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[its_what_we_do]

The lights flicker around me, and I raise an eyebrow. I look to Buffy, who is sitting nearby at the conference table. We had been going over the ins and outs of the situation so far, hoping maybe to find some sort of info that would help us get an edge in zombie town. She looks at me quizically

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[myworldisgone]

I use the shell's image to get this far, I did not have to be covered in the stench of humanity long to absorb it's tricks. They decieve to survive. They break great water's flow and harness the sun and tell it when to shine even in darkest night. In order to survive, I show a lie to a man inside a great metal monstrosity, great in this world is toy-like in compare to others. I tell him lies with her face, in her voice, so he will grant me passage. He is much easier to convince than the men surrounding my destination with thier small metal weaponry.

The men in this place are strange to me, they are not great, but they think themselves so. That is thier very final mistake.

I lay them out in bits and pieces, thier bodies left to fertilize the damp ground. Someone had done this to me, brought me here, saw fit that it would haunt my waking and resting hours till I should not have a moments peace. Someone has done this to me, and someone will pay for thier impudence. I heave one of the whimpering crawling worms off thier feet. He trembles apoun facing me, and well he should.

"where is your leader?! Take me to your king!"

I drop him and the pace at which he runs is vexatious, but I follow, crumbling one wall, and then another in my quest to assign blame for my condition. Finally I break through one last wall, on the other side of which are beings, three males and two females, all human. I stand in the rubble that was once thier safety and look at each in turn with the face that's not my own.

[its_what_we_do]

The Slayer, a British girl, collapses. She is overwhelmed and frightened, I'd like to attend to her, she has obviously gone through some sort of trauma, but before I can react, the wall explodes in.

While I should be grateful the light from the outside cuts into the darkened room a little, it is a little disconcerting to see that it was a small, meek woman who punctured the wall.

"Where is your leader?! Take me to your king!"

I step forward.

"I'm in charge here, who are you, what do you want?"

I have to put on a front, be brave, for Buffy, for the Slayer on the ground...for my men. But I am terrified. Whatever she was, she was strong...

...and she definitely wasn't a zombie.

She also looked familiar, I'd seen her face before. Photographs, maybe? I review so many files a year, it's hard to say.

Whoever she was, she definitely didn't look like she came to play.

[rhia_talbot]

Just when I think it can't get any worse, the wall collapses. I scream again and scramble across the floor into a corner, where I crouch, hands over my head, peering between my fingers. There is rubble everywhere.

There is a man, and he steps forward. I look at him, and then I look at the person who broke down the wall. And then my heart stops.

It's her.

"DON'T!" I scream, lunging forward and falling on my hands and knees. "She killed him, she'll kill you too, and me, oh god, we have to run!"

[myworldisgone]

My rage is superlative and self-ruling. Someone within these small walls possesed my will and took it as his own, and someone will pay for thier presumption. And in due time, if they do not hand over the saboteur, I shall begin with thier king and work my way down to the tiniest underling. The last word apoun thier reddened quivering lips will be Illyria, god king of all dimensions.

"I'm in charge here, who are you, what do you want?" The boy who steps from them is young, and merely human. What a grave dissapointment.

I have forgotten my shell in my haste, I still wear the face of the one they called Fred when I growl and thunder in his direction.

"I am Illyria, god-king of the primordium, shaper of things, idol of millions, and I shall have your head on a platter if that is my whim!"

[slayful_buffy]

Head on a-- Huh?!

I glance at Riley as he holds his ground, recognising the look in his eyes and knowing it's mirrored in my own. Seven years of demon fighting, of listening to every kind of banter a demon can give off... I was never afraid of it. Had no reason to be. They all said it in one form or another.

But this one? I was officially unsure about, especially seeing the new Slayer and the way she was wigging. Wigging big time.

"Okay," I say, with much more bravado than I feel, "Can we have no heads on platters, please?" Call me crazy, but I don't want my head on a platter. Or Riley's. Or, well, anyone's for that matter.

My eyes narrow as I realise I recognise her from somewhere. Or at least-- Wait a second. Cordelia's funeral. The girl that Wesley was holding onto when he--

"I know you." I murmur, though I remember her a little differently. For one thing, she wasn't bellowing about having my head on a platter or being the idol of millions. "You worked with Angel, right?" Which doesn't explain why she's not currently dead in front of me. Unless she is. Didn't she say her name was... God, I can't remember, but she's definitely different from the last time I saw her.

And from the look on Riley's face? I shouldn't be conversing with the thing that's tearing apart his men...

[iwouldnt_fear]

I knew I should have set up closer to headquarters. How am I supposed to be handy if I've got to sprint across the mall everytime there's trouble? Which is what I just got done doing. Whatever was going down made half the building tremor, and killed the power. Since I'd wager zombies aren't smart enough to turn out the lights before eating us, that means we've got a new danger. Hopefully one that'd be funner to kill.

The silence afterward has got me all in a panic. I would have been cool if I'd heard gunshots, or yelling, or even felt more shaking...but I don't like nothing. Nothing is typically the omen of something much much worse.

So I don't knock, I just bust in the door, skidding to a halt and practically tripping over my feet- I notice Riley, two soldiers, a girl splattered in blood, and a blonde that has to be Buffy. why am I so uncool now that it really matters?

who I didn't notice, was a teeny little mousey looking brunette, standing in the rubble. ...Did she knock down that wall?

"Holy Shit."

[its_what_we_do]

My gun is drawn on the waifish woman, it's not as if I expected it to be much help, but I'm a solider, it provided me a little comfort.

...what can I say.

My body is tense, and sweat is dripping down my temple. What do I do? This was not something I was prepared for. I open my mouth to respond to her most recent declaration when the door behind me blows in and a quick glance shows me that Sam has bounded into the room.

"Nice of you to join us, Sam," I say, with more than a healthy dose of sarcasm than is expected of me.

I didn't think I could take another wall exploding in on me. It was not a settling feeling.

I keep my eyes locked on the girl...the woman...or the thing, whatever it was, not wanting to break gaze. It is dangerous, and the new Slayer arrival FREAKED when seeing her. If it freaks a Slayer, it makes me a little more than on edge. If it freaks a Slayer AND kills my men, then I tend to get damn near hysterical on the inside.

I tilt my head in Buffy's direction, still not breaking gaze...

"You know her? Who is she?"

I swallow.

"...and more importantly, is she dangerous?"

[rhia_talbot]

I can't believe it. She, her, that creature, kills people, knocks down a wall, and they all stand around talking to it. I stumble to my feet and lean against the wall, my fingernails digging into the paint and chipping. I'm such a mess. But that's not what matters.

"Of course she's dangerous!" I shout, and then laugh, and it sounds hysterical even to my own ears. Rhiannon Talbot, gone mad. Just a few days ago, I was an ordinary girl. Now I've seen things that no one should ever see. That shouldn't even exist.

"She knocked down a wall! She's killed the soldiers! SHE KILLED GILES!"

And I slump against the wall, sobbing. Whose blood did they think it was, all over me, in my hair, all over my clothes, under my nails? His! It's not right, please, make it end... I want to be normal again.

[myworldisgone]

I tire rapidly of thier chatter, I am not here to answer thier insignificant questions. The human male infront of me who claims he is the leader keeps averting his gaze to the diminutive one with the yellow hair. She seems to want to make reason, though I am far past judiciousness. I have traveled a distance, and my only desire is to end my unrest and make suffer the being who caused it.

"You worked with Angel, right?"

I open my mouth to answer, when I remember what I am wearing is a lie. My body changes back to a form more suitable.

"I fought beside the one you call Angel. I saw the wind take his ashes and spread them on the ground." I turn to the boy with the weapon in his hand. "he did not tremble before me, but with anger." A real ruler would not show his fear.

[slayful_buffy]

Know her? Barely. I saw her once at Cordelia's funeral, held up by Wesley-- Although at that point I wasn't sure which of them was doing the holding up.

"...and more importantly, is she dangerous?"

Well she didn't look dangerous. But I wasn't exactly poster-girl for the right way to look when you fought the Grandaddy of all evil or whatever. I was just trying to buy us time, work out how, exactly, one of Angel's friends had gone from nice, normal Texan girl to killing people.

"Of course she's dangerous! She knocked down a wall! She's killed the soldiers!"

I didn't catch her name when she came in. Not that she flung it or anything-- Or if she did, I didn't hear it. But she's hysterical. Crying. Bloody. And a possibly liability if the girl who used to work with Angel really was the one who--

"SHE KILLED GILES!"

My attention caught by that last sentence, I turn in time to see Angel's colleague change into something else. Her hair change color, her skin becoming paler. It reminds me of Willow. It's not enough that the new slayer screamed something that made my stomach drop into my shoes, but the girl in front of me - Fred, her name was Fred - she tells me she fought alongside Angel, watched his ashes scatter to the ground and then turns to Riley, sending my spidey senses off the chart.

Without thinking, I step closer to Riley, an attempt to draw the Blue Ranger's gaze back to mine. "You fought beside him when he died," I say firmly, fighting everything in me that wants to kick the crap out of her and find out what she did to my Watcher, Riley's men.

"When he tried to take out Wolfram and Hart. So there's a reason you jumped ship and started batting for the other team? We're all on the same side here and call me crazy? But you taking out half of our men doesn't exactly scream allegiance for the side of good."

We could take her, I think, no hint of arrogance in that statement. Three slayers. Riley. Weapons. It would be enough, wouldn't it? Except somehow, I don't think it would be. We know nothing about this girl. No weak spots, no chink in her armour that we can exploit.

And already, she's found two of mine, unless I hid it better than I thought. Angel. Giles. And Riley, if we're being honest here. He needs to get out of here. We all do.

First rule of slaying? Stay alive. I'm all for running if the occasion calls for it.

[iwouldnt_fear]

I haven't moved since I stepped into the room. Surprising judgement for someone like me, for all my training, I'm not much for strategy. But I honestly don't know what to do. Even if I moved, how successful would that prove?

The sarcastic comment from Riley makes me flinch, but not noticeably, atleast. Wouldn't want anyone in the room to assume I had feelings that could be hurt. The comment I shoot back has the same tone.

"well if it makes you feel better, I'm plenty sorry I came."

Sometimes I want to knock on his head to see if anybody's home. This is one of those times. is she dangerous??! She just bulldozed down a wall and left a trail of corpses in her wake. I don't think I'd lose my shirt over wagering that she's dangerous.

Despite that, when the potential threat turns her attentions on Riley and my first instinct is to get bettween her and my friend, whatever the consequences. Lucky Buffy beats me to that notion. I really don't want to know what it feels like to be broken in half.

[its_what_we_do]

Buffy intercepts the path of the now blue woman, and I lower my gun. I still have it ready though, my arm tensed, and my trigger finger more than a little itchy.

...a dangerous combo in the field of battle, but sometimes it was that wild instinct that saved you.

But something told me a bullet wasn't going to take her down. But it was the comfort that counted. I guess I needed something. Something to calm me after the revelation that she...it...killed Giles.

Giles. It was unfathomable. I hadn't even seen him in years, and yet the news of his death affected me with great pain, as if I had only seen him yesterday in Sunnydale. He was a great ally to us all, and to know that he was wiped out of existence by this thing was all too much to comprehend. It didn't matter what else it said, it was clearly the enemy...

...or at least that's what I thought, until it said the one thing I didn't expect. It mentioned Angel. The story of Angel's demise in the battle with the Senior Partners was well known to most of us in the supernatural business. It was grisly and a crushing defeat for the forces of good. Based on Initative reports, there had been no survivors.

Except she claimed she was there, she fought along side him...and she lived.

How?

Even more importantly, where has she been, how did we not know?

Then it hits me. The Senior Partners would have done the same thing we would have, as the military that is. We did it in Roswell in the 40's, after all, so why not with this case?

"Oh my god," I whisper.

I turn to look at Buffy, and then give a glance at Sam.

"They Area 51ed her."

There's a silence, perhaps a lack of comprehension.

"They couldn't beat her, she was a superior warrior, so they incapacitated her, to study why."

I look back at it...at the woman...with a new eye of understanding.

"They held you at Wolfram & Hart, didn't they? Kept you captive all this time, studied you."

I swallowed, cause what I was about to say was a statement, but also a question. A question I didn't want to be true.

"...and you're the one, aren't you? You're the one who tore them down."

[rhia_talbot]

Bloody hell. She's a killer, a murderer, and they're all gathered 'round, talking to her as if something like her, a monster, can be talked to. Can be reasoned with. No, she can't, because I saw it, Giles tried. Before she...

Oh god. Leaning against the wall, I moan, raising a hand to my head. Don't think about it, Rhia, just don't. It's not real. It was just a bad dream, you'll wake up back at school, in your bed, you'll be a normal girl...

Except I know that's not true. I push myself away from the wall and stumble over to them. I'm so afraid and hysterical that my legs don't hold me up, and I reach out and cling to the tall guy who's talking. He's big and he has a gun, he'll protect me. Right?

"Tore them all down," I whisper. "Please, she's not safe."

[myworldisgone]

Humans, and thier weak concept of good and evil. How is it that they are so young, so niave, and this world is still thiers?

"I hold no allegiances. There is simply what is my will, and what is not. I chose to fight for Angel and his kingdom."

Searing rage is distracted as the boy puts together the pieces of the last year. Studied. Yes, as if I were a thing to be studied. All this time, I still cannot fathom a world that does not revere and worship myself or my kin. The world is so changed...

"The wolf, the ram, the hart...they tried to hold the thunder in thier grubby paws, and have learned the dire consequences of meddling in the fates of gods. I made thier bodies paste and thier castle rubble. And now, the one in this place who has toyed with the shaper of things will know a worser fate."

My eyes flash anger when I throw the threat, my voice, forceful and booming, turning to growl. It disgusts me that I have to continue reasoning with these lesser creatures, but it is a means to my ending of choice, which is to have my will my own again, and the offending party at my mercy.

[slayful_buffy]

They Area 50-whatted her? I looked at Riley, not getting the reference. What the hell was he talking about and why wasn't he backing away from her while I was giving him a small, slight window of opportunity to do it?

Not that I thought that I was any match for the Blue Ranger over there, but-- Hell, we had to start getting out of here in case she stopped being as civil as when she broke down the wall and starts killing us. Like she did Giles.

I focus on anything but that and stare at the path of destruction she left behind, listening to Riley's explanation. So they locked her up and made her a guinea pig for a few months and now she's pissed. Fine. Anyone would be. Except it wasn't us who locked her up. That would be the work of one formerly run-by-my-ex law firm. Not us.

"I hold no allegiances. There is simply what is my will, and what is not. I chose to fight for Angel and his kingdom."

"So your will is now what? Crush everything in your path, my watcher included?" I'm really eager to hear this one. But I'm also eager for Riley to start retreating and start getting the people who are in here and in danger out.

This? Could very well all be my fault. First appearances-- Giles was always telling me (and I should really stop referring to him in the past tense, unless I wanna wig) to never judge a book by its cover. I looked at her, at Fred, and I thought there was no way she could have done all of that. Her?

How wrong can one Slay Gal be? I'd blame it on being tired but that's a lame excuse and we all know it. A part of me wanted to believe that if she could get through what happened in LA? Then maybe someone else could have too. Like Angel. Or Spike.

"Angel's kingdom--" I start, "--That's ours too. The world we all choose to fight for. We didn't just happen on this fight. We're here because we believe in what he did..."

Something I didn't realise until after he was gone. All that time and he really was trying to take them from the inside.

"And now, the one in this place who has toyed with the shaper of things will know a worser fate."

I look at the Blue Ranger, puzzled. "That's why you're here, because someone toyed with-- Something? What?" My head is starting to hurt. Not just from talking to someone who speaks of grinding bones into icky paste but from the babbling of that girl, the one whose name I didn't catch. The knowledge that my Watcher might be dead and I'm talking to the thing that could have killed him. The knowledge that she may know something and we have to tread carefully in case she grinds *us* into sticky paste.

There's something going on here beyond zombies and former military boyfriends calling you up and somehow? We have to get to the bottom of it and fast.

[iwouldnt_fear]

Then Riley immedeatley proceeded to have on of those scary brilliant moments that remind everyone why he's the one on the top rung in the chain of command. "They Area 51ed her." I think I must have been the only one who knew what he meant, because everyone else looked at him blankly, or in the case of the bloody girl on the floor, just hangs on him whimpering. Her presence made it hard for anyone to be calm, and most of all we didn't want a certain blue demon to lose her cool.

They dissapeared her, turned her into a freaking science project. It didn't excuse the trail of corpses, but it explained it. She may well just hate humans now, and who could blame her? Doesn't bode well for us.

I don't like this. Not because of the trail of corpses she left behind her, or the fact that she seemed to want to rip apart everyone in this room as well, (although none of those things were on the list of 'things that make me go, yay!') This thing was trouble because it was contradictory. Usually demons fall on one side of the fence or the other, crush kill destroy, or something more methodical, smart. This one was puzzling, because well, she acted like a crush kill destroy, but spoke methodically. It's all the more confusing.

I can't help but snicker just a little when Buffy blondes out on us. It's apparent where her only talents lie...