Fic: Convergent Slayers 3 (1/1)

["sochankitsune" <annelise@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I'm sitting in a small internet lounge in Singapore right now, 
and for want of something better to do, I wrote the following.

Proviso: I was too tired to proof-read as much as I could have. 
Forgive me any silly mistakes, as I'm writing in Notepad.

Anne-Lise,
Sleepy Muse.

--

Tepid midnight gave no discomfort to Kyoko Tanaka. She walked the 
never-deserted byways of Brisbane and headed deep into the back 
alleys and loading areas that housed the delinquent and the drunken; 
easy prey for those in need. She came across one such example and 
bared her fang teeth. Yet something was amiss.
"Looking for trouble?" The heavy male voice behind her belonged to 
an even heavier male vampire; no fledgling this, for years rolled in 
turmoil behind his blood-crazed eyes.
Kyoko grinned, and turned. Shocked, the other vampire realised his 
mistake. This was no do-gooder student out to change the world and 
aid the afflicted; this was another blood-drinker like himself, out 
for mischief, pain and terror.
"I am trouble," she whispered, and drew from her studded belt a 
long, vicious katana blade with a faint chime of steel. "Wanna play?"
The vampire gave no retort. He never really had the chance, for 
with unerring accuracy Kyoko had pinned her blade through his evil 
heart and watched as he blossomed into ash. "Aw, you're no fun."
The drunk before her on the floor opened a bleary eye, and writing 
off the feral bitch as yet another hallucination, turned slightly and 
continued in his stupor.
"Bored now," Kyoko whispered, and drew from her pocket a small Nokia 
cell-phone which she switched on.

*

"I thought you were dead!" Daniels screamed down the tinny Telstra 
connection.
"But I am dead," Kyoko pointed out with infuriating accuracy.
Daniels fought for a modicum of self-control. "You know what I 
mean! Deader!"
"Oh," Kyoko fought down an urge to laugh. "I thought you'd be happy 
to hear from me. I can always hang up..."
"No!" Kyoko grinned as she heard Jason Daniels, her Initiative 
Response handler, trying to get a grip on himself. "No, please don't 
do that." Daniels had once been selected as a potential Watcher, but 
his chance hadn't arisen; Buffy Summers had exceeded beyond the 
expected life-span of any Slayer (sort of), and though another had 
indeed been called, well, the 'happy couple' didn't require two 
Watchers. 
So Daniels became surplus to requirement; the Council offered him 
cross-training to Initiative Response, a similar agency but with a 
little less tweed. Daniels accepted it with due courtesy, for he'd 
felt a little adrift. And now here he was Watching over a Slayer, 
albeit one already dead. Life was just full of little ironies. "Where 
are you?" he managed to ask at last.
"You can find me outside Brisbane City Hall," she answered. "Near 
the hotel where we last met."
Daniels swallowed. "I'll be right there."

*

Daniels came across Kyoko sitting in a fountain opposite the City 
Hall, chewing on an apple.
"I... didn't know vampires could eat... normal foods," he offered 
weakly, neglecting to comment on Kyoko's dampened posterior.
"We don't as a rule," Kyoko replied. "Most foodstuffs taste bad, but 
I like the smell." She dropped the apple into the fountain where it 
bobbed uncertainly. "And I never swallow."
"Really?" Daniels asked, mentally kicking himself for his schoolboy 
thoughts.
"Really," Kyoko affirmed. "They give me stomach cramps."
Daniels nodded. "Well, you live and learn."
"You might," Kyoko snarled and bared her fang teeth, "if only I were 
to let you live."
Few were sober enough to hear Daniels' sudden scream of terror, and 
of those few, none cared.

*

In direct contrast to the neon gloom of Brisbane, Willow opened her 
eyes and greeted the day with the sight of Buffy Summers in a cooking-
apron, and nothing else.
"Surprise!" Buffy waved a spatula as she checked in on her sleepy 
wife.
Willow rubbed her sleep-blurred eyes and stared in mild wonder at 
Buffy's enticing rear as it bobbed back towards the kitchen. She 
climbed out of bed, searching out the top to her jammies, then 
descended the stairs feeling a little like Alice falling down into 
Wonderland; Buffy had made breakfast!
"And if you're good," Buffy added with a teasing smile, "you'll get 
dessert too!"
Willow smile answered Buffy's. "My favourite!"

*

"Oh come on," Kyoko giggled as Daniels drove them erratically back 
to the cramped IR office housed within Brisbane International 
Airport's security offices. "It was funny."
Daniels jammed his foot on the brake, and with squealing tyres 
leaving an imprint of smouldering rubber on the concrete freeway, he 
pulled the Toyota into a sudden halt by the side of the road. "It was 
not," he sputtered, "bloody funny! I could have killed you!"
Kyoko laughed so hard tears ran freely down both cheeks. Her eyes 
were screwed into tiny slits and she found it hard to breathe. 
Luckily, she had no need of oxygen for survival, but without it 
speech was impossible. Her peals of laughter proved infectious and 
soon Daniels was overcome also.
"Okay, maybe it was a little bit funny," he admitted.
Kyoko held her hands in the air in a Macauley Culkin impression, 
and imitated Daniels' scream (although using a good deal less volume).
"Okay," Daniels grumped. "Enough already."
Kyoko lay curled in her chair as Daniels resumed driving, clutching 
her sides and struggling for breath. God, her handler was the perfect 
anodyne for her melancholy.

*

"Today's gonna be perfect," Buffy sighed as she nibbled softly on 
Willow's ear. Today was their anniversary, although not the one 
people normally celebrated. This was the anniversary of the day they 
first realised they were in love with each other. It was the kind of 
date Willow marked on the calendar in that quirky manner of hers, and 
Buffy had noticed. Their repose was ruined, however, by the insistent 
rattling of Buffy's pager, still set to 'vibrate' (her favourite 
setting), on the glass surface of the coffee table.
"You jinxed it!" Willow accused, and giggled at Buffy's 'what did I 
do?' expression.
Buffy read the LCD. "We've got work to do," she sighed.
"Of course we do," Willow rolled her eyes. "Finn's the only one that 
knows that number, and I doubt he has this particular anniversary 
marked!"
Buffy leaned in close and gave Willow a heart-jerking kiss. "I 
guess I'll have to make it up to you later," she promised.
"You will?" Willow asked.
"Of course," Buffy replied. "I always keep my promises!"
Willow grinned. "Liar!"
"Hey!" Buffy tackled her backwards onto the cushions, and Willow let 
her. "I try."
Willow gave her a fond smile. "I know," she said. "I know."

*

"Abu Simbel?" Kyoko groaned, and rubbed ruefully at her forehead.
Daniels nodded. They sat opposite each other in the small, sterile, 
air-conditioned room that served as the Australian IR office. "You 
were selected because of your past experience, you know, with your 
knowledge of the geography of the land.
"Its a good job I came back when I did then, isn't it?" Kyoko's 
response was sardonic.
"Enough of that insolence," Daniels replied in his stern Watcher's 
voice. "Why, didn't you like the place the last time you were there?"
"Its in Egypt," Kyoko pointed out, as a teacher might to a simple 
student.
Daniels nodded. "I know. I looked it up in the atlas."
"And Egypt is a desert," Kyoko continued. "Pop quiz, moron. Word 
association; Name something you associate with deserts."
"Sand?" Daniels replied, confused.
Kyoko stared back as if her were a moron. "Try again."
"Sun?" Realisation dawned on Daniels' face. "Oh."
"You win the teddy bear," Kyoko sighed.

*

"I hate airline food," Willow whined as she cast about for something 
to munch. "There's never anything good to eat."
Buffy, half-listening, peered up from her snooze, and grinned. "Oh, 
come on! You can do better than that!"
Willow furrowed her brow, confused. "What do you mean?"
"What, that wasn't a, you know, a line?" Buffy asked as she rubbed 
absently at her blouse.
Willow shrugged. "I guess it could be."

*

Anyanka peered in on the couple, her stewardesses hat seemed 
somehow fitting perched vaguely askew on her head. She considered 
asking the pair if they wanted something off the tray, especially as 
she'd heard Willow's moans about being hungry, but decided against it 
after all. She quite liked her job, and wouldn't want to do anything 
to threaten it. She'd just monitor the 'situation' periodically and 
bring in some food as soon as they were finished. It looked like 
they'd be needing her to keep their strength up after all. She was 
the unsung hero of their success, or so she believed.
She stood there quietly for a few moments more, and got quite 
flustered herself. She silently slipped back into the main cabin and 
through the unlocked door to the pilot's lounge.
Xander sat in the Captain's chair of the cockpit, keeping an 
experienced weather-eye on the gauges as the autopilot cruised them 
over Asian airspace.
"How're things going with the happy couple?" he asked.
"Oh," Anya considered, "they certainly seem to be happily coupling. 
How are things in here? Do you need coffee? I can make coffee now! 
Sam showed me how." She beamed proudly.
"I'd love some," Xander nodded cheerfully. "Any cake?" he added, 
hopefully.
Anya shook her head. "No. Well, there is, but there's only two 
small packages left, and I wanted to use those to win favour with 
Buffy and Willow. Besides," and she pressed a finger against Xander's 
belly, "you're getting fat!" She turned, and marched back into the 
main cabin, trying to forget how hot Xander looked in his Captain's 
outfit. She sighed dreamily. What a man!
Xander sighed too, but for a very different reason. 

*

"Mmm," Buffy sighed.
Willow was right there with her. "Oh god, this feels so good."
"Anya!" Buffy called as she finished her cake. "We love you!"
Anya's excited squeal was her only response. "Yep," she 
nodded. "She's after a raise."
"Of course," Willow agreed. "But she's about due anyway. Let her 
think she's earned it." Willow swallowed the last of her own 
cake. "And with this she probably has!" She watched Buffy rummage in 
the document folder beside her seat.
"Its not in there," Willow told her. "I took it out to flip through 
while you were asleep earlier." She picked up the Mission Report from 
beside her own seat, and handed it over to Buffy, who threw it over 
her shoulder.
"No point me reading it then," she smiled. "Just give me the gist."
Willow condensed the 40 page IR report, with appendices and cross-
references, into a Buffy-sized synopsis. "We've got a big bad in 
Egypt," she said with authority. "Needs its ass handing to it on a 
plate."
Buffy grinned. "I love it when you talk dirty," she said.

*

Martin Shaw watched grimly as the plane touched down at Luxor 
airport. He leaned back against the battered Nissan as the darkness 
began to soften, and pondered the last time he'd met these particular 
agents. The pain was still etched in grief upon his heavy heart.
"Welcome to Egypt," he exclaimed, as Buffy and Willow made their way 
across the tarmac runway.
Buffy reached him first, and offered her hand. "Hi Martin." She 
wriggled her shoulder trying to give the strap of her hand-luggage 
better purchase.
Then Willow arrived, and welcomed Shaw in her own Willow way by 
wrapping both arms around his waist and squealing "Martin!" loudly.
"Jeez!" he exclaimed. "Hello already!"
"She's a hug monster," Buffy grinned. "Can't get enough of 'em."
Willow nodded into Shaw's flannel shirt. "She's right!"
"Ew, what died in here?" Buffy asked as she threw her carisak into 
the rear of the Nissan.
Shaw turned to her. "No," he said. "Put your luggage in the trunk; 
we're expecting another agent. He's due any minute."
"There wasn't any mention of another agent in the Mission Report," 
Willow frowned, as if the Mission Report would dare to be wrong!
"No," Shaw admitted. "I only got the call from IR1 a few hours ago. 
They told me to wait around for an extra ten minutes; that you'd be 
landing at pretty much the same time as each other."
Buffy narrowed her eyes. This sounded like another of Finn's less-
than-amusing jokes.
The irritating drone of a Cessna announced the impending arrival of 
the other agent, and the threesome made ready with the half-hearted 
greets. It was a classic Kodak moment.
"You're dead," Buffy pointed out, impressed. 
"She means dead, dead." Willow added out of sheer habit. "Not like, 
undead, or..."
Kyoko removed her dark sunglasses. "Well, I'm not." She gestured to 
Shaw's prone form which lay on the floor in a faint. "Shouldn't 
someone pick him up?" she asked in amusement. "I think he may have 
hurt his nose."

*

"So," Shaw muttered at last, when he'd recovered a little. "You're 
not dead."
"No," Kyoko replied, calmly.
Willow smiled as Buffy said, "Hey, I still have the record, right?"
"You hurt me," Shaw accused as he got into the car.
"He'll be okay," Willow prophesised. "You just bruised him a little."
Buffy shrugged. "I don't think he was talking about his nose, Will."
Kyoko inclined her head in agreement. "Men," she sighed.

*

While Shaw quietly drove, Kyoko laid out the situation as Daniels 
had explained it to her. Egyptologists working around the Temple 
ruins of Abu Simbel had performed various geothermal tests. It'd been 
their belief that large chambers, presumably for the secret worship 
of some ancient deity or burial of some important dead noble, lay 
undisturbed in the limestone beneath the temple. So driven by 
curiosity, and after wrangling permission from the strict Egyptian 
government, they'd drilled a sink-hole through to the underground 
network of caves.
"And that's when the killing began?" Willow asked.
Kyoko nodded.
"Makes you wonder why they bother," Buffy mused. "I mean, didn't 
anyone see The Mummy?"
Willow tapped Shaw on the shoulder. "Is there anywhere here where 
we can find books on demonology or Egyptology?"
Shaw threw her a disbelieving look. "You ask me that here?" His 
stare spoke volumes.
Willow turned her gaze back out of the window, where every second 
shop or building claimed to be a storehouse of Egyptian history and 
culture, or museum of antiquity.
"Oh."

*

While Willow went to work sifting through the texts with Shaw, 
Buffy approached Kyoko.
"What's wrong with you?" Buffy asked.
Kyoko gave her a cool look. "What do you mean?" she replied.
"I mean with you and Shaw," Buffy sighed. "You can see he's still 
carrying a flame for you. Why don't you go talk to him?"
Kyoko seemed genuinely mystified. "Why would I want to do that?"
Buffy was taken aback. "Wow, you are one frigid bitch. Don't you 
have any feelings left for him?"
"No," Kyoko replied, her eyes revealing nothing. "I don't feel much 
of anything for anyone."
Buffy stared after her as Kyoko walked away between the dusty 
stacks of Luxor's principal museum and library.

*

"Adu Gohol, yes, here it is! " Willow studied the tome on demonology 
she'd picked out from the towering pile, a pile that seemed to Buffy 
to consist of identical (boring) books. "Ew!" Willow wrinkled her 
nose.
"What's it look like?" Buffy asked. "Oh, wait, do I really want to 
know?"
Willow turned the book round a few times, always a bad sign.
"Its kinda like the Scorpion King," she said as she studied the 
engravings. "Except with a bit more, um, you know, pus."
"No way!" Buffy folded her arms and fumed. "I'm so gonna give Riley 
a spanking. I said no 'Ick' factor, for once. But did he listen? No."
Willow looked up with a faint hope. "No mandibles this time," she 
offered, cheerfully.

*

The battered Nissan pulled up near the floodlit archaeologists' 
camp, and the tired group climbed out from the stifling interior. 
Buffy's mood had turned sour; especially as she'd discovered they 
could have flown to Abu Simbel direct from Luxor in a fraction of the 
time it'd taken them to drive, but they'd used the car simply because 
it had tinted windows and there were still a good many daylight hours 
left before Kyoko could safely walk the streets (such as they were).
Excited murmurs and pointed fingers caused a spike of curiosity to 
stir within Willow.
"They recognise us?" Willow asked.
"Yeah," Shaw agreed. "A lot of the archaeologists around here have 
more than a passing interest in demonology and folklore. A few have 
even studied with the Watchers from England."
Willow nodded. It all made sense. She glanced up at the rocks 
beyond the crescented hill that marked the entrance to the Temple of 
Abu Simbel. She recognised the statues from photographs and sketches, 
and her eyes made out the sink-hole the archaeologists had drilled to 
penetrate the deeper chambers.
"I've got nothing in my wardrobe to go with a miner's hat," she 
sighed.
Shaw threw her a wooden pole, with dried banana leaf wrapped around 
its head, and waxen tallow around the base of the 
leaves. "Electricity doesn't wanna know down there," he said. "Magic, 
I guess; though you'd know better about that stuff than me. You'll 
have to do it the old fashioned way."
Buffy stared at the poles as she joined Willow's side. "You have 
gotta be shitting me," she declared.
"Come on," Kyoko demanded coldly. She grabbed one of the torches and 
lit it from the edge of a campfire. "At least try and act 
professionally."

*

They were soon lost, swallowed by the darkness. The scant light the 
torches provided seemed little enough within the gaping chambers that 
lay beyond the surface. Buffy's litany of anti-Riley statements kept 
Willow close to her beloved, even if she couldn't see or feel her 
wife at times. Of Kyoko, they lost contact with her quickly for she 
seemed unwilling to talk. Though with her vampiric night-vision, 
Willow knew that she could see through the pitch that surrounded 
them, and was most likely right next to them, sidling along in that 
silent way of hers.
Evil red eyes loomed out of the darkness, and saliva dripped from 
venomous fangs as Adu Gohol sized up this new prey. Where the saliva 
dripped onto the sand-coated granite floor, smoke arose, and with it 
an acrid smell that caught heavily at the back of Willow's throat.
Willow raised her brand high, illuminating the demon in all its 
majesty.
"Buffy!" Willow screamed, bringing her beloved scrambling towards 
her position. "Buffy, the Scorpion King's here, and its ugly!" As she 
screamed this out she pushed her brand into the monster's eye, and as 
the torch-light faded, quenched in burning cornea, she attacked the 
demon with moves that both Buffy and Giles had long taught her.
It wasn't enough, however. Buffy's sudden assistance aided her just 
enough to keep the eight-legged monstrosity at bay. Both Slayers 
struggled to avoid the deadly sting, and each of the demon's legs 
were like steel barbs; luck seemed a fading mistress to the pair. The 
only light came from Buffy's discarded torch which lay on the floor 
from where she'd threw it as she'd entered, yet the chamber grew 
brighter as further assistance arrived.
"Watashi wa sodoshi desu!" Kyoko ran into the fray, and hew about 
her with vampire fury. She was decked out in full game-face; smears 
of blood and insect carcasses coated her cheeks and arms, yet her 
movements were ever graceful, and her gleaming katana reflected the 
firelight as it rent sinew and limb.
"I have so gotta get me one of those," Buffy mused.
Between the three, victory came at a price; Kyoko slumped to the 
floor with a vicious slash that laid open her chest, revealing 
innards and gore. Willow blanched, but Kyoko shook her head. "I'm not 
done yet," she whispered, "and if I can make it beyond the hour, I'll 
survive. But there's more; tonight's work's not yet done."
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked. "We killed the big bad, didn't we?" 
She peered about hastily in case further demon arachnids were waiting 
to jump out at her.
Kyoko sighed. "The demon was female," she said. "Her litter lies 
mostly in ruins in the chamber I ran from, yet you must make sure all 
are dead." She closed her eyes yet continued. "Just one alone can 
destroy a village."
"But what about..." Willow began.
"Go," Kyoko commanded. "Remember, just one alone!"

*

"Riley's gonna die, Riley's gonna die," Buffy repeated the mantra 
continuously as she stamped on the various cracked carapaces of 
Gohol's demon brood.
"Oh, come on!" Willow sighed. "Its not really his fault. How was he 
to know we were going on a bug hunt?"
Buffy replied with her own inimitable logic. "Riley's gonna die, 
Riley's gonna die, Riley's... Ew!"
One particular offspring, instead of making the same noise as the 
others when it was crushed (imagine tap-dancing on a bag of corn-
chips), made a soft 'squelch', and a noise not dissimilar to passing 
wind.
Willow stooped. "There's something here," she said with a puzzled 
frown. "It looks like a gemstone."
"Please tell me you're not gonna pick that up," Buffy pleaded, 
fixing her wife with 'I'm gonna puke' eyes.
Willow nodded. "We can't very well leave it here," she said. "Its 
obviously got some magical power or portent."
"A demon bug swallows a stone," Buffy sighed, "and you wanna keep 
it. Fine!"
They spent a few more minutes searching the chamber for living 
brood, then returned to the spot where Kyoko had lain. She wasn't 
there.
"Where's she gone?" Willow asked.
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know, but she didn't poof; Her sword's not 
here."
They made their way back to the surface and stumbled into blazing 
sunlight. Shaw greeted them with sun hats and Portuguese sangria; 
Willow nodded her thanks and sipped gingerly, whereas Buffy chugged 
the alcohol like a fever victim offered broth after weeks on 
intravenous.
"Needed that," she admitted.

*

"You left her there, hurt and alone, while the sun kept her pinned 
in the caves?" Shaw's face was a picture of distaste and abject 
misery.
"Hey," Willow slammed the table forcefully, causing a jagged crack 
to ripple across the mahogany surface. Willow's slight stature often 
caused other agents to forget she possessed Slayer strength, and her 
wrath when it appeared often shocked and startled. "We did our duty 
down there. Now do yours; If you wanna go searching in the dark for 
your sweetheart, who obviously doesn't want to be found, you go grab 
a torch and feel free!"
Shaw gave no response; he simply did as instructed, fitting an 
explorer's hat upon his head and sauntering casually back into the 
caves under Abu Simbel, looking for all the world like a chubby 
Indiana Jones.
"Brave man," Buffy murmured.
Willow looked at her beloved with a puzzled glance. "Why so? We 
already got rid of the big bad. There's nothing left in there but 
ghosts and shadows."
Buffy shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I mean he's brave 
for giving his love to that one." She swallowed more casually at her 
second glass of sangria. "I'm not sure she's even capable of love 
anymore. Perhaps soon we may have to do our duty by her."
Willow stared at the cave entrance, as a scant wind whipped 
trickles of sand across its forbidding maw. "How soon, do you think?"
Buffy put down her glass and shrugged. "As soon as she crosses the 
line," she said. "Come on. Let's go home."

*

They reclined upon the uncomfortable seats as Xander flew Air 
Initiative back towards civilisation, and Willow filled in her own 
mission report while Buffy dozed. For Buffy, paperwork was something 
that happened to other people. For some reason, as she wrote, Willow 
clear forgot about the strange gemstone discovered within the demon's 
remains beneath the ancient ruined temple. A gemstone that even now 
glowed with an inner light as it lay, snug and forgotten, at the 
bottom of Willow's hand-luggage.

*

The End.