“Where to pal?” the taxi driver asked in a lazy fashion
“Just get me to the train station.” Judson said in a hurried tone.
The taxi driver looked at Judson Fox curiously in his rear-view mirror.
“Any particular one?”
“Whichever is the closest.”
“Alright.”
The taxi pilled away from the curb and entered in to the traffic.
“So you goin’ on vacation or something?” The taxi driver asked
“Huh?”
“I noticed all the bags.”
“Oh . . . right. Things are getting a little heated at work.”
“Boss’ got a fiery temper huh?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Going anywhere special?”
“As far away from this city as possible.”
“I’m right with you there pal! I got this nut yesterday kept telling me crap about him seeing a big hole in the sky a few years ago. If you ask me this whole town has gone Whacko.”
The taxi pulled up outside the station entrance. Judson pilled out as fast as he could. The taxi driver stopped the meter.
“Alright that’ll be $12.50”
Judson reached into his pocket and pulled out a large wad of money. He threw at the driver and ran down into station. The taxi driver counted the money.
“Hey!” he called out to the fleeing man, “This is $200 don’t you want your change?”
Judson made his way through the turnstile just as the train pulled up. He flew onto it and sat down in the nearest seat. Watching it pull out from the station he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Across from him a Woman, reading a newspaper, lowers it to look at Judson. She smiles warmly at him as she folds up the paper and places it neatly next to her.
“Hello Judson.” She said calmly
Judson nearly jumped out of his Skin. He looked over at the woman in fear.
“Pearl?” he said in Shock
She folded her arms and shook his head. Pearl Newton was an athletic, tall woman. She brushed back her straight strawberry blond hair away from her green eyes. Her thin lips twisted up into the kind of smile that makes you wonder what she is up to.
“Judson, Judson, Judson. You really think you could run from us?” Pearl replied
“No,” Judson remarked, “but you never know unless you try.”
“Is this about me taking your job?”
“Actually it’s more about the beheading and burring at the stake that had me concerned.”
“To be fair Judson you did fail to end the world in two different timelines. I think the senior partners have every right to be mad at you.”
“Then let me go what harm can I do now?”
Pearl thought about this. She nodded to her self.
“You know what your absolutely right what harm could you do to us now?”
From her brief case she pulled put a legal form and handed it to him. She gave him a pen from her pocket. Judson read over the form. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked suspiciously at Pearl.
“You don’t actually expect me to sign this do you?” he asked
“Judson,” Pearl replied in surprise, “You’re acting like you have a choice.”
The pen Judson was holding suddenly started to quiver. It dragged his hand down onto the paper and signed his name. Judson looked frantically down at the page as Pearl smiled happily.
“Judson Fox. You’re fired.”
A small ring of fire ignited beneath Judson’s feet. The flames travelled up his legs and across his torso until he was completely engulfed in flame. Pearl shielded her eyes as he exploded. Dusting herself off she stood up and moved to the carriage doors. Pearl pulled the emergence break handle and the double doors slid open. Walking confidently she moved out of the train carriage and into the lobby of Wolfram and Heart Los Angeles. Waiting patiently for her near the elevators was Jonas Pena, her immediate supervisor. He looked at her sternly as she stepped out.
“Judson?” he asked
“Taken care of sir,” she replied confidently, “after all theses years I was surprised that he thought he could actually leave the office.”
“Very good Wolfram and Heart doesn’t tolerate that kind of failure. We need to keep our mind clear for the upcoming project.”
“Have the senior partners given any details on what the project is?”
“It’s not ‘what’ it’s a who.”
“Who?”
“Yes. The senior partners are very interested in recruiting a special young lady.”
“Any idea who this person is?”
“The details are still in the planing stage. Hopefully the partners will give me a name by the end of the week.”
“I’ll make sure I’m ready sir.”
”Good. Take her under your wing from what I understand she’s going to need a little coaxing to come out.”
“I don’t get what your saying Will,” Buffy asked, “your telling me that there’s something wrong with the slayer power?”
“I’m not one hundred percent yet. All I know is that no slayer was called after Faith died and the gap between the Generation S slayers dieing and the new ones being called is getting longer.” Goddess Willow replied
Buffy rubbed her head stressfully. It had been two years since she decided to shift the training camp from Rome to L.A., which had not been an easy task. There had been many logistical nightmares between finding a place to put the recently activated to constant miscommunications between her and the council building in England. One of the hardest decisions she had to make is whether or not to rebuild Club Hellmouth after the tragedy caused by the hell dimension uber-slayer. In the end it was decided that the slayers needed a place to relax after patrolling so instead of rebuilding it they replaced it with a new club named ‘Gen S’. Buffy decided to use one of the back rooms as her office, which is where she is meeting Willow now
“Are you absolutely sure that no slayer was called.” Buffy asked insistently
“126 slayers died in Club Hellmouth 125 were called afterwards. I can tell which slayer is connected to which recently died slayer pretty well.”
“So what does this mean?”
“We still don’t know the full effects of the scythe ritual I performed back in Sunnydale. This might just be a side effect or maybe the power of the slayer wasn’t meant to be stretched out this far.”
Buffy ran her hands through her hair. This wasn’t a great time to tell her this news.
“Alright I’ll get onto Giles in England and have him do some research. See what you can do from this end.”
“Got ya chief,” Goddess Willow replied saluting, “I’ll be training witches most of tomorrow but I’ll make sure I can squeeze it in.”
Buffy nodded. She looked over her desk and her eyes inevitably fell on the framed picture of Rebecca. She frowned sadly as she stroked the picture lightly with her finger. Goddess Willow didn’t need to look at what Buffy was looking at she already knew.
“So are you planing on coming?” She asked softly
“I don’t know Will it feels like I’ve just given up.”
“You haven’t given up Buffy,” Goddess Willow replied as cheerfully as she could, “you’ve just been busy with the new slayers and other stuff.”
“It’s been four years Willow. I know all of us want to hope but there has been no sign of her at all.”
Goddess Willow sighed. She joined buffy in looking at the photo of Rebecca.
“ ‘She is the one to save us all.’ ” Willow said quietly
“What?”
“Oh, nothing, it something that monk in the magic shop told me.”
She walked silently through the graveyard. Her pace was casual and unhurried. As she passed by a grave she failed to notice the ground slowly moving. A hand pushed its way through the soft earth and grip hard to what ever it could find. This was accompanying by the other until the head of a twenty-something male pulled himself out of the ground. The girl stopped. The male stood and looked around. He saw the girl and smiled. His face morphed and he walked up slowly baring his teeth. Just before he stuck another girl knocked him down from the side. The first girl rolled her eyes and turned around.
“What the hell Nighthawk!” Shona yelled
“You were taking to long.” Nighthawk replied as she pounded on the vampires face.
“Girl! I aint through this every time with you?”
Nighthawk punched the Vampire across the jaw then kicked out its legs. Just before the vamp could climb back onto its feet Nighthawk drew her stake and stabbed it through the heart. She bounced up happily and beamed at Shona. Shona Glared at her in return.
“We so need to have a talk when we get back.” Shona snapped
“I’m confused.” Roxy asked
The two senior slayers turned to face their other team members Roxy Morgan and Vicki Tanner. Roxy was a slayer recently flown from England she was a mid size girl with raven back hair usually tied into two pigtails her look was a hybrid of Punk and Goth. Vivki was an extremely bright attentive girl who could absorb information like a sponge. Unlike Roxy her dress style was a little more conservative and ‘girl next doorish’. Both Roxy and Vicky are roughly the same age, around the 16-year-old mark.
Roxy looked at Shona and Nighthawk inquisitively.
“So one of you acts like bait while the other does all the fightin’?” Roxy continued
“I think it’s a lot more tactical. They were obviously using some kind of diversionary tactic to distract the vampire.”
“No,” Shona said angrily, “What you saw is called Nighthawk being an ass.”
“Hey,” Nighthawk yelled back, “I was, like, doing all the work here!”
Shona was about to reply when she noticed three men approaching. She motioned the slayer to get ready.
“Well, Well, Well,” one of the men said happily, “looks like we got more of them slayers.”
“Good I was getting’ hungry.” Another said
“Dibs on the black one.” The third replied
As they morphed their faces Shona picked up a crossbow from the ground and aimed. She fired a bolt directly into the chest of the center vamp. The vampire looked down annoyed. He pulled out the crossbow bolt and the wound heals instantly.
“Hey! This is my favourite shirt.” He said
“No it’s not I thought the red one was.” Another vamp replied
“I know I always wanted to say that.”
“Invulnerables!” Shona yelled.
There was no response. Shona looks around annoyed.
“Where the hell’s Glenda?”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Glenda said in an annoyed tone as she dragged herself from laying on one of the graves.
After the incident with Los Angeles merging with the hell dimension all slayer teams now include a witch. This is to deal with any invulnerable vamps that crossed. These witches train under Goddess Willow to master the Amarra invulnerability counter-spell. Glenda Taylor was one of Goddess Willows most gifted students unfortunately her attitude didn’t match her skill.
Glenda trudged in front of the four slayers. She lazily looked at the three vampires and waved her hands in a half-assed manner. The vamps glow for a moment then the glowing dissipated.
“Call me when you have a real challenge.” Glenda said as she went back to her lying down.
“I am gonna have to give that girl a whoopin’ one of these days.” Shona grumbled to her self as she reloaded her crossbow.
She shot the middle vampire again. This time he turned to dust. The other two looked at each other then turned and bolted.
“Much better.” Nighthawk commented
The Angel Investigation team walked tiredly into The Hyperion Hotel. Angel placed his battleaxe on the counter while Alex Whitfield tried to scrape demon entrails off his top.
“Man. I can not get used to this demon gunk.” He said pulled what looked like and intestine off his shoulder.
“It’s not that bad,” Conner said, “There was this snake type demon who tried to eat my by vomiting on me first.”
“Trying to eat here man!” Gunn yelled from the corner.
Conner looked over to him apologetically.
“Now you know why I like being behind the microscope.” Alex commented
“We did alright,” Angel said seriously, “We still have to take out another two nests tomorrow.”
“Yes captain grumpy.” Conner joked putting his sword away.
Angel shot him a look.
“I’ll be upstairs if anybody needs me.” He said as he stormed out of the room.
“What’s up with him?” Conner asked
Gunn looked up from his case notes.
“You do know what date it is?”
Conner ran the date through his mind.
“Oh, right.” Conner replied.
Alex frowned. He leaned against the counter sadly as he remembered the date as well.
The front door open and Shona and Nighthawk entered.
“Hey Alex.” Nighthawk called out to her brother
Alex waved. Nighthawk moved in to hug him but stopped after realising that he was covered in slime.
“What the heck happed to you?” she asked
“Yotha demon decided to use me for some impressionist art.” Alex replied.
“Eww. I am so not gonna talk to you like that!”
Alex trudged upstairs stickily.
“Is the big man ready?” Shona asked, “everybody’s expecting us in an hour.”
“Upstairs,” Conner mentioned, “I have to warn you he’s in a mood.”
Angel sat quietly on his bed. He looked down at the small teddy bear solemnly. This is the ritual he went through every year for the past four years. The sound of someone knocking on his door broke his trance.
“Yeah.” He called out.
Shona opened the door slowly.
“Just me.” She replied
Angel stood up and straightened his jacket.
“Shona . . . am I late?”
Shona walked.
“Nah. We got time,” she replied, “how you going?”
“Same old, same old.”
Shona noticed the teddy bear sitting on Angel’s bed.
“Does Alex know you have that?”
Angel looked back at the toy. He picked it up awkwardly.
“This? No . . . Buffy found and thought I’d like it.”
Shona looked at Angel confused.
“Not to play with,” Angel continued anxiously, “it’s a reminder.”
“Don’t think you need one man,” Shona replied in a caring tone, “Rebecca was pretty unforgettable.”
Shona took the teddy bear from Angel and had a closer look.
“Oh my god,” she said in surprise, “do you know who this is?”
“Should I?” Angel asked awkward
“This is Mr Stuffy he was Rebecca’s first.”
Shona gave the Bear back to Angel. He turned it over in his hand carefully.
“Man the stories that girl would tell me about this bear . . . “ Shona continued
she stopped herself as the emotion slowly too much for her. Sensing this Angel walked over and gave her a hug. Shona was never one to let her guard down but Rebecca was always a soft spot.
“I we better be going.” Angel said softly.
The mood was a quiet one at Gen S. although the sign on the door read ‘closed for a private function’ all the slayers in the region knew what it was about. this has been and annual tradition since buffy informed them about Rebecca’s disappearance and had happened on the same day each year.
Rebecca’s birthday
They all sat around the lage table set in the middle of the room. They organised food for the occasion but nobody really ate. Rebecca’s going missing hit them all in personal ways.
Angel sat and contemplated how may mistakes he had made with her. Buffy Remembered her with dawn and how happy dawn looked. Nighthawk remembered how much she helped her and supported her when the calling got too much for her. Shona remembered how confident a leader she was. Goddess Willow remembers the fun sixteen year old who liked to spend time with her. As for Alex he never had a specific thought. He just liked to run the time he spent with her through his mind. At the end of the table sat a simple photo of Rebecca surrounded by candles.
“Giles sends his love.” Willow said after a long silence, “He wished he could be here but there was in incident in London that he had to look into.”
The group nodded. Nighthawk leaned her head on Alex’s shoulder.
“I remember the stories she used to tell me,” Alex said softly, “I think my favourite was her senior prom. The dance was invaded by slug demons and she got so paranoid about ruining her dress that she took it off and fought them in her underwear.”
Shona laughed.
“The time that gets me was when Beck was givin’ me and Nighthawk this whole speech about stayin’ alert just before she fell into that open grave.” She said
“I still remember the day Dawn told me,” Buffy said, “I never saw her as happy as that day.”
Goddess Willow brushed the white hair away from her eyes and looked at them.
“We’re going find her guys.” She said
“you keep saying that every year Will.” Angel comments
“This year I mean it guys,” she replied hopefully, “I have most of the coven searching the astral plane if there’s anything . . .”
Goddess Willow stopped herself. She tried to remain up beat but the response from the group was pretty clear.
Buffy and Goddess Willow walked through the terminal of Los Angeles airport. Being stronger the Goddess Willow she decided to help by carrying her luggage. It had bugged her that the group wasn’t more supportive of Goddess Willows efforts to find Rebecca and felt bad for her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you properly Will.” Buffy said as she checked Goddess Willows luggage at the desk
“That’s okay Buff,” Goddess Willow replied, “If I knew you liked to carry suitcases so much I would have brought more.”
“No I mean about finding Rebecca.”
“I know. I just want to help,” Goddess Willow replied placing a caring hand on Buffys shoulder, “I know you probably don’t believe me but she is out there somewhere we jus have to . . .”
Goddess Willows eyes open wide. She looks around the room cautiously. Suddenly she is knocked off her feet.
“Will?” Buffy asked as she moved to her side.
Willow sits up stunned. She looked at the slayer in shock
“What is it?” Buffy continued
“Something very powerful has just entered Los Angeles.” Willow replied in shock
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