"Stubborn Souls", BtVS/Dead Like Me, R, part 5

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Dawn waited until they all had their seatbelts on and Faith had started the car to speak.

“That was Wesley,” she said.

Faith twisted around in her seat to back up, but she also gave Dawn an exasperated look.

“Seriously?” she said. “He looked nothing like Wesley, even if Wesley had aged ten years and put on twenty pounds.”

“And he’d spent those ten years sitting in front of the TV drinking and smoking pot,” Xander said.

“What?” Dawn said. “That’s not…he didn’t look like that.”

“Oh, my little grasshopper, you are young and not yet used to the ways of the world," Faith said. She paused for several seconds, then added, "Did I just say that?”

“You did, and I’m so proud,” Xander said.

“Wait, wait,” Dawn said. “Really, I didn’t see a guy that looked like you’re saying. I saw Wesley. Older, sure, and more…more scruffy and harder somehow, and I have no idea where he got that amazing scar across his throat, but it was Wesley.”

“Scar?” Faith said.

“You see a scar?” Xander said.

“Nope,” Faith said.

“So, we’re seeing one man, and Dawn’s seeing another -”

“Wesley,” Dawn said.

“Why would that be?”

“Well, he’s a Reaper, and George, Mason, and Rube don’t look too together, either. Maybe being a Reaper makes you look strung-out for some reason.”

"Wait, what?" Dawn said. "They don't look strung-out to me. Mason's kind of cute."

“Huh,” Faith said.

“That’s interesting,” Xander said, making her wish she could pull out her notebook to write it down. She wouldn’t be able to read it later, though, what with the way Faith was driving. “And did you notice the way he worded that little speech about how Reapers don’t age? He never said he was old…and he did say he knew Slayers.”

“I did notice that,” Faith said. “But why wouldn’t he admit who he was? Dawn was pretty insistent.”

“Yeah, and he didn’t look at all surprised when I said it, either,” Dawn said. “Wouldn’t you think he'd react more if he wasn’t expecting it? He seemed like he was mentally braced to deal with the possibility.”

Xander nodded. “Maybe there’s some rule against it,” he said. “The post-its and the all the divisions - it seems like Reaping is a big bureaucracy.”

“Wesley wouldn’t follow the rules,” Faith said.

Dawn stared at the back of her head. “The Wesley I knew totally would,” she said.

“He changed,” Faith said.

“Well, we won’t be able to settle this now,” Xander said. “Keep an eye out for him - if he’s the head of the Supernatural Division of Reapers in Seattle, I’m sure we’ll see him again. If Wesley’s only mostly dead, we should talk to him. For one thing, to find out what really went down in Los Angeles with Angel and his group.”

Dawn was a little hurt that they didn’t quite believe her, but since she couldn’t explain why she saw someone different than they did, she supposed she couldn’t blame them. They hadn’t really learned anything from Wesley - or Theo, or whatever his name was, aside from getting a confirmation that there were more Slayers in Seattle than there should have been. And that werewolves were targeting Slayers, but they didn’t really need confirmation on that one.

By the time they got back to Slayer Central, it was full dark out, and the younger Slayers were eager for their assignments for patrolling. Xander told Bree about the remnants of the demon gang, and she headed off to the south-west part of the city, Liz in tow. Dawn thought about going with them, because Xander had said that Bree was good at patterns, and it would be interesting to watch them work. But Xander asked her to accompany Jen, the other fifteen-year-old Slayer, and she wanted to show him she was a team player, so she did. They didn’t see anything more interesting than vampires, although Dawn thought she might have seen a Reaper heading away from one feeding they were too late to stop. He could have been a junkie instead of a Reaper, but Dawn didn’t think so. She mentioned it to Xander the next morning at breakfast, and he nodded.

"I've been thinking about it, and it does make sense that they'd look different, in case they run into someone who knows they're dead. Don't know why they'd all look like strung-out bizarro versions of themselves, though."

Bree hadn't found any sign of the demon gang, but she had all of the Slayers' post-patrol reports for the past month stacked up next to her on the kitchen table and was searching for any patterns revolving around the south-west part of the city. Liz, Jen, and Katherine weren't up yet, so only Xander and Dawn headed off to the airport to pick up Willow. Dawn drove; Xander had learned to drive with only his one eye, but he preferred to do so only when alone in the car.

Willow came bopping off the plane, ecstatically hugging both of them and babbling about the flight, the demon gang in Rio, the book she'd been reading. She also passed along all of the messages from the two Slayers Xander had trained in Africa that were temporarily assigned to Rio. Even Dawn was feeling slightly dizzy by the time they'd picked up Willow's suitcase from the baggage claim, and it wasn't until they were half-way home that Willow's mood changed.

"I've been checking up on your problem," she said, "and you've got a powerful witch you're dealing with here. I mean, powerful. She managed both to hide Potentials from the First and to get a lot of them to move to Seattle, while somehow keeping werewolves from losing their human minds while transformed - "

"I'm not sure of that," Xander said.

"Huh?" Dawn said. "But that's what Oz said was happening."

"Yeah, but Oz hasn't actually seen any of these werewolves. What if their minds aren't completely human, they just have a command implanted into them? Like, bite Slayers."

"Like the hellhounds at the prom," Willow said. "Yes. I mean, it would be trickier than just showing them Pretty in Pink, but not as hard as having them keep their human minds. Good." She bit her lip and gazed out of the window.

"But you're not worried, right?" Dawn said. "This witch can't be as powerful as you are."

Willow turned her head to smile at her. "Of course she can be," she said, "but it's not the power that concerns me. This is a long-range plan, with lots of parts that had to go right. She had to know what the First was doing, for one thing, because having a werewolf bite a Potential would just get you a hot chick who turns wolfy every month. So what's her end goal?"

"An army of Slayer werewolves?" Xander said as he pulled the car into the garage. "I can see the appeal."

Dawn punched him in the shoulder for that comment, and then they all got out of the car and trooped into the house, Xander lugging Willow's suitcase. Faith, who had been lying on the sofa in the living room reading a comic book, sat up and waved at Willow. Willow walked right up to her and gave her a hug before sitting down on the sofa, too. Dawn saw Xander hid a grin at the look on Faith's face, and she said the first thing that came into her mind so she wouldn't laugh.

"How's she going to control them?"

"What?" Faith said.

"The Slayer werewolves," Dawn said. "Once she's made them, how's this witch going to control them? Slayers are pretty hard to control."

"Damn straight," Faith said.

"That's a really good question, Dawn," Willow said.

"Why don't we ask the werewolves we have chained up in the basement?" Faith said.

"You have werewolves - how many werewolves do you have chained up in the basement?" Willow said.

"Six," Faith said, standing up and stretching. "Liz and Jen are standing guard today. Though, technically, they're not werewolves right now."

"Even better," Willow said, and they all trooped down to the basement.

Dawn hadn't been down there since the werewolves had been captured. She was surprised to see all six of them in one room, but supposed it was easier to guard them that way. They weren't really chained up anymore - each person had one hand cuffed to a bed or a chair, well separated from each other. Most of them were reading books or magazines, but put them down when Dawn, Willow, Xander, and Faith entered the room. One girl, who looked quite a bit younger than the rest, widened her eyes and hugged her knees up to her chin, but the rest looked more bored than apprehensive.

"Hello," Willow said, propping her hip on the edge of a table. "My name is Willow, and I'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."

"Finally someone's talking to us," one guy said. "Those horrible girls won't say anything except 'Who's thirsty?' and 'Who needs to pee?'."

"I think the Slayers don't really know how to relate to you," Willow said. She didn't put any particular emphasis on the word 'Slayer,' but several of the prisoners flinched when she said it. "After all, you're all werewolves who've attacked them or their friends. That doesn't inspire chuminess." She paused for a moment to see if anyone would comment on that, but all she got was the same guy waving at her to go on. "So, my first question is, why did you attack Slayers? Wouldn't almost anyone else would be an easier target?"

Dawn had slid her back down the wall to sit on the floor so she could take notes, and Xander did the same next to her. Faith stayed standing, arms crossed and glaring at the prisoners. She obviously knew how to relate to them. When Willow asked her question, Dawn wrote, "Don't we already know that?" on her notebook and nudged Xander with her elbow. He took the pen from her and wrote, "She's seeing if they'll lie."

"Judith wants us to bite Slayers," the belligerent guy said.

"Ah," Willow said. "And - what's your name, by the way?"

"Brian," the guy said. He had curly brown hair and blue eyes, and looked like he worked out a lot.

"Thank you," Willow said. "And, Brian, do you always do what Judith tells you to?"

Brian shrugged. "Not always. When it's important."

"Ah," Willow said again. She looked around to the rest of the group. "And what are all your names?" she asked.

There was a Tiffany, Josh, Geoffrey, Ryan, and Emma. Emma was the younger girl, who now had her face hidden in her knees.

"Emma?" Willow said. "Do you always do what Judith tells you to?"

Emma shook her head without lifting it from her knees.

"Emma, look at me," Willow said, and Dawn felt the power she put into those words. Emma looked up, tear tracks on her cheeks.

"No, I don't always," she said.

"Emma!" Brian said. "Do not say another word."

He had power, too - Dawn could feel it - but it was nothing compared to Willow.

"Emma," Willow said, putting a bit more power into it to counteract Brian's, "if you don't obey Judith all the time, why do you do it some of the time?"

"I don't know," Emma said, sniffling. "I just feel like I have to."

Willow turned to Brian and raised her eyebrows. "Would you care to explain that?"

Brian shrugged, though he looked a bit spooked. "What do you think? Mind control. It's fairly easy once you know how."

Only someone who knew her well would have seen Willow flinch. Her voice was completely level as she went on.

"All right, mind control," she said. "Does that apply only when you're in wolf form or all the time?"

Brian glared at Emma. "Better in wolf form, obviously."

"You're not asking the right questions," Tiffany said suddenly. She was a small woman in her late twenties, with long blond hair and big brown eyes. She had her hands clenched in her lap. "Why is she doing this to us? Why make us werewolves? Why make Slayers werewolves? What purpose could it possibly serve?"

"Hey, have you seen those Slayers?" Josh said. "I wouldn't mind having a bunch of them under mind control."

Out of the corner of her eye, Dawn could see Xander's innocent look. Willow must have, too, because she shot him a mock glare.

"Somehow, I don't think that's Judith's motivation," Tiffany said.

"Then what is?" Willow asked her.

Tiffany shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "Believe me, if I did, I'd tell you. I don't want to be doing these things any more than Emma does. Brian's the only true believer her, anyway. The rest of us just want to go home."

"She doesn't let you go home?" Xander said, sitting up. He was really big on getting all of the Slayers time with their families - even the ones from Africa or South America, where that took major planning.

"No, you're not letting them go home," Brian said. "Judith allows them to live their normal lives for the most part."

"Yeah, except for the part where she turned us into monsters and sets us on young girls every month, she's a peach," Tiffany said.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do to make you not be a werewolf," Willow said, "although I know several who are ordinary members of society who just have to make sure they're chained up three nights a month. On the other hand, I might be able to do something about the mind control."

"No!" Brian said, jumping to his feet and making his handcuff clatter.

Willow smiled at him. "You won't be able to stop me," she said. "I'm willing to try if you are, but I'm not if there might be weird side-effects, what with the unknown witch and unknown spell."

Tiffany bit her lip. "I'm betting you're the good guys, and you're planning on taking Judith out, right?"

Willow nodded. "You've all found out the hard way that the monsters you thought were myths aren't. Werewolves, vampires, demons, magic...they're all real."

"Demons?" Emma said, shrinking into herself even more.

"But there are good guys," Willow went on, ignoring her. "You've met the Slayers; they fight the monsters. The rest of us are people who help the Slayers." She paused. "We're not called anything; well, Xander's a Watcher. Maybe we need a name. What do you think, Dawnie?"

Dawn was saved from having to answer by Xander.

"Not the important thing here, Will," he said.

"Right," Willow said, turning back to Tiffany. "Sorry. Anyway. Yes, we're the good guys, and we will take this witch down."

"You'll try," Brian said.

Both Willow and Tiffany ignored him.

"Then, if you don't mind, I think I'll wait on the mind control reversal thing until you take her out. I mean, what if it goes wrong and I wind up brain dead? Once she's gone, the mind control will be, too, right?"

"Most likely," Willow said. "And if it's not, I can try then. We'll have to keep you chained up here until then, though. We can't have you running around when you're under her control."

"Oh, yeah," Tiffany said. "Just let me call into work, and I'll treat this like a vacation. Good book, by the way." She held up George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, which Xander or Bree must have left down here at some point.

Willow smiled at her, then turned to the others. "What about the rest of you? Do you want me to try now, or wait?"

Josh, Geoffrey, and Ryan looked at each other, then back to Willow.

"Wait," Josh said, and the others nodded.

"Me, too," Emma said, "but can I call my parents?" She paused and looked confused. "What will I tell my parents?"

"Xander will figure something out," Willow said. "He was always the best at coming up with excuses for our parents."

"Thanks so much," Xander said, standing up. Willow grinned at him and she left the room. Dawn and Faith followed her out, Dawn running up the stairs to catch up with her.

"You didn't ask them how this Judith is doing the mind control," she said. "I thought we wanted to know that."

"I do know that now," Willow said, sinking down onto the sofa in the living room. "Once I was in the same room with them, it was easy to figure out. Like I thought, it wasn't really something that took a lot of power." She frowned and gazed at the coffee table without seeing it. "But I've never seen mind control done quite this way before this. I mean, there are only so many ways of controlling someone's mind, and I thought I knew all of them, but obviously not, because here's one I didn't know. I wonder if this Judith came up with it on her own, or if she found it in some old spellbook somewhere, though I would think the Devon Coven would have known about it, if so... Anyway, I think we should go on the assumption that she's making all of this up, which makes her so much more dangerous."

"Damn straight," Faith said. "Unpredictable."

"Very," Willow said. "She seems to only use the amount of power necessary for a task, which is unusual in evil beings that want to rule the world. Or destroy it. Either way."

"I'd really like to know what her end game is," Xander said, entering the room just then. "But I suppose it doesn't really matter - she's way too dangerous to allow in polite society. She's like Magneto."

"She can manipulate metal with her mind?" Dawn asked, all wide-eyed and pretend innocence. Xander stuck out his tongue at her.

"We knew that already," Faith said. "That we have to take her out, I mean, not that she's Ian McKellan. What?" she added when everyone stared at her. "The first two movies were kick-ass. Plus, the dude's hot."

"He's so old," Dawn said.

"And gay," Willow said.

"Just 'cause he hasn't met me yet," Faith said and grinned at them.

"Anyway," Willow said, shaking her head, "I think I know what her end game is. If Brian's right, anyway. He was thinking it pretty loudly. All she wants is a lot of money and a lot of power to control people - make people invite her to parties and stuff like that. She's doing all this just to be popular."

"Huh," Xander said, looking thoughtful. "We should have thought of that in high school."

"We still have to take her out, though," Faith said after a few moments. "Trying to turn Slayers into werewolf slaves is not going to get her invited to our parties."

"Of course," Xander said. "Still, you have to admit it's refreshing. At least we don't have an apocalypse on our hands."