Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story


- Text Size +

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


"Ladies and gentlemen, we have started our descent into London.  In preparation for landing, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in your full upright position.  Make sure you seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the over head bins. . ."

 

Kendra looked out of the window surprised that they were already in London.  She had been in a bit of a hazy fog, memories and thoughts hanging over her.   She still wasn't one hundred percent sure why she had gotten the call to come to London.  She was still young and not the most seasoned of Slayers.  It has been a little less than 7 years since she had started her training, it was actually a life time for their profession but she was still relative babe in the woods compared to many.  She found herself thinking back to the moment that it all began when her life officially changed forever.

 

2002

 

She was walking home from school, down a dirt road in her small town when she saw him.  He: an older white man wearing a wrinkled light weight trench coat and hat, leaning against a beat up brown van.  It was 80 degrees so to say he stuck out would be an understatement. 

 

She thought he was one of those tourist perverts that had wondered off the beaten path and decided to pick up some underage girls and offer them money for their services.  It wasn't an uncommon occurrence; Negril was a major tourist trap.  Usually it was some local man who would recruit 16 year old girls to be go go dancers at the night clubs or work in a massage parlor.  Then the so-called "dons" would eventually force the girls into prostitution.  But sometimes a tourist would be bold enough to approach the girls themselves and offer them money.  Kendra was only 14 but she knew she could easily pass for being 16.  Some of the other girls Kendra's age would go off with these men.  Kendra was not and would never be one of those girls.  Though the man was clearly not from around there, he was also missing the brightly colored flowered print shirt, flip flops, and fake Bob Marley tam sported by your typical tourist.  She picked up her speed, preparing to walk past him when he spoke.

 

"Kendra."  He said softly but clearly in heavy British accent.  She frowned turning towards him.

 

"How do you know my name?"  She said puzzled.  He walked towards her but she veered back a couple of steps maintaining a safe distance.  She knew if she had to she could out run him, could probably fight him as well.  She was hands down the strongest female in her class and pretty much stronger than any boy whose ego had either been big or small enough to challenge her.  At the time she didn't realize these were a part of her supernatural gifts but she knew she had the abilities.

 

"I know all about you Kendra.  I'm here to call you to your fate."  She raised one eyebrow at him and continued backing away dubiously.  She decided just to play it off and get away from him.

 

"I dey 'pon haste.  Lef mi Nuh."  She said dismissing him in patois as she quickly turned to walk away, the guy was obviously a nut case.  She took fast steps, trying to get away from him without showing panic.

 

"I know about the dreams Kendra.  The visions you've been having I know all about it."   His voice rang out.  That stopped her dead in her tracks.  She rounded on him and stared at in shock.

 

"What do you think you know about me?"

 

"I know that for as long as you can remember, you could see things, unexplainable things.  You had an intuitive draw to the dark, an ability to believe in things you could not explain rationally.  Because in your gut you knew that there were things out there that could not be explained away with science.  You've known this because your dreams and visions have shown you and foretold that this day would come.  And you know that I'm right."  He had hit his target, but she would never let him know that.  Who was this strange man and who was he to feel that he could know her so intimately.

 

"You're mistaken."  She said walking away preparing to break into a run if he followed her.

 

"Kendra."  He said authoritatively but not moving from his spot.   She knew she should keep going, putting as much distance between the two of them as possible.  "Kendra."  He said again.  This time when she turned he hurled a knife at her with all of his strength. 

 

It seemed as though the knife was moving in slow motion, as it headed straight for her head.  Before she could really process what had happed she caught the knife one inch before it had impaled her between the eyes.  She stared at him in angry shock as he smiled back at her.

 

"I told you that you were the one,"  He said grinning like a mad man as he walked closer to her.  She responded by kicking him the face and knocking him unconscious. 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

She left him by the side of the road that day but unsurprisingly, he found her again.  It was an inauspicious start to what would become the most important relationship in Kendra's life.  From then on Quinton Travers was her guardian, but not just her guardian he was a father figure to her, a mentor, maybe even a friend.  As much a friend as Kendra ever had anyway.  She wasn't big on friends, they were mostly liabilities.  She was born a loner maybe because she intuitively knew her destiny was different from those around her.  But the one thing that Kendra related to was numbers; she was considered something of a math genius.  By the age of 14 she thought she would be a math teacher, maybe even an accountant.  But all that changed the day that he had thrown a knife at her head.  So Kendra Young didn't grow up to be a math teacher, instead she became a vampire slayer, specifically a Sabbartarian. 

 

There were three groups of vampire slayers: Dhampirians, Transformarians and Sabbatarians.  A Sabbatarian was a female born on a Saturday. These females are born with innate abilities that make them naturally adept at slaying, they are quicker, stronger and smarter then your average or even above average human. From a young age, Sabbatarians have dreams of vampires and psychic visions which they may or may not choose to ignore.  But if they choose not to ignore the visions they can become some of the best slayers around marrying their natural skills with a quick ability to learn.  With time and growth, they develop exceptionally sharp, intuitive abilities which can tip them off that there is a vampire in the immediate vicinity.


Even though females born on a Saturday have natural gifts, in order to make full on slayer status one has to be called to duty. The Slayer Guardians observe Sabbatarians from the day of birth. Only the best of the best are selected and recruited to join the ranks, with the option to turn it down.   So Kendra supposed she could've just turned down the call and been a math teacher, or maybe an accountant but somewhere deep down she knew there was nothing else for her to do but slay. 

 

Not that it had been without its issues.  Being a Sabbatarian was a pretty thankless job, everyday you busted your ass to save all of humanity and really they could give a shit about it.  The pay wasn't so great, the Council pretty much gave you just enough to get by.  When you had built up your reputation you could set your prices as a bounty hunter, but unfortunately Kendra hadn't accumulated enough experience to get to that level.  So she lived in shitty motel rooms (the kind that charged by the hour) and ate a lot of cans of sardines and McDonald's 99 cent cheeseburgers.

 

Then there was working with the know-it-all fly by the seat of their pants slayers who acted with a recklessness that Kendra found borderline suicidal.   The odds of a Sabbatarian getting killed by a vampire were 1 in 10, those were decent odds she supposed.  Before the cease fire treaty it was 1 in 4, 1 in 3 in New York City, 1 in 2 in London.  Kendra did whatever it took to safeguard herself against those odds, but human error always skewed it.  She had learned that the hard way when she had gotten her throat slit open while working a case in Sunnydale, California with Buffy Summers.  Thank goodness for that witch that had been able to conjure up a magic spell to hold off death.  Still the scar on her neck was a constant reminder of her mistake.  She had been too caught up, let her feelings crowd her decision making.  Which was why she preferred to work alone, her personal likelihood for error was much smaller when she didn't get emotionally involved.

 

But this case was different.  Quinton Travers her Guardian, her friend had been killed under mysterious circumstances.  Rupert Giles, another Guardian she had known and respected had also been killed.  No one other than top insiders knew the details of what had happened on that several key members of the Council had been killed.  The secrecy had the effect of causing world wide chaos amongst Slayers, everyone worried for themselves, wondering if they too would be a target.  But that was not what drove Kendra.  She needed to find out the truth about what had happened to her Guardian, she wasn't sure why she specifically had been singled out for this case but she knew that she owed it to Travers to keep going until she got to the bottom of it.  But she was only going to do it by the book, she swore to herself not to make it personal, not to open the door to the kind of mistakes that could cost her everything. 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

"Excuse me, are you Kendra?"  Kendra turned towards the young woman with the strong American accent who had been standing back.  She had a commanding presence, she was tall (or maybe it just seemed that way compared to Kendra's 5'3 smaller frame), and slender, her long black hair pulled back into a French braid.  Kendra took in her perfectly groomed appearance, short highly buffed nails, fitted designer jeans and pink cashmere tee shirt.  She was smiling widely at her, Kendra just nodded at her, she hated smiling, it made her face hurt.

 

"Layla?"  She asked her, the smile got wider.  Kendra could already tell she smiled too much.  Layla stuck out her hand authoritatively, Kendra shook it reluctantly.  Layla's reputation preceded her, she was one of the best but then again so was Kendra.  She was also known for not being above cutting a couple of corners every now and again and there were rumors that she had worked cases using insider vampire sources, something Kendra detested.  Still it was only for one assignment that would be handled as soon as possible.  As soon as it was over with Kendra would be well on her way so for now she would just do what she had to do to get through it.

 

"So you're my new partner eh?"  Layla said taking her in, she immediately picked up on the attitude that extended 5 feet in front of her.  She was a petite girl with big eyes.  Her dark hair was cornrolled back and wrapped in a bun.  Despite being a relative newbie, Kendra's reputation preceded her; she was tough and efficient but then so was Layla.  She also was a stickler for the rules and rigid as hell, something that annoyed Layla.  Still she wasn't going to rush to judgment. . .at least not total judgment.  She would play nice, get through the assignment and be on her merry way.  "Is that all you brought?"  She said wrinkling her nose as she looked at the carry on duffle bag Kendra held.

 

"Yes this is it."  Kendra had learned to travel lightly since she had taken to the road.  You never knew when you had to get somewhere quickly and nothing hampered that like having to lug around a bunch of girlie crap with you.  So she packed very little, the only other things she needed were her leather jacket, silver arm cuff which also doubled as a weapon, silver hoops earrings (she felt naked without them) and ass stomping motorcycle boots which, like now, she was always wearing.  All that plus a makeshift stake that she could get through security, just in case.

 

"How very. . .wilderness girl of you."  Layla responded.  She understood the desire to carry light, but the way she saw it, dusting vamps was no excuse not to look your best.  She was a least wearing make up that was artfully done if you were into the hard core goth chick "I bite the heads off of bats" look.  So I guess fitting in a little clubbing is out of the question.  She thought to herself sighing, there was no way she was going to any of her usual London spots with Ozzy Osborne's adopted black daughter in tow.  She smiled at Kendra.  "The car's out this way."  Layla motioned as they headed out to the parking lot.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

About an hour later they parked the car in a dark street in Whitechappel.  They got out of the car, and walked down the street.

 

"What are we doing here?  I thought I needed to go to briefing?"  Kendra frowned in confusion as they stepped into some grungy no name pub.  The neighborhood was extremely scummy and smelled of urine and sausage.  She assumed that they would be heading to a new Council headquarters.  She couldn't imagine this would be it. Layla threw an annoyed looked over her shoulder.

 

"Relax."  Was all she said as they entered into the pub.  As the door shut behind them Kendra looked around.  Despite the change in continent, degenerate alcoholics were recognizable everywhere.  There were two seated at the bar staring down into their glasses probably wondering where their life went.  Layla looked over at the bartender who nodded subtly towards her.  She subtly dropped an envelope on the counter as she led Kendra through a back door which led to a dark staircase.

 

"Layla-"

 

"Shh."  Layla said suddenly pausing on the staircase.  She pulled out her silver knife looking around carefully.  After a beat she continued walking until they were down in a dark basement.  Kendra's back stiffened as she pulled out her own stake.  Layla looked back and nodded approvingly, usually a typical rookie mistake was to be caught unprepared- the number one rule of being a Slayer is that you were always prepared for battle a rule Kendra seemed to have learned well.  Layla looked back at her.  "Okay we're all clear."  They came to the back door and exited back outside into a dark alley.  As they walked towards the street ahead a van pulled up and screeched to a halt in front of them and a man motioned to them.

 

"Get in" He said with a British lilt.  Layla opened the back door and jumped in, pulling Kendra in before she even had a chance to process and they pulled off quickly.

 

"What the hell was that?"  Kendra said looking at them.  Something about the older man driving seemed vaguely familiar, his sharp, pale blue eyes catching hers in mirror, recalling someone she couldn't put her finger on.  He nodded at her seriously.

 

"We had to take precautions Kendra.  It's not safe for us right now, we had to make sure that you two weren't followed."

 

"So what about the car back there, is it safe?"  Layla shrugged her shoulders.

 

"It was just some car I borrowed, we won't be going back for it."

 

"Borrowed?  Borrowed from who?"

 

"I don't know some dude at that pub."

 

"You stole his car?"

 

"Borrowed."  Layla looked at Kendra's expression and rolled her eyes.  "It's not like he needed it, hell I probably did him a favor he wasn't in any condition to drive.  Besides I did it to pick your ass up from the airport. . .you're welcome by the way."  Kendra stared at her incredulously.

 

"I'm supposed to thank you for picking me up in a stolen car and then leaving my stuff in it?  How am I supposed to get my things?"

 

"Okay first of all, BOR-ROW-ED,"  Layla said enunciating every syllable.  "Geez, the bag didn't really look that important.  It was kind of dirty looking actually, I didn't want anything to hatch eggs in my apartment.  How did you get that shit through customs anyways?"  Kendra frowned at her as the older man cleared his throat.  He knew Layla was just fucking around with her, and he wouldn't allow the game to continue on any longer.

 

"Kendra I took the bag after you vacated the car, your things are safe."  He said reaching under the front passenger seat and tossing her the bag.  Layla rolled her eyes leaning back in the seat.  Kendra protectively held on to her bag, maybe Layla was right, maybe it wasn't so important.  But it was her shit and she felt she had a right to be sensitive about it.

 

"Thanks Sensei. . ." 

 

"Wyndam-Pryce.  But call me Roger, that Sensei stuff is a little too Karate Kid for me." She looked into the familiar eyes in dawning realization.

 

"Wyndham-Pryce, your son was Wesley?"  He took in a deep breath before nodding slowly, she could see the raw pain etched on his face.  "I heard about what happened in Los Angeles.  I'm sorry he was a great Guardian. . .and seemed like a nice guy."

 

Wesley had been killed a few years back during an attack against the Circle of the Black Thorn, a powerful group of demons.  She had met Wesley briefly in Sunnydale, he was one of the good guys and extremely efficient, it had truly saddened her to hear the news.  She thought that his undoing was in aligning himself with the vampire Angel, she didn't believe that any vampires were to be trusted a lesson she had learned the hard way, apparently Wesley had learned it the harder way.  They sat in silence for a while, even Layla who, while unfamiliar with Wesley, had come to know Roger and his personal torment.  Now he had lost some of his comrades, it couldn't be easy for him at the moment yet he still managed to keep it together.  They all stared out of the widow for the rest of the ride.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

"So someone lined the entire headquarters with dynamite."  Layla asked staring in shock at the charred remains projected on the wall of the board room they were sitting in, temporary Guardian Council Headquarters.  Nothing living within a 100 feet would've made it out of there alive.  Kendra bit her lip quiet rage seeping off of her; she hated the bastards for doing this, still she had to remain neutral.  Roger observed both of their reactions.

 

"Yes that's correct as soon as either a window or door was opened the whole place blew."  Layla studied the picture.

 

"This would take a lot of setting up and equipment.  It's also pretty high-tech can't imagine some old school vamp being able to pull this off.  I'm thinking they had a lot of assistance from a human or a really young vamp?"  He nodded, clicking to the next slide. 

 

"We weren't able to preserve any of the surveillance footage from the blast.  But we were able to find some of the remnants of the material used."

 

"You able to trace it back to the store it was brought from?"

 

"Well it's material that you could get from any hardware store but we got some surveillance footage from a few of the stores in the area and only a few people purchased the needed materials in the last week.  After investigating all of them we saw this guy as the most likely candidate."  He said pointing to a small 20 something year old male with disheveled red hair and a black tee shirt that had "zero" written on it.  "We were able to find out the guy's name, Karl Allen.  IT student at the University of London, experienced hacker could be the one."  Kendra stared at the picture of the guy with pure loathing, any human that would consort with dirty vampires and murder humans was pond scum as far as she was concerned. 

 

"So who's he working for?"  Layla's voice cut into Kendra's thoughts.

 

"We suspect Carmilla de Giovanni.  She's the head of the British contingent of the de Giovanni clan.  We have reason to believe she's the one that pulled off the Headquarter bombings.  But so far we are having trouble locating her and nothing other than some scarce underground twitterings."   Roger stated. 

 

"Vamp Clan Council any help?"  Layla asked.

 

"No they've clamped down pretty tight, won't even let us interview some of vamps we think could have some info.  Claim they have their own internal investigation going on."

 

"Of course they all stick together."  Kendra responded disgustedly.   

 

"So we bring in this Allen kid, beat the shit out of him, see if he starts singing like Patti Labelle and then go from there?"  Layla said simply.  Kendra gaped at her.

 

"Let's just rewind that, first you steal- I'm sorry, BOR-ROW-ED- a car from some local drunk and now you just want to go beat the shit out of some kid?  What did you work for the NYPD is some other life or something?"

 

"He's not some kid, he's a terrorist and a VG so he doesn't get the privilege of being treated like a human."  Layla said shaking her head at her.

 

"Look, we don't even know if he's the one that helped them nor do we know if he helped them willingly.  No one wants to nail these bastards more than me.  But we have to think rationally about this, for all we know he could've been a victim of some sort of mind control."

 

"Well maybe an ass whooping is what he needs to un-control his mind."  Layla said rolling her eyes.  "Look at the punk you just know he's up to his eyeballs in this probably listens to Marilyn Manson and throws knives at walls for fun, he's definitely a VG."  Kendra gritted her teeth.

 

"But we don't know that.  There are rules Layla, we can't just do whatever the hell we want."

 

 "What are you a robot or something?  Do you see what these creatures have done?  Who knows what they are plotting next and I'm sorry but I am more than willing to do what I have to do to find out."

 

"Rules are rules, they exist for a reason and I will not break them."  Layla shook her head at her.

 

"You always lived your life so black and white?"  Kendra's fingers flew up to the chocker that was hiding the scar on her throat.

 

"No, not always."  She said quietly.  Roger let out a sigh

 

"Wait girls, there's more information that we haven't yet released to the others in our organization,"  He looked at both of them seriously.  "We hope that you will both show discretion where it pertains to this information, part of the reason why you two were selected is because we need total secrecy, we can't let what we know leak out to anyone before we figure out what is going on.  That means you can't tell another soul about this."  The both looked at him and nodded firmly, Layla knew from Roger's tone that what he was about to tell them must be pretty big.  He flipped to the next slide.

 

8-8-08, Rome, Italy, 3:40pm CET

 

"Buffy Summers, Guardian and former Slayer, shot in the head several times by a sniper outside of her apartment building."   Roger said as a picture flashed across the wall.  Kendra could hear a sharp intake of breath from Layla as they both looked at the scene.  It was a petite blonde woman laying face down in a pool of her own blood.  It was a particularly gruesome scene, the pale blue summer dress clashing with the dark red gushing from her head.  Though she couldn't see the face, she knew instinctually that it was in fact Buffy Summers.  She stared almost blankly at the picture, willing herself not to feel anything.  Roger clicked to the next slide.

 

8-8-08, USA

 

"Several key members of the US branch of the Guardian Council are car bombed in various locations at various times starting at 9:40am EDT.  Among those killed:  Andrew Wells; Michaela Tomassi; Diana Dorma; Xander Harris.  There are others that have been hunted and killed in secret, we have been covering up their identities in order to keep everything quiet."  He said looking over at Kendra.

 

Kendra barely heard the last sentence; she blinked rapidly when she saw the last name and corresponding picture of the remnants of Xander's car.  She had known Xander as well, he had been a sweet guy if a little clumsy at times.

 

"What about Sensei Williamson?"  Layla asked suddenly thinking of her own Guardian.

 

"He and the few surviving members of the Guardian Council have gone into hiding while we try to get this under control.  Though we want to bring in Carmilla for the UK bombing, it's clear that she's working with several other high ranking Vampires likely even across Clans in a world wide effort to wipe out Guardians.  Baali being the most likely to be helping her in this but for we all we know it could be all of them involved.  We also think she may have been able to bring on some rogue Guardians who have helped the Clans in effort that has already been more that 60% successful."  Both girls sat quietly letting that nugget of information sink in, they didn't realize the Guardian Council was so small, they kept a tight wrap on their numbers for the Guardians protection. 

 

"How did they get the names of all the Guardians just from these rogue Guardians?"  Kendra asked.

 

"No.  They hacked into our central computer, we believe with the help of the young man I showed you earlier."

 

"Are the names of the Guardians the only information they were able to obtain?"  Layla asked quietly.  He looked over at her, shaking his head.

 

"They also have the names of all the Sabbatarians that have not yet received their call."  Both Kendra and Layla's mouths opened in shock, he saw the recognition flashing in their eyes and confirmed their mutual conclusion.  "We believe that it is their goal to kill off every potential Sabbatarian Slayer before they are able to get the call."

 

"So the first step was to wipe out all the Guardians who protect Slayers.  Then the second step is they're going to start slaughtering these girls before they even know how to use the tools they have to defend themselves?"  Kendra said staring at him.

 

"Yes."

 

"So what would be the third step?"  Layla whispered.

 

"That would be the billion dollar question wouldn't it?"  They all fell silent.

 

Kendra looked straight ahead her eyes almost turning to stone.  Who were these monsters and what the fuck were they up to now?  She closed her eyes images washing over her of Travers, that fateful meeting by the road, random things like the way his face would like up before he dug into a plate of fish and chips, his favorite meal, all the lessons he had taught her and all the things he had meant to her.   Of Giles a man of honor and integrity who had been as good of a Guardian to others as Travers had been to her.  She could see Buffy, her Sabbatarian sister who had understood the dark side of things and yet persisted that there was more to life than being a Slayer.  Sweet Xander, who had fallen into this madness and yet had embraced it as part of his life's mission.  She thought of all those little girls that they were preparing to slaughter just for having the luck of being born on a Saturday, like her.  Yes, this time it was intensely personal.  Kendra knew in that moment that she wouldn't stop until finding the one that did this and ripping their heads off herself, she took cold comfort in the thought.  She looked over at Layla and saw her on thoughts reflecting back at her, Layla nodded solemnly at her.  Fuck the book the stakes just got even higher and they both knew what they had to do.










You must login (register) to review.