Birth RightBy Alecca
Gas over flamesLos Angeles
2083
Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc."What happened?" Angel asked as he entered his apartment and noticed his door had been forced open. "This your doing?" he pointed towards the door with his head.
"No, sir," one of the security men said. "There was a security breach."
"How could have anyone gotten so far up here?" Angel asked taking in the damage done to his private apartment.
"We don't know," another security man said, lifting his shoulders. "It was a woman. Young looking. We didn't think it was strange to see her coming up here - we thought she was the new girl from the science division we were briefed about, we were told that she's...related to you, sir."
"Research division," Angel corrected him absently as he passed further inside the apartment and noticed the broken window.
"We only came running when the booms started," the security man told him.
"Booms? There were booms?" he asked shocked that an intruder had gotten so far, with so much within his supersecure company.
"Luckily we got here in time, sir, she didn't manage to break into the vault," the man explained. "She just scratched the surface a bit and then made a run for it."
Angel entered his bedroom and his eyes went wide when he saw that the illusion of the wall was gone and noticed the curve that had been forced into it. He dropped on the bed and took a deep unnecessary breath of air. The fact that nothing had been taken had been a stroke of good luck. He shuddered at only imagining the kind of objects that could have been stolen and the damage they could have produced. He stared at the safe for another moment deciding instantly to add more security measures to his apartment. He stood up and headed back into the living room. He had totally forgotten about the ring of Batt-hura that he had left outside of the safe the previous night.
"What happened to her?" he asked referring to the intruder.
"She jumped out the window and then disappeared just like that," he snapped his fingers. "We suspect she might be from another dimension. She was human or at least looked like it."
"I want to see the surveillance tape," Angel told them before heading out of the apartment and back down in his office. Fred 2 and Wes 2 were there too. They had scheduled a lunch together, but they had been interrupted by the announcement that Angel's apartment had been broken into.
"Big problems?" Wes 2 asked when he noticed Angel seemed a little troubled.
"A big scare rather," the vampire practically threw himself in his chair. "My safe was almost cracked open by a total stranger."
"The safe...the one you keep all the really dangerous stuff in?" Fred 2 asked remembering one of the stories she had heard from his great-grandparents. Angel nodded wondering briefly how she could have known, then suddenly remembered Wes had been the one who had activated the wall illusion and a few more traps on the inside of the safe.
"Did they catch him?" Wes 2 inquired.
"Her," Angel said looking at the young man. "And no they didn't catch her, she jumped out the window."
"Geez," Fred 2 let out. "A little drastic if you ask me. Jail is better than death."
"Oh, she didn't die, she disappeared. Magic or something like that," Angel explained.
"Really?" Fred 2 asked fascinated. A knock on the door was immediately followed by Harmony entering the room, carrying a disk in one hand.
"I told them you didn't want to be bothered, but they were totally pushy, so I brought it myself, so you wouldn't get mad. It's some security thingie," Harmony said smiling and handed him the disk. Angel inserted it in the laptop on his desk and accessed the recording on it, skipping it forward to the happenings of the last hour. As he browsed through it, the image of a girl finally appeared on the screen. He recognized her instantly as the girl he had bumped into in the hallway. The girl forced the door open without it actually being noticeable on the screen and then disappeared beyond the door, into the apartment. Angel wished for the first time that he would have accepted to put cameras inside his apartment as well, but it was too late for regrets now. He wanted to know who this girl was, what exactly had made her go so far as to break into his private home and how the hell she had gotten inside the building undetected. And of course: where had she vanished to?
"Harm, call Lonny, tell her to come to my office," Angel told the blond vampire and she grimaced.
"You really want me to call *her*?" Harmony asked hesitant.
"Just do it," he told her with a pleading glare.
"Fine," the vampire stomped away like a spoiled little child.
"Who's Lonny?" Wes 2 asked curious.
"They didn't tell you about her," Angel noted surprised. "I suppose there is a reason they wouldn't want to," he added and then returned to his initial thought thread: "Lonny can maybe tell us who this girl is. If we're lucky."
"Research genius?" Fred 2 asked feeling a little bit threatened by someone who had the same skills as her and was maybe even better than her.
"That'll be the day," Angel smiled. "She's a vampire slayer. She likes to think of herself like the muscle, not the brain. She's...a little hard to explain," he added struggling to find his words. "One of those complicated people."
"Like you?" Wes 2 immediately suggested.
"Yeah, you could definitely say that. Like me," the vampire smiled. Lonny was very much like him and the two teenagers were in for a big surprise.
Location: The Hollow Crossroads
Time: NowhenMina crashed on the arid land with a hard thump bruising her left leg in the process. She quickly got herself together and stood up. She looked around and saw nothing but an endless wasteland. Gray, hard ground followed by even more gray, hard ground. Nothing grew here, nothing lived here now and she suspected nothing ever had. It was a flat, shapeless unending landscape that made her slightly uneasy. She felt a wind that could cut to one's bone blowing hard around her.
"Where the fuck am I?!" she yelled and her voice echoed a thousand times before it vanished into the silence again.
"Funny question," an eerie inhuman voice answered her. She turned around and was greeted by the strangest creature: a tall slim figure, its skin translucent, light blue, hairless, covered in veils and holding a long wooden staff in one hand.
"Funny way to answer a funny question," Mina noted observing the creature before her. She hadn't counted on this. She had thought the transition from her plane of existence to the past would be instant, it wouldn't have some sort of intermediate plane. A nexus of time or dimensions or whatever that place represented. "Who are you?"
"And another funny question," the creature answered smiling, showing its small dark blue teeth. He didn't look like a killer. If it was truly a he, of course. At this point, Mina could only guess.
"Yet you're not laughing," she pointed out as she analyzed the staff he was holding, the top of which was covered in feathers, something that made her think of the Batt-Hura ring she was still holding in one hand. She wondered if the creature itself wasn't a traveler from another time, another dimension in search of a way to his past.
"I'm smiling, aren't I?" the creature chuckled. "Besides why is it so important to know who I am? I'm something you'd rather not question on such things. I'm the Hur'dha, the guarding of this place. If you have come here to harm it, I'm afraid I cannot allow you to pass."
"I have no intentions regarding this place, I'm on my way to somewhere else and my intentions for that place should no longer concern you," Mina said smiling and felt that it was one of those moments when she should walk away to punctuate her words, but the problem was she had no place to walk to but more arid land.
"Where are you going?" the creature asked. "You don't even know where you are."
"You're right, I don't, but I plan to find out," Mina said and thought about beating the information out of the creature, but something told her, though it looked very weak and powerless, it could hold its own against her. He was the guardian after all. "So...where am I?"
"These are the hollow crossroads. Here lay the gateways to the things that once were. You came here to look for the past, instead you found me. That means your intentions aren't the best," the creature told her rising his staff towards her.
"So you want a fight, huh?" Mina smirked and rubbed her hands together. "You're choice, Hurddy. To tell the truth I was itching for a good one on one. Haven't had myself a real fight since I bitch slapped this cheerleader tart that actually dared to call herself a slayer a few weeks ago."
"I do believe this is a choice you made," the creature corrected her.
"Mine, yours, whatever, can we just get it over with? I got stuff to take care of," she explained. The creature took a fighting stance and holding his staff in front of himself he charged her. Mina smiled. She believed this was going to be an easy win.
Los Angeles
2083
Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc.The girl strode inside the office oozing of confidence and looking like she owned the world. She was a teenager, a young black girl, wearing tight pants and combat boots and a shirt that said 'We're the slayers, we're the best, fuck the rest". Fred 2 thought her to be oddly familiar and felt slightly intimidated by her. In her prep school clothes, she felt like she was the icon of everything dull and uninteresting. The girl only shot the twins a short gaze before throwing herself in a chair.
"What's up, boss?" she asked in a rather mocking voice Angel didn't appreciate.
"I need you to identify someone for me," he said ignoring her rude salute.
"What, no hello? How you doin', Lonny? How you been? Everythin' all right? Haven't seen you in months, girl, how the hell are ya?" she rolled her eyes exasperated. "Too much to expect from you, huh? See, this is why I always liked Spike better than you."
"Lonny, this is serious," Angel interrupted her.
"And I'm seriously hurtin' over here. You don't call, you don't write, don't even send me those fruit baskets anymore," Lonny complained.
"This girl's a slayer so it's your turf," Angel continued like the girl hadn't said a word to him.
"And who are two stiffs?" she asked looking over at Wes 2 and Fred 2.
"She broke into my apartment and she wanted to steal something. I need to know what," Angel went on and Wes 2 and Fred 2 stared at each other.
"The girl kinda looks like that skinny chick dad and Spike had the hots for," she looked over Fred 2. "Yup, definitely looks like her."
"She also jumped out of the window and disappeared. I'd like to know where," Angel let her know. Harmony had snicked in and smiled when he saw the two astonished teenagers staring at Lonny and Angel.
"Oh, don't worry, they're always like that," she whispered to them. "They can't have a straight conversation if they're not talking about totally different things. Otherwise it's like a screaming extravaganza."
"Well, go on," Lonny urged Angel to continue with his request.
"Thought you weren't paying attention," Angel smiled.
"You know I always do," she returned the smile. "So how was she? White trash or high class beeotch?"
"Can't really tell. I'd say somewhere in between," Angel answered looking at the screen that showed Mina outside the door of his apartment.
"Who exactly are you?" Wes 2 interfered. The 'dad' comment hadn't escaped him. That could mean she was Gunn's daughter, but how could that possibly be? Unless he had conceived her around the age of 80, but even that was far fetched. He was sure he was mistaken, but her comment and her familiarity only pointed towards that answer.
"See you didn't even introduce me," Lonny looked accusingly over at Angel. The vampire sighed exasperated.
"These are Wesley 2 and Fred 2, Wesley and Fred's great-grandchildren. And this is Alonna Gunn, Gunn's daughter," he made the proper introductions.
"But how?!" Wesley asked taken by surprise even though he had suspected the truth.
"Shouldn't she be 50 or 60, like our grandparents?" Fred 2 asked confused.
"Well...uhm, yes. Remember when I said vampire slayer?" the twins nodded. " *Vampire* slayer."
"She's a vampire?!" Wes 2 was shocked.
"Yeah, but a good one," Lonny interfered on her own behalf.
"Uh, like me!" Harmony pitched in cheerfully.
"That was a big help, Harm," Lonny told the vampire rolling her eyes.
"As you can see she was turned during the most difficult period of her life - the teenage years and I'm afraid she hasn't been able to get over it," Angel said and Lonny stuck her tongue out at him. The vampire shook his head and turned the laptop screen towards the slayer: "This is the girl I was talking about. Do you know her?"
Lonny looked at the picture carefully and then smirked:
"Oh, her. Sure, I know her, not personally or anything... I've seen her picture on the SA site. She's been the East Coast slayer of the month since she was 14. Overachiever," she mumbled as she pushed the laptop back to Angel.
"SA site?" Wes 2 asked confused.
"Slayers Associated website," his sister explained. Most of the site's visitors were girls who either hoped that they would become slayers someday or girls who were already slayers. Fred 2, though she didn't admit it, had wanted, like all little girls, to become a slayer at one point in her life and that's when she had frequently visited the site in question. During her teenage years though she came to understand that it wasn't her destiny and she was happy about it. A job at Wolfram & Hart seemed much more interesting than one in the SA.
"Why would a goody-goody two- shoes slayer like her try to steal something from you? Doesn't like everyone know you always helped slayers out?" Harmony seemed perplexed and then added: "Sometimes more than you had to. Talk about a friendly hand..."
"Hey! I heard that!" Angel told Harmony giving her a cross look. The blond vampire only smiled at his comment as if she knew better. "What's her name?" he asked turning towards Lonny.
"M something...Mi...na. Mina, that's it. Don't remember the last name, but you can check the site. As much as I remember, this girl was a regular freak, one of 'em slayer idealists. Thinks she's the best there is, bullshit like that," Lonny told them. "One day reality is gonna give her one hell of a beating..."
The Hollow Crossroads
NowhenWith her nose bleeding, but smiling triumphantly, Mina stood above the creature she had beaten to a bloody pulp. Her fists were covered in its blue blood and she smiled wickedly. Nothing was going to stand in her way. The creature's staff, floated next to him, twirling around in a small circle. She reached out for it and grabbed it in her right hand. The ring of Batt-Hura was laying disregarded somewhere on the ground. After analyzing the staff for a few moments, she broke it in two over her knee and threw it over the corpse of the creature. She took in a deep breath and picking up the ring of Batt- Hura she held it up above her head.
"Nema esta, nema deo, nema tempo ecco jero, vero nento, quera lento, en e tempo mera uno!" she yelled and there was no echo this time. A portal tore itself into the fabric of time and Mina stepped through it like a true victor.
After the portal closed behind her, the corpse of the guardian and his broken staff disappeared. The creature reappeared shortly after, unharmed and untouched, his staff intact.
"You forget, Mina Parker," he said smiling. "There is no time here and your little struggle didn't happen or ever will because you were never here. Not in time, not in place."
Sunnydale
2003Mina covered her face as she crashed straight into the 'Welcome to Sunnydale" sign. Surprisingly, though the impact had been brutal, she had walked away from it unharmed. She smiled, the time travel must have made her even more powerful. That or the ring of Batt-Hura itself. As she stared at the welcome sign, she burst into a hysterical laughter.
"I did it! I actually did it!" she screamed happily jumping around like a giddy child. Looking at the city beyond the sign she simply smiled. It seemed deserted, Sunnydale was living its last days. "Watch out, Buffy Summers! You think you've seen your worst nightmare, but you haven't seen anything yet!"
In the Summers home, the slayer jolted awake as if shook up by a bad premonition. Something was coming. She laughed at herself, of course something was coming, the fight with the prime evil! A battle unlike any other she had ever fought! She tried to calm herself down, but a little voice inside her head still shot off warning signals. There's something else out there, Buffy and it wants a fight.
Africa
2083
A village in the replanted Congo junglesHe stirred awake. It was day. Something had woken him up and it hadn't been the crazy sounds of nature this time, but something deep within his own mind. Something was wrong or was about to go wrong. He stood up and rubbed his eyes. He couldn't very well go outside in daylight. He pulled his pants on and rummaged through his bag until he found what he had been looking for. The amulet that had been the beginning of all his troubles.
"Stop lying to yourself, mate," he told himself. "You know very well where all your troubles started. And she happened to be a lot prettier than that bloody amulet."
Something caught his attention, the amulet had begun glowing in his hands. He wondered what it could mean.
"Nothing good, that's for sure," he mumbled to himself as he threw the amulet back in his bag. When he turned to pick up his shirt he was startled by the sudden appearance of a creature in his small hut. It was the guardian of the Hollow Crossroads. "How the bloody hell did you get in here?"
"I am the guardian of the crossroads, Hur'dha. A girl has crossed over time, into the past, looking to undo the good a great woman has once done. You must go after her, you and the one with the angelic face..." the creature began telling him, but Spike interrupted him:
"Hold on, can we just leave the big poofer out? I'm all for saving the day, even if you look a little strange, mate, but let's leave him out of it, shall we?"
"You and the one with the angelic face," the creature's eyes began to glow yellow. Spike pulled back, a bit taken aback. "Will go after her, bring her back, make sure she will not touch a living soul."
"How about a dead soul?" he asked and suddenly felt like he was choking. The amulet was floating over the bag, glowing brighter than before. He had a burning feeling in his gut. "Fine! I'll do what you want, just leave the bloody amulet alone!" But he suddenly found that he was alone and the amulet had fallen to the floor, void of any glow and the burning feeling had disappeared. "Okay, what just happened?" he asked the empty hut confused.