Revenge, Version 1.0
By Maquis Leader
Rating R
Author’s note: Set before Surprise. From Ralkana’s comment, “I have Revenge in a folder in my hard drive”. She meant a particular story title by Nameless Ensign that she was looking for, but it made the hamster slide to a halt in his wheel. The poem She Walks In Beauty is by Lord Byron. Merry Christmas Ral, you’re the best Chief Minion a megalomaniac ever had.
One day while I was working on a story, I completely forgot that I had forwarded a list of story titles to Ralkana to see if she had them on her computer. I get a message in the chat window “I have Revenge in a folder in my hard drive” and I was completely confused. After staring at it for a minute I said “you do?” and she said she did.
So now I was really wondering wtf she was talking about. I made a crack about revenge being a dish best served cold but I didn’t realize you could have it in your computer. She reminded me that it was a story she’d been searching for and we both had a good laugh over it. And I started thinking that maybe there was something to that idea.
I wrote it up and she betaed it, minus most of the author’s note, and had no clue
it was her Christmas present. Ral is my “Chief Minion”
because of a comment by a bitca in our J/C fandom who
said I had “minions” working for me. We’re still looking for all the other minions, btw, we’ve only found a few. Guess the rest are out
taking a smoke?
Bob Larkey juggled his jacket and briefcase as he pulled the mail out of the box. Unlocking the door, he went inside and tossed everything on the dining room table.
“Bill, bill, junk – God, Mom, stop writing!” He shuffled through the pile of mail. A slim CD case in red and black slipped out of the pile. “Not another AOL disc!”
Bob Larkey is a name I saw while working in customer service for a very large cable company that covers the east coast who I won’t name but they’re not very nice to their customers. I saw the name and thought it’d be perfect to use in a story someday. And we all get those damn AOL discs, don’t we? Wee bit of a red herring there.
He started to throw the disc away, when the lettering caught his eye. The silver and purple letters seemed to glow. “Cool.”
Tearing open the case, Bob walked over to his computer. “Congratulations, you’ve been selected… yada yada… testing new game… whatever… prizes… prizes?”
Dropping the CD into the drive, he quickly went through the installation process, impatiently clicking ‘yes’ on the terms and agreements screen. When the main screen came up, Bob blinked. “Wow. These are incredible graphics! This is so cool!”
Quickly, he read through the instructions for creating and equipping a character. Mouse hovering over the start icon, he glared at the screen. “Prepare yourself! Lonzak the Wizard is coming! Beware my magnificent fiendishness!”
With a click on the start icon, Bob Larkey, aka Lonzak the Wizard, disappeared.
Voyager in joke #1 here. Lonzak is the name of Chaotica’s chief minion in a holodeck program.
And reappeared in a dark and damp stone room.
“What the hell?” Turning, he tripped over the long robe he was now wearing. “Where’s my pants?”
Belted around his waist was a bag of scrolls and another of potions. On the floor lay a staff with runes carved into it. “Okay, this is too weird.” He searched the room. “Where’s the pause button? I don’t have the memory for virtual reality! Hello?” His voice echoed off the walls.
“This has to be some kind of joke. Fine! I’ll play along!” Grimly, he went to the door set in one wall and jerked it open.
Outside, the corridor was the same damp stone, with torches set in holders along the walls at irregular intervals. Trusting his old Dungeons and Dragons credo of ‘you can’t go wrong going right’, Bob turned right and walked down the corridor.
Gave myself away there, didn’t I? I played way too much AD&D at one point. But that was the general rule. If there was an intersection and no clear indication of which way to go, well… you can’t go wrong going right. Right?
As the corridor twisted to the right, he noticed a strong smell. Then he heard the growling. “What the hell?” He squinted. Was something moving at the far end of the corridor?
A shape bounded down the dimly lit corridor. Something dog like. If dogs were covered in bright red scales, had a forked tail, and a mouthful of huge teeth.
The glowing red dogs were stolen right out of the game Diablo. They’re annoying little critters! Don’t ask how many hours I’ve wasted chopping them to bits.
Dropping the staff, Bob screamed and turned to run. He made it two steps before the dog pulled him down. Two more dogs ran up and joined the feast, tearing the screaming man apart.
Back in Bob’s den, the light glinted off the silvery lettering on the CD case. Revenge.
This was my first attempt at deliberately doing a teaser like they did for the episodes. I nearly chopped this section out, worrying that nobody was going to want to read about Bob Larkey and what happens to him. Luckily, Ralkana talked me into keeping it, and I’m glad now that she did.
Xander pawed through the mail. “No pizza coupons? My God, what’s the world coming to?” A red and black CD case slipped out of the pile. “Not another AOL disc! Ah… what are you, my beauty?” The silver and purple lettering seemed to glow. “Cool.”
Some parallelism here now that everyone knows what this disc does. I was wanting a reaction of “uh oh…” Hope I got that.
Tucking the CD into his bag, Xander opened the back door. “I’m going to school.” His mother didn’t look up from her magazine. “I’ll remember to take candy from strangers and hitchhike with an axe murderer on the way.” When she nodded, he went out the door and let it swing shut behind him.
Adding to the neglectful parents Xander had made reference to many times. I like showing there’s more than one side to a character. For all his joking and laughing, I think Xander has some pain buried down deep.
He made it through second period before ditching and heading
for the library. Stopping by
“Xander, another hack and slash game?” She shook her head. “Don’t you ever get tired of those?”
“Never. Help me install it?”
“You mean install it for you?”
“What? And deprive you of that supreme computer nerd feeling? Come on…” He turned on the puppy dog look. “Pretty please… “
“Okay, okay.” She shut her locker. “Once again, I’m regulated to the grunt work.”
“You’re my helper! My minion!” Xander put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her. “My chief minion even.”
“I’m your only minion.”
“True, but even if I had many minions – you’d still be Chief.”
Voyager in joke #2 and also referencing the unrequited
love
“Yea, me!” She slipped her arm around his waist. “Are there any perks to this minioning?”
“Undying love and gratitude isn’t enough for you?” He dropped a friendly kiss on her temple. “How about I get us pizza and a movie tonight?”
“It’s a date!” She blushed. “I mean – a friend’s date – not – you know – a date date.”
“Loan me the money for the pizza?” He asked.
“Sure.” Part of minion duty must mean lending money.
“And the movie?” Xander pushed open the doors to the library. Angel was sitting at one of the tables. “And hello! Isn’t it daytime? Shouldn’t you be in your coffin?”
Bit of a reference here to the episode Parting Gifts where we got Angel’s opinion on the myth of vamps sleeping in coffins. I got the impression that the whole sleeping in coffins on dirt thing pissed him off for some reason.
Angel ignored Xander, instead giving
“Angel.” She said in the ‘oh wow’ way she always did when she saw him. “Hey.”
“Xander.” Giles looked up from the book he was holding. “Angel is here at my invitation. We’re discussing poetry.”
“Poetry?” Xander snickered. “That’s real manly, Dead Boy.”
“Xander!”
“It’s okay,
“Well… if you’re lying in bed and reading poetry…” Xander smirked. “Not the manly thing to be doing.”
“It passes the time while the lady rests from… other activities.”
“Yeah, well… “He didn’t have a comeback for that one.
Xander spent a lot of episodes sniping at Angel, and for once I wanted Angel to win. Why shouldn’t he rub it in that, unlike Xander, he’s not a boy?
“In any event – “ Giles said sternly. “It seems that Angel knew the poet and this particular poem was written about him.”
This is a reference back to the episode She, and the hysterically funny bit Angel did in the museum while avoiding the museum guards. The poem is Le Vampire by Baudelaire, and after reading it, it does seem a bit Angelus like. It also gave me a logical reason for Angel to be in the high school library during the daytime.
Bad enough Dead Boy had that young-and-handsome-forever thing going for him. Now he had poets writing about him. “Whatever.” Xander shrugged. “My name is in the top one thousand players of Endless Quest.”
“And I’m the only Slayer.”
Xander jumped and turned to find Buffy standing behind him. “Hey, Buffy.”
Angel choked down a growl and the urge to rip out Xander’s throat. The scent of the boy’s desire for Buffy was sharp and rank to his sensitive nose. Not that he could blame Xander, Buffy was beautiful today in a green blouse and tight jeans.
This is set during the time Xander still had those hot and heavy feelings for Buffy, and I’m thinking that didn’t go over well with Angel. Especially since, according to my theory anyway, Angel can smell desire as easily as he can fear or fresh blood. Notice that Buffy is dressed as inappropriately as always for high school. lol
“Angel.” Her hazel eyes sparkled as she walked over to him. “Don’t tell me, there’s some big nasty crisis thing I need to know about.”
“No, I just brought Giles a book.” Standing, Angel offered her his chair.
“Yeah, seems vampires are big poetry fans.” Xander told her. “I prefer a more physical lifestyle myself.”
“Mouse clicking being quite strenuous these days.” Giles muttered.
“Poetry’s pretty.” Buffy's cheeks turned pink as she sat down.
Which means there’s some near smutage here that I haven’t gotten around to writing, ‘cos you know I’ve imagined a naked Angel reading poetry to Buffy during a rest in the action…
Oh, dear God, no! Xander had a horrific mental image of Buffy lying in bed with Angel. Naked. Not reading poetry. “But not as much fun as killing demons!” He sat down in the chair next to her before Angel could sit there.
Angel frowned, but contented himself with standing behind her and resting a hand on her shoulder.
“Xander, your game is ready.”
“Are you putting games on the library’s computers?” Giles frowned at Xander. “Those are for school use only.”
“And coincidentally, I’m a student at said school.” Grinning, Xander leaned back in his chair. “And like you ever use them anyway?”
“Yes, well, be that as it may – “
“And like real students ever come in here?” Buffy waved a hand around the otherwise empty library.
“Exactly!” Xander exclaimed. “So they’re going to waste anyway.”
“Hey!”
“Ah, another game for the Xandermeister to conquer.” He leaned closer to Buffy. “I have killed many a virtual demon in my day.”
“Go, Xander.” She smiled.
“And of course.” He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Vampires. Lots of vampires.”
Angel’s hand tightened on her shoulder as she pushed Xander back. “Goodie. You be the Slayer from now on.” She patted Angel’s hand. “I’ll retire and let Angel read poetry to me.”
At the computer,
“Xander, bored now.”
Couldn’t resist a reference to the
With a click on the start icon,
And here we go… they find out about this week’s big
bad. I was hoping to catch everyone off guard here after getting the disc into
Xander’s hands, only to have
Giles blinked as
Buffy jumped up and turned to look at where
She allowed herself a minute to panic and then forced herself to be calm. Checking the pouches on her belt, she found potions and scrolls. Holding each one, she knew somehow what each one did.
A staff lay on the floor and when she picked it up, the same feeling of recognition tingled through her. The items were the same ones she’d given to her character. She was also wearing a long green dress.
“Maybe I should wait for help.”
Turning, she saw the door behind her sliding open. “They’d run!” She bolted out the other door and slammed it shut behind her.
Out in the corridor, she looked one way and then the other. Left or right? “Okay… eni, meni, miny, moe.” She turned right and started down the dimly lit corridor.
“She simply vanished.” Giles stared at the chair
Xander was wandering through the stacks calling for
“How do you know?” Buffy had checked the hallway just in
case
“This is magical.” He turned the CD case over in his hands. “There’s glamour on it.”
“A pretty spell?” She frowned.
Another idea I have is that vampires, especially one as old as Angel, are sensitive to magic and magical items. I always imagine him getting a tingling feeling when he touches the CD case, almost like the feeling you get when you’re too close to an electric fence.
I also took a moment to poke fun at Buffy’s seeming ignorance. I say “seeming” because I think that she’s much smarter than she ever lets on. Also, I’m a smartass and it’s what I always thought when someone said “glamour spell”.
“In a manner of speaking, yes.” Giles took the case carefully. “A glamour spell is used to make an item more attractive so that it’s more likely to be picked up.”
“So we’re looking for magic by Revlon?”
Angel gave her a slight smile. “Could be. How else do you explain waterproof mascara?”
“So the game is magic?” Xander sat down in front of the
computer. “Then we go get
“Xander, no!” Buffy vaulted over the table and knocked him away from the keyboard.
“We can’t just leave her there!” He tried to force past her to get to the computer again.
“We don’t know where ‘there’ is!” Grabbing his arm, she wrestled him face down onto the tabletop.
“We’ll find her, Xander.” Giles assured him. “I promise you.”
“And the only way to do that is to play the game!” Xander struggled against Buffy's hold.
“He’s right.”
Buffy looked up at Angel’s soft words. “Angel, we can’t – “She let Xander up.
“Play the game?” Angel looked to Giles. “If she was sent somewhere, we have to go after her.”
“Angel, we need to find out how to retrieve her.” Giles shook his head. “Perhaps the game has some clue in it.”
“And in the meantime, she’s there and in danger!” In the silence following his words, Xander sat back down in front of the computer. He quickly put together a character and hit start. Nothing happened.
No way was I making it that easy. Plus, it didn’t allow for the reaction I wanted later when I reveal what’s in the game that makes people vanish.
“It may be a single use spell.” Pulling off his glasses, Giles rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
“Maybe if we put it on another computer?” Ejecting the disc, Xander bolted out of the library.
Following him to the computer lab, Giles explained the situation to Jenny Calendar. The computer teacher turned the disc over in her hands. “Definitely magical.”
Just how does she know it’s magical? Hmmm? Some easy to do foreshadowing here. Couldn’t resist. Yeah, I know that we’d seen she was a techno pagan and had some knowledge anyway, but I liked adding to the idea that she knew more than she was sharing with them.
“What is it with demons and computers these days?” Buffy
shivered, remembering the demon Moloch that
“Nobody reads anymore.” Angel pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “They’re all on the internet.”
“Tell me again how these boxes aren’t an instrument of evil.” Giles snorted.
Ignoring him, Jenny put the CD into one of the lab computers. “Rupert, if you’ll look for a retrieval spell, I’ll see if I can get into the computer code.”
Ralkana reminded me of how Jenny called him Rupert and not Giles like
everyone else did. Something I always liked and yet totally forgot as I was
scribbling along. See why Ral is Chief Minion?
“And how long will that take?” Xander protested. “We need to
help
“If Xander and I – “Buffy felt Angel’s hand on her shoulder. “And Angel go into the game, we can help keep her safe until you can get us out.”
“Absolutely not!” Frowning, Giles shook his head. “Buffy, we cannot risk your being injured or killed in some other dimension.”
“Why?” She challenged. “Because I’m the Slayer?”
“Exactly.”
“No big. I die, another is called, remember?” She said flippantly.
“And if you die in some other dimension – another may not be called.” The Watcher took hold of Buffy's arm. “You are simply too valuable to risk. I forbid it!”
It’s not that Giles doesn’t care about the others, but I figured that his duty as Watcher is going to come running to the front here. I also have the opinion that he came to care for Buffy as if she were his own daughter, which he wasn’t supposed to do, and his feelings cloud his judgment a bit.
“But Xander and
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Giles let go of her arm, aware of Angel’s narrowed eyes and tightened jaw. “But if anything happens to you – I don’t know what would happen.”
“I know what will happen if I don’t go.” She said quietly. “I’d be letting a friend die.”
“Rupert, please.” Jenny laid a hand on his arm. “Go find a retrieval spell. I’ll set the game up on a computer for each of them. Xander’s the expert on games, he can help us prepare.”
“I am?” Xander blinked. “Of course I am!” All right! I’m the man! Oh dear god, now what do I do? Grabbing the game manual, he did a quick read through while Jenny began installing the game on the computers.
Giles hesitated for a moment before returning to the library.
“Buffy, you’re a warrior, you too, Dead Boy.” Quickly Xander moved from computer to computer outfitting the characters. “Being as there’s no vampires in the game.”
“Um, Xander?” Buffy looked up from the manual. “There are.”
“And they’re all on the wrong side.” He pointed out. “I’ll go as a thief type and that’ll help with traps and IDing anything we find.”
I like Xander, when he’s not Angel bashing, and I think he’s got what it takes to step up and take care of things when he has to. Sure he hides behind Buffy whenever possible, and I can’t blame him one bit, but he manages to choke down his fear and do whatever he has to do to help win the day.
Angel pointed at one of the monsters in the manual. “That looks familiar. I’ve seen one of these.”
“What is it?” Buffy wrinkled her nose up at the picture of the ugly beast. “A turtle? Eww… are those suckers?”
“It’s a Kessian beast.” He shook his head. “Nasty and hard to kill.”
Voyager in joke #3 here. I
suck at making up demon names and so Ral and I tossed
names around from Voyager until we found one that sounded demony.
We didn’t like Kes much anyway…
“Are any of them not nasty and not hard to kill?” The comment was light, but Buffy couldn’t disguise the bitterness.
“
The cool touch was reassuring, and Buffy smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
“We’re ready.” Xander interrupted. “If you two are through with the kissy face?”
“Kissy face?” Giles walked back into the lab with a fat book in one hand and a large bag of weapons in the other.
“No kissy face.” Buffy nodded primly. “Hand holding only.”
“Yes, well.” The Watcher gave Angel a stern look. “You are rather young to be indulging in – kissy face.”
The barb struck home and Angel let go of Buffy's hand as if it were suddenly coated with holy water. She was young, but then, compared to him, the entire population of Sunnydale was young. Including the buildings.
No B/A story can get by without some Angel angst and guilt. Again, Giles is playing father figure here and that was a very clear “get your undead hands off my daughter” message.
“There should be a few minutes for us to take inventory once
we get in the game.” Xander felt strangely calm. Somehow his fear of not
finding
“And if not?” Buffy pulled a stake out of the bag Giles had brought back with him. “Maybe these’ll go with us?”
“Maybe.” Xander picked up the manual and clamped it in his teeth. “Pthis – oo.”
Keeping a firm grip on the bag of weapons, Buffy moved her mouse over the start icon. Beside her, Angel did the same and locked his free hand around her wrist.
Putting one hand on Buffy's other arm, Xander took a deep breath around the manual. “Now!”
With a simultaneous click on the start icon, Buffy, Angel, and Xander disappeared.
The bag of weapons and the manual fell to the floor.
“Oh dear.” Giles sat down heavily.
You didn’t really think I was going to let them go in with the manual now did you? I was hoping to get a reaction of “oh my God! Is nothing going to go right?” here. Personally, I like the stories that make me do that. I want that neatly wrapped up ending, but make me work to get there.
Buffy, Angel and Xander appeared in a dark and damp stone room.
“The good news is – we’re in.” Xander grinned. “The bad news is – we’re in.”
“Oh my God!” Buffy's voice startled both men. “Why am I dressed like this?”
Angel’s eyes widened. Buffy was wearing a skimpy leather and fur bikini. Very skimpy. A sword was strapped to her waist and a dagger stuck up from her boot top.
“Let me just say…. Wow!” Xander said after a moment of taking mental pictures.
“Wow, nothing!” She pulled the blue cloak she was wearing around her. “It’s cold in here! And why aren’t you guys in fantasy beachwear, too?”
Because we all know that women in the fantasy novels
and games are dressed like they shopped at Fredrick’s of
Angel and Xander were both in tunics and trousers and Angel had a vest of chain mail. He tugged at the long red cloak he was wearing. “Here, take this.”
“Ah, no.” Xander grabbed his hand. “That’s part of your protection. It’s a cloak of chain mail. It’s – hey!”
“What?” Angel pulled back as Xander grabbed a big handful of his cloak.
“I know – I can tell what it is by touching it!” The brown eyes were lit up with wonder. “It’s like it’s talking to me!”
“Well, yea…” Buffy rolled her eyes.
“And this – “ Xander grabbed the large amulet Buffy was wearing. “Magical! This is so cool!” He ran his hands up Buffy's arms to the metal armlets she was wearing. “And these – “
Angel’s soft growl made Xander turn. Angel was in full vamp face. “Are so off limits!” He threw up his hands and backed away. “And best when viewed from afar.”
“Angel.” Buffy shook her head.
“Sorry.” The look on his face as it shifted back said otherwise.
Angel was generally pretty easy going, but I think if Buffy is dressed
in only a fur bikini and Xander is running his hands up her bare arms, that he’s going to get a bit jealous and
possessive.
“You guys get pants and I get…” Tugging at her bikini top, Buffy frowned. This was a lot more skin than she liked to put on display. “Fashions by Conan. So not fair.”
“We better get moving.” Xander told him. “In most games, if you sit too long, something comes after you.”
“Sounds like real life.” Angel followed Xander as he opened the door.
With one last tug at her top, Buffy followed them out into a dimly lit corridor. Xander started to turn left, but Angel stopped him.
“Everyone automatically goes to the right.” Xander explained. “So we need to go to the left, it’s safer.”
I’m letting Xander have his moment in the sun so to speak. For once he’s the expert and everyone else is looking to him. Notice that he’s smart enough to avoid that going right thing?
“There’s blood this way.”
“You sure – “ Xander stopped. “Right. Forgot the whole vampire thing for an insane second.”
“Guys.” Buffy called. “Body.”
A badly mauled body lay just around the curve of the corridor. Blood was splattered over the floor and walls.
“Let me just say – “Xander gulped. “Real game not so much fun.”
Buffy noticed that Angel was standing back, his hands clenched into fists. “You okay?”
“Fine.” He jumped as she touched him.
“Xander, we need to move on.” She said over her shoulder.
“Let me just see if – ick – our friend here has – oh God – “ Holding his breath, Xander flipped open the dead man’s cloak. “Useful things – please don’t let me yak – “
“Fine. Angel and I are going to check our back.” Buffy led Angel back up the corridor. “Angel, you sure you’re okay?”
“I didn’t think.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I haven’t fed since yesterday.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. And human blood is…”
Unlike the shows, I like to remind everyone that Angel is a vampire and that he has to deal with certain things. Such as the smell of fresh blood making him very hungry.
“Yeah.” Stepping close to him, Buffy laid a hand on his arm. “Can you deal?”
“I’ll be all right.” Looking past her, he saw Xander coming back up the corridor towards them.
“Staff of power and some potions that might come in handy.” Giving a necklace to Buffy, Xander explained. “It increases your strength.”
“You should keep it.” She handed it back.
“No, you see, here – “ He waved a hand. “You are the weakest link.”
“Excuse? Slayer strength?”
“Buffy, if we are in the game, your character was the one with the lowest strength.”
“And why is that?” Settling her hands on her hips, she glared at Xander until she realized he was staring at her breasts.
“Because your character was female.” He forced his eyes to look somewhere besides her breasts. Half naked, barely covered in an itty bitty fur bikini, breasts. “I didn’t think you’d want to wind up in a man’s body.”
I’d already decided that the rules of the game applied and the female character in Diablo, where I swiped… er borrowed some ideas, the female character is weaker than the male characters. And I wanted to be sure that Buffy didn’t take over from Xander, which would have been easy for her to do if she was still much stronger than him.
“Good point.” Buffy put on the amulet. “And it goes with my outfit, too. Yea.”
“Ready?” Xander turned and led them down the corridor once again.
Moving cautiously, they rounded the curve of the corridor and found themselves at another intersection.
Angel didn’t have to point the way to the next body. A meandering trail of blood led to the torn and mauled body that lay against one wall. A female body.
Deliberately misled everyone into assuming this was Willow. I was hoping it would give a sense of danger and urgency. It was a good way to end the scene and if I had a commercial, I’d have inserted it here. *grin*
“Rupert!” Jenny stopped the computer code scrolling by on the screen. “Look at this!”
“Did you find something?” He looked up from the ancient text he was scanning through.
“This symbol.” She tapped the screen. “I’ve seen this before.”
“Hmm… it’s familiar to me as well. Wait.” He went into his office and took a book from the file cabinet. “I think… yes! Here!”
Laying the book down on the desk next to her, Giles pointed to a particular entry. “The demon Bilgatz, consigned to another dimension in 1205.”
I was struggling with demon names again and I said to my daughter that
I needed a demon name that was vaguely computer related. She didn’t even look
up from her homework. “Bill Gates, spell it Bilgatz.” Good kid,
and she was right on the money, the name was perfect. And I’m sure that Bill
Gates is a perfectly nice guy, btw.
“Ugh, a face only a mother could love.” Jenny looked at the illustration of the demon. It had one large eye in the middle of its face in between its two large mouths. “What’s his story?”
“Gains strength through sacrifice of willing souls. Hmm… “ He paused. “Normally sacrifices aren’t required to be willing.”
“No, just alive. Until dead.”
“It says here that if he gets ten thousand willing sacrifices, he can break free and return to our dimension.” He pushed his glasses up impatiently. “Why do they always put an escape clause? Why can’t a demon be trapped somewhere for eternity?”
“Take all the fun out of it?” She grinned at him.
“It’s bloody inconsiderate if you ask me.”
That’s my two cents getting tossed in there, Giles
is handy for that type of thing. It seems any demon who’s
locked away or banished has an escape clause built in. Look at Glory and Moloch
for example, they’re banished and yet they still managed to cause trouble.
“Did you find the spell?” She gestured at the book he had been looking at before she interrupted him.
“Yes. I have all the necessary ingredients. If you’re ready?”
“Call me ever ready.” Laughing at the quizzical look on Giles’ face, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Let’s do it.”
Setting up the candles and carefully making a boundary to form a portal, Giles positioned the items Jenny needed within easy reach for her.
Jenny took a few moments to compose herself, breathing deeply and reaching for the calm center of her being. Softly she began to chant the spell.
“Return to me
That which was stolen.
Return to me
That which is mine.
Free from the hold
Free from the grasp
Return to me now from beyond!”
There was a bright blue flash and a gust of cold wind. The candles flared up before going out.
Blinking at the spots dancing before his eyes, Giles hurried
to the portal. There was a jumble of items, but no
“Oh, my God. This is my Malibu Barbie.” She picked up a tanned doll wearing a purple bikini. “I knew Beth Johnson stole her!”
“As happy as I am for you and your doll – “ He sorted through the pile of objects. “
“What?” She clutched at his shoulder.
“Bones.” Gingerly, he moved a tattered comic book off the pile of bones.
“Oh.”
“Tell me this isn’t
“I think it’s my puppy.” Grimacing, she lifted the small skull. “He disappeared when I was ten.”
“It appears the spell is convenient for locating personal items, but not people.”
This was a fun idea that popped into my head while I was writing. What if
they did a spell that worked but didn’t? All those things
that have been taken from a person being brought back? Things you know
someone had swiped but you could just never be sure? But again, it didn’t bring
back
“If
“Out of the question.” With a sigh, Giles picked up the game manual. “I’m going to see if anything in here might be of help. It’s probably all useless drivel, but perhaps there’s something.”
“You’re such a positive thinker.” Trailing a hand across his shoulders, she returned to her seat in front of the computer. “One more quality I love about you.”
The tips of his ears turned red as Giles flipped open the game manual.
I love Giles and Jenny as a couple. It’s still sad that they never had
a chance. Sniffle…
“Buffy!” Xander shouted. “Don’t let them get behind you!”
“I’m trying!” She backed away as the skeletons tried to box her in.
Angel was fighting off four skeletons and a dozen more were rushing toward them. He was in game face and growling as he cut one down with his sword.
“Pull back!” Xander ordered as his sword cut a skeleton in half. “Draw them into the archways!”
Obediently, Buffy began backing toward the two open archways behind them. The two skeletons moved quickly in an attempt to cut her off, but she was able to dodge their swords.
A hard swing of her sword cut one in half and the bones clattered to the floor. The second skeleton was able to land a glancing blow on her forearm, making her cry out in pain. Spinning around, she slammed a foot into the skeleton’s chest, sending it sprawling.
Angel swung his broadsword in an arc, decapitating the three remaining skeletons that were harassing him. Moving to the first archway, he pushed Buffy through and took up a position just inside the opening. He could smell the blood from her injury and had to fight to keep from turning to check on how seriously she was wounded. Xander moved quickly to take up an identical position in the other archway.
The skeletons were forced to come through the archways one a time, unable to fully swing their swords as they moved through the opening. Angel and Xander easily cut them down as they came through, while Buffy guarded their back.
This is a very successful tactic in Diablo, btw, and one that Xander would
know from playing the game. You go out and get the baddies to come after you
and then run back to stand just on the other side of a doorway so they have to
come in one at a time. Hack and slash time!
Nursing her aching arm, she frowned; so far, Xander had been right. She was the weak one here. The rules of the game were in full force it seemed. Even with her Slayer strength, she was tiring before they did. Xander was much stronger and more coordinated that he usually was, and Angel’s strength was easily twice what it normally was.
“Buffy?” Angel stepped back as she flinched and spun around, sword raised.
“Sorry.” She slid the weapon into the scabbard at her side. “Feeling a bit sorry for myself. Quality pout time.”
Given Buffy’s reaction in Helpless, I had to assume she wouldn’t like
being less than the full Slayer package that she usually is.
“Let me see your arm.” He took her arm and examined the injury. The skin was mottled and purple with a small gash along the edge of it. “Hurt?”
“Not so much.” She lied.
“You’re a brave lass.” He winked at her and lowered his lips to the cut.
I can’t resist the opportunity to bring out a bit of Irish in Angel!
“Hey!” Xander pushed Angel to one side. “No blood tasting!”
“What?” Angel’s eyes widened. “I was going to kiss her!”
“Oh, oh…” Xander flushed. “I… ah… never mind.” He backed away. “I’ll just search for goodies… over here…”
While Xander retreated to the piles of bones to search for anything valuable, Buffy and Angel sat down with their backs to one wall.
“Tired?” Angel put his arm around her shoulders.
“Tired of this.” Leaning her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes. “All this fighting.”
“Rest.” Wrapping his cloak around her, Angel pulled her tightly against his side.
They had traveled through the damp corridors for hours, at first following a trail of mauled and hacked bodies. The dead woman they had found early on had given them a scare until they rolled her over and found the face of a stranger.
Now there was nothing more to go on other than the occasional dead monster and Angel’s insistence that they were on the right path. Every room was a battle. Skeletons, zombies, vampires, and various other citizens of hell greeted them around every corner.
By now everyone had to know that the dead woman wasn’t
“All right, no goodies this go round.” Xander announced. “Let’s hit the road.”
“We need to rest.” Angel told him.
“We don’t have time to rest!
“Let’s go.” Buffy climbed slowly to her feet.
“We won’t do Willow any good if we die before we get to her.” Tossing the annoying cloak over his shoulder, Angel stood up and steadied her with a hand on her waist.
“Just – “ For a moment the desperation and fear showed through Xander’s usual bravado. “Just a little farther. Please.”
Angel nodded. “But we need to rest. Soon.”
With Buffy not her usual self, I can very much see Angel taking on a
more outgoing and protective role. He’s letting Xander lead them through the
dungeon, but when it comes to Buffy’s safety he’s going to put his foot down.
“We will.” Xander led them out through the archways and into the corridor. It split off in two directions and Angel grabbed him before he could turn to the left.
“This way.”
“What makes you think she went that way?” Looking down the right passage, Xander shook his head. “It’s darker that way.”
“Because she went this way.” Turning away from Xander and Buffy, Angel started down the corridor. “I can smell her.”
“You can – what?” Xander turned to Buffy. “He can smell her?”
“Vamp, remember? Great sense of smell.”
She’d figured out early on that Angel’s insistence on the direction they were
traveling was because he was following
Something they never used enough, even on Angel’s own show, was the
fact that he has this enhanced sense of smell. Tracking
Xander took the lead, using a magical object to scan ahead of them for traps and pitfalls. “Moving on now.”
Buffy caught Angel’s hand as they walked along, and his cool fingers squeezed hers comfortingly. The one good thing about this particular trip to hell was that Angel looked good in his sword and sorcery fashions. The chain mail vest accented his broad chest and shoulders, and the tight leather pants accented – she looked up to see him grinning down at her.
“See anything you like?”
“Um…” Her face turned red and she gulped. “So… what does Willow smell like?”
“Cinnamon. Spicy.”
“What do I smell like?”
“Pure and good.” He dipped his head down to breathe in her scent. “Fiery.”
“I smell like smoke?” A frown crinkled her nose. “That’s sexy.”
“Everyone has a base scent.
This is my own theory here, that everyone has a base scent that’s tied
to one of the elements. There’s something about
“I get it. Like Earth, Wind, and Fire.” Nodding her head, she ticked off the elements. “I’ll have to check out their albums.”
Angel could never quite figure out if Buffy was really this clueless or if it was just an act. She was too intelligent to be as dense as she seemed sometimes. He settled for pulling her close and kissing her cheek.
One cool hand cupped her cheek and tipped her head so that his lips could move down along her throat. His head jerked up suddenly. “Wait.”
“What?” Xander stopped and turned to look at him.
“Shh…” He laid a finger over Buffy's lips before she could speak. “I hear something.”
Another often overlooked aspect of Angel’s being a vampire. Bet he can
hear a pin drop from two houses down. Episodes where someone sneaks up on him
makes me very cranky…
Straining, Buffy listened but heard nothing. Xander tilted his head, but it was obvious that he didn’t hear anything either. Angel slid the long sword out of the scabbard on his back. Motioning for them to be ready, he led them down the corridor.
As they approached a doorway, Buffy could hear the sounds of
battle. Screams and shouting, the roar of fire, and a voice
chanting.
Xander held up a hand as Angel started to open the door. “Wait. That’s some kind of fire spell.”
“And?” Angel could smell
“And fire spells usually travel in a wall or a circle out from the spell caster.” Xander made a sweeping motion with his hands. “If we go in, we could get fried.”
“He’s right.” Buffy laid a hand on Angel’s arm. “We won’t do Willow any good if we’re crispy critters.”
They stood for an eternity of minutes waiting for the
crackle and roar of fire to stop.
Xander met the first one with his sword through its chest, dropping it to its knees where he could easily take its head off. Buffy sliced through another vamp and he exploded into dust. Angel grabbed the last one, twisting her around and pinning her against the wall.
Buffy looked up to see Angel’s beautiful face morph into game face as he sank his fangs into the vamp’s throat. The female struggled with him, but he was far stronger than she was, and he jerked her head to one side to bare her throat. Repulsed and fascinated at the same time, Buffy watched him feed off the struggling vampire. His eyes closed and a look of total rapture covered his face. He was grinding his body against hers and growling, thrusting between her spread legs in a blatant parody of sex.
A twinge of jealousy went through Buffy. For a moment, she wanted to be the vampire, wanted to feel Angel’s body crushing hers, his fangs buried in her throat, feeding off of her. Her skin grew hot as she imagined him between her legs and moving against her. Inside of her.
Angel threw the drained vampire from him and sliced her head off. Taking the wine flask from his belt, he rinsed his mouth out. The blood of another vampire wasn’t the best, but it would help take the edge off his hunger. He looked up to see Buffy staring at him. “Sorry.”
Vampires do bleed, we’ve seen that many times, and Angel bled a
significant amount in Apocalypse, Nowish. So vampires must have some sort of circulatory
system and retain at least some of the blood of their victims in their bodies.
We saw Darla bite Angelus in Five By Five, and he didn’t seem the least bit
unhappy about it, which leads me to assume that vamps can feed from each other
to some extent. However, I don’t think that the blood would be as tasty as
fresh human blood, and I don’t think that a vamp could live off of other vamps.
In a pinch I think Angel could get by.
The sexual aspect of vamp biting/feeding is something that’s been shown
repeatedly in episodes on both shows. Recently I noticed in Disharmony that the
victim who is dragged to the edge of the cage and
bitten, swooned almost immedietly. And again, Angelus
seemed to enjoy Darla’s bite. In my corner of the Buffyverse,
I believe that biting/feeding/being fed from is extrememly
sexual.
“Don’t be.” She held out her hand to him. “I understand.”
Taking her hand, he lifted it to his lips. He could smell her arousal and let a smile lift the corner of his mouth. Her scent reassured him far more than her words ever could.
Xander rushed into the room, sword raised in case any vampires were still inside. “Don’t worry, Willow! We’re here to – “
“Save you.” He finished weakly.
“
“Yeah, well, at first I was really scared.” She stood up and hugged Xander. “But I know spells! Lots of them! And my stick – er, staff has more, and – “ She stood up on tiptoe to hug Angel. “Angel, hey.”
“Okay, so Willow’s found.” Buffy shoved her sword into the scabbard. “Let’s go home.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple.” Angel told her.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get out of here.”
“Probably a typical town or village.” Xander looked around the room they were in. “You really need to dust in here, Will.”
“Oh, vamps.”
“I am,
“We can rest here.” Angel was making a careful circuit of the room. “Two doors so we won’t be trapped. They open in so we can block them shut.”
Xander may have game experience, but Angel has real life experience. I’m
sure that Angel/Angelus have been in many a situation
where it was important to make sure there was more than one exit and that the
place was easily defensible.
“Oh, and I can do warding spells!”
“Set it up.” Angel ordered. “You and Xander will sleep on that side of the room, Buffy and I on the other.”
“Excuse me? Who died and made you boss of the sleeping arrangements?” Xander asked. “Why not girls on one side and boys on the other?”
“We’re the strongest, so one of us with one of them.” Angel looked Xander over and smiled. “And you’re not my type.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Cold, very.” Buffy envied
Still typical girls, even in a dirty dungeon somewhere…
“Thanks! It’s hard to run in, though.” She took the cubes out of her pouch, there were four black and four white. Going to one corner of the room, she began to chant.
“Spirit of the east
Birth of the day
Protect me from evil!”
Touching a black cube to a white one, she set them carefully on the floor as they flared with light.
She moved to the next corner.
“Spirit of the south
Ascent of the day
Protect me from evil!”
With a snap, a black cube and white flared together.
“Spirit of the west
Descent of the day
Protect me from evil!”
With the third set of joined blocks, a glow began to pulse around the edges of their vision.
“Spirit of the north,
Death of the day
Protect me from evil!”
The last joining of the cubes brought an arcing of power from one corner of the room to the other until they were surrounded by a pale glow.
This is a combination of things, the points of the compass and the
medicine wheel as described by my book on Sioux Indians along with the warding
cubes I read about in the Deryni novels.
“Okay. Whew.”
“That’ll give us eight hours.” Xander sat down next to her. “Good job, Will. When we get back, take a few shiny medals out of petty cash.”
I kid Ralkana all the time that she needs to get herself a shiny medal out of petty cash. Just couldn't resist adding that in here.
“Thanks. This is kinda fun.” Her smile faded. “Except for the monsters and dead bodies.”
“Here.” Angel handed Buffy a piece of jerky from his belt pouch. “I don’t really need this.”
“Oh, jerky!”
“You brought magic.” Angel handed her a piece of jerky.
“And so I did.” She munched happily on the jerky.
“Isn’t this just too much fun?” Xander sat down. Opening his backpack, he pulled out two small globes. They began to glow softly as he set them on the floor. “All we need are s’mores and spooky stories.”
“Let’s pass on the spooky stories.”
“Giles and Jenny are working on the research end.” Buffy told her as she washed down jerky with a drink from the wine flask Angel handed her. “And we came into the game to help keep you alive until they figure out how to get us out.”
“This is getting us nowhere.” Jenny rubbed her eyes. “The code is just a simple translocation spell, and only if you’re willing to be translocated.”
“There has to be some way to bring them back.” Giles threw the game manual aside.
Giles would be the type to actually read the manual. He hasn't learned that they're generally pretty useless.
“I’m going to install the game on another computer.”
“Jenny, no, it’s much too dangerous.”
“Nothing happened until they actually started the game.” She put the CD into another computer. “Let’s go through the install sequence and see if anything shows up there.”
Leaning on the back of her chair, Giles watched anxiously as the different boxes appeared on the screen and a gauge showed the files read and copied.
A big gray box with tiny print appeared. Jenny impatiently clicked a small box labeled ‘I agree’ and it vanished. “Wait! What was that?”
“Just the terms. Nothing important.” She shook her head.
“Wait, go back.”
“Okay.” Shrugging, she hit the back button. “It’s just the standard terms.”
“All rights… agree not to distribute…” Giles read the tiny print as it scrolled by. “You agree to willingly sacrifice your soul to Bilgatz.”
“Oh my God!”
“Are those standard terms?” He said sarcastically.
“Of course not, Rupert!” She retorted. “It’s just that – no one ever reads this stuff.”
How often have we just clicked “I agree” and next on these things? And with
no clue what all that fine print says? Of course, now every time I install something
I scroll down the text, just in case. I was hoping to completely catch people
off guard here with this. There was no big warning sign “Danger! Evil!” just something totally innocuous and normal. Something
we see all the time… heheee…
“Perhaps they should start.” Picking up the CD case, he looked it over. “Dear heavens.”
“What?”
“Number 2,347 of 10,000.”
Jenny’s face paled. “We have to stop him.”
“I know. I just hope we can save Buffy and the others while we’re at it.”
“Ready?”
“Are you kidding me?” Cordelia rolled her eyes. “After vampires and demons, a rent-a-cop is nothing.”
Bet you were wondering where Cordy was? To tell the
truth… I almost forgot about her… this is pre X/C after all…
“Yes, well.” Giles tucked his glasses into his shirt pocket. “Vampires don’t have guns as a rule.”
Jenny had tracked down the location of the software company that had produced the game. A small building on the edge of Sunnydale. No one was surprised. The Hellmouth attracted all kinds of demonic activity. Computer based or otherwise.
Joss admits that the Hellmouth is a plot device and I’m all for it.
Just say “because of the Hellmouth” and no more explaining is necessary. Of course
this demon’s followers have to come to Sunnydale to put together their computer
aided self sacrifice, because of the Hellmouth!
The door was guarded by a single man. He was leaning against the doorframe and smoking a cigarette.
“One second.” Jenny opened a small pouch and poured a handful of something red into her palm. “Let me take care of this one.”
Giles and Cordelia watched as Jenny walked up to the guard. He threw the cigarette down and dropped a hand to his gun. Jenny blew the dust in his face and he slumped to the ground.
“Very nice.” Giles opened the door.
“I’ll take this.” Jenny pulled the guard’s gun out of his holster. “Just in case.”
Inside, the factory was dark, the offices closed and locked. A sound of machinery drifted down a long corridor. Moving quickly, they found themselves overlooking a group of people working at packaging CDs.
“We have to stop them.” Giles whispered. “If they get enough souls to free Bilgatz, he’ll be free to terrorize our dimension once again.”
“We need to find the program so I can alter the code.” Jenny pointed at an office just off the work floor. “There’s someone in there.”
“The programmer?” Giles asked.
“Not likely.” She shrugged. “But in this case, who knows?”
I agree with Jenny’s “not likely”. I’m not sure exactly how they
package computer games but I’m pretty sure the game programmers and the program
itself aren’t just sitting around handy like this. However…
we’re talking about a bunch of demon worshippers and well… this is the
Hellmouth…
“We need a diversion.” Frowning, he looked around the factory. He jumped as the fire alarm went off.
The people working hurriedly shut down the machinery and started moving for the fire exit. A chubby young man rushed out of the office and followed them outside.
“So let’s move already.” Cordelia hissed as she crept back to where Giles and Jenny were hiding.
“Good job, Cordelia.” Giles moved quickly down the stairs to the fire door. With Cordelia’s help, he wedged the door handle so that it couldn’t be opened. “That’ll hold them for a few minutes.”
“Yeah. ‘Till they come in the front door.” Cordelia huffed. “Why do I keep getting involved with you freaks?”
“Out of your sense of civic duty, one would assume.”
“Whatever.”
In the office, Jenny was busy at the computer. “I think I can get into the game code.” She said as Giles and Cordelia came into the office.
“Good.” Cordelia looked at Giles. “That is good, right?”
“That depends on if we can help
“What?” She gaped at him. “Excuse me! I’m not here to do physical labor!”
“Cordelia, the file cabinet is very heavy.” He explained. “I need your help to move it.”
“I might break a nail.”
“And they might bash your skull in if we don’t keep them out of here.”
“Fine.” She pushed at the heavy cabinet. “But this is the last time I help you people.”
Let me just say that I like the old Cordy. She was bitchy and selfish
and yet here she is helping out. Another complex character, one I can see
asking herself why the heck she keeps getting involved with these people and at
the same time now that she knows what’s going on around her, she can’t not get
involved.
“Rupert!” Jenny called excitedly. “I’m in!”
Buffy shifted closer to Angel. After a dinner of jerky and
wine, she and Angel had settled on one side of the room, with Xander and
Angel had pulled off the hated cloak and draped it over her, then lay down next to her. With a respectable distance between them. The distance had been steadily narrowing. They had both reached out to touch the other’s face and hair and to hold hands. Gradually, they had inched close enough to kiss.
Is there anybody who didn't see some Buffy and Angel smoochies coming? I doubt I can make it through a story without having them kiss at least once.
“This is almost like a sleepover.” Buffy whispered.
“Do you usually sleep in a fur bikini?” Angel slipped a finger down between her breasts and tugged on the bikini top. “If so, I’m coming over to spend the night.”
Her skin tingled where his cool fingers touched her. Nibbling at his bottom lip, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed closer.
Sliding his hand down her back, Angel pulled her tighter to him. His cloak tangled between them and he tugged it up and over both of them. Her tongue teased along his lips until he opened his mouth for her. His cock hardened as her hot tongue swirled inside his cool mouth.
The chain mail vest Angel wore resisted Buffy's efforts to get her hands under it. He chuckled softly at her little grunt of frustration. Catching and sucking her tongue, he slid a hand down her thigh to pull her leg up over his hip.
Shivers of fire spread through her as a big hand cupped her ass and pulled her hard against him as he arched forward. The hardness pressing into her sent fresh shivers chasing through her. Tangling her fingers into his thick hair, she kissed him harder, thrusting her tongue urgently into his mouth.
Breaking the kiss, she moved her mouth along his face to nibble on his ear. He growled softly and thrust his leg between her thighs. Both of his hands were on her ass, clutching her to him as he ground himself against her body.
When Buffy's teeth bit down on his throat, another growl rumbled up from his belly, and he slid a hand down under the waistband of her bikini bottom searching hungrily for warm, bare flesh.
I actually didn’t intend to get into this much smuttiness,
I just wanted some B/A kiss and cuddle. It’s before Surprise so there’s a limit
to what they can do, besides the fact that
“Hey! Knock it off!”
Buffy jumped as Xander’s shout echoed across the room. She buried her red face in Angel’s neck.
Xander yelped as
Angel chuckled as Buffy's face warmed his neck. “I’ll try to keep the growling down.”
Angel growling is something I’m a big fan of, btw. He is a vampire,
souled or not, and I see vamps as very animal like. Growling when sexually
aroused or angry is something I can easily see him doing.
“Why are you – “Xander sat up. “Are you biting her?”
Turning, Angel looked solemnly at the younger man for a moment. “Not now.”
“Good.” He lay down before popping back up. “But you – “
“He’s kidding.”
“Sorry.” Angel murmured in Buffy's ear as he settled back down next to her.
“No big.” She kissed the red spot on his neck where she’d nipped him. “Embarrassment is good for the soul, right?”
“You’re asking me?” He rolled onto his back and pulled her against his side.” Don’t be embarrassed. We wouldn’t have done anything anyway.”
Buffy laid her head on his chest and moved her hand in slow circles over his stomach. “Angel, do you – will we?”
“Yes, but not here.” He kissed her temple. “Someplace nice – special. Maybe we’ll go away somewhere.”
“A hotel?” That didn’t sound very romantic.
“We’ll have candles and soft music and maybe rose petals scattered across the bed.” His eyes closed and he snuggled into her warmth. “Moonlight coming in through the windows.”
Of course we know they didn’t get anything like this and their one
night had horrible consequences. Easy to foreshadow when we already know the
ending, but it doesn’t make it any less sad. I had to think that they’d both
wondered and planned for their first night. Sniffle…
“That sounds beautiful.” She yawned suddenly. “When?”
“When you’re ready.”
“When is that?”
He smiled and kissed her temple again. “Soon, I’m thinking. But not yet.”
“I’m not sure I’ll know.” Buffy yawned again. “How will I know?”
Angel bit his lip to keep from laughing. “Trust me, you’ll know.”
Nuzzling Angel’s ear, she whispered. “Should we tell Xander you’ve already bitten me?”
“Better not.” He could imagine Xander’s reaction – make that everyone’s reaction – to the information that he occasionally tasted Buffy in the throes of passion. “I don’t want to wake up with a stake through my heart.”
Angel is a vampire and I think that biting or using his fangs would be
just as natural to him as Buffy giving him a hickey would be. Only possibly more dangerous.
“Stakes… bad…”
Angel tucked the edges of his cloak around Buffy as she fell asleep. He could absorb and reflect her body heat but she wouldn’t be as warm as she would have been with a living person. Like Xander. Not that Xander would be living for long if the boy tried sleeping cuddled up with his mate. “I love you, Buffy.” He whispered softly.
Back to the animal feeling with the idea of Buffy being his mate. I
like the idea, it’s deeper than girl friend/lover/wife to me. And no, I didn’t
forget canon here, I remember that Angel told Buffy he loved her for the first
time in Surprise. Or at least we were given that impression. Buffy was asleep
here, so she still hasn’t heard Angel say he loves her.
Angel woke instantly as the protective wards snapped off. “Buffy.”
“I’m awake.” She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “God, I feel good! Maybe I should sleep on stone floors more often.”
Rising to his feet, he noticed that he felt completely rejuvenated. “This is strange. I should be hungry.”
Xander nudged
One of the nice things about playing D&D and other games was the “ok
you slept and so now you’re fine” thing. Playing by the rules
in here means that everyone wakes up refreshed and ready to go. Though poor
“No, it’s looking at me…”
“Wake up, Will.” Xander shook her shoulder. “No frogs.”
“Gaa!”
Buffy stretched. “I feel good. Like I slept for a week.”
“I didn’t sleep very well.” Angel said. “But I feel completely rested.”
“See, the way the game works, is that you sleep – you’re
fully rested and ready to rock.” Xander pulled a handful of jerky out a pouch
on his belt and offered a piece to Buffy and to
“That was purring.” Buffy looped an arm around Angel’s waist. The first time she and Angel had gotten down to serious smooching, she’d discovered that vampires could, and did, purr.
I’ve read the arguments about if vamps purr or not and I come down
firmly on the side of purring. Depends on the situation, of course, but purring
is very much in their nature in my stories. I see Angel and most vampires as
very cat like. Cats purr not only in pleasure but when they’re tormenting their
prey and also when they’re in pain. Complicated creatures…
“Whatever.” Xander shot Angel a dirty look. “We sleep, therefore we’re rested.”
“I hate to be a big poop.”
“Giles and Jenny are working from the outside.” Buffy slid her sword out of her scabbard and held it up. “I say we work from the inside.”
“All for one.” Xander held up his sword to hers.
Angel hesitated a moment before drawing his broadsword and touching it to theirs. “And one for all.”
“But I get to be Charlie Sheen.” Xander joked.
A shimmer in the air caught their attention and they backed
away from it.
The shimmer grew and wobbled. It vanished abruptly and a small item clattered to the floor.
Xander approached it cautiously. “It’s a scroll.” He picked it up.
“Be careful.”
“It’s not magical, Will. Just a scroll.” He unrolled it. “Oh my God.”
“What? What is it?” Buffy snatched it away.
We’re working on a way out. Be careful!
Since Angelus wasn’t making an appearance in this story, I decided to
sneak his font in this way.
“Way to go, Giles.” She grinned.
“He and Ms. Calendar must have found a spell or something.”
“Or we’ll keep moving.” Xander waved them toward the
other door. “You can’t sit and wait long in a game,
“Oh, wait!”
“Enemies large
Enemies small,
Let my eye see them all!”
The stone glowed softly and then slowly opened to reveal an
eyeball. It floated up and out of
“Gaa!” Xander jumped back as it went past him. “And gaa, yet again!”
“I can see what it sees.” She told him. “It’s neat. But yeah, kinda up there on the whole ‘gaa’ scale.”
“But kinda cool.” Buffy told her. “That can see ahead of us? Tell us if there’s any nasty monsters?”
“It’s like this picture in my head. I can see what’s around the corner.” The redhead tilted her head to one side. “No monsters, but there’s a dead end and a door.”
“Useful gaa, then.” Xander started down the corridor once again.
“I like the spells here.”
“Short is good.” Buffy nodded. “Nothing like an epic poem when an ugly’s chasing you.”
They’re short because I had to wrack my brains to think them up, and I
don’t know any Latin.
Xander paused at the door. “Let’s see….” He listened intently for a moment. “Sounds like somebody’s home. Quiet or noisy?”
“Noisy.” Angel said. “Catch them by surprise.”
Xander kicked the door open and rushed into the room, startling the skeletons that were milling aimlessly about. “Follow me, boys!” He yelled as he backpedaled.
Early on, it had become obvious that Angel was the true warrior of the group. He stood just outside the doorway and neatly hacked each skeleton in half with a grim efficiency. When the last skull hit the floor, he stepped over the pile of bones and entered the room cautiously.
Even though Buffy has trained with Giles and has the Slayer stuff going
for her, let’s face it, Angel is the one with the real experience. How many
years did he spend using a sword? Add to that the fact that he’s bigger and
more muscular and he’s the man for the job.
While Buffy and
“Healing potion, healing potion.”
“Good magic?” Buffy set aside a handful of gold coins.
“It’s a recharging potion.”
“Good magic then.” Holding up a large ruby necklace, Buffy examined the fist sized stone. “Wow! Gaudy much?”
“Let me see.” Xander ran his fingers over the jewel. “Eye of Fire. Give it to
“But I found it.” Buffy pouted. “It’s my pretty.”
“And for
“Oh.” She handed it over. “Yours.”
“Thanks.”
Deep in a dark and dank dungeon and they’re still girls and still best
friends. I hadn’t intended to write the scene quite like this but it just came
out this way. I could imagine them saying and doing it this way rather than Buffy
just handing over the necklace. And
“Here.” Xander handed Buffy a pair of large armlets. “These are better than the ones you have on.”
“And all silvery too.” She stripped off her armlets and put on the new ones.
“Guys.” Angel warned them. “What’s that?”
They looked up to see a blue pulsing disc floating a few feet off the floor.
“Get behind me.”
The disc grew larger and an opening appeared in the center. Several items fell out. The disc folded up on itself and vanished.
Xander stepped outside the circle of protection and cautiously approached the items. One was a scroll that he handled carefully before opening. “Hey – we have mail!”
Could not resist the “you have mail” cliché, please forgive me!
Dropping the protection spell,
The demon Bilgatz is collecting willing souls through the game. You must stop him before he breaks free.
His weakness is in his second eye. It is hidden inside his stomach. You must make him open his stomach to use the eye.
We’re trying to send you weapons to help destroy him.
Be careful and hurry!
A map was drawn at the bottom of the scroll.
“Good job, Giles.” Buffy looked over
“Don’t forget Ms. Calendar.” She handed the scroll to Xander. “They make a good team.”
“Looks like they laid a path out for us.” Angel pointed out the lines on the map.
“Not exactly a straight line.” Frowning, Xander traced the path with a fingertip.
“Probably skirting us around the worst of the monsters.” One of the items on the floor caught Angel’s attention. He picked up a leather scabbard and slid the sword out. He felt power tingling through his fingers.
“Ooh… may I?” Xander ran his hand over the hilt. “Very nice. This is a bad ass sword.”
I’ve always loved the image of Angel and that big sword he likes to
use. As big as he is, I can see him with a two handed sword kicking butt and
letting God sort them out.
“Is that the official name?” Buffy pouted. “How come I don’t get a shiny new sword?”
“You get a shiny new crossbow.” Xander handed her a small bow loaded with a single cross bolt. “Magic arrow. You shoot it and it comes back.”
The pout was irresistible and Angel leaned down to kiss Buffy. “You could have it, but I think it’s too much for you to handle.”
“You don’t think I can handle your sword?” She grinned impishly up at him.
“Well, you’ve done – “
“Stop!” Xander interrupted Angel. “No more double entendres! Mental images bad! Bad!”
“Come on, guys.”
“Wow. Get on with your bad self,
Giles and Cordelia pulled another file cabinet over in front of the door. The pounding from the other side was growing louder.
“If I can just clear the monsters from their path…” Jenny frowned at the lines of code. “They can move faster.”
“Yes, faster would be good.” Giles pushed his glasses up.
“This is fascinating. Somehow, they set up a pocket dimension to funnel the souls to him.” She shook her head in admiration at the combination of computer code and magic. “I gave them some weapons and a map. It’s the best I can do.”
And here you finally have the explanation of how exactly they ended up
in the dark, dank dungeon with all the monsters. Sort of…
I have no experience at magic, computer code, or pocket dimensions and so I left
that all up to the reader’s imagination. I’m sticking with my “because it’s the
Hellmouth” theory.
“Why don’t we just shut the computer off?” Cordelia asked. “Or delete all the code?”
“We don’t know what might happen, Cordelia.” Leaning back against the cabinets, Giles lent his weight to keeping Bilgatz minions out. “If it really is a pocket dimension, they could be trapped there forever.”
“At least I wouldn’t have to do this stuff anymore.” The brunette shot back. “The weirdness quotient tripled when Buffy came to Sunnydale. I swear, sometimes I wish – “ She shrieked as an axe head burst through the door panel above their heads.
Cordy’s dialogue came out and then it dawned on me it foreshadowed The
Wish pretty well. I’d like to say I planned the line but it really just popped
out. I hope everyone else got a bit of a giggle out of it like I did.
“Ah… Jenny?” Giles turned to her. “Do hurry, please.”
“Uh – big doggy things!”
“How many?” Angel asked.
“Lots – ooh – they’re ugly.” She shivered. “Like the winged monkeys? But scaly and claws and – “ She curled her fingers into claws. “All grr!”
Another nasty critter from Diablo, and hard
to kill. They’ll swarm a character and they suck the
magic from anyone who uses magic as well as doing physical damage. And they do
look sorta like winged monkeys only not so cute.
“Could be any number of minor demons.” Angel shrugged. “Usually not too bright.”
“There’s like twenty or maybe more.” Frowning,
“We can try the doorway trick.” Xander suggested.
“No, wait.” She put her hand on his arm. “Let me do something first. I think I can take most of them out.”
“Be careful, Will.” Buffy gave her a hand a quick squeeze.
“You know me.” She nodded. “Miss Careful.”
Squaring her shoulders,
“Rain of marble
Hail of stone
Strike my foes
And bring them down!”
From her fingertips flew a blizzard of stones that sliced through the demons, decimating their numbers. The few that survived were easy prey for Buffy's magic arrow and Angel and Xander’s swords.
“Nice trick,
“I wish.” She flexed her fingers.
“Okay, this is it.” Xander pointed out the large, ornate door at the other end of the room.
Buffy stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to Angel’s soft, cool lips. He ran his hand over her hair. “Ready?”
“Ever ready.”
“Let’s lock and load, gang.” Xander kicked open the door. “God, I love doing that!”
Inside the found the demon sprawled obscenely on a throne made of human body parts. Robed acolytes were kneeling in front of him and chanting. “Who dares?” He roared.
“Oh, wait. I’ve seen this movie.” Xander mocked. “It doesn’t end well for you.”
Ok, I admit, I patterned him on every two bit megalomaniac I’ve ever
seen in a movie or tv show. They’re
always sitting on a throne, surrounded by minions, and they always say something stupid
like “who dares”. Since
this guy’s been out of circulation for awhile, he may not realize he’s a
walking cliché. And it’s just too much fun!
“He’s ugly.”
“Kill them!” Bilgatz gestured in their direction. His worshipers scrambled up and ran at the group.
A wall of fire roared up directly in front of her. Angel stepped back involuntarily and Buffy caught his arm before he could step outside the protective ward. He was trembling and his features morphed into his vampire face as the demon inside him panicked at the sight of the flames climbing up to touch the ceiling.
The only real mention of Angelus here. This
was one story where I didn’t get a single smart ass comment from him. I had to
figure that since fire is even more deadly to vamps than humans – they do tend
to burst into flame much quicker – that Angel might be more than a little
freaked to be surrounded completely by flames. Add to that my theory that Angelus
is awake and aware inside of him and he’s dealing with twice the fear.
“Easy.” Buffy slipped an arm around his waist. Her own fear was choking her as the flames wrapped snugly around the silver circle protecting them. Sweat trickled down her face from the heat.
Above the scent of fear came the stench of burning flesh and the screams of Bilgatz’ minions as they died.
The flames died down to reveal Bilgatz standing before his throne, singed but otherwise unhurt. With a scream of fury, he threw himself at them.
“How do we get to the second eye?” Xander asked.
“By taking out the first one.” Buffy raised the crossbow and pulled the trigger.
The arrow pierced the large eye, splattering ichor over the demon’s face. It staggered and almost fell.
Angel’s silver sword bit deeply into the demon’s neck and yellow blood spurted out. Smoke rose up where it splattered onto the floor. Pulling the blade free, Angel swung again, but the demon rolled away.
Xander was waiting and brought his own sword down into the demon’s body. He jumped back as it swung blindly at him with one clawed hand.
“Oh, look at the widdle blind demon.” Buffy taunted. “Hey, let’s play Marco Polo, you’re it!”
“Die!” Bilgatz struggled to his feet. His stomach peeled open to reveal an eye the size of a basketball.
“Sorry, I’ve already put my Christmas gifts on layaway.” Buffy pulled the trigger on the bow once more.
The arrow hit the eye dead center, but Angel decided not to take any chances. Plunging his sword into the eye, he twisted it viciously. Bilgatz fell, screaming and roaring in agony.
Buffy backed into the protective circle of Angel’s arms and buried her face in his throat as the screaming hit an overwhelming crescendo.
You know the bad guys can’t just fall over dead, right? Always with the big production…
“Jenny! Do hurry!”
“Rupert, I can’t do anything!” Jenny told him. “All we can do is wait!”
The axe bit through the door again and a chunk of wood ripped loose as it was pulled back.
“Windows!” Running to the windows, Cordelia tore the blinds down.
“At this point, retreat is the better part of valor.” Pushing the window open, Giles helped Cordelia crawl outside. “Jenny, come here!”
“One more second!” She was typing frantically.
“Now!” He watched as someone reached a hand in and groped for the door handle.
“Got it! Locked them out!” With one last tap at the keyboard, Jenny pushed away from the desk and ran to the window.
Giles helped her out and crawled outside just as the office door burst open. Catching Jenny’s hand, he ran for where they’d parked her car.
I figured I’d better get them out of there just in case dead demon didn’t
equal dead demon worshippers.
The screaming stopped suddenly, and they found themselves in
the computer lab. Buffy held onto Angel for support. “Where’s
“The library?” Xander ran out of the classroom and they followed him to the library.
“From now on – “ Xander collapsed into a chair. “No more demony computer games.”
“You okay?” Angel dipped his head down to lay his cheek against Buffy's.
“Yeah.” She raised a hand to touch his cool cheek. “A little weirded out, but okay.”
Here I am again with the animal metaphors when it comes to Angel. Using the word “dipped” gives me a mental image of an animal rather than a person and as I said before,
I see him as a big cat. Notice too that Angel’s skin is always “cool”? The way
I imagine his skin feeling is like the cool side of the pillow. A pleasant cool and not cold. I know he’s technically dead,
but I can’t see Buffy cuddling with a guy that feels like an ice cube.
The library doors opened and Giles, Jenny, and Cordelia walked in.
“
“We’re all fine.”
“Buffy?” Giles held a hand out to her.
“We killed it.” She squeezed his fingers. “One less demon baddie.”
“Good, good.” He smiled at her. “But let’s restrict the dimensional slaying to our own dimension from now on, shall we?”
And of course we have to end up back in the library with everyone safe
and sound. The
library is almost a character in itself I think.
“Hey, from now on, no away games.” She assured him. “The demons can come to me.”
“Uh… Buffy…”
“Well, you know what I mean.” She grinned impishly up at Angel. “Wanna walk me home?”
“Love to.”
“She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.”
Joyce sat on the stairs and listened to Angel’s soft voice. He was sitting on her sofa, reading from a slim volume of poetry and idly running his fingers through Buffy's hair. Buffy was lying with her head in his lap, her eyes closed and a smile on her lips.
“One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every golden tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.”
She smiled as she realized he’d changed ‘raven tress’ to golden. This boy – no, this man – was no first year college student. He was older, too old for her daughter. Joyce felt her heart soften as Angel laid his jacket over Buffy, then kissed his fingertips before pressing them to her lips. Angel obviously loved Buffy; it was there in the way he spoke to her and the way his dark eyes followed her.
Joyce is home for once, instead of absent as she was so often on the
show. And she’s noticed the older boyfriend which she never did until Angelus dropped
by to tell her that he’d slept with Buffy. I decided to give her the chance to
be more observant for a change.
“And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!”
Another smile crossed her face as she remembered her own first love. Hopefully,
things would end better for Buffy. Getting up, she looked again at her
beautiful child. Not that she would trade Buffy for anything, even if she could
do things differently. She moved quietly back up the stairs.
More foreshadowing for what we know is yet to come. Of course, Joyce
has no way to know what’s going to happen and couldn’t imagine it could be
worse than her own divorce. This is before she found out about the things that
live in Sunnydale.
Angel listened to Joyce’s footsteps and the gentle click of her door shutting. For a moment, he’d thought she would come down and tell him to leave. Not that he couldn’t get back in through Buffy's window.
“Hey, poetry boy.” A small warm hand slid up over his chest and into his hair to tug him down. “If you’re going to stop reading, then kiss me.”
“Hmm… let me think… kissing or poems?” He laughed softly at her pout. “Kissing is good.”
“Uh hum…” Buffy sighed as the cool lips brushed hers. “Kissing is good.”
“Very good.” Angel whispered against her lips.
My idea of a perfect episode ends with a Buffy and Angel kiss. I think
that’s why I like Bad Eggs so much. They’re still so innocent here, so unaware
of what’s going to happen to them soon, that the kisses can still be sweet. I
really like to set stories pre Surprise, so I can skip the angst and pain that
tends to creep into the stories set afterwards.
I tried my best to make this story read like a Buffy episode and I hope
I managed to do that, and I hope that everyone enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading!
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