A/N If you are following my story ‘Buffy… The TimeCop?’ I originally began writing this chapter to be chapter 32 of that story. Helen’s fate will be the same so this chapter is the extended chapter from chapter 31 of ‘Buffy… The TimeCop?’

The Formation of the Witch’s Council

Chapter 2:

As the days slowly turned into weeks, Ramsay, Helen and a guide assigned to them by Leeto made their way to a village closes to the Sof Omar Caves in Ethiopia. During their walk Ramsay had Helen doing exercise a good portion of the way in various ways. One of the ways was by Helen carrying heavy rocks for miles.

Once in the village, the guide showed Ramsay and Helen where to find Reth, the leading Sandman in the village and one of the direct ascendants from the original Shadow Men. After the introductions between Ramsay, Helen and Reth were done, Reth showed Ramsay and Helen to a large hut that was prepared for them. The training room was the largest room. It had a make-shift fight-mannequin, a make-shift weights and a weapon cabinet that was filled with three swords, two axes, two staffs, a crossbow, a regular bow, quiver of arrows and a mace. At the back of the hut stood archery targets.

Their first day in the village was uneventful. They spent the daylight hours just familiarizing themselves with their surroundings and getting to know the locals; however, once the sun went down, Helen’s uneventful day had changed into a demon slay-fest night.

The first demon that Helen had come across was a large and strong tag-along demon. The demon was inadvertently brought forth one week before Helen had become the Chosen Slayer when a local voodoo priest was using dark magic to heal his dying daughter.

Just as Helen and the demon were preparing to fight, eight wild dogs charged in full speed while yapping. Helen shimmied up a tree to escape the pack. The demon stood its ground and fought, but after a few minutes of fighting with only three dead dogs to show for its effort the demon made its escape. When the five surviving dogs chased after the demon, Helen came down from the tree.

During the remainder of the night, Helen had dusted four vampires and killed three demons that were barely a challenge even for a recently Chosen Slayer.

When morning came, Helen reported to Ramsay of what took place during her patrol. Reth was present during her report and after Helen described the tag-along demon to Reth, Reth said, “That was the demon that killed the last slayer.”

“Helen, you are to avoid this demon until you are better prepared,” Ramsay ordered.

“I bet I’m faster than that demon, so just give me a sword,” Helen said.

“Not every demon can be killed by stabbing it with a sword or decapitating it,” Reth quickly replied.

“So you are to keep your distance until we learn what can kill it,” Ramsay insisted.

“Okay,” Helen said.

“We should start your training,” Ramsay said. Helen just nodded before following Ramsay to the training room. Reth followed behind them to watch.

For the first sixteen days during the daylight hours Ramsay and Helen attempted to gather clues on how to fight the demon.

During the night hours, Helen patrolled while carrying an ax. She spotted the tag-along demon a few times between the slaying of the mundane vampires and demons, but she never attempted to confront it. However, she did lure it away from the village on six separate occasions while using herself as bait. Each time her heighten speed even for a slayer allowed her to get away from the demon when the village became safe for another night.

While patrolling on the seventeenth night Helen had chased a surviving vampire from a group of three to a cave. The vampire was carrying a torch and she followed the vampire’s light deep within the cave through several intertwining passageways. While chasing the vampire she was concentrating more on keeping up with him and not watching how to get out. She chased him for a good distance and once she stepped into a chamber with a campfire burning, she found that she was surrounded by seven additional vampires. The vampires thought that they had an easy snack, but with Helen’s speed, the vampires were decapitated by Helen’s ax within seconds of each other with hardly a fight.

As she was making her way out of the cave while using the torch that the vampire had carried she became lost. After searching for a way out for an hour she wandered upon the tag-along demon within a large chamber where five separate passageways had converged. Her eyes had widened as they gazed upon each other.

“You couldn’t point me to the way out, could you?” Helen rhetorically asked. The demon snarled and leaped towards her. She quickly dodged it and kicked it at the bend of the leg. When the demon fell to its knees, Helen took off running through one of the passageways just before she continued to say, “I didn’t think so.” The demon quickly got back on its feet and gave chase.

A short time later, Helen ran into a section of the cave where the passageway had collapsed at one time. At Helen’s eye level was an opening barely big enough for a small dog to get through. Helen gazed upon the small opening for a brief moment with a discourage look in her eyes. As she attempted to quickly back track in order to find another way out, she again came upon the demon within an area that stalactite covered the ceiling.

Helen grasped her ax in one hand to prepare to fight. The demon charged and just as it was a few inches from Helen, Helen dodged the demon and kicked the demon in the back. The demon wasn’t even fazed and swatted Helen through the air. When she hit the wall hard she lost grip of her ax and torch; however, the torch continued to burn and give light. As she was quickly getting back on her feet, the demon was there. Before Helen was prepared to defend herself the demon shredded her clothes at her abdomen with its claws, but it had barely caught the flesh. Helen retaliated with a quick series of punches and kicks, but her attempts were ineffective. The demon grabbed Helen at the throat with one hand and picked her up. Helen’s head was only an inch from being speared by a stalactite that was four inches in diameter at its base.

As Helen was struggling to get free while being dangled in the air by her neck, she quickly spotted the stalactite near her head. She grasped the stalactite with both hands as far as she could reach and with all her might, she yanked downward. The demon reared back his fist with it free hand and was about to put it through Helen’s chest. However, before the demon had a chance to strike, the stalactite broke loose and impaled the demon at its upper chest. Helen had enough strength to drive the stalactite through to the demon’s lower back.

Helen was immediately dropped and as she was getting back on her feet, she saw the demon struggling to pull the stalactite from its torso. While the demon was preoccupied, Helen quickly located her ax. She quickly grabbed it and dashed full speed towards the demon. The demon saw Helen approaching with the ax reared back, but before it had a chance to react, Helen swung the ax with her might. The ax’s handle broke in two as its blade decapitated the demon. The demon’s head and the head of the ax flew through the air and bounce off of a wall. Helen gave a sigh of relieve when the demon’s body fell motionless to the ground. Helen then picked up the torch and to show proof that she killed the demon she picked up its head.

It was two hours after daylight when Helen finally found an exit to the caves; however, she wasn’t familiar of where she came out at.

Ramsay was worried that Helen had met her fate. By midday, he had rallied the Sandmen in the village and just before they set off to look, Helen came walking into the village while carrying the head of the demon.

Reth was the first to spot Helen and when he saw what she was carrying, he smiled before motioning for Ramsay to look. When Ramsay looked, he couldn’t help running up to her and giving her a hug.

As the months slowly passed, Helen was fast becoming a powerful slayer with Ramsay’s guidance. By the time she reached seventeen she had become the longest living and the most muscular looking slayer before her. Because of her high victory count the more mundane vampires and demons would quiver when they caught sight of her. The more powerful demons would give a gallant effort to defeat her, but would meet the same fate as the demons before them.

Powerful demons as far as South Africa had heard of her feats. It had even quickly become a contest in the demonic world of who could defeat the slayer.

Five days before Helen’s eighteenth birthday, Safara, a seventeen-year-old witch, strolled into the village to strip the slayer of her powers.

When Safara was six a prophet had predicted that Safara would become a powerful witch who fought on the side of good, but when a demon heard of her destiny, he had placed Safara under his thrall with no will of her own and used her as an instrument of evil.

Safara had the magic to locate anyone with very little to go on and when she entered the village, she located Helen immediately. To get closed enough to strip Helen of her powers, Safara pretended to befriend her.

To strip the slayer of her ability the slayer had to digest a large amount of a liquid concoction; however, the concoction was extremely bitter tasting and to ensure that the slayer consumed it, Safara poured small amounts of it into Helen’s drink or food at every chance she got. However, giving the slayer small doses at a time was less affective and each dose would become useless if another dose wasn’t administered every twenty-four hours or before. It was accumulative though so each time Helen consumed a dose within the required time, the weaker she became and the longer it took for her body to recover.

It was three days before Helen’s eighteenth birthday when Helen began to feel her ability faltering. She, Ramsay and Reth had no clue as to what was happening. They searched for the answer to why Helen’s ability was fading with no luck.

A day before her birthday, Safara set off to lead Helen to her master demon; except Helen was led to believe that they were going to meet a warlock named Cruciamentum who could restore her ability. Ramsay found out about Safara and Helen leaving the village an hour later and left the village himself to chase after them.

The demon was held up in a large temple with a three-level-cellar within an abandon village that was a full day’s walk away and before Helen had reached the temple her ability was gone completely.

When they reached the temple, Safara told Helen, “Cruciamentum is inside. Go to him and tell him why you’re here.”

“You’re not coming?” Helen asked.

“I can’t,” Safara said. “Only the person seeking his help can enter.”

“Okay,” Helen said before turning towards the entrance and walking away. After Helen entered and the door closed behind her, Safara locked her in. Helen heard the door being locked. After attempting to reopen it she hollered through the door. “Safara, what are you doing?” She then backed up a step. “Okay, this better be part of the custom.”

Helen turned back around and cautiously walked further into the temple. Before she made too many steps a demon appearing as human by using mind-suggesting magic stepped into view.

“Welcome, my child,” the demon said as he stepped closer. “Have you come to seek enlightenment?”

“I came seeking a warlock named Cruciamentum. Are you him?”

“I am. And your name is?”

“It’s Helen.”

“So what can I do for you, Helen?”

“I’m the slayer… or at least I was before a few days ago. My slayer ability faded on me. I was told that you can restore my abilities.”

“It’s possible. Come; follow me to my laboratory.”

Helen nodded before she followed. As she walked she looked at the décor of the temple. As they enter an anteroom she asked, “Why did you choose a temple to dwell in?”

“I believe that the gods gave me the gift to be a warlock so what better way to honor them, but by doing their work in a temple that worships them,” Cruciamentum said as Helen looked up at a metal chandelier candlestick holder that held twelve candles. Part of the chandelier cast a reflection of the objects around it and while walking beneath it, Helen saw Cruciamentum’s real appearance. Helen stopped walking and faced Cruciamentum. Cruciamentum stopped too and faced her. “Is there anything wrong, child?”

Helen gave him a polite grinned before saying, “I was just thinking of what you said. About your warlock gifts came from the gods. I never thought of my slayer ability as being a gift from the gods before. Could that be the reason why it was taken away from me?”

“You used your gift for good, did you not?”

“Oh definitely; I had always battled the forces of evil.”

“Then I would say that you did nothing to offend the gods who gave you your gifts. In fact, I’m willing to wager that a demon out to destroy you had done this through magic.”

“So a demon did this to me?”

“A demon with powerful of magic. Come and I will help you to break his magic.” Helen politely grinned before gesturing Cruciamentum to continue.

After walking the length of the anteroom they came to a set of stairs that led down.

Cruciamentum descended to the third step, but before Helen followed him down, she asked, “What down there?”

Cruciamentum stopped and faced Helen before saying, “My laboratory for one. It is on the first level. Below that are just rooms for storage.”

“There are two levels below the temple?”

“Three actually, but as I said; the two levels beneath my laboratory are only for storage. Come.” Helen nodded before following.

Cruciamentum had been planning to turn the slayer into his thrall for a year. He was even the one to have the multi-level-cellar created underneath the temple with a tunnel leading into the nearby jungle. Each level of the cellar was a twenty-foot by forty-foot room and was partitioned off by stonewalls. The top level was a sorcerer’s lab and it was partitioned off in two rooms. The sorcerer’s lab was filled with everything imaginable that a sorcerer would need. The middle level was also partitioned off in two rooms. The far room was the smaller of the two and a small selection of weapons were kept there. The larger room was set up as a torture room. The lower level was set up as a dungeon. Four zombies, two male vampires and three moderately powerful witches were being kept behind bars and all nine were under the demon’s thrall.

The demon led Helen to the lab and once there Helen recognized a lot of the potion ingredients from seeing them in Reth’s lab. She pretended not to know anything of them and asked about what they each were and what each of them was for.

After a few minutes of Cruciamentum answering Helen’s questions of his supplies, he quickly uttered out while trying to stop her from asking more questions, “Helen!”

“Yes?” Helen quickly asked while holding a potion ingredient in her hand.

“You did come here for me to restore you ability, so we should leave all the ingredients alone and work on that. The faster you get your ability back the faster you can get back to your life.”

“Of course.” Helen put the ingredient down. She then pointed to it before asking, “So what is it and what is it for?”

Cruciamentum sighed before answering her question. Before Helen had a chance to ask anything else, he asked, “So when did you notice that your ability was fading?”

Helen stepped to another ingredient as she answered, “Three days ago.” She then picked up the ingredient. “This looks like a spice. Is it?”

“It’s not a spice,” Cruciamentum quickly said before telling her what it was. “Now where you eating anything different just before your ability faded?”

Helen thought for a moment before saying, “No. Are you sure this isn’t a spice?”

Cruciamentum said in a slight annoyed tone, “I told you what it is. Now can you tell me what you were eating before your ability faded?”

Helen shrugged before putting the ingredient down and saying, “Chickens, chicken eggs, cow meat… just your every day food.” She then pointed to another ingredient. “What’s that?”

Cruciamentum closed his eyes and shook his head before answering her. He then asked, “What demons have you slain in the past week?”

“Vampires… more vampires… why do you think that there are so many vampires in the world?”

“Helen, I’m trying to help you here, but you’re making it difficult for me.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean too. It’s just that my life have been pretty much the same for the past year. Anyway, my mouth is kind of dry. Could I get a drink of water?”

Cruciamentum grinned before saying, “Of course. I’ll be back soon.”

When Cruciamentum left to go get the water, Helen mixed two small glass bottles with a potion that will cause a small explosion and heavy smoke. She had also found holy water and had filled a couple of small bottles with that. She then hid the four bottles within her clothing.

While Cruciamentum was getting the water, he took that opportunity to put something into it that will render her unconscious; however, when he returned Helen took the goblet of water and put it down without drinking it.

When Helen saw Cruciamentum giving her a curious look, she said, “My thirst went away just after you walked out. Strange.”

“Yes; anyway, I have no more questions for you and I think I know the correct potion that will restore your ability. So if you give me a minute, I mix it for you.”

Helen nodded while saying, “Of course.”

Cruciamentum moved towards the potion ingredients. Helen didn’t know much on witchcraft, but she did learn enough from Reth to know that what potion Cruciamentum was mixing wouldn’t restore her ability.

When Cruciamentum held out the finished potion for her to take, he said, “Drink this and I’m positive that your ability will return.”

Helen took the potion before saying, “I have a better idea.” She threw the potion in his face while she continued to say, “You drink it, demon!”

Cruciamentum straggled back a step from the surprise attack and instantly lost control to maintain the deception of not revealing his true appearance.

Helen quickly pulled out one of the bottles that were filled with the mild explosive and as Cruciamentum came at her, she broke the bottle across his face.

Cruciamentum was stunned by the blast and fell to the floor while severely dazed. The bright flash had temporarily blinded Helen as well and as she was feeling her way towards the stairs, she had stepped wrong and fell down one flight to the middle level. As she was getting back on her feet, her sight was slowly returning, but everything was extremely hazy. She was trying to determine what was around her when she heard footsteps on the stairs.

Helen walked farther into the room while hoping to find an adequate hiding spot until her sight returned. She moved as quickly as she could and tripped once before reaching the room that was filled with weapons.

Cruciamentum didn’t know that Helen had fallen down one level and went up to look for her. When he couldn’t find her in the temple he began to look for her at the lower levels and near the tunnel. When he couldn’t find Helen, he decided to release the zombies and vampires.

The room that Helen was in was too dark for her to see that swords, spears, knifes, crossbows and shields surrounded her. After a few minutes her eyes had return to normal, but she didn’t realized it until a zombie had opened the door to the room and let light in.

The zombie spotted her immediately, but with its sluggish movements, Helen had plenty of time to figure out where she was. She quickly grabbed a heavy broad sword and with Helen’s muscular built from working out, she had no problems using it to cut of the zombie’s head. Helen then put on a sword holder and strapped the sword to her side. She also strapped a long blade knife to her other side. She grabbed a crossbow as well along with a quiver of arrows and after loading the crossbow she left the weapon’s room.

Before Helen was able to get to the stairs, a vampire stepped in. Helen fired the crossbow, but missed the vampire completely. As the vampire charged at her, she dropped the crossbow and pulled out her sword.

Helen didn’t have time to go for the head, so she drove the sword through the vampire’s chest. The vampire dropped to his knees. As she was trying to pull the sword out to take the final blow, the vampire twisted sideways and yanked the sword from her hands. When she lost grip of the sword, she immediately grabbed an arrow from the quiver and plunged into the vampire’s back at the heart. After the vampire was turned into dust, she reclaimed the sword and reloaded the crossbow.

As she was entering the stairs another zombie was coming down them from the upper level. She waited for the zombie to get close enough and then cut off its legs with the sword. When the zombie fell, she cut off its head.

Helen quickly ascended the stairs and once she got back into the anteroom, she came face to face with Cruciamentum and the remaining vampire. Helen fired the crossbow at the vampire and when she again missed, she pulled out a bottle of holy water.

Cruciamentum ordered the vampire to stop Helen and when the vampire was close enough, Helen splashed the vampire in the face with the water. When the vampire recoiled, Helen decapitated him with her sword.

Helen faced Cruciamentum with a haughty smirk, which made Cruciamentum even angrier.

As Helen and Cruciamentum moved around each other while staring into each other’s eyes, she said, “You set me up. You had Safara do something to me and to lure me here for you to kill me.”

“I originally wanted you as my slave, but you prove to be a liability. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“You won’t be making anymore mistakes again. In a few minutes you’ll be dead.”

“I had you stripped of your ability, so I’m not worried about you killing me slayer.” Helen saw a reflection of a zombie coming up behind her from the chandelier, but pretended not to see as Cruciamentum continued to say, “I am worried about cleaning up your blood from the floors after I kill you though.”

“If you think you can take me then come on let’s do this.”

As Cruciamentum watched the zombie approached Helen from behind, he said in a telltale slow manner, “I see you not charging me.”

Helen gave Cruciamentum a smirk before swinging around to face the zombie and chopping its head off as quickly as possible before facing Cruciamentum again. Helen moved much slower than what she would have if she still had her slayer ability, but it was still quick enough for her to dodge Cruciamentum as he lunged at her. She counter-moved by kicking his leg at the bend. Cruciamentum stumbled forward while staying on his feet.

Helen pulled out the second bottle of small explosive and when Cruciamentum quickly faced Helen, Helen threw the bottle at his feet and shielded her eyes. Cruciamentum saw it coming and was quick enough to jump out of its way before the bottle broke on the ground and exploding; however, the smoke that it produced made it practically impossible to see and it filled the entire anteroom.

“I don’t need to see you when I can smell you,” Cruciamentum said just before he saw a sword being swung towards his head. He quickly dodged it and kicked Helen across the room a few feet. Helen managed to hang onto the sword when she hit the ground. He then quickly followed the direction that he sent Helen flying. “You narrowed in on my voice. Impressive.” Helen got into a kneeling position and closed her eyes to listen to Cruciamentum’s footsteps and his words as he cautiously moved closer. She had her sword drawn back while waiting for Cruciamentum to step into range. “Narrowing on my voice isn’t going to help you. I’m faster than you are… or I am now since your slayer’s strength is gone. This smoke you created might have created a cover for you while being across the room, but I can see when things are directly in front of me.”

Cruciamentum had barely gotten his final words out of his mouth when Helen plunged the sword through his abdomen and out his back. Helen rose to full height while twisting the sword and questioning, “Are you sure about that?” She then yanked the sword from his abdomen and swung it to decapitate him.

Cruciamentum saw the sword coming. He knew that he couldn’t stop it and just before the sword cut through his neck he weakly said, “Slayer.”

As Cruciamentum’s decapitated body fell to the ground, Helen said, “Yes. I am.”

The three witches locked in the dungeon and the remaining zombie that was in the temple collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Outside, Safara had collapsed to the ground unconscious as well just as Ramsay came into view of her and called her named.

Ramsay rushed to Safara’s aid and as he was lightly slapping her to wake up he said, “Safara… Safara. Wake up!”

Safara was coming around as Ramsay heard someone trying to pound the temple’s door open. Safara heard the sound too and weekly said, “Helen is in the temple.”

“Are you okay?” Ramsay asked Safara.

Safara nodded while saying, “Go check on Helen.”

As Ramsay rushed to the temple’s door, Safara got back on her feet. Ramsay got to the door and shouted, “Helen! Is that you?”

“Ramsay, I’m locked in,” Helen shouted back. “Let me out.”

“Hold on,” Ramsay said before he went to open the door. Once the door open, Helen stepped out and shot Safara a look that could kill while tightly grasping the sword’s handle. “Are you okay?” Helen stormed passed Ramsay as if he wasn’t standing there and went straight for Safara. “What happened?” When Helen didn’t answer, he repeated, “Helen, what happened?”

Helen brought the blade of the sword up to Safara’s throat before saying through clench teeth, “The only reason why I’m not killing you right now is because I want you to give back my slayer abilities. Now!”

Ramsay rushed to Helen’s side while saying, “Helen! Put the sword down and tell me what’s going on.”

Helen never attempted to remove the sword as she said, “This woman or witch done something to me for me to lose my slayer ability and she is going to undo it.”

Safara trembled with fear as she said, “I-I don’t have to do anything. Your abilities will return to normal within seven days.”

“You did this to Helen?” Ramsay asked.

“Yes,” Safara said. “I didn’t want to though. Helen, I like you and I’m glad that you’re okay.”

“Then why did you do it,” Helen said before a thought came to her. “How did you do it?”

“Cruciamentum had magically forced his will upon me for the past eleven years.” Safara allowed a nervous grin to come across her face as she stared at the blade of the sword near her throat. “You freed me when you killed him and if you killed me this very moment for what I had done to you, I die free.”

Helen lowered the sword before saying, “I believe you so I’m not going to kill you. But how did you take my ability?”

“I didn’t really take it; I suppressed it,” Safara corrected.

“How?” Helen quickly asked.

“For the past few days I added a potion to your food and drink when you weren’t looking,” Safara said. “Discontinue the potion and your ability will return.”

“This potion is definitely being discontinued or I will kill you after all,” Helen warned.

“It’s definitely discontinued,” Safara quickly said.

“Good,” Helen said.

“If this is over, we should head back,” Ramsay said.

“It’s not over,” Safara said. Helen and Ramsay gave her a curious look. “Well, it is, but I believe that there are three people… witches who need to be freed from the dungeon.”

“What dungeon?” Ramsay asked.

“There are three levels below the temple,” Safara said. “The dungeon is on the bottom level.”

Helen sighed before uttering, “I hate the thought of going back in there.”

“You can wait out here,” Ramsay said. “Safara and I can go in and release them.”

“No; it’s okay. I better go in too,” Helen said before turning towards the temple and walked away. Ramsay and Safara followed Helen into the temple.

The three witches Asha, Dalila and Lateefah dashed to the bars when they saw Helen, Ramsay and Safara stepping in from the steps. Dalila was the youngest at the age of twenty.

“You’re the slayer,” Dalila quickly said while being giddy. “You killed him? You killed Cruciamentum, didn’t you?”

“He’s dead,” Helen said as she, Ramsay and Safara stepped up to the cage door.

“Do you know where the key is?” Ramsay asked

“Cruciamentum kept it on his person,” Lateefah said.

“We don’t need the key,” Dalila said. “You have the power, Safara, to open the door.”

“I’m not that powerful,” Safara said.

“You are,” Dalila said. “That’s why Cruciamentum chose you. Just concentrate on the lock. You can do it.”

“Or I can go upstairs and search Cruciamentum’s body for the key,” Helen suggested.

“Safara can get us out,” Dalila said. “She is a powerful witch.”

“Aren’t you three witches too?” Helen questioned.

“Our power lie on seeing the future,” Asha said. “That’s why Cruciamentum enslaved us.”

“Cruciamentum relied on you three on seeing the future, but you three couldn’t see his death?” Helen questioned.

“I saw it,” Dalila said. “I had even told Cruciamentum that you would win.”

“But he didn’t listen?” Helen questioned.

“We saw a different future,” Asha said as she gestured to Lateefah. “We saw you being enslaved along with us and Cruciamentum took Dalila’s vision as being the wrong one. Anyway, Safara, you can unlock this door.” She held her hand out through the bars. “Take my hand and I will guide you.”

“Okay,” Safara said before taking Asha’s hand. Dalila and Lateefah joined in to create a circle.

Safara and the others concentrated for a short time before the door came open. When the four released their grip of each other, Asha said, “We told you that you can do it.”

As the three witches stepped out, Dalila saw Helen with a questioned on her mind. Dalila slightly grinned before telling Helen, “You want to know how much longer you have before dying as the slayer, but you are terrified of the answer.”

Helen grinned before saying, “Yes.”

“You shouldn’t know that answer,” Dalila said. Helen gave Dalila a confused look. “If you knew your fate it would cause a death that must not happen, so I won’t tell you.” Helen glanced over at Asha and Lateefah and saw that they too were confused by what Dalila was saying. “However, I will tell you that no other slayer will live as long as you have for the next three hundred years.”

“Wait,” Ramsay said. “Can you see who the future slayers will be?”

“I can tell you who will be the next six slayers without a doubt, but after that my visions are unclear,” Dalila said.

Ramsay hesitated for a second before saying, “I just realized that I don’t know any of your names, but you three could help our cause.”

“How?” Lateefah asked.

“We would like to track down future slayers and train them while they’re potential-slayers,” Ramsay said.

“You want us to find future slayers for you?” Asha asked.

“Yes and please say yes that you three…” Ramsay looked at Safara before he continued to say, “I mean you four. Will you four join our fight against the demons and help us to track down future slayers?”

With mixed responses of ‘yes’, ‘of course’ and ‘I’ll joined your fight’ they all agreed to help.

“Can we get out of here now? Helen questioned.

“I’m all for that,” Lateefah said before they turned towards the exit and walked towards it.

Just as they were climbing the stairs Asha formally introduced herself and the others to Helen and Ramsay.

As the days slowly passed, Safara, Asha, Dalila and Lateefah took up residence in the village where Helen and Ramsay lived in. The four witches moved in with each other and as the days turned into weeks they formed a coven calling themselves ‘The Witch’s Council’ that worked in unison with the recently formed Watcher’s Council. Also during those weeks, six watchers were sent out to find the six future slayers that Dalila had described from her vision.

Six months after Helen had killed Cruciamentum, she and Ramsay dashed up an awaking volcano to safe an innocent nine-year-old boy from being sacrificed to a pure demon. Helen and Ramsay saved the boy and the villagers from the demon and the awaking volcano, but while they were battling the demon, the volcano erupted and all three were buried within the hot lava.

Years later, the boy who Helen had saved had become chieftain who united and brought piece to his neighboring tribes.

How the Cruciamentum ritual began

During the passing generations, slayer after slayer died one after another within a year or two of being chosen. For three hundred years, only one slayer came near her eighteenth birthday by two months before dying. Watchers and slayer alike began to wonder if Helen’s tales of victories were more inspirational fables than fact.

It wasn’t until the later half of the ninth century A.D. when another prodigy slayer became chosen. This slayer was from France with the name of Danielle. She was chosen at the age of fifteen and as with Helen, mundane vampires and demons trembled in fear at the mere mention of her name.

The Watcher’s Council along with its sister organization the Witch’s Council had more than doubled in size during the three hundred years of their existed. They had also relocated seven times in order to remain within the heart of the demonic activity and during Danielle’s reign as the slayer, the two councils along with Daniel and her watcher were located in Italy near the border of France.

As Danielle’s eighteenth birthday grew near by one month and her victory continued to pile up without even a hint of wavering, a debate between eight men within the Watcher’s headquarters broke out about who was the better slayer, the legendary Helen or Danielle. The leader of the Watcher’s Council sat in the room and was mildly interested in the lively debate that was going on before him.

“Helen was cunning and imaginative,” an aficionado of Helen's triumphs said.

“Danielle has all that and more,” an opposing person argued.

“Helen defeated Cruciamentum after he had taken her ability away from her,” the first man said. “She didn’t even lose her confidence

“Danielle could’ve done it if she was the slayer back then,” the second man said.

“Since there is no way to test Danielle’s ability against Cruciamentum this debate is pointless,” a third person said.

“Perhaps there is a way to test her,” a fourth person commented. Everyone gave him a curious look. “Well, not against Cruciamentum of course, but we can duplicate what took place between Helen and Cruciamentum.”

“Do you mean strip Danielle of her slayer ability and lock her in a tomb with a deadly demon?” The leader questioned.

“According to legends Helen had built up her muscles beyond her slayer strength,” the first person said. “So even though Helen was stripped of her slayer strength she still had the natural strength to fight with.”

“So we’ll pit Danielle against a mundane demon… perhaps a vampire,” the fourth person said

“My sister killed a vampire,” the second person said.

“Your sister killed a recently sired vampire, but you you’re right,” the leader said. “The vampire that we pit Danielle against must not be too mundane.”

“So we’re doing this?” the second person asked.

“If Danielle is all you say she is then this shouldn’t be much of a challenged for her,” the leader said.

“So when should we do it?” the forth person asked.

“Cruciamentum stripped Helen's ability on her eighteenth birthday,” the first person said. “I doubt her birthday had anything to do with it, but Danielle’s eighteenth birthday is in four weeks and if you really want to duplicate what Cruciamentum did to Helen, we should do it then.”

“Okay,” the leader said. “In three weeks from now, Cruciamentum lives.” He turned towards the second. “Since you’re the one with so much confidence in Danielle you can go and inform Danielle’s watcher at what we’re planning. And Danielle can’t learn about this test until after the test is over.”

The second person stood up before saying, “Danielle will make you proud.”

“I’m counting on it,” the leader said before the second man walked away. “The rest of you, go out and find me a suitable vampire.”

Everyone stood up and nodded before walking away.

Five days before Danielle’s eighteenth birthday, Danielle’s watcher began the process on stripping Danielle of her ability. Her ability was completely suppressed the night before her birthday and the day of her birthday, she was lured to an abandoned building and locked in.

The entire watcher’s council waited patently outside. The witch’s council was present too and participated by using their psychic ability to watch Danielle’s progress.

Danielle was in the building for two hours before killing the vampire and when she came out, she was bleeding from several gaping wounds. When Danielle learned of the test, she said a few choice and not so pleasant phrases before storming off.

Two days later, her watcher had to go to her and coaxed her into returning. Danielle lived for another thirteen months as the slayer before being killed by a powerful demon while being sick with a hundred and one fever.

It was seventeen years and a few months after Danielle’s death when another slayer reached her eighteenth birthday. The council decided to test her as they did with Danielle and like Danielle she passed.

During the passing generations, every slayer who had reached her eighteenth birthday was tested on her birthday. The first seven slayers came out of the test severely injured, but passed, but the eighth slayer to take the test was turned into a vampire.

The slayer-turned-vampire terrorized the region for eight years and killed one-fourths of the Watcher’s council along with three slayers before a fifteen-year-old slayer killed her.

The incident of the slayer being sired by a vampire during the Cruciamentum ritual and her killing spree later didn’t deter the Watcher’s council from continuing with the ritual and during the centuries that it was practiced the survival rate was seventy-two percent. The last slayer to go through Cruciamentum before the destruction of the original Watcher’s Council was Buffy Summer in the year 1999. When the Watcher’s Council was rebuilt in the later half of 2003, a year after its destruction, the ritual was never brought back.

19