The Two
by acs
Conversations with Slayers
[reviews]
TITLE: The Two (4/24)
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]
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Chapter IV: "Conversations with Slayers"
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Groaning in frustration, Buffy threw the pillow across the room. Even though she'd collapsed into an exhausted sleep as soon as she'd reached her motel room, she hadn't been able to remain sleeping for long. Her slayer's intuition had woken her several hours later, the sensation finally growing loud enough to reach through the exhaustion clouding her mind. It had risen to such a painful level that it prevented her from going back to sleep, her mind insisting that it meant something evil and unknown was lurking somewhere in the town, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting populace, all current evidence to the contrary.
As far as she'd been able tell, the sleepy town was devoid of any true evil. But after almost a decade of exposure to evil in all of its most intense forms, she had the feeling that adjusting to the lack of any evil permeating this Mayberry-lite version of Sunnydale was going to be more difficult than she'd first thought.
Pulling on her only clothes, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the faint coating of vampire and road dust, she kept telling herself that she should relax and enjoy the peace and quiet of what appeared to be a hellmouth free town, but the inner turmoil that was preventing her from getting more than several hours of much needed sleep didn't seem ready to listen. Staring at her tired eyes in the bathroom mirror, she hoped it was only a temporary condition.
Taking a deep breath in anticipation, Buffy stepped out of her motel room onto the balcony, staring out at the surrounding area. It was her first full evening in this town and she intended to get a good look at the local nightlife. From a map she'd purchased earlier that day at a small newspaper stand, it looked like there were less than half the cemeteries as her old Sunnydale and few of the names were ones she recognized. She was mildly surprised the town itself had a name she was familiar with if it was that different.
Hopefully, somewhere in the evening's itinerary she could track down the local hellmouth. The town felt free of the kind of evil that a hellmouth continuously expelled, so it must have been closed for a long time. But Buffy still wanted to find it, assuming it was even there. Just knowing its location would go a long way towards setting her mind at ease. She also wanted to do more than visit the local cemeteries. But the local demon bars, if any, would have to wait for another day. She still didn't know enough about the area to risk any confrontations before she was ready.
Looking around as she headed towards the center of town from her motel, Buffy was surprised at a trait that this peaceful looking Sunnydale shared with her former hometown. The streets she travelled seemed fairly deserted after dark and the people she did see moved in groups of three or more, giving her a wide berth when they saw she was by herself. This wasn't normal behavior for most small towns but she hadn't detected anything yet which would explain it. Buffy could only assume that something she didn't recognize was going on. Even the all-night diner near her motel had seemed close to deserted when she stopped in briefly to check it out.
Visiting all of the cemeteries, the only evidence of vampires Buffy could find was at least a day old. To her trained eyes it looked like the slayer had caught one before it was able to escape from its grave. Not how she'd been trained but very effective if the goal was to dust vampires while avoiding a confrontation. She hadn't seen enough of the slayer in action to know if this was her typical staking method, but she anticipated seeing that it was. It certainly explained a few of the things that were puzzling her.
They were very quiet cemeteries. From what she'd seen so far, Buffy suspected this was normal for this Sunnydale but she planned to confirm it at some point with the younger slayer. If she'd had to patrol quiet ones like this when she'd first come to Sunnydale she would have gone gradually crazy from the boredom. While she'd never really become as steeped in the adrenaline rush of slaying as Faith, she couldn't deny how, at least before she was brought back, slaying used to make her feel so alive.
Based on this little evidence, the five vampires from the previous night were probably not local. This had her wondering what had brought them to Sunnydale. If the hellmouth was closed so tightly that even she couldn't sense more than a faint echo of its presence, what was the attraction? And why was there a new slayer in a town with almost no vampires. There was a chance it was all unrelated but Buffy really needed more answers and not just the vague ideas and feelings cluttering her thoughts before she formed an opinion.
Finding the slayer couldn't be too difficult, she thought with a mental grimace. In her exploration of the local cemeteries, Buffy had seen only one fresh grave less than twenty four hours old. While she hadn't sensed the presence of a vampire in it the slayer was sure to come by to check it out just in case. If she'd ever had such a sleepy town to patrol that's what she would do. Anything to add a little excitement.
Returning to the cemetery where she'd seen the grave, Buffy settled down to wait for the slayer to arrive, perched cross legged on top of a large, nearby headstone. Breathing in the cool night air and meditating to expand her awareness of her surroundings as Willow had recently begun to teach her, Buffy unconsciously twirled a stake in her left hand and waited for the subtle presence of the young slayer to appear at the edge of her consciousness.
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She'd been meditating for less than an hour, when she felt the slayer approaching the cemetery. Buffy opened her eyes and she seemed to appear out of thin air. If Buffy hadn't noticed her as she entered the cemetery she would have been taken by surprise.
"Well, hello! Looks like you have the physical part of being stealthy under control. Too bad there are demons, including vampires, who would have no trouble sensing you from a distance." Buffy began in her best imitation of Giles' favorite pedantic tone. "You really need to start working on the metaphysical side of being a slayer."
"What do you mean?" asked the shocked slayer. "How can a demon sense me from a distance?" she asked with a bit of concern.
Relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with an overtly hostile slayer, Buffy went with the simplest explanation. She wasn't sure she could give Willow's explanation for the whole slayer/vampire attraction without making a mess of it. She wasn't even sure she really understood it herself, even if she'd seen it in action for years. "Do you know what an aura is? And how to look at one? Hopefully without getting a headache?"
"Yes. I've been learning about them but I'm not very good at seeing them yet. If I try really hard..." Looking at Buffy with a look of intense concentration on her face she murmured "but today must be one of the 'not doing it too good' days. I can't seem to see yours. It's like you aren't here. It wasn't there yesterday when I tried it also." She admitted.
"It's there. And so am I. I've just learned how to make it less obvious if I don't want anyone to see it." She wasn't going to admit she'd just learned how to do it and didn't have much control over it once she'd 'turned it on'. "Comes in handy when avoiding demons and other creatures. You, on the other hand, I could sense when you walked into the cemetery." Buffy paused in thought for a moment. "There must not be many demons or vampires around here. You should be a demon magnet with that bright aura. And a vampire, unless it is very stupid or very arrogant, can tell a slayer is around and would stay far away. Unfortunately, too many of them are both."
"And the vampires last night? Where do they fit in?" she asked, leaning against a nearby tombstone.
"Just plain dumb minions. Somewhere there must be a master vampire who was pulling their strings." Tracking it down would give her something to do if she became bored, Buffy thought before continuing. "They didn't know why they were supposed to bring you to him, which would have been useful to know, but it certainly wasn't for fashion tips."
"Why do you keep insulting my clothes? Not exactly the height of fashion yourself. And what makes you a vampire expert!" a petulant slayer asked, stalking over to her. "There is only one vampire slayer in Sunnydale and that's me!"
"You aren't the only person who has ever fought vampires, young lady!" Buffy said sternly. For a horrifying moment she felt like she was channeling her mother. "I've managed to learn quite a bit about them in eight years of chasing the bloodsuckers. There are things you can only learn through experience... and any minute now I'll also start channeling Giles. Yuck!" She shuddered at the thought.
"Who or what is a Giles?"
"He was my teacher. Taught me everything I didn't learn from experience. Didn't do too badly, even if he did start out as a watcher. And you have no idea what a watcher is, do you?" she said rhetorically, remembering the blank look she had received when she'd brought up the subject the previous night. "You must have someone who teaches you and has trained you how to fight demons and vampires? Being a slayer isn't an automatic free pass from the Powers that Be for evil fighting skills. It just makes it a lot easier to learn them. Where I come from a watcher belongs to an organization that trains slayers."
"No... when I became the Slayer," Buffy could almost hear the quotes when she said that, "the local coven trained me and gave me a Guide to help me when I need it. And I get to use their private training room at their house, where my Guide lives. She's also the computer teacher at my high school and knows my sister."
Buffy thought she sounded like an eager puppy. "So your family trusts her? I'm assuming they don't know anything about vampires." Buffy wondered what was going on here. A coven involved in fighting? She hadn't heard of that before. The ones she knew were very anti-violence. Hopefully they treated their slayers much better than the Watchers Council had treated theirs. Another thing to look into when boredom struck, she decided.
She could feel herself getting restless. She hopped off the headstone. Her other questions could wait. She needed to burn off some energy. She wasn't sure what she was going to do but sitting here talking wasn't going to do it. "I have to run. I'll talk with you more tomorrow."
Before she could get completely away, the slayer blurted out "My Guide wants to meet you after school tomorrow."
"I'm busy tomorrow but if I have a chance I'll look her up." Hmmm, Buffy wondered, Wiccan computer teacher. Someone she knew from her Sunnydale? It had been a while since she'd thought about Jenny Calendar. "She wouldn't happen to be a short brunette? Sort of Gypsy looking?"
"Who? Ms. Rosenberg? She's had long red hair as long as I've known her. And she's a little taller than you!" Dawn made a face. "All of the boys in her classes have crushes on her, and some of the girls too. Not sure why. And her taste in girlfriends? Ewww... she even dated my sister in college. They've always been good friends but that was a mess. Beth can be such an airhead some times..."
"Okay." Cutting her off before she could say more, Buffy frowned. This was more than she wanted to know, especially if she was talking about her potential double here. She really didn't plan on being around long enough to get involved in the personal lives of these people. "Just let her know that I'll catch up with her some time tomorrow."
After a quick glance around, Buffy slipped out of sight into the woods. The young slayer attempted to follow her with her eyes for a minute before shrugging her shoulders and leaving, with Buffy shadowing her well out of sight, through several other cemeteries, the small airport, and the Sunnydale docks, before finally heading home.
In the process of shadowing her Buffy also dusted several vampires who seemed to be spying on the oblivious slayer. Something else someone should talk with her about. A predictable patrol route was not a good thing even in a town like this sleepy version of Sunnydale.
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Having burned off enough energy trailing the younger slayer to at least calm her restlessness, and without finding any obvious evidence of a hellmouth, Buffy headed back to her motel room, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep. Lying there, staring up at the ceiling, Buffy wasn't sure if she could handle seeing another familiar person from her past without losing it. It wasn't this Sunnydale that was the real problem. It at least was different enough that it was almost like being somewhere else. She suspected this town had never experienced an immortal mayor intent on ascending to full demon-hood.
And this Dawn, the slayer, was also very different from her sister. The innocence, the sense of always experiencing the world fresh every day that her sister exhibited, even during the worst of their battles with evil, wasn't there. This girl was a slayer and that changed someone. She wasn't sure if she would be able to address her by name but she wouldn't be confusing one for the other any time soon.
And then there was this girl's sister, this Beth. She hadn't met her and had no desire to see what another universes' version of her would be like. From the things the slayer had already said this sounded like it could be a non-slayer version of herself, though her double being gay was a truly unexpected difference. Seeing how she might have been if she hadn't become the slayer was an experience she hoped to avoid.
On the other hand, this Ms. Rosenberg sounded a bit like her Willow, with the red hair, computer teaching, preference in companions, and being a Wiccan. Meeting her without falling apart was going to be tough. No matter how much they'd grown apart in the past few years, she still missed her former best friend. If Willow had been with her she just knew they would have been well on their way home already. As far as she could remember it had only been two days since she'd last seen her but it somehow felt like it had been a lot longer.
She only briefly wondered if she would run into versions of Xander or Giles. Her relationships with the few men she allowed into her life now had been strained recently for reasons she wasn't ready to think about yet. Not thinking about them unless they were in front of her had become the only way she could cope with their distance. She couldn't imagine running into anyone else from her Sunnydale days. The thing that would have been the catalyst in bringing them here, the Hellmouth, didn't seem to exist in the same evil spewing way.
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After a quick breakfast at the diner near her motel, Buffy resumed her clandestine observations of the slayer, following her to school, easily staying just out of range of her enhanced slayer senses.
Apartment hunting later that morning went better than she'd hoped it would. Just down the street from the local coffee house on Main Street she'd found a loft above a used books store. The smell of old books permeating the walls gave it an almost home-like feel to the lonely slayer. Next on her list was finding a job. She'd been lucky enough to be able to pay two months rent for the loft in advance but if she wanted to eat real food, and pay for a phone of some sort, she needed a steady income. But that would have to wait until after she'd met with this Ms. Rosenberg.
After moving her few possessions to her new apartment Buffy headed for the school that Dawn attended. The school receptionist had given her an odd look when she'd given her name and had asked for directions to Ms. Rosenberg's office. Buffy hoped she wasn't being mistaken for someone else. Her plans to settle in quietly in Sunnydale didn't need that kind of complication.
Ms. Rosenberg wasn't in her office or classroom when Buffy found it in the unfamiliar school. After a quick look around to satisfy her curiosity, she made herself comfortable, perching on a clear corner of the desk, meditating while she waited.
She hadn't been there very long when she felt a slight tug in her head. This was new. It wasn't the feeling she got around other slayers or evil creatures like vampires. There was a warmness to it, like the beginnings of a hug. But like so many other things she was discovering about this world, investigating its source would have to wait.
Looking towards the door she saw a young woman, looking the way she remembered Willow looking before the fight with Glory. Before everything had spiraled out of her control and she'd permanently lost her aura of innocence. She stood fidgeting in the door as if she were afraid to enter.
As she began to speak Buffy listened more to the tone of her voice than to the words, the offer of help. There was a softness in her voice. Just like the young slayer had been softer, untried in real battle, this woman was not visibly hard and tough like her Willow had become. Another tidbit to add to her growing picture of a place that hadn't experienced much conflict. It didn't help explain why she'd ended up here but she was beginning to wonder.
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Willow had stopped in the office to pick up some paperwork on her way back from lunch with a friend when she was told she had a visitor, a Miss Summers, waiting for her in her office. She wondered about the comment from the receptionist that she hadn't known that Dawn had another older sister as she hurried down the hall.
Pausing in the doorway of her classroom to catch her breath, she saw several things she hadn't expected. There was a woman sitting on her desk, almost as if she belonged there, apparently meditating. From her resemblance to Dawn's sister, and her clothing she seemed to fit the description of the woman Dawn had run into at her house and while patrolling the following night. There was definitely something odd about her aura. Dawn hadn't been wrong about that. It seemed to fade into her surroundings, allowing her to almost disappear psychically. She hadn't even realized that it was possible to do that.
And then there were her clothes. She could have been wearing a uniform, an almost fashionable one to be sure but clearly clothes with a purpose other than to look good. And she seemed to subtly dominate the room she was in. It was very clear to her who was in charge here.
"Miss Summers?" she asked hesitantly. There were still the rare times when she unintentionally fell back to her shy, pre-college self and this was one of them. "Is there something I can help you with?"
No longer meditating, the woman shifted slightly, looking at her with a faint, almost friendly smile. "I believe you wanted to see me, Ms. Rosenberg?"
"Yes..." She really hadn't thought about what she would do if the woman actually showed up in response to her request. She mentally shook her head. "Yes I did."
"I'm assuming you wanted to discuss Dawn?"
"Discuss what about her? Shouldn't you be talking with her sister instead?" she said defensively.
"Not unless her sister is in charge of her late night extracurricular activities." the woman told her. "I believe she has said you help her with those."
"Yes... but what does that have to do with you?" Willow asked warily.
"If you expect her to make it to her next birthday, her training seems a bit lacking. From what I've seen so far... if she had to fight an experienced vampire or a powerful demon she wouldn't survive the encounter. And I'm not the only one who knows that."
"What do you mean?" It wasn't clear to Willow whether this was an offer of help or if some kind of threat was being made. "And why would I listen to you?"
"You don't have to listen to me. I won't try to make you." She shrugged indifferently. "But you might want to think about why there were vampires watching your slayer last night, without her noticing them, and what they wanted with her." The woman hopped off of her desk and placed her hand on Willow's left arm, lightly squeezing it. "And this isn't really the place to discuss such things. If you want to discuss it further you can meet me at the 'Coffee Garten' on Main Street at 6pm."
Holding her arm where the woman had touched it, Willow watched in amazement as the petite woman strode out of the room without looking back.
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Continued in "Coffee and Two Wiccans to Go"
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