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Steve Saint Wolf is the property of Steve Pantovich (Steve711@concentric.net). This story is based on his and I recommend you read his work (Which can be found, among other places, at http://slayerfanfic.com/Steve/steve.html).
Steve St. Wolf and the Chronicles of Wanderer storyline are used with the permission of the original author, Steve Pantovich, Steve711@concentric.net
Do let me know whenever you post, repost or link to my story. I'd like to see how many people are actually happy with what I write.
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To understand what's going on you should have read the 'Chronicles of Wanderer - Hellmouth - New Beginnings' story and another story that's mentioned at the bottom of this one.
If you're too eager to know what it's all about, go take a look. But if you're any kind of X-Files crossover fan, you've probably read it. I'm also going to include a few Web Sites that hold more information on the mystery character.
You should be familiar with the Anita Blake, Stargate and X-Files worlds. In the Stargate world, 'Solitudes' has happened. Knowledge of the Immortals from Highlander: The Series can't hurt. If you don't know either of these, look them up, each and every one of them is great.
I'd also like to thank all you people out there for making such great series: the X-Files, Stargate, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer and the Highlander series are great stuff. A very special thank you to Laurell K Hamilton for creating a great world and cool characters (especially Edward). I hope I haven't offended you in any way by using your characters like this. I'll thank the mystery characters' makers at the end of the story, I'm trying to keep you in the dark.
********************
Also note that this story contains some violent content. (We're talking about people who cut off other people's heads after all.) I don't think anyone but the very weak-hearted will be offended, but I'm still posting this warning.
********************
Buffy Summers:
--Willow is a young girl who is a computer
genius. --Cordelia was the most popular girl in High School, she's very
concerned with her looks.
--Jenny Calendar is a gypsy, she belongs to the same tribe that put a
curse on Angel/Angelus, Buffy's former vampire boyfriend. Jenny and
Giles got married shortly after the vampire slayfest.
When Steve moved to Sunnydale and accepted Buffy as his pupil, Giles
and Miss Calendar became their Watchers (the Immortals' Watchers).
*******
--Jack O'Neill is a colonel who was discharged from the army but got
recruited by SGC to lead the Stargate exploration mission. He's a man
nearing forty with a close cut and a professional attitude.
--Samantha Carter is the physicist of the team. She is a young blonde
woman and good at her job, very resourceful.
--Daniel Jackson is the archaeologist. He is a young man who is very
good at ancient languages and myths: he's in charge of communicating
with local people on other worlds.
--Teal'c is a Jaffa, a carrier for a larval version of the Goa'uld, the
race that is trying to take over the galaxy. However, he has turned
against them, seeing that their ways are wrong. He is a big strong-
looking black man, who has a tattoo/graft on his forehead: the symbol
of all Jaffa.
*******
--Zane is a threatening-looking, tall man who has a deep bass voice and
pointy upper and lower canines, a result from spending too much time
in leopard form. Actually he's terribly insecure when he has to act
by himself.
--Cherry was a nurse until the Health Department found out she was a
lycanthrope. Although lycanthropy is a disease which cannot be
contracted unless the lycanthrope is in animal form, and although
it's illegal to discriminate because of a disease, Cherry lost her
job. Since then she has dressed very aggressively, as if to show to
the world she's different even in human form. Cherry is a model-
perfect blonde and has a wonderful, sexy voice that's almost like a
purr. It is not a result from too much fur time.
--Nathaniel is the victim of the three. He's a 19-year-old with lilac
eyes and auburn hair that falls to his knees. He has suffered the
deepest emotional scars from being a prostitute.
********************
Out of a circular rippled wave-front a small container appears and
falls to the ground, humming a medium frequency. The humming stops
and three shapes step out of the wave-front: in the illumination of
the portal, the shapes are just dark blurs with blue eyes floating in
the darkness of their heads.
[The view swings around to show the entrance of the cave]
A dark, large creature can be seen through the blizzard raging outside: it resembles a large elephant and has long tusks.
The illumination from the portal disappears and the cave is silent
once more.
**********
The men who were chanting have now stopped and are peering down the
hole when a wail is heard from the bottom of the hole and multiple
translucent beings float up, only to bury themselves into the bodies
of the men. However, the men's faces have changed: they are now
looking quite demonic with ridges over their nose and eyes, which are
a vivid yellow.
**********
[Salazar and his allies are being driven to the power plant, where
the duel will take place.]
As the first head falls, a dark shape wakes up in the power plant;
drawn by the power surge of the lightning, it watches intently as the
second man is killed and another Quickening is released. 'These would
make interesting prey', it thinks.
It watches as part of the group leaves. It is debating whether or not
to attack the remaining men, but decides not to: he won't make the
mistake of underestimating them, as some have done before.
First, a foolish young hunter had stolen a Mark 1 suit and used an
escape pod to go to this planet and hunt. He'd killed the oomans of
course, but was eventually overpowered. Rangor had seen him activate
his self-destruct mechanism just before leaving. The kalium/naquadah
reaction had levelled the forest.
Then a more experienced hunter in a Mark 2 suit had been killed by an
ooman, his arm cut off and thus unable to use the bomb. His team
members had buried him on the Homeworld. The ooman that had killed
him had been let go.
His caution is rewarded as a close view on one of the men reveals a
familiar face: someone named Mul-Do/ooar he had met on another
continent. They had stopped to pick up food, when oomans had
interfered and tried to kill them; they had defended themselves, but
that had attracted even more oomans and it had ended with one of them
sacrificing himself to preserve their secret. The hunters had never
suspected that there had been more of them and had never bothered to
look after the explosion, but he had felt that this Mul-Do/ooar knew,
knew about his race and their ways.
He would let these go, they had honour. Besides, he had come here to
hunt the Nosfer-Ratouh, the demon oomans.
[The battle between Immortals and Vampires is raging heavily; the
view zooms out to reveal a dark shape watching through one of the
roof windows. Steve lets Angel, Spike and Drusilla go. The view shifts to a top-down thermal view of three figures progressing through the sewers.
They reach their car and take off in a hurry.]
Spike checks his get-a-way funds and turns to Angelus, "How does
Chicago or New York sound to you?" He asks.
"Just get us out of town Spike, before Buffy and her friends find
us." Angelus replies as their car leaves Sunnydale. "I want to start
rebuilding our numbers as soon as possible. And then, I want to come
back and destroy the Slayer."
Drusilla cuts in: "Spike !" A dark shape lands on the hood of the
car, sending it in a swerve that ends in a tree.
As the three crawl out, hurt but already healing, they fall to the
ground, stunned by a powerful anaesthetic. Just as he blacks out,
Angelus sees a pair of blue glowing eyes coming towards him ...
**********
Joyce Summers has moved to LA with Hank Summers: they reconciled and
trusted Buffy into Steve's care. Her mother knows that she is in good
hands; she's seen the love in the eyes of her daughter and she knows
Steve would never endanger Buffy.
After the Sunnydale Vampire Slayfest, the first ever vampire court
case was fought and won, and legislation of vampires was slowly
introduced.
Since then, the Paranormal Division of the FBI became more prominent
in solving cases. Mulder and Scully got promoted to Director and
Assistant-Director respectively. They use makeup and hair dye to
cover up their true age, the FBI isn't stupid.
In the Anita Blake world, time has passed accordingly; taking the
Addison vs Clark case as a reference, that means by now the events of
'Blue Moon' have happened. Anita has started her training with
Marianne, teaching her self-control and control over her powers.
The story starts at the beginning of a fall break, which means school
is off for a few weeks.
It's November: it hasn't rained all month and the weather report said
it wouldn't rain for the next few weeks either.
**********
"Sorry, are you okay ? I wasn't looking .. I'm in a hurry and ..."
At this moment, the guy rushes forward and grabs her, holding a knife
to her throat. He's stifling her screams with his arm and drags her
deeper into the alley. He starts to rip her clothes off and spins her
around, letting her go just a second. Gina screams with all her
might: "HELP !!! Somebody help me !!!"
The assailant hits her face. "Shut up, bitch !" He slams her into the
wall and she slides to the ground. She hears a gasp and then silence.
She turns around to face her attacker, but he's gone ... the only
evidence of his presence is the knife he dropped. Some people are
rushing into the alley: it's Buffy, Steve and the Slayerettes, out
for their late-night patrol. They find and comfort Gina while calling
the police.
The police arrive and question everybody present. Detective Stein is
clearly reluctant to let Steve go, but he's more intrigued by Gina's
testimony, and he takes her off to hospital, fearing yet another all-
nighter explaining to hysterical parents why their daughter was
almost raped.
Steve, Buffy, Willow, Oz, Cordelia and Xander get out of the Bronze
after a night of partying.
"So guys, who wants to go on patrol ?" Buffy asks, which gets various
grunts from very tired people.
"Oh come on, it's gonna be a breeze," Steve says, "there are
practically no vampires left. What could possibly happen ?"
At that moment, a scream is heard from nearby.
"Don't answer that" he says to Xander whose mouth is already forming
a witty remark. "Let's go !"
They take off in the direction of the screams. As they round the
corner, they see a girl sitting on the ground, weeping.
"That's Gina ! She's in my computer class." Willow exclaims.
They rush to her side.
"You'd better call the police, Cordelia." Xander says, face serious.
Cordelia gets her cell phone and calls the cops, suddenly not in the
mood for jokes, either.
"Gina, what happened ?" Buffy asks softly.
The girl clings herself to Buffy while crying uncontrollably.
"A man attacked me. He tried to ... he tore my clothes off and ... Oh
god !"
She just starts crying harder.
"Where is he now ?" Oz remarks "I can't smell him anymore."
Not arguing with the lycanthrope senses, Steve has to admit that the
guy took off in a hurry, he even left his knife lying there.
"You don't think he left any fingerprints on that, do you ?" Xander
asks.
"It's worth a shot." Steve says. He gets out his latest gadget: a
small camera-like device.
He points it at the knife and presses a button. The high-resolution
scanner does its work and digitizes the surface of the knife, using
special lighting that renders trace residue visible. A few lines
become visible and are stored in the camera.
"Bingo ! Willow, could you run this through the computer later on ?"
"No problem."
Sirens are heard in the night as some police cars come around the
corner. Out of one of them comes Det. Stein, looking grim.
"Oh just great, he's going to blame us again." Cordelia remarks.
"Why can't he just leave us alone ?" Amy asks.
Stein cuts in: "It's a character flaw. Would you mind telling me what
happened ?"
Steve does so and the others confirm his story, for once they're
telling the full truth: they really don't know what's happened. Stein
seems to not like that idea, but he can't do anything about it.
'Actually they're not that bad.' "Okay, you're free to go." Stein
lets out reluctantly.
[They take off for Steve's house, ready to do a little research.]
Willow runs the fingerprints through the police database: they belong
to a local drunk who has a few bar fights on his name. She leaves a
little 'spiker' program, that will inform them when and if the
fingerprints are checked again.
Steve checks his e-mail and notices a message from Mulder and Scully:
they're all right and just wanted to inform him that they might visit
him sometime in the break, taking some time off themselves.
Since there is nothing more they can do, except going on a search at
4 in the morning, they each go home. Buffy goes up to her room, in
Steve's house. They were sleeping together, just not all the time.
And right now, Buffy wanted some time alone. Vampires she could
understand: they were just evil, right ? Although since the Addison
vs Clark trial, it seemed there were good and bad vampires. But this
was a different monster altogether: rapists didn't sit well with her.
There was a little knock at her door.
"Come in, Steve." the Buzz had already faded when Steve got in.
"Are you all right ? You looked really upset."
"I'm fine. It's just that ... why does there have to be so much evil
in the world ?"
"I know, I know." Steve comforts her. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll
try to track him down."
"Goodnight Steve."
"Goodnight Buffy." There's still a niggling worry on Steve's mind:
Gina had said the man had just disappeared and Oz hadn't smelled him.
That was another thing that still amazed him: Oz had seemingly had a
boost in his powers, the others had said it was puberty, which of
course was a great way of teasing him. But still, the fact that the
scrawny kid had now become quicker and stronger than an Immortal was
a disconcerting thought.
He wondered maybe he should invite Mulder and Scully for the break.
After that he went to sleep, finally.
**********
As he's climbing the stairs of the police station, a young officer
bursts out, obviously in a hurry. "Detective Stein, I was looking for
you !" As they're walking inside the kid explains the rush: the
fingerprints were a match with a local, the same fingerprints found
on the knife of last night. 'Serves him right. I don't like
murderers, but I really hate rapists, she was a minor, for Christ's
sake.'
Steve and Buffy had been out, looking for the man named Harry Mauser,
the one who had tried to rape Gina, but they hadn't found anything.
They were getting frustrated and had headed home, calling the rest of
the group for a meeting. As they drove up to the house, they saw
Giles and Miss Calendar walking towards them and Willow and Oz
standing besides their bikes, all ready. Cordelia's car drove up to
the house, bringing Xander, Cordelia and Amy to the party.
"Come on in, please." Steve said as he led them through the door.
Giles led Miss Calendar through the door, their rings glistening in
the light. The man had admitted he loved her right after the
Immortal/Vampire battle. Of course she knew that, but it was nice to
hear him say it. A little while later, they got engaged and later
married. These were the best years of Giles' life: his pupil Buffy
was in good hands, he had a wife who loved him and they were living
in one of the safest towns in the world, thanks to Steve and Buffy's
protection.
The rest of the group just poured in en masse.
"Make yourselves at home and get some drinks. I'm just going to check
the computer to see if anything turned up." As they're having a drink
and chatting up, Steve walks back in the room, face grim.
"They found Harry Mauser." he says.
"That's great. What ?" Amy asks seeing the strange look Steve gives
her.
"What I meant is they found his body. They had to identify him with
his fingerprints, otherwise we might not have known. He was beheaded
with a clean cut."
The room falls silent.
Giles cuts in: "I don't think he was an Immortal. Joe Dawson would
have told us if there were other Immortals in town."
"I agree, Joe wouldn't hold out on us." Miss Calendar confirms her
husband's words.
"I know," Steve says, "which makes this all the more suspicious."
**********
Some of the flesh had probably gone bad, despite the cooling. Damned
heat. He hears a dragging sound and looks around the corner. He sees
someone huddled on the floor, with a chunk of beef lying next to him.
Joe is stunned and moves closer, almost on automatic but he trips a
can that was standing on the floor. As he's looking back up from the
blasted can, he's got a split-second view of blue glowing eyes before
he feels his stomach being ripped open and dies.
"Stein !" an irate voice shouted.
'The mayor, just great.'
"Stein, I want you and your men to find who- or whatever is doing
this; elections are coming up and I won't lose any votes because of
your incompetence ! Get that specialist, what's her name, Blade ?"
"Blake, Anita Blake."
"Yeah, that's the one, the zombie queen, I hear she's really good at
this, so get her here and solve this case ASAP !"
Just what he needed, some civilian coming down to tell him how to do
his job. This was turning out to be the week from hell.
As Steve exits the library, he realizes it's already dark. And he
still hadn't found anything, damn.
He gets in his Blazer and drives home. As he pulls up to the house,
he sees Cordelia's parked car and Oz and Willow's bikes. 'They came
back. I wonder why.' As he enters the house, a worried Xander comes
up to him. "Steve, my man, we've got a problem: this is just in."
Xander hands him a computer printout: it's a police record. The
subject is a man found in the slaughterhouse, ripped open.
"When did this happen ?" Steve asks as they're joining the group.
"About 2 hours ago, we were just going to call you. And get this: the
man was a friend of Harry Mauser. The police says it was a wild dog
attack. So at first we thought Oz had gone out for a snack ..." that
comment earns him a smack from Willow and a dirty look from Oz, but
he goes on "but since it's nowhere near the full moon, we think the
two cases are related."
"Yeah, I mean it's possible the man wanted to avenge his friend,
right and then he was caught by the same guy." Cordelia offers.
"Yes, that would be quite possible. But then what are we dealing with
? An Immortal werewolf ? Wouldn't the two effects sort of cancel each
other out ?" Giles asks.
"I'm not sure," Steve admits, "I'm not familiar with lycanthrope
mechanics."
"But the police know someone who does," Buffy calls out from the
computer, "they've sent an e-mail to the address of a certain Anita
Blake at Animators, Inc., an animating company in St.-Louis."
"An animating company ? Like the ones who draw cartoons ?" Cordelia
asks.
Amy and Miss Calendar chuckle. "No, an animator is a person who can
raise zombies."
"Isn't that illegal ?" Giles asks.
"Not anymore Giles," Willow cuts in with a "you should read up a
little." which gets general laughter and a scowl from Giles, causing
Willow to flee to the computer, with Buffy.
"I've heard of her" Oz brings up. "In St.-Louis she's well-known:
she's the local pack's lupa and the local pard's Nimir-Ra. I've been
told she's really good for her people."
"What are you talking about ?" Buffy wants to know.
Willow cuts in: "Well, you know with Oz being a werewolf, we searched
around for others and we found some information: lycanthrope group
structure is very well defined: in a werewolf pack, the alpha male is
the Ulfric and he reigns with his lupa, his mate. In a leopard pard,
the leader is a Nimir-Raj or Nimir-Ra for a woman."
"Are you saying that there are people who shift into other animals
than just wolves ?" an intrigued Giles asks.
"Sure" Oz replies, "we've found were-rats, were-tigers, were-
leopards, even a were-swan."
"But if this Anita Blake is the lupa for her pack, that means she's a
werewolf, right ? So how can she be leader of a leopard pard too, can
she choose what she shifts into ?" a curious Xander asks.
"No, actually from what I've heard, she's human. Although it's quite
uncommon for a human to lead a pack or pard, nobody has complained
yet. They say she's real tough." Oz finishes.
"I've some stories about her too." Steve says. "Stories she shouldn't
have walked away from. Giles, could you ask Joe if she's an Immortal
and if she is, does she know ? I don't want an immortal newbie around
us."
"Of course, I'll send Joe an e-mail later on." Giles says.
Everybody looks in wonder. "Miss Calendar, you've really turned him
over, haven't you ?" Xander asks.
"Yes, I've succeeded in having him give up snail mail." Miss Calendar
smiles.
"Hey guys, come take a look at this !" Buffy shouts from the
computer.
"This is incredible." this from Willow.
They all gather round.
Oz reads aloud: "Traces of an unknown metal were found in the chest
of the victim. They have been sent to post SG-24578 by orders of
General Hammond."
"What is this ?" Amy asks.
"It's Mike Fannelly's autopsy report, you know the guy who was killed
in the slaughterhouse."
Willow says.
"Eww growse." this from Cordelia.
"Steve, what's going on ?" Buffy asks.
"It means the man was probably ripped open with some sort of bladed
weapon, and slivers of it were lodged in his rib cage. So what we've
got is a werewolf with braces." Xander says.
"Something like that. And that post the slivers were sent to belongs
to Stargate Command, a secret military organization." Steve replies.
"How do you know this ?" Willow asks.
"Because I've got a friend there. Remember that holo-projector ? He
got me that because of a favour I did him."
"What did you do ?" Oz asks.
"I saved his life, that's what. Ol' Jack was really happy about that.
Go figure. He said if he got promoted, he'd pay me back. And he got
his promotion. He became Colonel, but had an argument with a superior
and was cast out. A few years later, Stargate Command enrolls him
on a secret mission and he got me the computer and projector system.
We've kept in touch since then. He's still alive and well."
"Man, you know a lot of people." Xander says.
"But why would they send the metal fragments to a post at 'Stargate
Command' ?" Willow wonders.
"Didn't I tell you ?" Steve answers with a smirk, "they explore alien
worlds, so any unknown metal is bound to be sent to them for
identification."
The group looks baffled.
"That was a joke, right ?" Miss Calendar asks.
"Not at all. Last thing I heard, they even enrolled an alien as a
part of their task force."
That really gets the group's attention. Needless to say, the meeting
lasts for a few more hours. Questions are being fired at Steve at a
fast pace. He answers them, knowing these people won't reveal
anything about this. Then again, who would believe them ? He ends the
meeting with sending an e-mail to his pal Jack O'Neill at SGC.
"Look guys, It's not that I don't trust you, but not a word about
this, okay ?" Steve asks.
Everyone nods.
"Alright, I think it's time to get everyone home. I'll accompany
Giles and Miss Calendar, Buffy you go with Amy, Xander and Cordelia.
Oz, I trust you can take care of Willow ?"
"You bet." an enthusiastic Oz replies.
"Excuse me, but why are we getting an escort ?" Amy wonders.
"Because," Xander adds, "whatever killed those men may still be out
there, and with an Immortal as an escort we've got more chance of
surviving, right ?"
"That's right. And no arguments." Buffy states.
"I thank you for your concern, of course," Giles says, "but let's not
forget the first man was found beheaded. That would prove fatal even
to you."
"I know, but this at least ups your chances a little." Steve adds.
"Don't worry, we'll be okay, right Buffy ?"
"Right."
"Okay, let's go."
**********
Go figure. Anyway, thanks to Bert's clever
mind, Animator's Inc. was now a very renowned company. Since most
other animating firms can't compete, they've decided to join us:
Animator's Inc. was becoming a network of offices. Bert is very
pleased. I don't think I've ever seen him this happy.
E-mail was actually quite handy: it was faster than regular mail, and
you could write just as much or more. Not that I use it much:
everyone I know I see quite frequently: Richard, Jean-Claude, Ronnie.
Edward gave me an e-mail address, which was a big risk on his part, I
guess he really trusts me. Not that I blame him. I wouldn't betray
him, ever. He knows that. I know if I did he'd kill me.
I got ready for my appointments: zombie-kit ready, silver cross,
trusted Browning 9mm with silver bullets, backup Firestar, reserve
ammo. I went to go see Craig.
"Okay, what's up ?" He didn't make a remark about the gun, good man.
"You've got an e-mail from the police office of Sunnydale,
California, they're asking for your expertise on a case."
He turned the screen to let me read. Since I said he could open the
message, it was okay that he'd seen it. Opening other people's mail
is still a crime. It said they'd found a man beheaded and one mauled.
It looked like a lycanthrope to me, but you couldn't be sure.
"Alright, send a reply saying I'll be there as fast as I can,
tomorrow. Make arrangements with Bert, too." Great, I could yank
Bert's chain again. He'd have to let me go, since it was police
business. I'd become the company trademark, so to speak. Losing me
would lose him his precious clients. But that was a care for later. I
had three appointments tonight, business was rather slow, but I
wasn't complaining. I also got my cell phone, a gift from Jean-
Claude: just in case I got in trouble again. He did know me well.
I asked for a meeting after my appointments, since I was going into
foreign territory, he'd have to arrange the politics with the local
Master vampire. He said he would call Richard, too. I found that
disturbing and when I asked, he just said: "There is no Master
in Sunnydale, ma petite, but you will still need an escort." What the
hell was going on ?
**********
"Oh hell." Jack mutters as he picks up his shirt and pants and puts
them on.
He makes his way to the laboratory, where Daniel Jackson was nearly
jumping up and down with excitement. Teal'c, cool as ever, just stood
by. Carter was standing by, but turned away when Jack looked at her.
"What's going on ?"
"We got a metal sample for examination and it turns out the metal is
the same as the one used in the Stargate." Daniel blabs out.
"Are you talking about a sample from Sunnydale, California ?" Jack
asks.
"Yes ! Wait a minute, how did you know that ?" Daniel wants to know.
The rest of the team looks at Jack.
"I think there's trouble in paradise." he states.
**********
Brandberg reached the center of the plant, according to the plans he
had. He shone his spotlight on the plans once more for confirmation:
there should be a large room through the door ahead of him. He
unlocked the heavy metal door and swung it open. Since he had just
reconnected the power, he reached for the light switch and flicked
it. He was totally unprepared however, for what appeared in the dim
lighting: a spaceship !?
In the center of the hangar was a 15m wide spaceship that must have
been over 70m long !
What a find for his Master ! A secret military testing site ! Not
wanting to go home without proof, he located the open hatch leading
into the ship. He climbed the ramp and put out his light: the ship
was lit from the inside by a strange glow emanating from the walls.
His Master would grow very powerful with a weapon such as this ! He
proceeded into the ship; wary now of the strange constant hum, he
drew his shotgun: his Master had prepared him well, it wouldn't do to
lose his trusted human servant.
Brandberg entered a room that was quite large, various white strips
were hung to the walls like curtains, but as he moved closer, he
realized they weren't pieces of cloth, but skin and bones !
Bones were hung across the walls: long bones, short bones, skulls ...
a human skull ! And what was that standing next to it ? It looked
like the skull of an elephant was sitting on the floor, almost like a
throne. This was not good, this wasn't just a military craft.
Brandberg got scared, as his Master's human servant for over 400
years, that took a lot. He wanted to get out of there, but he saw
another skull: smaller than the elephant (mammoth ?) skull, but
definitely bigger than and absolutely not a human's: it had a row of
long sharp teeth and it seemed as though a second head was embedded
in the mouth of the first: what was going on here ?
He was just about to flee when he noticed some glass cubes against a
wall: he was curious and started towards them. Wiping the dust off
the first, he couldn't see inside: it was too damp or foggy in the
glass to see anything. He went to the second. Wiping the dust off,
he immediately recognizes the face looking back at him: Angelus, his
Master's strongest pupil, his face forever frozen in a scream, locked
in glass. Brandberg didn't bother with the other cases any more: he
was scared to death and wanted to get out of there ! As he turns
toward the exit, a pair of blue glowing eyes is the last image that
he sees before darkness envelops him.
'Master, I have failed thee' are his last thoughts.
**********
"They assigned one to follow her around some time ago, find out if
she was an Immortal, but since she's not, the case has been dropped."
"Steve, do you think this Anita Blake could be trouble ?" Miss
Calendar asks him.
"I don't think so, from what I've heard, she's very professional. She
won't dig into any of our affairs just to expose us, she'd do it out
of curiosity."
"Hey, what's that ?" Miss Calendar points to a street light from
which a dark shape is dangling. The street light is broken, so they
get closer.
Steve notices the dark stain on the pavement. "Stay back." he warns
them. He nears the stain and bends down. He gets out a small
flashlight and shines it on the stain, then up at the shape.
"Oh my god !" he starts away from the stain so fast he stumbles. His
gun is out in his hand before Giles and Miss Calendar can ask what's
going on. He gets out his cell phone and hands it to Giles. "Call the
cops. Tell them to bring a coroner. We've got another body on our
hands." Steve doesn't look away from the body, he's still a little
shocked. Giles does as he's asked and doesn't ask any questions.
Anything that would scare this man would probably haunt him for the
rest of his life.
Miss Calendar is more curious: "What is it Steve, what happened ?"
"That man, he's been completely skinned."
Miss Calendar passes out, only to be caught by Giles, who's standing
a little unsteady now too.
**********
"I guess it's nice that the big boss is flying down from Washington
just for us, but is he going to bring a task force of his own or what
?" Xander asks.
"He said the less people involved, the better. And he did know out
front the common link between the three men: they all carried a
weapon, we just missed that." How he'd known that was a mystery to
Steve. Even he hadn't noticed the shotgun in the pool of blood under
the man. He'd overheard the police say it hadn't been fired. The poor
sod had been skinned alive. An Immortal would have survived, but the
pain could have driven him mad. It had driven this one to break his
teeth by grinding his jaw. He must have been conscious when he was
skinned ! He hadn't told the others that though, no need in sickening
them even further. They had all looked green or white, except for Oz,
who was sweating heavily. 'I guess everyone is trying to cope in
their own way.' Steve had thought.
"Guys, the plane has landed." Amy remarks.
Buffy bounds off her chair, finally able to do something but sit
around; actually she wanted to smack something, but she'd refrain
herself. All her training with Steve couldn't help her now.
"There they are !" Willow shouts.
Indeed, we see Mulder and Scully walking towards their friends, both
with a concerned look on their faces.
"It's great seeing you guys again." Mulder says before everyone
breaks out into greetings, handshakes and hugs.
"Now tell me what's happened the last few days, Steve." Mulder is
serious now, full work mode.
"I can go over to the police station and ask for the coroner
records." Scully offers.
"Man, you guys are fast." Cordelia thinks aloud.
"If what I'm thinking is right, we're not fast enough." Mulder says.
"I'll explain once we get to your house," he tells Steve, "assuming
it's still there." He grins at him.
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, it's still ..." Steve goes quiet.
"Steve, what's up ?" Buffy asks. She looks where he's looking. A
blonde woman in a flowered skirt is standing there, with a few cases
of luggage. 'Travelling heavy.' Buffy thinks. Steve is still looking
at her. Buffy smacks him in the arm. "Hey, Steve, snap out of it."
"I'm sorry, it's just that ... hold on a second." Steve walks up to
the woman.
Buffy looks at the group: everyone has the same face, one of wonder.
'What the hell is going on ?'
**********
At the rendezvous, near the exit of the base, several cases were
being loaded into the truck that would get them to the airport. Jack
nearly burst out laughing: Teal'c had dressed as a civilian too: he
was dressed like a punk: heavy combat boots, a rough jeans, a dark
top that showed the muscles in his forearms, but to cover up the
tattoo, he'd used a scarf wrapped around his head. He looked like
America's Most Wanted.
"Are we ready to go ?" Daniel asks him.
"That depends if they'll let him on the plane."
Daniel looks at Teal'c and just grins wide, he really needs a few
tips.
"All set ?" they hear Samantha's voice behind them.
Jack turns around and takes a deep breath. She's stunning: she's
wearing a flowered short dress that hangs to her knees - barely.
Together with some well-applied makeup, it's enough for Jack's heart
to beat faster.
Daniel elbows him in the ribs and Jack lets out his breath softly,
"We're set. Let's go."
Daniel grins at him. "Oh, shut up." Daniel just grins wider, he looks
like he's going to split his face. He knows Jack well enough to know
what he feels for Samantha Carter.
The flight had been relatively calm, and disembarking at LA-X wasn't
so bad, but with all the cases and luggage, they'd had to rent a
truck to get it moving, and while Samantha is staying with the large
cases, and the guys get a truck, a man walks up to her.
"You're Samantha Carter, aren't you ?" the man asks her.
Looking up, she responds: "That's right, may I ask how you know my
name ?"
"I'm Steve St. Wolf, a friend of Jack."
"You're Steve ?" She looks at the young man before her. He'd been in
the army with Jack ?
"Don't sound so surprised, I have more friends than you might think.
Looking good Steve."
"Jack !" Steve grabs the man in a bear hug. "Good to see you ! So you
have come. I suppose that's Daniel Jackson and this is Teal'c ?"
"That's right. Guys, this is my good friend Steve St. Wolf."
More greetings are exchanged, and Steve shakes both men's hands.
"Oh that's right, I forgot. I brought some friends."
Steve turns around and waves in the direction of a group of men and
women, with some twenty-year old kids hanging around.
**********
Steve is talking with the woman, but the distance drowns out the
conversation. Three men are approaching the woman from behind, each
carrying a few more bags. One of them is a young-looking man wearing
glasses and an innocent expression. The second one is a serious
looking man, nearly forty, with close-cut blond hair, a conventional
sports outfit and an expression of recognition when he sees the woman
and Steve. The third guy however, looks like a stereotypical gang
member: combat boots, jeans, a black tank top showing dark skin, his
muscles bulging as he moves and a scarf wrapped around his head which
covers his hair, assuming he has any, and his forehead. His
expression tells you not to mess with him, or else.
When the men reach the woman and Steve, however, Steve pulls the guy
in sports gear in a hug and they pat each other's back. The men are
laughing, the woman is smiling, the gangster is still stoic. Steve
shakes hands with the young man, who is smiling warmly. He also
reaches for the hand of 'Stoneface', who responds in a friendly yet
extremely uptight way. Steve seems to know these people well. He
turns around and waves Buffy and the group over. Not quite knowing
what's going on, the group moves toward them.
"I get it." Mulder says.
"What ?" this from Buffy, who is still upset Steve left her there to
talk to the woman. As they reach the group, Mulder reaches out a hand
for the man in the sports outfit.
"Colonel O'Neill, nice to meet you, I hadn't recognized you without
your uniform. I suppose this is Samantha Carter (the woman), Daniel
Jackson (the young man) and Teal'c (Stoneface)."
The colonel(?) jumps at this and pulls Mulder close: "How do you know
all this ?"
Mulder grins "I keep myself informed. Allow me to introduce myself:
Director Fox Mulder of the Paranormal Division of the FBI. These are
Dana Scully, Assistant Director, Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg,
Xander Harris, Rupert Giles, Jenny Calendar, Amy ... hey where's Oz
going ?"
They turn around and notice Oz making his way through the crowd.
Willow goes after him "Don't worry, I'll bring him back."
She catches up to him and asks him "Oz, what's going on, where are
you going ?"
"She's here."
"Who ?" But she sees Oz walking up to a young woman with dark hair
and start a conversation. Was this how Buffy felt when Steve had
walked away ? 'He'd better have a good explanation for this.' she
thinks. She also notices the group huddling around the woman. 'I hope
he doesn't get into trouble'
**********
'I hate flying. I hate flying. I hate flying.' I was repeating the
words like a mantra in my head. Anything to take my mind off the fact
that I was separated from 10000 feet of free fall by only a few
inches of aluminum. I hadn't really wanted to go to Sunnydale when
I'd learned I had to fly there, but I guess a bus wasn't going to cut
it this time. Damn.
Jean-Claude had told me why there was no Master in Sunnydale, which
got me even more suspicious of the place. Richard had told me there
was no local pack either. And still he insisted he come with me as an
escort; Jean-Claude agreed. I found that even stranger. But they'd
told me it wasn't enough, so I found myself on Jean-Claude's private
jet with Jason, Zane, Cherry and Nathaniel. I was their Nimir-Ra and
they wanted to follow me. Oh well.
To top it off, I'd gotten a call from Edward, asking me if he could
join me. He was probably monitoring my e-mail. I'd have to do
something about that. But I wouldn't shake him off, I knew that, so
now I found myself sitting next to him on the plane. He was smiling
at me, looking utterly relaxed in his plane seat. I knew that was an
act: he was probably the most dangerous person on the plane, bar
none. Yes, I was including myself: before I could have drawn my gun,
or do something else, I'd be dead. Edward was good and lately he'd
only gotten better. My training with Marianne was soothing and taught
me control, but I was betting Edward's training wasn't so relaxing.
The fur-balls had been quite calm, for a change. Especially Jason
seemed to make a personal effort to not tease anyone: he and Richard
were talking the whole flight. The were-leopards were sleeping.
The plane bumped and I jumped up with a little yip, restrained by my
seatbelt. "Relax, we've landed." Edward's voice was full of mockery
and laughter. I'd let him have it this time, as long as I got off the
plane.
We went to customs to clear our guns, although I was sure Edward was
still carrying one at the moment. How did I know this ? Edward always
carried a gun, unless the bad guys had taken it away from him.
I gave up my gun when I had to fly: I'd seen enough movies about
shootings in planes to know that a bullet hole in the fuselage was
enough to drive us all to our doom. I showed the nice customs man my
Vampire executioner licence and my RPIT badge, which looks quite
authentic, actually.
Edward showed the man his bounty hunter licence, the one registered
to Ted Forrester. I'd asked him once whether that was his real name.
He had just grinned at me. I didn't bother anymore.
We went to pick up our luggage when suddenly this kid comes up to us.
I could feel the weres move closer to me, to protect me: lover for
one, queen for the rest of them.
I could feel the tension in Edward: he was probably already in battle
mode, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. I could also feel the
energy washing off the young boy: a shapeshifter.
Yes, my jacket was zipped open so I could draw my gun. I hadn't drawn
it yet though; but since Richard had told me before we left that
there was no pack in Sunnydale, a gun.
**********
"Are you really Anita Blake ?" the boy asks me. he's obviously
unaware of the danger he put himself in: he's a young 'shifter and he
walks up to me, while I'm being bodyguarded by an alpha male, a
werewolf, three were-leopards and Death. He's either stupid or
clueless.
"Yes, I am, can I ask you who you are ?"
"Oh, sorry, my name is Oz, I'm a lycanthrope."
I wasn't going to tell him that his body was screaming SHAPESHIFTER,
I didn't want to hurt his feelings: he was obviously clueless.
"Go on."
"I suppose you're here to investigate the recent killings ?"
How did he know that ? Was he the killer ? I looked him over; I don't
think so. "How do you know about them ?"
"I'm part of a group who try to keep a relative safety in Sunnydale;
if you want, I can introduce you to the rest of them."
He doesn't look all that menacing, and with enough backup on my side,
I felt relatively safe.
"Alright, you can take us to see the others." As he's turning around,
I tell my backup-team to follow at a distance, they're not happy and
insist someone stays with me.
I had asked all of them to dress conservatively since I was still on
police business. I choose Cherry since overall, she looks the least
menacing of our group, again counting myself, but hey, I wasn't here
to win a contest.
Oz picks up a girl at his side before going on. She's already asking
questions like 'Who is she ?' with more concern than sheer curiosity,
she's probably his girlfriend. If she's jealous, it had better not be
of me: my plate's full of men at the moment.
The two lead us to an area near the luggage belts where obviously
'the group' is gathered: one of the men looks threatening enough that
I wouldn't want to meet him after dark, there's a pair in trenchcoats
that look like feds, the woman stands just a little over me, but I
can see that's because of her high-heeled shoes: obviously I'm not
the only short woman on the planet; her partner doesn't seem to have
a problem with that, however. The rest of the group looks like a mix
of kids and happy campers.
There's something familiar about the feds, but I can't put my finger
on it.
As we approach, I see the feds, a brown-haired guy and a blonde girl
my size look up, as if listening to some far-away music, the way
Jean-Claude sometimes does when he's getting spooky.
Again, I ask myself 'What's going on ?'
**********
"Don't worry about Oz, he's just acting strange lately." Steve tells
Mulder. "Anyway, this is the SG1 team and this is the Army of Light,
so to speak."
Carter draws wide eyes and O'Neill asks "You told them ?"
"Look, Jack, after some of the stuff we're going to tell you, you'll
feel like the most normal person in the room." Steve assures Jack.
"Is all this stuff yours ?" Xander asks. "How are you going to
transport it ?"
"Actually we rented a truck, so all we have to do is set up base
camp." Daniel responds.
"Look, guys, you're free to stay at our house, if that's okay with
you Buffy ?" Steve says.
"Sure, no problem, it's nice to get to know some of your friends."
"Hey look, everyone, Oz is back, and he brought somebody with him."
Cordelia says.
All of the Immortals feel the familiar buzz of an Immortal nearing.
Steve wonders who the hell it is: there's a group of 6 people
approaching and none seem to be responding to the buzz.
There's a tall blonde woman up front, 'probably Anita Blake', a
shorter woman with black hair next to her, 'her bodyguard ?', a tall
blonde man, a tall brown-haired man, a short blonde-haired man and a
young guy with long auburn hair. 'What's going on ?'
**********
"We're here, Anita." Richard's voice. Apparently, my escort has
caught up, seeing we're outnumbered. They stay at my back, however.
One of the 'listeners', a young-looking man with brown hair walks up
to us. No, actually, he's walking up to Cherry.
"I'm honoured to meet you, Anita Blake."
That comment gets him a laugh from Oz and the feds, and from the most
of us. The guy is seemingly lost.
Cherry blushes and points at me "She's Anita Blake."
The male fed cuts in: "You should have done you homework, Wanderer."
"Hey, I was busy, okay ?"
The guy makes a second attempt: "Hello, I'm Steve St. Wolf, pleased
to meet you." I grab his extended hand. He's got a good solid grip.
Most men are afraid to shake my hand, afraid they'd break something.
With three vampire marks and a bond with an alpha male lycanthrope,
I'd like to see them try.
The guy looks me over. I sigh, it's been done many times before. "I
thought you were bigger." he says.
"I get that a lot. So, are you the 'leader' of this group ?"
"Actually, no. Our group consists of three separate factions at the
moment: these are Mulder and Scully from the FBI ..."
I cut in, I can't believe this: "THE Mulder and Scully ? Didn't you
investigate all paranormal occurrences until a few years ago ?"
That's where I knew them from: the lectures in college on paranormal
occurences, and the pictures of them in the newspapers.
"Actually, we still do, we just got promoted." Scully tells me.
I look at her, really look at her: she wasn't wearing any makeup.
"Shouldn't you guys be older ?" The pictures in the press made them
look older, at least a few years.
"It's a long story, we can explain." Mulder tells me.
"I'm gonna repeat myself, but there's still some room left, Buffy ?"
"Sure, the more the merrier." the blonde 'listener' replies.
She looks younger than the other kids, she doesn't even look 19. "What ..."
"Don't ask, we'll explain later." Steve St. Wolf tells me.
"I'll continue the introductions: these are Samantha Carter, Jack
O'Neill, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c. And these are the members of our
base group: Buffy, Xander, Jenny Calendar, Rupert Giles, Cordelia and
Amy and you've met Oz and Willow."
"I have. Okay, I'll make introductions for my side: these people are
my escort here: Cherry, Zane, Nathaniel, Jason, Richard and ...
where's Edward ?"
"Right here Anita, don't move Wanderer." Edward had apparently
circled round and was now probably holding a gun at them, but why
he'd do that, I wasn't sure.
"Edward, what are you doing ?" I ask him.
"I'm just testing Steve; you lowered your guard Wanderer." Edward
moves back with us.
"You're lucky I'm not a bad guy."
"Do you know him, Edward ? What's going on here ?" I ask.
"I'm sorry, I'll explain everything once we get to my house. If
you'll all follow me ?" Steve is visibly shaken: I know the feeling,
Edward is a competitive bastard, but to get him at your back when you
don't expect it, is a frightening experience: just because you're
friends, doesn't mean he won't kill you, he wouldn't let anything
spoil his record.
Apparently, everybody's looking suspiciously at Edward, but he just
walks on as if he doesn't care. He probably doesn't.
**********
"Would you mind telling me what that was about ?" I let the anger
flow in my voice.
"I was just testing the man."
"Do you know each other ?"
"I know of his work, but it's a long story and you'll probably get to
hear it when we get to his house."
I still wasn't happy with that answer, but he'd made it clear that
I'd have to wait.
Richard's warm voice came to my ear: "Anita, are you sure this is
safe ?"
"Edward ?"
"He won't try anything. He's going to help you, but he'll expect some
help back. And don't underestimate him, Anita."
This mysteriousness was getting on my nerves, but apparently we had
reached our destination: the car ahead of us slowed down, and turned
onto the driveway of a rather large house.
Jason whistled softly "He's got plenty of space here, can we stay ?"
he asks in a whiny voice. He was back to playful Jason, good to know
something was still the same.
I parked the rented van next to the car and got everyone out: it was
really a strange sight: me and Edward up front, divided by the
gearbox and center cushions, Richard and Jason on the second row and
the were-leopards in the back. Jason had wanted to sit with Cherry
and I had said no. For once everyone was being agreeable.
*******
Once everyone was in the house, we get our seats so we can listen to
what everyone has to say.
"I should warn you though, since no one seems to have a problem with
Oz, every one of us except Edward and me are lycanthropes." A few
shocked glances, but everyone stays calm. They're not afraid of being
eaten, bully for them.
"I think we can shock you too, then." the man named Jack O'Neill says
while he nods towards the black man of his group.
Teal'c takes off the scarf covering his head. His tattoo/graft is now
clearly visible.
"What is *that* ?" Cordelia asks.
"It is a symbol of who I am, I am a Jaffa."
"You're coffee ?" this from Nathaniel, who is huddled at my feet.
Actually all the weres are huddled around me, Richard has his arms
resting on the back of my chair,
Edward is sitting in a chair a little to the side.
The man named Daniel smiles at that and explains: "No, he is a Jaffa,
a carrier for a parasitic lifeforce that has been threatening to take
over our world. In essence, Teal'c is an alien."
I couldn't have been more surprised if he had told me the sky was
orange. "An alien ?" I can't keep the scorn out of my voice.
Mulder cuts in: "It's true, you know, Miss Blake; this team and
several others like it have been using a complex system of
interplanetary portals to prevent an alien race from taking over our
world."
It's Steve's turn to gasp: "You knew this ? And I thought I was going
to surprise you."
"Sorry Steve," Scully responds, "but we still have The Lone Gunmen,
and of course being promoted helps a lot." She leans into Mulder, who
strokes her hair tenderly. It's only now becoming clear to me that
Mulder and Scully are 'connected': if they weren't married, I'd eat
my hat. "How long have you two been married ?" I ask them.
Mulder gives me that infuriating grin of his, but answers: "6 years.
You have an observant mind."
"Thank you." Being polite never hurt anyone.
I suddenly remember the question I wanted to ask: "What exactly is
going on between you guys and Edward ?" I glance in Edward's
direction, just to make sure he's still there: he's been so silent,
he reminds me of Jean-Claude.
"Alright, Miss Blake, I guess you deserve the truth, you too Jack.
That okay with you ... Edward ?" He asks the question as though he
doesn't really believe it's his real name. I can't blame him: it
probably isn't.
"If any one of you tells anything about this to anyone else: either
Watchers, other Immortals, the military, the FBI or" he looks at me
and the weres "other of my enemies, you're all dead. I won't care
which one squealed, you're all dead."
That was a serious threat, especially from Edward. Most of the people
in the room look shocked, but not enough. If they think he wouldn't
do it, they're wrong. Maybe he should have told them how he'd kill
them.
Steve then starts in a story of people who can't die, who fight
around because some jerk thought it would be fun to start a game. He
then tells me how he died and was trained by the best, and spent the
last 20 years fighting evil throughout the world.
At the end of the story, Our group, minus Edward, and O'Neill's group
have their mouths open in astonishment.
The dawn breaks: "That explains why you had that weird look on your
faces at the airport and why Mulder and Scully look younger than they
should be. And that would mean ..." I turn my gaze toward Edward
"... that you're Immortal ?"
"That's right."
"You can't be Immortal, I've seen you with a broken arm and stitches,
I've seen you cut and bleeding. You should have healed those wounds
in no time."
"I can control the healing process, Anita, all Immortals can learn
with age."
"So you made your wounds heal slower to fool me, to fool everyone ?"
"You have to admit I had you going, didn't I ?"
That was true, and Edward was indeed careful enough to not let anyone
know his secrets, but ...
"What do you mean, 'with age' ? How old are you ?"
"Do you know why I am called Death ?"
"Yeah, because you use flamethrowers on vampires and you carry more
firepower than the entire National Guard."
Shocked glances from nearly everybody present, the feds seem unfaded.
Hmm.
"No Anita, I was one of the 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', I was
Death."
"Wait a minute !" Buffy sneers "Duncan told us Methos was Death, so
who are you ?"
"I am Death, of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, only of the
older generation. Kronos and his gang just stole our idea and changed
it a little. Methos was Death of their four horsemen. Haven't you
ever wondered why in mythology there are two versions of the four
horsemen, one dating thousands of years before the other ?"
"Edward, how old are you ?" Maybe if I kept asking, I'd get an
answer.
"I'm currently over 14000 years old. The journal Steve found was
Krevar's, Pestilence of our four horsemen. After the period in which
we rode the world, Krevar retired, bitter that life was so
meaningless, so he told two of his students about the so-called Game,
and that's how it came to be."
"That's why you were so scared, all of a sudden, Edward is older than
any of us, even Methos." Buffy states.
"That's right. I thought those four horsemen were dead. How do you
know I found Krevar's journal ?" Steve asks Edward.
"I saw you take it. I was watching when you and Frank entered the
cave."
Steve was just a tingle scared. This guy was good, and he had done
his homework.
He probably knew what they'd done in Sunnydale a few years back.
"I never saw you."
"I know."
"But then how did you recognize him ?" This question came from Jack
O'Neill. It was a good question.
Steve gets up and walks to his desk. He takes out a glass display
case, which he sets down on the table. He removes the lid and
carefully takes out a book that looked so old it should have fallen
apart. He gently opens the book to a certain page and sets it down
for everyone to see. The writing is in a strange language and is
faded, the paper is actually parchment, skins of animals - humans
perhaps ? - but there is a drawing of four men, riding big beasts
extinct for millennia; one of the men bears the unmistakable face of
Edward. The other one looks older and has a beard, the ones on the
sides are too faded to see them right.
"I should have known that old fool was going to make a drawing. He
liked them so much, his cave was full of them. He would have loved
this century; with a camera, he'd have been the happiest man on
earth."
"What happened to him ?" Cordelia asks. These kids ask good
questions.
"He went mad, he'd started murdering people one village at a time."
"But, isn't that what you guys did ? I mean, you pillaged village
after village, right ?" Willow asks.
A small laugh from Edward "No, that was Kronos and his gang, the one
Methos belonged to; we were hunters, we hunted the large prey, just
the four of us would hunt a mammoth and we'd win. But we didn't do it
just for glory. We cut the meat into pieces and sold it to the
villages we passed, keeping enough for ourselves so we'd survive. You
may not believe this, but we were the good guys, not some barbaric
nomads who kill for fun."
"But what happened to Krevar ?" this from Amy. That girl has power;
although I wasn't sure, I'd have bet she was Wiccan.
"We had tracked him down to the Cave of Light. Only later did I
realize what that cave was. Anyway, the three of us went inside and
heard him chanting one of the spells of destruction. We rushed to
stop him, but it was too late, a lightning bolt came from the sky and
crashed through the cave. It destroyed the platform he was standing
on and he fell in the Bottomless Pit. There was an explosion and the
demons he had summoned rushed out of the darkness, they flew up and
into the bodies of the seven humans he had gathered. They were
transformed to the things Steve and Buffy have been fighting for the
last few years: the vampires of Sunnydale."
"Whooah, wait a minute, are you saying that all vampires originated
from those seven, because Krevar had summoned them ?" this from
Buffy, who is obviously angry.
"Wrong again: there are different kinds of vampires: the Sunnydale
Vampires are possessed by a demon which infects all new vampires
formed. The vampires of the rest of the world originated from
somewhere else."
"What happened after the demons took control of the bodies of those
humans ?" this from Xander.
"What do you think happened ? We ran, we'd never seen anything like
that. That's why I've been fighting vampires and evil throughout
time: to make up for the fact that one of us released those demons.
We had let Krevar become too powerful, and humanity paid the price.
The explosion in the cave also had a strange effect: it had started
emitting a strange kind of radiation: that cave became the
Hellmouth."
"Are you saying that the Hellmouth is actually a physical phenomenon
?" Giles wanted to know, his entire life he had been told that
magicks and demons had ruled the earth, and now it would appear they
were lies.
"I see where you're getting at: the books you have are an incorrect
translation of old scrolls: magicks and demons have ruled the earth,
but not always, furthermore, magicks and demons still exist: I still
know the spells I learned from Krevar and the others. The most
powerful spells are able to destroy mountains, cause hurricanes, you
name it. But now for a little more intriguing fact: it's maybe for
the best that Jack O'Neill and his team are here because the Cave of
Light was a place where there stood a mysterious artifact: it was
said to be a gate to other worlds. Krevar had gathered SEVEN humans
to operate the artifact: each of them had to activate a certain
symbol on a ring in order for the device to work, which means SEVEN
symbols, does that ring a bell ?"
"Are you saying that there was a Stargate in Sunnydale ?" Daniel
Jackson has a face like he's been hit by a truck.
"I'm saying there still is. When Krevar activated the gate and cast
his spell, the gate fell into the pit. It is quite thinkable that the
gate got stuck and is now set on continuous open, which could explain
all the weird anomalies in this place. It's probably connected to an
alien world with heavy radiation."
"And does it explain the weird killings lately ?" Miss Calendar wants
to know.
"Actually it might," Mulder cuts in.
"After what Steve told us about the bodies, I think I found what
might have killed those men: Scully and I encountered an exact same
killing a few years back, in our pre-immortal years; in Australia
there had been a single kill, but there had been no traces
whatsoever, not even a broken twig, so they called us in to
investigate.
The next day, the police is called for another incident: a utility
truck is found in the bush: the engine has been hammered through the
car, all men in the truck are dead: beheaded or impaled by a spear of
some kind; and then the last man is found: he was hung upside down
from a tree, completely skinned, presumably alive considering he bit
through his own teeth. After that, the hunt starts for real: the cops
put out everything they've got but it isn't enough, then Scully and I
discover a military base built in a mountain, designed to keep us out
or something in. A little while later, helicopters are sent in to
track down whatever they're searching and we are removed, and right
in time: for some reason officially unknown, something akin to a
small nuclear bomb explodes in the desert, taking the helicopters and
all hunters with it. Only there's no radiation, fortunately."
The entire audience is captivated.
"You said 'officially', I'm betting you have a theory, right ?"
Apparently the stories were true: this guy really is good.
"Indeed: my theory is that the thing they were hunting, was an alien,
and the bomb that exploded was some kind of self-defense system
controlled by the alien, to prevent capture.
I also think that the alien wasn't alone: I'm practically sure there
were more of his kind present, watching; they had cloaking technology
that would have easily hid them from sight.
And if you consider this theory to be correct, I did a little more
digging and I found interesting material that may prove these aliens
have come to our world before: first on some small island, where a
commando-unit was sent on a rescue mission. I think that was just a
test to see how strong the creature really was. There was only one
survivor. Next, in LA, that had been covered up good. The witnessing
officer, Harrigan I think, first describes a mob war where suddenly
one of the parties just stops shooting; so the police advance into
the building and clear it floor by floor; when they reach the top
floor, they discover the entire gang is dead; they are clearing the
building and they find a guy, he weighs 200 pounds and he is hung
from the sky roof, completely skinned. Later they find a drug
dealer's body minus head; in the end, Harrigan tracks down the thing
to its ship, where he kills it after an amazing streak of luck. As
he's just killed the blasted thing, four more step out of thin air,
apparently they used some kind of cloaking device to hide themselves,
but hot temperatures render it ineffective as the air starts to
shimmer around it, as it did in Australia and on the hot roof of the
building where Harrigan says he saw the thing looking at him before
it jumped away.
On the ship, the others take away the dead body and the leader walks
towards the guy and takes an antique gun from his belt, that has been
dated back to the 18th century. Suddenly the ship starts to hum and
as Harrigan runs out of the sewer it was in, it takes off and nearly
takes him with it."
Steve and Jack share a look. "The survivor of the island, was his
name Dutch ? Major Dutch ?" Jack asks.
"As a matter of fact, it was. Do you know him ?"
Steve and Jack look at each other again. "He was kind of a legend.
After he came back from the island, he just wasn't the same man
anymore. Whatever he'd seen had scarred him." Steve says. "We didn't
believe what he said at first, about an invisible demon. Now ..."
"And you think one of those things has come to Sunnydale ? Why ?"
this from Samantha Carter.
"Ask yourself the question: they came here through spaceships and
perhaps the Stargate. What if one of them was trapped here, how would
it go home ?"
"It would use a Stargate." Carter nods. "That makes sense, since
we've taken the one from Egypt and blocked it, and we buried the one
on Antarctica, there's only one left that's accessible: the Sunnydale
Stargate."
"Indeed."
**********
"I don't like being lied to, Edward."
"I didn't lie, you never asked."
"Lying by omission is still lying." It sounded childish, even to me.
"I'm afraid you don't have a say in the matter, I haven't lived this
long by being stupid."
That I could believe.
"So what else can you do besides healing and spell-casting, which, by
the way, you'll have to show me sometime."
It's dawn, so the light isn't absolutely present in the house; sort
of like a cool twilight. Edward just raises his hand and I can see a
small globe of light float over his hand, illuminating the kitchen.
What's worse is that I can't feel anything from it: no heat, no
power, nothing.
"Shoot !"
"You haven't seen anything yet." the globe disappears and he lowers
his hand "That was just a Light spell, useful when travelling in the
dark. To answer your question: I can do much more. I'm stronger and
faster than I've pretended to be."
That was a scary thought. Killers didn't get much better than Edward,
and to know he'd pretended to be less ...
"I'll let you get away with it, since I can't do much about it
anyway. But this changes things: if you ever come near me without
warning again, I'll shoot you and cut off your head. I'm not taking
any chances any more." my voice was steady and serious, I meant what
I said: if he could do stuff like this, I didn't want him against me.
"Agreed. Although the shooting may be more difficult than you can
imagine." Edward answers with a smirk. Mysterious little bastard.
"What's going on ?" Richard's voice comes from the kitchen entrance.
He'd slept in my room. Just sleeping. I still didn't trust him or
Jean-Claude for anything more.
"Nothing, just setting the record straight." I answer for both of us.
Edward nods.
"And Edward, no hunting anyone I know without warning me first."
"You've got my word."
"I see you're already up." Steve now.
"Yeah, I mostly don't sleep much. So what's the course of action ?"
"Since Mulder's already dealt with this, I'm going to follow his
advice: no explicit hunting this thing. We track it down, and we try
to reason with it, it seems pretty intelligent. And that's where
Daniel comes in: he's the ancient language expert, he might be able
to communicate with it. He told me he wants to speak to Edward
though, you may help him with some of the older tongues."
Edward just nods.
"Do you think it will work ?" Richard asks.
"If it doesn't, we'll kill it, but only then, you hear ?" he's
looking both at me and Edward. Apparently my reputation precedes me.
We both nod.
**********
I couldn't bring the feds, or the cops
would've flipped. So that left Zane and Cherry, since the SG1 team
was needed for their Stargate info. Both were dressed in plain
civilian clothes, a big improvement over their regular SM outfit.
"They drove me here. I haven't slept well and I didn't trust myself
not to hit something."
I can hear Det. Stein grumble something like 'Women'; normally I'd
have been offended, now I was just pleased he bought it.
"Alright, here are the case files, but they stay out."
"Wait outside. Please." I say in a softer voice than Stein's
growling. He'd have made a great were-bear.
They walk out of the office and wait in the hall.
I look over the files, but I can't find anything I don't know yet.
Steve and those kids had hacked into the police database and
downloaded the files for me, but I wasn't going to let the cops know
that. "Have you tried triangulating the positions ?" Mulder had said
it wasn't going to give any result: the creature was too smart for
that, but I had to ask the cops.
"We have, and it didn't work: the center was in the middle of
nowhere."
"I think we may have a rogue lycanthrope. It won't kill
indiscriminately, only to defend itself: that's why all the men we
found were killed: they had a weapon and may have tried to use it on
him, or her."
That had been another of Mulder's suggestions: we had to calm down
everyone, because this creature reacted to stimulations of violence.
And maybe a lycanthrope wasn't such a bad analogy.
"So what do you suggest ?" He bought it, hot damn.
"No hunting this thing. I'll try to track it down on my own. I've had
some experience with them. I think it won't react as heavily to me as
it might to an army of cops."
"I think you're holding out on me, but I want this thing captured. Do
what you must, but I want regular reports, or I'm coming with you."
That was nice of him. Letting me do my job. More people should try
that. "Okay, Det. Stein, I'll work as fast as I can." Actually, the
others had maybe already found a lead and I didn't want to waste any
time.
He lets me go and I pick up 'my drivers'. We drive back to Steve's
house. Zane was driving, since I'd told Stein I hadn't driven myself.
"That went well." Cherry says. "I haven't heard you raise your voice
once."
"Tell me about it, he's actually going to let me do my job."
"We're being followed." Zane's low bass.
I look in the rear-view mirror and see a civilian police car
following ours.
"Damn, I knew it was too easy. Try to find a motel nearby. I'm
calling the rest of the group."
I call the number Steve's given me: the number of his cell phone.
"St. Wolf's Antiques, can I help you ?"
"Steve, it's Anita. Stein has set a car on our tail and I don't want
to lead him back to you. We're trying to find a hotel, do you have
something yet ?"
"Not exactly. Mulder's trying to determine its hiding spot, SG1 has
told us enough about the Stargate that we can shut it down and
they've offered to take the creature through the Stargate at SGC. I
believe them. The rest of us are trying our best to help. Oz is
spending some time with your escort, he's trying to learn as much as
possible about his condition. Xander is hanging around Edward and
Daniel, who are trying to determine the language of the creature."
"Give me Edward, please."
"Just a minute."
"What's up ?" Edward on the phone now.
"Don't shoot anyone, and don't tease the kid."
"I'll have you know 'the kid' has had some kind of military training.
And I promise not to shoot anyone."
"Good, now give me Steve again."
"Steve, don't worry about Oz, he'll be fine. It's a good thing he's
trying to get informed. Just don't let him hang around Jason too
much."
"Is he a bad influence ?"
"Let's just say Jason can be a pain in the ass. I wouldn't want to
see Oz turn for the worse."
"I think Richard has that part covered. Thank you Anita."
"Okay, goodbye."
"Talk to you later."
I hang up as Zane turns into a motel parking lot. I just realize I
don't have any bags. We'd have to bribe the manager, he couldn't tell
the cops that. And if bribery didn't work, I'd let Zane threaten him
a little.
The manager is rather friendly actually, and he'd gladly cooperate.
"I get the feeling you don't like the cops much." I tell him.
"Let's just say Steve helped us out better than they have. My cousin
Matt saw you leave Steve's house. He's a friend of mine."
"You know him ?"
"Yeah, he saved Matt a few years back. If you want to lose the cops,
I have a back exit and a spare car, you can pick up your rental
later."
"Thanks a lot. I'll take you up on that."
We leave through the back door and take the spare car, a dusty Nova.
We pull up to Steve's house, the cops haven't followed us.
"Zane, Cherry, take the car back to the motel. Walk back here. Don't
take the rental, they may have already bugged it. If someone follows
you, lose them."
Zane smiles at me, showing just a little fang, a result from too much
fur time. "Yes Anita."
"It wasn't an order Zane, it's a precaution."
"I know. I'm glad to do it."
**********
As I walk in the house, I can see everyone's been busy. Mulder and
Steve are standing next to a map of the city, discussing various
places on the map marked, by a cross. X marks the spot. They're
helped by Buffy, Cordelia and Amy, who are advising them on the most
secluded spots. Edward, Xander, Daniel, Giles and Miss Calendar are
talking, various old books are displayed on the table. They're
probably checking all their myths with him. I still haven't gotten
over the fact he may be the oldest living thing on our world.
I talked a little to some of them, to know what to expect from the
Sunnydale vampires, but apparently the vampires are not that strong,
and stupid. Hey, I wasn't complaining.
The weres are sitting in a corner, talking with Oz and Willow. Jason
says something which makes Oz twitch and causes Willow to blush. If
Jason makes someone blush by saying something, it's usually sex-
related. "Jason, be nice."
"Sorry."
I sit down with them.
"I guess you've learned a lot of things, huh ?"
"I sure have." Oz replies. "I didn't know all the lycanthrope stuff
that went on in the world. Now I've got a better idea, maybe I should
move and find a pack." he says half-jokingly. Willow has a pained
expression on her face.
"I'm kidding, Willow. I wouldn't leave you." Willow is smiling once
more. Ah, young love.
"Yeah, there's no local pack because they think Sunnydale is cursed.
The vampire community has the same idea about the place."
Buffy joins us at this.
"So, you're the famous Executioner ?"
"I've been called that. From what I've heard, you're the Slayer,
right ? Maybe you should get a vampire executioner licence."
"Are you making fun of me ?" They'd told me she had a temper.
"Not at all, if you've got a natural resistance against vampires, you
should use that to your advantage. Don't forget vampires are legal
now. You can't just kill them, you've got to get a court order. I
think you'd be a good addition to the team. Besides, being an
Immortal can't hurt much."
"I hadn't thought about that. Maybe I will get a licence. Do you
think they'd grant me one ?"
"If you're good, they won't refuse you. They're happy to have us. But
watch out, the vampires out there are a lot stronger than those in
Sunnydale; they may sleep during the day, but when they're awake they
can do mind-control, levitation, call animals, all sorts of nasty
things. I've even met some that had to be burned before they died: a
bullet or a stake just didn't cut it that time. And then there was
Xavier: he had messed with a faerie spell and that had given him
incredible powers: he could do stop-motion moves and mess around with
my head like I was a regular human."
She's really shocked now. Apparently the monsters are more dangerous
than she thought.
"I think I'm gonna apply. Thanks for the tip. Now tell me why the
vampire community is afraid of Sunnydale."
"Well, to them, Sunnydale is contaminated territory: all vampires
made here have no free will. Apparently, the vampires are afraid if
they come here, they'll lose their soul. So there's no Master of the
City for Sunnydale."
"How do you know all that, anyway ?" Buffy asks me.
"From Jean-Claude. He's a vampire."
"So what are they like ? The vampires here are really mean." this
from Willow.
"They're just like regular people, except they have a special diet
and they don't come out before dark."
"I know a few Gothic fans from when I was in the music circuit that
fit that description." Oz says.
"I'm going to check on the rest. You may have more to talk about."
I get up and Buffy follows me.
"Are you and Richard dating ?"
"Why do you ask that ?"
"Because of the way he looks at you, and the way you look at him."
Damn she's observant.
"We were. It's a long story."
"Those are always the best. Come on, spill it."
I sigh heavily, she's not going to let go.
"Alright, here's the Reader's Digest version: we were dating, he
killed an evil pack member on my advice, he ate him, I couldn't
handle it, so I ran to Jean-Claude."
"You keep bringing him up, who is he ?"
"He is, was my vampire lover until I found out he was doing more to
us than I could handle at the time. He, Richard and I have a bond
which makes us all share our power."
She's got big eyes after I tell her that. Shocks 'r' Us, that's me.
"I had a vampire boyfriend too, Angel, we chased him away. I haven't
seen him after that. Is Jean-Claude cute ?"
"Yes, he's very cute, he's gorgeous and I lust after both of them
terribly. But I'm not ready to pick up again."
"Uh-huh, so what do you do for a living ? You're an animator right ?
What exactly does that mean ?"
"It means I can call zombies from their grave, bring them back to
life. And lately, I've been doing stranger stuff than that, like
calling vampires from their coffins during daylight, that's part of
my necromancer powers. It's sort of like the big-brother version to
animating."
"In Sunnydale, vampires don't sleep during the day."
"That's because they're possessed by demons. For normal vampires it
takes ages before they can walk during the day."
She nods and absorbs the knowledge. She's obviously quite intelligent
and she'll handle it well. I leave her and go to check on Edward.
"So, what have you been up to ?"
"They've been checking their myths for truth the whole day." a bored
Edward answers me.
"I figured that; so what's the best story you can confirm that today
people don't believe ?"
"Moses splitting the Red Sea."
My mouth drops.
"You mean he really did that ?"
"He used a Water spell. The people at the time called it divine
intervention and it has been falsely passed on during time. If you
want to check, you can ask Methos, I believe he was present when that
happened."
"Did he see you ?"
"No, I was careful he didn't see me."
"And Moses ?"
"He was one of us; actually, he was War of our four horsemen."
"That reminds me: why did they give you such violent names if you
were the good guys ?"
"I think I can answer that." Giles informs me. "In ancient times,
Immortals were often considered to be gods, but since all the gods
in heaven were considered 'good' like Love, Nature, the only ones
that would remain, were the 'evil' gods: War, Death, etc."
"So tell us, Lazarus was an Immortal too, wasn't he ?" Jenny Calendar
asks.
"He was, but not a Horseman. He just had the bad taste of waking up
in the middle of a crowd."
She has some power too, I noticed it the first time I saw her, but
now, up close, I can recognize it.
"Are you a gypsy ?"
She's stunned I found out. "How do you know that?"
"I can recognize psychic powers when I feel them. Amy's Wiccan,
you're a gypsy, Oz is a lycanthrope. It's just the Immortals I can't
sense."
"Amazing." Daniel Jackson exclaims. He looks like a kid at the
carnival: all his fondest wishes have come true.
"And what did you ask him ? I don't think you're interested in
checking out myths."
"I am, but I've been asking him about the ancient languages,
including the one from Krevar's journal. I'm pretty sure it will
help in communicating with the alien."
Good man, he's obviously quite concerned with his job.
"I'm going to check on the rest. Bye"
I'm going over to Steve, Mulder and the rest of the Stargate team,
who are filtering out possible locations where the creature might
hide. Carter and O'Neill were turned slightly away from each other;
still part of the same team, but there was embarrassment between the
two: old lovers maybe ? Were my powers now giving me the ability to
spot relationships between people ? I looked from the two of them to
Daniel Jackson and he just grins. Apparently he'd spotted it too. I
step in on the conversation, Mulder still looks like he's got
something on his mind. If what I was told about him is true, he'll
figure it out.
"So, what have you got ?"
"We've established at least a dozen locations where the thing could
be hiding." Steve tells me. "It's going to be hard checking them all
out."
Mulder suddenly slaps himself on the forehead. We all look at him.
"I've got it: something was bugging me all along about this case. Why
did the alien kill those men ?"
It sounded a lot like 'Why did the chicken cross the road ?' to me,
but Scully picks up: "He was defending himself."
"Then why the first kill ? He rescued that girl by removing the man.
And none of the men got a chance to use their weapons."
"Then what ?" I ask.
"Right here, he turns the file around he's been holding: the crime
scene report from the second kill. I can't see it, but it's probably
there. It is, as he continues:
"There were bloody tracks next to the body, like something was
dragged away."
"A second body, one we haven't found yet ?" Samantha Carter asks.
"The blood on the tracks was animal blood. The creature dragged
some beef away. Food."
"But that's a lot of food for getting to the Stargate." Dana states.
"Yes. I think he didn't come here through the Stargate." Mulder says.
"Are you saying we've done all this work for nothing ? And if he
didn't come through the Stargate, then how ..." O'Neill must have
figured it out at the same time I did. "He came in a spaceship."
"I think so. Look at the evidence: since Antarctica is blocked, the
Egypt gate is protected at SGC and Sunnydale's gate is on continuous,
he couldn't have come here through a Stargate." Mulder tells us. And
like one of those 3D puzzles, the answer is suddenly clear: we'd just
been too stupid to see it.
"But if he travels in a spaceship, why stop here ?" Dana asks him.
They make a good team: one complements the other.
"Maybe to check out why the gates aren't working, or maybe ... follow
me on this: suppose they're a race of hunters, who specialize in
tough kills. That would mean they seek out their prey on its home
world, right ?"
All of us nod. Prey on familiar terrain can easily become a hunter.
"Now I don't think they'd want to hunt humans, too easy, that's why
we keep finding the bodies: he wants a trophy, but those men got in
the way."
"But what could possibly be of interest to them here ? There haven't
been large predators on this world for ages. I'm not counting
dragons, since I think that's a little out of their league, for one
of them, at least." I hope.
"Exactly, we have nothing of interest."
Everyone looks baffled.
Scully recovers first: "Then why stop here at all ?"
"For food. Suppose earth is a halfway stop between their planet and
wherever they're going, so they stop here for food: think about it:
beef, horses, pigs, humans: that's cattle to them. They consider
earth the take-away of the galaxy."
That's a big shock, but we all realize it's the truth.
Steve cuts in: "So the plans have changed. We're now looking for a
secluded place where you could hide a spaceship."
Mulder goes on: "And of all the places we marked, only one could
possibly be big enough: the abandoned power plant." He stands up and
circles the cross with a red circle.
**********
There's a ringing at the door. The Sunnydale group and Mulder and
Scully try to blend into the walls. Teal'c puts his headband back on.
Steve opens the door: it's two piles of boxes, behind which Zane and
Cherry are hidden.
"We thought you may be hungry: we brought some food for all." Cherry
says.
As if it were planned, growling stomachs are heard from most people
present. Mine too, I hadn't thought of food with all this research.
"Thanks you guys, we appreciate this a lot." This comes from Xander
who helps them unpack food. These people are really good around the
monsters. Most people don't like lycanthropes. Obviously they aren't
as prejudiced as most people.
"We brought Chinese take-away, pizza, hamburgers and some vegetarian
salads for those who don't like meat." Zane says.
"I'll take a salad." Willow says.
A "Pass me one, too." from Scully.
Miss Calendar takes a salad too, as does Giles. Zane and Cherry
brought the right amount of salads for the group. I guess when you're
a werebeing, you start observing feeding patterns. Oh well. "Give me
a burger." I wanted real food. Ahem.
**********
After the meal, everybody got together to decide how to best handle
this. It was decided a team of Immortals would put a message in
various languages on board the alien's ship, or in case there was no
access, near it. Immortals, since they had the best chances of
surviving. But we also needed a diversion, the alien couldn't be
present on the ship. No need in putting the Immortals in more danger
than necessary.
Edward was being helpful: he'd translated the message in over ten
out-of-use languages, including his original language.
He hadn't told us what language it was. I guess it wasn't important,
but I wanted to know. Knowing Edward, I would never find out.
Edward was helpful in more ways than one: he would provide the
diversion: he was going to cast a spell that would hopefully draw
the alien's attention. Since he was out as an Immortal, that left
Steve, Buffy, Mulder and Scully. That was no problem: the two teams
were used to each other.
The rest of us would use thermal imaging head gears, provided by the
Stargate team, to confirm the alien was present at Edward's
diversion. We'd also use it to track any cops that might show up.
I'd called Det. Stein and told him I was going to cast a spell to
draw the lycanthrope to me. He'd asked me where I would be, and I
had said he couldn't show up, his presence could disturb my spell.
He still insisted he be informed where the spell was going to be
cast and I gave him a location on the other side of town. I didn't
trust Det. Stein not to show up. Besides, I could always tell him
I'd had to change my plans and didn't cast my spell. Since I wasn't
going to cast one, that wouldn't prove too difficult. The hotel
manager would confirm I had stayed in my room and tell the cops his
phone system was down, so I couldn't call them. He would put someone
in my room to make the cops believe I was still there.
The cops could arrest me for obstruction of justice for what I'd told
them, but I hadn't exactly lied, so they probably wouldn't. But just
in case, someone would remain in the room.
Since guns hadn't proven very effective whenever one of the aliens
had been seen, they were out. The Immortals had kept theirs though,
no need in tempting fate too much. The rest of us carried guns too,
but only as a backup issue: shooting the alien might not kill it, it
could just make it angry at us. The guns were in case the alien
attacked first.
Amy and Xander wanted to stay with Edward: they wanted to see him
cast his spell. I couldn't blame them: Giles, Ms. Calendar, Daniel
and me were staying too. I was really curious what it would be like.
Cordelia wanted to stay with Xander, she wasn't sure what to expect.
Me either.
Willow would take care of communications together with Samantha
Carter. In case the alien left, we'd have to warn the Immortals to
get the hell out of the ship.
The rest of the Stargate team would use the imaging gear to find the
alien. They would still be able to see the spell from a distance,
since Edward had insisted no cameras would film his work. After the
threat he made, nobody was going to disagree.
That left us with just one question: would it work ?
**********
We were all set: the Immortals were hidden near the power plant.
Edward was standing by. He told us to give him a little room.
Nobody had disagreed. What did he say: 'The most powerful spells
are able to destroy mountains, cause hurricanes, you name it.'
Shit ! Was he going to cause a hurricane ? He'd better not. He'd
assured us it would be safe.
Willow and Carter were ready with the radios. Edward had said the
spell wouldn't interfere.
The rest of the team was ready: they were already sweeping the area
for lifesigns. They didn't find any. We were in the middle of
nowhere, after all. But would they be able to track the damn thing ?
After what Mulder had told us about its technology, I was starting to
wonder if he'd even show up on our scans. Better not think about it.
One last check: the radios and scanners were working, Edward was
ready.
"All right, people, listen up." Jack O'Neill had taken charge after
Steve had left. I didn't object. He was more experienced in military
situations after all. "After Edward casts his spell, we're hoping the
alien will show up sooner than the cops do. At the first sign of
cops, you get out of here. We'll clear it, we've got permission from
the government to do research. We can tell them the spell was
actually a technological test. If the alien doesn't show up, the
mission is off. We'll have to try something else, so keep your
fingers crossed." Everyone nods or is busy. The game had begun.
At the power plant, four Immortals are hidden in the underbrush.
"Guys, remember this may not work. If we get a message from the
others, we break off immediately, okay ?" Mulder asks them.
"Mulder, don't be a party-spoiler. This will work. Have faith."
Steve assures him.
"If Edward's spell is showy enough, the alien won't notice us."
Buffy says.
"Edward told us we'd notice, everyone would notice, that's why we
have to time this just right. If the cops show up too soon, that
thing is probably going to return. We don't want to be in there
when it does." Scully tells them.
"Guys, look !" Buffy exclaims. She's staring wide-eyed at the
horizon.
At the desert site where the group is standing by, Edward is given
the go-ahead.
He throws his head in his neck and slowly raises his hands to his
body, as if he were trying to summon all the energy around him.
Small speckles of light are floating towards him, and he's rising
up in the air, he's floating a few inches from the floor ! The air
shimmers around him, the power is gathering, he lands and his hands
start glowing. He draws back his hands, and as if he's trying to
push all the energy away, he thrusts them towards the sky.
The result is spectacular: the force of the blast clears all the
dust in a 10 meter radius, a giant energy ball has formed at his
palms and a huge light pillar thrusts itself into the sky,
illuminating the vicinity for miles. The sound of his shout as he
launches his spell is overpowered by the enormous blast of the
energy that breaks the sky like a miniature sun.
After a few seconds, the ball at his hands shrinks and the last of
the energy is hurtled upwards, away from the soil which is regaining
the dark colour caused by nighttime. Edward drops to the floor,
panting with effort. Those of us who haven't been knocked down by
the sheer shockwave of the blast, have dropped to their knees as
well, gasping in awe at what just happened. It feels like my mouth
has dropped through the dirt: no wonder people regarded them as
gods: this wasn't human, this was beyond any and all legends that
had ever been.
Edward is already getting back up, visibly exhausted but rapidly
regaining his composed form. Everyone else still hasn't gotten back
up. They are more impressed than Edward is tired. He walks up to me
and I scoot back. I didn't want to be near him right this minute,
this was too freaking weird. He stops pacing towards me and calls out
to everyone: "Get ready to go, if that thing doesn't show up, the
cops will and we'll have to be going."
At the power plant, four people are looking in amazement at what
transpired before their eyes. This was the power of gods. Did all
Immortals really have this kind of power ? Could they do even more ?
A lot of questions are floating through their heads, but they're
remembering why they're here, they have to complete this mission.
Above them, invisible to their eyes, Rangor had seen the energy too.
He was momentarily stunned, but decided to go check it out. Such a
source of power could prove very valuable. Setting his helmet to
Infra-Red, more useful at night, he leaps off the building and starts
running over the houses of Sunnydale at an incredible speed. In a
matter of minutes, he would have reached the source of the power
surge.
At the meeting site, Det. Stein is getting impatient. She was already
half an hour late. Then suddenly the sky is illuminated by a streak
of light that seems to be coming from the other side of town, in the
hills there. What's going on here ? Is she at the other side of
town ? She's going to pay for this ! I don't like being fooled ! He
gets in his car and shifts it into high gear, pushing the car to its
limit speed.
"My word !" Giles mutters, as he's holding his wife in his arms.
She's softly crying, but it's only emotion. Nobody got hurt, just
like Edward promised.
He's sitting away from us with a scanner and a helmet, already
probing the darkness. The rest of us didn't want to come near him,
not now, maybe not ever. The were-beings and the others are truly
scared now. Me too. This power wasn't meant for humans. But
everybody's coping: Oz is comforting Willow; Cordelia and Amy are
shaken, but are holding up, they're clinging to Xander who is
scanning the area as well; the were-leopards and Jason are huddled
together, soothing each other by their sheer presence; Carter is
shook, but Jack has a hand on her shoulder, scanning the darkness,
easing her mood just by standing near her. Teal'c is standing to the
side, operating a scanner as well, but I'd seen his face: even Mr.
Stoic couldn't keep the surprise from showing. Richard is holding me,
spooning me. Nothing sex-related, just two humans wrapped in the
other's presence.
But were we any more human than what we'd seen ? I was raising
zombies and controlling vampires and Richard was a werewolf. After
what I'd seen of his powers, he didn't rank as human in my book
anymore. And still I felt we were the most human things on the
planet. Edward had once again gone silent. Vampire silent. In my eyes
he just didn't fit anymore: was this really a human standing before
me ? I decide to be brave and get up, I'm walking towards him ! My
brain tries to tell my feet to stop, but I'm using my training with
Marianne to calm down, regain control. My mental shields had dropped
alright. I was trying to pick them back up as I'm walking towards
Edward. I'm standing next to him way sooner than I had wanted to, but
I couldn't do this to him: I had asked him to show us his power, and
he'd done so, and now I couldn't push him away. I'd done that to
Richard and it got us nothing but trouble. But that didn't matter
anymore. Nothing mattered next to this power.
"Edward are you alright ?" I ask him in a shaky voice. I hate it but
it's alright to be afraid, at least this time.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that ?" his voice is bitter. Had we hurt
his feelings, really hurt him ? Answer: yes, we had. We had pushed
him away because he'd helped us. We were as much a monster as the
first vampire or lycanthrope around just for doing that.
"I'm sorry, it was just unexpected. I didn't know you could do this,
I wasn't prepared, nobody was." I tell him. I've spoken the words all
of us are thinking, but can't utter right now. The shock is too near.
He takes a deep breath and lets it out heavily. "I know, but I
couldn't tell you, you wouldn't have believed me."
"All of us feel the same way, Edward, we're just too shocked to tell
you right now." Richard has joined me at my back.
'Thank you Richard.' I send him in thought. He smiles at me, his
beautiful smile, letting me know he cares.
Edward takes off his headset and looks around at everybody standing
or sitting down. "Thank you, I appreciate it."
He puts the helmet back on and is tracking the darkness once more.
I pick up a spare headset and start a scan of my own. The scan looks
really weird: it takes a thermal reading of the environment and
represents it in a variety of colours: white for the hottest
temperatures, black for the lowest. At this moment, there's a lot of
dark blue. It is night after all. Suddenly I see a dark green blur
moving over the hills at an incredible speed. It's leaping from
hilltop to hilltop in a single bound. No lycanthrope could do that.
I take off the headset but the environment is just that: a scenery,
there are no moving things out there.
"Guys, are you picking that up too ?" my voice is as calm as
possible. I did *not* want this thing against me.
"We are." O'Neill informs me. "We've already given the Immortals the
go-ahead."
Carter's call has just reached the Immortals. Her voice was shaky. So
were they. But they couldn't let this fail.
"Alright let's hurry. If that thing decides to come back ..." Steve
takes the lead and speeds into the power plant, checking his map with
the small light attached to his headset.
Buffy, Scully and finally Mulder are following him. Each is running
top speed: they mustn't fail. They're progressing in the power plant,
trying to get to the center room, the only one big enough to even
hold a spaceship; how it had gotten there was a care for later. As
they reach the fireproof door that accesses the central room, they
notice it's open. Carefully stepping into the dimly-lit room, they
see the spaceship standing there as a dark giant, seeming to wait
for an order.
"Oh my god." Scully gasps.
"I'll say." Buffy agrees with her.
"See, I told you spaceships existed." Mulder tries to lighten the
mood. It's working as they're relaxing slightly, only enough to not
twitch involuntarily, they've still got their guard up however.
"Let's go, I think I've found the hatch," Steve calls out from a
little ahead, "we put the message inside and get out of here."
Stein just couldn't believe this ! His car's tire had flattened !
This was just his luck. By the time he'd get to the hills, everything
would be over. He'd never prove Blake had been there. Damn ! Damn,
damn, damn ! He throws up his hands in frustration and calls the
bureau to send him a squad car to pick him up.
In the hills, everyone is tense and all are looking in the same
direction as those with headgears, trying to figure out where the
thing was, but it was invisible: an invisible predator with
lycanthrope speed and a killer instinct. Most were softly praying
the thing wouldn't eat them, as though it would help. It probably
didn't have a god.
Edward had moved near me and Richard. To protect us. I had let him
and so had Richard.
"He's stopped." Edward says, he's back to his usual composed self.
"I can't smell him." Richard states, voice bland.
"What ?" I ask softly. No need in pissing the damn thing off.
"He's standing upwind and there's no smell coming from it." Oz and
Willow join us.
"Can you see it or are you just looking where everyone else is
looking ?" Willow asks Richard.
"I'm afraid it's the latter. This thing is too good." Richard says
calmly.
Rangor was nearing the source of the power surge. Just one more
hilltop. He leapt towards it, his powerful back legs giving him the
thrust he needed to make the jump. He landed gracefully on his feet,
although you couldn't see it. His cloaking device was on. As he looks
towards the clearing, he sees a group of oomans standing there.
They're not moving. Rangor doesn't notice any weapons, so he assumes
they have no hostile intentions. No ooman was strong enough to take
him on, but he was still cautious: they were looking at something. At
him ? How could they see him ? The new suits that had become standard
issue since they last came here, masked all pheromone emissions that
were otherwise typical of his people. They were now also stable under
higher temperatures: the Mark 2 suit had the annoying habit of
shimmering when the air was too hot. But then how did they know ? He
checked his base temperature off the environment temperature: there
was a 5 degree difference ! Running here had upped his body
temperature faster than his suit could cover up ! He cycled though
the built-in view modes of his helmet and found the scanner setting:
he swept his gaze over the oomans. Several of them had a device which
was scanning heat. All details of the devices appeared next to them
in his people's language: Heat Detection System, Communications
Device, Projectile Weapon: these oomans were not hunters but they had
drawn him here, why ? Out of curiosity, or ... He suddenly had a bad
feeling: had they found out about his ship ? If they had, others were
probably inside ! He had to get back as soon as possible ! He quickly
switched his view mode back to Infra-Red and activated the
temperature-control override. It would cool him off faster, but it
would put a power drain on his energy reserve. It didn't matter now:
he had to get back to his ship !
She is the Slayer, the Chosen One: one girl in each generation,
chosen to fight the evil in this world. She was killed during her
fight with the Master Vampire of Sunnydale and became Immortal. When
Steve came to Sunnydale, she gladly accepted his help in fighting the
vampires. She became his pupil/lover and they have been living
together since the vampire slayfest. Her mother, Joyce, left for LA
with Hank Summers, whom she had been divorced from. They got together
again and confident that Buffy is in good hands, have left her in
Steve's care.
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully:
They are Immortals. Used to work on the X-Files and got killed while
investigating a case that involved an Immortal. They have helped
Steve defeat the Sunnydale vampires a few years back. Since then,
they haven't left the FBI and got promoted to Director and Assistant-
Director of the Paranormal Division, which handles all federal cases
involving paranormal aspects.
The following are not Immortals:
Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, Cordelia Chase:
--Xander is a young man who has military memories after a freak
Halloween in Sunnydale.
Oz:
Oz got bitten by his cousin, a lycanthrope, and has been changing
into a werewolf ever since. Has received a great boost in strength
due to his adolescence. Joined Buffy's group to help them fight evil.
He looks like a scrawny kid, but looks are deceiving: he has become
very strong and quick: qualities which all lycanthropes share.
Amy Madison:
Amy is a Wiccan, a witch. She has the ability to cast offensive and
defensive spells. Joined Buffy's group for the same reason Oz did: to
fight evil.
Rupert Giles, Jenny Calendar:
--Giles has trained and helped Buffy ever since she came to Sunnydale.
Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c:
They form the SG1 team. They work for Stargate Command, a military
organization that has discovered a mysterious artifact and uses it to
explore alien worlds, as it is a portal device of sorts. They call it
the Stargate. After their first mission to Abydos, a planet that
resembles our classical Egypt, they have discovered that an alien
race is trying to take over the galaxy, using the Stargate as a quick
means of transportation. They have also discovered it is not this
race which has built the Stargate, they are just exploiting the
system.
Anita Blake:
She is an animator and a vampire hunter/executioner. She is very good
at her job and keeps discovering new powers, partly due to her own
necromancer powers, partly due to the fact she shares a bond with
Richard, an alpha male werewolf, and Jean-Claude, a Master Vampire.
Both men are her lovers, but she has put them off for now to deal
with her powers. She comes from the city of Saint-Louis, where the
animating firm she works at is based. She is the local werewolf
pack's lupa, Richard's mate and Queen. She is also the Nimir-Ra, or
Queen, of the local were-leopard pard. She's also only 5'3", but she
is unmistakably tough. Vampires call her the Executioner, she is the
bogeyman of all vampire kind.
Richard Zeeman:
He is one of the men in Anita's life. He's an alpha male werewolf and
shares a complex love/power triangle with Anita and Jean-Claude, the
Master Vampire of the city of Saint-Louis. He's over 6 feet tall,
very handsome and has a smile that can melt women into quivering
puddles. He's very idealistic, sort of like the world's biggest Boy
Scout.
Jason:
He is a young werewolf and an incredible tease. He hits on anything
that looks attractive or appetizing enough. He's got blonde hair and
stands rather short at 5'3", exactly Anita's height.
He belongs to Anita and Richard's pack in Saint Louis.
Zane, Cherry and Nathaniel:
They are the wereleopards that 'belong' to Anita. They went to her as
a default after she killed their former leader, Gabriel, who pimped
them out to rough clients for SM sex.
Edward:
Real name unknown. Has a bounty hunter licence registered to Ted
Forrester, although that's probably an alias. Edward is a bounty
hunter who specializes in lycanthropes and vampires, since humans
'have become too easy'. He's a kindred spirit to Anita, but much
worse: the vampires call Anita the Executioner, but they call Edward
Death. And for good reason: he has been known to use flamethrowers on
vampires and carries a lot of firepower. He's also a skilled burglar,
since he's broken into Anita's place a few times over. Gets Anita a
lot of her guns. He is not an imposing man, at 5'6", and he looks rather innocent with blonde hair and blue eyes. Again: looks are deceiving: those eyes can quickly become those of a predator. Edward has a perfect record and
wouldn't let anything spoil it. He's basically your friendly
neighbourhood sociopath and any who have crossed him, have died. He
works for money, but would probably do some jobs for free. But why do
it for free when you can get paid?
Sunnydale, California
-35000
A snowy plain
[The view shifts over the plain, and enters a cave, when suddenly a
sliding noise is heard, followed by a splash which illuminates the
cave. The scene shifts into the room where the sound and lights are
coming from.]
Sunnydale, California
-8000
A candle-lit cavern is visible, with strange chantings echoing off
the walls. A tall figure stands amidst a group of seven men, all are
chanting. The tall man is shown close: he is older than the others
with a greying beard, but there is an evil gleam in his eye. As the
chanting increases, a hum can be heard echoing off the walls. The
other men walk up to a circular artifact and each locks a small metal
plate over a symbol. The artifact starts powering up. They move out
of the room. The old man calls out to the cavern in an ancient
language. As he speaks the last words, a lightning bolt crashes down
from the heavens onto the cave, crashing through the rock and
knocking a hole in the room's floor, causing the now opened portal
and the old man to fall down a seemingly endless hole.
Timeline/Info:
The story picks up in 2003, 5 years after the events of Chronicles 1.
Steve and Buffy are still in Sunnydale, fighting the occasional
vampire and counteracting any anomaly the Hellmouth causes.
Shortly after the slayfest, the Education Board decided to build a
college in Sunnydale. Buffy and the Slayerettes are in their final
years, Giles is head librarian at college and Ms. Calendar got a job
teaching computer science.
Sunnydale, California
November 21st
2003
3.00 am
Gina is running through the darker alleys of Sunnydale. She just
hadn't noticed the time. Her mother would be furious !! She shouldn't
have gone to the Bronze tonight, what with her father sick, but
dammit it was his own fault, he should have quit smoking a long time
ago. Just as she rounds another corner, she is knocked down by the
person she runs into.
Sunnydale
November 22nd
4.00 pm
Detective Stein was not a happy man. Not only had he not had any
sleep, now he probably wasn't going to get any this afternoon either.
He was looking at the body of a man, minus head, dragged from one of
the trenches near the highway. The fingerprints have been sent to the
bureau. 'Just some freak accident' he thinks.
Sunnydale
November 22nd
6.00 pm
Mike was pissed. They'd found Harry beheaded, said he tried to rape a
girl. He was willing to believe that, Harry had drunk way too much
that night, but the guy who did it, wouldn't get away with it, no
way. He grabbed his shotgun and walked out, hoping he'd find that
bastard. As he's driving around town, he suddenly sees someone
creeping into the slaughterhouse. Letting his curiosity get the
better of him, he parks his car and decides to follow the burglar. As
he enters the room, he can smell the death that hangs in the air.
Sunnydale
November 22nd
7.00 pm
Stein had a headache. Still no sleep and he was looking at another
dead body. This one looked like it had been eaten. Judging from the
rests of beef lying on the ground, it looked as though some wild dogs
had entered and eaten the meat and the man, like it had happened to
the previous high school principal, Flutie. 'Man, I hate this town'.
The young officer walks up to him with info on the man: another
local, was friends with the first, yada yada. Stein hadn't heard much
after that, he was slurring off. The sound of his name in an all too
familiar voice woke him up though.
Animators Inc., Saint Louis
November 22nd
12.00 pm
As I'm getting ready for my appointments, Craig, our nighttime
secretary calls out from behind his computer: "Anita, you've got
mail. From the police."
"I'm coming. Go ahead and open it." That had been another of Bert's
ideas: the Internet would make Animators Inc. famous. So far it had
worked: the web site Bert had put up was frequently visited, not only
by people who wanted a family member raised, but by the curious too.
Animating is really popular, as it would seem. There was even a
message board where people could leave messages for us or someone
else to read. A lot of those were addressed to me, I make great
publicity, apparently.
Stargate Command
November 22nd
12.00 pm
Jack O'Neill was tired. After returning from their latest trip, which
had revealed absolutely NOTHING, the debriefing had seemed even more
boring than other times. He'd just stripped down to his briefs when
he noticed the 'You've got mail'-flag on his computer. "Ah, what the
heck." He loads the contents of his mailbox: a letter from his pal
Steve. 'Long time no hear, I wonder what's up.' The message is about
a metal sample that was sent over for examination. Jack is intrigued
and decides to check it out himself, when suddenly the door opens and
Samantha Carter rushes in. "Sir, you're wanted in the laboratory."
She suddenly blushes heavily at the sight of a semi-nude Jack and
rushes out the door even faster than she came in.
Sunnydale
November 23rd
2.00 am
Brandberg was pleased. His Master had ordered him to find a place
where he could reside and he had found one rather easily: the
abandoned power plant would be perfect for his Master. He had seen
someone in there though, so he'd have to take care of that one first.
Anything to please his Master. Brandberg snuck in and started walking
around the plant, not noticing the pair of blue glowing eyes
following him from above. The shape was nothing more than a dark
blur, but the eyes stood out in the dark, like two hovering flames in
a world of darkness, silent, watching, following.
Sunnydale
November 23rd
3.00 am
As Steve is walking Giles and Miss Calendar home, they can't stop
asking him about the Stargate project. He says he really can't tell
anything else than what he already said during the meeting. They
leave him alone with that.
"I have received an e-mail from Joe Dawson confirming that Anita
Blake is not an Immortal. It appears most of her friends are actually
lycanthropes and vampires." Giles says.
"How did they find out about that ?" Steve asks in wonder.
"It wasn't specified, but Watchers are bound to find out something
about the persons they are assigned to watch."
"Is there a Watcher on Anita Blake ? Why ?"
LA-X
November 23rd
2.00 pm
Steve and group are standing in the arrival hall of LA-X, waiting for
the plane from Washington to land.
"Explain it to me again." Cordelia demands.
"I told you: I called Mulder, because this is way over our heads, and
he *is* the director of the Paranormal Division of the FBI. I told
him what happened this morning and he said he was leaving
immediately, he warned me that I shouldn't call in anyone else. That
it was of the highest importance. And frankly, I don't wanna argue
with him now. This is getting weird." Steve explains - again.
Stargate Command
November 23rd
10.00 am
Jack O'Neill and his team were being sent out to Sunnydale; although
this wasn't strictly a Stargate mission, it was still related and
they were the best team available. He didn't mind, he'd finally get
out of the base for a while. They had to wear civilian clothes, as
this was an undercover mission. That was just fine with him: he'd
finally get to wear something besides combat gear. He'd chosen a
comfy sports outfit that still allowed him to go for the gun in his
shoulder holster. Civilian clothing or not, he wasn't taking any
chances.
Sunnydale
The next morning
Steve's house.
As I'm walking down the stairs, I nearly laugh at the sight: on and
near the couch, the weres are huddled: Zane, Nathaniel and Cherry
clamped together, Jason lying next to them. They look really cute
when they're sleeping.
Edward is still sitting in his chair, eyes closed, but I'm betting
he's not sleeping.
I'm right as he opens his eyes and looks at me, eyes neutral. I make
a sign to the kitchen: no reason in waking the rest. He follows me.
"So what else are you going to pull from your hat?"
"If I had used everything I had learned throughout time, you would
have been even more suspicious than you are now."
That was probably true, but ...
Sunnydale Police Office
The same day
11.00 am
"Look, something came up." I'm getting angry. This is the second time
Det. Stein asks me why I'm late and the second time I answer and he's
still pissed.
"Look, Ms Blake, we have a murder on our hands, I just want this to
be dealt with as quickly as possible. And who are those two ?"
He's pointing a stubby finger at Zane and Cherry. In his worst day,
Zane might have bitten it off. But I couldn't take Richard: he'd been
under suspicion of rape not so long ago; and I certainly couldn't
take Edward, and no, not just because of recent developments. Steve
had told me that none of their group sat well with Det. Stein, so
they were out. Nathaniel was too exotic: with auburn hair to his
knees and lilac eyes, he'd have set off the cop sense instantly. And
Jason was a pain in the ass.
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