Starring:
Felicia Day as Vi
Indigo as Rona
Vibeke Stene as Katrine
Dania Ramirez as Caridad
Simone Simons as Anna
Shakira Meberak as Isabella
And Anthony Stewart Head as Giles
*
It was Monday morning in the second week of term at the academy, and Vi sat at one of the many tables in the cafeteria, poking
her breakfast around her plate with a fork, and glancing interestedly at the
crowds of people in the room. Sometimes she liked having a good old
people-watch. Sat at her table was Rona, Caridad,
Katrine, Isabella and Laura, all of whom looked extremely tired. They had been
on patrol the previous night, while Vi had simply been
studying for a Philosophy test.
On the next table over, sat
queen bee Ashlee, and two of her lackeys, the disgustingly thin Phoebe, and the
perfectly manicured Stephanie. It never ceased to amaze Vi
how these girls could slay vampires all night and still look perfect the next
morning. A few more tables over, Michelle and Anna sat drinking coffee, and
speaking in rapid Dutch, while
The table nearest to the kitchen
was known as the official staff table, around which sat…well, the staff. Peter
Harrison was a thirty-something handsome man with glasses, who taught
Philosophy within the academy, and also trained Caridad on the side. Next to
him sat his son Christian, who was currently training to be a watcher within
the academy. Next to them sat Bethany de la Croix, who was eagerly reading a large leather bound dusty book, clearing mistaking the
breakfast table for a library of some sorts. Opposite
Next to Reggie sat Scott, the
devilishly cute Slayer History instructor, who Vi had
heard, much to the distress of half the teenage girls in the academy, was
courting the current head of Mystical Arts, Anton Rivers. Vi
knew there’d be no problem if a relationship were to occur, seeming Mr. Giles’
fondness of
Among the hundreds of other
tables in the room, Vi spotted people she recognized. Watchers, slayers, students, teachers. The academy was
really growing, so much so that they’d soon need to build a new dorm building
to accommodate everyone.
“How did the patrol go last
night?” Vi asked, getting bored of her
people-watching.
“It was alright,” Rona replied.
“Killed five vamps, one demon.”
“It was a bit unnecessary to
send so many of us out if you ask me,” Laura shrugged. “I could’ve been doing
that stupid essay I have to write for Slayer History.”
“Better safe than sorry,”
Caridad said. “Safety in numbers.”
“Yeah, okay, but twenty five?”
Laura asked. “Big number.”
“For a big city,” Isabella
winked, and flicked her blonde hair behind her shoulders. “Listen kid, I
trained for this for many years. I was patrolling the streets of
“She’s just pissed about
Ashlee,” Rona said. “Don’t let her bother you Laura, that’s what she wants.”
“She was on the patrol last
night?” Vi asked. “Fun.”
“Not really,” Katrine replied.
“She almost staked a dog, said she thought it was a demon.”
“No way,” Vi
giggled.
“Hey, it’s your turn tonight,”
Caridad grinned. “Michelle showed me the rota earlier. You, Shannon, Ashlee,
Shihao and Lucia are all in a group together.”
“Oh well,” Vi
sighed, smiling. “If she gets too much, we can do her in and make it look like
an accident.”
“Or you could just…” Rona
didn’t get to finish her sentence.
The sound of a dozen girls
screaming accompanied the loud smashing of glass, as the large windows along
one side of the room caved in, scattering glass all over the room. An alarm
started to go off, as Vi caught a glance of brown fur
flying into the room. Girls screamed and panicked, rushing to get away from the
windows, as watchers shouted for order.
“You wouldn’t think some of
these girls were slayers, would you?” Katrine asked, raising her eyebrow at a
girl who was screaming dramatically. Grabbing her dark skirts in one hand, the
Dutch slayer rushed towards the windows, looking for a fight. Sighing, Vi stood up and rushed after her, followed by Caridad and
Isabella. The beasts reminded Vi of pictures of
werewolves she had seen in books, except that they were smaller, and vaguely
more humanoid. About twenty of them swarmed into the room, baring fangs and
claws and swiping at scrambling slayers.
“Everyone out, and stay calm!” Vi heard Michelle’s voice echo across the room, over the
screams and growls.
“Fat chance of either,” Vi said to herself, as she reached the first creature in her
sight. Giving it a vicious kick to the side of the head, she found that the
creature fell down and didn’t get back up again. Grabbing a fork off a nearby
table, she stabbed it into the eye socket of another creature, and spun to
throw another off a young slayer, who promptly ran for the door. “You’re
welcome!”
To her left, Vi
saw Caridad beating one of the creature across the head with a chair, and to
her right, the redheaded Anna delivered a perfect swipe kick to another,
breaking its neck with a crunch. Slayers standing strong.
Surprisingly, a few feet away, Vi watched as Ashlee
delivered a side kick, that knocked one of the creatures back out of the
window. She had never seen Ashlee lift a finger to do anything before. People
were full of surprises.
Before long, the group of
slayers who had stayed to fight, had killed or subdued all of the creatures,
leaving the disaster area that was once the cafeteria pretty much empty, apart
from various staff members who had come to assess the damage.
“Well done girls,” Michelle
offered. “You did that very well.”
“What are they?” Anna asked, as
the slayers group together. Mr. Giles, Scott and Reggie were also present.
“Or what were they, is probably
more accurate,” Rona grinned.
“They look like hellhounds to
me,” Michelle suggested.
“Yes, I believe they are,”
Giles agreed. “An odd attack by all counts. They were
severely outnumbered, though I must admit I’ve never imagined so many slayers
would run away from danger like that, and they just wandered right into council
grounds.”
“It seems it was a test of some
sort,” Scott said. “To see what exactly we could do.”
“Hellhounds must be trained,
yes?” Michelle said. “They must’ve been trained for this specific task.”
“We should check for
surveillance,” Reggie replied.
“I’ll get Anton to try some
spells,” Scott said, and hurried off.
“I’ll send out a team to check
the grounds,” Michelle told the room, and also hurried off.
“I’m very proud of you all,”
Giles said, smiling to the slayers in the room. “Our first attack,
and you fought them off brilliantly.”
“It won’t be the last though,
will it?” Anna asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Giles
replied. “I imagine this is just the taster. We’ll see. Now, I have some rather
boring paperwork to be doing, and you lot had better get to class. Good day.”
*
No one spoke about anything else
for the rest of the day. Slayers gossiped in the corridors about what the
attack was about, and who it was by, and what would happen next. During
Philosophy, Peter couldn’t get a word in edgeways, thanks to half the girls in
the class. Finally, he gave up and told the class they could leave, half an
hour early. Now that the school day was officially over, the girls retired to
their dorm rooms. The rooms were pretty bare, but the slayers had been given
free reign to decorate and so they had.
Vi
shared a room with Katrine, who had decided to split the room down the middle.
Katrine’s side was dark and full of musty books, while Vi’s
side was brightly decorated with posters of kittens and rainbows, along with
her own artwork, and a shelf of her odd hats, which she still admired, though
didn’t wear as often. They weren’t too practical for slaying in; she’d tend to
lose them on patrol. Though each room had its own TV and computer, the girls
tended to use the recreational room for leisure time, which was strictly a
student-only area attached to the dorm building.
It was full of sofas and chairs,
and contained pool tables, vending machines, wide-screen TV’s, computer
stations, stereos, and pretty much anything else the girls wanted. The new
council believed that they should savor their leisure time, because they were
teenagers, not just slayers. Vi wandered into the room
with Katrine and Laura, and found it pretty much empty, thanks to their lesson
being ended early.
“You guys wanna play pool?”
Laura asked.
“Sure, set ‘em up,” Vi smiled and grabbed a pool cue.
“I’ll just watch,” Katrine
replied, and headed to the nearest vending machine.
“Oh look girls, the geek, the goth and the…um, other geek,” Ashlee said. Katrine rose from
getting her drink out of the vending machine, and turned to face Ashlee,
Stephanie and Phoebe, who had just entered the room.
“How witty,” Katrine said dryly
and sat down on a sofa next to Vi and Laura’s pool
table.
“I saw you fight earlier,” Vi said benevolently to Ashlee. “You’ve got a good kick on
ya.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ashlee replied
with no trace of modesty, and turned to her friends. “Come on girls, let’s
watch TV.”
“It’s like they have no
thoughts of their own,” Katrine watched, fascinated as the two girls just
followed Ashlee without question.
“She makes my skin crawl,”
Laura added. “Maybe she’s a demon instead of a slayer?”
“Let’s hope so,” Katrine
replied, turning back to her drink. “I could do with a good slay.”
Vi
smiled softly and potted two balls in quick succession, leaving Laura a little
stunned. Before Vi could celebrate her success, she
saw Anna walk into the room.
“Hey,” Vi
greeted her.
“Hello,” Anna smiled kindly.
“Never seen
you in these parts before.”
“Michelle insisted I
uh…socialize,” Anna shrugged.
“We don’t bite…much,” Katrine
smiled. “Come sit.”
“Okay,” Anna replied and sat
down next to Katrine. “So, how long have you been here?”
“Well, Vi was here at the
beginning,” Katrine explained. “She was one of the Sunnydale slayers. I arrived
here about three weeks before term.”
“Same here,” Laura said as she
potted a ball.
“I am so new,” Anna smiled.
“Don’t worry, it won’t last,” Vi smiled. “Soon enough, we’ll have loads more new recruits
and you won’t be so new anymore.”
“What was it like?” Anna asked
suddenly. “Going into the hellmouth? I’ve heard stories, but…”
“Well…” Vi
sighed, leaning her pool cue against the table.
*
Sunnydale
Vi was terrified. She was stood in a room in the basement underneath
“You first B,” Faith said,
handing a knife to Buffy. Sighing, Buffy took the knife to her palm and handed
it back to Faith, who promptly slit her own palm, before offering the knife to
the girl on her left. Eventually, it went round the entire circle, and they all
held their hands over the seal, spilling their blood until it opened, permitted
access. Buffy was the first to go down into the hellmouth, followed by Faith
and Spike. The potentials followed wearily.
A cavern befell their eyes, and
the girls treaded cautiously, carrying their weapons, some of which were
useless as the girls carrying them were untrained. Vi
held back the cry of desperation she wanted to release. Panicking wasn’t going
to help anyone. Spike was looking at the funny necklace round his neck.
“Not to be a
buzz kill love, but my fabulous accessory isn’t exactly tingling,” he
said to Buffy.
“I’m not
worried,” Buffy replied, dead cool.
“I’m getting zero juice here,
and I look like Elizabeth Taylor,” Spike continued.
“Cheer up Liz,” Faith grinned.
“
Slowly, the group moved forward
to the edge of the rock formation they were stood on, and they stopped and
stared at the sight that met them. Thousands upon thousands of monstrous
Turok-Han vampires filled up the cavern before them.
“I’m not worried,” Buffy said
unconvincingly. “I’m not worried.”
“Really?”
Rona replied. “’Cause I’m flashing back to Xander’s whole
bathroom speech.”
“Buffy…” Amanda whimpered.
“I’m not worried…as long as
As one, the creatures rushed
forward to attack. Vi squealed in terror. Suddenly,
her terror washed away, as an unknown energy flowed through her. Taking a sharp
breath, Vi felt something course through her veins,
through her heart. Something that definitely wasn’t there
before.
“These guys are dust,” Vi declared confidently, as the creatures finally reached
them.
*
An hour later, Vi, Shannon, Ashlee, Shihao and Lucia stood in Giles’
office, in front of his desk, as the watcher stood behind it, smiling kindly at
them. They’d each been asked to attend a meeting before going on their patrol,
which consisted of them, Giles, Scott, Anton, Reggie and Michelle.
“So, instead of your usual
patrol, we’d like you to try and discover the origin of the attack this
morning,” Giles told them. “Anton?”
“I did some basic tracking
spells,” Anton said, stepping forward from the other staff members. “I’m fairly
certain the hellhounds were summoned and trained to attack teenage girls, and
that they were summoned somewhere here…” he pointed to a street on the map on
Giles’ desk. “However, an exact location is difficult to find.”
“What can we expect to encounter?”
Shihao asked.
“Possibly more hellhounds,”
Giles replied. “And of course, whoever summoned them. We think they’re human,
though they will likely have a limited amount of magickal power, which is why
Anton is to go with you, along with Scott and Reggie.”
“What do we do if they are
human?”
“Simply contain them,” Michelle
replied. “As a last resort, we suggest knocking them unconscious.”
“Reggie will supply you with
weapons,” Giles smiled. “Just incase there are more hellhounds.”
“Good luck,” Michelle smiled
enthusiastically, and the group left Giles and Michelle alone in his office.
“What do you think?” Giles
asked.
“I think it will be a
successful mission,” Michelle replied. “They’re some of our best slayers, and
watchers. Anton is an accomplished spell caster.”
“Its
so different from how things were done in Sunnydale,” Giles smiled
nostalgically. “Buffy would make the plans, I would simply offer advice.”
“And now you feel as if you’re
giving orders?”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t worry Mr. Giles,”
Michelle smiled, heading for the door. “Things will be okay. And I know you
miss her, but she will not be gone forever.”
“Thank you Michelle,” Giles
replied genuinely.
Michelle nodded and left him to
himself.
*
There was an uncomfortable
silence in the van being driven by Reggie, as they looked for a possible
location for the hellhounds. Shihao was sat in the passenger seat, while
everyone else sat in the back. Ashlee was sat staring at Anton and Scott, who
were sat next to each other, glancing at each other when the other wasn’t
looking.
“So are you guys screwing or
what?” Ashlee finally said.
“Ashlee!” Reggie protested.
Reggie was Ashlee’s watcher.
“What? I wanna know,” Ashlee
replied. “Loads of people wanna know.”
“They do, huh?” Scott asked, a smirk on his face.
“Its no one’s business,” Reggie
told her slayer.
“Its no big deal,” Vi told Ashlee. “And its not
something to gossip about.”
“Don’t tell me what I can and
can’t do,” Ashlee replied.
“Now, now, girls,” Anton
smiled. “Put those handbags away.”
“More like sledgehammers,”
“Can we please just get there,
slay, and go home?” Lucia asked. “I could do with some actual sleep tonight.”
“I second that,” Reggie smiled.
“Hear, this looks like a good place to try…a
warehouse.”
Reggie pulled the van up to the
sidewalk and the group got out of the van, carrying their various items of
weaponry. Cautiously, the group headed towards the warehouse entrance, where
Reggie forced the door open with a little help from a crowbar. Vi went inside first, and found that the warehouse sank into
the ground and was accessible only by a large staircase.
With severe caution, the redhead
descended the steps, followed at a distance by
“There’s nothing here,” Ashlee
said quietly.
“Spread out,”
“Waste of time,” Ashlee
grumbled, though she started to move towards the back of the room with
“Look out!” Scott cried, and
lifted his crossbow to fire. The others flew into action - Vi’s
sword flashed dangerously, slicing flesh in every direction. Shihao had
possession of a hand-held axe, which she used to cleave the head off a
hellhound who was trying to bite her face. Shannon and Lucia tag-teamed,
watching each other’s backs, while using their hunting knifes to defend
themselves, while Ashlee did her best to fend off attackers with her sword.
Reggie was swinging a staff around with practiced expertise, cracking bones and
splitting flesh with the dangerous wood, while Anton used magick to electrify
any of the creatures he came into contact with.
“Anton!” Scott cried, as one of
the hellhounds slashed him from behind. He didn’t even see it coming. The
watcher rushed to his side, and shot the hellhound in the face with a crossbow
bolt. Another was on him in a second, but was promptly slain by Vi.
“Is he okay?” Vi asked, as Scott kneeled next to him.
“He’s unconscious, we should
get him to the medic,” Scott replied.
“We need to get out of here,” Vi told him, as she watched Ashlee get slashed in the face.
“There are too many of them.”
“What about the objective?”
“Screw the objective,” Vi answered. “I’m taking charge and I refuse to lose someone
for an objective. Retreat!”
Vi
helped Scott move Anton towards the exit, as Reggie and the other slayers moved
to defend them and retreat. Together, they managed to get to the exit and get
into the van. Reggie drove away full speed, with hellhounds still clinging to
the sides of the van, trying to get in, until they were finally moving too fast
for them to hand on. Inside the van, Scott held Anton, while Ashlee held a
blood soaked towel to her cheek.
“Well that completely sucked,”
*
Xander smiled softly and let the
scorching sun shine on his skin, as he walked out of a small desert town in the
middle of nowhere. Neither he, nor his companion, actually had any idea where
they were, but they knew they were headed in the right direction. His companion
was an eighteen year old woman named Mandisa, a slayer he had found in
They had been traveling for
three months now, and they were getting closer and closer each day, and their
surroundings were getting ever more remote each day. Mandisa was worried that
even if they did find the caves, they wouldn’t be able to find their way back
again.
“Don’t worry about it,” Xander
smiled, turning his eye to look at her. She was beautiful - dark skin, braided
hair and eyes, delicate features. But she wasn’t delicate of course, she was a
slayer, and she was powerful despite her lithe form. Xander was used to knowing
short women who could slaughter a five hundred pound Gourvello demon with their
bare hands. “If we get lost on the way back, I can just call the council. We
have plenty of food and water, plenty of money. We’ll be fine.”
“And what do we expect to find
there?” Mandisa asked. “Will there be danger?”
“Probably, there usually is,”
Xander grinned. Mandisa frowned. “Look, if you want to go back, I don’t mind…”
“No, I want to do this,”
Mandisa insisted. “I’m just saying, if there are
enemies that need to be fought, perhaps we should find other slayers who can
help us.”
“There’s no time,” Xander
shrugged. “I was lucky to find you.”
“Luck had nothing to do with
it,” Mandisa smiled. “I’m meant to be here, it was destiny.”
“That’s what they all say,”
Xander smirked, and they continued their journey into the blazing desert.
*
“So…what happened?” Michelle
asked, clearly surprised that their objective hadn’t been met. The group had formed in Giles’ office, and were stood in front
of Giles and Michelle.
“We were ambushed by
hellhounds,” Scott told her. “There were too many of them, so we retreated.”
“Ashlee and
Anton?” Giles asked.
“Medical center,” Reggie
replied. “Anton has a few deep cuts on his back and hit his head quite hard on
the floor, but he’ll be fine. Ashlee has a deep cut on her cheek, and is being
quite dramatic about it, but she’s also fine.”
“And the
hellhounds?” Michelle asked.
“We killed about half of them,”
Vi replied. “I estimated about twelve of them left.”
“We’ll rest for tonight,” Giles
told the group. “We’ll regroup in the morning, and go in with more force. We
need to find out whose doing this.”
“Agreed,” Scott nodded.
“You did well,” Giles insisted.
“Don’t think badly of tonight, I should’ve sent out a bigger group.”
“You’d all better get some rest
now,” Michelle said.
“Goodnight all,” Giles smiled
kindly as the group left the office once again. He turned to Michelle and his
smile faded.
“You can’t blame yourself for
every failed mission,” Michelle said without needing an explanation for his
expression. “No one was seriously harmed.”
“This time,” Giles said.
“Mr. Giles, if you don’t mind
me saying so, you get yourself too involved,” Michelle told him as she headed
for the door. “Goodnight Mr. Giles, get some sleep.”
*
Ashlee winced as Richard smeared
a foul-smelling paste on her cheek, and she turned her nose up at the smell.
Richard raised an eyebrow at her expression, and wandered off to tend to Anton,
who he seemed to prefer as a patient for not being quite as much of a teenager
as Ashlee.
“This stuff really smells,”
Ashlee told him.
“It will reduce the swelling,”
Richard replied curtly, as he checked the bandage on Anton’s head. “With your
slayer gifts the wound will be closed by tomorrow, and healed within the week.
It won’t scar.”
“Good,” Ashlee smiled. “I don’t
look good in a dozen layers of foundation.”
“You may go now,” Richard said
dryly. Ashlee nodded and headed for the door.
“Hey Anton, don’t die, okay?”
She said and left, leaving Anton to stare after her.
“Did you check that her brain
was connected to her mouth?” Anton asked.
“You’ll have to remind me to do
that next time,” Richard smiled.
“Knock, knock,” Richard turned
to see Scott stood in the doorway.
“Can I help you Mr. Herring?”
Richard asked.
“I was just wandering how the
patient’s doing,” Scott smiled, and Anton blushed a
little.
“Much better,” Richard replied.
“I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
“Thanks doc,” Anton said, and
Richard left.
“So, you’re feeling better?
“Much,
thanks,” Anton smiled. “And thanks for saving my life, Ashlee told me what
happened…and she also spent half an hour talking about her new prada shoes.”
“Fun,” Scott laughed, and sat
down on the bed next to Anton. “And you’re welcome. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Anton smiled, and leant over to
kiss him softly. “Might as well give them something to really
talk about.”
Scott grinned.
Guest Starring:
Emma Watson as Laura
Kaley Cuoco as Ashlee
Sara Paxton as
Phoebe
Rachel McAdams as
Stephanie
Tarja Turunen as
Michelle
Kristy Wu as Chao
Ahn
Johnny Depp as Peter
Jared Padalecki as
Christian
Rose McGowan as
Angelina Jolie as
Reggie
Randy Harrison as
Scott
Tom Lenk as Andrew
Colin Firth as
Richard
Drew Fuller as Anton
Sarah Michelle
Gellar as Buffy
Eliza Dushku as
Faith
James Marsters as
Spike
Sarah Hagan – as
Amanda
Mary Wilcher as
Ziyi Zhang as Shihao
Nicholas Brendon as
Xander
Alicia Keys as
Mandisa