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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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[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...

[its_what_we_do]

"I'm a little confused here, you're speaking of the one who messed with the order of things...or whatever it was you said. You mean this..."

I wave my hand around to indicate the area.

"...city. You know what did this? What caused the dead to return? What caused the dead in the first place? You're here to stop that?"

It was a stretch, yes, but I had to know. I could tell Buffy was apprehensive of me talking to this woman, and I couldn't blame her. I was apprehensive myself. After all, she killed Giles. That didn't bode well with me OR make me feel like I could be comfortable. But the thing is, it seemed like this creature had more knowledge on the scenario than we did, and the one thing that it seemed to appreciate was respect, and a leader who stood their ground.

I may not be the king that Angel was. Well, according to this thing, but I was going assert myself in my kingdom. I wanted answers, and if it meant putting my life on the line, I was willing to take that risk.

Sure I was scared. But we'd done it before. Countless times. Adam. Glory. Any number of demons. This was what we did.

This is what we DO.

I allow the rest of my apprehension fall away and take a step forward, the cold military mode has set in. It's time for Riley to play.

"Sam, take care of this girl, make sure she's ok."

I turn to Buffy.

"Buffy, stand behind me, in case I need you."

I move my head back and make eye contact with the blue woman.

"Alright, you want to talk? Let's talk."

I swallow.

"King to king."

[slayful_buffy]

Okay, so Riley's closer to figuring it out than I am. I can deal with that. There's a reason he was put in charge of this place - he does the whole military thing way better than anyone I know.

Except I'm usually the one asking questions. Riley, as much as I loved the guy once? Had this penchance for doing what he was told and not asking questions at all. Military training. Whether I helped or hindered him on that part, I was never going to know. It wasn't like he was going to offer it up in conversation, was it?

I heard him tell Sam to help the other girl and held my ground, still staring at Blue Girl. And then--

"Buffy, stand behind me, in case I need you."

Stand behind him? I risk a look at Fred, frown, and then look back at Riley. He's never asked that of me before. Stand beside him? Sure. Come down here to fight for him, despite my current 'retired' status? Fine.

But stand behind him? That irks me, and I'm not sure why.

"Alright, you want to talk? Let's talk. King to king."

I nod at Sam and then the other girl, somewhat grudgingly taking a step back. I'm still kind of on par with Riley. Listening. But I am standing behind him, like he said. Something in me tells me that this girl- whoever Fred turned into - she'll listen to the person she thinks is in charge and that's Riley right now.

Not me. And I'm not going to do anything to ruin that theory, no matter how much I mightn't like letting Riley step into the path of the blue tornado of destruction there.

[myworldisgone]

I narrow my eyes slightly and tilt my head at the boy. The others do look to him for command, even if the hand that holds his weapon, tremors. These humans pose no threat to me, if I hear something I do not like, I am full ready to tear that hand from him.

"Someone in this place has ripped my will away and cast it to the wind, I have been brought here at the whim of another. Be it magic or some trick of your world, it is a dangerous game, fiddling with such matters of gods."

I step toward him, this point I'm especially deliberate about.

"What I demand, is the being who did this, at my mercy." Of which I have little.