Disclaimer: Buffy, Faith, Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Spike, Oz and Xander are the creation and property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Mira Roukas is mine, however.
Author's Notes: Thanks to Teresa and Ra for helping me brainstorm and edit this. Also, I crave feedback. That's NovusSibyl@aol.com. Thank you. Push the button, Frank.
Teaser: Ten years later.
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Part III - Cold Dark Places
Considering my state of mind, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. I must have gone eighty all the way home - all the way to here, anyhow, sitting in a stopped car on the side of the road with police lights reflecting in the rearview mirror and a tall, gangling officer bending to look in the passenger's side window.
"License and registration, ma'am - " He gasps for show and holds his hand over his heart. "Oh, saints preserve me! Could it be? Is it possible?"
Oh, fuck me. What is this, freaking reunion weekend? "Spike."
He leans on the door and pokes his head through the open window, a sick smile on his face. "You have any idea how fast you were going back there, little missy?"
I sigh and reach for the cross I've got wedged between the seat and gearshift. He shakes his head and gives the car door a good thump.
"No need, Witch." He says witch like it's an honorific. "Though I could ask why you're speeding and crying at the same time."
Goddamn his vampiric sight. "It's none of your business. Thanks."
"I could write you a ticket."
"Then fucking write it, okay?" I know I'm pushing it, but it's been a long day. "I'll send the goddamn check tomorrow. Just leave me the hell alone."
"Hey hey hey, is that any way to talk to an old sparring mate? I'm on the side of law and order now, you know. Got me a badge and everything."
"A badge? What crackerjack box gave that to you?"
"The one named Cordelia Chase."
"Cordelia? Oh, come on."
Spike smiles and shows off his uniform. He's so goddamn smug, I'm tempted to shove a cross into his eyesocket. "Honest. I'm head of the bloody Special Security Detail. Got a badge and a gun and everything, luv."
"So what the hell are you doing pulling speeders over?" Why do I even believe him? Shouldn't I be surprised and in denial?
"Tut tut, Witchling. You were going awfully fast back there, and if I remember the old Willow right, she wouldn't even go the speed limit."
"You didn't answer the question."
"Honestly, luv? I was waiting for you."
"Waiting for me."
"Honest. You've been poking your nose in books again, haven't you? Wondering about lightning and rainbows, maybe?"
I'm gripping the wheel so hard my knuckles are turning white. "What do you know about it?"
"Oh, me? Nothing. I'm just a dumb bloody cop. I think I'll let you off with a warning this time. You just be more careful in future, ma'am." He stands to go, knowing I'll ask, knowing I'll crawl...
"Spike, *please*."
"What was that?"
Goddammit, I should break one of Faith's holy water bottles over his face. "Please tell me what you know, Spike."
"Now that's better. It's quite simple, really. A pack of filthy little troublemakers are planning on raising up your old chum Hiisi."
Oh, God. God, no. Faster than I ever thought I could, I slam the stick into D and floor the gas pedal.
"Hey!" Spike topples back and yells something else, but I'm already a block away and making the turn onto Williams Circle.
Good thing Queen's Hill is only a mile away or I'd get pulled over for real. As it is, I almost run over a stop sign before I screech to a stop in front of the main gate.
It's not locked in any serious way - the owner probably gave up after it got smashed up by vampires coming up one too many times. I just push it open and slip in, cross and stake ready.
All alone in a cemetery in the middle of the night. Panic makes you stupid, I guess. I don't even have a flashlight or even a cigarette lighter. But that's okay. I've been here enough times that I don't need one. And no vampires or demons ambush me from the darkness.
Section 5, Plot 45 - right under a pair of oak trees that get bigger every time I visit. The cross is still there, a darker spot in the darkness, even if I can't read the inscription.
Then there's a soft click and a spot of light appears a few feet away. I almost kick out, but I'm tired enough to let my brain take over at the last second.
"God! Faith, that's a bad habit."
Faith shrugs as she lights the cigarette. "These are the clean kind, don't worry."
"You know that's not what I meant."
"Sorry," she says with a smile that looks weird in the flickering reddish glow of her cigarette.
"So what are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you."
"Oh." Then it hits me. "How'd you know I'd be here?"
She gets a funny look on her face and exhales a thin cloud of smoke. "Someone told me you'd be coming."
I hate it when people get cryptic. Bad enough when spirits of the outer darkness do it, but humans - priests especially - should be more polite. "Faith, I'm not in the mood for twenty questions. Spill."
"I was told that you'd be coming here and that I should go meet you." I've heard her use that tone of voice before.
Great. Faith and her Joan of Arc complex, just when I need her sane. "Why?"
"Dunno. So why are you here at this hour?"
I start to tell her about Giles - and Xander - and what Spike said, but at that point, a gang of vampires rudely interrupt and attack us.
I'd like to say that we kick ass, but the vampires got the drop on us. And in our favor, there are ten of them. I take a bit of smug pride when Faith goes down first, but then one of the vampires smacks me on the back of the head and everything gets dark.
I wake up chained to a stone wall and manage not to scream. Not that impressive, though, since nobody is sticking me with red-hot pokers or anything.
It looks like they stuck us in a big cave. There's a fire going in the middle, big enough that I can kinda see most of the cave if I turn my head - they were nice enough not to chain my neck, too. Scratch that wall - I'm stuck to a stalagmite. About ten feet away, Faith is in the same boat. Ten feet to my right is the new Slayer, finding new and creative uses for Greek.
"Can you keep it down? You're not helping my headache," I hiss in less than perfect modern Greek.
"Who are you?" she asks in that weird Oxford-Greek, then rattles the chains a bit. They hold. Dammit.
"Willow Rosenberg. I'd shake your hand, but..." Rattle rattle. She smiles a bit. Good. She's not in shock or drugged. Maybe the vampires weren't as smart as I thought. "I'm Mira. Mira Eudoxia Roukas."
"Hi. We have to stop meeting like this."
Another smile, some more rattles until she's red in the face.
"Shh. You'll just let them know we're awake."
"Right." She looks so disappointed. Why do Slayers always want to break things? "What happened?"
Great. So much for me asking her. "Don't you know?"
"If I knew, would I have asked?"
Good point. "How long have you been here?"
She tries to shrug, but what with the chains, it just looks silly. "A few hours. Perhaps more. I only woke up before you came."
"Great."
At this point, Faith wakes up with a moan and - naturally - starts rattling the chains. "Son of a...grr." I can practically hear her counting to ten, then "Willow?" in a scary - bad scary - tone of voice.
"I'm here, Faith."
"Any idea where here is?"
I shake my head. "Probably somewhere near the ocean. I think I can hear the waves. Are you okay?"
A long silence.
"Faith?"
"I'm bleeding from the head, I think. Nothing serious. I'm not dizzy."
Great. Assets - one ex-Slayer with a head injury and one current Slayer chained up tight. And one rapidly panicking computer science teacher/amateur witch. Debits - at least ten vampires who want to kill us in order to resurrect a five thousand year old vampire sorcerer. The odds are not good.
My gloomy musings are cut off when a door somewhere across the cave opens and two vampires in black robes - typical - come in, dragging someone between them. It's too damn dark to see who it is as they're chaining him - her - up against another stalagmite. Then the vampires glide back out without a word.
We all kind of stare at each other for a few minutes, or at least I think we do since I can't even see the new person. The fire is starting to die down.
The silence lasts until the newcomer tests the chains. "Huh. Good quality. Gotta admire professionalism like this."
Oh, God, this is getting just too weird. It can't be - no, it has to be. Who else would it be? Still, I have to be sure. "You sound like someone who knows from shackles."
His head bobs up - I think. Something dark moved, at least. "Huh. Three Sunnydaleites. I'll swap you our present predicament for the assurance that you're who I think you are."
"OZ! Oz! It's me, Willow!" Rattle rattle rattle. "And Faith."
"Not in the same body, are you? Because I was told this was just a plain old blood sacrifice."
Same old Oz, God bless him. "No, Faith's over there. Say 'hi', Faith."
Faith mumbles something. She never really liked Oz that much.
"Hey Faith. Who's Victim Number Three?"
"Mira. Mira Eudoxia Roukas," she calls out in Oxford-Greek. "I'm the Slayer."
"Cool. I'd shake your hand, but - " Clank. "You know. Sorry."
"I forgive you."
Oh, brother, they're bonding. "So how'd they get you, Oz?"
"Ambushed me after a gig I did at the Meadowlands. They got me in the bathroom at LaGuardia and stuffed me on a charter flight. Et voila. How about you?"
"They hit me and Faith at the cemetery just now. They were lucky, we were stupid."
He doesn't ask what Faith and I were doing at the cemetery, just grunts. Fame hasn't changed Oz much, I guess.
"How about you, Mira Eudoxia Roukas?"
Good question. Wish I'd thought of it.
I can actually hear her blush, I swear to God. "I was just coming out of the shower when they ambushed me. I only killed four."
Four? Sure, Gun Girl. "With what? Your brush handle?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact."
"Oh." Okay, maybe the guns were more of a labor-saving device. I should just keep my big mouth shut and get us out of here. Somehow. Before the vampires come back and kill us all so Hiisi can come back to life and take over the world.
That didn't help.
"Does anybody have a plan?"
"It would help if I knew what was going on," Mira points out. Creepy - aside from the accent, she sounds almost like Buffy. Her words, not her voice, I mean.
"It's your usual vampire resurrection via human sacrifice," Oz answers.
"The ritual requires all the people who were present when the vampire died in order to work. Which doesn't really explain you, though. You were still using training wheels when Hiisi died."
"Training wheels? What?"
"The rainbow," Faith blurts out.
"What?"
"She's the rainbow."
"Mira's a rainbow?"
"Uh-huh." She tugs at the chains a bit, then turns towards me. "From the book."
"Right. Hang in there, Faith. We'll get out of this."
"How? You have a plan?" Mira chirps in.
"Still working on that, sweetie," I hiss. The truth is, I have no idea what to do. I should have listened to Spike - not flown off like an idiot or at least swung by the house to pick up some real weapons first. Or called Giles and Xander.
Giles and Xander. Where are they? The vampires don't have them yet. I hope.
God, don't even think they got captured, you'll -
That's when I hear the gunfire.
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