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December 20, 2012
New Orleans, LA
David Talbot awoke with a start and looked around
the opulent room in which he slept. He
discovered nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to indicate why he
had awakened with such force. Then,
as he attempted to regain his bearings, the memory hit him with full
force, and he remembered why he
awoke. He had had the dream again. He was standing in the
middle of a street littered with the dead
and the dying. Blood flowed like wine and Lestat, his friend
and sire, was in the midst of it all, drinking
hungrily from each hapless victim and then tossing them aside like
rag dolls. He tried desparately to
tear his gaze away, repulsed by the carnage before him, but he was
unable to. And then, out of
nowhere, there came a woman, her red hair streaming behind her like
a mane of fire. She
approached Lestat as David looked on helplessly, rooted to the spot
where he stood. As David
watched in horror, the woman pulled out a wooden stake and plunged
it into Lestat's heart. David
screamed as Lestat exploded into dust particles and...then he awoke
as he always did. He could never
get past that point in the dream, could never discover who the woman
was. All he knew was that every
time he had the dream he was left with a sick feeling in the depth
of his being. Whoever this woman
was, she was dangerous, and he had to make Lestat believe him.
This decided, he checked his watch
and rose to inform the other vampire that he had had the dream again.
*****
December 20, 2012
San Francisco, CA
"So what you're saying," Willow said, smiling at
her husband's boss, "is that you want me to quit my
very well paying job to come work with you people chasing around demons
and whatnot and then do
the same thing at night for free?"
"Okay, when you say it like that it's probably not
a very tempting offer," Nick agreed. "But that's not all
we do. We do a lot of research and stuff..."
"Aha!" Willow interrupted him. "That's what
this is about. You don't want to do research and Alex
decided to take some time off. Xander can't do it all himself,
so you want me to do it for you. Why don't
you just coerce Kat into coming to work for you?"
"He already tried that," Rachel laughed, walking
into her husband's office. "She saw right through
him too. She pointed out that Derek did a lot of his own research
when he was the Precept, so she
didn't see why Nick shouldn't do his own."
"You know, honey, you are not helping," Nick said,
laughing. "I'm trying to find someone to do all of
that stuff for me so I'll have more time to spend with you," he added,
putting on his best puppy dog face.
"Right Dad," Kat interrupted, walking into the office.
"It's not so you'll have more time to spend
polishing your precious gun collection, right? If your guns look
a little bit brighter, that'll just be a
coincidence. Right?"
"Hey, I've had just about enough out of all of you,"
Nick joked, smiling. "Since when did my office
become Grand Central Station anyway?"
"When you started hogging all the good coffee and
croissants," Rachel informed him, grabbing a cup
of coffee and a croissant and quickly kissing her husband. "Okay,
now that I've gotten my fuel I've gotta
go. I, unlike the rest of you, have work to do," she added, throwing
a pointed look over her shoulder at
her husband.
"I work!" Nick protested to his wife's retreating
back. "I just don't like research," he added under his
breath.
Derek laughed from his chair in the corner of the
room. He had watched the banter among Nick,
Rachel, and Kat with amusement, happy that for years now he hadn't
even needed to be jealous. His
life with Alex was fairly simple, but it filled him with joy.
He had basically resigned himself to the fact that
he would be permanently single, so he had been more than a little surprised
when he started falling in
love with Alex. They dated for over a year before they eventually
married in a simple ceremony,
inviting only Nick, Rachel, and Kat.
"What's so funny?" Alex asked, entering the office.
Derek looked up at his wife and smiled. "Nick
is trying to get Willow to come to work for the Legacy,"
he informed her.
"So she can do research for him since I'm leaving?"
Alex asked, glancing at Nick.
"See Dad," Kat laughed. "Everyone knows what
you're trying to do. You're just trying to worm your
way out of doing any actual work."
"I would do actual work if you would all please
stop hanging out in my office!" Nick said. "What's up
Alex? Here to laugh at me trying to do your job?"
"Nope, I'm here to see my husband. Getting
to laugh at you is just a bonus," she added, playfully
slapping him on the arm. They had worked together for over fifteen
years and, in that time, Alex, Nick,
Rachel, and Derek had become the best of friends. "So," she said,
changing the subject and looking
over at Willow. "Are you going to do it?"
"I don't think so," Willow smiled. "I have
an idea, though," she continued, looking sympathetically at
Nick. "Why don't you ask Giles if he wants to? This would
be his dream job."
"I already did," Nick answered glumly. "He
said that he's working on some really important research
of his own right now, so he can't take on more."
"Yeah, we're still trying to figure out when Lestat
is going to make his move," Willow informed him.
"We think it's going to be soon, but we don't know when. I'm
starting to get nervous. What is he waiting
for?"
*****
December 21, 2012
New Orleans, LA
"What are we waiting for?" Lestat raged, pacing
back and forth in his underground sanctuary. "I think
we should make our move tonight."
"Lestat, will you please listen to reason?" David
yelled angrily. "I had the dream again this morning.
I've had the same one every day for the past week and a half.
This woman, whoever she is, is
extremely dangerous. I'm telling you that she is going to kill
you and you act like it's just another
inconvenience to shrug off."
"And you still think she's the Slayer," Lestat sneered
at his friend. Usually he wouldn't treat David this
way, but he was growing impatient.
"I don't know," David answered. "I know that
logically she shouldn't be. The True Slayer was just
born five years ago. She couldn't possibly be old enough to be
a threat to you. Something about the
whole situation is just wrong, though. I think you should wait
a while to put your plan into motion, if you
insist on doing so," he added, hoping that he could convince Lestat
that this plan was madness.
"I do," Lestat returned, his voice cold. "And
if you're going to insist on trying to convince me otherwise
you can join Louis in the attic."
David shuddered, remembering Lestat dragging Louis
into the attic to perish in the morning sunlight.
"He has completely lost his mind," he thought to himself. Aloud
he answered, "No Lestat, I don't want to
join Louis in the attic. You can go ahead with your plan if you
wish." To himself, he added, "But don't
expect me to help you."
*****
December 21, 2012
San Francisco, CA
"We have a problem," Giles announced to the group
lounging in the living room of the Legacy house
as he entered the room.
"Hello, Giles. Nice to see you, too.
How was your day?" Xander joked, not looking up from the
Monday Night Football game he and Nick had turned on.
"Xander, he's serious," Drusilla said in a voice
that made everyone in the room look up at her. They
were used to Giles overreacting to everything, but none of them had
ever heard Drusilla's voice so full
of fear.
"What's going on?" Nick asked, turning off the television.
"This," Giles said, handing Nick a book. He
then gave everyone in the room a copy of it.
Willow stared down at the book she held in her hand.
"'Lestat the Devil'?" she asked incredulously
and then looked up at Giles. He had already read it. That
much was obvious. It was also obvious that
he did'nt like what he read. She quickly opened the book to the
first page and read the opening
paragraph. "Oh God," she breathed as she reached the end of the
paragraph. "When did this come
out?" she asked, regaining her ability to think.
"This morning," Giles answered. "Believe me,
it gets worse. If this one is as true as the rest have
been, then Lestat has gone completely insane. There's no telling
what he's capable of doing. Turn to
the beginning of the last chapter. Drusilla already confirmed
with Pandora that this indeed did happen."
Willow did as commanded, flipping quickly to the
last chapter. She read quickly through the first
couple of pages and then gasped. She slowed her reading, going
back over that last part to make sure
she had read it correctly. As she did so, everyone else in the
group did likewise. "Lestat killed Louis?"
Willow finally managed to choke out. "Did he really say all of
this stuff to the other vampires, too?" she
asked.
"Pandora confirmed it," Dru answered angrily.
She had liked Lestat, but she could not like him now.
"That psychopath is planning to kill half the people in the world."
"Well, um, when exactly did he kill Louis?" Willow
asked, afraid to hear the answer.
"About three months ago," Drusilla responded quietly,
knowing that was not the answer Willow was
hoping for.
"Then it's going to happen soon."
"Y-yes," Giles answered. "Much sooner than
we had thought. If the information we got from
Pandora is correct, Lestat is planning to execute his plan within the
next week."
"Is she still in his inner circle?" Willow asked.
"No," Drusilla answered for her husband. "He's
cast out everyone except for Armand and David.
She's getting all of her information from David. He meets with
her in secret to avoid being caught by
Lestat. Pandora says that Lestat has gone completely mad."
"A fact that seems to be corroborated by the contents
of this book," Giles concurred, holding it up in
his hand.
*****
December 21, 2012
New Orleans, CA
Lestat, David, and Armand emerged from their French
style house onto the street. David had
managed to convince Lestat not to put his plan into motion that night,
telling him that he should think
about it for a few days. Lestat had agreed, although he did not
plan on changing his mind. He felt that
he needed to wait for just the right night to take over the world,
though. Until that night came, he would
just have to be content planning his takeover. The trio headed
down the street towards the book store at
the end. Lestat was on a mission. His new book had come
out that day and he wanted to see it in the
store window.
As they approached the bookstore, Lestat could see
his book propped up in the display window at
the front. They stopped in front of the window and Lestat stared
at it. "'Lestat the Devil'", he said,
smiling at his two friends. "Catchy title. Don't you think?
I think it's rather appropriate after the last one."
"Very appropriate," Armand agreed, unsure of exactly
what was going through Lestat's mind. He
knew only that Lestat had pretty much been out of his mind since shortly
after the experience with
Memnoch. It was a delayed reaction of sorts. He was perfectly
fine for the first month or so after the
encounter, but after that he quickly lost his grip on sanity.
"Here, let me read you the beginning," Lestat said,
thoughtlessly punching a hole in the glass window
in order to pull out the book. As the store's alarm blared, he
and the other two sped down the street
using their vampiric speed to keep them from being noticed. When
they reached a small park with a
couple of benches facing each other, Lestat stopped and sat.
He opened the book and began reading,
"I am the Vampire Lestat. Of course, by now you all know that.
You do not, however, know that I
recently became the Devil. Those of you who read my last book
know that I met the Devil and that I
have seen Heaven and Hell. My first experience in Hell didn't
go too well. The second one,
however...Well, that's what this book is about. Read on fair
reader, and know that by the time you finish
this book, it will be too late to stop me." Lestat finished reading
the first paragraph and looked up at his
companions. "Well, what do you think?" he asked.
"I think you're psychotic," David answered him in
his mind and then said aloud, "It's great Lestat.
Sure to be another bestseller."
"I know!" Lestat enthused, either not noticing or
not acknowledging the faint note of sarcasm
underlying David's statement. "Isn't it fabulous? Of course,
bestseller lists don't mean much when most
of the people in the world are dead, now do they?" he laughed, sending
a chill up David's spine. If he
hadn't been worried about his friend before, he certainly would have
been now.
*****
December 22, 2012
Sunnydale, CA
Angel listened carefully to what Xander was saying,
swearing softly under his breath whenever he
heard something he didn't like.
"So, we think it's going to happen sometime this
week," Xander said, "and it's big. He's planning on
killing at least half the people in the world."
"Damn it," Angel swore, a little more loudly than
he meant to.
"Yup, that about sums it up," Xander agreed.
Although the two had gotten off to a pretty rocky start,
especially after Angelus had almost killed Willow, they had become
good friends in the years that they'd
known each other. "Anyway, our plan is pretty simple. We
go to New Orleans and Willow stops Lestat
before he kills half the people in the world."
"Sounds good to me. Need backup?" Angel asked,
getting a suitcase down from the top of his
closet.
"Are you kidding? We can use all the help
we can get. Especially if Lestat has more vampires under
his control than we think. We're thinking he's acting mostly
alone on this one, but you can never be
sure. We already called Mel and Spike, or William, I guess.
Mel wants us to call him that instead.
Anyway, they're going to meet us in New Orleans. We're going
to send a Legacy plane to pick you
guys up, so you won't have to worry about flight schedules. They
can fly you over tonight. Are you
getting ready to go to bed?" Xander asked, breaking his train of thought.
The question caught Angel off guard. "What?
Oh, yeah. Buffy's actually already asleep. I'll sleep for
a while, then I'll wake her up. What time will the plane be here?"
"It should be at the runway in L.A. and ready for
you to board when the sun goes down. Call Mel
and get her to come get you in that car Spike used to drive.
That way, you can all board at the same
time and it'll save night time for flying," Xander answered.
"Okay, sounds good," Angel agreed. "I'll call
her as soon as I get off the phone with you. I hope this
plan works. If Lestat is half as insane as you say he is, we
have got to stop him."
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