August 05: Inquisition: Bishop
Title: Inquisition: Chapter 03: Bishop
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / NCIS
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,456.
Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & NCIS: anytime after Ellie joined but before Abby left.
Disclaimer: Nothing copyrighted belongs to yours truly.
Summary: Vampires, witches, Slayers, and what goes bump in the night has been exposed to the public. The vampires have become media darlings while Slayers are being painted as evil. After four years of being hunted by law enforcement, Buffy has allowed herself to be captured. Major AU.
Author's Note: Written for Day 05 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
Chapters: Gibbs - Torres.
The second day of interrogations began more or less the same way as the first; a group of beefy and arrogant federal agents escorted her to the same interrogation room as before, and then she was left to wait. It only took about five minutes before a woman entered the room carrying a notepad and a couple of pens.
"Good morning, Miss Summers. I'm Special Agent Eleanor Bishop." They gave each other polite smiles as Buffy returned the greeting.
"Why don't you tell me about Sunnydale?"
"That's vague. Anything, in particular, you want to know?"
"From interviews and conversations with a vampire named Harmony, she had been the master vampire in Sunnydale for more than a century when you arrived there in late 1997. According to her accounts, you deliberately kept trying to kill her but always failed."
Bishop would've continued but Buffy was incapable of holding in her incredulous laughter anymore. When she finally managed to compose herself, she remarked, "That's a good one. Now try the real interrogation."
"I'm serious. She has given many interviews, and there are other vampires who are backing up what she has been saying." Clearly, she needed to keep a closer eye on the media, because that came out of the blue. Or perhaps she should check her email more often, she knew there was someone who sent out summaries to the remaining Slayers about the media coverage particularly if it concerned former Sunnydale residents.
Trying to keep her inappropriate mirth under control, Buffy attempted to explain. "Harmony is not now nor has she ever been a master vampire. She hasn't even been undead for two decades. We're the same age. Well, kinda. We went to Sunnydale High together and attended the same classes. She was killed and turned during our high school graduation back in '99."
Agent Bishop was listening intently while scribbling in what looked like some kind of gibberish shorthand, or at least it looked that way to her as she was sort of trying to read it upside down. "I'm sure you're just confusing her with someone else."
"I'm not. Besides, how would I be able to confuse a master of the city, which isn't actually a thing, by the way, with a random fellow student? Harmony was one of the sidekicks of the school queen, so to speak. She was never any kind of leader in her own right. And even if she managed to survive for the century required to be labeled as a master vampire, she would still not have what it takes."
"Let's pretend you're right. What about her current survival? How do you explain that?"
"Vampires are undead, so not actual survival. But to answer your question; Like a lot of people who want to get somewhere but don't have what it takes, she got the protection of someone who did possess those strengths. Such as the queen bee while she was a living student in high school, and for a short time after becoming a vampire, she was sleeping with an actual master vampire. Since he was getting groin-y with her he made sure she didn't get turned into dust. When that fell apart she left Sunnydale and was no longer my problem."
Bishop was studying her intently. "What's her real name?"
"Harmony Kendall". Bishop wrote it down.
"Let's move on. There are many inconsistencies in your files, but before we continue. Can you please explain what you meant when you told Agent Torres that Kendra Young was killed by a vampire? According to the medical report, there were no bite marks on her anywhere."
"It meant what I said, Kendra was killed by a vampire and not me. There were no bite marks because she wasn't bitten. Instead, the vampire chose to slit Kendra's throat with her fingernail."
Bishop frowned a little. "Young slit her own throat?"
"No, the vampire did."
"I'm confused. Please explain this using small words."
Buffy gave a small smile despite the topic. "Okay. I guess the pronouns got a little confusing. Kendra's throat was slit by a female vampire named Drusilla. Drusilla had already left by the time I got back to the library, and Kendra was laying dead on the floor. I tried to help but it was too late. When principal Snyder and the police got there my hands were bloody because I tried to check if Kendra had a pulse.
"Snyder worked directly for Mayor Wilkins and actively tried to cover up whatever went wrong at the school, especially if it involved vampires or demons. Snyder knew I was innocent, but still told the police I had done it."
Agent Bishop had a lightbulb moment, "You knew Miss Young prior to her death." She leaned forward, "was she a Slayer?"
"Yes." There wasn't anything else to say unless she wanted to demean the young woman and lie about the one thing she had been truly proud of.
"We were not aware of that. It changes things." It was said more to herself than to Buffy, but Buffy chose to remain silent.
Bishop shook it off and moved forward. "Right. That explains a few things we had been wondering about, but not why you killed her."
"Again, Kendra was killed by Drusilla, not me."
The federal agent ignored her, "Was the two of you friends? Did you invite her to the US so you could kill her because of a rivalry?"
This time Buffy sighed. "We had met once about a year before, but no, we weren't friends. More acquaintances. And no, I didn't invite her. She was sent by her Watcher to help out with the yearly apocalypse."
That got a mute stare and Buffy cocked her head to the side slightly. "What?"
"What do you mean the 'yearly apocalypse'?"
"There are yearly almost apocalypses all around the world. Some places are more prone to them than others. Sunnydale had at least one every year."
"This is ridiculous, but I'll play along. For now." Buffy got the feeling that the other woman thought she was watching a train wreck or something. She would even be willing to bet that Agent Bishop was thinking about Buffy's time at the asylum, and how she might actually belong there after all. "Who was trying to destroy the world and why?"
"A vampire," her soulless then-boyfriend to be exact, but she wasn't going to tell the authorities that part. "And he wasn't so much trying to destroy it as suck it into a hell dimension where everyone would spend eternity being tormented." She swallowed down the memory of how she had stopped that particular attempt to end the world as they all knew it.
"As to why he wanted to do that... Who knows. Some people just want to see the world burn." Or because they wanted the world to suffer because the vampire's demon half couldn't erase the human half's love for the Slayer. But that would just be too melodramatic to tell someone, especially since the someone in question clearly didn't believe in anything she was saying. It wasn't any of her business anyways and it should stay in the past where it belonged.
"And you stopped this imaginary apocalypse all by yourself after your fellow Slayer was killed?"
"Of course not. Stopping world endage is always a group effort."
"Look Agent Bishop, I understand that this is a lot to take in, but there is so much more to Slayers and vampires than you will ever know. It's an eternal battle. It won't stop if I end up in prison or executed. All that will do is make the remaining Slayers angry and split them into smaller groups rather than try and work together. New Slayers will fall by the wayside because the current Slayers have more than enough to deal with and can't handle dealing with young women who are freaking out because they will be hunted and killed by the authorities for something they have no control over and didn't ask for."
"Miss Summers. We have been speaking with a lot of Slayers in the last few years, but not all of them have super strength and speed. They could've gone unnoticed if they wanted. How do you explain that?"
"All Slayers have super strength and speed. If someone claims to be a Slayer but isn't super strong and fast, then they are not a Slayer. It's that's simple."
A staring contest ensued. Although, she suspected it was more that Bishop needed a few minutes to process the new information. A gentle knock came on the window and the agent left without a word. She did leave her things behind though, which meant there would be a part two.
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / NCIS
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,456.
Timeline: BtVS: Post-Chosen & NCIS: anytime after Ellie joined but before Abby left.
Disclaimer: Nothing copyrighted belongs to yours truly.
Summary: Vampires, witches, Slayers, and what goes bump in the night has been exposed to the public. The vampires have become media darlings while Slayers are being painted as evil. After four years of being hunted by law enforcement, Buffy has allowed herself to be captured. Major AU.
Author's Note: Written for Day 05 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
Chapters: Gibbs - Torres.
The second day of interrogations began more or less the same way as the first; a group of beefy and arrogant federal agents escorted her to the same interrogation room as before, and then she was left to wait. It only took about five minutes before a woman entered the room carrying a notepad and a couple of pens.
"Good morning, Miss Summers. I'm Special Agent Eleanor Bishop." They gave each other polite smiles as Buffy returned the greeting.
"Why don't you tell me about Sunnydale?"
"That's vague. Anything, in particular, you want to know?"
"From interviews and conversations with a vampire named Harmony, she had been the master vampire in Sunnydale for more than a century when you arrived there in late 1997. According to her accounts, you deliberately kept trying to kill her but always failed."
Bishop would've continued but Buffy was incapable of holding in her incredulous laughter anymore. When she finally managed to compose herself, she remarked, "That's a good one. Now try the real interrogation."
"I'm serious. She has given many interviews, and there are other vampires who are backing up what she has been saying." Clearly, she needed to keep a closer eye on the media, because that came out of the blue. Or perhaps she should check her email more often, she knew there was someone who sent out summaries to the remaining Slayers about the media coverage particularly if it concerned former Sunnydale residents.
Trying to keep her inappropriate mirth under control, Buffy attempted to explain. "Harmony is not now nor has she ever been a master vampire. She hasn't even been undead for two decades. We're the same age. Well, kinda. We went to Sunnydale High together and attended the same classes. She was killed and turned during our high school graduation back in '99."
Agent Bishop was listening intently while scribbling in what looked like some kind of gibberish shorthand, or at least it looked that way to her as she was sort of trying to read it upside down. "I'm sure you're just confusing her with someone else."
"I'm not. Besides, how would I be able to confuse a master of the city, which isn't actually a thing, by the way, with a random fellow student? Harmony was one of the sidekicks of the school queen, so to speak. She was never any kind of leader in her own right. And even if she managed to survive for the century required to be labeled as a master vampire, she would still not have what it takes."
"Let's pretend you're right. What about her current survival? How do you explain that?"
"Vampires are undead, so not actual survival. But to answer your question; Like a lot of people who want to get somewhere but don't have what it takes, she got the protection of someone who did possess those strengths. Such as the queen bee while she was a living student in high school, and for a short time after becoming a vampire, she was sleeping with an actual master vampire. Since he was getting groin-y with her he made sure she didn't get turned into dust. When that fell apart she left Sunnydale and was no longer my problem."
Bishop was studying her intently. "What's her real name?"
"Harmony Kendall". Bishop wrote it down.
"Let's move on. There are many inconsistencies in your files, but before we continue. Can you please explain what you meant when you told Agent Torres that Kendra Young was killed by a vampire? According to the medical report, there were no bite marks on her anywhere."
"It meant what I said, Kendra was killed by a vampire and not me. There were no bite marks because she wasn't bitten. Instead, the vampire chose to slit Kendra's throat with her fingernail."
Bishop frowned a little. "Young slit her own throat?"
"No, the vampire did."
"I'm confused. Please explain this using small words."
Buffy gave a small smile despite the topic. "Okay. I guess the pronouns got a little confusing. Kendra's throat was slit by a female vampire named Drusilla. Drusilla had already left by the time I got back to the library, and Kendra was laying dead on the floor. I tried to help but it was too late. When principal Snyder and the police got there my hands were bloody because I tried to check if Kendra had a pulse.
"Snyder worked directly for Mayor Wilkins and actively tried to cover up whatever went wrong at the school, especially if it involved vampires or demons. Snyder knew I was innocent, but still told the police I had done it."
Agent Bishop had a lightbulb moment, "You knew Miss Young prior to her death." She leaned forward, "was she a Slayer?"
"Yes." There wasn't anything else to say unless she wanted to demean the young woman and lie about the one thing she had been truly proud of.
"We were not aware of that. It changes things." It was said more to herself than to Buffy, but Buffy chose to remain silent.
Bishop shook it off and moved forward. "Right. That explains a few things we had been wondering about, but not why you killed her."
"Again, Kendra was killed by Drusilla, not me."
The federal agent ignored her, "Was the two of you friends? Did you invite her to the US so you could kill her because of a rivalry?"
This time Buffy sighed. "We had met once about a year before, but no, we weren't friends. More acquaintances. And no, I didn't invite her. She was sent by her Watcher to help out with the yearly apocalypse."
That got a mute stare and Buffy cocked her head to the side slightly. "What?"
"What do you mean the 'yearly apocalypse'?"
"There are yearly almost apocalypses all around the world. Some places are more prone to them than others. Sunnydale had at least one every year."
"This is ridiculous, but I'll play along. For now." Buffy got the feeling that the other woman thought she was watching a train wreck or something. She would even be willing to bet that Agent Bishop was thinking about Buffy's time at the asylum, and how she might actually belong there after all. "Who was trying to destroy the world and why?"
"A vampire," her soulless then-boyfriend to be exact, but she wasn't going to tell the authorities that part. "And he wasn't so much trying to destroy it as suck it into a hell dimension where everyone would spend eternity being tormented." She swallowed down the memory of how she had stopped that particular attempt to end the world as they all knew it.
"As to why he wanted to do that... Who knows. Some people just want to see the world burn." Or because they wanted the world to suffer because the vampire's demon half couldn't erase the human half's love for the Slayer. But that would just be too melodramatic to tell someone, especially since the someone in question clearly didn't believe in anything she was saying. It wasn't any of her business anyways and it should stay in the past where it belonged.
"And you stopped this imaginary apocalypse all by yourself after your fellow Slayer was killed?"
"Of course not. Stopping world endage is always a group effort."
"Look Agent Bishop, I understand that this is a lot to take in, but there is so much more to Slayers and vampires than you will ever know. It's an eternal battle. It won't stop if I end up in prison or executed. All that will do is make the remaining Slayers angry and split them into smaller groups rather than try and work together. New Slayers will fall by the wayside because the current Slayers have more than enough to deal with and can't handle dealing with young women who are freaking out because they will be hunted and killed by the authorities for something they have no control over and didn't ask for."
"Miss Summers. We have been speaking with a lot of Slayers in the last few years, but not all of them have super strength and speed. They could've gone unnoticed if they wanted. How do you explain that?"
"All Slayers have super strength and speed. If someone claims to be a Slayer but isn't super strong and fast, then they are not a Slayer. It's that's simple."
A staring contest ensued. Although, she suspected it was more that Bishop needed a few minutes to process the new information. A gentle knock came on the window and the agent left without a word. She did leave her things behind though, which meant there would be a part two.