"Right. I think - I think I'm going to say I'm sick of the whole Slayer thing. Which I am. I don't like being told by some mystic fate thingy what to do, and I don't like saying 'well, we're humans, they're vampires, so we're enemies' - so I want to do everything I'm not supposed to, and shouldn't they want the same, right, humans and vampires at each others' throats is awfully convenient if you don't want the world to change much - "

"Though that risks - needing some specific scapegoat enemy..."

"And I don't think I have enough blood for a bunch of captive vampires, at least not yet, which really, really complicates trying to get them as allies, even, rather than just - test beds for my ability to pitch 'sunshine and rainbows and hugs are totally the vampire aesthetic.'"

"It's not an aesthetic," he says, a bit sharply.  "Vampires do evil because we're supposed to do evil the same way humans are supposed to do good.  If you want them to pal around with humans you gotta convince them that they'll be corrupting humans or something, or else get them to not care about doing evil the same way you'd convince  a human to not care about not hurting people."

"Yeah, I get that. Sorry. I'm kind of just - frazzled right now."

She frowns and presses the heel of her palm against her forehead. "I know how to convince humans not to care about hurting others - it's actually pretty easy? But, like, humans have self-interested reasons for doing evil stuff, and you can get them to override their empathy with - something in the general area of selfishness, especially if you're convincing them other humans deserve to be hurt, though I guess there'd be corresponding self-interested reasons for a vampire - sinking to the level of good."

"Sounds like it comes back to having a steady supply of blood again," he says, "if you wanna bribe them with something."

"Yeah. Enlightened self interest and all. Maybe throw in a cult of personality." She snorts, though doesn't sound happy. "Fascism, now in vampire."

"Yeah," he says, and lapses into uncomfortable silence.

"I think I have a lead on the blood thing, but - it's not gonna pan out fast enough for these guys."

"If it makes you feel any better I didn't really like any of 'em," he says awkwardly.

She laughs, dryly.

"If it makes you feel any better, killing prisoners is pretty evil by my moral system."

He laughs, sounding surprised at himself, or at her, or at - something.

"This is really not funny..." Still, she sounds amused.

The thought 'maybe we can race to see who corrupts the other first' flits across her mind, nonetheless.

"Whatever you say," he says.  "Do.  Uh.  You want me to come meet you in town."

"That seems like it'd help, yeah."

"All right.  I'm not gonna try to make the trip while the sun's out, so I'm at least a day out.  See you soon."

"See you!"

Click.

Dealing with the prisoners is a lot less enjoyable than talking to Galbraith.

Nausicaa handles it alone.

She's - shut down, for a bit, distant.

And then she recovers.

(She's always been able to forgive anyone; why wouldn't she forgive herself?)

Kaylee - gives hugs.  There's not much else she can do.

*

With Vanessa and her underlings dealt with, the school can be told that Nausicaa's flu has cleared up, and she can return to class.

It's a bit of normalcy, at least.

She's quieter than she used to be, more serious. Focuses in class, and actually gets caught up to where she'd been (which was mostly 'just barely failing').

And she throws herself into researching demons and vampires and hell realms - languages are way easier than she'd thought, and she finds an audio cassette for learning Latin, starts reading some of the older works for herself.

Tag welcomes her back with a firm nod and a slap-on-the-back sort of hug.  As things settle down, he wants to know if she's still sure that the smartest choice isn't running the other way from all of this.  "But if you say yes," he adds, seriously, "I'm not gonna argue."

"I'm about as sure as I can be."

"That's pretty damn sure.  Okay."

"How've you been doing?" Kaylee asks.  "You seem pretty well decompressed, but, you know, if there's anything I can do that'd help you, let me know."

"I think I just need - something normal? That isn't - " She waves a hand vaguely. "You know. All that."