REPOST: Darkest Before the Dawn (1/?)

[~~Kimber <kacoe@xxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Darkest Before the Dawn (1/?)
AUTHOR: Kimber (kacoe@xxxxxxx)
DISCLAIMER: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
PAIRING: Multi-Slash pairings
RATING: R or NC17. . .mostly for language but there might be a few naughty situations
thrown in there for my amusement.
SUMMARY: This is set in an alternate universe. Two Wiccans have been captured by the
Initiative (they?re evil) and it?s up to the chosen two to save them. Throw in a
not-so-wacky vamp on a deserted island and, well. . .read on to find out exactly what
happens!
SPOILERS: Everything is fair game, including season 5 speculations.
DISTRIBUTION: Pat Kelly, Rodrigo, Gary Thompson, Syrenslure, Serendipity and J&J Xena
Site. Anyone else, e-mail me please.
AUTHOR?S NOTES: This is in response to a challenge Shadowlander offered me. Be afraid,
be very afraid. See what happens when you put the two of us together for way too long?
I?ve been officially corrupted, but in a good way. Any complaints about my decent into
darkness can be directed to her. *rofl*
<. . .denotes thoughts. - ((. . .)) denotes dreams. - *. . .* denotes emphasis.

-----------
Sunnydale, CA - Night

A thick murky fog descended upon the unsuspecting town of Sunnydale. It moved swiftly and
with purpose. The moonlight danced across the cemetery adding an even creepier effect
found only in old black and white Hitchcock movies.

But this was no movie, this was real. If she had any doubt about that, all she?d have to
do is look at her scrapped knees and feel the blood trickling down her forehead. Her eyes
darted back and forth. . .they were close, so close. Her thoughts consisted of only three
things: <Run. . .Hide. . .Find Buffy>. She repeated these words over and over like a
mantra in her head, even as she felt the dart pierce her skin and the darkness descended
behind her eyes. <Run. . .Hide. . .Find Buffy>.

--------

He paced back and forth across the white tiled room. Again he checked his watch. If all
had gone according to plan, the team would have retrieved her by now and they were on
their way back. He stopped short in front of a two way mirror and smiled. Huddled on the
floor was a girl. She looked meek and alone and afraid but. . .looks can be deceiving.
She was powerful and he lost three of his men as a testament to it. Her blonde hair
covered her face and she shivered.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by footsteps coming down the corridor. His second in
command approached him and saluted.

?HST caught and bagged, sir.?

?Very good Agent. Casualties??

?None, sir. Where would you like the HST housed??

He hesitated for a moment. ?In the same containment unit as the first.?

?You want them together, sir??

?You heard me. I want to see just what we?re up against and this is the best way to find
out. It?s a controlled environment.?

?Yes, sir, Agent Finn, sir.? The Agent saluted again and marched off.

<This will be interesting. Very interesting indeed.> He mused to himself. Captured,
finally captured after all this time. It was a difficult operation and took almost a year
to work, but was well worth it. In his possession, he now had two certified witches.
Operating under the guise of a normal college student, he befriended the Slayer, and along
with her came the cream of the crop. Yes, it was like a wet dream! He smiled thinking
about everything he?d learned in the past year. Not only were the witches going to be a
commodity to the Initiative, but after the Slayer found out about their capture, well. .
.she?d have no choice but to work for them too. That is if she ever wanted to see them
alive again. The Slayer was always thought of as a mythical creature, something made up
to balance out and fight against the forces of evil in this world. When the military
found out that she was real, there was no way they could pass up getting close. What an
amazing experience it will be to study her and learn from her genetic make-up and
anatomy. If they could isolate what made her preternatural then it could be duplicated.
Soon there would be a literal army of Slayers, unstoppable and able to recover in one
tenth of the time it took a ?normal? soldier.

Footsteps could be heard approaching again. He turned and saw two agents dragging a
lifeless body down the hall. He unlocked the door as they approached. They gruffly
tossed her into the room and saluted to him, waiting for further instructions.

?Turn on the surveillance cameras. Dismissed.?

He looked through the two way mirror again. The blonde had just lifted her head and
noticed that she had company. Looking around cautiously, she inched over to the lifeless
body on the floor just a few feet away. <Let the games begin.> He smiled then walked
away.

-------------

Teufeln Insel (Devil?s Island) ? Midnight

((In a long hallway, it looks almost like a hospital ward. She can feel the tension
pulsing through the air and almost has to physically push through it. Voices carry from
around the corner and she jumps into a closet just in time.

?. . .HST?s room 3??

?Yeah, just in. You should see the look on his face. It took a year, but. . can you
imagine the service awards we?ll get? Capturing two witches alive?? Laughter.

?Yeah, you know I was wondering about that redhead. . .?

She strained to hear the rest of the conversation, but the two men were long gone.
Carefully she opened the door a crack and peeked out. <Room 3.>

After wandering about for what seemed like forever, she came across another hallway, much
like the other six she just walked through. This one had ten or more doors lining the
walls with windows next to each. On a hunch, she walked over to the third door and peered
through the window.

On the floor she saw them and gasped. <No, it can?t be.> A blonde girl was stroking a
redhead?s face. A redhead that looked like Willow, well, if you got rid of the cuts and
bruises on her arms and the dried blood caked across her face. She began banging on the
window but realized quickly that it was two way and sound-proof.

Again footsteps came echoing through her ears, this time too many to count. She hid
around the corner and peeked out. There were six of them. One unlocked the door to Room
3 and the others stepped inside.

She pressed herself against the wall and heard the struggle, hear the screams. Three or
four loud thuds reverberated in her ears and she winced. She?s caused that sound so many
times that she recognized it immediately. A blunt object, probably a billy club or a
baton connecting with some part of the body. She guessed it was the head, because the
screams ceased.

She risked another look just in time to see them being carried away down the other end of
the hall. Panicked and very un-Slayer-like, she took off in a full sprint after them.
She couldn?t let those bastards harm Willow and her friend, she just couldn?t. She
reached the group and wildly started to kick and punch only to find it was in vain. Her
fists went right through them, as if she were a ghost. She dropped to her knees and
screamed and screamed and screamed.))

She sat bolt upright in terror. Sweat was lazily running its course down her face and her
shirt clung to her chest. She was breathing heavily and her eyes did a little dance in
their sockets, looking for any sign of movement or threat.

?Dreaming again I see.? A disembodied voice called out from the other room.

?Shit.?

?What did I tell you about your language? Just because you got here on a boat doesn?t
mean you have to act like a sailor.? She walked, or even glided, into the room and looked
down at the condition of the other woman. ?It was one of *those* dreams, wasn?t it?? She
knelt down and pushed some hair away from the girls? face. ?Tell mommy what you see.?

?Trouble. Sunnydale.? She closed her eyes tightly then opened them again. ?I have to
go.? She got up and began to move about the room immediately searching for clothes to
stuff into a backpack.

?I?m coming with you.?

She turned and shook her head. ?No. It?s more than prophetic. This one is personal. I
need to do it alone.? She slipped her arms into the thick motorcycle jacket and put a
stake in the inside pocket ? just in case. She turned back to the woman who was silently
observing her. ?Don?t look at me like that. Fuck.? She shook her head in exasperation.
?Don?t you see this is still my job? You could have taken me to a goddamned island off
the coast of Hong Kong and I?d still have to go. No sense in arguing about it *again*.
Am I clear??

She nodded her head almost imperceptibly. ?Take care young one. Your not immortal.? A
small smile played across her lips. ?Not yet anyway.? She rose in one graceful fluid
movement and approached the girl. ?Try not to get yourself too mortally injured ? I had
an awful time healing you after the last incident with the fungus demon. Am *I* clear??

She smiled and caressed the woman?s cheek. ?Five by five.? She grabbed her bag and ran
off towards the docks.

------------

Sunnydale, CA ? Pre-dawn

On her knees, as the morning dew clung to her clothes, she rocked herself back and forth
and cried silent tears. In her hands she held the only clue she?d found in the frantic
search for her best friend ? a pentagram necklace. She calmed herself after a few moments
and rose to her feet ? looking around at nothing in particular, she began walking towards
the exit gate of the ?Peaceful Rest? cemetery.

The overwhelming reality of the nights events suddenly struck her and she broke out into a
full run towards the dormitory. Once considered a safe-haven, she dreaded going back
there now but knew she had to. She had to retrace her steps for what seemed like the
millionth time. Maybe she missed something, maybe the events didn?t transpire the way she
thought they did. After all, she?d run the scene through her mind over and over. Maybe
she missed something, just maybe Riley hadn?t two-timed her and it was all a sick
practical joke.

She took the stairs three at a time and burst through the door marked 214. She stopped
dead in her tracks. The room was ? perfect. It was as if she and Willow didn?t even live
there. She looked around for any sign of the struggle she was involved in over night, but
there was none.

Buffy Summers closed the door and slid down it, resting her head on her knees. She began
to cry again, but quickly turned off the waterworks and leapt towards the phone.

?Giles. Giles will know what to do.? She muttered to herself as she dialed the numbers
she knew by heart. ?Giles! Willow?s gone!. . .The Initiative, Riley they took Tara too.
I?m coming over.? She hung up the phone and realized that she only gave him the chance to
say hello. No matter, there?d be plenty of time to explain when she got there.

Quickly she stuffed some clean clothing into a duffel bag. A shower sounded really good
about now ? well, a shower and about a weeks worth of sleep, but there was no time to
waste. Willow was in danger and Tara too. She bolted out the door in much the same
fashion she entered it and sped down the hall. On thought kept her going all night and it
was that same thought that allowed her to sprint all the way to Giles? apartment without
pause. <Willow captured. Willow captured. Willow. . .>


--
Your humble bard and Rodrigo's dedicated love slave,
~~Kimber

Shadowlander's #1 fan and her 'Official Un-Official Idea Bouncer Offer'
Pat Kelly's #1 fan and his 'Offical scene runner-by-er'

'Exquisite Coalescence'. . .your source for BuffySlash fiction on the web. Comming soon!

- - - - - - - - - - - -
QUOTES OF THE MOMENT
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"One out of every ten people is born to give the other nine trouble. Guess what number I
am."
* *
"I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose."
* *
"Toast lands butter side down, Cats land the right way up, So what happens if you butter a
cat?"
* *
"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear
them speak"
* *
"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty
girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."
* *
"Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I
realize, Oh my gosh....I could be eating a slow learner."
* *
"I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe."
* *
"They say that love hides behind every corner... am I walking in circles?"
* *
"I don't have a big ego, I'm way too cool for that. "
* *
"I thought I had a great idea today, but it never really took off. In fact, it didn't
even get on the runway. I guess you could say it exploded in the hangar."
* *
"I'm not cheap, but I am on special this week."
* *
"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."
* *
"There's too much blood in my alcohol system."
* *
"GUYS: No shirt, no service. GALS: No shirt, no charge."
* *
"Optimists say the glass is half-full, Pessimists say the glass is half empty, I says
it's time for a beer run."
* *
"It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level I'm really quite busy. "
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NONE OF THE IDEAS EXPRESSED ABOVE ARE ACTUALLY MINE. THEY ARE TOLD TO ME BY LUTHOR AND
FERDINAND, THE FIVE INCH TALL SPACE ALIENS WHO LIVE UNDER MY DESK. IN RETURN FOR THESE
IDEAS, I HAVE GIVEN THEM PERMISSION TO EAT ANY DUST BUNNIES THEY FIND UNDER THERE. IN
ADDITION, THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED HERE ARE NOT THOSE OF MY LAWYER, EMPLOYER, GIRLFRIEND,
CHURCH OR MYSLEF. . .BUT THEY ARE THE OPINIONS OF ELVIS AS REVEALED TO ME THROUGH THE
MEDIUM OF MY PET HAMSTER, LEE HARVEY OSWALD. . .