Chapter Two: The Slayer
~…The Slayer whirled around, sword moving fluidly through the air. It connected, striking the vampire in the face. Blood began to pour from his eyebrow, but he paid no mind to it besides a fierce roar. Then he launched himself at her. His kick caught her in to stomach, sending her backwards, causing her to drop her sword as she went. The vampire hit her again, but this time she managed to counter with her own fist. He went flying backwards, straight into a pillar. The Slayer had him trapped then, her foot secure against his throat. She pulled out her stake, prepared to bring it down and end this creature’s existence. His eyes widened, showing a brief flash of fear there, but before she could move again there was an explosion. They both stumbled to the side, thrown off balance. The Slayer’s stake tumbled from her hand, and on instinct she reached for it.
Then the vampire had her. Before she could resist her arms were pinned awkwardly behind her back and his teeth were in her neck…
…This time instead of fighting against the vampire, the Slayer was fighting beside him. They were back to back, taking on humans, not demons. They were soldiers, yelling at her in a language she didn’t know, trying to take her down. The vampire at her back was nearly whooping for joy, every punch thrown apparently causing him great pleasure.
“Not as much as fightin’ you Slayer,” he called back over his shoulder as he snapped a man’s neck, “but this is a bit of alright!”…
… Now the Slayer was on a subway battling him again. She whirled around one of the poles, kicking him is the chest and sending him a back a few steps. The vampire caught his footing by using another pole. He then looked at it, a smirk forming on his lips as he broke the top part of it off. He whirled it around, a smirk never leaving his lips as he moved towards her. When she got close enough she swung at him, but he ducked under her arm and hit her in the side with his weapon. She crashed into one of the seats, barely having the time to kick out to stop him from reaching her. She punched him in the abdomen, and this time he went down.
The Slayer scrambled on top of him then, straddling his body to pin him. They struggled, the vampire trying to escape and her trying to keep him down long enough to pull out her stake for a quick dusting. Then the lights flickered out, and the next thing she knew he was on top, hands clenched around her throat. His hands gripped the side of her head and twisted.
…Strong arms wrapped around the Slayer from behind, pulling her back against a solid chest. She was held there tightly, trapped by his grip. Yet she didn’t feel threatened. She felt…safe.
“Hello cutie,” his voice whispered in her ear, causing her to shiver from something other than fear…~
Buffy Summers woke abruptly, sitting up so quickly she almost fell off of the bed. The sheets were tangled around her, telling her that she had been tossing and turning throughout the entire dream…
Which her gut told her was a Slayer dream.
Buffy gave a long sigh. You’d think the Powers would let her have at least a little break from being the Slayer. But no, they had to keep reminding her of her Chosen status even in her sleep. They never gave a girl a break.
Life was so totally not fair.
She glanced over at her clock, groaning when her sleep addled brain made out the numbers 2:30. She had only finished patrol a couple of hours ago and by the time she had climbed up her tree she had been exhausted. She still was.
Patrol had been brutal. Apparently the Anointed One was a little upset with her for ruining his plans to resurrect The Master. She had minions coming at her from every which way. She had dusted ten tonight alone, and just as many every night in the past week. Not to mention her social life was becoming a bust. With the increase in slaying it meant a decrease in down time. She had no time for something like Bronzing it, let alone something like studying. Angel was still sulking about her stunt as a bad girl when she had first gotten back from L.A. Yeah, using Xander to make him jealous wasn’t one of her best ideas, but that was weeks ago! Shouldn’t he be done brooding about it by now? Plus Snyder had forced her to take up responsibility for parent-teacher night. Shelia wasn’t being a very big help, or any help at all actually. Since the little troll of a principal had declared that no one but Shelia was to help her, Buffy was on her own. Not to mention her mother found out about parent-teacher night, and Buffy had a feeling that that wasn’t going to turn out pretty.
Being the Slayer sucked sometimes.
Now she had a Slayer dream she was going to have to tell Giles about, and that would lead to a load of research. Which in turn would lead to even more time spent not doing something fun. Buffy was an action girl; her and research were totally unmixy.
Giving one more grimace as she looked at the clock, Buffy turned on the lamp beside her bed. Opening her top drawer she pulled out a book, grabbed a pen, opened it to a blank page and began to write. Giles had told her that, whenever she had a Slayer dream, she should write it down immediately, with every detail she could remember. It made sense considering that, by the time morning came she would have probably forgotten most of it, but at 2:30 in the morning it was a pain in the ass. Not to mention if her mom or Dawn got up and saw her light on, she’d get to add being grounded to the list of things that were sucking in her life.
Okay, Buffy thought to herself, dream. Let’s see. There was a vampire –isn’t there always?-, and I’m pretty sure it was the same vampire. Well, maybe not the last one, since I didn’t see his face. Though, it did sound like the same vamp…
Buffy scribbled down the basics first; there were four Slayers, and she was pretty sure that the last one was her, and they had all fought the same vamp. Well, two of them had fought –and been killed by- the same vampire. One of them had apparently fought alongside him, which made no sense. Vampires were evil, and they so did not fight beside Slayers. Unless they were Angel, but that was because of the soul. Considering this vampire had killed two of the Slayers in her dreams, she was willing to bet that he didn’t have a soul.
Now what to write about the fourth part of the dream? Because, when it had been her, there was certainly no fighting going on. There was holding, and kinda sexy whispers in her ear. Oh, and shivering, and that warm feeling pooling at the bottom of her stomach.
Best leave that part out, Buffy concluded when she imagined the look on Giles’s face if he read about that particular fact, just say that he had me trapped in his grip. That’s probably all it was anyway. Besides, the only vampire that really gives me those types of shivers is Angel, and it’s going to stay that way. I’m a one vamp kinda girl, even if this one was kinda hot…for a dream, anyway.
Giles was going to have a field day with this one.
l.l.l.l
“The same vampire you say?”
Buffy held back a retort, knowing Giles wouldn’t appreciate it.
Why couldn’t Giles get over the idea of a vampire fighting more than one Slayer? Okay, killing more than one Slayer seemed pretty big, but it didn’t seem all that impossible.
“Yes Giles,” she said, “for the third time. Believe me when I tell you there’s no one else that could have those cheekbones. They are so one of a kind…”
Giles made a throat clearing sound and began cleaning his glasses. Clearly reminiscing about what a hottie the dream vampire had been was not Giles-friendly material. Which meant she was so right about leaving out the last part of the dream.
That was what Willow was for.
“But what about the part where he helped?” Buffy asked. That had been something she had been curious about ever since she had woken up. It didn’t make sense; vampires were all grr, fangy and let’s end the world because they didn’t have a soul.
“That is the most confusing part,” Giles sounded just as perplexed, “there has never been an instance where a vampire has fought beside a Slayer. Not before you and Angel anyway. And you said they were fighting humans?” Buffy nodded her confirmation, “that it entirely unheard of. Slayers are meant to protect humans from vampires and other demons. One would never work with them to destroy humans.”
“There’s never been a Slayer who’s gone bad?” that was another curious thing Buffy had wondered about.
Slayers were all different right? For all their power, they were still just human girls…and humans had a tendency to go all corrupt. Just look at politicians.
“Why yes there have been Slayers who have gone rogue,” Giles looked surprised by her question, “but not to the extent that your dream would entail. It’s rare. Rogue just means a Slayer not doing her duty. Yes, there is a certain level of corruption with the girl, but there have been no documented cases where they have begun to consort with vampires-“
“Umm Giles,” Buffy rushed to interrupt, knowing her Watcher was about to go on a long and most likely boring lecture, “that’s not what my dream said.”
“You must have misinterpreted the dream,” Giles said, rather casual in his dismissal of her.
Buffy bristled at his words. The dismissal, especially since it was her dream, stung. Especially since it was so casual, making it sound as though her being wrong was a common occurrence. She might not be the most serious Slayer around, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t give details about her own dream. Besides, something told her she was right-That little wiggly feeling in the base of her stomach that she had named her Slayer’s intuition (when she wasn’t so annoyed she’d have to ask Giles if that was a real thing or not). Whether her Watcher believed it or not, her Slayer dreams didn’t lie. Sure they could be all cryptic and open to interpretation, but this one was pretty straight forward.
“Will you look anyway?” Buffy asked, causing Giles to look up from where he was reading Buffy’s Slayer dream journal.
“Yes of course,” was the reply, “but we have other more pressing matters.”
Buffy was fuming now, but Giles was once again looking down at the book and didn’t notice.
“I have to get to class,” she said finally, not waiting for Giles to say anything before she stalked out of the room.
“You must have interpreted it wrong,” Buffy began to use a horrible British accent to much Giles the minute the library doors slammed shut, “we have more pressing matters,” she dropped the accent, “more pressing, my ass!”
“Buffy!”
She broke out of her grumbling to see Willow coming towards her, one of her overly cheery smiles on her face.
“Hey Wills,” Buffy was still miffed, and it showed in the tone of her voice. Willow was instantly concerned.
“What’s wrong Buff?”
“Argh! What does Giles have to act so…so…so British!”
Willow blinked in confusion, “He is British, Buffy.”
“Pft,” Buffy waved away the comment, “he’s in America. Don’t you think he should act a little more, I don’t know, American?”
A mental image of Giles in shorts and a sports jersey, sitting in a lazy boy on a Sunday to watch football with a beer in his hand flashed through Willow’s mind, and it caused her to giggle.
Buffy shot Willow an odd look before continuing, “Sure he’s a Watcher, but I’m the Slayer, and it was my dream.”
“Oh,” Willow said, visible excitement on her face, “Slayer dream?”
Buffy held back a sigh. If Willow had to be the ones having the dreams she wouldn’t be so excited.
“Yep,” was what Buffy said, “there was fighting, death and more fighting.”
“That’s it?” the disappointment was practically leaking from Willow’s voice.
“Well,” Buffy answered with a bit of a sly grin, “the vamp I was fighting was a hottie.”
That perked up Willow’s interest again, “Really?”
“Yep. He had the best cheekbones ever. Super models would die for those cheekbones. He also had this accent, and it was sexy British, not Giles British.”
Willow began to smile, but then her brow furrowed a bit, “Do you have to fight this vamp? Was that what the dream was warning you about? Because in that case, being a hottie not so good.”
Buffy frowned, still trying to figure out this part.
“Well, I was fighting him,” she answered, still trying to move past the confusion herself, “but I wasn’t either. You know how I dream about past Slayers?” Willow nodded, “it was like that. There were three of them, and then I think the last one was me. And we weren’t fighting in that one…”
Buffy’s voice trailed off as she remembered dream arms being wrapped around her, being held close. She fought back a shiver much like the one that had invaded her dream.
“You what?” Willow’s eyes were wide with curiosity.
She opened her mouth to reply, but another voice cut her off before she could speak. The two girls turned to see Xander sidling up to them.
“Hi Xan,” Buffy told him while she mouthed ‘later’ to Willow behind his back.
Xander was her best friend and she loved him, but mentioning other boys around him was like lighting a fuse. Especially if those boys happened to be of the undead variety. This was really a girls’ only conversation.
“What are we talking about?”
“Nothing much,” Buffy said, “just slaying stuff.”
Willow looked a little guilty about the small half lie, but Xander didn’t really notice. He was too focused on Buffy at the moment.
“How was patrol last night?” He asked.
Last night had been just her and Willow. Xander had had an essay due that he couldn’t put off any longer, and didn’t come.
This gave Buffy another chance to launch into her ‘why being a Slayer sucks’ routine. She left out anything about not seeing Angel for a few days, because he wouldn’t be sympathetic on that front. He’d be happy that ‘Dead Boy’ wasn’t around, and he wasn’t very subtle about it. Whenever he got like that, Buffy had to resist the urge to slap him upside the head. Buffy was just getting to the part about Giles not taking her seriously enough when a very unwelcome and unpleasant voice stopped her.
“Ah, Ms. Rosenberg, just the young lady I wanted to see.”
Buffy barely held back a cringe when principle Snyder walked up to their group.
“Me?” Willow’s voice came out in a squeak.
Well this was a change. Usually the troll had his sights set on tormenting Buffy.
“Yes you,” Snyder smirked, “On Thursday we have a new student coming, a transfer from Canada. I want you to take her under your wing. Look after her, show her around, and made her feel at home.”
Buffy was miffed; she had never gotten a guide to help her around when she had first transferred to Sunnydale High. Cordelia had taken up the mantel for all of one day and then Willow and Xander had taken over the job. But that had all been voluntary.
“What’s so special about the new girl?” Xander couldn’t help but ask, and it got him a quick glare from the principle.
“She’s transferring from one of the best private schools in the country. A very expensive private school. That makes me believe one of our top students should make her feel welcome, don’t you?”
Buffy got it now. Snyder wanted to play nice with the new girl who had rich parents. That way, said rich parents would feel generous whenever school fundraising came around.
“And Ms. Summers,” Snyder’s attention finally turned to her, “I hope you’ve been getting ready for parent-teacher night.”
“Yep,” Buffy’s answer was a cheerful lie, “Shelia and I have been working away like busy little beavers.”
“Good. 8:45 in my office Thursday morning Rosenberg.”
“What a troll,” Xander complained the moment he was out of hearing range.
“Think I can slay him?” Buffy asked.
“I wouldn’t call him human,” Xander said with a grin, “so I’d say he’s slayable.”
Willow on the other hand was getting into one of her panicky modes.
“Why me? I’m not that good at making people feel welcome. I get nervous and I babble and it makes me look like an idiot. It makes things all awkward. And it sounds like she’s a Cordelia. I don’t think I can handle another Cordelia…I can only take so much humiliation.”
“You’ll be fine Will,” Xander comforted the panicking girl by throwing an arm around her shoulder.
He didn’t notice the blush that spread across Willow’s cheeks, but Buffy did. She just mentally shook her head, wondering how Xander could be so dense. Willow’s crush was kinda obvious.
“Besides, it’s not a guarantee she’ll be another Cordy,” Xander continued, “and if she is, we’ll just introduce her to the real Cordy, and let her take the girl off of our hands.”
“You’re a great show the ropes kinda girl anyway,” Buffy said to her friend, “you did great when I first moved here.”
Willow smiled at the compliment but there was still a bit of tension in her eyes. Poor Willow, thought Buffy. She had come out of her shell quite a bit since Buffy had moved to Sunnydale, but she was still so shy underneath. Willow so needed someone of the male variety to boost her confidence. It would be great if Xander ever noticed the girl, but somehow she didn’t see that happening anytime soon.
“Hey,” Xander said as he seemed to remember something, “On the way to school this morning I saw a ‘sold’ sign in the window of that magic store on main street.”
Buffy groaned. Since she had moved here, she had had to fight various demons in front of that store on numerous occasions. It had gone through four owners, all of them killed by various creatures of the night. The last one had been murdered when a demon cult had wanted ingredients and a sacrifice. After the Bronze and cemeteries, it was that store that attracted the most trouble of the Hellmouthy variety. Which is why she much preferred it when it was closed.
“I wonder if they bring up the fact that all previous owners have died mysterious deaths, when the realtor shows the place?” Willow wondered out loud.
“This is Sunnydale, Will,” Xander’s reply was almost dry, “There’s probably at least one mysterious death at every location in this town.”
“Good point,” Willow said, “You should ask Ms. Calendar to tell them about the dangers,” Willow suggested.
“Huh?”
“Ms. Calendar shops there all the time,” Willow explained, “so when the shop opens up again, get her to talk to the owner about being really careful.”
“Shouldn’t they just be able to say bipity, bopity, boo and be all protected? It is a magic store after all. Why not Poof! Instant safety?”
“It’s not that simple Xander,” Willow’s voice was somewhat reproachful, “Ms. Calendar says it’s much more complicated than that.”
“You’re doing magic?” Buffy asked her in surprise.
“No,” Willow sounded a little hesitant, “but it’s super interesting, and I had some questions. Ms. Calendar told me she can help me out if I want.”
“That’s cool,” Buffy saw that her friend was a little nervous about how they would respond, “Just don’t get into something you can’t handle alright?”
“Yeah,” Xander jumped in with a joke that was a little more sarcastic than he intended, “remember how well that went with Mickey.”
Willow couldn’t help but be a little hurt that her friends didn’t think she could handle herself, but she didn’t show it. Instead she just smiled and said, “Don’t worry, guys. I’ll be super careful.”
“Though it is a great plan,” Buffy told her, “maybe if we warn the shopkeeper what they’re getting into beforehand, they’ll be able to keep the demons and vampires out for once.”
l.l.l.l
On patrol Buffy made sure they swung by the Magic Box to confirm that there really was a sold sign in the window. There was and it made her groan again.
“Told ya so,” Xander said, sounding a bit peeved that she hadn’t believed him.
“Sorry Xan,” she apologized with a smile, “just needed to see for myself.”
“I’ll talk to Ms. Calendar tomorrow after computer sciences,” Willow volunteered as they continued on their way.
“Thanks, Wills,” Buffy accepted the offer gratefully, and then lapsed into silence as her two friends continued to talk.
Buffy on the other hand was searching the shadows for vampires…or at least one vampire, in particular. She hadn’t seen Angel in days, and it was really bothering her. Usually he would at least shadow her patrol if he didn’t join her, but she didn’t sense him anywhere near. Sure, he wasn’t exactly the most comfortable around her friends, but he could still make an effort to at least say hi to her.
Buffy was pulled out of her sulk by the sound of Willow’s voice.
“Wow. This time last night, hadn’t we been attacked four or five times?”
Buffy blinked in surprise. She hadn’t even realized how long they had been on patrol and how they hadn’t seen a vamp or demon yet.
“Huh. That’s weird. Not that I’m complaining, but where did all the nasties go?”
“Here comes one now,” Xander practically sneered, causing Buffy to swing around, stake raised and ready to fight.
Buffy rolled her eyes when she realized that the nasty Xander was talking about was Cordelia. She was sauntering towards them, impeccably dressed and with a haughty look on her face.
“Oh look,” Xander snarked when the girl had almost reached them, “now we have live bait.”
Cordelia barely flicked her glance at him before ignoring him completely. Xander looked more than a little annoyed at that.
“What are you doing here Cordy?” Buffy gestured around the cemetery they had just entered, “and are you trying to get eaten?”
“The Bronze was lame tonight,” was Cordelia’s answer, “I saw you walking as I was driving home, had nothing better to do and decided to grace you with my presence.”
Xander snorted, Willow made a little choking cough while Buffy just rolled her eyes again.
“Let me get this straight,” Xander spoke up again, “you’re so bored you want to help Buffy slay.”
“Would I be here if there was even the least bit of excitement elsewhere?” Cordy answered with a flippant reply.
“Whatever,” Buffy replied, refusing to take Cordy’s bait, “just be careful. Do you have a stake?”
Cordy nodded and pulled a sharpened piece of wood out of her purse.
At least she comes prepared, Buffy thought, had to give Cordy that.
“So where’s Angel?” Cordelia’s question came out of nowhere. It was said in a casual voice, but it still made Buffy turn to look at her sharply. Cordy stared back at her unblinking. She looked only mildly curious, but Buffy’s eyes narrowed none the less.
“Busy,” she managed to reply, “Why?”
“Oh no reason really,” Cordy didn’t even balk at Buffy’s death glare, “Just noticed he wasn’t here, and I know how much he enjoys patrolling.”
Buffy completely ignored Xander’s ‘Thank God,’ and focused on what Cordy had just said.
“When did he tell you this?”
“Oh,” Cordy said, sounding perfectly innocent, “didn’t he tell you? He told me the other night. I ran into him at the Bronze and he was hoping you were going to drop by. I couldn’t just leave him sitting there by himself now could I? So we talked for awhile, and he told me he enjoys patrolling. When you didn’t end up coming, I gave him a ride home.”
The bitch. This was so not a ‘I have nothing to do so I’ll come along,’- it was a ‘I can run into the guy I’m trying to get as a coincidence’-Buffy knew it well, as she had used it plenty of times back at Hermy High. The devious, boyfriend stealing bitch.
“What else did you talk about?” Buffy asked through grit teeth, barely containing the need for violence.
Cordelia might have looked like she was just stating a fact, but Buffy could see the smirk in her eyes.
“Oh nothing much,” Cordy replied with a shrug, “talked about how he helps you out with the slaying, some of the places he’s been. Asked me about school, and even promised to help me on a history report. He was alive during World War I so he knows a whole bunch about it.”
Buffy was angry at the satisfied look in the other girl’s eyes, but most of all she was hurt. Angel never shared anything about his past with her. He was all mysterious and broody. Trying to get something out of him was like pulling teeth- and yet Angel had no problem sitting down and talking to Cordelia of all people about it.
“So I was just curious to where he was,” Cordy concluded, looking Buffy straight in the eye.
Buffy knew a challenge when she saw one. Oh, it was so on. Xander’s idea of live vampire bait was very appealing at the moment.
“Hey look!” Willow’s voice broke in before Buffy could give Cordy a tongue lashing.
Buffy spun around, following Willow’s pointing finger, once again ready for an attack. This time what she was left looking at was a moving van. The three of them turned to a now blushing Willow with raised eyebrows.
“Okay, so it’s not really ‘hey look!’ worthy, but look where it’s going. It’s parking in front of the Crawford Street mansion.”
“That place has been abandoned longer than we’ve been alive,” Xander spoke up, finding this information interesting.
Something clicked in Buffy’s mind, a memory of something her mother had been saying at breakfast (not that she had actually been paying attention).
“I think Mom said something about someone moving in there. They want to buy some stuff from the gallery, or something.”
“I for one wouldn’t be caught dead living in that place,” Cordelia’s nose scrunched up in distaste, “The house is old, tacky and a total eyesore.”
“Never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Queen C, here,” Xander sounded a bit disgusted to say it, “But who would want to live in this place? It’s creepy as hell.”
“Maybe someone who wants to fix it up?” Willow said.
“Or someone who just has horrible taste,” Cordy countered.
“Unless it’s a vampire or demon,” Buffy’s voice was on the verge of snapping, “I really don’t care. Let’s get back to patrolling.”
New Divide by Niori
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey everyone! Here's chapter two, as promised! I'm glad everyone enjoyed the first chapter, and thank you all so much for the reviews! The chapter deals with Buffy and Sunnydale (which means no Spike and Spikettes. Nothing really big happens, but I thought it was important to set things up in Sunnydale before the others get there.
Also, lots of love goves out to my beta Saggit!
Also, lots of love goves out to my beta Saggit!
Chapter End Notes:
I know in canon that Cordelia didn’t know that Angel was a vampire until later on (the Halloween episode I think), but let’s over look that tinsy wensy fact okay? I never understood how she didn’t know that for so long actually. Anyway, drop me a line about the chapter and tell me what you think; Liked it or hated it, I wanna know. I won’t make promises about the next chapter, but I’m gonna get it out as soon as I can. Peace, Love & Rainbows everyone!