Chapter 7: Hands of Blue
It was that dream again. The Bringers, hooded and silent. She knew how this one went, they chased a girl, she ran, they caught her, she died. This time, though, they seemed to be waiting for something. Or someone.
In the corner of her mind’s eyes she saw two figures approach. They were walking calmly yet purposefully. They were human, seemingly, yet there was something menacing about their gait that reminded her of the silent Gentlemen she had once fought, years before.
The shorter of the men turned and Buffy saw that he was pulling – no, dragging – something behind him. A person. A girl, in chains, dirty dark hair falling over her face, who began to struggle against her captors as she was brought into the circle of Bringers.
Buffy could taste the girl’s fear, her sweat running in rivulets down her forehead, the scream that rose from the pit of her stomach that never had a chance to escape her lips. The closest Bringer raised his dagger above his head and plunged into the girl’s heart. The girl gave a strangled moan and her eyes widened; Buffy saw her face for the first time, a face frozen in an expression of shock and fear.
Buffy’s eyes flew open and she sat up in bed, shaking and sweating. She knew the girl in her dream. It had been River.
***
“There was really a song?” Willow laughed as Kaylee related tales of some of the crew’s adventures. The idea of the mercenary Jayne worshipped as a hero figure on a distant planet tickled her.
“You should have seen his face,” Kaylee told her.
“I can imagine!” It was nice, Willow thought to herself, to be able to just sit and laugh. To have some time just hanging out with a friend. Sometimes she missed having that with Buffy and Xander. They lived in the same house but seemed at times to be so far away.
Just then, the man they had been talking about appeared, looking none too heroic.
“Where is she? Jian huo! When I get my hands on her…”
“What’s up, Jayne?” Kaylee asked the furious mercenary.
“She took my gun!”
Kaylee’s amused expression darkened with fear. Willow, too began to look apprehensive. Guns were not of the good. Especially when held by crazy girls.
“Bang bang!” River said playfully, appearing behind them, the stolen weapon in her hand.
“Give it back!” Jayne whined, sounding like a little boy whose sister had taken his favourite toy.
“River,” Kaylee said gently yet seriously, “Put the gun down, mei-mei.”
River looked at Kaylee, then down at the gun in her hand, but she continued to hold it fast.
“Give it back now!” Jayne demanded, “Now, crazy girl, dong ma?” He stepped towards her, and River cowered back.
“Stop it,” Willow cried, “You’re scaring her!”
“Jayne!” Kaylee reprimanded, “Bi zui! Shut up!” Jayne ignored her and lunged towards River. River brought the butt of the gun crashing up against Jayne’s chin, before pushing him hard, causing him to fly across the room.
Willow and Kaylee gaped open mouthed at the spectacle as Jayne sat up, rubbing his chin ruefully. River dusted her hands calmly and carried on stroking the gun.
“Shiny,” she said appreciatively.
“How in the verse is it that I keep getting beat up by girls?” Jayne wondered. Kaylee and Willow smothered grins. Kaylee went over to River and gently coaxed her to hand over the gun.
“That was incredible,” Kaylee said to Willow, “I’ve never seen…no girls fight like that, not even Zoë.”
“Buffy does,” Willow said automatically, then stopped still as the implications of her words dawned on her. The only girls she had ever seen fight like that had been Buffy and Faith. She looked at River speculatively.
***
He stood outside her door. He heard her cry out, but he didn’t go in this time. He hadn’t even the pretext of a summons from the captain. Although no doubt she would obey one quick as. He sighed, pacing up and down the floor outside. If it had been carpeted, he would have worn a path on it.
She cried out again, a word this time. Spike prayed fervently that it was not Mal’s name without even daring to hope it could be his own, before he even allowed the word to filter through into his consciousness. It was a name, but not one he would ever have expected.
“River.”
She was outside in less than a minute after waking. She had pulled a shirt on but was not fully dressed. He prepared to bluster some excuse about ‘just passing by’ to explain his lurking outside her room, but she didn’t even ask, accepting his presence there without question, almost as if she had known she would find him there.
“Spike, can you find Simon and tell him I need to speak to him urgently? It’s about River.” He nodded and hurried away to do her bidding while she returned inside to dress.
***
Spike, Buffy, Simon, Willow, Kaylee and River sat around the large table. Buffy had asked for Willow to be present. Kaylee had chosen to stay. Buffy had agreed to this, but refused her suggestion to involve the Captain and the rest of the crew.
“Not until we know what we’re dealing with. It might be nothing. I don’t want to call a big meeting unless we have something concrete…”
“What is this about?” Simon asked, expressing the unspoken thoughts of all those around the table.
“I had a Slayer dream,” Buffy began, “It’s…a kind of dream that I get sometimes, with a message,” she explained for the benefit of Kaylee and Simon. “It dreamed of the Bringers,” she said, turning to Spike and Willow in turn. “I’ve had the dream before, they chase girls and kill them.”
“Potentials,” Willow said. Buffy nodded.
“What has this to do with River? What are Potentials?” Simon wanted to know.
“River was in my dream. She was the one who the Bringers were after,” Buffy told him, omitting the plunge of the Bringer’s knife, or the fear in River’s eyes. She didn’t look at River as she spoke. The girl had an uncanny knack of reading thoughts.
“Wait,” Spike spoke up, “You think the bit might be a potential Slayer?”
It was Willow who answered.
“No,” she said, “I don’t think she’s a Potential. I think she’s a Slayer.”
TBC….
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