Title: The Vampire Syndrome
Author: Foxfeather
E-Mail: alwest@cityweb.de
The Vampire Syndrome
by Foxfeather
Thanks to all who replied to "The Demon" with ideas for a sequel. This is what came out of it…
"Wow! This is incredible!" Buffy looked around in the entrance hall of the Washington embassy.
"This is weird. It seems to be organic and yet it is solid as concrete. I feel like being inside of something living. I wonder if this… building has something like a stomach…"
"Giles!"
"I can't help it!"
Both of them turned around when two men entered the building.
"Agent Sandoval, Liam! You haven't changed one bit since we last met!" Buffy stormed over to them, kissed Liam on the cheek and, after short consideration, gave Sandoval a hug.
"Uhm, we have met?" Sandoval asked suspiciously. "I don't remember you."
"It was thirteen years ago, you had a shuttle crash?"
Liam took a closer look at the small, slender woman. She seemed to be in her thirties and top fit. The man who was standing next to her with a protective gesture was around sixty, with graying hair and glasses. Remembering the shuttle incident that happened a few weeks ago Liam's face lightened up. "Buffy Summers!"
"Got it, pal!"
"I remember you now, too. Why are you here?" Sandoval wanted to know.
"Da'an has invited us to visit him. We had to cope with a small vampire problem so we couldn't come earlier, but, tadaa!, now we're here."
"I'll tell him you've arrived. He has not much time at the moment, there is an appointment in about an hour, where he and Zo'or will speak, but I think he will take the time to welcome you. Come on." Liam led the way to Da'an's office.
*~*~*
"Da'an you have…"
"Hi Da'an!" Buffy nearly ran down the ramp and stopped in front of the Taelon.
"…visitors." Liam completed his sentence.
Da'an greeted Buffy and Giles, who had managed to stay stone faced over Buffy's typical overflow of temper, with the Taelon greeting gesture.
Buffy tightened up, made a serious face and returned the gesture gracefully. Then she grinned and gave the Taelon a bear hug.
"I have missed you. When you arrived here four years ago I was practically hopping up and down on my seat in front of the TV. I've pursued your every action in the news. I knew you wouldn't know me till now. Willow has seen the actual date when she tried to fix the shuttles computer and so I knew when you would meet with us in this time. Willow has become a watcher, too, did you know that? Cordelia and Angel have a successful detective agency in L.A. and Xander tramps around the world, looking for strange apparitions like El Chupacabra and other things like that. Then the volunteer visited us with your greetings! I wanted to come with him immediately to see you and Liam again, but we had a vampire problem and so it took some time. But now we're here and I'm so glad to see you again that I don't know what to say."
"Evidently." Giles remarked dryly.
"Oh, Agent Sandoval, Cordelia has asked me to give this to you from her."
With that she walked over to the Agent and gave him a kiss on the mouth. Zo'or chose that moment to enter the office.
"What is going on here?" he asked angrily.
Sandoval's face turned red. "Nothing, Zo'or."
Oh, I did not know that a kiss is called 'nothing', Agent Sandoval."
"Hi, Zo'or! Nice to see you again." Buffy purred. "Do you remember me?"
After a long look Zo'or paled. "Yes I do. You were that annoying human who dared to question my decisions during our time travel!"
"You are ri-ight!" Buffy sang.
Da'an and Giles exchanged a look, saying 'Oh, no, not again!'
"I think we should leave now, Zo'or." Da'an interrupted the two quarrelers.
"Can we come along? Please!" Buffy pleaded.
"Da'an exchanged a look with Liam. "Call Captain Marquette. We will need a second shuttle."
"Yippee!"
Zo'or groaned.
*~*~*
During the appointment Buffy and Giles stood hidden behind the stage curtain, watching Da'an and Zo'or making their speeches, when suddenly Buffy writhed with pain.
"Buffy! What's wrong?"
"I don't know, something evil is here. Da'an! We have to save Da'an!"
She leaped on the stage, taking Da'an down when a strange looking ray appeared out of nowhere, hitting Sandoval, Zo'or and Liam. They broke down unconscious and pale. Panic broke out. Volunteers and security personnel recovered Zo'or and the two protectors and carried them to the waiting shuttles, followed by Da'an and his visitors.
*~*~*
On the mothership Dr Belman and the Taelon physicians tried to help Zo'or and the protectors, but with no success.
"It seems to be some kind of virus. But there is something strange about it. There's a component participating that I can't explain."
"We have scanned the area, but the analysis has produced absolutely nothing." Marquette joined the group. "We have no clue what that ray was or what is intended with it. Miss Summers, you have saved Da'an. How did you know that he was in danger?"
"I have felt an evil presence there. I haven't seen anything, though. The ray appeared and my feeling was growing stronger, then it vanished completely. It is growing again, now. But this time it is much weaker, and its source is here on the ship."
"An evil presence? You mean like the devil or something?" Marquette asked with a doubting look.
"No, not the devil, more like a demon or a vampire."
"Demon? Vampire? Don't tell me you believe in that crap!"
"Demons and vampires are real, Captain. Liam and I have met some of them in person."
"Da'an! I don't believe that. Vampires are fairytales told to little children."
"No they are not. Buffy here is the chosen one. She is the vampire slayer."
"This is nuts!"
"Buffy, you said, that the evil presence is her on the ship. How can that be?"
"It must be the virus I'm sensing. Dr Belman, can I visit Liam and the others?"
"The virus is not contagious. Please follow me."
Inside they found Liam and Sandoval linked up to various machines. Different devices surrounded Zo'or, but every single one of them showed a display with alarming statistics of the virus' reproduction rate.
"It is here. The presence is here." Buffy was sure. "What is the effect of the virus?"
"We can't say that at the moment. It is changing the metabolism of both humans and Taelon. Liam has a high fever .It looks like he is developing antibodies against the virus. That's all we know now."
Da'an had walked over to Zo'or's bed and sat down.
"We have to find a cure for this." He touched Zo'or's face with shaking hands. On that Zo'or opened his eyes and grabbed Da'an's hands. With a choked scream Da'an tried to free himself from Zo'or's grasping hands. Energy streamed from him to Zo'or, weakening him quickly. Buffy grabbed Da'an and tore him away. With horror they saw Zo'or's face change into a vampire's 'gameface'.
"Oh my God! He's becoming a vampire!"
On the next bed Sandoval began to stir. His face started to change too, but did not stay that way.
"Oh dear. Strap them on their beds and give warning that nobody, neither human nor Taelon is coming near them. Tell the necessary personnel to wear crosses, I don't know if this will work here, but it may help." Buffy instructed.
A visibly shaken Da'an programmed the virtual glass not to let Zo'or, Sandoval or Liam leave the room.
Outside Lili sat down on the floor. "Vampires! If I had not seen it with my own eyes… Is there a way to help them?"
"I don't know." Buffy had to admit. "But I will do what I can." She opened her global.
"Willow, we have a problem! Call Angel and Cordelia and meet me at the Washington embassy as soon as possible."
*~*~*
At dust they all gathered at the place the ray had appeared. Willow and Cordelia had met Buffy, Giles and Da'an at the embassy about two hours after the call, Angel had joined up with them a few minutes ago. Lili had stayed with Zo'or, Liam and Sandoval to keep the others informed on every possible change.
After a short briefing Angel disappeared into Washington's underworld for further investigation while Giles and Willow set up things necessary for a ritual that would help them track the use of magical powers.
With a hissing sound a bowl filled with herbs and liquid started to glow. A cloud of dust emanated from it. Like a laser beam in fog a glowing line appeared where the ray had been hours before.
"Well, that's the evidence. This unknown component of the virus is of magical origin. Whatever has caused the ray, it was located at that building over there." Willow pointed to an old warehouse about 500 meters away on the other side of the place.
The windows of the top floor were sprayed with black paint safe for a small spot at one of the windows facing the stage. A strange odor hung in the air. A magical circle had been drawn on the floor with colored sand, blurred by someone's footprints. Burned down black candles were placed everywhere.
"I'll go back to Sunnydale and check out my books about this ritual. Willow, you stay here and question you computer about it." Giles ordered. Then he turned to Da'an. "Can I use one of your shuttles?"
"Of course. I will call one of the volunteers."
*~*~*
On board of the mothership things were going worse.
Zo'or and Sandoval had woken up, broke their shackles and were now, in full gameface mode, trying to find their way out of their prison. Liam was still unconscious, his body fighting against the intruder. It had become impossible to get to him. One of the volunteers had been attacked by Sandoval when he tried to separate Liam from the other two. He died from the blood loss minutes before help arrived.
Zo'or had turned into a wild and unpredictable animal, while Sandoval's CVI had turned him into a logical, ice-cold killer.
They hadn't attacked Liam. Lili could only guess that they were sensing the virus inside his body. But if Liam should manage to defeat the virus he would be in grave danger.
"Whatever you are doing down there, do it quickly!" she prayed.
*~*~*
With nothing else to do Da'an and Buffy watched Willow working with her computer for two hours. Then Angel entered the room.
"Angel! I hope you bring good news!"
"No quite. There are rumors that the local vampire king has plans in expanding his power into the Taelons. I tried to find out where that Vampire, he calls himself Nostromo, is staying at the moment, but I had no luck."
"At least we know now who he is." Willow, started a new inquiry on her computer.
Only a few seconds later it beeped with an answer.
"Nostromo, about 300 years old, his goal is to gather more and more vampires under his control to increase his power. And he has bought some rare herbs at the market some days ago. That'll help us, lets see, rituals these herbs are needed for… only three are matching… love potion, definitely no, …a spell to stop something from smelling bad… that's it! The ritual of Cagliostro."
She opened her global.
"Giles, I've found something. Bring all books you can find about the ritual of Cagliostro."
"What is this ritual? Can it help Zo'or, Liam and Sandoval to turn back to normal?" Da'an wanted to know.
"Yes I think it can help, but as far as I know we must bring them to this place to help them."
"I will call Lili"
*~*~*
On board of the mothership Lili and the volunteers had all hands full with Zo'or and Sandoval.
When her global beeped, she hurried to answer.
"Yes?"
"Lili, we have found a ritual to help them."
"Hurry with that, things are getting worse up here."
Hearing Da'an's voice Zo'or growled, then leapt forward into the force field, that was now sealing the room, after Sandoval had managed to override Da'an's programming.
"What was that noise" Da'an wanted to know.
"That was Zo'or. We have major problems here. Zo'or is acting like a caged animal and Sandoval is sitting in one corner of the room, hatching a new plan to escape. Liam has woken up but has not shown signs of aggression yet. And there's another problem. Sandoval's hands started glowing when he got angry the last time. He's not only changing into a vampire, he's also developing a Taelon shaquarava!"
"Uhm, Lili, I do not like to tell you this, but there is one more problem…"
"Uh, oh."
"We have to move them to this romm."
Lili groaned.
*~*~*
Giles arrived by shuttle about half an hour later, packed with piles of his books.
"This is all I could find about the ritual. We have to clean this room completely. Any traces of vampire DNA other than the one our friends are displaying will weaken the effect of the ritual."
Willow had started leafing through the books, looking for the necessary ingredients they would need.
"Okay, Angel and Cordelia will go searching for the stuff necessary to do this, Giles and I will go back to the mothership and try to help Lili to tame the beasts. Willow, you and Da'an prepare the room."
They split up. Da'an started collecting the candles, glad to have something he could do to distract himself from thinking about what would be going on aboard the mothership.
Willow went searching for a broom and some water to clean the floor. Then she set up a small spell to trace even the tiniest tracks the vampires had left.
*~*~*
When Buffy and Giles arrived at the mothership they found a bunch of very unnerved volunteers and a Lili who was by turns on the brink of both laughing and crying.
"It's almost funny of how Sandoval and Zo'or are reacting towards the others actions. Sandoval yells at Zo'or about not being able to think with Zo'or's howling and growling and Zo'or yells at Sandoval about doing nothing to change their situation but sitting around and staring holes into the air. They even had a fist fight over that some minutes ago."
Buffy had a look at the two still fighting figures inside the room. Both were in full gameface mode, snarling at each other in rage, both with angrily glowing hands. Zo'or's jumpsuit looked torn and Sandoval was developing a perfect black eye.
Liam noticed Buffy and came to the force field.
"I've heard what Da'an has said. That you'll have to move us out of here. Perhaps I can help you. I am human, not vampire. The virus isn't working with me."
"Yeah, sure." Buffy answered. „Then tell my why these two over there aren't attacking you?"
"I don't know."
"I think you are trying to trick me, Liam."
"No, I… aaaaaaah."
He grabbed his head when his face began to change. His shaquarava started to glow and his features seemed to blur for some seconds. Then his face became human again.
"Help me…"
Dr Belman had stopped next to Buffy and Lili.
„He's still fighting against the virus."
"His heritage is helping him. I know he's part alien, Doc." Buffy looked up.
"Yes, you are right. But I don't think we can trust him though. I should have guessed that you know about him. You are good in sensing such things, aren't you?"
"Yes. Giles, are you ready?"
Giles had fumbled with some small bags and bowls in the background. Now he pulled three crossbows out of a large bag Buffy had brought with her. He chose six bolts and daubed them with the paste he had mixed. He handed one bow to Buffy, the second to Lili.
"Can you handle this, Captain?"
"I'll try."
"Okay, Giles, you take Mr. Beasty over there, I'll take our lovely Agent Sandoval and Lili, you take Liam. Be careful, you have only two shots. Doc, please make a countdown and open the force field for only two seconds. Vampires can be rather quick if they want to."
They lined up and shot the bows when Dr Belman shut down the field. Once hit with the bolts all three vampires broke down without a sound.
"That was it. Now we can tie them up and carry them down to earth."
*~*~*
When they arrived at the warehouse Willow had drawn some kind of mandala on the floor, using colored sand and grinded herbs.
Angel had been banished from the room. Sandoval, Liam and Zo'or were the only vampires allowed inside.
Da'an had placed white candles all over the room and was now busy lighting them.
Bowls boiling with strange liquids and joss sticks filled the room with a thick cloud of exotic smelling fog.
Willow instructed them with what they had to do during the ritual. Da'an would care for the herbs and mix them up in the right moment, while Lili, Buffy and Cordelia would inject the three vampires with an antidote to wake them.
Then Willow and Giles began to chant in Latin. A strange glow emanated from the mandala on the floor. The vampires stirred when the antidote started to work. In shock they saw something like a snake made of light taking aim at them, then a blinding ray of light hit them.
With a hissing sound the ray shot through one of the windows, zigzagging down the street and vanishing out of sight.
"Whoa, what was that?" Willow wondered.
"I don't know. It looks like our ritual has cured not only our three friends here but someone else, too.
Liam stood up from the floor, where the ray had sent them and rubbed his eyes.
"Whoa, what a nightmare. I dreamt I was a vampire and captured with Sandoval and Zo'or…" His voice faded when he noticed his surroundings.
"That was no dream, wasn't it?"
Next to him, Sandoval and Zo'or slowly rose.
Da'an moved forward to help Zo'or up, but then stopped, carefully avoiding touching his child. A hurt look washed over Zo'or's face.
"Do not worry, Da'an, I am back to normal. A little shaken, but normal."
Sandoval carefully touched his swollen eye, then darted a look at Zo'or's torn appearance.
His face turned a dark shade of red.
"Zo'or… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"Yes, you did. And I did mean it, too. But now… I am sorry, Agent. Da'an…"
With an apologetic look Zo'or reached out and touched Da'an's hand.
With a smile Da'an grabbed the offered hand and held it tight in his own.
Suddenly Sandoval groaned.
"The volunteer… what have I done?" He hid his face in his hands.
"You can't change what has happened, Agent Sandoval. You'll have to learn how to live with it."
Da'an's look saddened when he remembered the Atavus incident.
"I want to know who did this to us!" Sandoval's face was now red with anger.
"It was a vampire named Nostromo. I think we can track him down." Willow replied.
I think he has used his own vampire genes to change you. The ray that went mad at the ritual could have hit him, too. It was programmed to search for the magical parts of the virus and that means for the vampire parts, too."
With her tracking spell they followed the way the ray had taken. A few blocks away the ray had entered an old house. When they entered they heard someone singing and laughing.
In the basement they found the vampire, dancing around in madness.
"The ray must have hit him and had tried to extract the vampire DNA and the magic that was mixed up in the virus, but it only found the vampire genes. That must have driven him insane."
Da'an called the volunteers waiting outside and told them to arrest the ex-vampire, who was still dancing around and babbling nonsense.
*~*~*
Back at the Washington embassy Zo'or finally brought himself to thank Buffy.
"Don't do that. I'm starting to like you if you do that."
Then the moment of farewell had come.
"We have to go back to Sunnydale. I'll miss you all."
Buffy gave Liam and Da'an a hug.
"Hey! I've got a idea! Why don't you visit us there? We can go and hunt demons and vampires. Wouldn't that be fun?"
Everybody groaned.
The end.