Into the Abyss
by Rainne
Part 3
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After we'd all eaten more than we could handle, Dakota and Faith announced to us that they had some entertainments for us. Willow nodded. "We've been hearing about that," she said. "What's the up?"
Faith grinned. "Well, when we announced at supper last night that the great Slayer was going to be gracing our humble Academy with her presence —" Faith ducked as I tossed a grape tomato at her and continued, "— our girls decided there was no way they could let you come without showing off everything they've learned. So we set up a little something out on the east lawn, if you guys want to see."
"Oh, we want," I said firmly. "Definitely."
We were led out of the Great Parlor through the huge French doors and into the sunny garden area, where sparring mats had been laid over the gravel. We were escorted into seats in the shade and two girls were dispatched to notify the entertainers that we were ready. Willow commented on the fact that everything was done in teams. Faith nodded. "That was actually my idea," she said. "We used to have a lot more problems than we do now with this one lording it over that one because she's this or that, and we couldn't figure out what to do about it. Then one day I had this flash of Wimpy Wesley and how bad he was about giving orders and commanding people... and I realized that it was because we, meaning me and you, B, have sort of always recognized the Watchers as authority figures, ya know? And I talked it over with Kotie, and we decided that it would be best to reinforce the fact that nobody runs anybody around here — we're all about teamwork. So every couple weeks, we rotate teams and everybody gets to work with somebody different to see which teams work best. I figure we might even get around to making permanent assignments as the girls get older."
"What age groups have you got here?" Willow asked.
Dakota answered. "The oldest girl is seventeen; the youngest is fourteen. We're thinking of expanding our search parameters to find girls as young as eleven. You see, here in England, kids go into secondary school at eleven, so it's not so suspicious for us to be recruiting kids from all over Europe at that age. Even in the States, I think we might be able to make some headway. But we don't quite have the facilities for that just yet."
"No?" I asked, looking around at the huge castle. "You sure look like you've got enough space."
She shook her head. "Not space. We've got enough space to start recruiting girls between six and twenty. I'm talking about staff. Teachers, kitchen staff, housekeepers, that sort of thing. It's hard to put out an ad for a place like this, you know? 'Boarding school for future vampire-and-demon slayers seeks third and fourth form teachers, all subjects. Ability to tolerate scary monsters required; background in demonology helpful but not required.' Doesn't fly well in the Post, you know?"
I had to laugh, but the humor was cut off by the sight of six white-robed girls and six black-robed girls marching out of the building and towards us. They were preceded and followed by regularly-uniformed teams of girls, almost as an honor-guard. The four girls in regular uniform stationed themselves at the edges of the mats; the other girls stepped onto the mats and lined up. They all bowed to us, then all but two of the white-robed girls stepped off the mat and dropped to the ground to sit, Indian-style, on the clean-swept flagstones.
The two girls who remained bowed to us and I suddenly blinked — I hadn't even recognized my own sister, Dawn. Her hair was cut short and her face was different somehow, more mature. She dropped me a ghost of a wink as she was introduced, along with the other girl, Chimi Mishika, a Potential. They turned toward each other and bowed, and then set into a sparring session that left me amazed at both their prowess. Chimi eventually won, forcing Dawn to the mat, but they were very evenly matched. Then two more girls sparred, and then the third set; all three sets were impressing the hell out of me with their fighting ability.
When they were done, all six of them stood at the edge of the mats, bowed to us, and sat back down as the black-robed girls took their places. All six of them stood on the mats and held their hands before them. I watched in wonder and Willow with great interest as arcane energy manifested in each girl's hands, only to be tossed into the darkening evening sky and turn into multicolored fireworks. Then they split apart into two groups of three and set into an arcane battle that amazed me with its ferocity.
When they had done, one side defeating the other, they, too, bowed to us, and then all twelve girls returned to the building, likely to nurse wounds. Faith and Dakota turned to us, grinning. "Whatcha think?" Dakota asked.
I was stunned. "Wow," I said. "Much with the wow. I didn't know you were training them in magick."
Faith grinned. "Maisri, our medic and languages teacher, is also a very powerful witch — probably as powerful as you, Red. She's taking the girls with the talent and training them."
I opened my mouth to make some comment, but was forestalled by the sound of a young girl's voice imitating the bugle call "Charge." I looked at Faith and Dakota, who looked as startled as I was, and realized the students must have cooked up something of their own that they hadn't bothered to tell the administration about. I hoped they wouldn't get into too much trouble.
Just at that second, though, I felt the sudden jump at the back of my neck that said vampire!, and I saw Faith feel it, too, as we both began to look around for it. Then it was on us, from within the garden, but it wasn't alone. Four girls in jeans and tee shirts were chasing it, crossbows and stakes in hand. It was just about to reach us when one of the girls stopped, drew herself up in a pitching stance, wound up faster than I'd ever seen before, and pitched something at the vampire.
It turned out to be a bottle of holy water, which shattered on impact with the thing's head, splattering its entire body and sending it to the ground, screaming in pain. Almost instantly, the other three girls were on it. The one who got there first, a wiry little redhead, dropped to one knee and jammed a stake into it. Then she stood, spitting vamp-dust, to receive claps on the back and hugs from her compatriots.
I grinned at Faith. "Nice."
She shook her head. "Foolhardy. I didn't know they were gonna pull something like this. We thought about catching a vamp and staging something, but we'd have done it safely. Obviously," she glared at the four girls, who immediately stopped celebrating and snapped to attention, becoming sober and stone-faced, "someone's been out to the local nests, pretending to be helpless."
The redhead who'd done the staking flushed a vivid red, though she refused to look down or show her guilt in any other way. I felt a grin growing on my face and knew there was one on Willow's, too. I pointed it at Faith. "Oh, well, demons can't resist a run-and-stumble. You know that. 'Course, sometimes they just like you to dance with 'em and then take 'em out in the alley behind the Bronze."
She blinked at me for a moment, then suddenly realized what I was talking about and burst out laughing. "Oh, Jesus, B, I didn't know you remembered that."
"And how could I possibly forget?" I shot back. "It's not every day some girl I've never seen before snatches my own stake right out of my hand and dusts a vamp with it right in front of me."
We shared a laugh then over things I had once thought I'd never laugh about again, and I realized that, despite everything, Faith and I were cool. Finally. It was kind of a good feeling. But then Faith had to be the principal, and she gave the girls a quick dressing-down for carelessness. It wasn't more than a mild scolding, but I think it stung them that they got it in front of me. After all, it was obvious who they wanted to impress. So when Faith was done, I shot her a questioning look, and she nodded, knowing what I wanted to do.
I looked the girls over and made like I was going to chew them out as well, which made the holy water pitcher look like she wanted to die, and then I grinned at them. "Nice work," I said, and they all looked at me like I was something with two heads. I winked. "Good job with the holy water, and the other three of you were on him the second he was down, which was also of the good. Overall I was highly impressed. But, what Faith said about carelessness is exactly right. Slayers die too often as it is. You don't need to be out trying to get killed before you even get called. Now, who are you kids?"
They introduced themselves enthusiastically. The pitcher was Partner trainee Nicole Roland from Iowa; the staker was Potential Anne McIntosh of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia; the other two girls were Potential Tien Bhoc Phat from Da Nang, Vietnam and Partner trainee Nicole Jackson of Houma, Louisiana. I found it amusing that even in this highly dangerous little stunt, the girls' training was so ingrained in them that they went about it in Partner-Potential teams, and mentioned this after they had been sent inside.
Dakota nodded. "It's deliberate," she said. "We want the kids to be totally interdependent with each other. No one in the Academy works in isolation. Especially," she stressed, giving me the hairy-eyeball, "not the active Slayer or Slayers. It's drilled into all the girls' heads from day one that the support system is key, especially for the active Slayer. No one can function in a bubble. They're encouraged to form strong friendships and to include one another in everything that they do."
"How do you stop them from turning some kids into Cordelia Chase and some kids turning into geeks?" Willow asked. I smiled; it was the kind of thing you could trust Willow to worry about.
Dakota grinned. "We watch for that like little eagles, believe me. And whenever we see it, we randomly reassign teams so that your Cordelias and your geeks get assigned to each other. Once they get over hating each other, they usually figure out that they have a lot in common."
"And if they don't," Faith finished for her, a wicked gleam in her eye, "We leave them together until they do!"
We all shared a laugh and then, at Dakota's suggestion, moved upstairs to their private quarters to talk more. But when we got there, I wanted to add one more person to our little group. "This is really kind of a Scooby thing," I said slowly. "I'd like to involve Dawn. I don't want her to feel like she's being left out just because she's now a student here. She's still a Scooby."
"No problem," Dakota said and picked up the telephone. She grinned at me. "We just had an internal switchboard installed two months ago. Works like a hotel. It's so nice." She dialed Dawn's room and asked her to come up, and then she dialed the kitchen and asked for coffee and muffins to be sent up. We all got comfortable, waiting, and Dawn and the coffee arrived at just the same time.
When the coffee tray had been set up and the trainees delivering them dismissed, Dawn dropped onto the sofa between Willow and I, hugging us both fiercely. "I've missed you guys," she said sincerely. "Even though you did keep me awake at night." At the rolled eyes all around her, she just grinned, absolutely unflappable. "So," she continued, tucking her legs up under herself and reaching for a muffin. "It must be serious for you guys to fly out here without a moment's notice. What's the up?"