Where's Mom?
Part 5-7
Part Five
"JOYCE!" Spike screamed as he saw her waver towards the ground. His left arm shot up, trying to catch her before she could crash into the sewer floor. She swayed near him, and with his free arm, tried to soften her fall, but she fell ungraciously into the rocks that covered him. Cursing, he grabbed at her right arm and shook it. "Joyce!"
Joyce's head went up the second Spike touched her right arm and she let out a blood-curdling scream as she yanked it away from him. That proved to be a big mistake for it caused the throbbing in her head to increase from the sudden movement. Moaning, she cradled the arm like a wounded animal would, and glared at Spike balefully. "What?"
"Are-are you all right? You were...you looked as if you were about to faint there," Spike said slowly. Joyce relaxed a bit when the throbbing in her head eased slightly.
"My head...hurts. I think that I might have gotten a slight concussion from the two falls that I had, along with the broken arm," Joyce said weakly. She looked at the trapped vampire. "Now you know why I refuse to let you die, my friend. I want you to be as miserable as I am."
Spike barked out an involuntary laugh. "All right, love, so then let's dig me out then."
Joyce gave him a slight nod, and resumed digging with her left arm. It was after half an hour of pushing away the debris from Spike that Joyce again started to feel weak. "Are you all right, Joyce?"
"No. My head used to hurt me from certain movements, but now it's hurting all the time. And all I want to do right now is sleep,"Joyce said, her voice slurring as she pushed a huge rock away from Spike's head."And that's the most dangerous thing of all."
"Why?"
"Because I may never wake up from it. Concussed people without medical attention should not sleep, it's a fact that you learn from basic first aid. You have to keep them awake, and I'm having trouble doing that just now,"Joyce replied sleepily."Talk to me Spike, tell me anything. Just keep me awake."
"What do you want me to say?"Spike asked slowly. He didn't like the faint breathing that he was hearing from her. And he thought he could smell blood on her breath.
"Tell me about England. How you remembered it. Your family. Your mother. Anything."
"My mother?"Spike repeated before he looked at the sewer ceiling. It was a long moment before he could resume his digging. He could still see her, with her laughing face and filled with love, sometimes, even though it was a long time ago.
"Yes, your mother. What did she call you? What did she look like? Did she like to do things? Did she make you eat your vegetables or clean your room?” Joyce asked. He remained silent and Joyce peered through the darkness to try and look at him. ”Spike, we don’t have to talk about her, we can talk about something else, but I have to keep awake."
“I don’t talk about my mother,” Spike said through stiff lips.
“Why not?” asked Joyce as she closed her eyes. She started to see spots and didn’t want them to overtake her mind. She took a deep breath. “If you want, I can tell you about my mother.”
Spike frowned as he stopped digging to look at her. “I don’t want to-“
“Don’t be rude,” Joyce chided as she resumed digging. “I don’t remember much about her, but I remember how she looked. My mother was beautiful, she had long red hair and a merry laugh. Mummy smelled wonderful...like flowers in the spring. She and Daddy called me Joyceln because I was their little joy. Their wee joy.”
Interested despite himself, Spike listened to what she had to say. He heard the love for her parents in her voice. “Mummy was part Irish and Scots, and Daddy was English. We lived in Scotland, near the Highlands, and near Nana and Grandda and Grandma Mac.”
“I’ve been to Scotland, very green,” Spike commented as he threw a rock away. “When did you move?”
“When Mummy and Daddy died,” Joyce said as she remembered. She stopped digging for a second, then resumed. “I was about four at the time, seven when I was sent to live with Aunt Regina and Uncle Harold. Can you move your legs now?”
Spike tried to shift his legs. He could move, but not by much. “If we dig a bit more, I think I can get out. What happened to your Mum and Dad?”
“They died in an airplane crash,” Joyce said, the light from her voice gone. Spike looked at her sharply. She was moving less and less rocks with that good arm of hers.
"My mother...she called me William, after her father. He was a huge knight that had loved her well...and stood by her when my father tricked her into bedding him. He died as a result from the duel that he did with my father. It was the year after I was born, that he died. And my mum called me Liam, after him, my grandfather," Spike said slowly. His voice grew warm as he remembered her.
Hearing the love in his voice, Joyce roused herself to listen to his story about his mother. "What was your mother like?"
"Mum was...beautiful. She loved to laugh, and dance with me around the room when she was sad. I brought her and Nana flowers from the garden whenever I heard them fight with my uncle, it made them happy," Spike smiled. Then his face hardened. "He wanted me out of the house. A little bastard like me shouldn't be allowed where the respectable people should be, and a whore like my mum should taint his future daughters."
"Sounds like your uncle was a real prince,"Joyce whispered. Her hand faltered on the next rock. Spike looked at her, and started digging faster. Joyce shook her head."I remember you telling me about your grandmother? You lived with her a year after your mother had died?"
"Yeah, Mum caught a fever from the summer rains, and my uncle refused to get a doctor for her. She died the next morning, Nana made uncle bury her in the family crypt rather than the church cemetery, and then Nana died a year later, from a carriage accident. Uncle threw me out of the house the morning that the will was to be read, with only the clothes on my back and only enough money to get to my father's house in London,"Spike spat as he remembered the triumphant look on his uncle’s face. He felt a flash of old anger and rage again as he thought of the man. "With the help of Grandfather, I found later, that Nana and Mum had left me a sizable income, and my uncle with nothing but the house. The bloody snake."
Spike threw a rock sullenly into the other side of the sewer. "Enough about me for the moment, what about your life?"Spike asked as he pushed a huge rock away, freeing his other arm. Joyce looked at him bleary eyed.
"Me? I thought that I answered most of your questions the last time we saw each other."
"Nope. You told me that you were like me-illegitimate,” Spike said. Then he frowned at himself.[Since when was he afraid to use the word ‘bastard’ in front of someone?] Then he continued. ”And then went on about who dropped you off at your cousin’s and ended at becoming adopted by your mother's cousins and fast forwarded to being the manager of an art gallery. So, what were your adopted parents like?"
Joyce grunted as she moved another rock with her left hand, Spike helped her push it away. "They were...not the most emotional people that I've known. Uncle Harold and Aunt Regina, they were well into their forties when I was sent to them and both were academics and serious intellectuals in their fields. They were…people to be admired. They wanted me to call them Mother and Father, since they were going to be my new set of parents. They were good people who did their duty and raised me."
Spike heard the trace of resentment in her voice. "But they didn't care about you, did they?"
"In their own way they did. It's just they couldn't relate to me, nor I them. Mother help a degree in anthropology and sociology, Father held several degrees in archeology, linguistics and art. They tried to share that with me, but… that didn’t really work. When I got to my teens, I was slightly wild, but I out grew that," Joyce shrugged, or at least she tried to shrug. "Tell me about your grandfather, your father's father. He took you in, didn’t he?"
"Yes. He was a good man. One of the best. My father, his heir, wanted nothing to do with me, but he made the mistake of throwing me out the door and into his arms by accident. My grandfather took one look at me, then at my father, then banned him out of the house after he heard my story. He was...an amazing man. He didn't care that I was a bastard, only that I was his grandson," Spike said softly. He closed his eyes as he remembered his grandfather. A big man who seemed larger than life, and who taught him what it was like to be a man.
Joyce smiled absently as she realized something about Spike's quietness. [He's lost in thought. I guess that's a good thing.] Joyce coughed.
"You okay, Joyce?"
"Dust," Joyce replied as she coughed again. "Can you pull yourself out from there now? Your upper torso is free now."
Spike tried to pull himself from under the debris. "Nope, not yet. We have to dig a little more."
"Okay, but you have to continue talking, I'm feeling a little woozy."
"What more do you want to know?"
"Anything. How did you become a vampire? Where did you get the name Spike?" Joyce replied. Spike resumed digging quietly. ‘Spike?”
"I don't think that you want to know, Joyce," Spike warned her. "I...It's not a story that's fit for ladies."
"Oh, but why not Spike? It's good for somethin', ain't it?" called out a voice in the darkness. He stepped closer to the couple, and revealed his game face. "Well, well...who do we have here? Hello, there Slayer's Mother. Nice ta be meetin' you again."
"Who are you?" Joyce asked confused. She peered closer at the vampire, not recognizing him.
"Rickster,"Spike growled.
*~*~*~*~*
"All right officer, thanks for your help," Giles said as he walked away. He shielded his eyes against the bright sunlight to search for his young friends. It was...devastating, all around him. The waterfront was completely destroyed, and few buildings were standing. The rest of the city fared better, but here, however.
How were they going to find one woman this mess? His eyes rested on a small emergency station, and then looked at the little group of people he was responsible for. He saw them busily working around the emergency station, being helpful. Buffy looked up, stopped what she was doing, and headed to him first.
"Mom?"
"No sign of her yet, Buffy. They're still trying to clear the debris from the sewer tunnels," Giles said gently. He knew that Buffy would demand the truth, no matter what happened. He didn’t like the news he had to give her, but he could be gentle about it. "But there seems to be another problem here."
"Big surprise, an earthquake just razed the waterfront. There are people trapped in the tunnels of the sewer system. What else?"
"How about a maniac and vampires on the loose?" Xander asked. Buffy looked at him and Oz in confusion, then at Giles.
"What did you find out?" Giles demanded of the two young men. "What did the coroners say?"
Oz looked at Buffy, then at Giles. "They didn't say anything, but we saw the bodies that they were pulling out from the sewers. Some had their necks gnawed on, drained of blood, with seaweed all over them, while others..."
"Others had two puncture wounds in their necks, totally drained of blood," Xander finished with a grimace. Buffy's eyes were wide open.
"Mom..." Buffy started to look wildly around her. Willow stopped her with a touch of her hand.
"Remember prophecy? Dream? Remember?" Willow urged as she shook her friend. Buffy calmed slightly and nodded. "O.K. This is what we found out from the locals around here. There's been a rash of gnawed on necks, ever since this Amaru Pier was set up six years ago. At first it was sporadic, not a real big thing, until a year ago."
"Yeah, that was when the place was totally set up and more Asian stores were made, and a bunch of them decided to create an underground mall complete a rock garden with a stream. You know, to bring in the tourist dollars," Cordelia added as she looked at Giles. "But since the murders, the whole waterfront is believing that there's a curse. Others more scared said that they angered the water gods, and thus the deaths."
"So then we have what?" Oz asked. "What's the common denominator to all this? What are we missing?"
"You mean other than Buffy's Mom is missing?" Xander quipped. Willow hit him in the stomach.
"Two different modes of killing," Giles mused as he rubbed his day old stubble. "Two demons?"
"One vampire, the kind of demon that we know and love," Buffy said slowly as her mind worked out the possibilities. "And another... possibly a water demon? That's having fun with the population?"
"It seems so," Giles mused as he thought about it. He frowned. "But what kind of water demon? And where is the original water source?"
"That's your department, Giles. But I need all that you know, because I plan to go hunting this afternoon," Buffy ordered. She looked around her. "I'll find my mom even if it kills me."
"And how do you plan to kill a water demon? Water's everywhere here in the waterfront, especially now that the earthquake has spread water all around the sewer tunnels!" Xander demanded.
"I'll find a way," Buffy stated flatly. She looked at her friends around her, her eyes cold as she looked at them. "Or die trying."
*~*~*~*~*
Part Six
"What the *Hell* do you want, Rickster," Spike growled. Rickster grinned at Spike amiably.
"Well, now...that's a tough question to answer," drawled Rickster as he went closer to Joyce, who stood up slowly. Rickster's stomach growled, and he grinned evilly. "But then again maybe it's not. I'm hungry, and the Slayer's Mom seems pretty good to eat. Little beaten and dusty, though."
"You get the hell away from me, you monster," Joyce warned. Rickster simply grinned at her.
"Well, now, mom. Is that any way to talk to me? An old friend? 'Sides I owe you for that blast of holy water in Los Angeles," he growled as he approached her. "It wasn't very nice."
“But it made you, oh so, prettier,” Joyce said sweetly. ‘Did wonders for that growth on your forehead.”
“You know, Moms, you have an attitude,” said Rickster as he quickly grabbed her neck. "I guess that I ought to teach you a lesson."
"Leave her alone!" Spike growled as he struggled to get up and out from under the debris he was trapped in. Rickster looked at the vampire and laughed at the pinned vampire. “Let her go and I’ll let you live-“
"Not on your life, Spikey boy! Not on your life! After I'm through with her, the Slayer'd find you, here with her all drained, and she'd stake you, not me," Rickster laughed. Spike stopped struggling and stared at him. Rickster looked at Joyce. "Yer brat's here, mom. The Slayer's San Fran looking for you. Too bad she'll find you dead!"
Rickster opened his mouth wide, going for her neck. Joyce struggled harder, but his grip was too strong. Spike desperately looked around him for something to get him out from under the debris of rock.
Then a loud happy chuckle was heard in the tunnels. Then frantic clapping. From behind Rickster, and Spike. Spike twisted to see behind him, and Joyce widened her eyes. Rickster looked to see who was interrupting his dinner.
A small figure stepped out from the shadows, madly dancing and smiling gleefully. His evil, twisted face widened at the sight before him. His stringy seaweed hair waved madly in the dark as he bobbed his head. The flat top of its head matched the color of the murky sewer water. "Oh, goodie! Goodie! Food! Food! Toys! Toys!"he cackled.
"What the hell are you?"Rickster growled.
The creature ignored him."Toy! Toy! Come play with Kappas! Play with kappas! Make Kappas pretty! Pretty!"
Rickster dropped Joyce to the ground and rushed at the mad little thing. Deftly, the little demon stood aside and tripped Rickster. When Rickster was on the floor, it quickly grabbed at his face, and then exposed the demon's neck. The long teeth clamped on to it, and seconds later, Rickster was a pile of ashes.
Spike stared at the little demon in horror. Joyce looked frantically around her for a weapon. The demon paid them no mind, and started to rub his face with Rickster's ashes. "Pretty! Pretty! Pretty Kappas now! Pretty!"
Then Kappas looked at Spike and smiled even more widely, showing all his sharp teeth."More pretty now! Want more!"
*~*~*~*~*
Part Seven
Buffy and Giles ran through the sewer tunnels, their flashlights shining wildly before them. When they reached a connecting corridor, they stopped. There were three connecting tunnels to the junction. Buffy, breathing heavily, looked at the entrances. Giles, out of breath, leaned against the sewer wall heavily.
"Is this it?"he panted. Buffy looked at him, and then took out the directions from her back pocket.
"I dunno. I think this is the junction that we're supposed to go to. But which one are we supposed to take? Here, you read this scribble that Xander wrote," Buffy said as she handed the piece of paper to Giles. He squinted at it through the darkness, trying to make sense of it.
"It seems, that this is the place, but I'm not really sure. Maybe we should surface and see exactly where we are," Giles said as he tried to study the map harder. Buffy looked at her Watcher, frustrated.
"Giles, we so don't have time! My mom is somewhere here in these tunnels, and we have to find her quick!" Buffy said tersely. She looked at the sewer connections again, then at Xander’s notes about the sewer and growled with frustration. "My mom is somewhere in these three tunnels, and unconscious. We have to get to her, Giles. We have too."
Giles looked at his Slayer sharply. "Do you sense something, Buffy? Have you had a dream? Or a vision again?" Buffy looked at Giles, and shook her head slowly.
"No. But my gut is telling me that we have to hurry. We have *got* to find my mom," Buffy whispered as she wrapped her arms around her middle. She looked at Giles forlornly, her hazel eyes huge and scared and a lost little girl’s look on her face. "Giles, where's my mom? I want my mom."
"And you shall get her, Slayer," rang out a voice into the tunnels. Startled, Giles slipped on a rock, and fell on his butt. Buffy, with her quick reflexes, took up a fighting stance.
A figure stepped out of the far tunnel entrance. The dim lights revealed that he was from Asian descent, and he was dressed as Buffy and Giles were. High boots, loose jacket, jeans. He had a backpack on and was carrying a rod of some type in his right hand. And he was armed. Buffy noticed the glint of a revolver in his jacket. He looked at the Watcher and the Slayer before he stepped over the debris that littered the junction of tunnel floor.
He was not a tall man, and certainly old. But not as old as Giles or her mom. [Definitely about thirty.] Buffy thought. "Who the hell are you?"Buffy asked defiantly."Don't you know that these tunnels aren't safe? There was an earthquake, you know."
The man looked amused. "Indeed there was, Slayer. And what a mess that this earthquake has done. It will take the city at least several months to fix all the damage that has been done to the waterfront. But that is not the least of our concerns, is it Slayer?"
"Who are you?" Buffy demanded suspiciously. She put herself in front of Giles, hoping that the man was an ally but preparing herself if he was not. "What are you doing here?"
The man looked at Buffy for a moment, then bowed from the waist. "I am Gabriel Yamada."
He looked at Giles and did the same. "The grandson of Genjiko Yamada."
Giles returned the bow, though it was not as low as the younger man's. He looked at Gabriel Yamada. "Genjiko Yamada's grandson? I was not aware that she had moved to San Francisco."
The younger man shook his head. "She has not. She is still in Seattle. I am...I was here to visit my fiancée when this earthquake hit."
Giles nodded. Buffy looked at both men in frustration. She waved her hand slightly, as if in a classroom. "Hello? I'm here too. Still needing introductions. Who are you?"
Giles looked at her. "This is Genjiko Yamada's grandson. Gabriel."
Buffy gave Giles a baleful look. "I gathered that. But who is he, Giles?"
"His grandmother is a very well known Watcher. She had specialized in translations of obscure texts. Particularly those of Asian translations. I must say, this is a very odd place to meet you. What are you doing down here in the tunnels?"
"Hunting a water demon," Gabriel said flatly. He looked at the Watcher and his Slayer. "Something that you should be doing since you are here, Slayer."
Buffy bristled at the rebuke. Giles held her back with a hand and gave the younger man a hard look. "We are looking for a demon, but we are also looking for her mother. She was last heard at the waterfront, when the earthquake happened. She will defeat the demon when she meets it. Now why are you searching for the water demon?"
The younger man had the grace to look ashamed. He looked at the dark tunnels absently. "I am sorry, Watcher. Slayer. But I have...not gotten much sleep lately...I am here to kill the demon, for personal reasons. It has killed far too many people. It must be stopped."
Buffy looked at him for a moment, there was something in his voice, then narrowed her eyes. She glanced at Giles, who was involved with a staring contest with the younger man.
"Who did it kill?" Buffy asked softly. Breaking eye contact, Giles looked down at her, puzzled. Gabriel looked at her, startled. Buffy asked again, softly. "Who did the demon kill?"
For a moment, he met the Slayer’s stare, then Gabriel looked away. "Suzi. My fiancée. She was the demon's last victim before the earthquake hit."
*~*~*~*~*
Spike growled as the small creature with the bulging eyes came towards him with clapping hands. ”Get the hell away from me you little freak!”
Ignoring the swatting arms, the demon pulled Spike out from the pile of debris as it cackled. ”Make Kappas pretty! Pretty! Pretty powder!”
“Nothing in this world is gonna make an ugly bastard like you pretty,” Spike growled as he struggled to get away from the demon, but the demon held a firm grip on his neck. ”Leggo! Let-oof!”
Just as the Kappas cackled again as it lowered its mouth to Spike’s neck. ”Pretty. Kappas be pretty! Pr-urk!“
Suddenly the demon and Spike fell forward into the next wall. Distantly, Spike heard something metal being hit against concrete. Dazed, he lifted his head, and saw Joyce Summer, the Mother of the Slayer, wildly swinging a metal rod at the little demon. Pain etching her face, Joyce swung the rod like a tennis racket, and connected with the demon’s shoulder.
“You stay away from him, you ugly little beast!” hollered Joyce as she swatted at the demon again. Spike groaned as he stood unsteadily up.
The demon tried to catch the metal rod, but was swatted on the head for its efforts. Dazedly getting up, Spike saw some water spill from the demon’s head as it tried to avoid another smack from Joyce. ”Scat! Shoo! You nasty little thing!”
The nasty little thing snarled as it bounced away from Joyce. ”Back later! Bad food! Bad powder! Eat later! Bad! Bad!”
“Oh, go rot yourself!” Joyce shouted as she brandished her weapon high above her head. When it was gone, she dropped the rod heavily. Joyce turned to look at Spike. ”You all right, Spike?”
Spike cautiously touched his forehead. It felt wet, but he wasn’t sure that it was his blood or just slime from the sewer walls. ”Yeah. Thinks so.”
“Oh. That’s good,” Joyce nodded. Then she pitched forward.
*~*~*~*~*
Gabriel’s fists clenched as his eyes looked at the dark tunnels. His eyes unfocused as he looked at them. ”She was murdered by the demon that feeds in this sewer. The last victim before the earthquake.”
"I'm sorry," Giles whispered. Gabriel looked at Giles sharply."I would be honored if you would allow me to accompany you to destroy this demon."
“The honor, Mr.Giles, would be mine,” Gabriel said as he bowed to the older man.
Buffy nodded, then warned the younger man. "Sure. But, let me tell you, I'm mainly here to look for my mom, and not this demon."
Gabriel was about to protest, when Giles cut in. "What do you know about this demon?"
"It has a taste for blood. And that it enjoys drowning its victims before taking its...meal,"Gabriel said with distaste. "I have an associate at the police force, the coroner. She said that all the bodies had their necks chewed on. What do you know?"
Buffy grimaced as she heard that. “Gross.”
“Buffy,” Giles chided as he looked at her. Then he gave Gabriel his attention as he rubbed the back of his neck, and wondered if he would ever feel clean again. “We’re not entirely sure, but there is a chance-“
"That it is probably a water demon from Asia," Buffy said as she poised her flashlight on the sewer ceiling.
Gabriel looked at her sharply. "How was this determined?"
"Well, Willow said that these killings hadn't occurred with great frequency until the Amaru Pier decided to create an underground stream and garden. So we guessed that the demon was around, but not killing too much." Buffy shrugged. "And that the killings mostly occurred at night, and like you said, the victims were first drowned and then sucked dry. Newspaper left out the chewed necks though. Plus the fact that there were traces of seaweed all over the bodies. What's with the shocked look?"
Gabriel shook his head. "Nothing, please go on."
"Well," Giles continued as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Since the deaths have been around the Amaru Pier, it was concluded that the demon was probably from Japan, though we have no idea how it had gotten here. Traditionally water demons stay near their streams, rivers, and such. I have never heard on one traveling across, anywhere, particularly across the ocean to a new hunting ground. But now, the attacks are getting worse. There drained bodies with gnawed on necks all over the sewer system. It seems to be travelling all over."
“Then we hacked into the police computer system and found some eyewitness reports about someone no taller than three feet with green hair being around where the last two victims were,” Buffy said softly. “So we either had a kid who was drowning these people and throwing it to the water demon or a short water demon or a midget vampire that likes to chew and play with seaweed.”
"Which demon have you thought it is?" Gabriel demanded. Buffy looked at the man strangely. She did not care for his attitude.
"Think it's a Kappas demon. It was the only one that matched the description so far," Buffy shrugged as she tentatively touched a wall, then grimaced as she wiped her hand on her pants. “Damn these walls are slimy. I'm going to need a real hot bath to feel clean again."
"You know what it looks like?" Gabriel demanded. Annoyed at the man’s demand, Buffy turned, ready to take his head off.
Giles looked at the younger man impatiently as he restrained Buffy by placing a hand on her shoulder. "She had a dream. Her mother was being fought over by two people? Or demons? The only one that she could see clearly was a small demon with a saucer shaped head that had seaweed instead of hair."
"And it was really gross looking too," Buffy added with a face. "Bulging eyes, clawed hands, twisted nose and sharp chin. Kinda like the look you get when you eat a *really* sour lemon."
"It's a Kappas," Gabriel whispered. He closed his eyes, then he looked at Giles and Buffy, his mouth grim. "The demon was most likely brought here by the same idiots that decided to create the underground stream and garden. Rachel, my sister, told me that the Amaru Pier decided to import an authentic stone idol from Japan to here. It was small, but buried deep near a wooded stream. So it had to be brought here piece by piece."
"Until, all the pieces were together, and the demon was revived," Giles finished. "Any ideas on how to destroy the demon?"
Gabriel shook his head. "By definition, water demons are notoriously hard to destroy. How do you stop a demon whose source of power comes from a stream? This demon will be particularly hard to destroy, given the area."
"Why? What's so different about this demon?"Buffy demanded. Giles looked at her patiently.
"Because, water is everywhere here, Buffy. We are in the sewer, and obviously, the demon regards this place as its domain. That's why the killings have been spread out. The demon regards the whole sewer system as its playground, and to destroy it, we must destroy the sewer system."
"Oh, boy," Buffy said as the information sunk in and was processed. "So this demon could be anywhere, and would have power as long as he is near the source of his water."
"Essentially, that's it,"Giles said gently. Buffy looked at the walls of the junction again, lost in thought. All three were startled when Giles's walkie-talkie squawked.
"Giles? You there?" Willow's voice echoed through the sewer. "Buffy?"
Giles pressed a button. "We're here, Willow. What have you got?"
"Well, we found that the demon? Is definitely a kappas. One from Japanese legend. It matches the description that Buffy gave us from her dream. Hey-"
"And it looks really, really gross," said Cordelia's voice in disgust. "I mean. Ew. Really ew. It also says here that it there are some that like to rape its female victims to like, multiply. And there are some like vamps that like the taste of blood. And-"
"Enough, Cordy," Xander's voice said with exaggerated patience. "Giles, this thing has a saucer head that can hold water. For some kappas, the water is a source of power. Make the water spill, and most will be rendered powerless. But the way, by losing it's water does that mean you have to make it yak? I mean, hey!"
"Willow, here Giles," sqwaked the walkie-talkie impatiently. "Anyway, the demon could be rendered powerless if you knock the water out of its saucer head, but it won't kill it. You gotta destroy the source of it's power totally or else it'll come back. Or take it to someplace really dry. Anyway, that's all that we got so far. We’ll keep researching. And did you want us to order something to eat?"
"Yes. Thank you, Willow," said Giles. He was about to sign off when Gabriel touched his shoulder. "Now-what?"
"Please. Ask her to look up the history of that stone idol that was imported here, into the underground garden," Gabriel whispered. "There may be a clue there."
Giles nodded, and proceeded to tell Willow exactly that. Buffy looked at Gabriel. "The stone idol may be the key. So we have to find that idol."
Gabriel nodded. "Any idea where we are?"
Buffy pointed to the three entrances. "We have three choices. And there are three of us."
"Well, Willow is looking for the information," Giles said as he stood with Buffy and Gabriel. "Now what?"
"We split up while they look for the info we need. We've got to look for my mom and that stone idol. I don't want to have baby-sit little demons for my senior year," Buffy grimaced. "That's going a bit beyond a Slayer's or daughter's duty if you ask me. Ew."
Giles nodded as he looked at the tunnels. "Sounds good. Gabriel?"
"I'm fine with that, Watcher," he answered. "What is your frequency on the walkie-talkie?"
Giles gave him the numbers, and after it was set, Gabriel looked at the older Watcher oddly. "I was never informed that the Slayer was allowed to have people other than the Watcher to help her. Especially ones so...young. Is this what I have to look forward to when I am a Watcher?"
Giles looked at the younger man and sighed. "Mine is a most unusual Slayer, Gabriel. She even had a vampire boyfriend."
"Uh guys? Time's wasting while you talk about my lack of a life here," Buffy said shortly. She indicated to the tunnels. "Shall we go? Now?"
Giles sighed audibly. "Remind me to tell you of it one day. Shall we go?"
Gabriel nodded. "Let's meet at the stone idol. Any trouble, and all should head to the surface. Agreed?"
Buffy and Giles nodded as they disappeared into their chosen tunnels. Gabriel looked at his tunnel and said a quick prayer before he entered. "May I be the one to destroy you demon, just as you have destroyed my life."
*~*~*~*~*
