Title: For the Love of... (1/?)
Author: Andrew Parkinson
Paring: Xander/Dawn, Xander/Vi
Rating: R
Summary: The world had changed, but the job wasn't over. The Watcher's Council had to be re-built, Slayers had to be found and trained and the World still had to be saved from the Night. For Xander Harris, veteran and survivor of the Sunnydale Hellmouth, his life had just begun another rollercoaster ride.
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Buffy - The Vampire Slayer. Mutant Enemy, FOX do. I am using them for my own non profitable needs.
Dedicated: To Adrena
Feedback: Yes please, we are all feedback junkies.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
For The Love of...
Chapter One: Darkness Ascending
San Diego
June 2012
The rock that ricocheted off one of the many gravestones that lined each side of the narrow asphalt path was just one indication to the mood of the woman that had kicked it.
Her bitter tone was a clearer one.
"Oh, I'll take the other side," the girl muttered; though from the pitch in her voice, it was obvious that she was mocking someone else.
Katherine Franklin didn't like being told what the deal was. Especially when she took into account who had given her that "suggestion". Katherine, or Kate as she insisted everyone call her, was special. It wasn't because of her looks, though no one could've said she was anything but attractive. She had the height of a model and the body to match, well, that is if the modelling industry remembered that women with some curves were more attractive than sticks with skin stretched over them. She'd remarked a number of times, while flicking through some glossy magazine, that she was aware of the irony that she was helping that same industry profit from buying the magazines in the first place. But she liked fashion, so there really wasn't any choice. Her red hair fell to her shoulders when down, though at present it was tied back in a ponytail.
No, she was special for another reason. For Kate was a Vampire Slayer. That title, however didn't mean she was as special as it use to mean. It didn't mean she was the chosen one, or even her countries chosen. Nor did it mean that she was Californian's chosen. Shaking her head, she reluctantly remembered that she wasn't even San Diego's own chosen one.
It wasn't that way six years ago. One early March night in 2006 she'd gone to bed worrying about nothing more than how she was going to pass her Math mid term the next day. Sometime during the night, she'd woken feeling the most amazing rush flowing through her body, and in that one moment she felt as though she was connected to something very powerful. Not that she had any idea on what exactly had happened. Apart from suddenly being a lot faster and coordinated at sports, she didn't really see any tangible difference till about two months later, when a old English guy and a young woman, not too much older than she was, turned up on her doorstep, and told her of her birthright.
"Funny birthright, considering I'm 15," she'd told them not believing a word of it. They'd apologised profusely about the time it took to notify her, but some internal problems with their organisation had meant the delay had been unavoidable. She'd taken a bit of selling on the whole idea of who, or more precisely what she was. The whole idea of her having to put her body on the line for some English organisation didn't appeal greatly to her, or her folks. It was only when her Watcher sat down with Kate and her parents and explained that she was there to train her, guide her and help her in whatever she decided to do in life, that she decided to give it a go.
Looking back she'd never thought that the same woman would become one of her best friends. But over time she did, and for that Kate could never be anything but thankful.
For a number of years it was just the two of them. Defending the City against the forces of darkness. Which to be fair wasn't all that dark. San Diego was never a hotbed of demonic activity. And there was never any real danger of any of the local inhabitants having to face the hounds of hell. Kate and her watcher saw to that. Then around three years later, she was told that there was another one. Roberta Hernandez. Two years younger and thinking it was pretty much the coolest thing going, Roberta and Kate had a love hate relationship. Roberta loved to piss Kate off, and Kate hated it. Then six months ago came Ashley Harrison.
In circa 2012, she was one of three. And as far as she was concerned, in this case, three definitely wasn't a charm.
Taking that reality into account, Kate didn't feel all that special. It wasn't as though she felt like she was owed anything special. In those moments when she was lying in bed, simply thinking into the darkness of her room, she knew what the real problem was. She was jealous. She'd been doing this for six years, and she was sick of it. She saw the look of joy that was still on Roberta's and now Ashley's face, and she knew she used to feel like that. Somewhere in the last few years, she'd lost it, and that was the reason why she didn't feel all that special anymore.
Which would pretty much make her life totally suck, except for one thing. Kate loved the fact she could kick ass. Kicking undead demon ass, was an even bigger bonus. It fact it was all pretty good. She loved her city, she liked her watcher, and she even liked Ashley.
Roberta, unfortunately lived life to its fullest, making sure to enjoy everything and having fun every minute of the day. Even taking into account her wish that she still felt the thrill of being the slayer, it still irritated the heck out of Kate. Even more since Kate was technically the senior slayer. Another thing that Roberta didn't seem to take too seriously. And that was why Kate was walking along, kicking anything she could reach and wishing sweet torture on her fellow slayer.
What was worse, it was just another boring night in the life of San Diego's undead.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Mount Hope Cemetery may have been close to downtown, but in the middle of it you would have no idea. The lights from the city centre and the streets never reached in that far. Even the full moon above gave only the faintest of glows, almost as if it's light couldn't penetrate the eerie darkness of the area. The shadows that it did fuel were hardly recognisable from the darkness around them. The steady wind that had been blowing for most of the night provided the only life in the place. Flowing through the trees, the branches caught the breeze and swayed with it. The leaves rustling in it's movement providing an aural backdrop to the atmosphere. It was a fairly cool night; the temperature hovering in the low sixties. Definitely not cold, but just cool enough that when mixed with the wind, there was a distinctive chill in the air.
The cool serenity was broken with a start, as a male figure burst through one of the thick hedges. The natural barrier slowed him somewhat, making him fall off balance. But it was only a momentary distraction, as he was on his feet soon after and running away at full speed yet again. His head kept whipping around, looking for his pursuer, then turning back just as quickly to avoid running into another obstacle. Running around the side of one of the bigger mausoleums, he stopped suddenly, throwing himself against the wall, hoping to find some time to think up a plan.
After a few moments, and with little success in the thinking of a better idea, he slowly leaned to his left and poked his head around the corner of the stone building. He squinted his eyes and scanned the area, hoping to catch a glimpse of who he'd been trying to avoid. Completing his second scan of the area, he still couldn't see anyone. He let himself wonder for a moment if he'd been lucky enough to lose his pursuer. But not for very long. He couldn't believe it would be that easy to lose someone who had already shown was very determined to track him wherever he went.
He took a step out, hoping to see further around a corner, when suddenly he felt himself being forced back against the wall, a severe sharp pain coming from his left shoulder. Looking down, he grimaced when he saw why. Protruding out of his body was a steel bar. The force of the impact having forced more than half of the object through his body and a good deal of it now lay imbedded in the wall behind him. With it being locked into that place, he found himself pinned there, not being able to move away from the spot.
The agony was beyond anything he'd experienced, but he fought to keep it inside. He needed to be level headed to get out of this. Fighting the pain it caused even when doing a simple thing like lifting his head, he looked up and could make out a shadowy figure slowly moving towards him. He wondered if it was the pain that was masking his attacker's identity of simply the lack of light. But even now, a mere few feet away, he struggled to focus on the figure.
"Where is he?"
The voice was male; there was no doubt about that. The harsh vocal chords sounding like coarse sandpaper stood out sharply. But even with the raspy voice, there was no mistaking the intent.
"Who?"
The shadow moved closer till his face was only inches away. At that distance there was no missing what he was. Human.
"Argghhh!!!"
The human twisted and pulled at the steel spike. Each movement increasing the agony that shot through the intended victim. He stood there; watching blankly as his hand caused more and more cries of pain. His eyes un-blinking. His mouth closed in a tense line.
He lightened the pressure he bore down onto the bar. "Where is he?"
"I don't know who you're talking about, man?"
If he'd been hoping for pity, he was very much mistaken. The cold unfeeling eyes that watched him as he fought the pain lacing his body had no pity. Apart from determination, he couldn't see anything in those eyes.
"Marcus! Where is Marcus!"
The volume of his threat had risen, as had his twisting on the steel with each word. Blood was flowing freely out of the wound, and as it was twisted more and more, the sound of bones scraping then cracking filled the air, accompanying the cries of pain.
"I don't know," came the pitiful response. He felt no more fight, and was starting to long for death.
"You're lying..."
"Hey! What are you doing?"
At the sound of the voice, both victim and assailant turned as one. Neither one showed much surprise at hearing the women's voice. Nor did they show any shock at who it was when they saw her. It also didn't stop the torture from continuing.
"This doesn't concern you," the shadow told her, turning his back to her and re-applying pressure to the steel. He was about to ask the question again, when in the split second before being thrown through the air, he remembered that it wasn't a good idea to ignore a hyped up slayer. The split second however was no where near long enough. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and before he knew what was happening, he was flying through the air, landing with a thud on the ground a dozen or so feet away.
The woman looked over at the fallen man. He'd landed on his front and face down, but she could see his body raising and falling, telling her that he was still breathing.
With a look of sadness she then turned to face the prey, still half dangling from the stone wall. "I can't let you go," she told him, pulling a stake out from under her jacket. "Though it does seem rather unfair to stake you while you are already hung up."
"Just do it slayer," the vampire answered. "I couldn't fight you anyway."
Kate couldn't be sure, but the vampire looked as though he was welcoming death. She shrugged, and went to plunge the stake in.
"Katherine, no!"
As quick as her reflexes were, the words came just a little too late. She stopped herself as soon as she heard the words, not so much in acquiesce of the instruction, but because of the shock at being addressed by her full name. But the tip of the stake had already passed through the layers skin and pierced the heart, and in a second all that was left was a sprinkling of dust at her feet. Not that she was looking there any more. Since he'd spoken, her attention was only on the other person. There was something in the voice that unnerved her. It wasn't so much that the other person has simply said something. In a way it wasn't even that he knew her name. But there was something about the way he said her name, that bred familiarity.
"Who are you? How do you know who I am?" she asked curiously.
Getting up slowly, the man's voice held a lot of anger. "You've just killed my last lead." He said no more, and turned and started to walk away.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Whistling a merry tune, Roberta Hernandez walked along at a brisk pace, following the path that led around the opposite way to where she'd 'suggested' Kate go. In truth she had no particular reason for doing so. It was just another amusing way to pass the time on yet another routine patrol through Mount Hope Cemetery.
Athletic in build, but standing only five feet and four inches tall, Roberta had never excelled at anything, but had enjoyed it all, when all of the sudden three years ago, she was able to run faster than any of the other girls at her school. It had been a buzz at first, suddenly becoming powerful. That was until the rumours and suspicions started. She had to be on drugs, they'd said. A curse of her greatly improved hearing. Nothing was ever proved of course, but when a few weeks later, a young woman had turned up at her doorstep and told her the truth of things, and at the same time offered a scholarship to any school in the area, she accepted greatly. She wasn't bitter. That was something that she tried to avoid at all times. She had a gift. Of that she was sure. She's been mistaken in trying to use it to become popular. She didn't need it. She loved life and very quickly got knew friends, as well as her Watcher and the other slayer, Kate.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. Roberta thought that Kate was a nice girl, if you took the stick out of her ass. It was a little unfair. Kate was nice, very loyal, very supportive, but she seemed to have taken her birthright as a Slayer to be as much burden as she did a gift. While Roberta just thought it was the neatest thing in the world.
Roberta knew however that her outlook on it all was a handy beneficiary of San Diego's fairly tame nightlife. Sure there were vampires to kill, occasionally. The odd demon popped up to cause trouble, but as far as end of the world battles, they seemed to be centred on Cleveland. And as that was the most heavily occupied area of slayers, no one yet had suggested they were needed to join them.
No, Roberta was happy with her area of responsibility. She loved her city, and being its protector, even if un-acknowledged was pretty cool in her books.
She had reached the point where the two paths crossed, and was surprised not to find Kate waiting for her. She looked around, trying to make anything out in the blackness that seemed all encompassing. She decided to walk back along the path Kate should've taken, thinking that maybe Kate had been distracted.
She'd only gone a short while when her hearing caught the sound of two voices. One was Kate, and the other one was male. Odds said it was a vampire, she thought, as she took off in their direction.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Having someone simply walk away as if she weren't important was a novel experience for Katherine Franklin. One that she didn't like and would be quite happy never to have happened again. She looked on astonished for a moment, before her mind vocalised her thoughts.
"Hey, where are you going?" she called out to him as she started to run to catch him up.
"Just go home, Katherine," she received in return.
"Hey, no one calls me that name. Especially if I don't know them."
Just as the shadow was about to turn around, another voice entered the fray. "And even then, she hates it with a passion."
The man paused, seemingly checking out who had addressed him. "A slayerette?...No, another slayer, I presume."
"Yeah, and who might you be?" Roberta asked, standing a few feet away, looking briefly at Kate to make sure she was okay.
"No-one," he replied and turned to walk away again.
He only got so far when he felt an arm grab him and pull him around. Kate recoiled a little seeing his face. It wasn't so much the patch on his left eye, but the 6-inch long scar that started above the eye and went below it that shocked her. Whatever had happened to this man, it was brutal, that much she knew without having to ask any more.
"Go back to your watchers," the man said.
There was something in his voice that was almost caring, even if buried under the rough, gravely tone.
"We only have one watcher," Roberta replied, before Kate told tell her to shut-up. She was surprised when the man actually responded in surprise to that information.
That bit of information seemed to make him stop for a moment. "So Giles did win that one," he commented to himself. "I'll stay out of your way as much as I can, slayers," he told them, as he turned and walked away.
Both Kate and Roberta ran to follow him, not wanting to let him out of their sight. "You can't just walk away," Kate told him.
"Well I am," he replied, not even brothering to face them. Almost as if he could feel it, when Kate grabbed at him to turn him around, he didn't let her succeed like he had before. With a quick drop of his right side, and in a flurry of movements, Kate found herself lying on her back, looking up at him, his foot planted firmly on her chest.
"I don't want to fight either of you," he told her, and then looked towards Roberta, the warning clear. "I'll be in town for a short while, then gone. I won't get in your way, and you can stay out of mine."
When he took his foot off her, Kate rolled away and than stood up, wanting to make sure she was in a good position for whatever might happen next. But to her surprise, he was no longer there. "Wha...where did he go?" she asked herself, and then repeated the words to Roberta.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see," she replied. Kate couldn't be sure but it looked as though she was almost succeeding in holding back the laughter.
"You didn't see!" she repeated incredulously, "what the heck were you doing?"
Roberta couldn't maintain the straight face any longer as she burst out laughing. "Oh man, you should've seen your face."
Yeah, Kate felt real special.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Books, books and more books. As if school wasn't bad enough, she had to study even in her other life. Somehow Ashley Harrison doubted this is what people had in mind when they thought of super-heroes. In fact the only thing that seemed to fit in with all that she supposed would happen being a super hero is that, like Clark Kent, she was told to keep her powers secret.
That seriously reduced the pros of the whole deal.
Of course that aside, she couldn't lie to herself about how she felt. She loved being a slayer. Sure there were thousands across the world, but heck, in a world of billions, she still felt pretty special. And in the whole scheme of things being a slayer, even one that was only recently called was about the best part time job she could think of while surviving the horrors of high school. She was going to start Public High School in a few months, but thanks to the Watchers Council, she was now going to a Private School, had money for fun and more importantly, had the self esteem she had been lacking for most of her life.
She was pretty unlikely as a slayer. She was tiny. More than once, Ashley had wondered if her body would ever actually hit puberty and grow. She still, to her chagrin, looked like a twelve-year-old. Only now she was a twelve-year-old who could save the world.
Well, she did like to dream about that.
No, all and all, she loved the life that she now had. It was just the double homework that annoyed her. So it was on this Friday night, her designated Slayer homework night, that she was sitting at the table of their watcher's apartment, doing research on various baddies that go bump in the night. That and getting her watcher to tell her plenty of stories from previous adventures. Those tales almost made the homework worthwhile.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the voices of her two fellow slayers, as they approached the door to their watcher's apartment. Ashley couldn't help but giggle at the bickering twosome. Having no siblings, Ashley couldn't help but think that this was the closest she would get to it, and she enjoyed it immensely. Even if Kate *seemed* to hate with it a passion.
"I'm telling you, I should've had the digicam with me. There'd be money in that shot," Roberta told her.
"God, would you just shut up!" Kate shouted back as the door opened, and found herself facing a grinning Ashley. "Don't you start as well, Ash."
Ashley looked from Kate, to the still grinning Roberta, then with all innocence replied, "Not going to say a thing."
Kate rolled her eyes at the look on Ashley's face and had to catch herself from laughing. Damn, it was hard to keep up the rage with her looking at you like that, Kate thought, wondering if she was ever that cute or manipulative when she was just 14.
"Where's the boss?" she asked the youngster.
"I'm here," came the reply as a woman walked down the internal staircase. She stood about the same height as Kate, though her build was slender. Her dark brown hair cascading down her back, she walked with an air of authority that belied her age of 25. There was a beaming intelligence behind her eyes, and even without the authority of her position, she seemed to automatically command respect. To the three slayers, she was there guide and friend. Respect came easily to them. "So what happened?" she asked as she walked over to the threesome, who by now had sat themselves down at the table.
"Kate, got shown up by some dude," Roberta told her, causing Kate to wince, not just at the fact that she got shown up, but by Roberta's use of the word dude.
"I did not," she replied almost automatically, then checking herself she added, "he got lucky on the third attempt." As soon as Kate said so, she could tell her watcher wasn't happy with the news.
"Who was it?"
Kate shrugged, then looked at Roberta, happy to see that she wasn't contradicting her. "But the worrying thing is he knew me."
"That you were a slayer?" the Watcher asked, concerned that this person knew things he shouldn't.
"He seemed to know lots. About Slayers, Watchers. I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive he mentioned Giles," Kate answered her, pausing for a moment before continuing. "He also knew my name. Called me Katherine," she admitted trying not to spit as she said so.
"Well," her watcher replied chuckling a little, "that got him on your shit list straight away then." She then got a lot tenser. "Still, levity aside, this could be serious."
"Girl, you know that you *are* American, or did your schooling in England warp you that much," Roberta taunted. "Levity aside, sheesh!"
Her watcher rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm very well aware of my birthright, more than you realise," she replied a little mysterious. "And good gawd, I don't think you can lecture anyone about their abuse of the English language."
"She has a point," Ashley added. She enjoyed getting in her own playful digs when she could.
"Shut it, junior," Roberta teased back.
"Okay, lets get back to what happened for a moment." They all turned to face their watcher, knowing that she was correct. "Was he human?"
"Yeah, I didn't sense anything different," Kate replied.
"Nor I," Roberta added.
"He was torturing a vampire, when I came upon him," Kate continued.
"Not killing?"
"No," Kate replied shaking her head. "He could've killed it anytime he wanted to, but he seemed to take almost pleasure it making it squirm. There was something that he wanted to know."
Her watcher was getting more and more intrigued. "What was that?"
"I don't know, sorry. All I heard was the name, Marcus."
As soon as Kate had said it, she could tell that the name struck with some familiarity with her watcher. "What is it?" Kate asked.
Her watcher walked over to the bookcase at the end of her living room followed by the other three. "I'm sure I've heard that name before," she replied, a look of concentration etched on her face as she searched her memories.
Kate, who had been watching the books being pulled out of the shelves, saw that Roberta and Ashley had started looking through the many photos that were on the top shelf of the bookcase, seemingly more interested in them, then who or what Marcus was.
"What else happened?"
Taking her eyes off the younger two slayers, Kate turned back and answered. "Not much. He didn't seem to want to hurt us. In fact it was almost as if he had wanted to avoid us."
"Well, here it is," she answered pulling out a leather bound book and taking it back to the table.
Kate had seen that type of book before. It looked like the same one she saw her watcher writing in each day. "I had to read through these journals when I arrived. It's a tradition that each Watcher passes on the journals to the next, but I was surprised when these were left with me." Kate noticed that her mentor seemed lost in thought again.
"The previous watcher?" Kate asked.
"Yeah." The reply was soft and almost sad.
"Did you know him?"
Her watcher only nodded, and Kate didn't push it.
"Yes, here it is. Marcus was the leader of a local gang of vampires, whom the previous slayer had killed a number of their members." Shrugging she added, "Not much I know, I probably wouldn't have remembered, except it was one of the last entries written."
The sadness that Kate had noticed before had remerged on her watcher's face. The one question she'd held off on asking now escaped her lips.
"What happened to them?" Kate asked. She saw a multitude of emotions play across the face of her watcher in the split second before she opened her mouth to speak.
Whatever answer she would've received was interrupted by a shout from across the room. "Oh my god!"
They both turned to see Roberta coming towards them with a photo in her hand followed by Ashley. She thrust the photo out to Kate, who took it. "What am I looking at?" she asked.
"Him," Roberta answered, pointing at a young man who in the photo was standing behind their watcher, with his arms wrapped around her. As Kate studied the photo second by second, the feeling that Roberta was correct in her assumption became crystal clear.
She passed it on to her watcher. "It does look like the same guy tonight. Well, except for the fact that he doesn't have the scar and eye patch."
The gasp that greeted those words surprised them all, and Kate could tell that it had affected her watcher.
"What is it?" she asked.
When she received no answer, she asked again. "What?"
Still no response.
"Dawn, who is it?" she asked more urgent now.
Dawn Summers, watcher to three slayers and veteran of the time before there were many, didn't know whether to cry or laugh. In the end her answer escaped her lips in an almost haunted tone.
"Xander."
End of Part One
Author: Andrew Parkinson
Paring: Xander/Dawn, Xander/Vi
Rating: R
Summary: The world had changed, but the job wasn't over. The Watcher's Council had to be re-built, Slayers had to be found and trained and the World still had to be saved from the Night. For Xander Harris, veteran and survivor of the Sunnydale Hellmouth, his life had just begun another rollercoaster ride.
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Buffy - The Vampire Slayer. Mutant Enemy, FOX do. I am using them for my own non profitable needs.
Dedicated: To Adrena
Feedback: Yes please, we are all feedback junkies.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
For The Love of...
Chapter One: Darkness Ascending
San Diego
June 2012
The rock that ricocheted off one of the many gravestones that lined each side of the narrow asphalt path was just one indication to the mood of the woman that had kicked it.
Her bitter tone was a clearer one.
"Oh, I'll take the other side," the girl muttered; though from the pitch in her voice, it was obvious that she was mocking someone else.
Katherine Franklin didn't like being told what the deal was. Especially when she took into account who had given her that "suggestion". Katherine, or Kate as she insisted everyone call her, was special. It wasn't because of her looks, though no one could've said she was anything but attractive. She had the height of a model and the body to match, well, that is if the modelling industry remembered that women with some curves were more attractive than sticks with skin stretched over them. She'd remarked a number of times, while flicking through some glossy magazine, that she was aware of the irony that she was helping that same industry profit from buying the magazines in the first place. But she liked fashion, so there really wasn't any choice. Her red hair fell to her shoulders when down, though at present it was tied back in a ponytail.
No, she was special for another reason. For Kate was a Vampire Slayer. That title, however didn't mean she was as special as it use to mean. It didn't mean she was the chosen one, or even her countries chosen. Nor did it mean that she was Californian's chosen. Shaking her head, she reluctantly remembered that she wasn't even San Diego's own chosen one.
It wasn't that way six years ago. One early March night in 2006 she'd gone to bed worrying about nothing more than how she was going to pass her Math mid term the next day. Sometime during the night, she'd woken feeling the most amazing rush flowing through her body, and in that one moment she felt as though she was connected to something very powerful. Not that she had any idea on what exactly had happened. Apart from suddenly being a lot faster and coordinated at sports, she didn't really see any tangible difference till about two months later, when a old English guy and a young woman, not too much older than she was, turned up on her doorstep, and told her of her birthright.
"Funny birthright, considering I'm 15," she'd told them not believing a word of it. They'd apologised profusely about the time it took to notify her, but some internal problems with their organisation had meant the delay had been unavoidable. She'd taken a bit of selling on the whole idea of who, or more precisely what she was. The whole idea of her having to put her body on the line for some English organisation didn't appeal greatly to her, or her folks. It was only when her Watcher sat down with Kate and her parents and explained that she was there to train her, guide her and help her in whatever she decided to do in life, that she decided to give it a go.
Looking back she'd never thought that the same woman would become one of her best friends. But over time she did, and for that Kate could never be anything but thankful.
For a number of years it was just the two of them. Defending the City against the forces of darkness. Which to be fair wasn't all that dark. San Diego was never a hotbed of demonic activity. And there was never any real danger of any of the local inhabitants having to face the hounds of hell. Kate and her watcher saw to that. Then around three years later, she was told that there was another one. Roberta Hernandez. Two years younger and thinking it was pretty much the coolest thing going, Roberta and Kate had a love hate relationship. Roberta loved to piss Kate off, and Kate hated it. Then six months ago came Ashley Harrison.
In circa 2012, she was one of three. And as far as she was concerned, in this case, three definitely wasn't a charm.
Taking that reality into account, Kate didn't feel all that special. It wasn't as though she felt like she was owed anything special. In those moments when she was lying in bed, simply thinking into the darkness of her room, she knew what the real problem was. She was jealous. She'd been doing this for six years, and she was sick of it. She saw the look of joy that was still on Roberta's and now Ashley's face, and she knew she used to feel like that. Somewhere in the last few years, she'd lost it, and that was the reason why she didn't feel all that special anymore.
Which would pretty much make her life totally suck, except for one thing. Kate loved the fact she could kick ass. Kicking undead demon ass, was an even bigger bonus. It fact it was all pretty good. She loved her city, she liked her watcher, and she even liked Ashley.
Roberta, unfortunately lived life to its fullest, making sure to enjoy everything and having fun every minute of the day. Even taking into account her wish that she still felt the thrill of being the slayer, it still irritated the heck out of Kate. Even more since Kate was technically the senior slayer. Another thing that Roberta didn't seem to take too seriously. And that was why Kate was walking along, kicking anything she could reach and wishing sweet torture on her fellow slayer.
What was worse, it was just another boring night in the life of San Diego's undead.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Mount Hope Cemetery may have been close to downtown, but in the middle of it you would have no idea. The lights from the city centre and the streets never reached in that far. Even the full moon above gave only the faintest of glows, almost as if it's light couldn't penetrate the eerie darkness of the area. The shadows that it did fuel were hardly recognisable from the darkness around them. The steady wind that had been blowing for most of the night provided the only life in the place. Flowing through the trees, the branches caught the breeze and swayed with it. The leaves rustling in it's movement providing an aural backdrop to the atmosphere. It was a fairly cool night; the temperature hovering in the low sixties. Definitely not cold, but just cool enough that when mixed with the wind, there was a distinctive chill in the air.
The cool serenity was broken with a start, as a male figure burst through one of the thick hedges. The natural barrier slowed him somewhat, making him fall off balance. But it was only a momentary distraction, as he was on his feet soon after and running away at full speed yet again. His head kept whipping around, looking for his pursuer, then turning back just as quickly to avoid running into another obstacle. Running around the side of one of the bigger mausoleums, he stopped suddenly, throwing himself against the wall, hoping to find some time to think up a plan.
After a few moments, and with little success in the thinking of a better idea, he slowly leaned to his left and poked his head around the corner of the stone building. He squinted his eyes and scanned the area, hoping to catch a glimpse of who he'd been trying to avoid. Completing his second scan of the area, he still couldn't see anyone. He let himself wonder for a moment if he'd been lucky enough to lose his pursuer. But not for very long. He couldn't believe it would be that easy to lose someone who had already shown was very determined to track him wherever he went.
He took a step out, hoping to see further around a corner, when suddenly he felt himself being forced back against the wall, a severe sharp pain coming from his left shoulder. Looking down, he grimaced when he saw why. Protruding out of his body was a steel bar. The force of the impact having forced more than half of the object through his body and a good deal of it now lay imbedded in the wall behind him. With it being locked into that place, he found himself pinned there, not being able to move away from the spot.
The agony was beyond anything he'd experienced, but he fought to keep it inside. He needed to be level headed to get out of this. Fighting the pain it caused even when doing a simple thing like lifting his head, he looked up and could make out a shadowy figure slowly moving towards him. He wondered if it was the pain that was masking his attacker's identity of simply the lack of light. But even now, a mere few feet away, he struggled to focus on the figure.
"Where is he?"
The voice was male; there was no doubt about that. The harsh vocal chords sounding like coarse sandpaper stood out sharply. But even with the raspy voice, there was no mistaking the intent.
"Who?"
The shadow moved closer till his face was only inches away. At that distance there was no missing what he was. Human.
"Argghhh!!!"
The human twisted and pulled at the steel spike. Each movement increasing the agony that shot through the intended victim. He stood there; watching blankly as his hand caused more and more cries of pain. His eyes un-blinking. His mouth closed in a tense line.
He lightened the pressure he bore down onto the bar. "Where is he?"
"I don't know who you're talking about, man?"
If he'd been hoping for pity, he was very much mistaken. The cold unfeeling eyes that watched him as he fought the pain lacing his body had no pity. Apart from determination, he couldn't see anything in those eyes.
"Marcus! Where is Marcus!"
The volume of his threat had risen, as had his twisting on the steel with each word. Blood was flowing freely out of the wound, and as it was twisted more and more, the sound of bones scraping then cracking filled the air, accompanying the cries of pain.
"I don't know," came the pitiful response. He felt no more fight, and was starting to long for death.
"You're lying..."
"Hey! What are you doing?"
At the sound of the voice, both victim and assailant turned as one. Neither one showed much surprise at hearing the women's voice. Nor did they show any shock at who it was when they saw her. It also didn't stop the torture from continuing.
"This doesn't concern you," the shadow told her, turning his back to her and re-applying pressure to the steel. He was about to ask the question again, when in the split second before being thrown through the air, he remembered that it wasn't a good idea to ignore a hyped up slayer. The split second however was no where near long enough. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and before he knew what was happening, he was flying through the air, landing with a thud on the ground a dozen or so feet away.
The woman looked over at the fallen man. He'd landed on his front and face down, but she could see his body raising and falling, telling her that he was still breathing.
With a look of sadness she then turned to face the prey, still half dangling from the stone wall. "I can't let you go," she told him, pulling a stake out from under her jacket. "Though it does seem rather unfair to stake you while you are already hung up."
"Just do it slayer," the vampire answered. "I couldn't fight you anyway."
Kate couldn't be sure, but the vampire looked as though he was welcoming death. She shrugged, and went to plunge the stake in.
"Katherine, no!"
As quick as her reflexes were, the words came just a little too late. She stopped herself as soon as she heard the words, not so much in acquiesce of the instruction, but because of the shock at being addressed by her full name. But the tip of the stake had already passed through the layers skin and pierced the heart, and in a second all that was left was a sprinkling of dust at her feet. Not that she was looking there any more. Since he'd spoken, her attention was only on the other person. There was something in the voice that unnerved her. It wasn't so much that the other person has simply said something. In a way it wasn't even that he knew her name. But there was something about the way he said her name, that bred familiarity.
"Who are you? How do you know who I am?" she asked curiously.
Getting up slowly, the man's voice held a lot of anger. "You've just killed my last lead." He said no more, and turned and started to walk away.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Whistling a merry tune, Roberta Hernandez walked along at a brisk pace, following the path that led around the opposite way to where she'd 'suggested' Kate go. In truth she had no particular reason for doing so. It was just another amusing way to pass the time on yet another routine patrol through Mount Hope Cemetery.
Athletic in build, but standing only five feet and four inches tall, Roberta had never excelled at anything, but had enjoyed it all, when all of the sudden three years ago, she was able to run faster than any of the other girls at her school. It had been a buzz at first, suddenly becoming powerful. That was until the rumours and suspicions started. She had to be on drugs, they'd said. A curse of her greatly improved hearing. Nothing was ever proved of course, but when a few weeks later, a young woman had turned up at her doorstep and told her the truth of things, and at the same time offered a scholarship to any school in the area, she accepted greatly. She wasn't bitter. That was something that she tried to avoid at all times. She had a gift. Of that she was sure. She's been mistaken in trying to use it to become popular. She didn't need it. She loved life and very quickly got knew friends, as well as her Watcher and the other slayer, Kate.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. Roberta thought that Kate was a nice girl, if you took the stick out of her ass. It was a little unfair. Kate was nice, very loyal, very supportive, but she seemed to have taken her birthright as a Slayer to be as much burden as she did a gift. While Roberta just thought it was the neatest thing in the world.
Roberta knew however that her outlook on it all was a handy beneficiary of San Diego's fairly tame nightlife. Sure there were vampires to kill, occasionally. The odd demon popped up to cause trouble, but as far as end of the world battles, they seemed to be centred on Cleveland. And as that was the most heavily occupied area of slayers, no one yet had suggested they were needed to join them.
No, Roberta was happy with her area of responsibility. She loved her city, and being its protector, even if un-acknowledged was pretty cool in her books.
She had reached the point where the two paths crossed, and was surprised not to find Kate waiting for her. She looked around, trying to make anything out in the blackness that seemed all encompassing. She decided to walk back along the path Kate should've taken, thinking that maybe Kate had been distracted.
She'd only gone a short while when her hearing caught the sound of two voices. One was Kate, and the other one was male. Odds said it was a vampire, she thought, as she took off in their direction.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Having someone simply walk away as if she weren't important was a novel experience for Katherine Franklin. One that she didn't like and would be quite happy never to have happened again. She looked on astonished for a moment, before her mind vocalised her thoughts.
"Hey, where are you going?" she called out to him as she started to run to catch him up.
"Just go home, Katherine," she received in return.
"Hey, no one calls me that name. Especially if I don't know them."
Just as the shadow was about to turn around, another voice entered the fray. "And even then, she hates it with a passion."
The man paused, seemingly checking out who had addressed him. "A slayerette?...No, another slayer, I presume."
"Yeah, and who might you be?" Roberta asked, standing a few feet away, looking briefly at Kate to make sure she was okay.
"No-one," he replied and turned to walk away again.
He only got so far when he felt an arm grab him and pull him around. Kate recoiled a little seeing his face. It wasn't so much the patch on his left eye, but the 6-inch long scar that started above the eye and went below it that shocked her. Whatever had happened to this man, it was brutal, that much she knew without having to ask any more.
"Go back to your watchers," the man said.
There was something in his voice that was almost caring, even if buried under the rough, gravely tone.
"We only have one watcher," Roberta replied, before Kate told tell her to shut-up. She was surprised when the man actually responded in surprise to that information.
That bit of information seemed to make him stop for a moment. "So Giles did win that one," he commented to himself. "I'll stay out of your way as much as I can, slayers," he told them, as he turned and walked away.
Both Kate and Roberta ran to follow him, not wanting to let him out of their sight. "You can't just walk away," Kate told him.
"Well I am," he replied, not even brothering to face them. Almost as if he could feel it, when Kate grabbed at him to turn him around, he didn't let her succeed like he had before. With a quick drop of his right side, and in a flurry of movements, Kate found herself lying on her back, looking up at him, his foot planted firmly on her chest.
"I don't want to fight either of you," he told her, and then looked towards Roberta, the warning clear. "I'll be in town for a short while, then gone. I won't get in your way, and you can stay out of mine."
When he took his foot off her, Kate rolled away and than stood up, wanting to make sure she was in a good position for whatever might happen next. But to her surprise, he was no longer there. "Wha...where did he go?" she asked herself, and then repeated the words to Roberta.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see," she replied. Kate couldn't be sure but it looked as though she was almost succeeding in holding back the laughter.
"You didn't see!" she repeated incredulously, "what the heck were you doing?"
Roberta couldn't maintain the straight face any longer as she burst out laughing. "Oh man, you should've seen your face."
Yeah, Kate felt real special.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Books, books and more books. As if school wasn't bad enough, she had to study even in her other life. Somehow Ashley Harrison doubted this is what people had in mind when they thought of super-heroes. In fact the only thing that seemed to fit in with all that she supposed would happen being a super hero is that, like Clark Kent, she was told to keep her powers secret.
That seriously reduced the pros of the whole deal.
Of course that aside, she couldn't lie to herself about how she felt. She loved being a slayer. Sure there were thousands across the world, but heck, in a world of billions, she still felt pretty special. And in the whole scheme of things being a slayer, even one that was only recently called was about the best part time job she could think of while surviving the horrors of high school. She was going to start Public High School in a few months, but thanks to the Watchers Council, she was now going to a Private School, had money for fun and more importantly, had the self esteem she had been lacking for most of her life.
She was pretty unlikely as a slayer. She was tiny. More than once, Ashley had wondered if her body would ever actually hit puberty and grow. She still, to her chagrin, looked like a twelve-year-old. Only now she was a twelve-year-old who could save the world.
Well, she did like to dream about that.
No, all and all, she loved the life that she now had. It was just the double homework that annoyed her. So it was on this Friday night, her designated Slayer homework night, that she was sitting at the table of their watcher's apartment, doing research on various baddies that go bump in the night. That and getting her watcher to tell her plenty of stories from previous adventures. Those tales almost made the homework worthwhile.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the voices of her two fellow slayers, as they approached the door to their watcher's apartment. Ashley couldn't help but giggle at the bickering twosome. Having no siblings, Ashley couldn't help but think that this was the closest she would get to it, and she enjoyed it immensely. Even if Kate *seemed* to hate with it a passion.
"I'm telling you, I should've had the digicam with me. There'd be money in that shot," Roberta told her.
"God, would you just shut up!" Kate shouted back as the door opened, and found herself facing a grinning Ashley. "Don't you start as well, Ash."
Ashley looked from Kate, to the still grinning Roberta, then with all innocence replied, "Not going to say a thing."
Kate rolled her eyes at the look on Ashley's face and had to catch herself from laughing. Damn, it was hard to keep up the rage with her looking at you like that, Kate thought, wondering if she was ever that cute or manipulative when she was just 14.
"Where's the boss?" she asked the youngster.
"I'm here," came the reply as a woman walked down the internal staircase. She stood about the same height as Kate, though her build was slender. Her dark brown hair cascading down her back, she walked with an air of authority that belied her age of 25. There was a beaming intelligence behind her eyes, and even without the authority of her position, she seemed to automatically command respect. To the three slayers, she was there guide and friend. Respect came easily to them. "So what happened?" she asked as she walked over to the threesome, who by now had sat themselves down at the table.
"Kate, got shown up by some dude," Roberta told her, causing Kate to wince, not just at the fact that she got shown up, but by Roberta's use of the word dude.
"I did not," she replied almost automatically, then checking herself she added, "he got lucky on the third attempt." As soon as Kate said so, she could tell her watcher wasn't happy with the news.
"Who was it?"
Kate shrugged, then looked at Roberta, happy to see that she wasn't contradicting her. "But the worrying thing is he knew me."
"That you were a slayer?" the Watcher asked, concerned that this person knew things he shouldn't.
"He seemed to know lots. About Slayers, Watchers. I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive he mentioned Giles," Kate answered her, pausing for a moment before continuing. "He also knew my name. Called me Katherine," she admitted trying not to spit as she said so.
"Well," her watcher replied chuckling a little, "that got him on your shit list straight away then." She then got a lot tenser. "Still, levity aside, this could be serious."
"Girl, you know that you *are* American, or did your schooling in England warp you that much," Roberta taunted. "Levity aside, sheesh!"
Her watcher rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm very well aware of my birthright, more than you realise," she replied a little mysterious. "And good gawd, I don't think you can lecture anyone about their abuse of the English language."
"She has a point," Ashley added. She enjoyed getting in her own playful digs when she could.
"Shut it, junior," Roberta teased back.
"Okay, lets get back to what happened for a moment." They all turned to face their watcher, knowing that she was correct. "Was he human?"
"Yeah, I didn't sense anything different," Kate replied.
"Nor I," Roberta added.
"He was torturing a vampire, when I came upon him," Kate continued.
"Not killing?"
"No," Kate replied shaking her head. "He could've killed it anytime he wanted to, but he seemed to take almost pleasure it making it squirm. There was something that he wanted to know."
Her watcher was getting more and more intrigued. "What was that?"
"I don't know, sorry. All I heard was the name, Marcus."
As soon as Kate had said it, she could tell that the name struck with some familiarity with her watcher. "What is it?" Kate asked.
Her watcher walked over to the bookcase at the end of her living room followed by the other three. "I'm sure I've heard that name before," she replied, a look of concentration etched on her face as she searched her memories.
Kate, who had been watching the books being pulled out of the shelves, saw that Roberta and Ashley had started looking through the many photos that were on the top shelf of the bookcase, seemingly more interested in them, then who or what Marcus was.
"What else happened?"
Taking her eyes off the younger two slayers, Kate turned back and answered. "Not much. He didn't seem to want to hurt us. In fact it was almost as if he had wanted to avoid us."
"Well, here it is," she answered pulling out a leather bound book and taking it back to the table.
Kate had seen that type of book before. It looked like the same one she saw her watcher writing in each day. "I had to read through these journals when I arrived. It's a tradition that each Watcher passes on the journals to the next, but I was surprised when these were left with me." Kate noticed that her mentor seemed lost in thought again.
"The previous watcher?" Kate asked.
"Yeah." The reply was soft and almost sad.
"Did you know him?"
Her watcher only nodded, and Kate didn't push it.
"Yes, here it is. Marcus was the leader of a local gang of vampires, whom the previous slayer had killed a number of their members." Shrugging she added, "Not much I know, I probably wouldn't have remembered, except it was one of the last entries written."
The sadness that Kate had noticed before had remerged on her watcher's face. The one question she'd held off on asking now escaped her lips.
"What happened to them?" Kate asked. She saw a multitude of emotions play across the face of her watcher in the split second before she opened her mouth to speak.
Whatever answer she would've received was interrupted by a shout from across the room. "Oh my god!"
They both turned to see Roberta coming towards them with a photo in her hand followed by Ashley. She thrust the photo out to Kate, who took it. "What am I looking at?" she asked.
"Him," Roberta answered, pointing at a young man who in the photo was standing behind their watcher, with his arms wrapped around her. As Kate studied the photo second by second, the feeling that Roberta was correct in her assumption became crystal clear.
She passed it on to her watcher. "It does look like the same guy tonight. Well, except for the fact that he doesn't have the scar and eye patch."
The gasp that greeted those words surprised them all, and Kate could tell that it had affected her watcher.
"What is it?" she asked.
When she received no answer, she asked again. "What?"
Still no response.
"Dawn, who is it?" she asked more urgent now.
Dawn Summers, watcher to three slayers and veteran of the time before there were many, didn't know whether to cry or laugh. In the end her answer escaped her lips in an almost haunted tone.
"Xander."
End of Part One