The Two
by acs
Getting Down to Business
[reviews]
TITLE: The Two (2/24)
AUTHOR: -Andy- (see2go4me@yahoo.com)
RATING: R (For future violence and Adult situations) - (though Parts 1 thru 12 just barely make it to a PG-13)
DISCLAIMER: This is a derivative work. All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. I don't own any of this, just the words and plot.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
[1] Feedback is always welcome, preferably the kind that improves my writing.
[2][Revised: 11-Dec-2005]
--- --- ---
Chapter II: "Getting Down to Business."
--- --- ---
Stepping off of the porch with all of the confident swagger that surviving almost a decade as a slayer entitled her to, Buffy noticed how the girl nervously backed up away from the porch as she approached her. Circling the girl, she noted how she nervously assumed a defensive posture. From working with the dozens of new slayers 'activated' by Willow just before the destruction of Sunnydale, over the past two years she'd learned how to use her mere presence to gain some mental control over a new slayer fairly quickly, without the violence that attempting to physically restrain one would cause.
According to Willow, who'd been fascinated the first time she'd seen Buffy do it and had spent some time investigating the phenomenon, it was almost a form of hypnotism. But it didn't last very long. Luckily for her peace of mind, she was the only slayer who seemed to be able to do it even though Willow had claimed it was a skill any slayer should be able to learn. It also wasn't something that worked on a more experienced slayer like Faith and the others who'd faced the First Evil and its minions. But it did seem to be keeping this girl from either attacking her or running away, giving Buffy the time she needed to look her over.
Although she knew she wasn't being fair, judging her without having any idea about the local situation, Buffy wasn't too happy with what she was seeing and sensing. While this girl's presence loudly shouted 'slayer' she was missing that hardness that came to psychically permeate a slayer's essence after facing death on an almost daily basis for months or years. It wasn't that she appeared physically soft, quite the opposite in fact, but she wasn't intimidating and didn't have that aura of implacable command taught to slayers through hard experience.
She was clearly dressed for battle but her inexperience here was very much in evidence. While the heavy leather jacket and pants she was wearing would be enough protection against a fledgling vampire or small demon in a quick encounter; in a long, drawn out fight the weight of the inflexible leather clothes would slow her down and wear her out in the types of situations where speed and endurance were most needed.
Continuing her examination, Buffy noticed that her stake was in an awkward to reach location under her jacket. On the run she would have to slow down to retrieve it, which could be fatal. Her heavy boots might protect her feet but would do more damage to her ability to run than they would help in a fight. And, amazingly, she didn't appear to have any other weapons, not even something as basic as a knife.
Buffy was surprised that she was still alive, if she went out on patrol every night dressed like this. This was not a slayer ready to fight more than a single vampire. A small pack of vampires or an older, experienced one would quickly kill her, with little effort. She was either very new or this was a town with a very small vampire population. And from the way she was dressed and armed, her Watcher was either just as green as she was. Or dead.
Buffy shook her head in dismay. While looks could certainly be deceiving, this wasn't a good starting point. Getting home would be a lot harder if the local slayer and her support system were as inexperienced as it looked. She could only hope she was wrong. She wasn't sure she had the energy any longer to fight the potentially long odds to get home if she had to first fix an untrained slayer.
A low growl from the girl interrupted Buffy's thoughts as she continued her examination. Surprised at the reaction, Buffy lifted an eyebrow, stopped circling her and let loose with what Willow had come to call her 'inner Cordelia' with no hesitation. It was something she'd found herself doing a lot in the last two years in reaction to the direction her life had taken since Sunnydale. "Rude much? And who dressed you like that? Your mother? Even your watcher should know better than to let you wear such clothes for patrolling."
Not the friendliest thing she could have said but any response she got would at least answer a few of the many questions she had. And with the girl looking so much like her sister, Buffy was having a hard time not showing her concern for her safety at her obvious unpreparedness.
"My what?" growled the glowering girl, obviously annoyed at the examination. "What's a watcher? And what's wrong with my clothes?" she asked in an offended voice.
Well, that was a twist Buffy hadn't expected. A universe that obviously had slayers of some sort but possibly without the Council of Watchers? Or did she just not know about them? "The tweed brigade? Boring old men who watch you kill vampires while giving semi-useful advice? Sometimes calling themselves the Council of Watchers?" At her blank look, Buffy added snidely "Someone must keep an eye on you."
"I'm not sure what a watcher is or does" the girl told her dismissively, "but I haven't needed a babysitter for years and..."
Before she could finish, Buffy felt the presence of a number of vampires and stopped the girl mid-sentence with a hissed "Shhh...!"
--- --- ---
The woman circled her like she was some distasteful exhibit in a museum. She wasn't used to being treated like an object. Even the oldest members of the coven, who'd worked with other slayers in the past, treated her better than this.
Dawn stood there, frozen in a defensive stance, mesmerized and held there by some kind of energy that appeared to flow in waves from this woman. She couldn't seem to move, her muscles refusing to obey and she growled under her breath in frustration.
This caught the woman's attention and her verbal attack left Dawn angry and confused. What was a watcher and what did they watch she thought. And why did this woman think she should have one? And her clothes? What was wrong with them?
The woman's explanation only confused her further. It was so not helping. It sounded like she was being asked if she had a babysitter. Before she could do more than express her disdain for the idea she was stopped by the woman's quick signal to be quiet.
And then she felt it. The vampire she had thought was following her earlier was now a lot closer and she was outside the house. There wasn't enough time to get to safety if she had to protect this woman. And bringing a potential enemy into the house didn't seem like a reasonable option. She would have to fight.
The woman became unnaturally still and Dawn could almost feel her attention shift in the direction of the vampire. She seemed to be searching for something in the air.
A pack of five vampires came into view at the end of her yard and her senses went wild. The urge to fight was warring with the urge to run away.
"Are these friends of yours?" the woman asked flatly.
"Friends? Vampires? Are you crazy?" Dawn blurted out.
"Just checking." the woman told her with a shrug. "So you won't mind if I deal with them before we continue our discussion?" she calmly asked.
Before Dawn could reply the woman strode forward and stood between her and the oncoming vampires. She mentally amended her previous thought. This woman wasn't just crazy, she was foolish and suicidal. And it looked like she was being dragged along for the ride.
--- --- ---
Buffy aggressively strode up to the oncoming vampires, stopping in front of the obvious leader, halting them in their tracks before they'd made it more than halfway into the yard. They weren't a very frightening bunch of blood suckers. Harmony had been scarier than some of them. Chances were they were newbies, fresh out of the grave, and it wouldn't take much effort to get rid of them. The only question being - could she do it without a fight?
"Get out of our way, little girl," snarled the leader. "We have business with the slayer!"
While she had carved herself several stakes with her boot knife while waiting for the return of the slayer, this wasn't her world and Buffy wasn't sure fighting random vampires, unless it was in self defense, was a good idea. Especially before she'd had a chance to learn more about the local situation.
If she was stuck in some nightmarish universe like that fictional Anita Blake character's world where vampires had rights, killing vampires could get her into trouble with the authorities if she were caught. Maybe she could get rid of them without resorting to violence?
They seemed a little single minded about their given task, even for vampires. Most likely some master vampire had sent them on an errand which apparently involved the slayer. She was used to being the focus of any vampires in her vicinity but these didn't seem to be in any hurry to attack her. For some reason they didn't seem to realize she was a slayer, their only natural enemy.
And then a possible explanation occurred to her. Out of sheer boredom while she waited for the slayer, she'd been practicing Willow's new aura hiding trick earlier on the porch. Was it possible they couldn't actually sense she was a slayer? And how long would it last? Unfortunately, facing vampires was not the best time to figure that out. Experimenting would have to wait.
But surely they would have also attacked a normal person? she thought. But it didn't really matter. Right now she had to somehow get rid of them. And hopefully talking to them would do it. Vampires usually required a bit more persuasion than a verbal one but it was worth a shot. Maybe she could talk her way out of this?
"She's mine!" Buffy declared territorially with as much force as she could inject into her voice. "This is as close as you are getting. If you can't talk to her from there you can leave. Or die. Your choice." She shrugged as if it didn't matter to her.
--- --- ---
They were arguing over her. The crazy woman was facing five vampires who wanted her, the slayer, and she was threatening them. And she didn't seem to be the least bit afraid of them.
She'd never fought more than one vampire at a time in the months since she'd become a slayer. And it had very rarely been for longer than a minute or two. With the help of the coven she'd managed to catch most of them when they had just risen and were still groggy and easy to destroy.
All of her training up to this point had stressed survival. 'Don't get caught in a fight unless you can't avoid it', 'Get to some place safe when outnumbered.' This advice had served the slayers in her line well for centuries. Most of them had lived a long time while keeping vampire numbers low enough that most ordinary people believed they were just a myth.
But this was different. Did she help out a potential enemy? Or did she run away from both her and the vampires? She didn't think she could abandon someone to certain death, or worse.
The discussion between the vampires and the woman wasn't going well. The vampires not actively trading insults with her were starting to growl. She could feel the hair at the back of her neck rising with the tension she could feel. Watching closely, Dawn noticed a subtle shift in her stance.
Suddenly, one of the smaller vampires lunged forward, and almost faster than she could see, Dawn watched the woman stake two of them with quick, short jabs of the wooden stake that had suddenly appeared in her hand. From the stunned looks on the faces of the remaining vampires she could tell they were as surprised by this as she was. They apparently weren't expecting any real resistance, if any. Before they could react she'd thrown another stake at a third, dusting it before it could flee.
Backing away from the two remaining vampires, the woman quietly called to Dawn, "I've saved one for you." before she abruptly charged towards them. The woman grabbed the smaller one and shoved it in her direction.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see that the other vampire was putting up a real fight. Hers, on the other hand, blindly attacked her and all she had to do was step out of the way at the last minute and trip it as it went by. Staking it took less than 5 seconds while it lay on the ground and before it could get back up.
Coughing on the cloud of vampire dust she'd been unable to avoid, Dawn watched in awe as the small woman fought the remaining vampire with a skill and energy she knew she wasn't close to possessing. This was a tough vampire and she knew that she wouldn't have lasted a minute against it. Even less if she'd had to deal with the other vampires at the same time.
Watching the punches back and forth and the kicks and other moves she wasn't familiar with she hoped she didn't have to fight the winner. Her training over the years had stressed defense and speed while this woman's style was a combination of aggression and brute strength mixed with a number of half familiar moves she almost recognized.
This vampire was obviously a formidable opponent but he was clearly outmatched and she seemed to be playing with it. That she was able to do so with a fierce grin on her face was even more frightening.
--- --- ---
The girl had quickly taken care of her opponent but Buffy had been too busy to see much of their fight. From what she'd seen out of the corner of her eye, it had been more luck than skill but a closer examination of her abilities would have to wait. Right now she had a stubborn vampire to eliminate.
A few punches in the right place. A powerful kick in another. A few bones broken in strategic places to slow him down and she was able to stake him. A weak vampire. Not much of a challenge compared to the ones she usually fought and not enough of a workout. She really needed to burn off the excess energy and the inexplicable anger that had been steadily growing as she thought about the situation she found herself in, the short meditation session having done little to slow it down. But that would have to wait.
Pausing to take several calming breaths and to shake the vampire dust out of her hair, Buffy looked over at the girl. She could almost see the fear radiating from her. She was looking at Buffy like she was from another planet and Buffy raised an eyebrow at her in question.
"How...? Who are you? Why...?" the girl stammered out.
Ignoring most of her questions, Buffy answered the easiest "It's what I do. And thanks to our dusty friends we both know what you are supposed to be... but your name is?"
"Dawn, Dawn Summers."
"Ah. I thought that might be it. You look like a Dawn." Buffy responded, knowing that she would need to avoid using this girl's name as much as possible. Given the life expectancy of most slayers, Buffy didn't want to get too fond of one that looked so much like her sister. "Well I'm sure you need to get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow and we can continue our interrupted discussion." She looked her up and down again. "I think we should also discuss your training at some point while I'm in town. Looks like you could use a little help."
The girl just gaped at her as Buffy walked away, headed towards the center of town. Hopefully the little money she had with her was close enough to what they used here that she could at least get a cup of coffee somewhere. She didn't think anyone, even in Sunnydale, would take anything else she would willingly offer them at this hour. Sleep would have to wait until she found a safe place to crash for a couple hours.
--- --- ---
Continued in "Getting Comfortable"
--- --- ---