Time Spin

Buffy stood in the basement of the school, one of the many empty rooms that served as cages for werewolves or other demons. But the room she was in wasn’t like the rest. No it was the schools Emergency Room.



She stood looking down at the girl that Jaeger had seen in her dream. She knew it was the girl, even though the only recognizable thing about her was the heart tattoo on her chest that Jaeger had described…she knew it was her.



Sighing she swallowed and pulled back the sheet, appraising the jagged claw marks and bites that scattered the broken and bruised body. She couldn’t be more than fourteen; in fact Buffy knew that was how old she was. She had pulled the girls file; she had been here less than a month…



Crying softly she focused as she gently pulled back the girls arm, frowning when she spotted something out of place; it looked like something was sticking out of the girl from the inside. Running a finger over the bump she pushed down, picking up a scalpel she quickly said a prayer for forgiveness and made a small cut around the bump, gagging as she rolled back the small flesh, she looked down at the foreign object in the girl’s ribs.



Picking up small pliers she jiggled what looked like a piece of metal out of its place set in Tracy’s ribs. ‘Ha gotcha” Buffy smiled as she held up the piece of gold metal. ‘What the hell was metal doing in a girl ribs?’ This wasn’t like pins or surgical metal…no this was a copper color…she turned it over and frowned, it had sat in the girls rib for at least a day and there wasn’t any blood on it…’What the hell?’



*************************



Lonnie stood beside Raya in the training room. She had been urged to join the wolf woman which in truth she was a little grateful. The last few days had been nothing but going crazy trying to figure out who the man in Jaegers dreams was and how to calm the child…so an hour away was a godsend.



Looking across the large gymnasium she watched as many of the girls were paired off going through combat routines, a few were facing three girls at once and she stiffened when she saw who walked in through the door.



It was the tigers. She didn’t really believe anyone that said Ryan was the one that killed that young girl, she believed her daughter before any of the gossiping girls.



Although the overall effect of the two cats walking into the room was something…you couldn’t hear a thing. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the pair…hard. Lonnie felt uncomfortable for them. Looking over at Raya as she waved the pair over to her, Lonnie noticed neither wasted any time getting to the instructors side.



*********************



Ryan suppressed a growl at the hostile and weary looks she was getting from the slayers. She was used to these looks, she had grown up with them all her life and so had Remy. When there parents had died those looks had spurned her to leave, she didn’t travel halfway around the world to go through it again.



This time she growled when she saw an attractive but stocky slayer step forward and glares down at her. She fucking hated it when she was short.



“What’re you doing here killer” The slayer sneered at them, Ryan was surprised when Remy broke free of her hold and before any of them had said anything had hauled off and slugged the slayer in the gut, Ryan breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t use his full strength.



The girl crumpled to the ground gasping while Remy stood over her and growled at the others. “Remy…calm down little brother.” Ryan was surprised at the reversal of roles; normally it was Remy calming her down before she killed something.



Remy took deep breaths and walked back to his sister’s side, forcing himself to meet Raya’s eyes; he was surprised to see no anger there, even a little bit of pride.



“That is why…you don’t insult people you don’t know…unless you know you can win.” Raya said in a loud concise voice. She knew that was some pretty messed up advice but she needed to turn it into a lesson before she had a revolt on her hands.



“That’s not fair” the girl Remy punched stood up” I wasn’t ready. Next time kid let your sister fight her own battles.” This time Remy stayed when Ryan stepped forward and growled at the cocky bitch.



“You want to fight?” Ryan growled out, letting her claws slip out and her irises’ narrow until she saw everything in her animal clarity. “Because kid…you’ll lose”



“Ryan stand down.” Raya said “Amber stop picking fights. Especially with MY guests.”



“She was my best friend and you killed her you bitch.” Amber spat out before she swung violently at Ryan, the first punch nearly hit Ryans face and she could feel the girl’s fingers brush her face when she dodged. Swinging up she delivered a sharp jab into the girl’s stomach, backing away when Amber stiffened and began advancing on her.



Ryan stomped her heel down as hard as she could on the girls toes, wincing at the girls cry of pain she jabbed Ambers nose and when the slayer spun to do a roundhouse kick to Ryans head, Ryan grasped the girls leg in both hands and spun in full circle and let go.



The room stood in silence as they watched the slayer fly across the room like a ragdoll and land heavily on the spare sparring mates. Ryan turned hesitantly and swallowed at the rapidly hardening eyes of the she wolf.



Grasping Remy’s hand they ran out of the room and away from the wolf.



Lonnie turned and looked at Raya. “You were right…that was interesting.”



Lonnie had been shocked by the show of strength Ryan had portrayed, and she didn’t know why but she had a feeling that that wasn’t even near what the girl was capable of.



************************



Buffy sat with Willow and Giles in the library, looking around she decided it didn’t feel like the days in high school but it was kind of a nice stroll down memory lane anyway.



Looking back when Willow made an ‘hmm’ noise Buffy looked over at Will who was studying the shard of metal through a microscope.



“Hey Buff…there’s writing on this.” Willow said, both Giles and Buffy leaned in to try to see. Giles stood and looked over Willow shoulder through the scope, nodding in agreement when he saw tiny characters etched into the shard.



“What do you think it’s from?” Buffy asked.



“I don’t know yet, we should look through the books and see if we can find anything on golden swords.”



“How do you know it’s a sword?” Buffy asked.



“See how the metal is formed on this side” Willow held up the shard showing how the shard was smoothed on either side “It’s a piece of sword, id bet money on it.”



“Do…do you think it’s the one Jaeger saw in her dream? She said the man had a yellow sword.” Buffy asked tentatively. She really hoped so, so she could just go out and kill whatever it was that was scaring her daughter on a nightly basis.



“It could be…but it’s just a skin walker killed Tracy…but what kind of skin walker brings weapons to a fight?” Willow asked.



Both Giles and Buffy shrugged.



****************************



Faith was in the laundry room sorting clothes into separate piles and getting ready to wash them. Thing about having a big family was you went through clean clothes faster than food.



Sighing she picked up Ryans bag and unzipped it, opening it up she froze. She had expected to find clothes because the old Army duffel smelled like it. But inside she saw small orange cylinder bottles.



Reaching in she pulled one out and looked at the label. Valium, 1000mg. That was some strong meds, dropping it back in she pulled out another, she couldn’t sound out the name but the bottle said it was for jaundice. Was Ryan sick?



Putting the bottles back in she zipped up the bag and walked back out into the living room, putting it exactly where she had found it. Turning she made it back into the laundry just as Ryan came into the house followed closely by Remy.



“Faith? Faith are you here?” Ryan called out. Faith stepped out and did her best to make her face a blank slate.



“Hey, how’s it going?” She studied the girl closer, noticing that the cat’s naturally dark tan did have a tint of yellow to it; Faith could read exhaustion on her face. Sighing she turned her back to hide her concern. In a lot of ways Ryan reminded Faith of herself when she was younger.



“Fine…is Skye home?” Ryan asked, walking over to her Army bag she opened it and rooted around until she found what she was looking for, quickly slipping the pills into her pocket.



Faith knew she wouldn’t have seen the move if she hadn’t been watching for it…how long had she been hiding this? “No honey, she’s still at school. She should be home from practice in an hour or so. Are you hungry?”



Ryan shook her head no and then smiled. “What’s she at practice for?”



Faith blushed lightly, “Cheerleading…so not my idea…say if your not doing anything would you and Remy like to go with Brigitte and I to town…shopping? I hate shopping but Brigitte starts pre-K next month so I have to get her some clothes for it.”



“Yeah sure” Ryan tried not to let her surprise show. ‘Well color me surprised.’ She thought, “I just have to…go change.” Remy watched his sister go up the stairs and into the bathroom.



Faith studied the boy, whatever it was…he knew.



*******************************



Jaeger had tried not to fall asleep but between the warm sun and her exhaustion, her body finally gave into the pull.



She was walking through the woods, turning she looked up at the trees, she recognized these trees, they were like the ones on the school grounds.



Turning when she heard her name called she walked down the path, at the end of the path she could see the dark haired girl. She could never make out the girls face but she was standing in jeans and a black top.



“You have to stop her Jaeger.”



“Who?” Jaeger whispered. This was the first time the girl tried to talk to her.



“Don’t let her die. She can’t die.”



“Who can’t die?” Jaeger yelled. She was so tired of these dreams.



“Ask about the family. The answers in the family.” The girl and looked down the path behind her. Turning back Jaeger struggled to make out that face. “He’s coming Jaeger. He will kill them all if he defeats her.”



Jaeger sat up gasping, her body was slicked with sweat and she felt the tears falling freely. She was five years old…she didn’t know what the lady meant.



TBC



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