Love On The Hellmouth

That night Buffy dreamt. She dreamt she was walking through the house, stepping over the now dozens of Potentials. She picks up a fallen book. The book is a language book, ‘Cantonese for Beginners.’ She smiles as she puts it on the pile of books all different language learning. She’s going past all the rooms seeing more Potentials sleeping. No one has any room. She hears something and turns to find Chloe crying. She goes to her. As she approaches her she is suddenly crash tackled down the stairs. Buffy looks up and she sees it’s the First Slayer looking at her intently. The First Slayer growls out, “It’s not enough.” Buffy suddenly wakes up and quickly sits up waking Kennedy. Kennedy looks at Buffy worried, “What is it?” Buffy faces Kennedy confused, “I don’t know.”
The next day Buffy asks Kennedy to start running drills. Buffy herself needs to think. By the time Buffy came home that night Kennedy was abuzz. “Buffy that was the most fun I’ve had in quiet awhile. Well besides being with you I mean. The drills thing was a blast. I called a girl maggot. This fighting is fun.” “You’re gonna be a great Slayer. But I’m not sure you should have called a girl maggot.” Kennedy looked sheepishly, “I know it just came out. But it wont again.” Suddenly they hear a scream; they both go running upstairs. They find Dawn standing in the bathroom door. Buffy moves her sister aside; Chloe is hanging from the shower. Buffy goes and cuts her down and leaves the house. When shees hes home from burying Chloe she finds everyone in the lounge room crying. Buffy starts, “Anyone like to say a few words about Chloe?” No one can so she continues, “Let me: Chloe was an idiot. Chloe was stupid, she was weak. And anyone who's in a rush to become the next dead body I bury, it's easy. Just think of Chloe. Do what she did. And I'll make room for you next to her, and Annabelle. I'm the Slayer. The one with power. And The First has me using that power to dig our graves.” She punctuates this by throwing her shovel to the ground. Kennedy goes over to her and hugs her. Buffy starts crying. “Your out of line. Just like I was when I called Chloe a maggot. We can fight this. We’re a bunch of girls trying to be an army. Instead we have no privacy, no room to move, no time for being just that, girls. We need you to be the general but also to be our friend. You’re right we’re not ready. Still aren’t. Maybe you should go to the desert. Talk to the spirit guide.” “I can’t leave. There are too many to look after now. I point out the fact that no one has their own rooWillWillow moves to the couple, “Go Buffy. Take Kennedy with you. Spike can look after everything for a while. Get some answers.” Willow gives Kennedy the keys to Buffy’s jeep. As Buffy goes to get changed Willow pulls Kennedy away from the others, “Kennedy you may or may not have noticed but Buffy has begun to push everyone away. She doesn’t want to let us in. You’re breaking that a little. But you need to know that this is what Buffy does. She pushes us all away, every time. Doesn’t like to connect. Doesn’t like us to know what she fears, what she is. It’s the Slayer. Always alone. Don’t let her push you away.” “Don’t worry Willow. I don’t plan on letting her push me away.” “One last thing. Don’t let her drive.”

Buffy and Kennedy drove out to the desert, with Kennedy driving. “So looks like I’ll get to do the Slayer quest after all.” Buffy manages a smile. When they reach the desert Buffy waits, hoping the Powers know she needs help. Soon she noticed the mountain lion, “Follow the kitty.” The two of them followed the mountain lion until they reached the rock. Buffy motioned for Kennedy to sit on the rock and sat down. After an hour or so Kennedy sighed, “How long are we gonna wait?” “As long as it takes. The cat showed and lead us here so she’ll be along soon. Besides she was the one in my dream last night.” Kennedy nodded and quietens and waits like Buffy. Soon enough the fire starts and there stood the First Slayer. Buffy smiles at it, “Hi me again.” “I know why you are here.” “You do.” “You are here to learn. The story of the First Slayer. Of your power. You can’t just watch. You have to see.” The fire becomes brighter and shadows start appearing from the fire. The shadows spin. “First, there is the Earth.” Buffy and Kennedy see shadows of mountains and hear the faint sounds of drums. “Then there came the Demons.” They see a demon is chasing the mountain and hear a faint roar. “After demons, there came Men.” Now they see three men with staffs appear behind the demon and mountain and they hear faint chanting. “The Men found a Girl.” A girl is seen in the shadows and they can hear a scream. “The Men took the Girl. To fight the Demon, all Demons. They chained her to the Ea” Th” They see the girl has been chained and they hear the faint sound of a chain rattling. The shadows start spinning faster and faster. “You cannot be shown, you cannot just watch. You must see, see for yourself.” The First Slayer disappears and in her place is a portal. Buffy walks to the portal but Kennedy stops her, “You don’t know if you’ll even get back.” “I’ll be back. I have to save the world. Wait for me?” “Always.” With that Buffy jumps through the portal.
Buffy finds herself in what seem like the same desert but it is day here. She hears the faint sound of drumming and chanting and follows it. Soon she comes upon a group of three men. The men are rocking backwards and forwards chanting. She walks towards them, entering their group. “Hello.” They look up at her. They are old men. They are the Shadow Men. “I’m Buffy. I'm the Slayer.” They all speak in Swahili and Buffy speaks in English but both understand every word. “We know who you are. And we know why you're here. We've been waiting.” “Good. That's good then and I know we've got bigger issues to deal with but how'd I understand a word you just said?” They stand without answering. “I know, ancient Magic’s, I just thought it was neat.” The Shadow Men stand, and walk around Buffy. She turns to keep eye contact with them, as they look her over and then continue, “We have been here since the beginning. Now, we are almost at the end.” “Okay, and the ‘neat’ of it just left me. End of what?” “You are the Hellmouth's last Guardian.” “Latest. You mean ‘latest’ guardian.” “No.” “Look - I got a First to fight. You three have clearly had some time on your hands. Tell me what I need to know. I came to learn.” “We cannot give you knowledge. Only power.” “Okay, know what I think? I'm not really here at all. None of this is
actually happening, this is like a play, like a shadow play, like a non-reality re-enactment hologrammy...” Buffy is cut short as a Shadow Man hits her across the head with his staff. The Shadow Men drag Buffy to a cave, resuming their chant.
As Buffy wakes up she finds that she has been chained to the earth. The Shadow Men stand before her. Buffy looks at them anger etched on her face, “What is this?” “We are at the beginning. The source of your stre. Th. The well of the Slayer's power. This is why we have brought you here.” “I thought I brought me here.” The Shadow men say nothing and start to strike their staffs into the ground, steadily, in unison and never ending. Buffy speaks to them again, “Listen to me. I'm already the Slayer. Bursting with power…don't need more thanks. You're wasting time! I'm here to learn…I need to know how to fight The First.” “The first Slayer…did not talk so much.” Buffy watches them as one of them steps forward carrying a small wooden box. He places it on the floor, which has a symbol, painted on. He opens the box and the Shadow Men step away, “Herein lies your truest strength. The energy of the Demon. Its spirit. Its heart. This is how we created the Slayer. This is how we did so then. How we will do so now.” Slowly a mist rises from the box, it starts to take shape. “It must become one with you. Merge, live, and grow inside you.” “I get a say in this and I'm saying no…” “This is how it was then. How it must be now. This is all there is.” Buffy pulls at her chains as the mist begins to swirl. It finds Buffy and goes into her through her eyes, mouth and nose. She screams and the Shadow Men watch. Buffy shakes her head violently, sending the mist back out of her. She braces herself, trying to get in a defensive position. The mist makes another pass but she wont let it in she looks to the Shadow Men, “Make this stop.” “This is what you came for.” “You got the wrong Slayer. I'm not the first one.” “We know. She begged for us to stop. We did not then. We will not now.” “How many times do I have to tell you? I'm already the Slayer!” “You came to us for help. Do not fight this. We only want to help you.” The mist tries again, Buffy moves back pulling the chains taut. “I can't fight this. I know that now. But you guys? You're just... men.” She pulls the chains until they break. She swings the chain around egging the Shadow Men into a fight. “Just the men who did this. To her. Whoever that girl was, before she was the First Slayer. To me, if you could. But you can't.” She knocks two of the Shadow Men to the ground and makes her way to the leader. The Shadow Men is still talking to Buffy, “You don't understand. You need our power. To reject us is to disrupt the Slayer line. You are making things worse.” “Good. You think I came all this way to get knocked up by some demon dust? Think again, old guys.” “You are only destroying yourself.” “Please. I died more times than you can count. I think you forgot one thing about power.” Buffy takes the leaders staff and breaks it across her knee, “I am the power. Disrupting things is what I do.” The mist disperses, “See?” “We offered you power. You came for knowledge.” “So tell me something I don't know.” “As you wish.” The Shadow Man smiles dejectedly and lifts a hand, as if asking permission. Buffy, wary, lets him. He reaches forward, “Now you will see. But without the power, I wish to know…” He touches her head, “How will you save the world now?” The portal erupts behind her and she disappears.

Buffy finds herself back in the desert with a worried looking Kennedy staring into the fire that has just dispersed. “Hey Kenn.” Kennedy looks up and runs to Buffy, brings her into a kiss and then hug. They walk back to the car in silence. Once they are on their way Kennedy asks what happened. “Well I found out how the Slayer was created. A group of men took a girl chained her to the earth and gave her the soul of a demon.” “They didn’t try…” “They did several times. Don’t worry I didn’t let it happen. But it was power and now I’m not sure if n ben beat this thing without what they were offering.” “Why?” “They showed me something. Turok-Han’s millions of them. They were celebrating. I could see Sunnydale in the distance. It was in flames. It was a war. It was the end of the World. We lost.” “Buffy, you can beat this thing. I will be with you through the whole thing I promise. Don’t give up.” “I wont. I found out what I needed. Just don’t tell anyone what I just told you okay. I will deal with this. Without losing my head.” “Good.”