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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that you recognize from the Buffy television show and don't make money off of them.
Buffy groaned as she sat up. Something penetrated her clouded mind - her shoulder! She had collapsed in pain and weakness, right here in the corridor, but there was no pain, nothing at all seemed to be wrong with her now. She slipped one arm out of her jean jacket and swung it half off to get a good look at the place she had been hurt. There was no indication that she had ever been hurt there!
"Hey, what's..." Faith said to her, and then caught the point. "Hey, lookit that. Goes to show you how hard it is to hurt a Slayer, doesn't it?"
But Buffy shook her head at that explanation. "I've been hurt enough times to know how quickly I heal up. It's fast, but not that fast. I mean, look at all the blood..." she broke off, suddenly afraid.
"You okay?" Faith asked, her thoughts evidently on parallel tracks. "Any numbness or lack of strength?" She took hold of Buffy's fingers and squeezed as if to judge the level of blood. A rustle sounded as she brushed the paper Buffy hadn't even realized was in her hand.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine..." Buffy said distractedly, grabbing the note with her other hand and unfolding it. It read, quite simply, I LOVE YOU, BUFFY.
Angel? No, it wasn't Angel's writing - Buffy could never forget it. Shrugging, she passed it over to Faith. "Secret admirer?" Faith cracked with a wide grin.
"One and the same with my secret savior, maybe," Buffy groaned. "We don't have time to figure out who it is, though. Where to next?"
"Back up to Jonny," Faith said. "There's a vent in the ladies' room that connects to the roof of this section. From there, we can get back up to the catwalks."
(Back in the management office.)
"I am Vivika," Codelia, and yet not Cordelia, announced to the assembled. "For what reasons have you summoned me??"
"We have called up your sister, Valerie," Tom announced, "and she has told us of her experience with the Upriser of Sunnydale. We would like to hear your own tale."
Vivika nodded grimly. "You would? Then you shall have it. I was prowling the banks of the southern Mississippi when I heard that my sister had been killed in California by a mysterious magician who called himself the Upriser. Then and there I swore that I would avenge her death, that I would destroy this Upriser any way that I could. To that task, I dedicated myself for the next thirty years.
"First, to defeat this Upriser, I would have to understand him. Details were hard to come by, but piece by piece I gathered part of his life story. The most telling reference was a diary that had been written by a Spanish soldier, part of an expedition from Mexico up along the Californian coast in 1680. His captain, a man by the name of Ricardo Vilchez, ordered the men to stop and make camp in a clearing in the woods, not far from the coast and just south of a small promontory. They didn't understand why, as they could continue further up north to a better camping site, but Vilchez was adamant.
"The reasons for his stubbornness became clearer that night. Vilchez was an amateur demonist, and recognized the signs of a powerful psychic nexus in that wooded clearing. After much effort in attempting to attune himself to it, Vilchez summoned up a spirit manifestation of a demon, frightening his men, who were terrified by the appearance of a devil's face with a huge mouth manifesting in their midst. It was they who gave the site the name of 'boca del infierna,' the mouth of hell.
"This soldier who wrote the diary did not know the details of Vilchez's dealings with that demon, of course, but he reported that Vilchez headed back to that place, years later, with a hundred mexican colonists to found a town. I investigated more, pleased that I had found this reference, for I was certain that Vilchez was the Upriser, somehow granted extended life by his demon sponsors. He seemed to be planning to assume demon form himself, at some future time.
"Around this time I began keeping company with another vampire scholar, Killansee, a handsome man and remarkable assistant. Finally, I found the information I most desperately wished. Vilchez' original sponsor was an earth-demon named Eddemon, who in exchange for the provision and promotion of Sunnydale as a hunting ground for the forces supernatural, would turn Ricardo Vilchez into a demon at the eve of the millenuim - the new moon nearest before summer solstice of the year 1999. He had charged Ricardo Vilchez with this, also: 'For as long as Sunnydale is under your auspices, make certain that the veneration of my nemisis, the sky princess Adalia, is unknown within the town. Should any ritual or sacrifice be made to her, all of your plans shall come to naught.' I was overjoyed to learn of this, for the forms and rituals of sacrifices to Adalia were known to me, and all I needed to do was travel to Sunnydale and sacrifice some children according to those forms to be sure that the Upriser's plans and hopes would come crashing down.
"But, as I stood there, standing over a volume in exuberant triumph, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my knee, and collapsed onto the floor. Killansee stood over me, the knife by which he had cut the tendons of my knee apart still in his hand. 'This quest for vengeance has led you to your doom,' he told me. 'For I serve your enemy, the Upriser, and for his sake I shall slay you!' And so my lover thrust a stake into my heart and killed me then and there."
Vivika ended her narration there. "Thank you," Tom said to her after a moment. "That information will be quite useful. Can you instruct us on the proper methods of making a sacrifice to the sky princess Adalia?"
Vivika/Cordelia turned to face him. "Why do you wish that information?"
Valerie/Willow broke in. "Do you mean to carry out those sacrifices, of ruining the plans of the Upriser, as my sister was unable to do during her life?"
"Uh..." Tom stalled. They didn't, not really, in the sense of it being their plan A. The agenda was to use the secrets the Sisters told them, as it happened this information about the sacrifices, to lever the Staff of Shadows from the Upriser. It would work, if they got the information from Vivika. Tell this Ricardo that they'd sacrifice a handful of teenagers in the ritualized forms unless he coughed up the staff. But if the sisters knew what they really wanted...
"Yes, we will," Jim broke in, telling the lie that Tom had balked at. "If you show us the way, the requisite forms of Adalia, we will sacrifice as many of the teenagers of this town as are necessary to bring an end to all the Upriser's plans!"
Tom held his breath, but the seance didn't seem to tilt or bump at Jim's interference. "I... what should I do, sister?" Vivika asked. "Should I tell them what I know?"
Valerie turned to study Jim, and then Tom. "Tell them," she decided, and Tom tried not to let his breath out in relief.
"For a proper ritual, at least five sacrifices should be made," Cordelia said. "The chant to summon the sky princess' presence goes as follows..."
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