DISCLAIMER!!!! Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, and all the characters, from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" aren't mine. They belong to Joss and Mutant Enemy. I'm jealous, but what can I do? All other characters, and the story itself are the sole property of ME, and my imagination. Please send all comments on the story to ME! Thank you and come again!
God, these things stink, Maria du Maurier thought as a zombie walked past her toward its master. The zombie carried a large crate in its arms, not even straining under the heavy weight. They make great labor, though.
The zombies' master stood in front of a large concrete altar, black, unlit candles surrounded him in a circle. The voodoo master's name was Charles Dumas Cristo, and was quite the sight to behold. Standing at 6'1, his muscular frame was still visible underneath the dark blue and red robe he wore. His long black hair was tied back, away from his face. His skin was a rich coffee with cream brown and seemed to be utterly smooth. His eyebrows shaved off, his face seemed to be completely flawless. The voodoo masters' lips were thin and were constantly smirking. His eyes seemed to glow a deep green in the dim light as they focused on the various goingons in the large cavern. At the moment, those eyes were concentrated on an old piece of parchment. Maria cleared her throat to get their attention. The bokor looked up from his readings and turned to face his assistant. "Yes?" His voice was very deep, but suprisingly quiet.
Maria stared at the voodoo master with hard eyes. "What are you doing?" she asked with annoyance.
"Preparing for tonight," he answered calmly.
The woman's brow frowned in irritation. "Well, you better prepare for the shipment that's on its way." Her voice was echoed off the walls the cavern. "It's going to be here in 5 days and there's still a shit load of work to do."
Charles gave her a wistful smile. "I am well aware of our timetable, Maria. But my schedule is still paramount." His mouth turned down at on the last words.
"Yeah well, I'm just saying, is all" she answered back sullenly.
The voodoo master was quiet for a few moments. "Alright. Take 5 of my servants and start the preliminary work on the meat packing plant," he said finally.
Maria looked at him in surprise. He's not one to change his plans on the spur of the moment. She waved her hands toward the altar. "What about this?"
"I wasn't finished." Charles said as turned away from her and headed back to the altar. "After you are done at the plant, I want you to bring me a boy, under 20 years old. You will not kill him or hurt him in anyway. When you have him, slip this into his mouth and bring him back here." He handed her a green piece of skin. "This will incapacitate him and start the process that I need for the ritual."
The apprentice took the piece of skin in her gloved hand. "What is it?" she asked sniffing it.
"It is the skin of the Bogar frog found in the rainforests of Brazil." Charles picked up the parchment he had been reading earlier and sat down cross-legged in front of the altar. "It is also an incredibly potent poison and hallucinogen. So I advise you not to take your gloves off while touching it. And don't sniff it!"
Maria pulled the frog skin away from her nose as if it had tried to bite her. "A hallucinogen? Maybe there's a market for it?" she said as she inspected it closely.
The bokor didn’t even lift his eyes from his reading as he answered. "I highly doubt it. A piece any larger than that would cause the ingester to fall into a coma and die within an hour."
Maria looked at the sliver in her hand with some respect before placing it in the rubber lined pocket in her vest. "Anything else you want me to do?" she asked as she walked over to a footlocker and removed the lock.
"Yes," Charles replied from the altar. "Try and stay off the streets as much as possible."
"Why?" Maria asked as she tied a colorful bracelet to her upper right arm.
"A number of reasons." The voodoo master said as he finally raised his eyes from the parchment "Most obvious is that we don't want the police of this town becoming aware of our presence until the proper bribes have been given. Second, Sunnydale is filled with vampires who don’t like zombies or anyone who associates with them. Finally there is the small matter of the Slayer." Charles looked on as Maria began attaching her throwing knives to her vest. "If any of these groups find you and your entourage on the open streets at this point, our timetable will be severely compromised."
"Well," Maria said as she rummaged through the footlocker for her final accessory. "If anyone tries to stop me from doing what I was hired to do, they're going to be in for a world of hurt." She brought out a rather large sub-machine gun out of the locker and hung it on her shoulder. "Police, vampires or some little girl, it don't matter."
"I'm sure they will," Charles commented as he returned to his reading. "Just don't forget what your job is and who you work for. It would be upsetting that our plans fall to ruins because you got trigger-happy."
Maria glared at him as she put on her coat. "I know who I work for!" she growled at him. "It might do you some good to remember who you work for!" With that she turned around, selected 5 zombies and stormed out of the cavern.
Charles Dumas Cristo watched as Maria du Maurier left the cavern then returned to the parchment. "Oh, I know exactly who I work for," he said quietly to himself. "Exactly who I work for." He smiled as he continued to read.
"Eddie, please get your feet of the coffee table," Sidney said from the kitchen. "This isn't our home. We are guests here."
"Yeah, don't I know it." Eddie shouted from the living room. "What time are you supposed to meet Giles at the Library?"
Sidney came out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee. "At around six. He mentioned a Staff meeting after school."
"You taking the car or do you want me to drive you?" the young man asked as he sipped his coffee.
Sidney blew on his coffee before answering. "Neither. I'm taking a taxi. I don’t want to leave you without the car while you and Buffy are hunting tonight. Plus," the former Watcher said, as he looked the boy over. "I don't want you to be late because you didn't have enough time to change and shower."
Eddie looked down at the black jeans and T-shirt he was wearing. "I don't need a shower and what's wrong with the way I'm dressed?" He sounded slightly offended.
"First off, you definitely do need a shower! Eddie you have been wearing the same pants and shirt for 2 days now." Sidney said over his cup.
"So! I'm hunting tonight. These are my hunting clothes!" the young necromancer replied defensively.
"You are always complaing that you never get to do normal things, that you are always too busy working. Now you have the opportunity to spend time with people your own age, doing something that normal teenagers do." Sidney said gently. "Take advantage of it, because I don’t know when you will have the opportunity again."
Eddie stared into his coffee, not saying anything for awhile. "What am I supposed to do with them?" he asked quietly after a few minutes. "I haven't done this kind of thing in a long time, I think I forgot how to just hang."
Sidney looked at his protégé with compassion. I've forgotten how much he has suffered in his short life. "These are good people, Eddie." He said instead. "They will…"
"What, accept me?" Eddie cut him off. "Become my friends? Come on Sid, we both know that after what happened today, these guys aren’t going to make me their best-est friend in the whole world."
"Well after today, you can't really blame them, can you?" the older man said with some annoyance. "You didn't exactly ingratiate yourself by attacking Buffy and waving a gun around."
"Oh come on! You know I was kidding around, Sid!" the boy exclaimed. "I wasn’t going to hurt anyone, I was just fooling around!"
"I know that, and you know that, but they didn't. How could they?" Sidney replied. "They don’t know you, or me for that matter. If the roles had been reversed, how would you feel?"
"Yeah, I know." Eddie said as he slumped in his seat. "I'm an asshole! It's who I am!"
"Eddie, you are not an 'asshole'. You're just different from others. You have responsibilities that people your age aren't supposed to shoulder." Sidney told him.
Eddie rolled his eyes. "Sure, try telling that to Buffy or your friend, Giles."
"I know Giles will understand," the former Watcher said confidently. "He knows what it's like to train a Slayer and the…troubles involved. Also, I think Buffy will understand if you explain yourself and apologize to her. She is, after all, the Slayer."
Eddie remained silent as he thought the matter over. "Ok, I'll give it a try." He said finally. "I'll tell Buffy that I'm sorry about this afternoon and see if we can start fresh."
Sidney smiled and slapped the boy on the back with affection. "That's the Eddie I know. Never one to give up a challenge."
"Anyways, Xander seemed like a decent guy." Eddie replied, ignoring his friends' smile. "We got along ok, so I'll have some one to talk to tonight if I get the cold shoulder from the others."
"Finish your coffee, and go take a shower." Sidney said as he got up off the couch. "I'll see what Rupert has in the fridge, and make you something to eat before I leave.
Eddie downed his coffee in one gulp and headed upstairs toward the bathroom. He mumbled about not needing to shower as he jogged up the stairs. Sidney shook his head and smiled as he walked toward the kitchen.
Buffys' ribs had finally stop bothering her as she left her final class for the day. Damn guy hits hard, she thought as she walked toward the Library.
When she entered the Library, she was not surprised to see Willow, Xander and Cordelia sitting around the table, talking about what happened earlier and about the concert at the Bronze tonight. "So, this guy was just waving a gun around?" Cordelia asked Willow. "What's his problem?"
Willow shrugged. "I don't know. When we walked in, he was pointing a gun at us." The red-haired girl answered.
"Then Buffy pushes Willow out of the way, and hits him with a book and tackles him." Xander finished. "Reminded me of an episode of Xena…Hey Buffy!" he said as he saw the Slayer standing inside the doorway.
The two girls looked over and saw Buffy walking toward them. "H-hi Buffy." Willow said as her face turned slightly red at being caught gossiping about her friend. "How was Math?"
"Forget class!" Cordelia said before Buffy could form a reply. "What's the deal with this guy Slayer? What is he, number three?"
This time it was Giles who cut in. "Eddie is not a Slayer. Well not in the traditional sense." The Watcher said as he came out of his office. "Sidney just calls him that because it is what he does. Slaying that is."
"So, he's a vampire slayer too then?" Cordelia asked, confused slightly by Giles attempt at an answer.
Giles eyebrows came down in a slight frown as he thought. "The way Sidney described it, I believe that Eddie does not confine himself simply to vampires."
"So he's like your all purpose Slayer, right?" Willow asked.
"Er, right." Giles answered.
Buffy had watched this exchange in silence. She was about to throw her own two cents into the conversation, when Oz walked in. "Oz!" Willow practically squealed.
Oz gave Willow a hug and looked around at the Library, which, despite Giles best effort, still looked a little ragged. "What happened here?" he asked as he noticed the hastily reshelved books. "Training get a little too fun?"
The group looked to Buffy for her input. Before she could explain to Oz what happened, Giles quietly said, "Not quite." That seemed to let loose a wave of explanations from Willow and Xander, and an equal number of questions from Cordelia. Oz stepped back from the onslaught of sound and put his hands up in mock surrender.
"You know, this would all make a lot more sense if I could, like, understand." Oz said as the threesome quieted down. Willow looked sheepish, Xander looked like he was going to say something smart and Cordelia looked irritated that no one had answered any of her questions.
"Ahem. Can I say something?" Buffy interjected. When no one answered right away, she turned to Oz. "It's like this: Giles called some old friend of his for advice on how to kill these zombies. This old friend decided to come to Sunnydale and brought another Slayer with him. A guy Slayer. But not a Slayer." Buffy paused to take a breath and went on. "Anyways, this 'Slayer' was going through Giles' files. We fought. Place got messed up. The end."
Everyone looked at the Slayer with the same look of surprise on his or her faces. Oz nodded. "Ok." He said simply and turned to Willow. "Well our gig got squashed. The guy who was throwing the party got arrested or something, and the party got canceled."
Willow patted her boyfriend on the shoulder. "Oh, I'm sorry Oz." Then her face brightened. "But, on the upside, that means you can come to the Bronze with us, right?"
Oz nodded again and smiled. "Yeah, I hear that 'Our Lady Peace' is very decent live."
As Willow let out an "Yay!" and hugged Oz, Giles motioned for Buffy to come into his office.
Buffy entered the office and plopped herself on top of Giles desk. "What's up?"
Giles paused for a second before speaking. "I-I wanted to talk to you about Eddie."
"So talk." The Slayer said simply.
"Well first, I want you to know that I did not call Sidney requesting that he bring Eddie. I had no idea that either of them were coming to Sunnydale." Giles paused again. "I hope that you believe that I would have told you, had I known."
Buffy looked up at her Watcher for a moment, then sighed. "I know you would have, Giles." She said finally. "I'm sorry that I overreacted to it, but…"
Giles put up a hand to stop her. "You do not need to apologize." The Watcher said gently. "Buffy, you saw a stranger going through files that you knew were my private ones. I know you didn't mean to start a fight and that you were only defending yourself." A brief look of relief crossed Buffy's face. "Anyway," Giles said as he turned to pick up a rather dusty book, "I believe that Eddie was putting you through some type of test."
"A test? Is that what you call it?" Buffy asked, anger entering her voice. "He tried to kill me!"
"I don't think he was trying to kill you." Giles told the young Slayer. "If he was, I think he would have drawn his gun."
"He had that while we were fighting?" Giles nodded. "I was wondering where he got that from," Buffy said more to herself then to her Watcher.
"That's why I believe that he was testing you. That and the fact that he forced you to fire the crossbow at him, when he knew that it wouldn’t cause him any harm." The Watcher looked at Buffy sideways. "I believe that he wanted to see if you had 'the guts' to take his life."
Buffy simply stared at the older man, think over what she had just heard. Why would he do that? What would make him attack me, just to see if I would kill him? Buffy asked herself silently. "But that is not the main reason I wanted to talk to you about." Giles said, invading her thoughts.
"Oh." The Slayer asked as she regained her composure. "What is?"
Giles looked down at the book he was holding, took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Well, it's something Sidney told me about Eddie." When Buffy didn’t say anything, he went on. "Well, according to Sidney, Eddie is a natural Necromancer."
Buffy looked at the Watcher with confusion. "What's that?"
Giles sat down beside Buffy with the old book in his hands. "Well, a Necromancer is a person who sells his soul, or part of his soul, to a demon or sprit to gain power over the dead. Usually to gain access to the supernatural energy that is in the Ether." Giles looked over to see if Buffy was following what he was saying.
"Ok, I'm with you so far." She told him slowly. "So Eddie sold his soul, right?"
The Watcher shook his head. "No, Eddie is a natural Necromancer."
"Which means…?
"Which means that Eddie was born with access to the Ether. Much in the same way you were born with access to whatever gives the Slayer her powers."
"Huh?" was the blond-haired girl's reply.
"Ok, natural Necromancers are incredibly rare and incredibly powerful. According to the records that the Watchers Society have kept, there have been only 20 natural Necromancers in the past 1000 years!" The only response from Buffy was a quiet 'Wow'. "Eddie has enormous power at his finger tips. More then he probably realizes."
"So, what you're telling me is that Eddie is some super powerful witch?" the Slayer asked.
"Well, that would be a warlock since Eddie is a man, but no he is something all together different then a warlock." Giles responded. "I'm not sure what to compare him to. What I wanted to tell you is be careful around him."
"Why?" Buffy asked. "He's on our side right?"
"Er, yes. But if he can't control the powers at his disposal, he may be a severe danger to all around him. You especially."
Buffy looked at Giles thoughtfully. "Well Sidney seemed fine around him, actually Eddie acted almost normal around him." She paused as she thought. "And why me especially?"
"I believe Sidney has a calming influence over Eddie. Whether this is because he is a Reanimator or because they have known each other for as long as they have." Giles thought a moment. "Probably both. And as to why I believe that you are in the greatest danger from him, you will be working closely with Eddie, in dangerous situations that will be very stressful and emotional for the both of you. If anything will make him lose control, it may be that." The Watcher's face looked worried.
"Hey!" Buffy punched Giles on the arm playfully. "I can handle Eddie. Don’t worry!" She smiled. "And if he gets out of line again, I'll just shoot him with the crossbow again!"
Giles looked up at the ceiling. Why do I bother? He looked down at the seventeen-year-old girl sitting beside him. Because I'm the only one who will he answered himself. "Just be careful."
"Always am!" The Slayer said as she hopped off the desk. "I'm a regular safety-girl."
The Watcher managed to give her a skeptical look before there was a quiet knock on the door and Willow poked her head in. "Hi, sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to ask Buffy if she wanted to catch a ride home with Oz and me." The young hacker looked at her friend. "You know, so you can change?"
Buffy looked at the older man. "If we're done…" Giles nodded. "Then sure!" She turned and left the office with Willow. "See you tomorrow, Giles!"
Giles watched as the group of teenagers left the Library, talking excitedly about the night ahead.
