Centrality

Chapter 4

Dusk came home to a silent house, this was unusual. Ever since Xander had finally settled down in this branch of the Council he had made it a true home for its slayers and watchers. They generally came home to warm greetings and gentle concern from the 60 year old man.

So it was no surprise that she was instantly on high alert when the house appeared to be empty when she came off patrol. There were supposed to be at least two other slayers here even if Xander was out taking care of something. With her senses on high alert, walking down the darkened hallways it didn’t take her long to smell the copious quantities of blood coming from the basement.

She felt fear shiver down her spine as she slowly walked down the stairs, her machete in hand, fearing what she would find. Her fear was justified.

There were six obviously dead people on the floor… and amidst the carnage were two other unconscious people, whom she recognized as her Xander and the Red Witch, lying in the gore and puddles of blood… as she looked more closely she recognized three more of the bodies as her fellow slayers; Twyla, Rebecca, and Eliza.

Twyla had her head removed, Rebecca had been eviscerated, and Eliza had lost her left leg and had her throat slit. Buffy she noticed through her fog of shock was wandering around the basement with a look of empty confusion on her face.

COV

Methos had made his decision that Xander would have to help him and then set up for that plan to happen. He shoved a copy of all the memories in his head, his own, Buffy’s and Willows into Xanders head, forcing his brain to absorb all of the knowledge, then he used a large portion of his Quickening to sever the links connecting himself, Xander, Richie, and Cassandra from Willow and Buffy. He was now exhausted, and allowed his consciousness to fade for a while.

COV

Robin Wood had been put in charge of his own council building in Africa a while back, and he was happy with that. So when he received a phone call from an obviously in shock slayer from Cleveland; he expected the worst. But not as bad as it was. All that the slayer managed to get out was “help, so much blood.”

He had his slayers kitted out and ready to go in 10 minutes explaining that he had an emergency at the Cleveland site; five minutes later their witch had the portal open and the slayers and Robin entered the Cleveland building prepared to fight off an invasion. They found a silent building.

Cheryl was the first of his three slayers to come out of her surprise and lead the way to where she knew the phone was. They found Dusk lying on the floor in shock, covered in blood staring at the phone lying three inches from her hand, completely catatonic.

She then led them through a swift sweep of the upper floors until they finally reached the basement. Robin was the first to start crying, Twyla was his only child. He swiftly forced himself under control and had his slayers gather the living as he reached for the three orbs that were usually used to preserve memories, and through the tears in his eyes and the blood that covered the orbs he lost his grip on two of them, causing them to smash to the floor.

Xanders body began to levitate from the floor and they were forced to watch as two quickening were absorbed by the boy… not that they knew what a quickening was.

Two weeks later Dusk was visiting Xander in the hospital… he had been in a coma since they found him. Robin had alerted the council of what was going on and had Africa covered by the other houses. He had stayed here with her, he wasn’t going to leave until he knew what had happened to his daughter, Buffy and Willow were in the psych ward with no memory over the age of 4.