time sizing up their opponent. Spike hadn’t attacked her the first time they had met, just gave her a death threat after he had watched her take down another vampire. Angel had been even worse, when his soul had been taken away, thriving on the psychological torment he caused her.
“This is usually the time where one of us would start making witty banter,” she said. “And since it doesn’t seem like you’re the talkative type I guess it’s going to have to be me.”
“I know you,” the creature said. God, she even sounded younger than me, Buffy thought.
“You do?”
“Yes. You’re the other Slayer.”
Buffy’s blood chilled. “What have— Where’s Faith?”
The creature just smiled at the Slayer. “The Master wanted me to avoid you. Said I wasn’t strong enough to face you yet. But I wasn’t allowed to feed on the other Slayer, and Slayer blood is just so sweet. I can’t leave without at least a taste.”
“I think you should try to take it,” Buffy hissed at her, stake ready.
The vampire glanced at the weapon. “Ah, the weapon of choice for any fine Slayer.” The vampire took a small step forward just to put her body at an angle toward Buffy, offering a smaller target.
This vamp has had some training, she thought. Then something else occurred to her. “If you weren’t allowed to feed on the Slayer, how would you know what Slayer blood taste like?”
“Because I’ve had a sip.” The vampire raised a fist close to its face. Then, eyes locked on Buffy, opened her mouth to reveal elegantly long fangs and sank them into her wrist.
Buffy could only stand there, stake held up, in shock. Behind her, she thought she heard Giles gasp, but she wasn’t sure.
The vamp pulled its wrist away, fangs tinted red, and smiled at the Slayer’s expression. “Of course, my blood isn’t as pure as yours any more.”
Buffy suddenly felt nauseous and her mind reeled with the reality of the situation. But then she forced those distracting thoughts away. She could deal with that later, right now, her more immediate concern was slaying this creature.
Buffy reinforced her fighting stance but the vamp just stood there, body angled, looking at her from under narrowed eyebrows. Still very human looking eyebrows. Whatever part of this creature was Slayer did not give her a demon’s appearance when she vamped out, she thought.
Something sliced through the air just to Buffy’s left and the vampire’s hand shot up and she was suddenly holding a crossbow bolt in her closed fist, just poised inches away from her heart. Buffy looked over her shoulder and saw Giles holding a crossbow, momentarily shocked at what he just saw, then recovered and began to reload. The vampire growled, the first real vamp noise she heard from it, then cocked the bolt back to throw it at her Watcher.
“No!” Buffy screamed. She was too far away to reach her in time, so she hurled the stake at the vamp. It was a clumsy throw but her aim was true, and the blunt end of the stake connected with the side of the creature’s head as she released the arrow.
Giles grunted and she heard him hit the ground. She turned to see him on his backside and looking at the tear in the arm of his tweed sleeve, but he was all right. Buffy breathed in relief, then spun around to face her enemy again.
Who was charging her with incredible speed. No time to dodge, Buffy took the charge head on and smoothly flipped the vamp over her hip and, with the help of her Slayer strength, sent her several feet through the air where she landed in a tumble. However, the vampire used the tumble to spring back to her feet.
The vampire smiled at her again, flashing her fangs. It wigged Buffy to see a vamp with just fangs, like all the vampires in the movies with their fake teeth, but somehow, in real life, it was just a little scarier.
Buffy pulled out her second stake from the sleeve of her jacket as the creature approached again.
“Let’s see just how well your Watcher trained you,” it sneered.
“Gladly,” Buffy replied, and launched her attack.
She came in with lightning round kicks, the first one aimed at the vamp’s midsection, then she brought the leg up to its face. It blocked them both, to Buffy’s irritation, with ease. She followed through with a stake strike. The vampire diverted the attack with a wave of its forearm, side-stepping, and slammed a spinning elbow into Buffy’s back. The Slayer fell forward, but she tucked and rolled, putting distance between her and her opponent. Quickly, she was on her feet, and rotated her shoulders against the pain she was feeling between her shoulder blades. The vampire was walking calmly towards her again and Buffy prepared herself, stake ready.
“Let’s do that again, shall we?” it hissed.
“Please,” Buffy sneered back.
Buffy braced herself to take the offensive again, but suddenly threw her stake straight up in the air. The vampire was distracted, but only slightly, as it managed to block the barrage of punches Buffy unleashed. It retaliated with a punch at the Slayer’s head, which she ducked and finally snuck a backhand fist across the vamp’s face. It hardly staggered the creature, but Buffy used that moment to grab it by the shoulders and slam her knee as hard as she could into its middle. As the creature bent forward, Buffy snatched the falling stake from the air and shoved it into the vampire’s back.
The vampire roared in pain and reeled back with a backhand that connected with Buffy’s face. The next thing she knew was that the world was spinning around her and, a moment later, the ground came up to hit her.
“Buffy,” she thought she heard someone calling her. Damn, she thought, she had just gone to sleep. It couldn’t be time to wake up already. She opened her eyes, at least, they felt like they were open, but she still couldn’t see anything. And there was blood in her mouth. With disgust, she spat it out but there was more. Her jaw and the side of her mouth ached.
“Buffy, get up!” she heard Giles say. He sounded right next to her.
She tried to pull herself to a sitting position and felt Giles help her. “Relax, Giles. I’m all right. Just a bit oogy. That was some parting shot she had.”
“I’m afraid it wasn’t as parting as we would’ve hoped.”
She tried opening her eyes again and her vision slowly returned. “What are you talking about? She’s dust. That stake was right through her heart. Actually, I think that was Mr. Pointy. Oh, God, I hope it didn’t turn to dust with her, that was Kendra’s favorite stake.”
“You needn’t worry about, uh, Mr. Pointy. He seems to be fine.”
Buffy frown and looked up at him and saw he was looking off toward the beach. She turned her head and saw the vampire, still roaring in pain, on its hands and knees, reaching for the stake protruding from her back.
“Oh, bite me!” she cursed. “Giles, why isn’t she turning into dust?”
He tilted his head, narrowed his eyebrows, pursed his lips, took a deep breath, then said, “I don’t know.”
“And I’m wondering why the Watchers never give you a raise.” Under different circumstances she was sure Giles would have given her that British glare he had when he was miffed. “Help me up.”
Buffy got to her feet and Giles had to hold her steady when her knees started to buckle. She shook her head, trying to clear it, then spat more blood onto the sand.
“Buffy, we have to get out of here.”
“We wouldn’t get far. She’s fast. Much faster than me.”
“Then you have to—”
She grabbed his jacket, angrily. “No! Don’t you even say it! I am not leaving you here, so shut up!”
But Giles met her glare. “You can’t kill it. I can try to hold it while you make a run for the car.”
“No. The plan is: you run for it while I hold it off. We both know I’ll last longer. You find Angel. He’s fast. I promise, I’ll still be alive when he gets here.”
Giles looked like he wanted to argue. Another inhuman roar made them look at the vampire again. She had managed to grab Mr. Pointy and, with a spout of blood, pulled the stake out. She tossed the piece of wood away and looked at her prey.
“Dammit, Giles, you know I’m right. Now go!”
Giles looked into her eyes for a moment. Then stepped away. “You just remember your promise.”
Buffy gave him a smile. “Don’t worry, I will.” She reached behind, under her jacket, and pulled out the silver knife. “I’m curious to see how well she’ll do without a head.”
With one last look at his Slayer, conflict reflected in his eyes, he finally turned and started to run as fast as Buffy had ever seen him run before. She breathed a little easier. No matter whether Angel got here in time or not, at least, she knew Giles would be safe.
She turned to the vampire again and saw it was standing. She was watching Giles disappear over the bluff. She looked at Buffy. “Don’t worry. I’ll catch up with him soon enough.”
“Over my dead body!” Buffy snapped.
The vamp smiled at her. “I’m glad we both agree.”