Priss/Sabre/Nyx
Priss was walking through the desert, white robes flowing around her ankles as she enjoyed the quiet night. A flicker of movement to her left, and she turned slowly, claws sliding out ready. And then a bolt of lightening hit her back and convulsing, she fell to the ground, antiseptic stink and human scent filling her nostrils. AHHHHH! Her mind screamed, mouth working vainly as she tried to summon magick but it scittered away from her grasp. Rough hands picked her up as she fell into darkness, protesting inside her head.
"HST bagged, sir."
"Return to base..."
~*~*~*~
Nyx bolted upright in her bed, claws going out and wailing a battle cry. She could hear Sabre do the same, snarling and roaring. "PRIIIIISSSSSS!" She screamed as she came out of her true shape and Sabre's voice joined hers in furious outrage. "SABRE! PRISS!"
"Nyx! We go!" Sabre bounded into the room, eyes wide and staring, teeth glittering. "We will make them pay, pay in blood and screams and pain! Oh, so much pain..." he hissed from between his fangs.
"Pain, and torment everlasting, and then, when they die, give their immortal souls to our mother..." The two cats nodded in complete accord. "To play with, and stretch their suffering through the ages, until the world ends and even the gods die..." They grasped hands, ignoring the humans in the doorway and cowering back into their beds.
"Blood calls to blood, like to like, fang to fang, claw to claw, I'll guard your back and you'll guard mine," the two chanted together, before raising their wrists to their mouths and ripping into them savagely. They pressed their wrists together, the blood mingling. "We HUNT!" They grinned ferally at each other, hands clenched tight and blood dripping to the floor as the wounds healed.
"Brother, we run!"
"Sister, we hunt them down and we rescue her!"
"Mind telling us what is going on?" Spike said in aggrieved voice. The two cats' heads swiveled to face him.
"Our sister is hurting and unable to free herself. We go. Dru!" Nyx released her hold on Sabre's wrist. "Need to borrow your boy and your plane! Oh sod it. Too slow. MOTHER!" She raised her head and screamed. The two cats flashed out, leaving shocked people behind them.
~*~*~*~
White. White everywhere. And then fire blossomed in the cool hallways as two griefstricken figures blazed along the corridors, blood running from their hands and mouths. Demons in the base blessed the pair as their doors sprang open, and they were free. Soldiers yammered vainly as the two furiously destroyed their operations, and any chance of restarting it. Then they found Priss, lying bloodoaked and beaten in a room, lifted her tenderly into their arms and flashed out.
~*~*~*~
Nyx flashed back into the Kent's kitchen, a bloodsoaked white cat with long fur hanging in bedraggled clumps in her arms. Sabre appeared beside her, face set in stone.
"Aye, Priss, me girl, we found ye," Sabre soothed in response to a hoarse whimpering cry that made its way out of the cat's throat. "Nyx, what in the bloody hells have they done to her?" Nyx laid the cat tenderly on the table, and then people came in, babbling and asking for explainations. "Get the FUCK out!" Sabre snarled at them, blood from the soldiers and other unidentifiable body substances streaking his bare body.
"Let me see..." Nyx shut herself off as she ran careful, but through fingers through her sister's fur and over her body. "Oh, those fucking bastards. Mother, look after them, would you? Look after them *very* well." Nyx's voice dropped to a menacingly growl as she felt the lines of sutures running through Priss's fur. "Priss, sweetie, you need to shift. I need to see you, without the fur."
The cat sighed wearily, and then shimmered into the form of a slight young girl, black lines of bruises and stiches making their way along her body. Her long white hair was clumped together with blood, and Spike recoiled at the scents of blood and death that rose from the three. Her eyes blinked open, one blue, one green, and she reached out to hold her sister's hand. "Thank thee, Nyx. I wast walking, in the desert, when I wast taken off guard and from behind. Nay, do not reproach thyself." She reached out with her other hand for Sabre. "Twas mine own fault."
"Never, never, never, me girl." Sabre raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "Those soldier boys were a bit more up to date, a bit stronger then ye could expect."
"And now they are no more. I thank thee, brother mine." Priss sighed, eyes closing. "They did something to my head, methinks. Prithee, Nyx, examine it. Thou always wast the best leech of us three. Nay, thou knowest it," she rebuked Nyx gently. "False pride serves us not."
"Oh, my sister, what have they done?" Nyx breathed as she looked at the back of her sister's head, seeing now that it was shaved, and a line running along it, black stiches neatly crisscrossing the red puckered line.
"I am not certain...they cut it open, that much dost I know. And then, I swooned. What they did after, I am ignorant of. Ahh, Nyx, it hurts, it hurts so bad..." Priss whimpered slightly.
"Shh, sweetie. Mother, please, I can't, I can't not while she's awake. Please, knock her out so I can work." Tears trickled down Ny's face and she shook her head sharply to dislodge them. "Please..." Sabre looked at his sisters and then turned and growled long and low at the shocked people in the doorway.
"When I told ye to get the fuck out, what the hell did ye not understand? Go, before I forget that not all humans are good. The scent of ye sickens me to me very soul. Now, *go*."
"Not before we get answers." Amanda raised her chin.
"Then ye can get Nyx some antiseptic and bandages, girlie. The rest of ye can go burn in hell, for all I care. Leave us. There will be some magick worked here tonight, magick like this world has not seen for an age. No, Dru, you stay. And the Key. We will need your energy to heal Priss fully. Slayer the next, if ye do not wish to be drained to the point of death, I would suggest ye all leave. Now."
Dawn/Dru
Amanda got the antiseptic and bandages, and then tried to stand in the corner and watch, until Sabre growled at her again. Ushered out by Spike, she finally let her confusion show.
"Spike, what's going on?" Seeing that the Kents were all likely confused, he brought them into the living room and sat them down.
"Platelet, remember what I told you about the Initiative?"
"Yeah, it's big government organization that huntsdown anything that isn't human and does experiments on them. Is that wahat happened tothat girl in there?"
"Yes, bit, that's exactly what happened. That girl is Nyx and Sabre's litter-mate, their sister. You thought sibling ties were close with humans? You don't mess with litter-mates. Now, I'm not exactly sure what went down tonight, but I'm guessing that whatever branch of the Initiative it was that caught her, they're most likely no more. I smelled blood and it wasn't all theirs." The Kents looked quite upset and disturbed, especially by the idea that a government organization was hunting non-humans. Spike's soul went out to them, he could understand their fear. Here they were, just trying to do a good deed by helping out some girls who needed a place to stay, and now they've been pulled into the world of the supernatural.
"Listen," Spike said again, "I know that you'reafraid, for yourselves, and mostly for your son, but I don't think you need to worry. The Initiative never goes looking. They usually settle down in a place, and then runsweeps in that area. And I doubt they'd come here, the town is too small. There has to be something big, like a university nearby for them to run an appropriate cover. These Initiative types, well, I'm kind of biased, considering they turned me into a pincushion. Did all sorts of experiments on me, they did." Spike shuddered.
"They like to implant things into their 'subjects,' that's what happened to Priss, I think, she's been shaved, so I'm guessing, she had an anti-violence chip of some sort. I don't know why they'd do that to her, though. Bastet's children don't feed of of people, not like I did." Spike sighed. "Got any more questions, luv?" Amanda shook her head. "Excuse me, Martha, but I think you three should head off to bed. Amanda and I will wait for word, and we'll let you know if anything happens." Agreeing, the Kents got up and went off to bed. moving to the couch, Amanda curled up next to Spike. After spending so much time with him and Dawn, she felt safe by him, and she really needed to be safe.
"Spike, I don't get it, why would they help you, by removing the chip, and then do this to that poor girl?"
"Well, Nibblet, I think that they only helped me because they're afraid of Buffy." He chuckled, "And now they're rightfully afraid of Nyx." Amanda absorbed that thought and stayed quiet for a while.
"Spike, do you think it's true, what Dru said about me being the next Slayer?"
"Well, Dru has never been off about a vision, and she senses power in you, as do I, and the kitten twins in there. We can all feel it, the untapped power. So yes, I think you may be the next Slayer."
"I don't want to be. I just want to go back to being a normal girl." Spike's heart was breaking for the girl. This was something that all slayers went through when they were chosen. First they were just average teenage girls, and then all of a sudden, they have this big destiny, and ripped from their lives of normalcy.
"I mean, Buffy's already died twice, three times if you count last spring-- Dawn told me about that, how Willow magically removed the bullet and healed Buffy. ANd she's the lucky one. They say most Slayers don't live past 18. Spike, I don't want to die! I'm only 16!" Amanda was near hysterics. Spike pulled the girl close and just let her cry. He remembered when he had done the same for Dawn when she discovered that she was the Key.
"Well, luv, the way I see it, is you have two options. You can ignore the fact that you're going to be the Slayer, and take heart of the time you have before Faith dies, which may not be all that long, and live it, all the while being afraid that this is the day she'll die. Or, you can embrace the heads up. Haw many Slayers have actually known that they were the next before they were Chosen? Use this time, train, practice, but don't cut yourself off from the world. That's the reason that Buffy's made it as long as she has. She has ties to this world, family friends. Keep them, and keep them near and near to your heart." Amanda's cries slowed, and she took adeep breath.
"Will you be there, like you've been for Buffy? Will you fight by my side? I don't know if I can do it alone," Amanda said, fear written across her face.
"Unless I'm dust, I'll fight by your side till the end," Spike said, and he meant it. He had began to care for the young girl. For 120 years, Slayers had been nothing but a challenge for Spike. Something to lust after, and to kill. But now, he saw what they really were: young girls plucked from innocence and handed a destiny that ended in misery, pain, and death. As he continued rubbing her back, she fell asleep on his shoulder, and he listened to her even heavy breathing, and it brought him a sort of peace.
------
Back in the kitchen, Dawn and Dru were standing about watching Sabre and Nyx try to heal Priss. Dru was helping, but Dawn wat just watching scared. Suddenly she remembered something.
"Nyx, would it help if you had some of my blood?"
Nyx/Sabre/Priss
Nyx looked up at the girl, hope blossoming on her face. "What I need is the magick in you, but I can only use it to heal Priss if you give it to me freely. Priss, sweetie, can't you use your magick to start the healing?"
"I can but try." Priss started to whisper the words of a spell, fingers nimbly moving in the appropriate signals, and then arched off the table, screaming. "AI!"
"Oh, Eternal Mother. Sabre, they've fixed her magick." Nyx felt like vomiting, and Sabre looked the same.
"Nay! Not my magick!" Priss wailed, tears streaking down her face. "I need it! I wilt be naught but a shadow!" She tried again, vainly, and once more the chip seared her brain with flashes of pain.
"Oh, gods..." Sabre dropped to his knees by her side and started to keen. Priss clenched her teeth in anticipation, and tried again.
"Priss! Don't!" Nyx held her sib down on the surface of the table. "Don't touch your magick. We'll fix this, we will." She ran her fingers through her sister's hair. "Dawn, you ready?" Sabre continued to keen his heartache, the eerie tones rising and falling steadily as he sang in lamenting Gaelic.
Dawn
Dawn held out her hands, palms up. She had made a small nick in the palm of each hand, and watched as the blood pooled up. Not too much blood, just a small amount. She recited the incantation Willow had taught her, so that the gods would let her share her magick. After that, she granted her official permission, something required by the PTB.
"I giveth thee the use of my power, and I giveth it freely."
Nyx/Sabre/Priss
"Thank you, sweetie. You have our eternal thanks." Nyx quickly dabbed the blood onto her fingertips and drew an Eye of Horus on Priss's forehead. "Horus, protect thee." Nyx nudged Sabre with her foor, and he stopped singing and sat up.
"In the name of our mother, we claim it."
"Thoth, watch over thee."
"In the name of our mother, we claim it."
"Re, guide my hand."
"In the name of our mother, we claim it."
"Set, thy chaos we needs must use."
"In the name of our mother, we claim it."
"Bastet, thy healing for thy wounded daughter."
"Mother, we call thee to our sides, to guide our hands and motions. Heal our sister we pray." An immense prescence filled the room. "Hello, mum." Sabre grinned foolishly, it would be alright, it would. Soothing purrs filled the room as Nyx made ready to heal her sister.
"First things first, if I can get this thing out of your head, you can help me heal the rest of you." Nyx helped Priss turn over onto her belly so that Nyx could look at the back of her head. "Nasty." She clucked with her tongue as she drew their mother's sign over the wound with Dawn's blood. "Bring it out. Impurity within, come to my hand. Thing of science, by magick removed. Come!" She held her hand steady over Priss's head and the purring grew louder. Priss arched her back and screamed as a bloody microchip appeared in Nyx's hand. "Good girl. Healing now, sweetie."
"Ahhhh, I can feel it!" Priss's voice rang out joyfully. "My magick is back!"
"So, heal yeself then," Sabre said gruffly. His head was knocked to the side by an ivisible paw. "Ow! Mum!" Bastet growled at her son, and he hung his head. Nyx giggled as she helped Priss heal herself with the aid of the power in Dawn's blood.
"Do not tempt our mother so, knave," Priss scolded Sabre as she turned back over. "Thee knowest that we owe her much. And I am healing myself!"
"Aw, Priss, ye know I didna mean it."
"Mother, you have them, don't you?" A growl reverbrated through the room, filled with an immense anger, and then screams sounded thinly, as counterpoint.
"Ah, god, no! Help, ai!"
"Get it off! Get it off!"
"What the hell is that? Ahhhhhh!"
"HSTs sir! We surronded!"
Nyx and Sabre smiled grimly as they listened to the soldiers cries of terror and pain.
"Our thanks," Sabre said.
Dawn
"Hmmm," Dawn said, "Death by cat-gods, it seems fitting for the Initiative, considering they've tried to kill just about everyone I've ever cared about." Dawn smiled a wan smile. "Buffy said that she once tried to convince Riley that 'nonhuman' didn't necessarily mean evil, and he just couldn't grasp it. He had become so brainwashed by the black vs. white of it, that he couldn't see the grey. They're just scared little humans. So terrified of what they don't understand, that they want to smash it." She looked back at Priss, "nobody should have to go through pain like that, it's not fair, or right, in any way. If they knew about me, I'd probably be on their target list. They're all about order, and I'm composed of chaos."
Dawn suddenly realized that her hands were still bleeding. "You don't need this anymore, do you?" she asked, holding up her hand. Seeing Priss shake her head, she spat a dollop of saliva onto each wound, pressed her hands together, and chanted a few words quietly. Almost instantly, the tiny cuts were sealed.
Priss/Nyx/Sabre
"I give thee my thanks, sister of chaos," Priss said quietly as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the table. "Your magick made that pass easier then it would have."
"Need someone killed? Just ask." Sabre took one of Dawn's hands in his and lifted it reverently to his lips.
"You wanna own a country? I could fix it for ya. Seriously!" Nyx said in response to Dawn's disbelieving look. "Sweetie, we have lived since nearly the beginning of human history. That, compound interest and a very loose grasp of human morals makes the gathering of wealth very easy."
"Speak for thyself, misguided sister mine. I have a fine grasp of honour and ethics. Where may I find raiment, at least until I can purchase mine own?"
"Um, maybe the Kents can lend you some? And Sabre, you shouldn't have sworn at them."
"Nyx, they wouldn't get out. Twas for their own good anyway," Sabre said defensively, arms crossed in front of them. "Where were ye, anyway, Priss me girl?"
"Town called Roswell, in New Mexico. Near to it anyway." Priss stood on her two feet, wavering slightly. "Twas a nice enough place, had some children in it who smelled most strange. Confused me a mite, for they were not human, nor demon. They were unknown to me. Mayhap even to you."
Dawn
"Oh, they were aliens," Dawn said. "My, uh, boyfriend is one two," she said, blushing. They had only been dating a couple of days, and since this was the first boyfriend she'd ever had that hasn't somehow been responsible for her near death, she was in unexplored territory.
"You know what? I think this is the first time in ages that I've gone this long without being attacked, or nearly killed. I mean, there were the Bringers on Saturday night, but that was no big deal, thanks to you, Dru," Dawn smiled at the vampiress.
"Priss, would you like to borrow some pyjamas for the night? I have an extra pair.
Priss/Nyx/Sabre
"Please." Priss nodded eagerly. Dawn left quietly and the three cats got caught up. "Greetings, Drusilla. How hast thee been? I have not seen thee since, oh, twas Paris, was it not? And how is Angelus?" Nyx made frantic throat cutting motions. "I can smell William all over, but not Angelus. But thankfully, no Darla either. Have they gone out for a hunt?"
"Darla is dust, and Angelus is now known as Angel, and has a soul." Priss's eyes widened at Nyx's whispered inturreption.
"So where is William? Long has it been since we conversed. Thee must tell me the full tale, later. It is obviously distressing to Drusilla. So, wilt thou introduce me to our unknowing hosts?" Dawn came back in and Priss put on the winter pajamas with little red hearts on a white background.
Dawn
"My Daddy went away, and came back with a soul. Then he went away again. Then Spike fell in love with the Slayer, and now he has a soul. He's watching the other baby sleep." Dawn looked at Drusilla again, and then at Nyx,
"Why does she keep calling us 'the babies'?"
Priss/Nyx/Sabre
"Well, sweetie, as the Key, you're about as old as me. But as Dawn...that's a whole nother breed of cat. You are a mere child in years compared to me, even to Dru. But what you have seen, has given you great maturity." Priss perked up while Nyx talked.
"She is the Key? Oh, Mother must have been most annoyed. Those monks were never to be trusted, I told her."
"Priss? They all died," Sabre said bluntly. Priss blinked. "Every single one of them. Glorificus got them."
"Glorificus? She's gone, and isn't coming back. Thank the Eternal Mother for that. Now," Priss said firmly, "where may I sleep?"
"Probably best to shift cat and sleep on someone's bed. That's what me and Sabre have been doing. I sleep on Dawn's bed, and he's been sleeping on the couch near the front door. You could probably sleep on Amanda's bed."
Priss
"Which one is Amanda? Nyx, thou must introduce me." Priss took Sabre;s arm and gingerly walked to the door of the kitchen, head tilted slightly to take in the confused and slightly angry humans there. "Greetings to you all. My name be Priss."
Dawn
Spike gently shook Amanda awake. The girl rubbed her eyes and tried not look as if she had been crying.
"Priss, this is Amanda, Amanda, Priss. Can she sleep on your bed tonight, like Nyx does on mine?" Dawn asked.
"No problem, it's nice to meet you, Priss." Amanda stretched. "I'm actually pretty tired, anybody mind if I turn in?" Masking her apprehensions as much as she could, around the large group, she headed upstairs. Dawn quickly followed. After a quick explanation the Kents also returned to bed. Looking back up the stairs that Amanda had only recently ascended, Spike sighed.
"That poor girl."
Nyx/Sabre/Priss
"I can sense her confusion from here. But she will make do, as the Slayers always have. They do, you know. And they fight like the blazes. Even if I'm not strictly speaking white vanilla like they are, I can admire them for doing a thankless job, with a very high mortality rate." Nyx looked solemn.
"We can help her there," Sabre cut in. "I rather like the gel, and me and Nyx have seen some action, and fought some demons that she may never havta facce. If she's lucky. As it is, we'll help her train, and we'll help her fight. As long as we stay around, which may be a few years or so."
"As long as she hast ties to this world, she wilt not feel compelled to seek the next." Priss looked at Spike and smiled gently. "Though my sister and brother know thee, I do not. For their sakes, I extend my greetings to thee, vampire with a soul. There is only one other that I know of, Angelus. He sorrows much, that walker of the night. I sense it in thee too, this unimaginable sorrow and remorse for thy deeds when thou were the killer in the dark. Do not."
"Welll, that's easy to say," Spike scoffed, folding his arms. "I think we better get to bed, don't you? Dru! Bedtime for my princess." Spike stalked out of the room.
"I fear I have offended him," Priss whispered to Nyx.
"Aw, don't worry about it, sweetie. William gets all huffy now he's got the soul. He was ever so much fun before, believe me!" Nyx took her sister's arm and helped her out of her clothes before the two cats shifted into their true selves and amde their ways to the girls' bedrooms. Sabre did one more sweep of the area before sleeping himself, finding not a scent of unknown people, or things.