Remove ads

Taylor is DOOMed

Reader mode
A few things about the Xander-related comments.
  1. The shovel talk was Willow, not Xander. She said it to Riley.
  2. Xander never broke any prophecies. The prophesy said Buffy would die, and she did die. It said nothing about staying dead. It's a classic prophesy twist.
 
Remove ads
11. Omake - DOOM R&R: Think, Explain, Fight
  • Sidestory
    • Looks like there are actually two more chapters of this omake from Hell... ;) This one and the next one.​

    Willow watched Buffy practicing with a sword against a training dummy, the blonde concentrating on decapitating the thing yet again. As always she marveled at how fast her friend could move and how hard she could hit. After a few more strikes, she looked back at the book she'd been studying, trying once more to identify any of the weird demonic things wandering around Sunnydale.

    She shivered a little at the thought. Since meeting Buffy she'd had some very strange experiences, but nothing she'd ever seen could be compared to the things that had happened since the night that Taylor woman wandered in, cracked the Hell Mouth open like it was a jar of cookies, and jumped through it.

    The Mayor had vanished, although she had a pretty good idea what had been responsible for that, having seen it. All the vampires had also disappeared, with the sole exception of Angel, who was walking around looking thoughtful and very worried these days. And there were ongoing oddities that seemed to be related to things that might have been trouble if someone hadn't got there first.

    Like the Judge. And Spike and Drusilla. And whatever had been in that huge stone box that had vanished from the museum the night after it had been discovered. They'd found melted fragments of stone some distance away a couple of days later which could well have been the remains of the box, but whatever had been inside it was utterly destroyed. All the hostile demons that normally roamed the night and the underground passageways had disappeared too, along with every other potential threat she could think of, or that Giles or anyone else could either.

    Leaving only the new demons, and any non-hostile old ones, who were apparently being very careful indeed to remain in the 'non-hostile' category. She couldn't blame them as hostile things suddenly had an extremely short life expectancy around Sunnydale…

    Even Principal Snyder was looking both worried and much less sure of himself these days. He still sneered at Buffy and the rest of them, but he did it very quietly and left the room rapidly whenever he saw any of them. She couldn't help wondering why.

    Mind you, she'd always put him down as a barely non-hostile demon anyway, so perhaps she'd been right.

    Poor Giles was getting more flustered by the day as they found more and more examples of something bizarre happening in the world of the supernatural. All the earthquakes where there were no known faults or any other normal causes, for example. The way that giant law firm Wolfram and Hart seemed to be having the worst luck of the century, with building after building meeting a strange and violent fate for no obvious reason. Sinkholes, fires, lightning strikes, sudden flocks of tornadoes restricted to the immediate vicinity, a particularly aggressive attack of mold in one case, and even a small meteorite that in the most implausible series of events had set off a gas explosion in a building that didn't even have gas… It was like someone had a grudge against them.

    Angel had said that the company was notorious in the supernatural world although he wasn't entirely sure why, so maybe someone really did have a grudge against them, and the ability to carry out that grudge in interesting ways.

    She glanced at the Hell Mouth cap and wondered, yet again, before shaking her head and going back to her book and ruminations, the latter of which were getting in the way of the former.

    So far between them they'd noted at least two dozen different types of the demons who seemed to literally worship the woman they called HER, in letters you could hear were capitalized. Willow couldn't help but wonder if SHE was in any way human at all, never mind what she looked like. The 'can take a crossbow bolt to the head without noticing' trick did suggest otherwise, as did being followed around by a vast quantity of things that made normal demons look like fluffy little ducklings.

    Unfortunately not one of those two dozen or so encounters matched anything in the books Giles had available, or the ones Angel had dug up from one source or the other. They varied in type from the little clawed ones that were more than capable of mowing down vampires by the handful, through the floating balls that seemed to have a weird sense of humor and were strangely polite if you happened to meet one in the street, to the giant hooved ones that looked more like classical devils than anything she could think of. Although even there they had a lot of differences. And there were all the ones that seemed to be some strange sort of demonic cyborg, like the one that had been chasing the mayor, who'd looked absolutely terrified when she'd last seen him running for his life.

    She'd heard that Angel had also seen an honest to god dragon, or something that could easily pass as one, flying around over the town one night a week back, which had left him looking very nervous indeed. And quite disinclined to go outside for a couple of days…

    Apparently it had been very large indeed.

    One of the things that had become apparent quite rapidly, aside from all these new creatures being hideously dangerous and extremely hard to fight if you were crazy enough to even try, was that they all seemed to be a lot smarter than they were used to. Most demons, in her experience, weren't all that bright. Vampires especially although there were exceptions, like Angel himself, and she would admit rather reluctantly, Spike, who hadn't been an idiot for the most part. Not that this was in any way good, since a smart evil thing was much more dangerous than a stupid one.

    But these things… Most of them seemed to be at least as bright as a normal human and she had a sneaking suspicion that some of them were a lot smarter than that. The big devil thing especially, although the floating balls were pretty convincingly intelligent, at least according to Cordelia who entirely to everyone's shock seemed to be on good terms with several of the demons.

    Which was just bizarre. Not only that they'd say hello when they passed in the first place, but that the brunette cheerleader would simply say hello back like it was her next door neighbor.

    After all, she had only been introduced to the world of the supernatural some time after Willow and Xander, but now she was so jaded about the presence of demons she just nodded to them and went about her business? Who did that?

    The things still gave Willow the willies. And Buffy wasn't too keen on them either, possibly because they triggered her Slayer instincts, which didn't seem to know what to do about something that basically laughed at her when she attacked them, but didn't do anything other than gently fend her off and make it look easy until she got annoyed and stomped off. At least she'd finally given up just jumping them on sight, although it had taken her a while to work out that approach wasn't working.

    She was stubborn, Buffy was.

    Poor Giles was on his fourth set of glasses now by Willow's count and looked like he hadn't slept properly for several days, Miss Calendar was waling around with a peculiarly thoughtful yet baffled expression most of the time…

    Yeah, it had been a strange time in Sunnydale since one memorable night some weeks back. On the other hand, the town was probably safer now than at any time since it was founded, so there was that.

    She'd just be a lot happier if she could figure out why, and she suspected that everyone else would be too.

    Or… possibly not. Depending on what those things really were, and what SHE was.

    Sighing, she turned the page, scanned it, shook her head, and moved on.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Sitting in his office and contemplating an empty glass that had held a very small amount of very good liquor up until a little while ago, Giles absently wondered if he was beginning to have a drinking problem. What with all the bizarre goings-on in the last little while, he didn't think it was unreasonable.

    And now the latest news was that the Council had sent their second Slayer and her Watcher to check up on him.

    Oh, they hadn't come out and said that, of course. Nor had they even bothered to tell him anything useful at all. They just asked for more information, information he didn't have, and then clearly disbelieved most of what he could tell them. In a way he didn't blame them, he disbelieved a lot of it too, even though he was the source of it. Unfortunately there was far too much evidence to show it was actually true even if no one could really work out what it was to begin with.

    Trouble, definitely, he was sure of that much, but precisely who for he wasn't entirely certain. Although vampires in general did appear to be having an extremely hard time of it in recent weeks, seeing as how they were basically extinct in the wild at the moment.

    He'd never in his wildest dreams thought that would happen. It was a constant struggle to merely hold the status quo against the forces of darkness, but apparently all that was needed to win was the forces of even darkerness to turn up out of the blue and wipe out everything else.

    For some reason that didn't completely fill him with confidence.

    Although he had to admit that as far as demons went the new ones were much easier to deal with than the usual lot. And far more terrifying, even when they didn't seem to be actually trying. In some ways that was even worse, having something that looked like it would give Satan himself reason to never sleep again casually smirking at one and politely nodding as it passed.

    He shuddered a little at the memory.

    No, while things were arguably better on the Hell Mouth than they'd been at any point in history, he wasn't at all sure this was in fact a good thing in the long run.

    Because what would happen when they ran out of other demons to eat?

    Shaking his head, he looked wistfully at the empty glass for a moment longer then carefully and deliberately put it away in his drawer and locked the thing, before pulling his notebook closer and picking up a pen. He stared at the words on the page for a while, half a stiff and annoyed note to the Council on it laying out his displeasure with them going behind his back, then dropped the pen and tore the page out of the book. Crumpling it up he tossed it into the nearly overflowing bin next to the desk with a sigh.

    No, a letter wasn't going to do it. They were being sneaky which never boded well. Bloody Travers was undoubtedly attempting to discover anything he could put to his benefit, as he tended to. Giles didn't like the man and never had, and trusted him even less. He represented the worst aspects of the organization, a side of it he personally didn't like at all but saw no way to be rid of. Giles and people like him had tried for decades to get the Council to look on the Slayers as more than a disposable resources, with little long term effect. Buffy had already broken many records in how long she'd lived after being Called, and how effectively if non-traditionally she and her friends had dealt with multiple major problems, but that meant almost nothing to certain people.

    As far as they were concerned she was close to being a rogue element, which was entirely against how they wanted things. The mere fact that she had friends who helped her was enough to taint her in their eyes, and by extension Giles himself. His protestations that their small team was the most successful in centuries was glossed over as irrelevant, which was infuriating. And worrying, as he had a nasty feeling that sooner or later they might decide that something should be done about it, which he couldn't see ending well.

    And after all, they had a spare Slayer already. One who was much more traditional in her training and outlook, although having met the girl during the recent confusion a few months ago he was fairly sure she was rather more intelligent than they really realized. Exposure to Buffy and her friends might well have set her on the path to questioning aspects of her training that some would prefer to remain unquestioned.

    Sam Zabuto, too, while in most ways a very traditional Watcher, was politically adept in a way that Giles himself knew he wasn't, and was very fond of his Slayer. He wouldn't put it past the man to have taken precautions just in case the Council higher-ups decided to do something awkward.

    Which of course led him once more to muse on the 'coincidence' of Kendra happening to simply bump into Xander the other day.

    He was rather suspicious about that whole encounter, truth be told.

    Clearly Sam and Kendra had been in town for at least a few days. The questions the Council had been asking him about his reports had changed in tone noticeably about a week ago, and when he'd checked on the other Watcher's location at that time via some discreet contacts, he'd found that they'd been in Mexico. Jenny had managed to use her ability with those infernal computers to come up with flight plans from the nearest airport to their former location to Sunnydale, which showed that there was only one direct flight a week. Oddly enough that flight had been on the same day as the Council's behavior changed.

    His conclusion was the obvious one, that Sam and Kendra had been ordered to investigate, without letting him know about it. And that meant they'd been here for that same week, minus travel time. They'd have undoubtedly very quickly discovered that his reports were entirely accurate, as the new demons weren't exactly discreet for the most part. Anyone who wasn't suffering from terminal 'Sunnydale Syndrome' as Xander put it would easily notice them skulking around, unless they were going out of their way to be stealthy, which admittedly they could do appallingly well. He suspected that in fact at least some of the demons, the ones that showed an odd sense of humor, might well have deliberately shown themselves to Kendra, and possibly Sam, merely because it amused them.

    They were like that, he'd decided.

    And he also surmised that Sam would have quite rapidly decided that the Council wasn't telling him everything, as it was entirely certain that they wouldn't have told him more than the absolute minimum they could plausibly get away with. Which in turn would mean that soon enough he'd realize that he was in a situation without precedent, and Giles might well know far more about it than he did. Not being an idiot, he wouldn't like that, but being somewhat less prone to deliberately ignoring orders when they were stupid he wouldn't have overtly done anything he wasn't supposed to.

    On the other hand… It was entirely possible that he might have arranged things to accidentally betray Kendra's presence to Xander, knowing full well that the boy would immediately inform Giles about it, which would probably mean Giles would end up going down the exact thought path that he now was.

    The question was, what did Sam expect Giles to do, after deducing all this?

    Especially as it was very likely in his opinion that the Council, being the paranoid controlling wankers they were, would have also sent one of their black ops teams in without letting either him or Sam know about it, to watch both of them and see what happened. And most likely to stick their oar in at the most bloody inappropriate time possible as they usually managed to do…

    "Damn it," he sighed faintly, spinning his pen through his fingers as he thought. "Sometimes I really hate my employers."

    Turning, he looked out the window into the dark, wondering if someone was looking back through the sights of a weapon. He certainly wouldn't put it past them.

    "Arseholes," he mumbled even more faintly as he came to a decision and stood up, dropping the pen once more, then walking across the room to collect his jacket which he put on and straightened carefully. Then he went through to the library where Willow and Buffy were reading and practicing respectively.

    "I've got to pop out for a little while, I'm afraid," he said to the two girls. Handing Willow a spare set of keys, he added, "If I'm not back by the time you get bored, please ensure that you lock up on your way out. I'll see you tomorrow in that case."

    "OK, Giles," the redhead replied with a smile as she looked up from the ancient tome she was currently engrossed in. "Is it something important?"

    He smiled back. "I merely need to talk to a friend for a while," he said. Looking at her notes, he studied them for a second or two. "No luck, I see."

    She shook her head, looking mildly depressed now. "No, I can't find anything about those guys and I've looked through almost every book you have! It's so weird. You'd think that someone would have described them somewhere over the last couple of thousand years, but there's nothing so far. Cordelia and Xander couldn't find anything either."

    Giles looked around with a small frown. "Where are those two, for that matter. Normally they infest my library as much as you two do." He smiled to show it was a joke, making Willow giggle. She shrugged.

    "I'm not sure. Xander said he needed something to eat, and I think Cordy went with him. They were both gone when I looked up anyway."

    "Ah." Glancing at his watch, he nodded. "It is quite late. And the streets are remarkably safe these days. Oh, well, as I said I'm not sure how long this will take so please make sure to lock up when you leave if I don't make it back by then."

    "Sure, Giles, that's no problem," she smiled, putting he keys in her pocket.

    "Thank you, Willow." He looked over at Buffy, who was being particularly brutal to the training dummy with a quarterstaff at the moment. "Lift your right shoulder more, Buffy," he advised after a moment. She glanced at him, nodded, and did as instructed. The next blow removed what was left of the dummy's right arm, making her smile.

    He sighed a little. Yet another one gone. Oh well.

    Turning, he left the room to the sound of muted thwacks of wood on wood. He needed to track Jenny down and make inquiries as to her progress on a spell she'd mentioned.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "Peaceful, isn't it?" Xander asked, looking around the moonlit scene. The moon was full at the moment and cast more than enough light to let them see where they were going, although he had a good flashlight in his hand, and a stake in the other. In theory there were no vampires left within a hundred miles according to Angel, but he wasn't a complete idiot.

    "Quiet, certainly," Cordelia agreed, sipping the coffee she'd brought with her. "Although it's also kind of creepy. Why are we walking through the graveyard again?"

    He looked at her, a slight smile on his face. "Because I wanted a burger and you followed me, saying that you were tired of sitting around in the library reading dusty old books looking for something that wasn't there to begin with. And then I said we should go for a walk. And here we are?" He spread his hands wide. "In Sunnydale's quietest suburb. These days, anyway."

    She looked at him like he was stupid but he could see traces of a smirk under the carefully cultivated disdain. Cordelia, when you actually got to know the real Cordelia, was actually an interesting person with a sense of humor that resonated well with his own. She just covered it up with uber-cheerleader and miss popular girl.

    He felt that was a shame as the real Cordelia Chase was someone he'd have liked to have met a lot earlier in their lives. Although better late than never.

    Recent events did seem to have changed things about all of them, he noted to himself as he flicked the flashlight on and aimed it at a movement he'd seen out of the corner of his eye, only to see a rabbit hastily hop away.

    "Bit jumpy there, Harris," Cordelia snarked. "Did the scary bunny frighten you?"

    He grinned. "They're terrifying. Haven't you ever seen Monty Python? The killer rabbit of Caerban-something. Vicious streak a mile wide, those things!"

    She rolled her eyes. "First, it's Caerbannog, and second, the common Sunnydale Rabbit is only a rabbit. Little thing that hops around getting eaten by coyotes. Perfectly safe to humans."

    He stopped and stared at her. "You do watch Month Python!"

    "Of course I do, it's a classic show," she told him, taking another sip of coffee. "And if you ever tell anyone I'll make your life absolute hell."

    They shared a grin, then kept walking, slowly circling around to head back to the entrance. Xander really wasn't sure if this was a date, or a walk with a friend, or what the hell it was, but he was enjoying it. Cordelia seemed to be too as far as he could see.

    "So what do you think will happen when SHE comes back?" he asked after a couple of companionably silent minutes.

    Cordelia looked at him, then up at the moon. "No idea, but hopefully nothing terrible," she finally answered with a shrug. "I don't think it'll be anything either one of us can do anything about in any case, so why worry about it?"

    "That's a way to look at it, I guess," he replied doubtfully. "Sort of fatalistic, but whatever."

    He looked at her again, then slammed into something in front of him and bounced off.

    Again, for the second time in two days.

    "Damn it, I need to start looking where I'm going," he muttered to himself, holding his nose with both hands and wincing as he sat up.

    "Xander."

    "That really hurt," he added as he prodded the bruised appendage carefully with his fingers. "Ow."

    "Xander."

    "Nearly broke the fucking thing," he grumbled.

    "Xander!"

    Cordelia's voice had been growing more urgent, he suddenly realized, as the pain ebbed. He looked up at her to see her staring past him, her face directly illuminated by the full moon and appearing very pale even in the dim light.

    Slowly he turned his head, then looked further up.

    Glowing eyes above a grin full of teeth and under an impressive set of horns met his horrified gaze.

    "Greetings, Blessed Ones," the huge demon said in a voice like a cheerful rock crusher. One huge clawed hand came down, making Xander close his eyes, then yip a little as the thing very carefully picked him up by the back of his coat and set him on his feet. "I fear your night vision is deficient," it added without rancor. "This is only to be expected in a mere human, of course."

    Opening his eyes when nothing horrible happened he stared at the thing, which was just standing there watching them, then looked at Cordy whose eyes were so wide it looked like it hurt. "Um… Thanks?"

    "You are welcome," the demon replied with a small nod. "SHE would want those SHE blessed with the gift of continued existence to remain undamaged until such time as SHE decided their lives were no longer worth preserving. We serve HER will."

    "So you keep saying," Xander mumbled, before slapping a hand over his mouth while Cordelia glared at him. "Sorry," he added in a tiny voice.

    The huge demon laughed, the sound reverberating around the tombstones. It patted him on the head like a pet who'd done something clever. "HER Mercy is as infinite as HER Rage, and as Glorious," it said. "In all probability you will continue to exist, never fear."

    "That's… nice," he managed to say.

    "SHE will return very soon, having purged the lower realms of the unworthy," the demon commented, looking at them both. "We have served HER will on this plane by removing those aspects SHE would consider offensive if they were not beneath HER notice. It has been an enjoyable exercise. SHE is a benevolent deity to those who follow HER guidance as we who have seen the Truth do."

    A squeak from Cordelia made Xander look away from the demon at her, then follow her eyes upwards. He emitted a remarkably similar squeak when he saw what she was looking at.

    The absolutely vast flying thing that was gently cruising overhead a few hundred feet above them like a scaly cloud peered downwards with glowing red eyes, seemed to inspect them all closely, then raised its head to look around. The wings flapped once, twice, the sound like a huge flag rippling in the wind, then it circled around and headed back across Sunnydale.

    When he finally remembered to take a breath and lowered his gaze, he saw the demon was grinning at them. "SHE even tamed the great beasts of the Umbral Plains, a feat none has ever managed before. Not even the Dark Lords who ruled before SHE destroyed them for their insolence could dream of such a thing. HER Rage is infinite and HER Power unlimited."

    After a moment spent wrestling with his better judgment, and a look at Cordelia who was still staring after the dragon or whatever the fuck it was, the incomprehensibly vast creature barely visible as it disappeared into the night sky, Xander asked, "Who… is SHE?"

    The demon inspected him for close to a minute, during which he sweated a lot and hoped he hadn't made a terminal mistake. Eventually it chuckled, making the ground vibrate. "I will tell you about the Glory of HER, the DOOM QUEEN, so that you might spread the Truth to those worthy of worshiping HER." The thing leaned on a nearby crypt, the cross on top glowing a dull red then slowly slumping into a puddle that ran down the marble without it appearing to notice or care, although both Xander and Cordelia gaped in shock.

    "Betrayed by those SHE trusted, SHE was sent far from HER home, to a place and a time outside HER knowledge," the demon began, while the two teenagers listened. "SHE fought the forces arrayed against HER, over and over, never allowing defeat to stop HER beginning again, while learning all that could be learned from those who had gone before and those who stood against HER. Succeeding where no other had done, SHE raged HER way across time, space, and dimension to finally arrive on the Umbral Plains, where SHE kept going without pause. All fell before HER unlimited Rage and Power, only those who were wise enough to comprehend the Truth allowed to live. SHE whittled the number living throughout Hell itself to almost nothing single-handedly, showing no mercy to all that opposed HER yet passing over those who offered HER no resistance."

    It paused, looking at them, with a small but toothy smile on its face. "SHE is both merciless and merciful. All who stand against HER perish, but SHE will defend the innocent without hesitation. Becoming HER enemy is death, but HER followers know that to see the Truth is to live. We follow HER and worship HER Glory. HER Rage is a thing of true beauty to behold. SHE defeated the Dark Lords without hesitation, SHE destroyed the final Lord of Hell in personal combat, and SHE is the rightful Heir to Hell by right of conquest. SHE rules over us all and commands us to HER will, which we gladly follow for SHE is the DOOM QUEEN. HER knowledge is without peer, HER intelligence beyond mortal understanding, and HER will is unbendable and infinite."

    "So… SHE was human?" Xander asked rather hesitantly when the demon seemed to have stopped speaking.

    It smirked at him. "HER beginnings were humble but now SHE is our deity, far beyond your comprehension. Yet SHE remembers HER ancestry and values it. Despite HER travels through the multiverse, SHE always returns to HER family and HER home. And we follow, to serve HER will. Always following, always worshiping HER Glory, as is right and proper."

    "Huh," he managed to say in the end. "Cool."

    "It is most rewarding," the demon nodded, looking pleased.

    "And when SHE comes back, SHE will go home again and you guys will go too?" he asked somewhat nervously.

    "We will follow HER anywhere," it replied. "But we will not predict HER motives, as they are HERS alone to say."

    It glanced at a nearby crypt, sniffed, then smiled a little grimly as Xander and Cordelia exchanged glances. "It would appear that we have missed some vermin," the thing commented idly, in a lower voice. "They are remarkably difficult to eradicate considering how depressingly weak they truly are."

    Xander looked suspiciously at the same crypt, the door of which showed signs of having been forced open recently now that he actually noticed. The moonlight was just bright enough to glint off some fresh scratches in the stonework. "Vampires?" he asked as he clutched his stake more firmly, while Cordelia pulled a spray bottle of holy water, one of her own ideas, out of her purse and held it ready.

    "Several of the small parasites you call such, indeed," the huge demon smiled. "Would you like to deal with them or shall I?"

    Before Xander could reply, along the lines of 'by all means help yourself,' the door flew open and four vampires charged out, one holding a baseball bat and two of the others wielding machetes. Cordelia ducked to the side and spritzed her bottle frantically, doing little since she was too far away, while Xander jumped sideways as the bat-swinging one dived at him. "Holy shit!" he screamed, startled, and stabbed out with the stake.

    "OW!" the vampire shouted as he got it in the shoulder by some fluke. "That hurt you little bastard!"

    "GOOD!" he yelled back, dropping and rolling as it swung backhanded at him with the bat, then jumping to his feet and running around the demon, which was simply standing there watching with interest.

    "Get back here," the vampire snarled as it chased him.

    "Fuck off," he retorted, rounding the stationary demon for the second time and seeing that Cordelia was now on top of the crypt having apparently climbed straight up the side of it without hesitation. Fear for your life was a real motivator he thought hysterically as he ducked another swing of the bat. The other three vampires seemed to be concentrating on his companion, who was now spraying each grasping hand in turn and evoking howls of pain and clouds of smoke.

    He reflected, not for the first time, on how stupid most vampires really were. Unfortunately they were also persistent and dangerous.

    "A little help here?" he screamed at the demon while still running around it in circles pursued by the vampire which seemed to really hold a grudge. For some reason none of them appeared to have noticed the huge horned creature standing right there, which was more evidence that they were pretty dim.

    The demon watched him go around it a couple more times, then reached down and grabbed the vampire by the head, lifting it clear of the ground without any effort at all. The thing yelled in shock and kicked the air while Xander stopped and bent over, breathing hard. "Thanks," he said.

    "You are most welcome, Blessed One," the demon rumbled, still idly holding the vampire like it weighed nothing.

    "Hey, get your ass over here and help me, Harris!" Cordelia yodeled in fury, now stamping on questing vampire fingers having run out of holy water. "I thought all these things were wiped out!"

    "They missed some," he called, looking around for a moment, then finding what he was seeking.

    "No, really?" she shouted with heavy sarcasm. "I would never have guessed."

    He ran over to the crypt and swung the baseball bat the first one had dropped as hard as he could, hitting one vampire squarely on the head and knocking it flat. Before it recovered he stuck the bat under one arm, ripped his stake out of his belt, and slammed it into the thing's heart. Moments later it disappeared in a cloud of dust.

    "Nigel!" one of the two remaining ones shouted in fury.

    "Nigel?" he repeated, staring at it, before shrugging. Grabbing the bat again he took a stance as the other vampire charged him. He swung and slammed it in the side, but it kept going and flattened him in return. Moments later he was holding the bat by both ends and pressing it into the blood sucker's throat as it tried to bite him. "Jesus," he panted, "get off me you fucker."

    "Just hold still so I can kill you," the vampire snarled.

    A large hoof caught it in the side and flung it into the crypt hard enough that Xander heard bones shatter. He looked up to see the demon peering at him. "Your will is strong but your strength... is not," the thing observed with an amused look.

    "Very funny," he muttered as he painfully levered himself to his feet.

    "I thought so," it commented, making him give it an unfriendly look. He'd entirely stopped being worried about it by now, since it seemed completely non-hostile at least as far as Cordy and himself were concerned.

    Picking the bat up again he ran over and clouted the final vampire on the top of the head with all his strength, the blow driving it to its knees, then kicked it in the crotch when it tried to get up. Cordelia, looking furious, scrambled down the side of the crypt, stalked over, yanked the stake out of his hand as he was about to use it, and viciously shoved it into the thing's chest.

    All of them, including the demon, looked at the piece of wood sticking out of the vampire. "Holy hell, lady, that hurts!" the vampire whined.

    "Wrong side I believe," the demon remarked.

    Cordelia sighed heavily, pulled the stake out, and stabbed it back in again a few inches to the left before the vampire had a chance to react. A moment later there was only a cloud of dust left. She whirled on the demon and shouted, "Why the hell didn't you kill them all? That's your thing! You guys kill vampires all the time but you left those ones alone? What's that about?"

    "I wished to see how the Blessed Ones would handle such a minor threat," it replied calmly. Waving the vampire still held in one hand by the head, muffled cursing coming from the entirely covered face, at the one lying in a groaning heap against the crypt with most of its bones shattered, it added, "Your methods are inefficient and slow."

    "Well, not all of us can shoot fireballs, you know," she shouted.

    The demon held out a hand palm up and a ball of fire grew in it. "It is a simple enough process."

    "For a demon, yeah," the girl snapped. "If you didn't notice, we're just ordinary humans. And we're not HER."

    "Only SHE is HER," the demon smiled. It absently tossed the small fireball at the groaning vampire which didn't even have time to swear before it vanished in the ensuing explosion. "All one does is reach down into the depths of rage that live inside all beings and extract some energy. Forming and guiding the fires of Hell is a simple matter. Even a mere Imp can do it."

    Xander and Cordelia looked at each other, then shook their heads. Yeah, life these days was bizarre, when you could have a conversation with a demon about hellfire and not have it seem all that peculiar considering what else was going on…

    After a few seconds, Xander held up the bat he still had. "At least I got a bat out of it," he said brightly.

    Cordelia glared at him. "And I broke a nail. And these shoes are ruined," she snarled. "Brilliant idea, Harris. Let's go for a walk in the cemetery. In Sunnydale! You're an idiot."

    "You didn't have to follow me," he retorted, waving the bat experimentally. "Good balance."

    "And you!" Cordelia turned and leveled an accusing finger at the demon, which grinned at her. "Next time, just kill all the vampires before they ruin my shoes, got it?"

    It bowed in an ironic manner. "As the Blessed One commands," it said with a chuckle. Holding out the final vampire, it added, "Do you require this parasite?"

    "Of course I don't want it!" she yelled.

    "Excellent." The thing wound up and threw the screaming vampire straight up, getting a remarkable distance out of it, then aimed a hand at it. A fireball shot from the hand and neatly intercepted the vampire on the way down, the detonation as it disappeared echoing out across the cemetery.

    "Pull!" Xander shouted, unable to help himself, then he started laughing.

    Cordelia gave him a look before she turned and stomped off. He glanced at the demon, shrugged, and ran after her. "Hey, next time do you want to borrow my vampire bat?" he asked her. She punched him in the chest and kept going, muttering to herself, as he grinned and followed.

    The demon shook his head. SHE had definitely found a highly entertaining place for a vacation. And some amusing humans.

    Turning he went in the other direction, since he had other things to do.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Sam opened the door then stepped aside, allowing Rupert Giles and the Calendar woman to enter. Kendra looked over from the TV where she was watching the news, her face showing curiosity and some worry.

    "I assume you made sure you weren't followed?" he asked as he closed the door. "The Council almost certainly has another team in Sunnydale."

    "Jenny has a very effective invisibility spell she's managed to get working recently," Giles replied, indicating his companion. "Hello, Sam. And Kendra." He looked at the girl and smiled, before fixing his gaze on the other Watcher. "We need to talk."

    "Yes, I believe we do," Sam said quietly, motioning towards the table. "About many things. Especially who SHE is and what she wants."

    Giles sighed a little as he sat down, Jenny next to him with Sam and Kendra on the other side.

    "I'll tell you what I know, and what I suspect, if you will do the same?"

    "I think comparing notes is probably a good idea at this point," Sam nodded. "Kendra has seen some rather unsettling things in Sunnydale, and more worryingly some rather unsettling things have seen her. And talked to her for that matter..."

    After a pause to collect his thoughts, Giles started talking, both Sam and his Slayer becoming more and more worried as time passed.
     
    Last edited:
  • Sidestory
    • I wonder what the Council is going to think when they discover that SHE is/was Human, and literally FOUGHT her way across Reality alone, through dimensions nothing Mortal ever even glimpsed with being already corrupt, then literally exterminated the Lords of the Umbral Plains..... Should be worth a few Englishmen going through the Giles Glass-Clean (patent pending), you know?
     
    Iceflame55 said:
    I wonder what the Council is going to think when they discover that SHE is/was Human, and literally FOUGHT her way across Reality alone, through dimensions nothing Mortal ever even glimpsed with being already corrupt, then literally exterminated the Lords of the Umbral Plains..... Should be worth a few Englishmen going through the Giles Glass-Clean (patent pending), you know?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Know them, they'll decide she was a slayer they missed somehow, thus falling under their purview. This, of course, will not stand with HER followers, who will delight in showing the council exactly what they think of someone trying to control the DOOM QUEEN.
     
    Perhaps we think that this slightly greedy and annoying Council that Giles & Sam work for might try to do harm against Buffy & Co. and mayhaps they will endure & ensure the undying enmity of Taylor's Minions, since One of her Demon Minions has stated that they have been blesseth by the imprint, acknowledgment, scent of Taylor pheromones' (sweat, blood & oily skin particles) will protect Taylor's recently Scooby-Doo pals, especially Buffy, and that they ought to suffer the ultimate price of undying suffering, undying ignominy of their own imbued & puffed up vanity and sense of superior and unsanctioned authority...

    They need to be punished.

    And since Taytay found Glory and is enlightening her in her possibly potential path unto pulverizing her pustulating brethen that had exiled her to BtVS world..

    Then Dawn Summers ought to be safe from Glory's needs for the Gateway Key... and since she is, at least, the younger sibling of Buffy Summers...

    Well... she will be needing some protection and guidance with her own gifts while Buffy trash & thrash any surviving demons of Sunnydale and rogue PTB entities...

    PUNISH THEM!
    ---HAIL The Taylor, The Terror of the Upper & Lower Demon Regions of Nigh. And every sub and medium levels , likewise.
     
    kclcmdr said:
    And since Taytay found Glory and is enlightening her in her possibly potential path unto pulverizing her pustulating brethen that had exiled her to BtVS world..
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That wasn't Glorificus (Ben is Glory), that was Winifred Burkle the girl that gets her soul nommed by an Old One and essentially infects Illyria with humanity in the process.
     
    It would be hilarious if the monks see Taylor and decide she is a better choice of 'champion' to protect the Key.
     
    mp3.1415player said:
    a particularly aggressive attack of mold in one case
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah, that's not even remotely subtle. How would that even work?!
    mp3.1415player said:
    and even a small meteorite that in the most implausible series of events had set off a gas explosion in a building that didn't even have gas… It was like someone had a grudge against them
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah, funny that. Apparently they aren't as immune to Sunnydale Syndrome as they'd wish to not realize that this is clearly not an accident...
    mp3.1415player said:
    look on the Slayers as more than a disposable resources
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    remove the "a"
    mp3.1415player said:
    You do watch Month Python!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I think you mean Monty Python.
    mp3.1415player said:
    The thing leaned on a nearby crypt, the cross on top glowing a dull red then slowly slumping into a puddle that ran down the marble without it appearing to notice or care, although both Xander and Cordelia gaped in shock.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Nice touch there. What do you bet that was meditated?
    kclcmdr said:
    since One of her Demon Minions has stated that they have been blesseth by the imprint, acknowledgment, scent of Taylor pheromones' (sweat, blood & oily skin particles) will protect Taylor's recently Scooby-Doo pals,
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Ew. I'm guessing that it's probably some mark of her aura of R̶̷Á̛͏G̢͝͡͡͏È́ that lets them notice people she's interacted with, though. And if that's true, then it's possible that the local Slayers can use Hellfire, since they've been kickstarted by just a teeny bit of Argent energy...
     
    mp3.1415player said:
    He'd never in his wildest dreams thought that would happen. It was a constant struggle to merely hold the status quo against the forces of darkness, but apparently all that was needed to win was the forces of even darkerness to turn up out of the blue and wipe out everything else.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    A pity for Giles that The Chronicles of Riddick wouldn't come out for another 6-7 years...
    "In normal times, evil would be fought with good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil."
     
    Oh, to see Giles' face when Xander says, "So I just asked this demon who SHE was and he said that SHE waged a one-woman war on the Umbral Plains and conquered Hell."

    ... and there went the glasses.
     
    Last edited:
    Scary thought would be the doom Queen's "Horde of Hell-things" deciding to take over an Orphanage, and actually providing better care than the previous Operators.
    Imagine a Hell Baron singing a lullaby, or a Cacodemon Interviewing a couple looking to Adopt. ... A hellhound playing with a group of children teaching hunting tactics, and such.

    Just because they are Creatures from the "True Hell", Brutal, Dangerous, and Technically Evil, doesn't mean they can't Care for the Innocent pups.
     
    Itsune said:
    Scary thought would be the doom Queen's "Horde of Hell-things" deciding to take over an Orphanage, and actually providing better care than the previous Operators.
    Imagine a Hell Baron singing a lullaby, or a Cacodemon Interviewing a couple looking to Adopt. ... A hellhound playing with a group of children teaching hunting tactics, and such.

    Just because they are Creatures from the "True Hell", Brutal, Dangerous, and Technically Evil, doesn't mean they can't Care for the Innocent pups.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    If it's the "orphanage" ran by Umbrella, that wouldn't be a high bar to reach.
     
    Itsune said:
    Just because they are Creatures from the "True Hell", Brutal, Dangerous, and Technically Evil, doesn't mean they can't Care for the Innocent pups.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Well, consider Hell's presumed population levels before the great extinction(Taylor) happened. Given the selection pressure, we're seeing the hell versions of Mr. Rogers and Gandhi as the only survivors.

    When you push the bell curve that far, yeah, you can probably find some "pretty good" hell demons.
     
    Even worse... was The Doom Slayer also on his rampages at the same time? If not, what's he going to think when he wakes up and Hell is mostly empty?
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top