Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Illusions
Chapter 1
"Looking forward to being back at school?" asked Joyce Summers.
Buffy tipped her sunglasses to reveal a glare at her mother and then pushed them back up.
"I can't wait. Classes, homework, Snyder. In fact, I might go pop from all the excitement," she said with cheery sarcasm.
"Glad you're taking a positive outlook on things," Joyce replied, ignoring her daughter's tone. "You'd better be going or you'll be late."
Getting out of the car and gathering her things, Buffy muttered,
"Tragedy of tragedies."
Walking to the entrance of the Hellmouth housing Hellhole, she spotted Xander. He gave her and enthusiastic wave and made his way towards her. As always, he wore a shirt that your dad might pick to go bowling.
"Yo Buffster," he greeted and gave her a dopey grin. "How are we on this fine day?"
"Depressed at having to end my relatively Slay-free summer."
"Yeah, they shouldn't make us have to come here on the sunny days," he sighed.
"Xander, every day here is a sunny day."
"All the more reason we shouldn't have to come in on them."
As they walked together, Willow came out the school. She gave them a broad smile.
"So guys, ready to soak up senior year?" she bubbled with genuine enthusiasm.
"How come you're here so early?" asked Xander. "You given up completely and decided to just move in here?"
"No, I was in the computer room working on a few projects. I found some really cool spells on the Internet so I'm thinking about trying them out."
Her eyes flashed with excitement, then she frowned slightly.
"Don't tell Giles," she added.
"Your secret's safe with us, you naughty raiser of the Dark Arts," Xander joked. Willow gave him a look.
"It's not big stuff. Just a few things that might help Buffy."
"Ooh, like what?" inquired Buffy. "A way to shoot big pointy knives at unspeakable nasties?"
"More along the lines of protection spells, things like that."
"Just be careful, ok, Will?" said Buffy. Though it helped on many occasions, she was sometimes worried about her friend's growing interest in magick.
"I am, I wish people would stop telling me that. So, ok, I blew the power for our block and burned the bedspread, but it's not like I've concocted a way to destroy the universe or anything."
"No, we'll leave that to our fun Apocalypse pals," said Xander.
The sound of the bell rang through the school grounds and as two trudged sullenly into the building, one bounced along, happy at the prospect of a new year of learning.
Standing in the busy hallway full of scuttering people, Oz kind of wished he had gone to Summer School. True, It would have been a complete drag and not given him half as much time to practise with the Dingoes, but at least his school career would be over and he could work on mastering the diminished ninth. Now he had to repeat senior year. Sit through the same unstimulating classes and take the same repetitive tests. On the upper hand, he'd get to see Willow every day for another year. Which wasn't entirely bad. He smiled to himself and waited for her to appear. Now a part of him wished he'd told her. Perhaps she would think it was wacky and cute. She turned the corner.
She couldn't believe he hadn't gone to Summer School. Not only had he blown off most of regular school and consequently failed, he'd blown that off too! It wasn't as if were stupid and needed to do his senior year over. Sometimes it irked her how Oz didn't apply himself to things. Like when the computer company selected them on career day. He could have gone on and become Mr Big Computer Guy. And he didn't seem bothered by it. If it had been her and she had failed, she would have promptly gone into a spasm and fainted. Things like that just didn't faze Oz. It was kind of cute, in an angry, "you should have applied yourself!" way. And she would get to see him a whole lot more than she would have. Willow smiled at him as they went to their first class. And at least this way she could make sure he was going to class.
History was not Buffy's strong point. A lot of the time it just seemed irrelevant to her. Sure, you could learn from all the mistakes that goofballs in the past had made, but when you're fighting for your life day after day, every day, who really cares if Columbus discovered America instead of a passage to the east? There was a quiet rapping coming from the desk next to her. She looked to see that Willow was trying to get her attention. She passed Buffy a note.
Pretty slow summer, vamp wise.
Yeah, Buffy wrote, makes a nice change from the usual rampage of creatures of the night.
Think something's going on?
Willow had a point. Usually when demon action was low, some big evil was a brewing. The redhead took back the note and wrote one word.
Library.
Giles was having a quite busy day. The school had received a new supply of the usual student magazines and texts, along with a few extra curricular pieces of material. There were a few samples of demonic literature he was fairly jubilant about. It had taken him months to track down the Oracles of Pathaos. A demon in Vermont had cut him a special deal and so he was not nearly as out of pocket as he suspected he might be. It was also the only copy of the text still in existence. All in all, it had been a very good purchase. The demon, Greson, had also given him a vague tip off about swords. That was the thing with these prophets for profit. They only told you half of what they know. Immersed among the stacks, the Watcher didn't hear Buffy and her companions enter. She sneaked up on him, stood for a few seconds then said,
"Having fun being back in school, Giles?"
He jumped, nearly losing his glasses. Regaining his composure, he returned to putting the volumes on the shelf as he addressed her.
"Ah, Buffy. Did you have a good summer?"
"Actually I did. Lots of shopping, going to see movies, vegeing out on the couch.you know, things normal teenagers do."
He responded with an "Hmm."
Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Oh I know that 'Hmm.' That's a 'get you Slay gear on, the end of the world is nigh."
Blinking, he looked at her.
"Hmm? What?"
"You weren't even listening?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm just very caught up in this particular book. It's meant to be a volume of great insight, yet it's written all in riddles. It's all very intriguing."
"To an extremely dull person maybe."
Giles took off his glasses, cleaned them on his jacket and waved them at her.
"Don't scoff, these books have saved the world on more than one occasion."
Buffy sighed.
"No, Giles. It's me who saves the world. The books just point the way."
Illusions
Chapter 1
"Looking forward to being back at school?" asked Joyce Summers.
Buffy tipped her sunglasses to reveal a glare at her mother and then pushed them back up.
"I can't wait. Classes, homework, Snyder. In fact, I might go pop from all the excitement," she said with cheery sarcasm.
"Glad you're taking a positive outlook on things," Joyce replied, ignoring her daughter's tone. "You'd better be going or you'll be late."
Getting out of the car and gathering her things, Buffy muttered,
"Tragedy of tragedies."
Walking to the entrance of the Hellmouth housing Hellhole, she spotted Xander. He gave her and enthusiastic wave and made his way towards her. As always, he wore a shirt that your dad might pick to go bowling.
"Yo Buffster," he greeted and gave her a dopey grin. "How are we on this fine day?"
"Depressed at having to end my relatively Slay-free summer."
"Yeah, they shouldn't make us have to come here on the sunny days," he sighed.
"Xander, every day here is a sunny day."
"All the more reason we shouldn't have to come in on them."
As they walked together, Willow came out the school. She gave them a broad smile.
"So guys, ready to soak up senior year?" she bubbled with genuine enthusiasm.
"How come you're here so early?" asked Xander. "You given up completely and decided to just move in here?"
"No, I was in the computer room working on a few projects. I found some really cool spells on the Internet so I'm thinking about trying them out."
Her eyes flashed with excitement, then she frowned slightly.
"Don't tell Giles," she added.
"Your secret's safe with us, you naughty raiser of the Dark Arts," Xander joked. Willow gave him a look.
"It's not big stuff. Just a few things that might help Buffy."
"Ooh, like what?" inquired Buffy. "A way to shoot big pointy knives at unspeakable nasties?"
"More along the lines of protection spells, things like that."
"Just be careful, ok, Will?" said Buffy. Though it helped on many occasions, she was sometimes worried about her friend's growing interest in magick.
"I am, I wish people would stop telling me that. So, ok, I blew the power for our block and burned the bedspread, but it's not like I've concocted a way to destroy the universe or anything."
"No, we'll leave that to our fun Apocalypse pals," said Xander.
The sound of the bell rang through the school grounds and as two trudged sullenly into the building, one bounced along, happy at the prospect of a new year of learning.
Standing in the busy hallway full of scuttering people, Oz kind of wished he had gone to Summer School. True, It would have been a complete drag and not given him half as much time to practise with the Dingoes, but at least his school career would be over and he could work on mastering the diminished ninth. Now he had to repeat senior year. Sit through the same unstimulating classes and take the same repetitive tests. On the upper hand, he'd get to see Willow every day for another year. Which wasn't entirely bad. He smiled to himself and waited for her to appear. Now a part of him wished he'd told her. Perhaps she would think it was wacky and cute. She turned the corner.
She couldn't believe he hadn't gone to Summer School. Not only had he blown off most of regular school and consequently failed, he'd blown that off too! It wasn't as if were stupid and needed to do his senior year over. Sometimes it irked her how Oz didn't apply himself to things. Like when the computer company selected them on career day. He could have gone on and become Mr Big Computer Guy. And he didn't seem bothered by it. If it had been her and she had failed, she would have promptly gone into a spasm and fainted. Things like that just didn't faze Oz. It was kind of cute, in an angry, "you should have applied yourself!" way. And she would get to see him a whole lot more than she would have. Willow smiled at him as they went to their first class. And at least this way she could make sure he was going to class.
History was not Buffy's strong point. A lot of the time it just seemed irrelevant to her. Sure, you could learn from all the mistakes that goofballs in the past had made, but when you're fighting for your life day after day, every day, who really cares if Columbus discovered America instead of a passage to the east? There was a quiet rapping coming from the desk next to her. She looked to see that Willow was trying to get her attention. She passed Buffy a note.
Pretty slow summer, vamp wise.
Yeah, Buffy wrote, makes a nice change from the usual rampage of creatures of the night.
Think something's going on?
Willow had a point. Usually when demon action was low, some big evil was a brewing. The redhead took back the note and wrote one word.
Library.
Giles was having a quite busy day. The school had received a new supply of the usual student magazines and texts, along with a few extra curricular pieces of material. There were a few samples of demonic literature he was fairly jubilant about. It had taken him months to track down the Oracles of Pathaos. A demon in Vermont had cut him a special deal and so he was not nearly as out of pocket as he suspected he might be. It was also the only copy of the text still in existence. All in all, it had been a very good purchase. The demon, Greson, had also given him a vague tip off about swords. That was the thing with these prophets for profit. They only told you half of what they know. Immersed among the stacks, the Watcher didn't hear Buffy and her companions enter. She sneaked up on him, stood for a few seconds then said,
"Having fun being back in school, Giles?"
He jumped, nearly losing his glasses. Regaining his composure, he returned to putting the volumes on the shelf as he addressed her.
"Ah, Buffy. Did you have a good summer?"
"Actually I did. Lots of shopping, going to see movies, vegeing out on the couch.you know, things normal teenagers do."
He responded with an "Hmm."
Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Oh I know that 'Hmm.' That's a 'get you Slay gear on, the end of the world is nigh."
Blinking, he looked at her.
"Hmm? What?"
"You weren't even listening?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm just very caught up in this particular book. It's meant to be a volume of great insight, yet it's written all in riddles. It's all very intriguing."
"To an extremely dull person maybe."
Giles took off his glasses, cleaned them on his jacket and waved them at her.
"Don't scoff, these books have saved the world on more than one occasion."
Buffy sighed.
"No, Giles. It's me who saves the world. The books just point the way."