43Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
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Chapter 1a: Two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3.
Douala, Cameroon
Xander strode into the dining room that they were using as a makeshift office. He looked at the petit blonde that was sitting at the table that was covered in books; she'd somehow made a small section of clear table to rest her notepad on. If there was any further organisation to the random piles Xander would hard pressed to find it. "Tell Giles that we need more to go on regarding the Slayer situation."
Amy looked up from the book she was making notes from. "Nothing came of the Bakongo then?"
"Nothing useful anyway." Xander tossed the keys for the rented jeep into the dish by the refrigerator and then sat down opposite Amy. "Basically the same as the Mandinka that we found four days ago, they are aware of the chosen one and her calling and do look for signs in all females born to the tribe. As far as they're aware though, the legends of the chosen one have always been around."
Amy barely raised her head and sighed before asking, "What specifically am I supposed to be asking for? We've got the guys working closely with the others so that we get information as soon as it becomes known."
"Do they have access to all the senior watcher files?"
Amy's eyes lit up. Putting her pen down, she moved to get the laptop. "Senior watcher files?"
Xander held up his hands in mock surrender, "No conspiracy here Aim. Giles mentioned that he had a group looking into all the earliest watcher files, I just want to make sure that Robert and Steven have access to that info."
Amy slumped her shoulders and generally looked disappointed, "Oh. You had me excited then. Bob's on that team himself, he was very excited by some of the lives of the earlier slayers. Nothing he's passed onto me has been that relevant to our mission."
Xander smiled as he remembered when she'd first been assigned to his group; according to Robert, she'd been arguing with her assignment to any council duties, especially in light of all that had happened. That all changed once she'd discovered that Xander was based in Africa. It seems little Miss Davies had always had her heart set on being a field watcher but her parents had used their influence to ensure she remained in the research department, so she'd rebelled. 'Not that I'd call studying Classical Civilisations and Their Affects on Modern Society or whatever that degree title had been, at university could really be called Rebelling.' He chuckled as he remembered getting a call from her demanding that she be allowed to come to Africa to work there alongside him rather than be stuck back in Oxford with the others, and her parents. 'What is it with me and pushy women? Especially little blonde ones?'
Xander moved into the kitchen area and opened the fridge to get a bottle of water for each of them. Handing Amy her bottle as he asked, "So where's Roger then?"
Amy gestured around the small room, "He was out when I got back. No notes on the fridge. So, if I had to guess, I'd say probably in the pub?"
"Right... anyway pass me the pc." He turned the laptop around, and waited for it to load up.
"Wotcha doing?" Amy enquired as she continued making her endless notes from yet another book.
"I'm gonna email Giles anyway, see if he can come up with any ideas on giving us a new starting point."
While Xander was typing at the keyboard the door burst open. A middle aged man with greying hair came stumbling in, "Hello peeps. How are we? I've just met this fantastic woman," he slurred.
Xander looked up to se Roger supporting himself using the doorhandle. "Roger that's erm... great... you're not bringing her here are you?"
Amy immediately got to her feet, moving Roger out of the way so that she could peer through the door, she said "There doesn't appear to be anyone there."
Roger, realising he now had nothing to aid his balance, managed to get to the table to help steady himself. "Not that sort of woman, though that's not to say I wou..." He paused as he realised that Amy was just outside the room, he put his fingers to his lips and made a shushing sound to Xander.
Xander returned his attention to the laptop in front of him. 'Just ignore him, just ignore him, just ignore her too if it turns out there is one.'
Amy continued to look around, "Are you certain that there isn't a woman loose somewhere in the villa?"
"Hey I take offence at that, no self respecting man attempting to woo a woman would then leave her alone. That would be despicable. That would be unforgiveable. That would be..."
"Last Tuesday." Xander dead-panned.
Roger turned to glare at Xander, "Do you want to hear about this woman or not?"
Xander could feel his shoulders slumping automatically in what he was sure to be yet another mind-numbing tale of drunken antics, but he managed to hide it well and get out an almost cheerful "Sure, why not?"
"So what made her so fantastic?" Amy said as she returned into the dining room.
Roger continued his story, "Anyway this woman, well she heard from some tourists in a bar, that he had heard the most outrageous story between these two 'mystics'." Xander watched as Roger lifted both hands up, in an attempt to emphasise the word 'mystic' with the classic quotation mark gesture, but gave in as he had to return one hand to the table, as he suddenly began to fall sideways.
Amy rolled her eyes, "I can see how you'd be enthralled with this."
"Is there a point to this, or can I concentrate on my email?"
"Wait. Patience is a virtue. Well these tourists had been to see this 'ancient' mystic right?" Roger repeated the quotation mark gesture for 'ancient', but this time using only one hand. "Normal standard touristy stuff. Well later that same day they saw him again in a restaurant, and overheard him talking to an older man who he referred to as master."
Xander sighed and continued to type his email, "You're right this is the best story I've ever heard. Tolkien, eat your heart out," he added sarcastically.
"Well if you don't want to hear about what they discussed, that's fine with me."
Amy smiled at Roger and glared at Xander, "What were they discussing?"
"A crazy English vampire that was enquiring about getting passage back to America."
Xander froze in place, hands hovering over the keyboard. "You certain it was Spike?"
"No description of the vampire was given but the elder mystic confirmed that it was a vampire and that he attempted to buy passage on a ship."
"And?"
"He never threatened anyone, and seemed to be debating whether he was a man or a monster. The tourists thought it was very Anne Rice." Roger sat down heavily on the chair in front of him.
"Do we have the name of this mystic?"
"No, she didn't know it."
"Do we have the name of the younger one?"
"No. She didn't know that either."
"So what did she know?"
"The names of the tourists."
"Amy, make some coffee for Roger; I'll finish this for Giles, and then you're going to tell us everything about the mystics and what the tourists told your friend."
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The following morning
As Roger strolled into the kitchen area he was greeted with Amy's yell. "I can't believe you can't remember their surname!"
'Oh no not now' "Shhhh... Hangover."
"Can you even remember the name of the woman you were talking to?"
"Jenny... I think." 'I came in here for a reason, one that didn't involve nagging, what was it? Come on brain, I know using you hurts, but once we've achieved whatever it was we came here for then we can go back to bed. Think brain think.'
"Her name was Jenny too?"
"Too? Have we got any Anadin?"
"You said the tourists were Mark and Jenny."
"That doesn't sound right."
"So it wasn't Mark and Jenny?"
"Possibly..." Roger held his head as he looked blankly around the room, 'If I was a box of headache pills then where would I live?' "Anadin?"
"Top left cupboard. Was it Jenny or not?"
Roger began to search the top right cupboard. "One of them was definitely Jenny..."
"So we have a Mark and a possible Jenny?" Amy asked in disbelief. "That's it, that's the grand total of your recollection. No place name, no mystic names, you're guessing the name of the tourists and you don't even know who you were speaking to?"
"Shhhh..." Roger started lifting random jars and boxes placing them on the counter. 'Not here. Not here either. That's jam.'
Amy moved Roger out of the way, opened the cupboard next to the one Roger had been searching in and handed him the box of tablets, "Did you ever consider not getting that drunk when you're talking to someone with potential information?" she asked slamming the door shut.
Roger was filling a half-pint glass with water, "If I hadn't been that drunk I'd never have met her."
Amy was putting all the jars back into the correct cupboard, once she'd done that she slammed that door shut too.
"No more noise." Roger downed the glass in one large go. 'You know, I'm sure she's always nicer when I'm actually drunk, she must get some sick kick out of picking on me when I'm in immense brain pain.'
Xander came into the room carrying a few bags; he kicked the door shut behind him. "I see the vague storyteller's woke up then."
'Loud, too loud. This place has too many things which have potential loud shutting capability, maybe I could borrow some tools and dismantle all the doors... now if I were some tools where would I be hiding?'
"Oh yes, and the details keep getting vaguer."
"She's getting excitable again," Roger countered.
"How could it get vaguer?" Xander started unloading the shopping.
Amy moved to help Xander with the shopping, "Well now he's not even certain of the woman's name?"
"What?"
'That was a shout. First the door and now with the shouting, oh hell, the evil cow's recruited Xander into the 'picking on me in the morning' plan. You know, I prefer his 'disinterest in anything beyond whether I'm alive or not' one.'
"The story consists of three people but he only knows two names. The two women may have the same name but he doesn't think so."
"What three people?"
"There's the two tourists and the woman he was speaking to. You do the math."
"Two first names weren't that useful anyway."
"I was thinking that we could see if Willow or one of your other technical friends could try to find a couple with that first name from airplane flights or something."
"It's too big a task, we don't know when they arrived or even how they arrived, we don't know their nationality, or if they were even married."
"So it was a stupid idea then?"
'That's it, talk amongst yourselves I'll just rest my head here on the nice tabletop.'
"No, it's just not right at the moment with the info we've got. Anyway, tracking down the tourists isn't the key, the key is finding out if the mystics know anything specific about Spike."
Roger lifted his head off the table, "Can you two take the touchy-feely crap outside I really can't cope with it this morning."
Xander went to his room as Amy glared at Roger, "Stop being so grumpy."
"It's not necessarily a good lead. It's all a bit vague isn't it? English vampire, dodgy fortune tellers, maybe it wasn't Spike and the vamp simply wasn't hungry."
"It was your information that gave us the lead."
"And I'm willing to concede that in my drunken state I might have gotten over-confident in how much use that particular piece was."
"I think I preferred you drunk. Least you were helpful."
'And I think excitable women are only good in theory.' "I am helpful, have I or have I not led you to some very real demons?"
"They weren't wish demons."
"One of them granted wishes!" 'Noooo Don't shout yourself... owwww... seriously considering more Anadin.'
"It didn't live in a cave."
"I found that too personal a question to ask it."
"You didn't go anywhere near it, you stayed in the jeep!"
"You're shouting again!" 'Owwwwww! Dammit, so am I...' Roger rose from the table, "I'm going to take a shower, we've gotta head to Libreville today, it's a three hour drive." With that Roger left Amy alone in the dining room.
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Amy was staring out of the window. 'I really hate the sun, is it ever cold in this country? I can't believe I'm starting to miss rain and huddling in a bus shelter trying to keep the biting wind off you. Oh God, I'm getting home-sick... I refuse to get homesick, here I am in Africa no less, trying to find the origins of the slayer line. Life does not get more exciting than this. I'm not homesick I am merely aware that I am blonde and very fair-skinned and not generally suited for sunnier climates. It's not homesickness, it's not.' Amy was interrupted in her thoughts by the arrival of Xander.
Xander walked over to her, hands in his pockets. "Hey Aim, heard you and Roger arguing again this morning, everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's just that... we could have found Spike you know... well not found him obviously as he's in LA... but we could have found where he was when he was here. If you see what I mean."
"That doesn't really explain the argument though."
"It's just that... well... ermm... Roger has a tendency to drink excessively, doesn't he?"
Amy could swear she could hear Xander's mind carefully considering his answer.
"Roger does like a drink. But he's what I like to think of as a comedy-drunk."
Amy looked confused, 'Will he open up to me? I've only known him two weeks should I even try to get him to?' "I don't see what you mean."
"Well it's like this," Xander paused seemingly trying to work out where to take this. "There are a lot of nasty-drunks in the world. They can be violent and risk both their lives and the lives of others. Now Roger isn't like that, see?"
Amy nodded at him to continue.
"All Roger gets is blinding drunk, now I'm not exactly promoting drinking here, but he doesn't really harm anyone besides himself. Annoys yes, harms no."
Amy looked annoyed at the way he sometimes considered her a child, "I have drank alcohol before Xander."
"You're only nineteen."
"Which is a year over the legal limit for England."
"Ahhhh... that could have caused a few problems during my high school days."
"You mean college?"
"You were in college by the time you were eighteen?
"I started at sixteen, turned seventeen in my first year there."
"What are you some sort of genius?"
Amy was amused at the look of disbelief on his face, "No. That was pretty standard."
"Standard, you mean for academic researcher type watchers?" From the look in her face he changed his mind, "You don't mean for specific watcher type behaviour, do you? God, Willow didn't even get in 'til the regular age."
Amy shook her head, "That was the regular age."
"Stop saying that. Anyway where was I?"
"Roger only hurts himself."
"Yeah the resident genius would remember that. Well I have life experience..." shaking his head, "Back to the topic in question, he only annoys people. He occasionally sleeps with women and doesn't remember anything about it; but I don't think he's done anything worse than that. Though thinking about it, that is pretty bad."
"Not always, there was that woman who stole his belongings, remember, when he came home dressed only in a pair of trousers."
Xander smiled at the thought, "Yeah, but anyway I don't think he's ever done anything worse than that."
"Did you ever think about replacing him as a guide?"
Xander smiled at her, "No. Sometimes he gets a bit too much, but generally he's okay."
Amy looked around conspiratorially, and making sure that the coast was clear, linked arms with Xander and walked him outside.
She began whispering to him "You know, he was the first that Steven found didn't you? And he wasn't ever a real guide."
Xander reached back inside and picked up one of the hats and placed it on Amy's head. "Yeah, but I got a feel for the guy when I spoke to him on the phone."
Amy smiled as she remembered her first conversation with Xander on the phone. She'd recieved a call from her parents insisting that, with the recent activities, she be called back to active duty. Apparently, they'd already found her a 'safe' assignment at Oxford simply doing research for some guy out in Africa and mainly being his link back into the Watchers Council. She'd refused at first, forcing the official channels to enquire as to why she didn't want to return to active service. Apparently, given the situation, a lot of people were trying to disassociate themselves from the council. When she gave her reasons of wanting to be a field watcher, either assigned to a slayer (of which there were now hundreds so surely they could find someone that she could help with) or even as a lookout, living on one of the many hotspots around the planet. Soon after that she'd recieved a call from Rupert Giles; I mean the Rupert Giles, the only watcher ever in the history of the council to look after two active slayers. He'd been pleased with her request to be formally trained as a field watcher, but had conceded that her parents weren't taking it well. He'd informed her that he had no intention of taking her parents on directly; however, the call for where the 'researchers' worked would ultimately be Xander's as team leader. He informed her that both Robert and Steven already had multiple ways to contact Xander and that she should speak to them. She'd quickly obtained the details she'd required and spent half an hour convincing him on the phone. When the request came in 'from' Xander that he would need at least one aide over there with him, she'd volunteered and neither of the others had (due to her working on the boys before the request ever came in), so the decision was practically made by the time her parents had heard about it. Once it was established that she would be the one to go to Africa she'd recieved numerous phone calls from Willow and even a visit from Dawn; who, in turn, she'd found very supportive when having to deal with her parents. Apparently Dawn had experience dealing with pushy older relatives. Although at the time Amy had thought that Dawn was Xander's younger sister and not Buffy's.
"Aim? Amy?" When she returned to meet his gaze he informed her that "You seemed to doze over for a while there? Everything okay?"
"Yeah fine. Just thinking about some stuff."
"When he told me he'd been one of the Queen's official ambassadors for Africa but upon discovery of real life demons had been ridiculed by his peers who at first thought it was another drunken tale of his. I couldn't help but think this was the type of guide that'd fit in well with me."
Amy tried to hold back a laugh, "That was what persuaded you to take him on?" At Xander's wink she continued, "I've known about demons since I was ten, but I'd never met one 'til I came here."
"Lucky you. Though from our lack of adventures so far..." Xander paused as he looked around for some wood. Finally noticing the door, he rapped his knuckles on it saying, "Touch Wood." At Amy's look, he explained, "Never tempt fate. Anyway, as I was saying, so far I wouldn't say you've met anything that I'd consider a demon."
Amy looked at him to see if it was a wind-up, "There was one last week that was nine feet tall, and mainly blue."
"But..." Xander paused in what he'd hoped was dramatic affect "it didn't chase us, there was no screaming and no one got thrown around a room, we didn't even kill it. There's obviously a better class of demon around here," then the last phrase under his breath, "Typical Hellmouth."
Quickly returning to the previous topic Xander said, "But all that's in the past now. Let's see what our guide has in store for us today." Xander returned into the villa yelling, "ROGERRRR! Come on, get a move on. Got a long drive ahead of us today."
Roger popped his head out of his room, picked up the map and cleared his throat, seemingly recovered from the earlier hangover. He headed toward them as Xander picked up the supplies for the trip and Amy picked up the laptop and some books she thought may be useful. All three of them headed toward the jeep as Roger referred to the map, "Okay Libreville, firstly we've got to head south towards..."
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End chapter 1a:
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