Kick. Punch. Duck. Punch. Dust. Buffy sighed, brushing the remaining flecks
of the vampire's ashes from her shirt. She had dusted a mear three vamps
tonight. A small smile crossed her face as she remembered back to when she
would have thought that was alot for one night. Now dusting less than four
just bothered her. Could always make up for it by staking Spike She
smirked to herself, continuing to trudge through the cemetary. Might as
well get the evil-undead-wonder-boy, at least he's keep her company.
She reached his crypt, hesitantly reaching her hand up to knock.
"Looking for me, pet?" Buffy jumped at the voice, turning to see Spike smirking at her.
"Dont. Do that." She warned. "Next time I won't hesitate to make you dusty."
"I'm scared, really."
"Shuttup."
"What do you want, Slayer?" He asked, leaning back on a headstone.
"To see if you wanted to patrol, but since you're so busy.......' She was cut off my a shrill scream. It sounded from just outside the cemtary walls, sending them both running to see what was wrong. They turned the street corner to find Casidy, game face on, snarling at a passing girl. The girl shrieked again as Casidy approached, giggling slightly.
"Cassy, would you bloody cut it out!!!" Cas looked up as Spike shouted, her face morphing back to it's human form. Spike motioned for Buffy to put the stake she had in her hand away. The girl Cas had scared looked at the group before taking off up the street., still screaming in fright.
"Ruin my bloody fun, you wanker." The teenage vamp spat playfully, walking towards the pair. Buffy gripped her stake tighter, ready to dust the girl should she try anything.
"Don't worry about her Buffy, she won't do anything." Spike said calmly.
"Who said? I'm not the nuetered vampire here, you are, so don't tell her whether or not I'll try anything." Cas replied defensively.
"You going to try anything?" Buffy asked, raising her eyebrows.
"No." she replied, smiling smuggly. "I told you before, I'm not here to start trouble. I'm not one to pick fights.....wait, forget I said that."
Spike rolled his eyes. "I thought you were leaving?"
The girl took a seat on the sidewalk, pulling one of the cigarettes she had swiped from her bother from her pocket and lighting it. "Me too. But word is some major shit is about to go down here. And I wanna watch." She smirked up at the pair.
"What've you heard?" Spike asked. No, it was more of a demand than a question.
"Prophecy of Grethrey. Hellmouth s'posed to open in few days. Thought it'd be fun to watch."
"What?! Why didn't we know about this?!" Buffy asked frantically, looking at Spike.
"Prolly cause the watcher left. He usually informed us of these matters. Let's go back to your place, call him and see if he knows anything." Spike and Buffy went on discussing the graveness of the situation, forgetting about the girl sitting and watching them. "He can probably get a copy prophecy from somewhere, translate it and let us know what's going on. Hopefully it won't take him too long."
"Guys?" They continued talking about their impending doom, ignoring the girl. "Guys!!" They stopped, looking down at her. She pulled a wad of papers from her pocket, handing them to Spike. "I told you, I get bored, research stuff. There's a copy of the prophecy and a few translations. Enjoy." She stood, blowing smoke from her mouth as she walked away
"Hey, wait a minute." Buffy trailed after her, still confused. "Why are you helping us?"
Cas shrugged, dropping the cigarette butt to the ground. "I don't wanna die just as much as the next person. I sure as hell can't stop whatever this is, so you might as well try. And if I have to die, I wanna be here in the heart of all the chaos." She looked to Spike, who was looking through some of the papers she had handed him. "Plus someone has to watch his back. Wanker's always getting himself into a scrape." Buffy looked at her, confused. She chuckled "Pansy over there used to talk himself into quite a few fights, not on purpose, mind you. Anyway, he'd get himself into scrapes and kid sis, that would be me, would have to bail him out." She peared past Buffy, raising her voice so the vampire could hear. "Basically by sleeping with every guy he got pissed off." Spike glared. "I bid you all a good night. Tata." She smirked, turning and walking into the darkness.
"You made your sister sleep with people so you wouldn't get your ass kicked?!" Buffy demanded, marching back over to the vampire.
'I didn't make her do anything, she just used it as an excuse to be a whore."
"Spike!! She's your sister!!"
"And she's a whore." He added cooly, not looking up from the papers. "Come, let's go call your watcher. He'll understand this garbage better than us."
"God, and I thought my family was fucked up....."
*****
--Night and Day shall come together, serving to stop the wrath of the angered twins, connected only through family. Their pain burns as one, opening up the gates of Hell.--
Willow's face scrunched up as she read what the prophecy translated to, confused. "You sure this is what it means? I mean, what if she fed us bad information just to throw us off?"
"It's right, Giles said so." Buffy said, slumping down on the couch.
"But you said she was a vampire, why woudl she help?" The redhead continued.
"Long story. Tell you after we advert the sppocalypse." Spike said from his seat on the floor.
"For that matter, why is he helping?" Xander asked, motiong to Spike who mearly rolled his eyes.
"Look, I don't care who's helping, alright? We're going to stop this." Buffy said harshly, sitting up. "I just wish we had more to go on, like who these 'Twins' are. You haven't seen any twins around here lately, have you?" Everyone shook their heads. "Great. Did you guys know we suck at this whole research thing?"
Willow nodded. "That we do. My only guess is that it may be a pair of demons. I guess we could go throught the books, you know, look for double- mint demons." She smiled, but it faded as everyone looked at her grimmly. "Sorry, trying to lighten the mood."
"You guys do that, I'm going to get information my way." Buffy said, standing.
"How?" Dawn piped curiously.
"My fists. You coming?" Spike nodded, following her out the door. "Be back soon."
*****
"You're not going to find anything in there." The vampire and the slayer turned, finding Cas grinning at them from atop a dumpster. "Do you think anyone knowing anything about the end of the world would hang out in the Sunnydale demon bar? That's the first place you'd look."
"What else do you know?" SPike demanded, stepping away from the bar's doors.
"Know?" She sat, letting her legs hang over the side of the waste depository, "I know what I gave you. It's just common sense that you won't find anything in there. Only an idiot would go there if they were taking part in this."
"Do you know anything about the twins?" Buffy asked, walking up along Spike. The girl shurgged, hopping down. Her heavy boots made a thud that echoed through the streets.
"Nope. I found the prophecy, translated it, and handed it to you. It's you wankers job to figure out the rest becuase I'm *really* not in the mood to go to hell, I've had a bad day."
"You smoked and drank in my crypt all day, how is that *bad*?" Spike asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I sat with my big brother all day, that's how." Her words were filled with spite.
"Talk about sibling rivalry." Buffy exclaimed, shaking her head. Her and Dawn weren't that bad, were they?
"Look, if you want more information, don't look here. Check the sewers, you're more likely to get info from those scumbags than the ones you find here." She turned once more, but halted. "And Spike?"
"What?"
"Do me a favor and don't mention my name, I'm not too popular in the demon world lately."
"You and Spike have more in common than you think. Come on, you can help." Buffy said, walking ahead of the girl and pulling up a sewer cover.
"I'm *so* not going. I'm already on the shit list for helping you guys get ahold of the bloody prophecy, let alone translating it for you."
"Sure you can go, gotta watch your big brothers back, remember?" Spike sneered, pushing her down after Buffy. She glared as the blonde vampire climbed down, pulling the grate back over the opening.
"I really hate you." She sneered at Spike, following the slayer through the ankle deep water.
"Somethings never change." He said flatly. "This way, I can hear voices." He motioned down a dark tunnel.
"That would be your voice echoing, you sodding dumb ass. Shut your trap for once." Cas ground out, peering down the tunnel and hearing nothing. She faced Spike, grinning. "See? No voices." She let out a sharp yelp as and arrow whizzed between their heads, narrowly missing them both. Buffy pulled it from the wall behind them, snapping it in two. "Okay, maybe there were a few voices." The trio walked cautiously through the tunnel, coming to an empty candle lit room. "How cozy...." She said, making a face.
"I'm sure your place is alot better." Spike chimed, looking about,
"It is. I have an appartment on the east end of town. Get an old guy in bed a few times and he'll give you a room for almost nothing." Buffy looked at her in surprise and disgust.
"Told you she was a whore." Spike continued, looking around.
Buffy went to speak, but was cut off by a deep growl from a dark corner of the room. "Yay. Demons." Four small red lizard looking demons emerged from the shadows, their bodies covered in different colored paint. The largest of the four stood at the head of the group, obviously the leader.
"Traitor." Mr. Big Red called. Cas raised her hand.
"Me or Spike?"
"Both." The monster snarled, lunging at the group. The other three folowed suit. After a few moments of scuffling, two of the lizards lay dead while Spike held the big one's head to the groud with his boot and Buffy had one pinned to the wall by his neck. Cas sat on the floor, pulling another cigarette from her mouth, She blew the smoke in the lizard's face as he squirmed to get free.
"Righty chap, how bout you tell us what you know bout the Grethrey Prophecy, ey?" The small creature snarled, signalling that he wasn't going to speak. Cas looked at Buffy, who snapped the other one's neck and let it slump to the floor. "Once more, what do you know?" The monster stopped squirming and just glared, it's thin tounge darting out from it's mouth. She rolled her eyes as Spike pushed down a little harder, causing the lizard to screech. "Stop being stubborn and talk already. I won't stop him from mashing your brains out, you know." She demanded, poking at it. It was rather amusing little critter, really.
"The twins will meet this morning for the first time. Horde's will go after them and any who stand in their way."
"Cryptic much?" Buffy commented, rolling her eyes.
"So, the twins will meet in the morning and loads of other demons will try and take them to open the Hellmouth, right?" The lizard struggled to nod under Spike's foot. "Anything else?" He shook his head vigorously. "Right then, thanks for your help." She said gleefully, ptting him on the head. She stood, following Buffy as she walked away. They both cringed at the large popping noise that came from behind them, followed by Spike cursing and complaing about his boot being messy.
*****
"Hey, you were gone awhile. I wasn't too worried though, I thought maybe Evil Undead got turned to dust. Xander shushed when Spike came running through the door behind Buffy, a blanket draped over his smoking body. "But no such luck." Spike threw the blanket to the ground, revealing another small girl underneath.
"You must be Cas." Willow said nervously, looking over the black clad girl. Cas gave her a fake smile, walking into the living room and making herelf comfortable on the couch. "Um, right. Did you find anything?"
"Only that the twins will be meeting for the first time like, now, seeing as it's morning and that lotsa demons will be after them."
"Great, that helps alot." Xander said grimmly, returning to his book.
"It really doesn't help very much....." Willow said saddly, "That was all you could find?"
"Yup. Demon's are keeping a low down. Had to dig for the info we got." Spike said, sitting on the coffee table.
"You wankers wouldn't have gotten anything if it hadn't been for me. 'Check the demon bars', good plan, really." Cas sneered. She kicked at Spike. "I'm hungry."
"What the bloody hell do you want me to do about it?" he asked coldly.
"You're the one who chased my dinner away." She replied. The other occupants in the room just watched the exchange.
"I'm not your babysitter, get your own food."
"There's blood in the firdge." Buffy said, trying to shut the bickering pair up. They had yet to tell everyone that the two vampires were related, not wanting to complicate matters further. "Kitchen's that way." Cas groaned, walking in the direction the slayer pointed. She rounded the corner to find someone already digging through the fridge.
"Oh, hi." Dawn said, pulling a can of Pepsi from the fridge and opening it. "Who are you?" The girl was roughly her age.
"Casidy." She replied, walking over and opening the fridge. She pulled a packet of blood from the shelf, examinging it. "Eww, it's pig's blood."
Dawn chuckled, "Yeah, that's all Spike eats now. You must be that vampire girl."
"Your just as bright as he is, aren't you?" She replied as the girl stated the obvious. Groaning, she opened the packet and took the blood down in one gulp, sputtering at the nasty taste. "I'm so goin to kill him."
"Who?"
"Spike, he made my dinner go away."
"A person?" Dawn asked nervously.
"Yes a person. What else and I supposed to eat, certainly not pig's blood like that wanker." Her eyes darted to the side. "Did you hear that?" She took a step towards the basement door, placing her ear against the wood. "There's something down there." Dawn kept her distance, watching the girl. She opened the knob slowly, peering in. She slammed it quickly and grabbed Dawn's arm, pulling her into the living room. Everyone stared as they rushed into the room.
"Cas, what's wrong?" Buffy asked standing. There was a large crash as the basement door was knocked from it's hinges, three large wolf looking creatures marching into the living room.
"That." She replied, turning to face the beasts.
She reached his crypt, hesitantly reaching her hand up to knock.
"Looking for me, pet?" Buffy jumped at the voice, turning to see Spike smirking at her.
"Dont. Do that." She warned. "Next time I won't hesitate to make you dusty."
"I'm scared, really."
"Shuttup."
"What do you want, Slayer?" He asked, leaning back on a headstone.
"To see if you wanted to patrol, but since you're so busy.......' She was cut off my a shrill scream. It sounded from just outside the cemtary walls, sending them both running to see what was wrong. They turned the street corner to find Casidy, game face on, snarling at a passing girl. The girl shrieked again as Casidy approached, giggling slightly.
"Cassy, would you bloody cut it out!!!" Cas looked up as Spike shouted, her face morphing back to it's human form. Spike motioned for Buffy to put the stake she had in her hand away. The girl Cas had scared looked at the group before taking off up the street., still screaming in fright.
"Ruin my bloody fun, you wanker." The teenage vamp spat playfully, walking towards the pair. Buffy gripped her stake tighter, ready to dust the girl should she try anything.
"Don't worry about her Buffy, she won't do anything." Spike said calmly.
"Who said? I'm not the nuetered vampire here, you are, so don't tell her whether or not I'll try anything." Cas replied defensively.
"You going to try anything?" Buffy asked, raising her eyebrows.
"No." she replied, smiling smuggly. "I told you before, I'm not here to start trouble. I'm not one to pick fights.....wait, forget I said that."
Spike rolled his eyes. "I thought you were leaving?"
The girl took a seat on the sidewalk, pulling one of the cigarettes she had swiped from her bother from her pocket and lighting it. "Me too. But word is some major shit is about to go down here. And I wanna watch." She smirked up at the pair.
"What've you heard?" Spike asked. No, it was more of a demand than a question.
"Prophecy of Grethrey. Hellmouth s'posed to open in few days. Thought it'd be fun to watch."
"What?! Why didn't we know about this?!" Buffy asked frantically, looking at Spike.
"Prolly cause the watcher left. He usually informed us of these matters. Let's go back to your place, call him and see if he knows anything." Spike and Buffy went on discussing the graveness of the situation, forgetting about the girl sitting and watching them. "He can probably get a copy prophecy from somewhere, translate it and let us know what's going on. Hopefully it won't take him too long."
"Guys?" They continued talking about their impending doom, ignoring the girl. "Guys!!" They stopped, looking down at her. She pulled a wad of papers from her pocket, handing them to Spike. "I told you, I get bored, research stuff. There's a copy of the prophecy and a few translations. Enjoy." She stood, blowing smoke from her mouth as she walked away
"Hey, wait a minute." Buffy trailed after her, still confused. "Why are you helping us?"
Cas shrugged, dropping the cigarette butt to the ground. "I don't wanna die just as much as the next person. I sure as hell can't stop whatever this is, so you might as well try. And if I have to die, I wanna be here in the heart of all the chaos." She looked to Spike, who was looking through some of the papers she had handed him. "Plus someone has to watch his back. Wanker's always getting himself into a scrape." Buffy looked at her, confused. She chuckled "Pansy over there used to talk himself into quite a few fights, not on purpose, mind you. Anyway, he'd get himself into scrapes and kid sis, that would be me, would have to bail him out." She peared past Buffy, raising her voice so the vampire could hear. "Basically by sleeping with every guy he got pissed off." Spike glared. "I bid you all a good night. Tata." She smirked, turning and walking into the darkness.
"You made your sister sleep with people so you wouldn't get your ass kicked?!" Buffy demanded, marching back over to the vampire.
'I didn't make her do anything, she just used it as an excuse to be a whore."
"Spike!! She's your sister!!"
"And she's a whore." He added cooly, not looking up from the papers. "Come, let's go call your watcher. He'll understand this garbage better than us."
"God, and I thought my family was fucked up....."
*****
--Night and Day shall come together, serving to stop the wrath of the angered twins, connected only through family. Their pain burns as one, opening up the gates of Hell.--
Willow's face scrunched up as she read what the prophecy translated to, confused. "You sure this is what it means? I mean, what if she fed us bad information just to throw us off?"
"It's right, Giles said so." Buffy said, slumping down on the couch.
"But you said she was a vampire, why woudl she help?" The redhead continued.
"Long story. Tell you after we advert the sppocalypse." Spike said from his seat on the floor.
"For that matter, why is he helping?" Xander asked, motiong to Spike who mearly rolled his eyes.
"Look, I don't care who's helping, alright? We're going to stop this." Buffy said harshly, sitting up. "I just wish we had more to go on, like who these 'Twins' are. You haven't seen any twins around here lately, have you?" Everyone shook their heads. "Great. Did you guys know we suck at this whole research thing?"
Willow nodded. "That we do. My only guess is that it may be a pair of demons. I guess we could go throught the books, you know, look for double- mint demons." She smiled, but it faded as everyone looked at her grimmly. "Sorry, trying to lighten the mood."
"You guys do that, I'm going to get information my way." Buffy said, standing.
"How?" Dawn piped curiously.
"My fists. You coming?" Spike nodded, following her out the door. "Be back soon."
*****
"You're not going to find anything in there." The vampire and the slayer turned, finding Cas grinning at them from atop a dumpster. "Do you think anyone knowing anything about the end of the world would hang out in the Sunnydale demon bar? That's the first place you'd look."
"What else do you know?" SPike demanded, stepping away from the bar's doors.
"Know?" She sat, letting her legs hang over the side of the waste depository, "I know what I gave you. It's just common sense that you won't find anything in there. Only an idiot would go there if they were taking part in this."
"Do you know anything about the twins?" Buffy asked, walking up along Spike. The girl shurgged, hopping down. Her heavy boots made a thud that echoed through the streets.
"Nope. I found the prophecy, translated it, and handed it to you. It's you wankers job to figure out the rest becuase I'm *really* not in the mood to go to hell, I've had a bad day."
"You smoked and drank in my crypt all day, how is that *bad*?" Spike asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I sat with my big brother all day, that's how." Her words were filled with spite.
"Talk about sibling rivalry." Buffy exclaimed, shaking her head. Her and Dawn weren't that bad, were they?
"Look, if you want more information, don't look here. Check the sewers, you're more likely to get info from those scumbags than the ones you find here." She turned once more, but halted. "And Spike?"
"What?"
"Do me a favor and don't mention my name, I'm not too popular in the demon world lately."
"You and Spike have more in common than you think. Come on, you can help." Buffy said, walking ahead of the girl and pulling up a sewer cover.
"I'm *so* not going. I'm already on the shit list for helping you guys get ahold of the bloody prophecy, let alone translating it for you."
"Sure you can go, gotta watch your big brothers back, remember?" Spike sneered, pushing her down after Buffy. She glared as the blonde vampire climbed down, pulling the grate back over the opening.
"I really hate you." She sneered at Spike, following the slayer through the ankle deep water.
"Somethings never change." He said flatly. "This way, I can hear voices." He motioned down a dark tunnel.
"That would be your voice echoing, you sodding dumb ass. Shut your trap for once." Cas ground out, peering down the tunnel and hearing nothing. She faced Spike, grinning. "See? No voices." She let out a sharp yelp as and arrow whizzed between their heads, narrowly missing them both. Buffy pulled it from the wall behind them, snapping it in two. "Okay, maybe there were a few voices." The trio walked cautiously through the tunnel, coming to an empty candle lit room. "How cozy...." She said, making a face.
"I'm sure your place is alot better." Spike chimed, looking about,
"It is. I have an appartment on the east end of town. Get an old guy in bed a few times and he'll give you a room for almost nothing." Buffy looked at her in surprise and disgust.
"Told you she was a whore." Spike continued, looking around.
Buffy went to speak, but was cut off by a deep growl from a dark corner of the room. "Yay. Demons." Four small red lizard looking demons emerged from the shadows, their bodies covered in different colored paint. The largest of the four stood at the head of the group, obviously the leader.
"Traitor." Mr. Big Red called. Cas raised her hand.
"Me or Spike?"
"Both." The monster snarled, lunging at the group. The other three folowed suit. After a few moments of scuffling, two of the lizards lay dead while Spike held the big one's head to the groud with his boot and Buffy had one pinned to the wall by his neck. Cas sat on the floor, pulling another cigarette from her mouth, She blew the smoke in the lizard's face as he squirmed to get free.
"Righty chap, how bout you tell us what you know bout the Grethrey Prophecy, ey?" The small creature snarled, signalling that he wasn't going to speak. Cas looked at Buffy, who snapped the other one's neck and let it slump to the floor. "Once more, what do you know?" The monster stopped squirming and just glared, it's thin tounge darting out from it's mouth. She rolled her eyes as Spike pushed down a little harder, causing the lizard to screech. "Stop being stubborn and talk already. I won't stop him from mashing your brains out, you know." She demanded, poking at it. It was rather amusing little critter, really.
"The twins will meet this morning for the first time. Horde's will go after them and any who stand in their way."
"Cryptic much?" Buffy commented, rolling her eyes.
"So, the twins will meet in the morning and loads of other demons will try and take them to open the Hellmouth, right?" The lizard struggled to nod under Spike's foot. "Anything else?" He shook his head vigorously. "Right then, thanks for your help." She said gleefully, ptting him on the head. She stood, following Buffy as she walked away. They both cringed at the large popping noise that came from behind them, followed by Spike cursing and complaing about his boot being messy.
*****
"Hey, you were gone awhile. I wasn't too worried though, I thought maybe Evil Undead got turned to dust. Xander shushed when Spike came running through the door behind Buffy, a blanket draped over his smoking body. "But no such luck." Spike threw the blanket to the ground, revealing another small girl underneath.
"You must be Cas." Willow said nervously, looking over the black clad girl. Cas gave her a fake smile, walking into the living room and making herelf comfortable on the couch. "Um, right. Did you find anything?"
"Only that the twins will be meeting for the first time like, now, seeing as it's morning and that lotsa demons will be after them."
"Great, that helps alot." Xander said grimmly, returning to his book.
"It really doesn't help very much....." Willow said saddly, "That was all you could find?"
"Yup. Demon's are keeping a low down. Had to dig for the info we got." Spike said, sitting on the coffee table.
"You wankers wouldn't have gotten anything if it hadn't been for me. 'Check the demon bars', good plan, really." Cas sneered. She kicked at Spike. "I'm hungry."
"What the bloody hell do you want me to do about it?" he asked coldly.
"You're the one who chased my dinner away." She replied. The other occupants in the room just watched the exchange.
"I'm not your babysitter, get your own food."
"There's blood in the firdge." Buffy said, trying to shut the bickering pair up. They had yet to tell everyone that the two vampires were related, not wanting to complicate matters further. "Kitchen's that way." Cas groaned, walking in the direction the slayer pointed. She rounded the corner to find someone already digging through the fridge.
"Oh, hi." Dawn said, pulling a can of Pepsi from the fridge and opening it. "Who are you?" The girl was roughly her age.
"Casidy." She replied, walking over and opening the fridge. She pulled a packet of blood from the shelf, examinging it. "Eww, it's pig's blood."
Dawn chuckled, "Yeah, that's all Spike eats now. You must be that vampire girl."
"Your just as bright as he is, aren't you?" She replied as the girl stated the obvious. Groaning, she opened the packet and took the blood down in one gulp, sputtering at the nasty taste. "I'm so goin to kill him."
"Who?"
"Spike, he made my dinner go away."
"A person?" Dawn asked nervously.
"Yes a person. What else and I supposed to eat, certainly not pig's blood like that wanker." Her eyes darted to the side. "Did you hear that?" She took a step towards the basement door, placing her ear against the wood. "There's something down there." Dawn kept her distance, watching the girl. She opened the knob slowly, peering in. She slammed it quickly and grabbed Dawn's arm, pulling her into the living room. Everyone stared as they rushed into the room.
"Cas, what's wrong?" Buffy asked standing. There was a large crash as the basement door was knocked from it's hinges, three large wolf looking creatures marching into the living room.
"That." She replied, turning to face the beasts.
