Chapter 2: Breaking the Spell
*****The Cemetery*****
Tony, of course, arrived at the cemetery Buffy told him Xander and Anya where at before she and Cordelia. Flying above, he scouted out the situation. The only one wearing comms was Bruce.
"It looks like a group of twenty or more are standing in front of some small stage area at the south end of the graveyard," Tony told Bruce.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked as he tried in vain to keep up with the slayer and Cordelia.
"I'm not sure. They seem very focused on the woman on the stage," he said. He flew so that he could get a better view.
"Is it just a regular woman?" Bruce asked, gasping for breath. Finally, he just stopped trying. By the time he got there, the situation might be contained.
"As far as I can tell," Tony replied.
Buffy and Cordelia arrived at the edge of the group. "What's going on?" Buffy wondered, looking at all the faces that seemed way too eye-glazed.
"The people are under some type of spell or something," Cordy said, waving her hand in front of one of them. The person was in a trance of some kind.
"Where's Xander?" Buffy asked.
Cordy looked and saw him on the right in the back. "He's over there!" she said, moving toward. She grabbed his arm and turned him around. He blinked and focused on her.
"What's going on?" she asked him.
"I don't know. What's going on?" he asked confused.
"Everyone is in a trance, doofus. You were, too!" Cordy informed him.
Xander looked at Anya, who was gazing enraptured at the stage. He automatically looked at what she was looking at and was mesmerized again.
"Damn it, Xander!" Cordy said, annoyed. She pulled him back around to face him.
"What's going on with him?" Buffy asked.
"Don't look at the stage. Whatever's going on his happening at the stage," Cordelia warned.
Buffy looked, of course, and saw the woman holding a glowing rock that she placed on some type of pedastal. When her gaze made it to the woman, she, too, was enraptured.
"Great! I'm surrounded by idiots!" Cordy complained.
Xander blinked again and looked at Cordelia. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Do NOT look at the stage! Whatever's up there is hypnotizing everyone. Even Buffy," Cordelia said.
"It's a woman holding some stone of some kind," Xander explained.
Tony and Bruce came up behind them. "What's going on?" Tony asked, taking his face mask off. He glanced at the stage and was mesmerized.
"Tony?" Bruce asked, confused.
"Don't look at what he's looking at!" Cordy said quickly.
Bruce resisted the urge to face forward and saw all the faces with the glassy eyes. "What's happening to everyone?"
"There's some witch on the stage with a magic rock of some kind," Xander said.
"She's enslaves you when you look at her," Cordy said. "So don't look!"
"Buffy resisted the Master. Shouldn't she be able to shake this off?" Xander asked.
"You have Odin's touch, and you didn't," Cordy pointed out.
"It helped, but that woman is strong," he said. He tried shaking Anya and moving her like Cordy did him, but it didn't matter. She just kept her focus on the stage.
"I'll try it with Buffy," Cordy said, reaching out and turning Buffy physically around.
Buffy blinked and gazed at Cordy in confusion. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Don't look at the stage. You were spellbound just like everyone else!" Cordy said quickly.
Buffy grabbed her scythe. "I bet this will help," she said. "The magic of this should help ward off any other magical influence."
"How about you don't test that?" Xander suggested.
Bruce tried Cordy's maneuver with Tony, and it didn't matter. Tony was focused and entrapped.
"JARVIS, can you shut Tony's visor?" he asked the AI.
Tony's visor blocked his view, and Bruce physically moved him around. "Snap out of it, Tony!" Bruce ordered. "JARVIS, obscure his vision somehow."
Tony blinked. "JARVIS, I can't see," he said.
"Don't, JARIVS!" Bruce said. "There's a threat that is visual. Tony needs his view a bit obstructed."
"Cordy, we need to take care of that witch on the stage," Buffy said. Tony seemed to be free of the hypnotism. "Tony, can you aim your gun at the glowing rock without focusing your gaze too much or looking directly at the woman?"
"I will try," Tony said.
"Have JARVIS do the focusing," Bruce suggested.
Xander decided to go around the group of people and approach the woman from behind.
Buffy saw his plan and followed.
Cordelia, though, started noticing that the people were getting paler, and some fell to their knees. "The woman is sucking their life or energy from them!" Cordy exclaimed. "We need to stop her."
Tony's attempt to blow up the glowing rock were thwarted by some type of magical shield. "If she's human, we can't just kill her," Tony said.
"Xander and Buffy are going at her from behind," Cordelia said. "I'll distract her."
"Don't look at her face and maybe you won't get transfixed," Bruce suggested.
Cordy nodded and weaved through the people without looking at the stage. When she got up to the stage, she aimed her gaze at the woman's face. "Hey, lady? What the hell are you doing?" she called out.
"I am having dinner, of course," the woman said in a pleasant tone.
"You can't go around feeding on humans!" Cordy told her.
"They're not going to die. But a girl's gotta eat!" the woman said.
"Meal time is over," Buffy announced from behind.
The woman started to turn, but Xander said in a threatening tone, "Don't turn around or you will lose your head. Literally!"
The woman froze. "No reason to get carried away!" she said quickly.
"Release these people and hand over the glowing rock!" Buffy called, pulling out her scythe and poking the pointy end into her back to reinforce the point.
"I'm not giving you my family heirloom!" the woman said.
"Ma'am, I suggest you do what she says. She is the slayer and the final authority on all supernatural matters," Xander said.
The woman was startled. "A slayer? There's a slayer in this town?" she asked.
"The name is Buffy," Buffy said. "I spent five years on the hellmouth in Sunnydale, and I need a new challenge. But this town is more like a vacation compared to SunnyD."
The woman felt panic build as she realized who this woman was. Rumors of the slayer killing a god had made it to the Cleveland underworld. "I'm just trying to live!" she protested.
"You don't do so by feeding on a mass amount of people," Buffy said coldly.
"I'm a succubus. I can feed during sex or use this family heirloom to pull a mass amount at once. Then I don't have to bother anyone for a year," the woman said, pleading her case.
Buffy looked at Xander, confused. "Succubus? What do we know about succubuses?" she asked.
Xander shrugged. "Just what I've read in Giles books. They feed on energy of people. It doesn't have to be sexual, but that is their preference. They are highly attractive to people, and they have a hypnotic sexual appeal," he said.
"You would know that!" Cordy said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, it's succubus! I was a teenage boy!" Xander protested.
"Since you're not human, I can slay you," Buffy told her. "Get rid of the hypnotism and free these people!"
The woman bent down and picked up her bag and then took the large gem off the pedestal she had it on. When she covered it by placing in the bag, there was a noticeable change in the people. They started blinking and looking around in confusion.
Bruce and Tony worked to reassure them.
"It's Iron Man!" an excited teenager called out.
While Tony worked the crowd, Cordelia moved closer to the woman. She held her sword up. "Turn around and face Buffy without working your mojo. If you try anything, I'll slice off your head," Cordy warned.
The woman was visibly scared and turned to face Buffy and Xander.
Xander's mouth fell open. The woman was extraordinarily beautiful. "Wow! You're stunning!" he exclaimed.
The woman gave him a weak smile. "Thanks. All succubus are attractive," she said. "Or they can use a glamour to appear so."
Buffy's hand was on her scythe, so she didn't have any reaction at all to the woman's good looks. Buffy did notice the gorgeous head of black silky hair and felt a pang of hair envy that she ruthlessly ignored. "Give me the magic rock!" Buffy ordered.
"Please don't take it!" the woman begged. "If I have it, I don't have to feed on people for many months. The rock can give me what I need."
Bruce and Tony made their way to the stage. "Is she a witch?" Tony asked.
"No, she's a succubus," Xander answered.
"Seriously?" Tony said excitedly.
"She says that feeding on people at once with the help of her family heirloom—the magic rock—means she doesn't have to feed during sex," Cordy said, rolling her eyes. "What a load of crap!"
"No! I swear!" the woman said.
"We need to get her to Wesley, and he can decide if there's any truth to this," Buffy said.
"So you feed on sexual energy like the myths suggest?" Tony asked, fascinated.
"I mean no harm. I don't kill anyone!" the woman said.
"What's your name?" Bruce asked her.
"It's Nia," the woman said.
"I'm Bruce. This is Tony," Bruce said. "Have you ever tried another energy source besides people?"
The woman blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? I am a succubus. We feed off the life force of humans," she said.
"But have you ever tried other life forces? Like a bunny or a dog?" Tony suggested.
Buffy looked scandalized. "What are you doing? You can't go around suggesting people eat a dog!" she exclaimed.
The two men gave Buffy a confused look. "You think dogs are more important than people?" Bruce asked.
"Well, no," Buffy said. The two scientist were looking at her in disapproval.
"She means that feeding off of any living creature is messed up!" Cordelia explained.
Buffy nodded. "That's it exactly!" she agreed.
"If you're willing to spend a few weeks in a luxury hotel, I'd love to run some tests and see if we can find a solution to your feeding on people problem," Tony said to Nia.
Nia may be a supernatural creature, but she knew exactly who Tony Stark was and how much money he was worth. "Can I keep my family heirloom?" she asked.
"Of course! We need to run some test on it and figure out why it's so special," Tony said.
Cordy rolled her eyes. "Great. You take Succubus Barbie back to New York, and we'll continue the good fight here," she said.
"First, I want her to get the word out to her little succubus friends. I catch anymore mass feedings like this, heads will roll," Buffy warned, lifting her scythe in a threatening manner.
"She doesn't mean that," Tony said quickly.
"I do," Buffy said firmly. "Spread the word."
"Okay," Nia said.
Buffy looked at Tony. "Bring her back to Wesley. He needs to sign off on her going anywhere. Just because a pretty supernatural creature bats her eyes and tells you that she means no harm, doesn't mean it's true!"
"We will," Bruce said.
"Let's go," she said to Cordelia. She turned and headed off the stage.
"What the hell is going on?" Anya asked as she made it to her friends and Xander. Buffy and Cordy were hopping off the stage.
Xander hugged her. "The succubus had you in her spell. Me, too, but Cordy pulled me away, breaking the connection," he shared. "For some reason, it didn't work on you." They began walking in Buffy and Cordy's direction.
"Because I'm a pathetic human," Anya muttered. Some days she really missed having her demon powers. "More than one succubus broke up marriages back in my day of vengeanancing. They are a powerful bunch and much revered by vengeance minded folks."
"Good to know," Xander said, keeping his arm around her shoulder. "How about we head by that ice-cream shop we've been wanting to try?"
Buffy was several feet ahead and stopped. "Did someone say ice-cream?" she asked hopefully.
Cordelia laughed. "Got the munchies?"
"I didn't get to hardly use my scythe. I need something to save this night," Buffy said with a pout.
"Where's Tony and Bruce?" Anya asked.
"They were escorting Nia to her house with plans to bring her back to Wesley," Cordy said.
"The guys want to experiment on her," Buffy said.
"Wesley's going to be so fascinated," Cordelia said with a smile. "We never came across one of these in L.A."
"He can call Giles and brag," Buffy said, laughing.
Cleveland might not be the most exciting hellmouth to live on, but all of them liked the lack of high stakes even if they complained about the dullness.
There was something to be said about boredom. For once, they could live like regular people again.
That had to be a good thing, right?
*****Chapter End*****
Not a huge battle scene. I hope you're not disappointed, but I could just totally see Tony and Bruce reacting this way! Not sure if I want to write another chapter or not or start on another sequel. Ideas or suggestions for the new team? Thanks for reading. Reviews are awesome!
