Night fell over Sunnydale, California once again, and a certain breed of creature emerged from their rest. The Hellmouth beneath the city drew creatures of all types here, from demons to shapeshifters to beings that defied most conventional classification. Many lived surprisingly orderly lives but most lived to bring chaos, much like these two females. "The Judge?" Dru offered, the dark haired woman holding up a scroll that had been made of pressed human flesh. The writing on it was deep red like blood, and it seemed to pulse in the dim light of their den beneath the high school. The cavern they dwelled in had once belonged to the Master, the former leader of the vampires here, and controlling it granted them a certain degree of prestige. As a bonus, it was convenient to all the good eats upstairs. "No," Amy shook her head as the blonde read her own scroll, "he can only zap a few mortals at a time. Not so good when we want wide spread havoc." "True," Dru sighed as she casually tossed the priceless scroll aside. "We could always go to Wolfram & Hart for a reference on End the World demons." "Too pricey," Amy noted, "we have goons but other than that we're broke." "Bleh," Dru made a face, digging into the scrolls again. "Who knew there were so many end the world prophecies to choose from?" She brightened, "We could always ascend!" She read farther, "Scratch that, we'd turn into giant worms." "Ick," was Amy's succinct reply. "How about the Vocah?" "Yes, he's a warrior of the underworld," Dru acknowledged, "the Master tried to call one up once. Took out ten vamps before we could send it back." "Not a happy puppy," Amy guessed. "Broke the Master's leg so badly he claimed it ached every winter," Dru nodded. "Probably an exaggeration, but who knows?" Amy agreed, "I wouldn't want to find out." "Lets see, Lcycoris, Aura..." finally Dru cast a scroll aside with a sigh of disgust. "Love, I'm bored!" she bitched. Amy set her own tome aside and moved over to Dru's side, kissing her gently. "I suppose we could take a break," she purred softly into Dru's ear, then kissed her again, passionately. Meanwhile, above them in the school library Rupert Giles took off his glasses to rub at his eyes tiredly, his brown hair falling into his eyes. The tables around them were stacked with books of all types, along with papers from the police, insurance companies and other official documents. "You all right, G?" Faith asked quietly, her long hair flowing down her back. Dyed black the brown roots were beginning to show, but it still looked good on her. "Just tired," he admitted. "Trying to determine exactly which books the vampires took is exhausting, much less which they might try using." Jenny Calendar smiled fondly as the witch carried him a cup of tea from the office, "This should help a bit." "Thank you," Giles sighed. He frowned, "Not to mention checking in on Dawn..." The brown haired woman smiled at Faith as Jenny asked, "So how's Tara?" Faith actually felt herself blush faintly under her knowingly amused gaze. "She's just fine," she answered Jenny with as much dignity she could muster, "I saw her off just before she headed over to run the Bronze." Dropping her voice a little Jenny went over to Faith's side as she quietly said, "Tara told me about you two, and I approve." Tentatively she reached out to put a hand on Faith's shoulder and squeeze it reassuringly. "Thank you," Faith said wryly. Returning to work Jenny smiled, "Any luck, Rupert?" "Some," Giles acknowledged as he sipped his tea with contentment. "The insurance papers listed most the Mayor's books and we have a good idea of what was take, but finding additional copies or references on them has been difficult." "Not surprising," Jenny agreed. "Why just most of the books?" Faith asked. "I suspect at least some of the books in his collection were acquired illegally," Giles sounded quite disapproving, "he couldn't list them on legal papers." "About the copies or references," Jenny smiled slightly as she asked sweetly, "have you tried a internet search?" "No," Giles frowned and Jenny chuckled softly. "Am I missing something?" Faith asked as they exchanged a smile. "Dear Rupert is a bit behind the times," Jenny explained, "he hates computers." "There's nothing like handling a book," Giles shrugged uncomfortably. Jenny paused to kiss him on the cheek. "I'll check the internet for whatever data I can find," she smiled at him fondly, "I'll be back in a bit." "Good luck," Giles murmured, likely unaware of the caring in his own eyes. 'They sure are cute for a pair of old folks,' Faith thought with amusement as she opened up yet another book. "Well eww," she muttered, seeing another illustration of a destructive creature. The mind boggled at the number of things that lurked outside of reality, waiting for some fool to open a way for them to enter and wreak havoc. "A, a great Old One," Giles noted the picture. "Supposedly the basis of Lovecraft's fiction, though that may be in question..." Wham! The doors to the library crashed open and two figures staggered in, both looking the worse for wear. Buffy was bleeding from various cuts, the dirty blonde's clothing torn in places while Willow looked outwardly fine, but the reddish-brown haired woman had a murderous look in her eyes. "Yo, B!" Faith leapt to her feet to race to their side. "Are you all right?" Giles demanded, looking at both Willow and Buffy with concern. 'Well, well, worried about me too?' Willow thought with some amusement. "We're fine," she reassured them, "just a bit singed around the edges." She waved them off as she helped Buffy to a seat then stood protectively beside her. "Willow's right," Buffy groaned a bit then smiled grimly, "the Slayer healing should have me fixed up in a hour or two." "So what happened to you two?" Faith demanded. "We heard a rumor that the new vampire queen was operating out of the Master's old factory," Willow revealed, "we decided to check it out." "Alone?" Giles frowned. "Our plan was to just check out the place," Buffy reassured him with some amusement, "then bring back the rest of the team." "And," Faith prompted impatiently. "Trap," Willow admitted with a sigh, "first they jumped us with hench vamps, then someone blew up the building." "They blew it up?" Faith blinked, "Hardcore!" "That's rather unusual," Giles looked intrigued, "vampires rarely seem to stay current with modern technology.. to use explosives is remarkable." "We almost get blown up and he's more interested in the vamps using explosives," Buffy shook her head. "That's our G-man," Faith agreed. To be continued... Notes: Several of the monsters mentioned by Amy and Dru are from various episodes of either Buffy or Angel, including the infamous Wolfram and Hart.
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