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Zulu Time
Disclaimer: Characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, the WB, and UPN.
Part III
They were back at the diner, were even being served by the same waitress … but she’d adjusted her apron to cover a dark smear of Connie’s ‘blood’, more of which Jeff had seen her wiping from the blade of a wakizashi on the trip back from the warehouse. “Connie was right,” Jeff said, still fighting a sense of unreality even as the reality threatened to roll him under. “You were watching us all the time.”
“Watching out for you,” Xander corrected amiably. “And good thing we were, am I right?”
“But why?” Jeff protested. “I still, still don’t understand why.”
Xander shook his head. “Well, part of the ‘why’ is kinda … our fault.” He shook his head, sighed. “We were paying attention to you, and she was one of the, the people and sometimes things who pay attention to us. Which means you got noticed, and that’s on us.” He shrugged. “We’d already had some, what you might call concerns —”
“Right,” Jeff said. “You mean treespirit12.”
Another sigh. “Yeah, Wil waited maybe a little too long to start swinging the ban hammer. But, darn it, we were enjoying ourselves, and we hate to give up anything that lets us do that. So we let things go too far — I mean, this was online stories, for Pete’s sake! who expected problems from that? — and that wound up setting you up as a maybe-target, and we really are sorry about that.”
There were still so many questions swirling through Jeff’s mind, he had trouble picking one to focus on. “So … these girls are, what, present-day Maenads? and Connie was afraid of them, or hunting them, or … I don’t understand, it’s just all too crazy.”
Xander gave him a slanted look. “Maenads? Huh, the call-out to classical mythology will really give Wil a kick. You come up with that, or did you get it from the demon-lady?”
Jeff shrugged, uncomfortable. “It came from Connie. And I guess your reaction means they’re not Maenads.”
“Not the way they meant it in Greek mythology, no.” Xander’s gaze was mild, his head tilted slightly as if he was only watching Jeff from one eye. “Some of the girls talk about being modern valkyries, but just as many compare themselves to ninjas, and none of them are serious about it as far as I can tell.” He waved it away. “As for the thing calling itself Connie, we won’t know for sure till they get a look at the samples, but right now we’re thinking it was a Lund succubus.” He shuddered slightly. “Those mostly just manifest short-term in a host, and it usually doesn’t go too well for the unlucky woman they’re occupying. Some of the sources, though, say the Lund will find a compatible host every now and then, and that mix turns out to be maybe ten times as dangerous.”
Jeff shook his head, still fighting the same sense of unreality. “More dangerous than a demon?” was all he could think to say.
“Yeah,” Xander answered. “Try and imagine the kind of person who would welcome a demon, and combine a demon’s appetites with human patience, planning, and imagination. That makes several different kinds of no fun at all.”
“All right,” Jeff said. “Okay. But that still leaves the original question: why me?” He gestured helplessly. “You say I caught her interest because you and your people started commenting on my stories. But why were you interested?”
Xander chuckled. “Most of it was the same reason so many of the girls are into manga and video games and boy-bands: they just liked your stories because they were fun. And Diabolical fanfic is close enough to what we do that we can enjoy it, but different enough that we can treat it as entertainment.”
Jeff shook his head impatiently. “Some of that, I sort of felt my way into it on my own. But you said ‘most of it’, and Connie noticed the same thing I did, that your guys — or at least, the ones I could recognize — didn’t comment much on anybody else’s stories, and never the same way they did for mine.”
“Okay,” Xander said. “Yeah, you got me there. Look, we like the way you tell a story, and how you keep switching things up so you’re not always telling the same story. That much is real, all right.” He smiled, shrugged. “But, let me put it this way: did you ever see Three Days of the Condor?”
Jeff frowned. “Saw it once. It didn’t measure up to Six Days of the Condor.” At Xander’s blank look, he explained, “The original book. The movie didn’t just change the number of days, they changed the ending and the reason everything was being done … Hollywood messes up a lot more than it gets right.”
“Huh,” Xander said. “Different strokes, I guess. But do you remember what Redford’s character was doing in that little CIA storefront unit?”
“Well, sure,” Jeff said. “His group was analyzing methods and techniques and ideas shown in popular fiction to see if any of them might be adaptable to CIA operations, or maybe come too close to real things the CIA wanted to know were starting to get into mainstream entertainment.”
Xander nodded. “And there you are. For whatever reason, you hit our wavelength more often than not; your stuff feels like what we do, and we get a charge out of that. Plus …” And now the man’s smile became even more sunnily guileless. “Plus, sometimes, not too often but often enough that we pay attention … sometimes, we get ideas from you.”
Jeff blinked, trying to make sense of the words, and then they clicked into place in his mind. “Wait — you mean the bit with the grain silo?”
Xander laughed. “That one, yeah. And it’s not the only example. Little things, mostly, but we use every advantage we can get, and for close to a year some of those advantages have been coming from you.”
“You …” Jeff shook his head, almost dazed. “Really?”
“Yep.” Xander’s smile was warm, and Jeff belatedly realized that several of the ‘Amazon guard’ who had accompanied them to the diner were regarding him with similar approval. “You’re not in the fight at all … or, well, not before today … but you still seemed to see things the same way we do, you were even helping us.” He spread his palms expansively. “More than a few of us started thinking of you as an honorary member.”
“And started using commentary on my stories as a sort of unofficial forum.”
Xander sighed. “Some of the discussions started moving in that direction, yeah. Which is when Wil got to sending out warnings, and then going for more direct action.”
“Erasing the, the ‘opsec’ comments?” Jeff asked.
“And other stuff you didn’t see,” Xander agreed. “But pulling the dangerous comments was her big gun.” He shrugged. “We really were trying to take care of you.”
“But pulling the comments was what got Connie’s attention in the first place.”
Xander grinned, and some of the girls laughed. “Nah, she was already checking you out online; we knew that, we just didn’t know for sure that she was a real threat, or maybe working for somebody who was.”
The once-disapproving waitress was one of those who had reacted with amusement to Jeff’s protestations; glancing her way, he asked, “So you planted her to watch me?”
“We got her set up here as soon as you and your lady agreed on a meeting place; different people owe us favors, and other people owe them favors, so it was easy enough. And she had a full team behind her, plus more for backup if they turned out to be needed. Which, yeppers.” He grinned suddenly. “Esmee’s been a waitress before, though. Lots of our girls spend time in part-time jobs, so they’ll know how it works if we have to drop them into a slot. Like today.”
Jeff slumped in the booth; he seemed to have grasped the broad outlines of the situation, but that wasn’t remotely the same as understanding it. “You said Connie was a demon of some type,” he said at last. “So, the supernatural is real?”
“Way too real,” Xander assured him. “Real as dying … and a lot of the time, that’s literal.”
Jeff shook his head, part helpless and part despairing. “I don’t think I want to live in your world.”
“It’s the same world,” Xander said to him. “We just see corners of it that you don’t.” He paused. “Didn’t. You might start to now. Sorry.”
It was like he was sinking into insanity. “What am I supposed to do now?” he wanted to know.
Xander made a wry mouth. “You could probably join us if you wanted, we can always use more support people. Or, if not, we can give you an alarm number if you have any problems, or if there’s something you think you ought to report.” The grin came back, suddenly twice as bright. “Whatever you decide, though, I hope you don’t give up your hobby. Because I feel like you’ve been building up to something with Arlene and Kay, and I just have to see how that turns out —!”
* * *
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[–Comment Thread 1403729.57–]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -::]rona-b734[:: Well. Kind of a change of pace here.
::]caridadxansgrl[:: But interestingly done. Kay is no longer subordinate to her mother, but their teamwork together is still solidly set. I would even say it works *better* now.
::]marta-1270[:: I felt that Sean was regarding her differently, as well. Less a junior partner, more like a colleague whose status and contributions are properly respected.
::]keyguy[:: We might be reading a *little* into that, but I’ll agree that’s the vibe that’s coming across. It’s a nice development, I hope we get more like this.
::]eiling58[:: I’m glad that everyone seems to be seeing pretty much what I was trying to put across. It’s been interesting and challenging, moving beyond the — sorry, folks, *limited* characterization the show gave Kay in her too-few appearances — without going into OOC wish-fulfilment. I saw potential in Kay, and I enjoyed having her develop some of that.
::]keyguy[:: Hey, fella! Welcome aboard. Yeah, you delivered here. She didn’t suddenly turn into Xena, but we definitely saw more than the show gave us, *without* her taking over the whole story.
::]hatgirlvi[:: I liked the way Arlene accepted Kay’s stepping-up, without dropping into the background herself. It isn’t easy to let go of authority, but they really are more of a partnership now.
::]caridadxansgrl[:: Yes, every little girl must grow up someday. A wise mother accepts this.
::]andrewthewise[:: And the torch is passed, the family legacy reinforced, a new destiny set.
::]bluddywm[:: Yeh, whatever. Just glad the ladies still kick solid ass. They’d fit right in here.
::]rona-b734[:: C’mon, now, wasn’t the jackhammer maybe a LITTLE over the top?
::]bluddywm[:: Bollocks. No such thing as overkill.
::]eiling46[:: Um, a little off-topic, and maybe not something that exactly fits here, but it’s a point I wouldn’t mind getting cleared up. Now that I’ve finally met some of you, well … caridadxansgrl, is she actually?
::]emeraldawn[:: NO.
::]hatgirlvi[:: Oh, boy.
::]rona-b734[:: {**sits back with popcorn**}
::]5by5hottie[:: this oughtta be good
::]keyguy[:: Ha-ha, no, that’s sort of an in-joke around here. Just a little teasing among pals.
::]caridadxansgrl[:: Keep telling yourself that. It won’t save you.
::]keyguy[:: You’ll see, author-guy. This is us, kidding around to let off steam. Just the way it is.
::]emeraldawn[:: Yes. Kidding.
::]caridadxansgrl[:: ;)
::]bluddywm[:: Right. Total bloody soap opera, and no getting away from it.
::]bluddywm[:: Welcome to the monkey house.
– end –