-
“Sandwich time,” Lyra said as she left her room and made way through her empty house. It was noon and she was hungry and there was no one home but herself. Both of her parents were at work. Lina was in middle school and Tony had recently left to attend classes at the Valencia West Campus. Lyra convinced her parents to let her stay home from school. They agreed that since she did go through a bit of a traumatic experience she should be able to stay home.
When she had returned home the previous evening she went straight to her bedroom and straight to bed. She could not sleep and went to the bathroom to try and contact Xander on her cell to see if they were able to find anything. Her Watcher told her he hadn’t found anyone and told her to get some rest. When she woke up and after she had breakfast she tried to contact Xander again and was told by Drusilla that everyone worried themselves out to the point they couldn’t stay awake.
“They didn’t find her?” Lyra asked in a worried tone. If they hadn’t found Buffy by sunrise then that meant that she was either dead, or she had been turned into a vampire.
“She’s not alive,” Drusilla said. “But she isn’t gone. She’ll be back in a week.”
“Not alive,” Lyra said. She had feared the worst and tried to decipher the rest of what Drusilla had told her. She wasn’t gone, that meant she was a vampire and she will return in a week. “We will find her in a week?”
“You will find her before that, but everyone is looking in the wrong place. She’s at the beginning.”
“We will keep searching. Ronnie and I are staying home and we will be trying to find the place where they had taken Ronnie.”
“She’s not there, I’m trying to tell you. She is where it all started.”
“Thank you. Please ask Xander or Faith to call me when they wake up, or be online.”
“I will give them your message.”
Lyra had thanked her and hung up.
That was hours ago. After she had spoke with Dru she called Ronnie. Ronnie had told her that she was going to be doing some researching and hacking and asked for her to call back after twelve since she did not want to be disturbed. Lyra took the time to get some homework done. She did the math homework for yesterday and she did what she assumed would be the math homework today. She also worked on her German. Since Spanish was a second language to her she wanted to take a different language. It wasn’t her best subject, nor her worst.
“This should do,” Lyra said as she took her sandwich, chips, apple, cupcake and soda to the living room. There was nothing much on television. What news clips she did see was about the mysterious messages written in blood had stopped, and there was talk about Ronnie’s kidnapping and everyone sounded relieved that she had been found.
“I wonder if I should let her know,” Lyra said to herself as she dialed the number to Ronnie’s phone.
“Lyra?” Ronnie almost sounded surprised to hear her.
“Hey Ronnie,” Lyra greeted. “How do you feel?”
“Good. I’ve uncovered a lot.”
“Just a sec,” Lyra said as she turned on her computer and put the Blue Tooth in her ear. “I’m keeping my messengers open so I can keep contact with Avenger Central.”
“Good idea,” Ronnie said.
“What have you found?” Lyra sat down in front of the computer.
“A lot of dead ends,” Ronnie explained. “I managed to get some information from the police. The car that took Buffy and dropped me off belonged to Enterprise.”
“A rental car,” Lyra said as she clicked on the icon for her favorite browser. “Where you able to hack into their records?”
“Didn’t need to when the cops pretty much have that information.”
“You didn’t hack into police headquarters did you?”
“Of course not but let’s just say I’m not going to reveal my sources at this time.”
“Deal.” Sometimes it would be best to just not know how Ronnie works her Internet Mojo. “Where is the address?”
“Dead end number one,” Ronnie said. “They gave a false address. It wasn’t made up because you can’t really do that when you want to rent a car. The place is owned by an elderly couple.”
“What about the name?” Lyra asked as she got an instant message from someone named Rowena. Wait, that was one of the other Slayers. “HQ has contacted me.” She typed in what Ronnie had told her and hit send.
“Earl Showers,” Ronnie said. “And it’s fake however it did sound something similar to a name I heard last night. I just remembered it earlier. Everything last night was foggy and bits and pieces are still drifting in.”
“If it’s too hard for you to go through this I understand.”
“Nothing is too hard for me and besides this is my way of getting back at the bastards.”
“What name did you hear?” Lyra asked.
“Buffy called one of them Ethan Rayne and she knew him. I think he was from England. His voice is coming back to my memory and he sounded British.”
“Let me send the info,” Lyra said as she typed everything up and sent it to Rowena. The reply came back a few minutes later. Lyra’s eyes widened as she read what the other Slayer had sent her. “Ronnie this Ethan Rayne is dangerous. He’s a dark wizard, worships Chaos. He nearly got Buffy and Giles killed a few times. The military captured him and had him in a rehabilitation center but he escaped over a year ago.”
“Something else is coming back about this guy,” Ronnie said. “I think I heard him tell Buffy that he was the one that caused the two worlds to merge.”
“He sounds pretty powerful.” Lyra sent another message to Rowena.
NOT SURPRISED, the message that came from Rowena had said. ASK RONNIE TO DO A CREDIT CARD SEARCH ON ALL ALIASES.
“Rowena wants you to do a credit card search on all of his aliases.”
“I doubt he used a card,” Ronnie said but Lyra could hear her type anyway. “No credit history.”
“Another dead end,” Lyra sighed.
“I am trying something else,” Ronnie told her. “Hold on.” She was quiet for several minutes. “And got it.”
“What is it?”
“I figured he would use hard cash so he would have to make some withdrawals from a bank or two. He made a big one at the Chase off of Colonial.”
“Where will that lead us?”
“Close to where he is,” Ronnie answered and was heard typing. “The false address is in that area.”
“That’s a pretty vague narrowing,” Lyra said as she let Rowena know. A message came back a few seconds later. “Look for rental houses or recently rented or bought houses in the area.”
“I’m on it,” Ronnie said. She continued to type. “Small list but we can try to narrow it down from there.”
“Just give me the names,” Lyra said. She will type out each one. She had a feeling Xander and the other Slayers would try and investigate each one.
-
“There is only one other house on this list,” Xander said as he pulled up along the curb in front of a rental house that was from the list of addresses they got from Ronnie and Lyra. They split the list in half and one group went with Rowena and a few other Slayers went with Xander and Faith. Rowena’s group borrowed Spike’s car. The vampire didn’t mind, as long as nobody touched his bike.
“Why isn’t Little Star with us again?” Faith asked as Xander turned off the engine.
“Didn’t want to be truant,” Xander explained. He noticed there were several cars in the driveway.
“Isn’t she that already?” Faith asked as undid her seatbelt.
“She and Ronnie have legitimate excuses.” He stared at the house. So this was where that chaos-worshipping bastard was staying at, or a possibility. He and Buffy just had to be at one of these houses. It was the only thing they had to go on. Their only direction and if Buffy wasn’t in one of these then they have no idea where she could be it.
“So just me go and check?” Faith asked as she opened the door.
“Rayne would recognize me and we don’t want to rouse too much suspicion.”
“And we don’t want to freak out the civis,” Traci added.
“That means you have to keep it simple,” Aihe said. She was the Maori Slayer. She was always asking for the crossword puzzles in the newspapers. “No barging in and throwing people outside to see if they combust.”
“All right,” Faith sighed. “I may have over did it.”
“May have?” the three Slayers in the back asked.
“Easy girls,” Xander said as he held up his hand. “Just talk to whoever answers the door.”
“Talking,” Faith said. “I can do that.” She got out of the car and walked up the house.
As Xander watched he reached up to his ear to touch the Blue Tooth. “Lyra, you hear me?”
“Loud and clear commander Fury,” Lyra answered.
“I love it when we are on the same page,” Xander said. “We are at 1515 Tennant Street. Faith is at the door and knocking.” He watched as the door opened and he could not believe it but it looked like Rayne was answering the door. “Rayne is here.”
“Uh oh,” Giang said as Faith instantly punched Rayne and stormed inside the house.
“We got the location,” Xander said. “Don’t know how many vampires are in the house so you let Rowena’s team know.”
The door two the house opened and two people were thrown out they started to smoke and were set aflame before they even hit the ground. They were completely burned up a few seconds later.
“Ladies ready your weapons,” Xander instructed. “We got a house storming to go to.” He grabbed the stake rifle and made sure had another stake on him. “We go in firing. Who has the water gun?”
“I do,” Aihe said.
“Good,” Xander said as he got out of the car. He said not another word and ran up the door and opened it.
He could not see Rayne or Faith in the house. He did see several vampires running around. He fired several stakes at them while Giang and Traci used their stake guns. Several vampires were taken out by the bolts but more pooled around them.
“Now, Aihe,” Xander shouted.
Aihe pumped the water gun and showered several vampires with holy water while Giang and Traci used their hand held stakes to dust a few others.
Xander dusted another. He heard Faith scream. He followed the sound until he came into a room where Faith was being held down by four other vampires. He used he rifle to stake two of them. Another one came running for him while Faith grabbed the fourth and threw him through a window.
Xander tried to stake the vampire he wrestled with only to have the tables be turned on him and he was pinned down. He stared into the menacing yellow eyes of the vampire before the whole body turned brown and he faded into dust.
“Thanks,” Xander and Faith said at the same time.
“You okay?” Faith asked. She had a fresh bite wound on her neck and one on her wrist.
“I’m okay?” Xander couldn’t believe she asked him this. “You were the one that was about to become a buffet table.”
“I still tossed one out the window,” Faith said in a proud tone.
“Yeah I’ve been meaning to talk about how you came down with a bad case of defenestrating.”
“Is that your word of today?”
“Is that all you got or do you have more energy for more vamps?”
“Aim me at the next vamp you see.”
They both ran back to where the action is, or in this case was. There were only three vampires left and they were each being pinned down by a Slayer and staked.
“I guess it’s over,” Faith said. “Action wise that is.”
“Where’s Rayne?”
“Is he the old guy in the corner with the black eye and nose bleed?” Traci asked as she pointed to where Rayne was slowly getting back on his feet.
“That would be him.” Xander marched right up to Rayne and pinned him against the wall. “Where is she?”
“I’m sorry if I have no idea what you are talking about,” Rayne said. “I just woke up from a bit of a concussion?”
“Would you like another one?” Xander asked.
“You must be one of Ripper’s friends,” Rayne said. “I think I know you, except you had two eyes back then.”
Xander pulled Rayne by the collar and slammed the back of his head against the wall. “Now you have three options. One you can answer my questions. Two I beat the crap out of you, or three Faith beats the crap out of you again.”
“Although I think I can handle the second option I should go with the first,” Rayne said.
“Smart,” Xander told him. “Now where is Buffy?”
“She isn’t here.”
“Where is she?”
“Xander?” Traci shouted. “You have to come and see this.”
“Go look,” Faith said as she grabbed Rayne. “I’ll play.”
Xander ran towards the room that Traci was in. “What is it?”
“Just look.” She pointed to a painting on the wall. It looked like something from the Renaissance. The man in the painting looked a little like Dandridge and the woman looked like Buffy.
“Buffy?” Xander asked
“You think that might be why he wanted her?” Traci asked.
“Could be.” Xander walked back to Rayne but stopped. He could have swore he heard a siren in the distance. “Faith we have to go.”
“We don’t know where B is,” Faith said.
“Cops are coming lets get out of here.” He and the others retrieved their weapons and they raced towards the car. Xander didn’t bother to wait until the doors were locked or the seatbelts were buckled. He tore out of there.
-
Xander paced around the living room. He was waiting for Charley and Ed to awaken and for Tyler to return with Ronnie. He was the one to offer to pick her up after she identified her kidnapper. One of the main things he was worried about was Rayne telling the police about Xander and the Slayers being there. As soon as Rissa had arrived at the house she offered to perform a forget spell on Rayne.
“You didn’t tell me anything,” Spike said as he walked in from the vampire room. He had already delivered the warmed up mugs of blood to Ed and Charley. “Where is Buffy?”
“She wasn’t there,” Xander said.
“I didn’t ask where she wasn’t,” Spike said. “I asked where she is.”
“I don’t know.”
“How could you not know?” Spike asked. His hands had balled into fists. “How could you not know?”
“He wouldn’t tell us,” Faith said. She stood in between Spike and Xander while Dru held the vampire’s arm. “Xander had to make sure we got out before the cops arrived.”
“I told you she won’t be there,” Drusilla said. “She’s not at the bad man’s house. She’s at the beginning.”
“She keeps saying that,” one of the Slayers said. “She won’t be specific.” She glared at the former vampire. “Why won’t you just tell us?”
“Leave her alone Pink Ranger,” Lyra said. She had originally wanted to be there for Ronnie but told Xander that Ronnie convinced her to go to the house instead.
“What’s up?” Ed asked as he and Charley entered the room.
“One Eyed Willie hasn’t found Buffy,” Spike explained.
“She’s at the beginning,” Dru said as she stared at Charley.
“Beginning?” Charley blinked. “What beginning?”
“We are not really sure,” Lyra said and turned to Xander. “You knew her the longest.”
“That still can be a lot of places,” Xander said as he tried to think. “The beginning of our friendship was in Sunnydale, but that place got swallowed in. She started slaying in L.A. The first Slayer was created in Africa.”
“Still not helping,” Spike said.
“Shut up.” Xander finally had it. “We are doing everything we can to find her. You have done nothing but make stupid and snarky comments. The rest of us have done far more than you have.”
“There might have been something there,” Charley said softly. “A hint or a clue. We can go over there if the police are not around.”
“There might be more vampires,” Ed brought up. “But all of us can take em,:
“The only thing we found was that painting,” Traci said.
“It gave me a good creep,” Xander said.
“What kind of painting?” Lyra asked. She was staring at her phone,
“Old painting,” Xander described. “It had both Dandridge and a woman that looked like Buffy.”
“Whoa he got around,” Ed chuckled. “He got one of Brewster’s old girlfriend, emphasis on the old now.”
“Ed,” Charley held up his hand. “Wait. That’s how it started. He wanted Amy because she looked like a woman from his past.”
“The Beginning,” Drusilla said.
“My beginning,” Charley said. He blinked. “I know where Buffy is.”
-
Buffy stared at the drained corpse with revulsion. She still couldn’t believe that she was the one who fed off the poor woman. There was still blood on Buffy’s lips. A part of her wanted to lick it off but the other part wanted her to wipe it off. She went for the latter.
Her other hand held onto a small stake she had made from a tree in the yard. She had used it to dust a few of the minions. The other kind won’t even go near her now.
“What are you going to do with that?” Abigail asked as she pointed at the corpse.
“You are going to get rid of it,” Buffy instructed as she licked the back of he hand and paused when she realized what she was doing.
“I am not going to clean up your leavings.”
“I’ll go and tell Jerry then,” Buffy said.
“Fine,” the English woman said icily. “I don’t know what he sees in you. I went to all lengths to help bring him back. He should be with me.”
“Too bad for you he has standards,” Buffy said in her most haughty tone she could imagine. She went back to the old pre Slayer Buffy and tried to hone in her inner Cordelia.
“Your just a fling. Once he’s done with you he will see me.”
“He does see you but he looks at me.” Buffy twirled around. “Why do you think he buys me these new pretty clothes?” She modeled the pink blouse and skinny jeans that Jerry had Abigail buy for her. “Because I’m his true love. Don’t worry we’ll hire a gardener and maybe he might be interested in someone like you.”
“You little bitch.”
“What was that?” Buffy was in front of her in an instant and held her up by the throat. She could feel her eyes glowing and her fangs were out. “Don’t you dare threaten me, human. I could suck you dry. But I’m pretty full and I don’t eat the help.” She dropped the woman. “Now run along and get rid of that corpse.”
She ran up the stairs feeling like crap. She remembered why she abandoned that attitude long ago and never wanted to act like that. “Come on guys.” Her friends had to find her. They would bring her back and she would wait out the days before the absorption potion will run its course.
“Buffy, could you come in here?” Jerry’s voice came from one of the bedrooms.
“Yes,” Buffy entered the room. She wanted to shove the stake into Jerry’s chest but instead she slid it into a pocket. She knew that she was still under his control and he just had to give the right word to keep her from staking him. She just had to pretend to be in love with him.
“I have another gift for you.” He held out a jewelry box.
“You are spoiling me,” Buffy said and opened the box. Inside was a necklace that looked like it was made out of real pearls. “It’s gorgeous.”
“They are real. Let me put it on you.”
Buffy held up her dark curls while Jerry wrapped the new necklace around her neck. Her whole body tingled from the feel of his fingers. She opened her eyes and saw something out her window. She thought she saw someone was standing in front of the window in the house across the street.
“Is something wrong?” Jerry asked.
“I thought I saw someone,” Buffy said. The person appeared in front of the window again. “Someone is watching us.”
“Don’t worry,” Jerry assured her. “Probably some young teenager looking where they shouldn’t be looking.” He closed the window. “I should speak to his mother about that.” He walked over to her. “I believe I will only leave that necklace on.”
“Oh?” Buffy asked before Jerry kissed her. She kissed him back. She could feel his kisses trace across her neck and up to her ear.
“Just the necklace,” he whispered. “And everything else off.”
“I like that,” Buffy whispered as Jerry licked her ear.
-