August 09: Inquisition: Bishop, Part II
Title: Inquisition: Chapter 04: Bishop, Part II
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / NCIS
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,141
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 09 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
Chapters: Gibbs - Torres - Bishop.
According to the clock in the other room, it took Bishop 47 minutes to return. During that time, Buffy would've loved to be able to move. Preferably do some sparring, but barring that a series of katas, or even some good old-fashioned pacing to get the circulation flowing. Instead, she meditated as all the people behind the two-way mirror were doing was stare at her as if they expected her to do something outrageous.
Bishop hadn't returned to the other room, instead, she had vanished somewhere deeper into the building. Buffy had excellent hearing, but there were limits to how far away she could be to eavesdrop on someone.
"You look upset," Buffy commented as the federal agent got seated again. "Bad news?"
"Our computer specialists have confirmed Harmony Kendall's human identity, including her date of both birth and death." Those eyes were scrutinizing her again. "You were telling the truth. Why?"
"I've been telling the truth the entire time. Just because no one believes me, or chooses only to believe whatever fits into their narrow point of view, doesn't mean I'm a liar."
"We can't check for accuracy for most of your claims, and none of us are willing to just take your word for it. "
"Fair enough," Buffy agreed easily, "but do you agree that Harmony's authenticity has been blown?"
"I agree that she has been caught in a major lie and that this means her other claims need to be investigated further."
"Good," Buffy smiled. "It means we're moving forward."
Bishop frowned. "That's it? No demanding I believe you or just take your word for everything now?"
"If you had suddenly done that then I would've believed that you either had been ordered to do that or that something else has gone wrong."
Rather than continue, the other woman gave a shallow nod. "Let's move forward. Tell me about the final days of Sunnydale. Why did you chase the city's inhabitants out?"
"I didn't. One day they just abruptly decided to leave en masse. Even most of the vampires and demons went with them. They took whatever they could get into their cars and drove out of there as fast as they could."
The NCIS agent kept scribbling notes in her odd shorthand and remained silent until she had finished writing. "If they left of their own accord, do you know what caused their departure?"
"The First."
Bishop's forehead wrinkled, "The first what?"
"The First Evil is the absolute embodiment of all evil. It's everywhere, but back then it was focusing on Sunnydale. Even if people had no idea what was going on they could feel the fear and they wanted to be anywhere but there, so they left."
Bishop stared, as did the people in the peanut gallery. "Are you trying to imply that you have killed the original evil?"
This time, Buffy rolled her eyes. "No, it's impossible to kill it."
"Did the First Evil sink Sunnydale?" It was a fair question, but not one she had expected to be asked given their obsession with Slayers being the guilty ones.
"No, the side of good did to close the Sunnydale Hellmouth for the next millennia."
Bishop placed her pen on top of her notebook and leaned back in her chair. "Maybe you should just explain all of this in your own words."
"Sure, but it will just lead to a lot more questions."
"Humor me."
"Okay," Buffy paused for a few moments to try and find an appropriate place to start. "Part of the First's plan actually aligns with yours; kill all the Slayers and all of the young women who have the Potential to become Slayers. It sent its minions, the Bringers, to track down and kill as many Potentials as they could all around the world.
"It took some time before the Watcher's Council realized what was going on since many of the dead Potentials were not on their radar. When they did begin understanding it and the seriousness of the situation, even if they didn't know who was behind it, they began sending these girls to Sunnydale in the hope that I could protect them."
"Did you?"
"As well as I could, but most were killed on the way there, and never made it to my home or somewhere we could find them. Those who did make it had problems adjusting, as did my friends and I. But we prevailed in the end."
"You, or someone in your group, sank a city."
"We did, but it was an unexpected side effect. Something none of us had even considered, let alone something we wanted to happen." She gave the federal agent good eye contact as leaned forward as far as her handcuffs allowed, "Keep in mind that we were all inside the Hellmouth, beneath Sunnydale High School when the city began collapsing. Don't you think we would've chosen to be somewhere else if that had been our intention?"
The next few minutes were spent explaining why they had been down there, what a Hellmouth was, and how they had managed to escape the sinking city.
"We actually have satellite images of someone jumping from rooftop to rooftop as Sunnydale sank, but we weren't certain who it was. The images weren't able to get close enough for us to see or for facial recognition software to work." A few beats of silence and she continued, "That was some really impressive jumping you did. Can all Slayers do that?"
"We all have the same basic skills, but some are better at them than others."
Then she went back to what the Slayer had actually said. "How many of your group made it out alive?"
"Not enough." Anya, Spike, the Potentials who never got to be Slayers, the Potentials who did become Slayers only to get killed inside the Hellmouth within an hour... They were all dead. The military would probably call it something along the lines of collateral damages or acceptable losses. That is if they had known about it and/or been the ones responsible, then all reports would've been buried. There probably were reports somewhere, courtesy of the Initiative or whatever they called themselves now.
Agent Bishop looked indecisive for a moment but then shouldered on. "Who was responsible for the collapse? Was it done by magic or in another way?"
"You're not going to believe this, but it was a gaudy amulet with some kind of purifying power if worn by the right person.
While they had been talking, a skuffle had broken out in the other room. She kept quiet about it as it didn't seem to affect her. At least not at the time. Then she suddenly saw two men with guns, aiming directly for her and Agent Bishop.
In the next moment, they both fired, and the two-way mirror shattered.
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / NCIS
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,141
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 09 of the 2022 August Fic-A-Day.
Chapters: Gibbs - Torres - Bishop.
According to the clock in the other room, it took Bishop 47 minutes to return. During that time, Buffy would've loved to be able to move. Preferably do some sparring, but barring that a series of katas, or even some good old-fashioned pacing to get the circulation flowing. Instead, she meditated as all the people behind the two-way mirror were doing was stare at her as if they expected her to do something outrageous.
Bishop hadn't returned to the other room, instead, she had vanished somewhere deeper into the building. Buffy had excellent hearing, but there were limits to how far away she could be to eavesdrop on someone.
"You look upset," Buffy commented as the federal agent got seated again. "Bad news?"
"Our computer specialists have confirmed Harmony Kendall's human identity, including her date of both birth and death." Those eyes were scrutinizing her again. "You were telling the truth. Why?"
"I've been telling the truth the entire time. Just because no one believes me, or chooses only to believe whatever fits into their narrow point of view, doesn't mean I'm a liar."
"We can't check for accuracy for most of your claims, and none of us are willing to just take your word for it. "
"Fair enough," Buffy agreed easily, "but do you agree that Harmony's authenticity has been blown?"
"I agree that she has been caught in a major lie and that this means her other claims need to be investigated further."
"Good," Buffy smiled. "It means we're moving forward."
Bishop frowned. "That's it? No demanding I believe you or just take your word for everything now?"
"If you had suddenly done that then I would've believed that you either had been ordered to do that or that something else has gone wrong."
Rather than continue, the other woman gave a shallow nod. "Let's move forward. Tell me about the final days of Sunnydale. Why did you chase the city's inhabitants out?"
"I didn't. One day they just abruptly decided to leave en masse. Even most of the vampires and demons went with them. They took whatever they could get into their cars and drove out of there as fast as they could."
The NCIS agent kept scribbling notes in her odd shorthand and remained silent until she had finished writing. "If they left of their own accord, do you know what caused their departure?"
"The First."
Bishop's forehead wrinkled, "The first what?"
"The First Evil is the absolute embodiment of all evil. It's everywhere, but back then it was focusing on Sunnydale. Even if people had no idea what was going on they could feel the fear and they wanted to be anywhere but there, so they left."
Bishop stared, as did the people in the peanut gallery. "Are you trying to imply that you have killed the original evil?"
This time, Buffy rolled her eyes. "No, it's impossible to kill it."
"Did the First Evil sink Sunnydale?" It was a fair question, but not one she had expected to be asked given their obsession with Slayers being the guilty ones.
"No, the side of good did to close the Sunnydale Hellmouth for the next millennia."
Bishop placed her pen on top of her notebook and leaned back in her chair. "Maybe you should just explain all of this in your own words."
"Sure, but it will just lead to a lot more questions."
"Humor me."
"Okay," Buffy paused for a few moments to try and find an appropriate place to start. "Part of the First's plan actually aligns with yours; kill all the Slayers and all of the young women who have the Potential to become Slayers. It sent its minions, the Bringers, to track down and kill as many Potentials as they could all around the world.
"It took some time before the Watcher's Council realized what was going on since many of the dead Potentials were not on their radar. When they did begin understanding it and the seriousness of the situation, even if they didn't know who was behind it, they began sending these girls to Sunnydale in the hope that I could protect them."
"Did you?"
"As well as I could, but most were killed on the way there, and never made it to my home or somewhere we could find them. Those who did make it had problems adjusting, as did my friends and I. But we prevailed in the end."
"You, or someone in your group, sank a city."
"We did, but it was an unexpected side effect. Something none of us had even considered, let alone something we wanted to happen." She gave the federal agent good eye contact as leaned forward as far as her handcuffs allowed, "Keep in mind that we were all inside the Hellmouth, beneath Sunnydale High School when the city began collapsing. Don't you think we would've chosen to be somewhere else if that had been our intention?"
The next few minutes were spent explaining why they had been down there, what a Hellmouth was, and how they had managed to escape the sinking city.
"We actually have satellite images of someone jumping from rooftop to rooftop as Sunnydale sank, but we weren't certain who it was. The images weren't able to get close enough for us to see or for facial recognition software to work." A few beats of silence and she continued, "That was some really impressive jumping you did. Can all Slayers do that?"
"We all have the same basic skills, but some are better at them than others."
Then she went back to what the Slayer had actually said. "How many of your group made it out alive?"
"Not enough." Anya, Spike, the Potentials who never got to be Slayers, the Potentials who did become Slayers only to get killed inside the Hellmouth within an hour... They were all dead. The military would probably call it something along the lines of collateral damages or acceptable losses. That is if they had known about it and/or been the ones responsible, then all reports would've been buried. There probably were reports somewhere, courtesy of the Initiative or whatever they called themselves now.
Agent Bishop looked indecisive for a moment but then shouldered on. "Who was responsible for the collapse? Was it done by magic or in another way?"
"You're not going to believe this, but it was a gaudy amulet with some kind of purifying power if worn by the right person.
While they had been talking, a skuffle had broken out in the other room. She kept quiet about it as it didn't seem to affect her. At least not at the time. Then she suddenly saw two men with guns, aiming directly for her and Agent Bishop.
In the next moment, they both fired, and the two-way mirror shattered.