Cindy Harker's Mansion

[Hope Mêler]

It took Hope a couple of hours to actually find Cindy's mansion. Well, not the mansion itself, but the driveway. The mans--castle would probably be in there somewhere, behind the huge pine trees. The slayer hadn't got a call from the Circle yet, Austin and his gang seemed to use a heck of a lot of time to get back to the headquarters. Oh well. The more she got done before they called, the better.

She started walking down the winding road up to Cindy's mansion, and soon a huge, dark shadow appeared a couple of hundred meters before her. She laughed.

"So, that's where you live, little princess." Hope said out loud and walked to the mansion-castle...thing. A Rolls Royce was parked outside, but it looked different than the one she'd seen before.

"Man, she got a new one already?" Hope shook her head in disbelief.

She walked up the stone stairs to Cindy's massive entrance door. Everything here seemed like what one would expect from posh people. Just bigger. And fancier. And bigger.

"Yo, PRINCESS!" Hope shouted as she knocked and kicked on the door. "It's your good friend Hope! The Circle needs your help! Get out here now!"

[Cindy Harker]

Cindy sighed as she heard the voice through her nearby open window. Had she been anywhere else in the house, she could have ignored it. But no, she was here, and it was obvious.

Why didn't Hope use the knocker like an ordinary person?

She wondered down the stairs to the door, cursing the fact that she hadn't hired a servant. That'd of made her life so much easier.

She heaved open the heavy door and stared at Hope angrily.

"What do you want?" She snapped curtly, not bothering to invite the vile girl in.

[Hope Mêler]

"Thanks," Hope said casually and pushed Cindy away so she could walk inside.

"Wow!" She exclaimed as she looked at the entrance hall. It was huge and fancy. Shocked. She thought dryly to herself.

"Why don't I live here?" She asked aloud, but turned quickly to Cindy and shook her head. "Don't say anything. Just - don't."

Hope looked around her and picked up a ming vase. "Nice!" She commented and walked over to a hotel lounge like area.
Dumping down onto a chair, she sighed happily and looked over at Cindy. She seemed annoyed. Hm. Effect to the max! She threw her feet up on a mahogany table and made herself comfortable.

"This must be valuable!" She said loudly and examined the vase. "Wonder how fragile it is," she said thoughtfully, as if to herself, but loud enough for Cindy to hear it. She started tapping her fingers against the china.

"The Circle needs your help, Madam," Hope begun and grinned while tapping more at the vase. "Y'know that demon I told y'all about? Rino? He's big and bad and all that. They need your help to do some research." Not that they ever said that. But they will need her.

"I'm supposed to bring you to their headquarters," she finished contently and got up. She threw the vase up in the air, meaning to catch it, but it slipped and fell onto the floor. The expensive ming vase broke into pieces.

Dammit. Dammit! She picked up the biggest piece and looked at it. ...Oops.

"I think your vase has a crack," she shrugged and stepped over the pieces. Cindy didn't need to know that she didn't break it on purpose.

"I think we should take your new Rolls Royce. I'll drive. That'll be quicker." She smiled.

[Cindy Harker]

CIndy gritted her teeth and tried her best not to be furious as Hope caused trouble, but when she broke the vase it was too much.

Just too much.

"GET THE HELL OUT!" She roared, pointing at the door with her finger, but not looking at all.

"If your Circle needs me so much, they need to give me time! I can't pull information about demons out of nowhere even if I wanted to!" She snapped, still furious. "So you can bugger off back there and get them to pay for the mess you've made. I'll be there when I have my research information gathered."

Cindy didn't really want to have to explain herself to Hope, but she didn't have much choice. If the Circle needed her, she couldn't just leave them be.

"NOW GET OUT!" She roared again. "And never come back!"

[Hope Mêler]

Hope took a step back in shock when Carla started yelling. Wow, that woman had a shrill voice! After some seconds she could see the comedy in it all and started laughing loudly, but stopped once she saw the look Cindy sent her.

"I'm glad you'll help, Princess." She replied politely, without mentioning the vase. "It's just that, I can't leave you here alone. I'm also supposed to be your... body..um...guard till you've come to the headquarters. We're afraid that Rino has heard about you and your resources, so he'll probably want to kill you. He's going to send someone over, you see," Hope said, making things up as she was speaking. "Well, that's what we think - are almost sure of - so you need to gather the books that are important and come with me as soon as possible."

After a long and awkward pause she continued. "I know you hate me. But try to look past that. We're doing this for the World. Peace and all that. You're an important piece in the puzzle."

[Cindy Harker]

"Look, Hope, it doesn't bloody matter what I do." Cindy growled angrily. "Do you really think we can affect things? Look, I know a thing or two about demons. They don't use their real names... There used to be this myth, if you knew a demon's name, you could kill it."

Cindy shrugged.

"It's not true, but they like to keep it up." She explained, still growling a little. "But I've never heard of any demon with 'Rino' in his name. Except one."

She pointed to a massive book on the nearby table. She'd lied. She was already studying him. She'd heard the name 'Rino' as President of Devil's Advocates, and she knew it couldn't be coincidence. Hope had mentioned he ran Devil's Advocates in the bar, and she had known because of Hope to look for a new demon in town.

She had no idea it was anything like this, though.

She lifted the heavy book up, struggling a little, and displayed a picture to Hope.

A massive almost werewolf like beast with huge leathery wings, blazing eyes, black darkened fur and gigantic fangs was stood on top of a pile of skeletons and bodies, biting into a human's head with one hand and gutting a werewolf with the other.

She turned the page silently.

It was the same picture, except zoomed out by about a 100.

The bodies were a mountain.

And he was still stood upon them. They were all dead. Rivers of blood flowed down the body mountain as it stretched off.

"Caacrinolaas." She said dryly. "High President of Hell, second only to the Devil himself in terms of power and strength. Unstoppable, unbeatable. He lead the great Demon War over a hundred years ago and through some miracle was stopped. Demonologists hoped that he was dead."

She paused, letting Hope take in the picture.

"We were wrong." She stated firmly.

"If this Rino is truly Caacrinolaas....I can't see why he left any of you alive....but regardless...we're dealing with a demon more powerful than any any mortal has ever dealt with. He is simply unstoppable."

She slammed the book down dramatically on the table, actually because it had gotten too heavy for her and she had had to drop it, but Hope didn't need to know that.

"End of days, Hope. It's the end of the world. And I have no idea how to stop it."

[Hope Mêler]

"We need a bigger boat," Hope whispered and shuddered. "Or just the Devil to come and kill Rino, then make friends with us." She hadn't realised that her boss was that powerful. Or scary. And... ugly.

Well, even better that she was on the right side then. It was perhaps not the good side. But right is good enough. They needed a bigger boat. Still, did she know that Carcra--something would let her live? She didn't. Hope shook her head and pushed the negative thoughts away. If she did a good job he'd let her live. Cindy was right, it was going to be the end of the world. But not the end of Hope.

"You must not give up on hope," she said optimistically. "No pun intended." Hope paused and lifted the book, flicking through the pages till she found the second picture Cindy had shown her. She examined it, then turned back a page and looked at the close-up.

"We don't stand much of a chance, that's clear," she commented seriously. "But we can't just sit and wait for him to kill us either. You have to bring the books you think will be of any use to the headquarters. We should actually move your whole library there," she paused. "Urm. We need bigger headquarters. We need a lot of things... but mostly, we just need to keep on fighting. We need information. Any information at all. If we can't kill him we'll capture him. Like Austin did, in that sword."

That whole episode must have been really embarassing for Rino. Hope smiled.

"We need to know why he's here. What does he want?" Hope shrugged.

A gem and all of you to be tortured and dead!

"We need to hurry," she added thoughtfully.

[Cindy Harker]

"Austin captured Rino!?" Cindy asked in suprise, before snatching the book back and flicking through it. "This explains a lot. Why he was unaccounted for for all this time. But if Austin caught him, why didn't he finish him off?"

She checked another reference, and nodded thoughtfully.

"Means he found the Harbringer. Rino's sword. An artefact of Hell, and all that can seal him away again. It's his one weakness, but if he escaped from it...he's sure to have it guarded."

She paused, thinking.

"But why would Rino not just shatter the sword? It's his only weakness. Why would he keep it in one piece? Hope! We need to get my books on demon rituals. The real advanced stuff. There must be a reason he hasn't broken the sword. And it cannot be good. Follow me!"

She rushed back out into the hallway, and passed through another doorway into a massive library, quickly gathering books.

"Take these." She instructed, dumping them on Hope. "And these." More books. More than Cindy could have held. But Hope was a slayer. "And these." Yet more. "And maybe these, for good measure." She finished off with some demon classification.

"This is going to take a while. Hopefully the Circle can help. Come on! Let's move!"

[Hope Mêler]

"Urr," Hope grunted as Cindy loaded all the books on her. She was sure she'd picked more than she actually needed. "Good." She said loudly, contradicting her thoughts.

"To the Rolls Royce then? Or do you have a bigger and more fancy car?" Hope grinned happily, knowing that Cindy having fantastic cars was actually not such a crazy and unlikely idea! "Or maybe a private jet!" She continued jokingly.

After a very short paused she looked up.

"You don't have a private jet, do you?"

[Cindy Harker]

"Private jet? Well, not here." Cindy shrugged. "Where would I land it?"

That was a stupid question, as far as Cindy was concerned.

"And there is no fancier car I would let you ride in." Especially not after the last time. "Now, come on, follow me."

She left the library, grabbing one last book and dumping it on Hope, mostly out of spite, but it might come in useful, and led the slayer to one of her cars.

"Put the books in the trunk, I don't want you to scrape the seats." She instructed wearily, not expecting Hope to obey in the slightest, and climbed into the car.

"So where do the Circle live anyway?"

[Hope Mêler]

"So you do have a private jet somewhere," Hope laughed and opened the door to the back seats with her foot, then dumped the books there, hoping that the seats would be scraped. "You've got way too much money you know." She commented and walked to the door to the driver's seat.

"Get out, Princess," she commanded and opened the door. "I'll be driving this time, thank you very much. Last time you got lost and we haven't got time for that now."

[Cindy Harker]

"Not on your life." Cindy replied angrily. "Now get in. I know the way to the city."

She started the car and got lost in thought for a moment. How did Hope get there if she didn't have a car? Surely she didn't walk?

It didn't matter anyway. As long as she didn't make too much of a mess. Well, any more than she was already. But still, Cindy was actively restraining from the anger at what she was doing to the car.

"And I do not have too much money." She paused, considering. "Well, maybe. But the fact that you're moaning about it just shows that you're jealous."

[Hope Mêler]

"If I was jealous I'd kill you and steal all your money," Hope said seriously and got into the car. "So you better not make me jealous about anything. Just drive."

Suddenly she remembered that she needed Cindy to believe that she was good too, not only the members of the Circle, if she wanted to succeed. Talking about killing her probably didn't help so much. And she'd already broken that expensive vase. By the look of things, this was not going so well.

On the other hand, people can surely be good and rude at the same time? Not to mention dislike others. Hope simply disliked Cindy very much. Yup, that was it.

Still, she should perhaps make more of an effort at making Cindy like her more. Or hate her less.

"I mean, please drive. We're in a hurry."

[Cindy Harker]

"Believe it or not I don't keep all my money on me. It isn't easy to steal." Cindy said patronisingly, mocking Hope's threat. She didn't believe Hope would kill her. Even Hope should be smarter than that.

You couldn't just murder someone as rich as Cindy and get away with it, after all. It's the kind of case that was all over the papers.

Although Hope wasn't particularly clever, which did worry Cindy a little.

"Let's just get back to this base." She grumbled, starting the car. "I swear, if there wasn't an apocalypse around the corner..." She grumbed the last bit so that it was inaudible.

Which was probably for the best.

[Austin]

Please Note
Time Jump Initiated
All following events are at least two months after those above