Part Thirteen
When they got into his office, Mulder and Scully sat down opposite Synder. He had already read their files (total works of fiction) and was squinting at them. “So, our new physics teacher and counsellor. I’ll keep this short and sweet, don’t cross me, do as I say and avoid those two back there, and the library assistant O’ Flatherty, they are far too friendly with the students for their own good. As for students, avoid Willow Rosenburg, Alexander Harris, Oz Tyler, Cordelia Chase and that insufferable Buffy Summers should she ever come back.”
Scully looked pissed off, it seemed that some of the Scooby Gang’s spirit rubbed off on her. “Why? What have these students ever done?”
“Ask your husband, he has the files on them. That’s another thing, ‘couples’ are frowned upon in this school. It’s bad enough to have those little worms hanging all over each other but it is unacceptable to have faculty members doing the same thing. “Here, these are your timetables Mrs Carter. You have four classes today, the teacher you replaced left study plans and they’re on his table in the physics lab. Mr Carter, you must interview the four new students from Boston, Alisha Pearne, Rob Skinner, Andy Skike and Rebecca Fleet. I want you to make sure they won’t cause any trouble in this school. Now, class starts in ten minutes, Mr Carter, you can take your charges out of class anytime, just don’t take too long. Mrs Carter, I’d advise you to go to class straight away.”
Mulder and Scully stared at the toad and got out of the office as quickly as they could. “Um Scully, I’m thinking that Buffy was right about him. Well, I’ll see you at lunch. Oh, you know about the anti nice feelings rule?”
“Yeah Mulder?”
“Screw it!” Mulder reached down and pecked Scully on the cheek and draped an arm around her waist. Scully knew he was only doing it to annoy Synder but still, they had an act to keep up. Mulder walked her as far as her lab and then wandered off to find his office, it must be there somewhere.
Scully walked in as the bell rang and students strolled in behind her. She turned around and nearly had a heart attack when she saw Sita, Xander and Cordelia sitting on the back bench. Xander waved up at her and Cordelia continued talking to Sita. “Ok class, now, I’m filling in for your teacher Mr Mackey, my name is Mrs Carter. In his notes, he said that you were starting light.” Xander stuck up his hand. “Yes, you down the back?”
“Um, I was wondering where Mr Mackey is. I remember once, our old biology teacher was found decapitated in the fridge in the canteen.” Xander smirked and Scully turned a nice shade or green.
Cordelia, vowing not to think about moving until she had annoyed Scully, put up her hand as well. “Or is it like Principal Flutie, he was eaten by wild dogs.”
“Or did we just send him to the loony bin?” Sita finished.
Scully gave a dirty look to the there of them and carried on. “Well, I need to know a bit about you all. What your names are, what you like about science and so on. Starting down the back row” she said looking directly at Xander.
“Well, I’m Xander Harris and the thing I like about science is that you get to blow stuff up in the lab. I also like science fiction, does that get me any points?”
“Very nice, next.”
“Um, I’m Cordelia Chase and I’m taking physics ‘cause I hate chemistry.”
“Hi, my name is Alisha Pearne. I like Einstein, especially his twin paradox, and that new interpretation by Dana Scully” she said with a glint of mischief in her eyes. “Do you know it?”
“Um, quite well actually, what did you find interesting about it?” They then launched into a ten minute long discussion of physics in which Sita took a couple of relativistic cosmology theorems to bits, much to the shock of Scully and amusement of the class.
By the time Scully had gotten around to everyone, class had ended and Sita flounced by, grinning. “Hi Mrs Carter!”
After everyone had left, Scully laughed. “You just wasted my entire class! And with physics you shouldn’t know!”
“What can I say? I like science. Well, at least we didn’t get any homework.”
“Want to bet? For disrupting my class, I want a report on Einstein on my desk this day week, understood?”
Sita laughed. “You got yourself a deal!” Sita waltzed off to her next class which happened to be English and took apart her teacher’s thoughts on The Merchant of Venice. Of course, it wasn’t fair on the teacher, Sita had personally known the guy and it had been her who had said ‘hey Will, make the money lender Jewish’.
In his office, Mulder was roaring laughing, he was sitting there interviewing Yaksha and it was a hoot. Yaksha had been the second to come in, Kali being the first and they had made up a report on her to scare Synder.
Yaksha had come in next and they had been talking about Yaksha’s youth. “So then, I jumped into the lake and I grabbed a duck and tied it to my head, it was ok, I would have made it but then Robin Hood came along with Little John and said ‘hey I bet I can hit the duck’ so I did a duck dive and they caught me in the ass with an arrow. I limped into the village with a duck on my head and an arrow in my ass and covered in pond weed. They all take one look at me and decide I was a witch so they grabbed me and threw me back into the stupid well!”
Mulder cracked up at that and imagined what it must have been like. The bell rang and they got up.“My God, that was hilarious! Have you got any more?”
“A couple, but ask Sita, she came up with the phrase ‘take a hike’ and the first to tell some one where to shove it. Anyway, meet us after school in the library, you’ll need to be briefed on tonights action. You never know, Xander, Oz and Willow are patrolling tonight, maybe they’ll let you tag along. Well, see ya!” Yaksha walked off to find Sita and the others and Mulder went towards the faculty lounge to find Scully.
He saw her walking along with Giles and Jenny. “Why! Giles you dog, a woman on each arm, naughty.”
Jenny smiled, “why Rupert, you may be turning into Austin Powers” she laughed and took his arm.
He smiled and Mulder threw an arm around Scully and whispered into her ear. “Don’t worry my dear, it’s for the case.” Scully didn’t mind at all and they noticed Sita coming down the hall way.
“Shagalicious baby!” she grinned and moved on to find the others.
Mulder and Scully stared open mouthed at her. “H, how did she know that?”
“Don’t worry Mulder old friend, she can hear you speaking a mile away. She usually ignores it though. So, where do you two want to go for lunch?”
Later that night, Mulder and Scully were creeping along in an ally with Oz, Xander and Willow, hunting.
“Be very, very quiet, we’re hunting rampiwers” said Xander in his best Elmer Fudd voice. He was armed with a super soaker filled with Holy water and crosses, stakes and garlic. Oz had much the same except instead of a super soaker, he had a deodorant can and a lighter. Willow was walking along with Mulder and Scully with her cross bow tucked under one arm, they mean while were just watching.
Suddenly, a shape moved up ahead of them and they saw a suspicious looking black tube under its arm. It melted back into the shadows and they drew up to where it had been, only to find it had disappeared.
“Um, I think that was a vampire” Willow stammered.
“Yup, it sure was.” They all whirled to see Sita toting a flame thrower and a grin.
“Scare you guys?”
“Huh! Big men getting scared? That never happens!” Xander shouted. “Now, has anyone got another pair of trousers?”
“Well, since I’m here now, want to split up? I mean, two groups will kill twice as many vampires. Boys versus girls? The losers being the team who kill the least vampires ok?”
Xander laughed. “We mighty men shall win.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Is that a praying mantis?”
Xander screamed and jumped into Oz’s arms, much to Oz’s embarrassment. Willow grinned and made a remark about a threesome.
Leaving the guys to assert their masculinity, the three girls went off to the park.
“So Scully, how long have you and Mulder been a couple?”
“We’re not!” Sita laughed and gave her the ‘ok, I’ll play along look’.
Willow looked around. “I don’t see any vampires.”
“But I hear some. Ok, Will, they know you so go into that bush with the crossbow and get ready to shoot. Mind my flame thrower and you Scully, you get to help me.”
Across the park, a vampire picked up the sound of some one singing ‘Oh Danny Boy’ in a horrible, drunken voice. He ran to the scene and saw two girls, one with brownish and the other with red hair. He saw the red head trying to hold the brown haired one up, boy was she drunk.
“Oh Danny boy the pipes the pipes have fallen, no, wait that’s not right.”
“Good evening ladies, would you like a hand there?”
Scully played the part well. “Could you just hold her up while I make a phone call? I need to call a cab.”
“Anything for a lady.” He caught the very drunk Sita and she fell into his arms with the grace of an obese walrus.
“Oops! Silly me! So handsome, where are you from?”
“Here and there baby.”
“God, you’re a looker, giza kiss!”
“Ok sweetie, one last kiss before you die.” His face changed as he stooped his head to kiss her.
In a swift move, she brought her hands up and broke his neck. He fell to the ground and she plunged a stake through his heart, dusting him. “And that, is how we kill vampires, although if we had theme music it’d work better. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture would fit. Wonder composer that man. Bit moody sometimes though. Now, a valuable lesson, very few vampires hunt alone.” As she said that, she stuck her fist up level with her head where a vampire had just appeared. Her fist contacted solidly with his nose, sending him flying. She picked him up by the collar and grabbed his arms and pinned him from behind. “Now Willow, those punches I was teaching you, have a go at him.” Willow went up to practice her punches when he tried to kick out.
Before he could kick Willow, Sita whirled him around, keeping Willow safe. She let go of him long enough to kick him in the back of the knees and to hear the satisfying wet, tearing sound of his knees popping out of joint. “Maybe we’ll leave the hand to hand for tonight.” Sita threw down the crippled vampire and he landed, bending over backwards on a bench. She casually tossed a stake and it hit him in the heart, left ventricle if Sita wasn’t mistaken and he burst into ash. The girls picked up their stuff and headed to the morgue to find some more vampires.
They all wandered into Buffy’s living room, only meeting eleven vampires on the way home, where Yaksha was watching something called ‘Allo ‘Allo, a British comedy about world war two involving the German army, a French cafe, the Gestapo, a nude picture of the Virgin, British Airmen and stupid accents. Without realising it, Sita and Yaksha started speaking in French, German and English, depending on the accents.
Scully and Joyce were deeply involved in a conversation about the merits of going to a doctor at least once when you’re pregnant, at a very high volume. Buffy was studiously ignoring the conversation and discussing how gay Leonardo di Caprio was with Willow, Cordy and Kali while Sita gave them the low down on every major star’s sexual orientation.
An hour after they came in, Angel came in and smoochies with Buffy ensued where her mother couldn’t see, that left Willow and Cordy pining for their respective boyfriends while Seymour did his math homework with a pair of head phones on.
Three hours later, the boys came in, depressed looking.
“So, my manly heroes of the Hell Mouth, how many vampires did you kill?”
“Um, two” Xander said, looking sheepish.
“What,” Angel teased, “two each?”
“No, Dead Boy, two between us, Mulder fell off the pier and we had to save him.” He looked over at Scully who was killing herself laughing at Mulder. “So, Xena Sita, how many did you get?”
“Four.” Xander looked smug. Willow laughed. “Four each, we got an even dozen.”
Scully still seemed to be a bit shocked. “Yeah, and we only used the flame thrower once.”
“That’s my most treasured purveyor of napalm, don’t knock it. Besides, you got to use it.”
Mulder’s eyes bulged. “You got to use a flame thrower?”
Scully gave Mulder a small smile and he looked to be in despair, looking stupid with his wet hair and clothes. Joyce looked at him in pity.
“Angel,” yes, Joyce had taken a liking to Angel because he knew lots about art, plus, he was appropriately protective towards Buffy. “Will you get Mulder some clothes? You’re about the same size.” Angel nodded and ran down to the basement. Xander twiddled a stake as his stomach rumbled.
“Dude,” Seymour said, “want some pizza? You’re making me hungry.”
“And there is always time for pizza! You buying?”
“Sure, let me get my wallet.” Seymour then ran over to Sita and she pulled a few fifties out of her wallet. “Thanks, you’re a doll.”
Xander, Seymour, Kalika, Oz, Yaksha and Willow all left for the pizza place. Sita hopped up on the couch beside Joyce and turned off the TV. Cordelia was sitting on the love chair looking depressed, thinking about moving, and staying Buffy was on the arm chair and Scully was on the other side of Joyce. Scully felt awkward there, not knowing anyone at all.
“So, um, Sita, if you don’t mind me asking, on a case we had a few months ago, a man, he was immortal, he said that living forever was the worst thing that could ever happen, he said that love dies. It may sound lame, and pathetic but, was he right?”
Sita looked calmly at the wall, well, her eyes were full of tears but she was good at keeping them down. “That man, who ever he was, is right on one count but couldn’t be more incorrect on the other. Tell me, how old was he?”
“I don’t know, about a hundred and fifty years old.”
Sita laughed gently at that. “Dana, I’m five thousand years old, but I’ve never lost the will to live. I’ve never, not for one moment believed that love can die. Sure, your love can die, well, by that I mean your lover can die but if you truly loved them, it never fades. “Memories are strong bastards, maybe you’ll forget little things, like what number twenty seven on the ninety five thesis is but you never forget the important things. You never forget what they felt like, how good it felt to be around them and how, nothing else matters but them and staying happy. Never say you’ll die for some one, say you’ll live for them because that’s a hell of allot harder to do. It’s hard to remember to know you’ll never see them again, but memories, after a while, they aren’t sad any more. They can be the only thing that makes life worth living. “Saying that, don’t live in the past, seize the moment, carpe diem!”
Buffy laughed, a sorrowful laugh. “That’s what Willow told me the day before my birthday, and what I told her in my first night in the Bronze, she was attacked and nearly killed.”
“But, do you regret seizing the moment? If with Angel, I doubt that so much, with Willow, think about it. They wouldn’t have found out about the harvest and they’d probably be dead right now. I told my self for years that I had been too rash in a judgement, turns out it was the best thing I could have done.” Angel and Mulder came in and Angel sat down beside Buffy, they hugged each other and held each other, listening intently to the way Sita was speaking.
It was sure but slow and she let the timelessness that she usually kept so skilfully hidden in and her voice became lower, like a husky desert whisper in the sands of time. “My rash decision was to give my blood to an Italian alchemist. He took it and he did some good but he turned a boy we both loved as a son into a demon. I condemned him at the Inquistioner’s gravel and left them to hang him. He lived, being a hybrid and he was responsible for me being caught by the government.”
She laughed when she saw the stunned faces. “Because of his alchemy, I was able to become human to give birth to Kalika but, we all know how that turned out.” She glanced at Mulder and Scully. “I thought she was a demon when really, she was the most powerful tool for good on the planet. Anyway, I kept regretting having Kalika because at first, it was like she was a demon and after she died, it was as if her only destiny was to die, to prove a point. So, I regretted giving him my blood big time until a week ago. What changed? Well, I saw my daughter sitting in the school canteen, eating lunch and laughing at some stupid joke Xander told and that, seeing her happy made it worth it, it made the regrets disappear.”
Everyone stared at Sita, wondered at her openness and her frankness. “Naw, seriously though, regrets don’t count. Try your best not to get into a position where you might end up regretting something. Hell, I’ve had regrets for five thousand years, though thankfully they’re gone. Any way, enough with the depressing vampire’s life story, time to make Buffy see the importance of pre natal care.”
Joyce seemed to agree with that and all eyes turned to Buffy. She rolled her eyes heaven ward and buried her face in Angel’s shoulder. He lifted her face and gave her an ‘it’s for the best’ look.
“Ok, ok, I’ll go! Talk about the power of stares. Now it’s my turn to put someone on the spot, Mulder and Scully, how long have you two been together?”
Mulder looked shocked and Scully tossed her eyes up. “We’re not a couple! I already told Sita and Willow,,,”
“But neither of us believed you,,,” Sita was rewarded by a dirty look from Scully. Mulder cleared his throat.
“Well, the FBI frowns upon um, relationships in partners, um, we could lose our jobs!”
“Screw the Bureau, it’s full of war veterans and corrupt, shadowy government groups.”
“Ah,” Mulder said, “So you’ve met our bosses?”
“Funny, the FBI’s weird. That J Edgar Hoover was an asshole, showing up at parties in drag, I mean, he didn’t even do a decent job with the make up!”
Scully cocked an eyebrow. “So you met him?”
“Oh yeah, and JFK, and Washington and Eisenhower, and Nixon, Montgomery, lots of the old English Kings, the Irish high kings, you name them, I’ve probably met them.”
Cordelia looked amazed. “Have you met Calvin Klein?”
“Yeah, nice guy, smells lovely.”
“You so need to introduce us.”
Sita looked more serious. “Cordy, have you spoken to your parents?”
“Yeah, we’re moving, no questions asked.” Sita growled, although only Angel could hear it and muttered under her breath about them.
Suddenly, Mulder’s cell phone rang and he jumped to answer it. “Mulder,,, Frohike, what’s wrong? No,,, He did? Do you know how? A truck, outside. Ok, I’ll take care of it. Bye.”
Sita looked at Mulder. She projected her thoughts. “*Hey Angel, will you stay here, keep an eye on everyone?*” Sita said in Irish. Angel nodded and Sita ran upstairs to get some weaponry. She grabbed a .45 magmun and four magazines of bullets. Grabbing an Uzi, she jumped out the window and landed smoothly on the lawn. The others inside could just about see her in the trees and, sickening as it was, they knew those men weren’t going to live.
An hour later, Sita came back downstairs, in different clothes, and she looked jumpy. “Mulder, Scully, those guys have been trailing you since you got here. They work for some syndicate and Jesus, are they tough sons of bitches, took me a whole ten minutes to get all needed information. It seems, you two were sent here so they could assassinate you easily, blame it on the gangs.”
Sita stopped when she saw their pale faces. She continued. “Look, we need to know who those people were, I don’t think they don’t have any other agents in Sunnydale, but you can bet they’ll be here soon. Seems they aren’t too picky about who they kill or how either. They wanted to get rid of us since we knew about your case.”
Buffy looked hardly at Sita. “Where are they now?”
“Buffy, you know where they are. And don’t give me any bullshit about it because you were on their list of hits too. Thankfully, none of the reports have been sent yet and lets say they won’t be sent.”
Mulder looked at Scully, then at Sita. “You killed them?”
“Yes, and I won’t even bother explaining it to you because, lets face this now, it had to happen some time and at least now you won’t be near any crime scene.”
Everyone looked pale and shocked but understood Sita’s reasons. Sita herself had forgotten about the three dead men already but now, she could hear vans coming, they reeked of medical substances and she knew, with sickening clarity that the spys had been under surveillance.
She spoke in a scared whisper. “Run, get out of here now, they’re coming for us, for Mulder and Scully and for us. By the way, they intend to take prisoners so if you don’t see me this time tomorrow, I’m dead.”
Cordelia stood up. “We should help.”
“No, you should run. Angel, run upstairs and open the safe in my room, here’s the key, grab whatever’s in it and take everyone some place safe, Mulder, Scully, don’t let them see you.”
Angel had bolted upsatirs and in a few minutes, he was back with two shot guns and five hundred thousand dollars in cash. “Give those to Mulder and Scully, now listen, those two contain two dragon’s breath shots each, make sure you don’t have your eyes open when you shoot them, the normal cartridges are in the bag. Run, all of you run! There’s a piece of paper in there, a plane’s serial number and an address in France, tell the manager of the hanger Ms Adams sent you, Yaksha can fly it, and the butler of the house that Charlotte du Carte sent you, now go!”
All of them looked at Sita and they could hear the trucks coming. Mulder and Scully grabbed the guns and nodded a goodbye to Sita. Joyce grabbed her jacket and Cordelia gave her a quick hug. They all ran out except Angel and Buffy. Buffy had tears in her eyes and she pulled Sita into a tight bear hug, knowing she’d kill herself rather than be in a cage. Angel hugged her too and Sita nodded at the couple to run and they did, not knowing if they’d ever see Sita alive again.
Sita turned and looked out the window at the fleeing figures and then at the twenty military vans that pulled up.
Feeling for the first time in her long life an overwhelming and all consuming weariness, she went over to the CD player and played Tchaikovsky’s Scene-Pas d’action, act II number 13/5 and remembered all the times she had listened to the London Symphony Orchestra tune up, playing pieces of music that were as much a part of history as films of Vietnam. She looked out the window and saw twenty vans with two soldiers in each spill on the lawn. She took a grenade from her pocket, a souvenir from world war one and she wondered, who did they hope to find? Anyone. She was about to pull the pin when she saw Willow, Oz and Xander being pulled from one of the vans in cuffs. The strings carried on as she felt the weeping cello and violins on a visceral level. Bowing her head in defeat, she put down the grenade and walked out. “Here I am, now let them go.”
A big, burly private came over and stuck a gun in her face. “You are under arrest by order of the United States army for the destruction of an army base, illegal usage of nuclear warheads, eighty seven counts of murder in the first degree, stealing and consequent destruction of a private helicopter, come with us now or your friends will be shot.”
“Allright Private, I’ll come. You know,” she said in a loud voice, addressing all forty MP’s on the street, “I’m tired, I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of running, of killing. You don’t have a quarrel with those kids so let them go! I’ll come quietly, on my own mortality I swear to it!” This seemed to please the guards and they let Xander, Willow and Oz go. She let those three in on a thought. Willow had tears in her eyes and she hugged Oz.
Xander had a huge lump in his throat. “Um, that sounds like a goodbye Sita.”
“It is Xander, now go inside.” The three obeyed and ran out the back door, to the airport to Sita’s plane.
The army stood still. One of them finally came forward to put cuffs on her. “Miss, could you come with us? Now please?”
Sita sighed. “I guess I should, I did swear to it on my own mortality didn’t I?”
GI Joe was getting scared. “Um, yes you did Miss, now please, come with me.”
“I guess it’ll show you, never bargain with an immortal.” In a move too quick to follow, she killed the boy and grabbed his gun. Before the rest could react, she rolled under a car and shot eight more. She shot the street lights out, sending the street into darkness and just as the first shots were fired towards her, she killed another dozen soldiers, the older ones, the ones in charge.
Grabbing a flak jacket, as if she really needed it, she grabbed a mega phone. “Listen up! Anyone else comes near me, I’ll kill them. I want all of you to get into your vans and drive away.”
She used her voice as a weapon, making it impossible for the remaining few to resist. Just for good measure, she shot out the fuel tank on an empty van, blowing the van up making them go a hell of allot quicker. One they had all disappeared she grabbed the fallen guns and ran inside. She looked around, grabbing a few precious things she knew she couldn’t leave.
Grabbing an empty van, she sped off to the airport, just as an Apache came down to meet her. She could see another off at the airport, near the others. She brought the van to a stop a mile from the airport, not near anything important. She shouldered the rifle she was carrying and shot the gunner in the Apache. She left the spot light in and she ran across some open ground, enticing the helicopter down to buzz her. It came to about twenty feet above her and she jumped, her legs sending her on to the skids, shaking the chopper. She pulled herself up and marched into the cock pit. Shooting the pilot in the back of the head, she threw him out and took command of the helicopter. She turned off the search light and, banking sharply, she turned towards the airport. As soon as she got there, she pulled up her gun and shot the pilot in the other Apache, causing him to fall and the chopper to crash. She looked down at the runway and saw her private jet climbing up into the skies. She grinned at Yaksha, the pilot, and a very scared looking Seymour.
She put on her head phones and opened the frequency. “Hey there! How are you guys!”
“Jesus Sita, did you scare us! We thought you were, well, of the past. Nice helicopter. So, where to my dear?”
“Head for that airport at Smithville, we’ll have to refuel. Is everyone ok?”
“Fine, fine, scared. Giles seems to be having a heart attack.”
“Well, he’ll be fine. Ok, talk to you at Smithville. Over and out.” Sita sat back in the cock pit and grinned. They were home free.
Sita jumped out of the Apache and ran down the runway to the others. Yaksha raced up to her and gathered her in a bone crushing hug, burying his face in her shoulder and silently thanking Krishna for the grace he had shown to her.
“Sita, never do anything like that again.” Sita took Yaksha’s face and looked into his churning eyes. She kissed his forehead and held him again, so glad to be able to hold someone. Seymour and Kalika arrived soon afterwards, hugging her as Yaksha had.
She smiled and brushed the young vampires off and walked over to the Scooby gang. “Hey, plane ok for you guys?”
“No, it was unacceptable! There wasn’t a drop of champagne.” Xander smiled at the vampiress and Cordelia punched him in the shoulder.
“Seriously, is everyone ok?” They all nodded and Mulder was leaning on Scully’s shoulder as if for support. “We need to go to earth, and quick.”
Buffy walked over to her and Sita listened carefully, making sure both mother and child were doing alright. “Where? What are we going to do?”
“I honestly don’t know, we could try a glamour for you mortals.”
“What about you guys, and Angel?”
“We can kinda, persuade people to listen to us.”
Joyce came forward. “Sita, you said something about France?”
“It’s no good, thinking about it, we’d never make it. They’ve got fighter jets that can do multiples of mach 3. Jesus, they’ll probably have found out about all my homes.”
“Mine too,” Yaksha said with resignation. “Where to then? We need to go somewhere no one can find us but we can still, you know, watch.”
Sita sat down on the side of the runway with Giles on one side and Yaksha on another. Gently, the vampire wiped a smear of blood off Sita’s forehead and she sighed. “Maybe, I think I know a place, getting there’s not much problem but it’s not too warm there.”
“So? We stock up on sweaters, and we shave Oz.”
“Hey! I resent that remark Xander!”
Buffy hit the two and looked over at Sita. “Why are we suddenly worried about temperature?”
“Because newbies, our kind in general don’t do well in cold temperatures. It comes from being descended from snakes and stuff.”
Buffy wrinkled her nose and Angel frowned. “I think I know a place, near Mexico.”
“No good, they’ll have expected us to go there. Fuck.” Sita sighed and everyone sat down on the asphalt, slick with heady dew.
Giles wiped his glasses. “Sita, what if we tried for the first place you mentioned? The cold place?”
“Yeah,” Scully said, “we need to go somewhere fast. They won’t stop until they find us.”
Kalika stood very slowly and looked at the sky. “They’ve found us.” Seymour and Sita stood, hearing the low whine of fighter jets in the distance and jeeps rumbling about sixty miles away.
Yaksha stood and he could feel his fangs grow. “Sita, we need to get out of here right now.”
“We can’t, the only road to or from this place is the one they’re using. We are now officially between a rock and a hard place. Oz, go over to that tree and dig around under it will you?”
“Sure, am I looking for anything in particular?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.” Oz scurried away followed by Willow and Yaksha.
Buffy stood up tall and surveyed her motley crew. “Right, we need to run. I say we go through the woods, try to get out that way. If we blow up the fuel tanks or something, it could distract them long enough to let us get away.” Giles nodded.
“We need to get you out of danger Buffy, now.” Angel took her hand and squeezed it.
At that point, Oz, Willow and Yaksha dragged over an insanely heavy wooden box, full to the brim with weaponry. Sita smiled and ripped the top off it. “It’s ‘blow things up into a bloody pulp’ time.”
