Hello! Merry Christmas to anyone that celebrates it, and Happy Holidays to anyone that doesn't!
This is the longest chapter I've uploaded so far, so YAY!
There's a new character in this, and I'd appreciate ANY opinions on her. Thank you!
4: A Girl and Her Gun
3rd Person POV
After they learnt the truth about Sicily the group had a discussion. It went something like this:
Cordelia: I don't trust her.
Willow: Well I think she's telling the truth.
Cordelia: Who asked you?
Giles: Now, now girls. Buffy, what do you think?
Buffy: I think we need to find out whether she's making it up. Giles, can you take a look in a demon encyclopaedia or something?
Giles: Of course. Willow, could you pass me that big black book behind you?
Willow: Sure. Let's find 'Lell'. *Slam*
Giles: Thank you. *Flipping of pages* Ah. Gjraael demon. Thought to be extinct…. curse …. Yes. It's all here. Except about this 'Lell' fellow.
Cordelia: If you've gotta make up a name for a demon you should at least make it scary. 'Lell', how stupid.
Giles: Not necessarily. Demons do have different cultures than ours, remember, so for them 'Lell' might be terrifying.
Buffy: The amount of times we've said 'Lell' in the past ten seconds is ridiculous.
Willow: Uh, guys? Do you think we should get back to the situation at hand?
Giles: You're right. In that case, I think we should proceed cautiously until we know exactly what is going on here.
Buffy: I think we should trust her. I mean, she hasn't done anything to hurt us has she?
Cordelia: Oh please. Not done anything? Did you see her hair?
Giles: It's hardly fair to judge someone on their appearances.
Cordelia: Oh come on! You can tell loads about a person from their appearance! Take Willow for example. In just one glance you can tell she's a computer nerd who has no control over her life and let's her mom choose her clothes.
Willow: Hey! I object to my use as an example!
Giles: That's beside the point Cordelia.
Buffy: Hello? Evil demon on the loose here? Pay attention. Will, you stay here with Giles and do as much research as possible. We'll all come back to the library at 9:30 and see what we've found. Got it?
Willow: Right. I'm on it.
Giles: We'll try our best to find out about 'Lell'.
Cordelia: I'm not coming back. I have a date. To which I shall be wearing my blue skirt. *Chair scrapes backward. Footsteps. Door opening then swinging shut*
Buffy: Anyway, back here at 9:30. I'll tell Xander and Oz.
The sun set outside, but Willow didn't notice. She was too busy scanning through various texts. The first clue she had about the time that had passed was when she glanced briefly at a clock.
"Woah," she exclaimed in surprise. "That went fast."
She stood up and began to collect all the books she'd finished and were useless. Staggering slightly under their weight she took them back to their rightful shelves, sliding them into place carefully. When she'd done that she returned to the main room.
Willow peeked into the librarian's office. Giles was still reading, blissfully unaware of the time, just as she'd been. She knocked on the open door and the Watcher jumped slightly.
"Oh, Willow. Is it really that late? The others should be coming back soon."
"Did you find anything?"
Giles looked downcast.
"I'm afraid not."
"Oh well. I'm sure we'll find something… eventually. Tea?" she queried, perking up slightly. The single word seemed to have a similar effect on Giles, who sat up a little bit straighter and adjusted his glasses before saying,
"Yes please."
Willow headed to the little kitchen area and filled the kettle, placing it back on its mat and switching it on. She pulled two mugs from the cupboard and added some milk to them. Then she leant on the counter and waited for the water to boil.
Meanwhile, Giles was performing the same task she had earlier and was replacing books into their rightful places. There was something therapeutic about the task, and Giles found himself humming quietly. His good mood was only increased when he returned to a hot cup of tea, which he promptly took a sip of.
The two researchers were relaxing comfortably when the door swung open and Oz walked in.
"Hey Will," he said, walking over to her. "Do I get tea too?"
Willow smiled at him.
"There's some hot water left in the kettle." Oz headed over and poured himself a mug of steaming water, dropping a teabag into it. He soon returned with a fully made cup of tea. The trio remained in an easy silence that wasn't awkward or needing to be broken. Unfortunately, it was broken by the door opening again. Looking up to see who had arrived this time Willow came face to face with a vampire.
Letting out a small scream Willow jumped back and dropped the mug. It shattered on the floor and a pool of boiling liquid began to spread out. Willow ignored the mess and scrambled to the stairs and up to the raised level. Giles and Oz copied this, though thankfully they put down their cups onto the table first.
The vampire growled and quickly headed for the stairs on his left. In a split second the three humans banded together and pushed over the closest bookcase, the books themselves – so caringly replace earlier – toppling to the floor in a cascade of pages and covers. The group rushed to the opposite side and repeated the task before the vamp could keep up.
Having not had the chance to get proper weapons in their flee from the blood-sucking creature they quickly grabbed a book each from the floor and gave the vamp a good smack with them every time he tried to get over the railing. It was tiring work and not very effective, so they could only hope that Buffy would get their soon.
Unfortunately, Buffy was currently at home and being railed at by her mother once again.
The vampire was getting into an incredible rage and roared out his anger, sweeping his arms around and knocking over the two remaining cups of tea in the process. He leapt at the defenders again, this time snatching the book from Willow's grasp and chuckling in delight at his victory. It was small and short-lived though as the girl proceeded to throw books at him, making the vampire back away step by step. Giles joined in but it pained him every time one of his precious volumes rebounded off of the enemy and into one of the three puddles on the floor.
Willow's arms began to get heavy and her throwing pace slowed. The vampire's eyes gleamed as he finally managed to take one step forward. Despair began to well up in their hearts as he advanced upon them, their efforts now becoming futile.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The shots rang out through the library and down the corridors of the school. A girl stepped through the doors with two guns in her hands, alternating shots from each. She wore canvas army trousers and a simple shirt with an open jacket on top. Her turquoise hair hung to her shoulders and her eyes were focused on her target.
"Hey, did you know you were followed today?" she addressed Oz, without taking her eyes off of the vampire. She shot a few more bullets at her adversary.
The vampire jerked with each bullet that passed through him. He turned to face the newcomer, his mangy hair falling over his eyes. She raised an eyebrow.
"Not dead, eh?" She looked at the frozen three up by the scattered bookcases. "Gimme a clue guys?"
"Eh? Oh! Beheading, staking, fire!" Willow blurted out, automatically responding to their saviour's needs.
The blue haired girl contemplated briefly.
"Beheading takes too long. I don't currently have a stake. Fire it is then." Upon saying so she released the gun from her right hand and pulled another from her trouser pocket. This one had a longer barrel that thinned at the end and a can attached to its underside.
Impatient, the vampire launched himself at his new foe just as she pulled the trigger. There was a roaring noise, soon paled in comparison to the crackling as the vampire was submerged in flames and he began to sizzle. He screamed, attempting a final lunge at the girl but breaking into ash before he could reach her.
There was a shocked silence as Willow, Oz and Giles took in what had just happened. The girl however, simply placed her flamethrower on the table and retrieved her handgun from the floor, putting that and the one in her left hand next to the weapon of mass destruction.
Finally coming to their senses the three stunned friends hurried to push one of the bookcases out of the way so they could return to the central area. Giles immediately set about collecting the books from the floor like the librarian he was, whilst Willow headed for paper towels to wipe up the spilled tea. Oz approached the girl by the table.
"That's cool," he commented, pointing to the flamethrower. The girl glanced at him.
"It is. I made it myself. Modified one of my old guns. You just can't seem to buy a pocket-sized thrower anywhere."
Oz took a look at the other weapons. They were different to each other, and he questioned her about this.
"At least you can tell one gun from another. This," she replied, indicating to the right gun, "is a Glock 17. Semi-automatic. Now, I like Glocks a lot because you can just pull the trigger and 'BANG'. And this one on the left is also a semi, similar to the Glock in build, price and quality; a Springfield Armory XD 45 ACP. I prefer this to the Glocks though. It's just that little bit more comfortable to shoot. A lot of people prefer the Glock because they know it, and if you wanna bet your life on one, go for the Glock. They're both great guns really. Easy to carry and get through customs. For me, anyway."
Oz patiently listened and filed away the information for – possible – future use as the girl continued to explain the benefits and downsides of various models of guns. She seemed totally unaware that he didn't share her same fascination with the weapons, though she did appear to be simplifying what she said a little.
When the floor was completely dry Willow threw away the last of the paper towels. Giles had stacked the books at the sides of the room until further notice, and they both turned their attention to the girl.
Willow was about to ask who she was when, CRASH!
The doors slammed open again and Sicily hurried in, a panicked look on her face.
"Is everyone all right? I saw–" Her voice cut off when she caught sight of the girl. There was an awkward pause where nobody dared move, or even breath. The blue-haired saviour broke the tension by lifting her hand and grinning.
"Yo, Sicily."
Everything started again and Sicily moved forward to envelop the girl in a hug.
"Maria."
"Okaay, enough of the hugging," Maria said, gently pushing Sicily away.
"What are you doing here?" the historian asked.
"Well, I followed Tanny… Is she not here yet? I should've known. Always gets sidetracked."
Giles coughed to get some attention.
"I hate to interrupt this reunion, but what's going on?"
Sicily beamed at him.
"Sorry. I guess things are a bit out of control now. This is Maria. She goes to the same school I do. I don't know what happened here, but today I caught sight of someone's future - someone who would come to the library in the morning and find the place wrecked and you three dead. So I hurried here, hoping I'd be in time to save you. But it seems this was a flux point where Maria was the Unknown, so the future I saw was not the future that would happen."
Giles studied Sicily for a while, figuring out what she'd said in his head. Then he hit upon something that made him frown.
"Are you saying that you can't see the future perfectly?"
"Dear me, no. That would make me God. I just see past and future fates, and any futures that have an equal chance of happening. All decisions change the future, but most are too small to make a big difference. I couldn't warn you about this earlier because you only decided to stay here after I'd left."
"That sounds very complicated," Oz inputted.
"Oh it is. Not even I can work it out sometimes."
"Guuuuys," Maria whined. "Can we stop the fate talk? It's hurting my head. And just so you know..." she sat down on a chair and put her feet up on the table, "I have nowhere to stay, so I'm going to be living here for a while. 'Kay?"
Giles wasn't too pleased, but before he could say anything to the gunner, Sicily agreed with her.
"That's actually a good idea. If Tanny is coming then she might end up here anyway."
Giles gave an exasperated sigh. There was nothing he could do about Maria staying, and there was another one of them on the way.
Just then, the door opened and everyone tensed up for a fight. Then they relaxed. Willow didn't know about anyone else, but she was getting irritated by all the freezing they did. This time was completely pointless, as the one who walked in was Buffy. Surveying the mess, Buffy looked suspiciously at Maria.
"Would someone tell me what's going on here?"
There you go! Chapter 4, done!
Personally, I like Maria. In the future you might want to skip her weaponry rants though; she can go on for quite a while.
I'm also sorry for ending in this way again. I just keep coming back to these cliffhangery-things. Habit, I suppose.
Please review, and Merry Christmas! XD
