Disclaimers - I do not own any of the
characters commonly associated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are used
without permission. No copyright
infringement is intended.
Other Disclaimers - The Jersey Vamp Vixen
belongs to Kimber, Brother Patrick belongs to Pat Kelly - both of whom are
appearing with permission, kind of.
They have no earthly idea what I'm about to do to them. <evil grin>
Other Disclaimers 2 – Kirby, Ryn and Mattias
Reinhardt belong to me - well Kirby does anyway. Mattias belongs to himself,
since he's my favourite cousin and pretty much consented to be in the
series. {After I threatened to announce
his date of birth to the entire list.}
<big grin>
Feedback - Shadowlander1@coastalnet.com - or - Tankesly@rocketmail.com
The large
dark-haired biker walked into Willy’s bar, making sure that the door slammed
shut behind him, effectively getting the attention of the small crowd gathered
there hiding from the sun. “Which one of you refugees from hell, is
William the Bloody-Useless?” The giant asked removing his sunglasses and
putting them into the inner pocket of his leather jacket. “Come now lads,
I don’t have all day,” he added after a moment, a slow wicked grin forming on
his face.
‘Sod off you
bleeding aristocratic wanker.” Spike growled from his spot at the corner
table in the back of the dimly lit room, where he had been nursing a bottle of
whiskey for the past three days.
“Aristocratic?”
The giant questioned arching one dark eyebrow as he zeroed in on his
quarry. “Billy, I’m proud of you…that ‘word-a-day’ calendar is coming in
handy after all. And you were worried that you would never be able to
pronounce any of the worlds. … So tell me, did you actually sound the word out
or have someone tell you?” He asked standing over the smashed vampire at
the table.
Spike only
growled in reply, sending the chair and table crashing to the floor as he
suddenly stood, his eyes flashing yellow/gold as he stared up at the biker
towering over him.
“How the hell
are you, big brother?” the giant asked mischief shining clear in his brown eyes
as he calmly let the drunken vampire growl at him.
“Patrick, you
worthless excuse for a demon, what are you doing in Sunnyhell?” Spike
questioned after a moment, a wide grin spreading over his ‘game’ face as he
threw his arms around the tall biker and tried to lift him off the ground.
“Got some
business to take care of…thought I’d pay a visit to my big brother while I’m in
town.” Patrick replied, righting the table and pulling up a chair.
“Word has gotten around about that chip in your head. Thought it was time
for Mary’s boys to have a family reunion. It just doesn’t sit right with
me, some crazy Yank putting a piece of metal in me favourite brother’s
head. Sounds too Trekkish.” he explained giving himself a brief
shake. He and Spike may not have seen each other in over a hundred years,
not to mention having parted on less then friendly conditions, but in the end
they were still brothers and some things were more important than who was more
demon and who had a pesky soul or not.
*************************
“So G-man what
is the big deal about this Reinhardt guy?” Faith questioned the former
Watcher, as she dropped onto the couch and made herself right at home by
putting her feet up on the coffee table.
“Mattias and I
trained together, in a lot of ways he was the reason I even completed training
at all.” Giles explained recalling the soft-spoken German from Stuttgart
who liked to play chess no matter how bad he was at it. “If he wants to
meet with us, it is important.”
“I don’t like
it B...G-man is worried.” The dark slayer noted in a low voice to the
blonde seated on the arm of the chair not far from her. Usually the
former-Watcher would have given Faith and Buffy his patented “Watcher-look” for
misusing his furniture.
A knock at the
door interrupted whatever Buffy was going to say, all eyes turning toward the
entryway as Giles went to greet whoever was on the other side. A moment
later Giles returned leading a man with graying hair and two women.
“A-ah Mattias
Reinhardt, I would like for you to meet Faith, Buffy, Anya, Willow and
Xander,” Giles began somewhat nervously, he had not been expecting his
old friend to arrive with two others. He couldn’t shake the feeling that
something very bad was about to happen. Of course, he pretty much had
that feeling from day one in the library, when he had first met Buffy Summers,
and that had never since gone away.
“Nice to met
all of you,” Reinhardt replied, a small smile on his face. ‘So this is the
infamous Scooby Gang,’ he noted silently already liking the little group.
“This is Professor Kimber Dracovich.” He continued indicating the tall
redhead in the tailored dark suit. “And this is Kirby Ryn....the vampire
Slayer.”
The silence
that followed his announcement was near deafening, as Kirby stood with arms
crossed and observed the gathering with a slightly cocked head. ‘Mattias
HAS got to be joking! Two of these guys are Slayers?’ She wondered
to herself. ‘What the hell is so important about this town to rate two
Slayers?’
“Fuck
that!” Faith growled breaking the silence. “That is a Slayer?” she
questioned accusingly pointing a finger at Kirby. “You have got to be
joking me.”
“Funny...I had
the same reaction when I heard about you.” Kirby replied calmly. ‘So this
is number one, where is number two?’ she asked herself studying the younger
Slayer with an arched eyebrow.
“Mattias, what
is going on here?” Giles suddenly spoke, snapping out of the state of
shock he had fallen into at his old friend’s words.
With a tired
sigh, “It is very simple Rupert. Kirby here has been a Slayer for the
past eleven years.” Reinhardt replied looking the Englishman straight in
the eye.
“But that is
impossible. How could Buffy or Faith have been called if there was
already an active Slayer?” Xander questioned, opening his mouth before
his brain had a chance to process anything. “Shouldn’t she be dead?”
“I got
better,” Kirby deadpanned. “As did one of these two from what I
understand.”
“You died,”
Willow said softly, her mind already working in high gear. “Of course, it
makes sense...if Buffy could die and be brought back why not another Slayer as
well?”
‘Ah number
two..’ Kirby noted with a small smile, giving the blonde a quick once over.
“But that doesn’t
explain why Kendra seemed so surprised when she showed up and found out Buffy
was still alive,” Willow continued more to herself then anyone
else.
“That is what
we are here for. To find that out,” Kimber replied breaking into the
young hacker’s one-sided conversation. “You see up ‘til three weeks ago,
Kirby knew nothing of the two additional Slayers or of the Hellmouth.”
“The hell
what?” Kirby looked around the room expectantly. “Come on, help the
senior-Slayer out here? What the fuck is a Hellmouth...and why wasn’t I
told another was called while I was in hospital?”
“The
Hellmouth...is just that. It is the mouth of hell, a portal linking earth
to the underworld.” Giles explained taking his glasses off to polish
them.
“I thought that
was New Jersey?” Kirby commented only to get smacked on the back of the
head by an un-amused Jersey native named Kimber. Giving her friend a smug
look, before turning her attention back to Giles. “Ok the town is over
the mouth of hell. But that still doesn't explain why I was never told
about another being
called.”
“Because you
were needed in Europe.”
“Those little
bastards.” Kirby growled running a hand through her shoulder length
unruly curly hair. “They do know that slavery was abolished about a
hundred fifty years ago, right?”
“That....that’s
just wrong,” Willow replied, her eyes widening in realization. ‘How can
they have so little regard for people’s lives? Use people they are
supposed to be helping?’ she questioned herself, growing angry as she began to
pace the living room.
“Ah hello
confused guy here. You two want to let the rest of us in on whatever you’re mad
about?”
“Think about
it Xander....The Slayer has just died and come back, another gets called.
What do you do?" Willow asked her childhood friend, pausing in her
restless pacing to collect herself.
“Oh fuck
me. You take your new little chosen one and assign her to another
hotspot, although you conveniently forget to tell your current chosen one, that
she now has a twin.”
“Well why
bother? It’s not like a Slayer ever needed a little backup from time to
time. We’re not THAT hard to replace,” Kirby added bitterly.
“Now you know
why we are here, mein freund,” Mattias said to Giles. “It seems our
Slayers have been ‘screwed over’, as they say, by the Council. What are
we going to do about it?”
End part one– because Quindo said it would be a good place to stop.