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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: Do I own any of the characters from the TV shows? You can bet that ain't gonna happen. The closest I could come is adopting a stretch of the california interstate, but I didn't even do that!
"Um, a bit of a long story, Giles," Buffy temporized. "We met some witches, good witches; they saved my life, but now one of them might be in trouble. Mister Trick stabbed her, put some of her blood in a silver locket thingee, and then ran away. Any idea what that could mean?"
"Mister Trick?" Giles repeated. "The vampire you saw in Kakistos' lair and fought in the sewers..."
"The night of the SAT's, yeah," Buffy confirmed. "The witches have got a tracer spell on him, and we're following him. Just got onto the interstate south. I'm betting he's heading back to the Hellmouth."
"Well," Giles paused for a moment, and Buffy could almost see the concentration on his face. "I think you may be right that this witch is in danger. It sounds reminiscent of voodoo death rites. Blood is the most powerful essence; a stronger affective than hair or nails..."
"So, if that locket gets where it's going, she could be toast?" Buffy summarized for him promptingly.
"Perhaps. I'll need to..."
"Consult your books. Yeah, do that. You can reach us on Cordy's phone or I'll be checking in with you later. Oh, and call Faith in." Buffy hit the end button and turned to her new friends. "No good news, I'm afraid."
"Yeah," Prue agreed. "That locket you were talking about... what did it look like?"
"Huh?" Buffy thought a moment. "Round, kinda shaped like a pocket watch, but silvery. When it opened, there was this network of silver struts supporting tiny crystal bowls. Why?" She looked up to see a pensive expression on the eldest witch's face. "Does this mean anything to you?"
"Uh, I don't know," Prue said. "It sounds familiar, like... yeah! I saw something like that in... in one of the artifact surveys I've got at Buckland's." She sighed. "On the computer. I don't remember any more than that though, and we can't go back so I can look it up."
"It's not on your laptop?" Piper asked quietly. She was starting to look quite obviously not-well already.
"Nope," Prue replied, automatically picking up the machine, which had been left in the van at some point.
"Well, can't you do a remote-login and get it?" Willow asked brightly.
"Nope. My desktop doesn't have its own modem, it's just a terminal," Prue told her.
"Even better," was Willow's reply, startling Prue. She reached over, took the laptop, and opened it. "They've got an internet domain, then, don't they?" She plugged the laptop into the cell-phone, and her fingers started moving over the keyboard, working that old Willow magic that long predated her own studies into witchcraft.
"Huh?" Prue said blankly. "Uh, yeah. Doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou dot Bucklands dash a dot com. But these guides aren't on the web server."
"I'm not going in the web server," Willow countered. "But I'll bet they have FTP access... what's your userid?"
"P-h-a-l-l-i-w-e."
"Password? You can type it in yourself." Willow passed the laptop back. Prue tapped in the code, then stared at the screen in amazement. "All my files! But... how?"
"File transfer protocol," Willow explained. "Get what you need over over to the laptop's hard drive, then exit."
(Several hours later,)
Buffy scooped the cell phone up as soon as it rang. "Hello? Giles?"
"Yes," the Watcher told her. "I've found something about the talisman your new friend Prue told me about." Buffy had called Giles two hours ago so that Prue could pass on what little she knew about the talismans of Krostas so Giles could research it further.
"Hit me," Buffy prompted.
"Do what? Oh, I see..." Giles muttered. "According to the legends of the native Calli, a tribe related to the Mexican Mayans but whose original homeland was just south of Sunnydale, these talismans were used by the great demon kings to kill with a thought."
"Any clue how we can stop it from killing her?"
"Prevent Trick from getting the talisman to any demons?"
Buffy vented her frustration with an audible fsssth. "We lost visual contact with him a while ago, Giles... that black sports car he was in is a lot faster than this van."
As if on cue, Oz called back to them from the front seat. "Hey, we got movement on the compass. I think he's turning off the main road."
"Check the map," Willow told him. "How close are we to the Sunnydale turnoff?"
"Too close," Oz reported. "He may be there already."
"We think Trick's headed into Sunnydale already," Buffy reported into the phone. "We're what - about fifteen minutes behind?"
"Got that, B," Faith's voice came back. Buffy hadn't realized the other Slayer was on an extension. "Looks like it's up to me to head him off at the pass and buy you the time to get into the action. I'm off."
"Faith," Buffy began, "what..."
"Faith!" Giles called out from the other end. There was a few moment's silence, and then he came back. "She's gone already, Buffy, and I think she took the keys to my car!"
"Okay, Giles, it'll be okay," Buffy assured him reflexively. "We'll be there as soon as we can." She hung the phone up again.
"Is it trouble?" Piper asked weakly. She was lying down on the back seat now, told to get some rest.
"Ssh," Xander told her comfortingly. "It's okay, you'll be fine."
"No," she told him. "It's killing me, the blood and the talisman, and I'm dying," she continued, babbling in a disjointed way. "And when I die, my Mark will come and take me away, and I'll get to see Grams again, and mom, but I'm so sorry I'll have to leave my sisters..."
"Who's Mark?" Xander asked curiously. Noticing that Piper had trailed off, he pressed it. "Hey, Piper, sweetie, come on - stay with me. Talk to me. Who's Mark?"
"Mark?" she repeated blankly, and for a second it seemed that she didn't know herself. "Mark's dead. He's a ghost, but I love him and he loves me. It's a sad thing."
"Really?" Xander pressed. "How did he die?"
"He was shot. But I didn't know him back then. When he was alive, you know."
Now this surprised Xander. "You met him as a ghost... and fell in love with him?"
A smile spread across Piper's face. "I couldn't help it. He's the sweetest guy..."
(Further ahead on the road into Sunnydale.)
As she heard another car motoring down the road, Faith put Giles' Citroen back into gear. From where she had parked it, she couldn't see much of the road, but that meant that Trick wouldn't be able to see her until... yes! A black sports car, just as Buffy described. Faith floored the motor, and the car lurched forward, seemingly so slowly, but it didn't have far to go.
Just as it was passing the shoulder, Faith opened the door, and judged the vectors carefully. Just like hand to hand fighting; you could tell if a punch was going to land well before it connected. Faith jumped from the car and tumbled into the brush, scrambling away as the Citroen rammed directly into the broadside of Trick's Viper, sending it careening across the road and into a tree on the other side.
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