Fic: Convergent Slayers (4/?)

[annelise@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Fourth Part of a First Attempt At BuffyFic. *sniffle*
Comments/Flames/Etc. to: ladyvyxen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks to all three of you who like this. :>
(If I get more flames, I'll probably combust, but send 'em anyway!)

#INCLUDE <AnotherDisclaimer.txt>

Anne-Lise.

--

Always in shadows, always there's dust. Alone and fearing; 
eternally hunted. Who would choose such a life? Very few. But a 
number, like myself, we never had a choice. We were the Chosen, 
forced to be prey.

*

"Nothing!" Buffy fumed.
Willow gave her lover a comforting hug. "What were you expecting?"
"I don't know. Something. Anything! Not nothing." Buffy looked 
around her at the dank and charred walls. "I hate this place. Come 
on, let's get out of here."
"I'm with you."
Buffy smiled. "You really know how to cheer me up."
"I do seem to have a strange effect on people." Willow pointed out.
"Actually," Buffy mused, "Xander said pretty much the same thing."
"Pah!" Willow tilted her chin. "I've known female amoebae who've had 
strange effects on Xander."
"Gotta love those single-celled life-forms!" Buffy agreed.
"I..." Willow staggered, then dropped to the floor in a dead faint. 
Blood seeped from where her face had impacted the ground.
"Willow!"

*

Xander tried unsuccessfully to console the distraught Slayer as she 
wept freely in Sunnydale Hospital's overburdened Accident and 
Emergency waiting room. A grim-faced Giles joined them.
"How is she? Have you had any word?" Giles asked them, his concern 
obvious.
"Nothing yet," supplied Xander. "They're still examining her."
"Buffy?" Giles laid a paternal hand on Buffy's shoulder, "What 
happened out there?"
Buffy shook her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her 
hand. "Nothing happened. The place was dead, and then she just fell 
down."
"So she wasn't attacked?" Giles looked confused.
"No. One moment she's fine, and then she's flat out."
"I can tell you what happened." A newcomer spoke. He wore outdated 
clothes and looked a little shifty.
"Its you," breathed Buffy.
"Who?" Xander and Giles both asked, equally mystified.
The strangely-dressed demon just shrugged. "A friend. I go by the 
name Whistler."
"Whistler?" Giles frowned, the name meant something to him... "You 
show up when a Slayer is called. I've heard of you."
Whistler stared at Giles as if reading his thoughts. "You'd be a 
Watcher then, so I guess I'm not going to be needed here after all."
"I don't quite follow," Giles put in.
"Faith got herself killed." Whistler informed them. "The way the 
magic works, it seeks out she who can do the most to help in the 
struggle against evil." 
Giles nodded slowly. His eyes widened. "Willow." he said.
Buffy stood, mouth open.
"What?" Xander asked.

*

Joyce Summers looked up from her book when the door knocked. She 
unbolted the door and let it slide open a touch on its security 
chain. After learning her daughter was the Slayer, she'd become wary 
of inviting anyone into her home. Although with the increasing number 
of mysterious deaths in the area, having a Slayer as a daughter 
wasn't really the main reason for caution. Travelling salesmen saw 
Sunnydale as a real tough gig.
"Hello? Oh, you're Buffy's friend, Tara right? Please, come in." 
"Thank you."

*

"No!" Buffy shouted, drawing the glare of interns and patients 
alike. "Choose someone else!"
"I don't make the decisions," Whistler sighed. "I just know who'll 
be next. I feel it," he tapped his chest, "in here, like a pull."
"Whistler," Giles interrupted, "How many Slayers are there right 
now?"
Buffy blinked. "Hey Giles, have you forgotten? 'Unto each 
generation', yada, yada, yada?"
Giles held up his hand. "I've heard rumours of there being another 
Slayer. Here. I only knew to there being two; Buffy, and the Slayer 
created when Buffy nearly died."
"You think," Whistler said, "that Buffy was the first Slayer to be 
taken to the cusp of death then pulled back? Hey, it's a dangerous 
job. Near-death situations go hand-in-hand."
"So," Xander asked, "like the guy said, how many Slayers are there 
out there?"
"Including yourself," he indicated Buffy, "and your friend in there, 
four."
Giles sank into his seat. "This is momentous news."
"Priorities, Giles." Buffy fumed. She rounded on Whistler. "You made 
Willow a demon magnet!"
"I told you I don't get to choose!" Whistler shrugged. "Forget it, 
I'm going." Whistler's form altered, its consistency changing to 
become more like smoke.
Buffy reached out to grab him by the shoulder but her hand passed 
through the place where he'd stood as Whistler dissipated into 
nothing. 
"Now what?" Xander demanded.

*

"So what's wrong?" Joyce asked. "Buffy isn't here, she's still away 
at University."
"Oh..." Tara frowned. "I was just there but couldn't find her. I 
thought she might have come home. I could really use her help."
"Her help?" Joyce's hand fluttered to her mouth. "I take it this 
isn't about schoolwork then."
Tara's face changed into its vampiric form. "You could say that," 
she growled.
Joyce screamed.

*

"Hey you." Buffy caressed her lover's cheek as she lay in a 
clinically-white hospital bed.
"Hey yourself," Willow replied weakly. "I think I'm beginning to 
hate these places too."
Buffy gave her a slight smile. "At least you don't see demons 
sucking the life from the children's ward."
"True. And I get to eat jello," she pointed out.
"Have the daydreams about demons stopped yet?" Buffy asked, staring 
intently at her lover's face.
"How did you..." she trailed off. "What's going on Buffy?"
"Faith died." Best to tell her straight out, Buffy thought. "You're 
the next Slayer. You've been called."
Willow lay still giving no reaction, then, "Oh." A pause. "I like 
this dream better than the last one," she declared.
Buffy hand held Willow's, and she wept.

*

First came the screams, drawing others. Some stood in shocked 
silence, some cried, some screamed too while still others fell into 
hysterics. No two people reacted the same. Very little was said, 
however. What could you say? The police got called in, the military 
turned up, although no-one questioned why they were there, or why 
they were so young. The area was cordoned off and a search began to 
try and locate the missing heads of the five small bodies that lay in 
the very centre of Sunnydale's Mall.

*

"You've done well!" the Master pronounced, and his cherubic face 
twisted into a feral grin.
"We did only as you asked," a demon spoke up.
"That's what I meant," the Master replied. "Tonight the annointed 
one will be brought before me, and together with the Chosen, she will 
bring fear to the people." Cheers rang out amongst the 
listeners. "Ah, I love the scent of fear in the air."

*

"What's going on?" Giles asked the severely wigged Xander.
"She's back! Quick, get Buffy!" Xander grabbed giles by the lapels.
"Who's back? Calm down." Giles frowned until Xander collected 
himself and sheepishly let go.
"The mantis woman. They found five headless corpses in the mall!" 
Xander informed him.
"Are you sure? She was seen?"
"No! But how many creatures do you know that have a fetish for head?"
"I'll neglect to answer that," Buffy replied joining them, "on the 
grounds that it may severely upset your male egos. What's going on?"
"Apparently they found some headless corpses in the mall." Giles 
informed her.
"Its the mantis woman, she's come back!" Xander provided.
"Down boy!" Buffy ordered. "You sure it wasn't just someone that got 
in Cordelia's way during a sale?"
Xander blinked, and Giles took a moment before saying, "Bad taste, 
Buffy."
"Stopped wigging yet?" Buffy gave Xander a concerned look.
"I... guess so."
"Good. Its not mantis-woman, its vampires. Cult of Areleus, death of 
five, remember?"
Xander paused as the news sank in. "Oh. Oh yeah!" He smiled.
"You needn't look so cheerful," Giles put in, "there's still the 
matter of five dead people."
"Dreadful, isn't it?" said a passing orderly. "I just heard about 
it. Its simply awful, and so young too."
"Young?" Buffy asked.
"Yes, didn't you hear? They were all children."
Gile's disgusted face reflected all their feelings.
"Someone's gotta pay." Xander said as the orderly bustled away.
"Yeah." Buffy nodded.

*

End Part 4.