When Clive opened the envelope, he withdrew a crisp, tri-folded sheet of paper.  A terse letter was written in that same, flawless penmanship on high-end paper.  Just a single paragraph in that conservative economy of language Clive might consider uncharacteristic of Watchers.

Mr. Whitlock,

We are monitoring your case with great concern.  Miss Summers must not continue operating without your supervision.  There are dangerous forces aligning in your city that require the Slayer.  Failure to bring her around will result in Council intervention.

Clive stared at the letter for a moment.  Rereading the contents a good three times.  It wasn't as if he was surprised, they already had him on babysitting treatment with someone watching over him from afar.  Of course the disdain was mutual in the way one another operated.  However, he did prefer a level of autonomy..  The last thing he needed was a Council review.

As dangerous as vampires oft were.  They still wouldn't qualify to be called 'dangerous forces aligning.'  Although he had no doubt the letter was meant to be a stern edict.  He did at least see the importance, in that they were obviously warning about something bigger.  Even if that thought was completely overridden by the reminder that their man was watching.

"...bollocks."

Epilogue 1

While the others dealt with Pyros and Vampires...

Gracie Lynn's cousin turned off Victory Drive into the small community known as Thunderbolt.  The truck followed a gravelly road that circled an old white church.  Darius saw the truck veer onto a slender dirt road that led into the marshlands.

Inside the truck, Lemuel grinned meanly in the dark.  "You know us Duprees, cuz.  We've always worked every scam, any angle for a buck.  Sometimes, though, we've actually done some honest work...Papaw decided it was time you learned about it..."

Darius frowns as he hits the gravel road, forcing him to slow down (effectively making his following more discreet). His bike wasn't meant for anything but civilized roads. His tires and suspension were far from forgiving. This would get even worse when he turns down the dirt road, but he wasn't about to lose Gracie. He had a bad feeling about this.

Gracie rolls ehr eyes and thinks Why did they decide it had to be now?

"So, just want are you going to show me? ITs been a while since I saw you all. It has been a while since I practiced anything" she wishes she could have dressed to fit in. She wonders what Darius would think if he knew what this side of her family did.

"You're not putting on your show, cuz.  I already told you.  Papaw wants to let you in on a family secret.  We all agreed that it's time."

Meanwhile, the truck followed a dirt road that wound and bent wildly.  The road grew smaller as they drove.  Eventually, it veered off to become a path long worn by tire treads.  To Darius, it would look like the beginning of someone's unpaved drive-way.

The truck passed underneath tree branches that brushed its roof.  Darius would feel the branches brush him if he went through.  Tree moss covered the branches in thick strands.  Eventually, the truck stopped outside an old house with a dock that led to a tributary.

Several rough-looking types stood around a small pit fire.  To Darius, they looked like bikers or some other kind of low-life.  To Gracie, they were family.

Gracie just looks at her Cousin "OK, so now is the time. What does that mean?" Now she was really curious and wanted to know but wondered how everyone else was doing. She also wondered what Darius was doing.

Lemuel just said, "It's time for you to go say hi to Papaw."  He slid out of the truck.  Walking around, he opened the door for his cousin.  "Go on, now.  They're all waiting."

Gracie slides out of the truck and looks around and sighed. She starts to walk over to the old house. She glances at her cousin "So, you coming in?"

As Darius continues down the lane, and notes Gracie seemingly going towards the house, he reflects back on her gesture in the park. Had he misunderstood? She'd seemingly signaled for him to follow... But he was starting to wonder if that's what she'd meant.

"Yeah, I'm coming in.  It's a family meeting, remember?"  Lemuel gently ushered Gracie Lynn toward the house.  The savvy cheerleader was generally aware of Darius being nearby.  Unfortunately, turning around might draw attention to his whereabouts.

From the trees, Darius would see Lemuel escort Gracie Lynn into the house.  A razor-thin, long-haired man met them at the door.  He stepped aside, then quickly shut the door.  Once inside, Gracie Lynn saw that Lemuel wasn't just making small talk.  At least thirty of her extended family--and friends close enough to be family--were gathered into the small living room.

A grizzled, wiry man in his mid-60's sat in a wooden rocking chair.  His ruddy complexion showed the scars of a life-time of hard work...and maybe other, harder experiences.  He flashed a toothy smile when he saw his granddaughter that made him look oddly boyish.  "Gracie-Lynn!  Come give your Papaw a hug!"

Gracie walks in and looks around to see if just family was there or maybe extended family. She walks in and gives Papaw a big hug. "Long time no see." she is a little nervous knowing Darius is out there, knowing what her family is like.

Darius kills the engine early, and costs for the rest of the distance. It wasn't an attempt at subterfuge. His bike was loud enough that he'd surely been heard. More a respectful approach, given how obnoxious the sound might seem against the remote locations ambient swamp noises.

Once he's got the bike near to where Gracie's ride had parked, he dismounts and hesitates again.

The old man cackled gleefully as his granddaughter hugged him.  "Hey sugar dumplin'!  You ought to come over more--we miss you!  How's your cheer-leading this year?  You girls were sure good at the Homecoming, showed up the football team, and that's not just a proud grandpa talking!"

The rest of her family affectionately gathered around, laughing agreeably.  They all appeared interested in catching up.  All but one.

A statuesque red head with sunglasses stood apart.  The woman was in her early or mid-twenties and bore an uncanny resemblance to Gracie-Lynn.  She wore a sleeveless, jewel-toned dress that hugged her silhouette in a flattering way.  The skirt flared just enough at the knees for effect.  She cleared her throat and the whole family stopped.  "Gracie, it's rude not to invite your boyfriend inside."

Lorinda, Gracie's older sister, had always been strangely to the point that way...

Graice hugs and kisses everyone and looks at her Papaw. "Oh, I am doing really good. I love being a cheerleader!" She walks around to everyone.

Then she sees her older sister. She just smiles at her. "Yes, I believe Darius is outside. I was not sure what kind of family business this was but if Papaw does not mind, I will invite him in so everyone can meet him."

At Lorinda's urging, Gracie Lynn called Darius.  The young man accepted the invitation and soon joined his girlfriend(?) and her family.  Once inside, Darius saw a rustic, sparsely decorated interior.  No family pictures anywhere, although a deer's head covered the fireplace.  A large catfish sat stuffed on a plaque near a window, too.

The DuPree clan didn't look like what Darius might have expected of a socially-dominant cheerleader.  They were rough, downright redneck in fact!  Lorinda was a notable exception.  She was easily picked out as Gracie's sister because of the distinctive red hair and model-good looks.

Then, Darius saw the other members of the "family".  Those relatives looked like something Darius would see on the cover of a supermarket tabloid...or like something out of Clive Barker's Nightbreed.  A lean, well-muscled, hairless man stood opposite Lemuel at the door.  Strange markings in pale yellow and a dusky orange alternated like birthmarks or tattoos on his face, neck, and bare arms.  Were those ridges on his head?

A woman near the back had quills on her body.  There was actually a living, breathing Cyclops in the room, too.  Not a giant, but still tall enough to catch the eye of a NBA recruiter!  Was there also someone with tentacles on his face?

In a mere matter of seconds, Darius wears nearly every facial expression known to man. Nervousness, Polite Acceptance, Respectful Attentiveness, Warm and Agreeable Smile, Disbelief, Denial, Shock, Fear, Confusion.... It's no doubt quite comical for everyone else as Darius struggles to get a grip on what the heck he's walked into...

Papaw DuPree nodded gruffly.  "Come on in, son."  He gestured at a nearby chair.  "Have a seat there.  Earlene, see if we have some sweet tea."  Immediately, Porcupine Woman broke away and padded for the kitchen.

While drinks were prepared, Gracie's patriarch turned back to her.  "Gracie Lynn, I would have waited if I could've.  You're not ready for this, but trouble don't always wait 'til you're ready."

Gracie takes Darius hand. She knew it must be a shock to him that this was her family. "Darius, this is my family. This is Papaw DuPree, the head of the family." she looks at Papaw DuPree. She will discuss what the family does later.

Papaw shook Darius' hand in a firm, leathery grip.  The old man's was stacked with calloused with a lifetime of rigorous work.  "I see my girl's taken a liking to you."  His face was set with what looked like the beginnings of a harsh scowl.

"You're one helluva of a quarterback, son!  Saw you lead your team in givin' one mighty ass-whuppin' to Benedictine!"  Oddly enough, Darius noted that even when the old man smiled, that same seeming harshness remained firmly in place with the high praise.

"And you might've seen my people here when our circus came to town last October.  Gracie Lynn probably wouldn't have told you, seein' as she's a little--embarrassed--by her daddy's side of the family.  That's not why she's here, though."

Gracie Lynn's grandfather took her face between his weathered hands.  "Baby girl, you're here because we know you ran into some vampires very recently.  We know your boyfriend met 'em, too."

END EPILOGUE 1, TBC IN EPISODE 3

Epilogue 2

Chan picked her way slowly down the sidewalk her hands stuffed into her pockets. It had been a strange eventful day, and she was still trying to put it all together. If she'd only seen something strange once or twice, she might have been able to ignore it, but given the frequency of her encounters that was becoming impossible.

"Please tell me that everyday isn't like this for you, because I'm not sure that I could handle that much crazy..."

 If they kept on dealing with mythic creatures it would only be a matter of time until someone was hurt or died. Explaining bruises wasn't something she wanted to do, especially if she had to lie to her parents.

Buffy sighed quietly as she walked beside Chan. Despite all of her apparent Slayer abilities, Buffy really didn't have all the answers. She didn't even have a lot of them, but that was because Buffy had spent so long trying to run away from all of this. She'd tried to fight it, to refuse being "the Slayer". And it had worked.

For a time.

Like always, however, something that went bump in the night reared its ugly head. Now, Buffy was tossed right back into the mix. She looked over at Chan and shook her head.

"I wish I had more answers. I've spent so long trying to...get away from all of this, you know? I just..."

Buffy trailed off and gazed at the ground for a bit, lost in a torrent of thoughts and emotions. She finally, after a long few seconds, cleared her throat.

"I just wanted to be normal."

Buffy stretched as she walked, looking back to Chan.

"Anytime I deal with this stuff...it really just seems to get worse and weirder."

"I'm not trying to blame you or anything, but ever since you've got here strange stuff has been popping up all over place. It could be that one is just a response to the other, things trying to balance out a little. All I know is recently I seem to see monsters wherever I look." She scuffed her shoes against the ground and yawned into the back of her hand. It wasn't that she disliked Buffy, it was more that she was just trying to make some sort of sense in the now 'mythic world' that she lived in. Perhaps even find her own balance, if that was even possible. Once you'd seen something, you couldn't very well turn your back on it.

"You can't trust that guy from the book store, or the teacher that sent us there. Something definitely wonky is going on there, and I think that we're all being kept well in the dark. I think that we all need to be really careful here, you especially." She walked in silence for a while as she tried to see things from Buffy's point of view. Tried to imagine what it was like to be in the Peter Parker situation, and really gave it a good think. Once she had been silent long enough for Buffy would start to wonder, she finally spoke up her voice tinged with sadness.

"The position you're in just plain sucks. If you turn your back on it, innocent people are going to get hurt, and they're going to die. Eventually it'll end up being someone you care for. I think that you're supposed to be the balance, the Yang to the Ying that we've been seeing lately personified around here lately."

"It really just comes down to the Tao of Peter Parker, With great power, comes great responsibility..."

It came after a long, uncomfortable silence. Buffy began dreading to hear what Chan was going to say. And then, she said it.

There it was. It was a moment that Buffy had dreaded facing. Hell, she'd run so hard to escape it. And yet, just like a movie, it stood in front of her, crystal clear in its appearance. Buffy could not escape it.

It was a choice.

Rather, the choice. Fight. Or flight. Buffy could choose to continue running. But, as Chan had so succinctly put it, eventually someone would die. And while a person could shrug that off as not important...well, Chan had also pointed out that, at some point, it would be someone she cared for.

And deep down, past all the protestations, teenage defiance, and just the plain unfairness of the situation...Buffy knew damn well she couldn't let that happen. She hugged herself, staring at the ground as the two made their way back home. In Buffy's mind, she was becoming used to the idea that it was time to embrace her Slayer side. No more running, no more half-assed behavior. She'd have to seek out her Watcher. And she'd have to start training.

Now, Buffy hadn't gone completely overboard. It wasn't like she was going to be best buddies with that weird dude who she'd found outside of the school. She still thought he was creepy. But it was time to rearm and get ready for whatever hell was preparing to rain down on them.

Buffy stopped Chan and stared at her for a second, trying to find something to say. She couldn't, so she did the next thing she could think of and hugged her. Chan had made things so simple.

Maybe it would be good to make friends here.

Buffy let go of the hug awkwardly and looked down at the ground.

"Sorry...I just..."

She looked up at Chan, a new resolve in her eyes and demeanor.

"Thank you."

"How touching!"  Buffy heard a familiar voice, then a star-burst of pain exploded as a baseball bat struck her head!  Gabrielle smirked as she drew back the bat for another hit.  "I'm so touched that I'm going to express myself by beating your brains out with this baseball bat!"

Buffy reeled in pain and went down with the follow-up blow.  She felt pain again as Gabrielle kicked her ribs!  "I told you we weren't finished, Slayer."  As Buffy lost consciousness, she saw Chan struggling in the arms of two vamps.

She wanted to get up and fight, to save her new friend!  However, the attack had been too brutal.  The pain overtook her, and as Buffy slipped into darkness, she saw Chan being dragged away by Gabrielle's vampires...


End Episode:  To Be Continued!