Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever and have no intention of changing this within my lifetime. I write fanfic because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work. Therefore it would be appreciated if you did not file a lawsuit against me because I can promise you that anything you get from me won't even cover half your legal fees.
One Mile Outside of Sunnydale, Haru's POV
"Damn that Toshio! What's so bad about my laugh?" Haru asked rhetorically as she continued on her way to the small town where she would find her next meal.
Grumbling on and on, she knew that she'd still go back to him because, while she might be adjuchas just like him, he was the stronger one. While it was true that Hollows who managed to reach the same level as her normally wandered alone, there were always those weak ones who needed a strong one to survive. There were also always a few strong ones that wanted to hire on weaker minions so they'd have someone to brag to about how 'great' they were. In her case she'd been able to hook up with Toshio because she had a unique ability that he found useful and she knew that she'd only be allowed to remain with him until the day he stopped seeing it as being useful. The reason she took his blows and his insults was because she knew how hard it would be to survive Hueco Mundo alone. While the Menos Grande and those beneath them were no threat, she knew that the other adjuchas would target her because they viewed female Hollows as weak. They would devour her with the intent of getting stronger and perhaps taking them one step closer to perhaps evolving into a Vasto Lorde.
Or they'd simply attack her for their own perverse amusement.
So, like it or not, I'm stuck with him. she thought as she used her senses to try and locate an appetizing meal.
She cringed slightly she could sense that the foul aura of a Hellmouth about the area but it was weaker than the other two times she'd gotten close to the portal to hell. It would unpleasant but she'd be able to endure it and, seeing as how such places tended to have tasty souls in them, she would not turn away. Minutes later that she picked up on a human soul that felt like it'd make a good meal so she changed her course to get to it.
Before she could take more than ten steps, though, a gunshot echoed through the air and the ground in front of her exploded with such a lack of warning that she reflexively retreated as swiftly as she could. It took a moment for her mind to remind her that human weapons, like guns, couldn't hurt her but, once she did realize this, she looked around for the person who'd shot at her. It annoyed her that a lowly human dared to attack her and so she decided right then that she'd make that person her first meal, since they obviously possessed enough spiritual energy to see her. It took a minute but she eventually laid eyes on a human woman who looked to be in her late twenties wearing some sort of business suit and holding a smoking revolver in her hand.
"You will not take one more step towards the humans, Hollow," the woman said with an ice cold voice that almost induced shivering. "I suggest you return to where ever it is you came from. Do so or die."
Her eyes widened; not in fear but in shock that the human woman actually had the gall to threaten someone of her power like that. Normal Hollows had no trouble at all killing humans and she had the power to command Menos Grande. which were the taller than the biggest trees. It was ludicrous and made her angry that a being beneath her was taking her so lightly.
"You've got guts. sister. If you got enough spiritual power to see me, you should also be able to tell how powerful I am," she said, turning to face the arrogant human. "So I'm afraid I must decline your suggestion and offer one of my own: start running. If you manage to stay alive for half an hour, I might let you live. Maybe."
"Very well. You have chosen your fate. Angel? Deal with her if you would."
"As you wish… my master," came a disturbing voice that had no discernible source that she could see.
That changed however when a man rose up out of the ground as though it were made of water. Clad in a red trench coat and wearing white gloves, he didn't look like anything special at first but, when he raised his face, she saw that his blood red eyes. That was a color that was distinctly not human in nature and his unnaturalness was only further reinforced when he smiled at her exposing two fangs.
Was he a vampire?
"Tch! You think a vampire is going to be able to kill me, human?" she asked, sounding distinctly unimpressed. "They might not taste good but even the lowest Hollow can eat one of them for breakfast."
"Angel is unlike the trash you've faced in the past, Hollow," the woman said without a shred of fear. "Indeed, he is unlike anything anyone has faced in the past."
"Big talk. Let's see if he can back it up!" Challenge made, she charged the arrogant red-eyed vampire.
"GLADLY!" yelled the vampire called Angel as he surged forth to meet her charge.
Thus the contest of strength began.
Back at the Battlefield Near the Factory, Willow's POV
T-this is not good! she thought as she used her speed to get behind the Hollow attacking her so she could decapitate it.
She didn't know how long it had been since that… frog Hollow… had ordered his minions to attack but she did know that she was beginning to tire. Never before had she been pushed so hard, whether it be physically or with regards to her spiritual energy, and it was beginning to show in her movements. Where at the beginning she'd been able to dance around the attacks of her foes without too much difficulty, she was now beginning to get glancing blows. They might not have done much damage but they did hurt and pain was a distraction she could not afford to experience if she wanted to live to see tomorrow.
Xander had scored a major victory for them by taking out three of the four giant Hollows but he was having trouble with the final one since the… frog had ordered four of the smaller masked monsters to get in his way. It wasn't that the four were stronger than Xander was at the moment, according to her senses he was more powerful than any one of them, but it had been made clear in the first few minutes that they had significant experience teaming up with one another. No matter what Xander tried, the teamwork of the four kept him off balance enough that doing more than maintaining a stalemate was beyond her oldest friend's abilities. What made it worse, though, was that she knew her friend had to be reaching the limit of how long his body could withstand the amount of power he was putting out. Unless something was done soon to end the fight, he would be a sitting duck for the Hollows and she had a feeling they would soon follow him if he was killed.
There's gotta be something we can do! she thought as she brought her blade up to block the claws of a cat-like Hollow.
However, no matter how hard she thought between each exchange of blows, she couldn't think of anything they could do that they weren't already doing. They were already channeling their spiritual energy into their bodies to boost their physical abilities as high as they could. They were already using every sword trick and technique that Giles had been teaching them since their zanpakuto first manifested. They were already taking all the experience and knowledge they'd gained since Halloween and using it to slay the Hollows.
What else was there?!
Be quiet! Some of us are trying to get some sleep.
The voice was one that was not spoken out loud but seemed to be coming from… elsewhere and, unless her ears were deceiving her, it kind of sounded like the woman who did the voice for Ryoko in that Tenchi Anime Xander had her watch once. It was then that she noticed that the rest of the world seemed to have been paused because, no matter where she looked, not a thing was moving; not her friends, not the Hollows and not even the dirt being kicked up into the air by the battle moved so much as an inch. She was so amazed by this was she that she almost missed the movement out of the corner of her eye but see it she did and she turned her head.
What she saw wasn't what she'd been expecting at all, but at the same time, there was a certain… familiarity in the sight.
Walking out from behind her was a panther but, instead of a normal one, this one looked like it was made from tiny bits of dark amethyst gemstones. Most of the bits were a little bigger than a grain of sand but, for parts like the claws and the teeth, they were as big as a pocket knife and looked just as sharp, if not sharper. It also looked like the panther had just woken up from a nap as its movements were a bit sluggish and a moment later it yawned widely before turning to look at her with glowing golden eyes, not unlike her own.
You and your friends sure like to stir things up, cub, came the voice she now knew came from the panther. I don't really care about that but you're antics are causing problems for me.
"Um…sorry?" she said uncertain of how best to respond to that.
Whatever. I suppose it couldn't be helped, thought the panther as it shook off the last of its drowsiness. And it looks like I'm going to have to lend you a hand if I'm going to get back to my nap anytime soon.
"Lend me a hand? How?" she asked a bit uncertain about what the large feline could mean.
It's time for you to learn my name. Learn my name and reach a new level of power, the panther thought as it turned to face her and sat down. Listen to my words and speak them aloud.
Listening to the words that entered her mind, she could instantly tell that they had power in them and, as she watched, the purple panther fade from sight. It was then that she began to notice the rest of the world beginning to resume its normal pace and that if she didn't act quickly, she might not be able to later. It was with a leap of faith that she brought her katana up in front of her face and spoke the words she had been given mere moments before.
"Relax under the black leaves, Mokukurosha Dorahyou,"
It was with a little surprise that she watched the blade of her katana fade into another color, one that matched the color of the panther, before an unseen wind blew by causing it dissolve into glittering pieces of sand. However she wasn't worried one little bit because she could feel each tiny grain in her mind and, more than that, she instinctively knew that she could control them. Without hesitation she began to will the grains to attack the Hollows and, just like how a sandstorm was deadly despite how harmless some people thought sand was, so too were the bits of amethyst. Flying through the air with the speed of an arrow, they bypassed the attempts of the Hollows to block or attack, piercing their masks with almost no loss of speed. The Hollows, however, soon figured out what needed to be done and tried to attack her directly rather than fend off the bits of purple death that had struck down four of them already. Seeing that her only means of blocking the claws was a ways away, she instantly brought her arms in front of her to put up something of a defense. Closing her eyes and bracing herself for the pain she was surprised when all that hit her moments later was some sort of liquid mixed with little bits of solid.
It was only when she opened her eyes that she realized why and it caused a bit of shock with her: spread out in front of her was a net made of the grains of amethyst and, thanks to the speed and the force the Hollow used, it'd been sliced up into pieces no bigger than her fist. Had the grains of amethyst reacted to her desire to protect herself or had the panther she'd spoken to somehow used them to protect her? She didn't know but she was glad that she was still in one piece and from then on out, she would make sure to keep at least a third of the grains close by for defense.
With that lesson learned, she resumed tearing the through the Hollows either by piercing their masks or shredding their skin with large masses of the purple stuff. Before long the area around her was completely vacant of Hollows, leaving only those attacking the others in one piece but that was something she'd quickly be able to remedy. Gathering the grains of purple around her, but not reforming them into her katana's blade, she ran to aid the closest Scooby, Cordy. A comet composed of the bits of amethyst attacked the two that seemed to be getting the better of the head cheerleader by burrowing through them like one of those multi-faceted drills used to dig through mountains.
"What the hell!? What kinda freakiness are you doing now!?"
"The kind that's saving your ass, now back me up so we can go help the others!" she snarled as the Hollows began to attack the two of them with desperation in their movements.
The reply seemed to surprise Cordy but, truth be told, it sort of surprised her as well.
Nevertheless, the rich girl did as she'd been told, moved into a support position and together they began to kill the Hollow's one after another until only one scared rat-like one remained in their immediate vicinity. She was about to dispatch that one when a long pink tongue shot out of nowhere and impaled the rat Hollow through the head. It only stayed there for a moment before withdrawing but the damage had been done and the rat fell to the ground like so much dead meat. Looking in the direction the long tongue had gone, she saw that it had been the leader of the group that came through the portal that had slain the rat Hollow. But that didn't make sense! Why would he kill his own minion? The answer came to her when she recalled how the whole master and minion thing tended to work. The masters only tended to keep the minions around while they remained useful and didn't make them look bad. Therefore it was the rat's own cowardice or perhaps its lack of usefulness in the present situation that had brought about its end.
Of course that didn't change the fact that the frog Hollow was walking towards them with a look of annoyance on its face… or at least she thought it was annoyance.
"You sure have made a mess of things, shinigami," Toshio the Frog said with a tone Buffy often used in reference to homework. "All I came here for was a nice, juicy meal and maybe a bit of fun. Now I've lost more than half of my minions and it's going to be a serious pain in the ass replacing them."
"Yeah? Well… if they couldn't take us down then they weren't much to brag about anyways!" Cordy blurted out, trying to bluff the oncoming threat with false confidence.
"Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm going to have to go all over Hueco Mundo to find new ones," Toshio said without slowing own one little bit. "So I think it's only fair that you compensate me with your souls. It would keep this little trip from being a complete waste."
"Sorry but we're kinda attached to them," she said, trying to keep her fear of frogs at bay.
"Not for long." Toshio said before using his long legs to leap towards them.
Buffy's POV
"AAAHHHH!"
"Willow!" she exclaimed, looking to the right just in time to see her friend impact the ground hard fifty yards away.
Immediately looking for the cause of her friend's pain, she soon found it in the form of the Big Bad of the Hollow group that had come through the mid-air portal. This worried her greatly since it was general rule among big bads that, if they had a group of minions, then they were either the strongest or the smartest. Neither possibility was of the good in her opinion and it was only made worse by the fact that it didn't look like Willow would last long enough for her to take her time with her own adversaries. She needed to finish off her Hollow opponents NOW and move to support Willow. Either that or find a way to take on the remaining Hollows who'd ganged up on Xander so he could go to his best friend's aid. With that in mind, she let her distracting emotions fall to dust within her, leaving only her resolve and her skills causing her mind to become as sharp as any blade. Emotions was a source of strength in most cases but only if you could control them and direct them. At present, the stress of the situation had made her control fragile at best, so rather than risk her friends' lives she locked them away until the situation improved.
Deciding that going for fatal strikes was proving to be too difficult, she changed to disabling strikes in the hopes of immobilizing her foes and letting her break away from them without pursuit. This proved to be the correct course of action because the Hollows didn't even bother to block her blade once they determined it wasn't heading for anyplace vital.
It was their first mistake.
With three strokes of her sword she had severed one leg from each of her three opponents, causing them to fall to the ground, roaring in pain. She didn't stay to take satisfaction in it, though, because a friend needed her help. Leaping over them, she ran towards the spot where Willow was using some sort of sparkly stuff to fend off the Froggy but was only being marginally successful. She needed to take some pressure off of the redhead and she knew of only one way to do it that was quick enough for her. As soon as she closed to what she considered to be her maximum leaping range, she pushed off the ground with the intent of using her wakizashi to write her name in the frog Hollow's back. However, before she got within range, the monster smacked Willow aside and then spun around, its right leg poised to deliver what would likely be a painful kick. This was to her advantage though since, with a simple adjustment of her blade's position, the monster's own attack combined with her descent would carve up the leg quite easily.
At least it would have if the amphibian themed Hollow hadn't used its tongue to knock the arm holding her wakizashi out of position. Without it where she wanted it, she was unable to do more than use her right elbow to protect her body from the full force of the kick. It still hurt, both the initial impact and when she hit the ground, but if her right arm was any indication, it'd have been in a lot worse shape if the kick had hit her body unhindered. As she got to her feet, she could tell that while was not broken, she was going to have the mother of all bruises where the kick hit her right elbow. That was SO not going to be easy to hide from her mother, especially since she wouldn't have Slayer healing to get rid of it within a day or two.
Maybe I can ask Giles about doing some healing mojo on it or at least some kind of illusion so that no can see it.
Her right arm's strength felt like it'd been reduced to half strength and, while she could still move it, the pain spiked if she tried to move it quickly. Considering the fact that they were in the middle of a battle where speed played a crucial role, she had a feeling she'd be finding out the hard way where the upper limits of her pain threshold were. Bringing her wakizashi up and holding it in such a way that her left arm would be the one to bear the brunt of any strain, she prepared herself for Froggy's inevitable attack.
"You get points for effort, blondie, but I haven't lived as long as I have only to fall from a simple back attack." Froggy turned half towards her, "You're going to have to try much harder."
"I intend to but I won't be alone," she said as she watched Willow take up a position to attack from the other side of the villainous Hollow. "Let's see if you're good enough to handle two on one!"
She charged in and did her best to capture Froggy's full attention so that Willow would have an opening to attack. She closed to a distance just close enough to entice the Hollow to attack then jumped out of range once she was sure the masked monster committed to the action. Willow attacked just like they'd done when facing smarter Hollows in the last few weeks, except now the redhead had a new trick to thrown into the mix. She'd have to remember to ask her friend how she pulled it off because it looked like a pretty cool trick and she'd love to use it herself. For the moment though it looked like their current plan would work out because more and more blood was dripping from the frog faced Hollow with every passing minute.
This apparently did not sit well with the masked monster because, with a furious bellow, the power she'd sensed within it from the beginning began to rise.
"You little bitches are really starting to piss me OFF!" Froggy roared before its lower jaw began to expand just like a normal frog.
For a moment she thought that it was about to attack them with its tongue again but that didn't make a whole lot of sense. True, the icky thing was fast but as long as she stayed far enough away to see it coming it would hardly be a trump card. It was only after she tried to discern more with her ability to sense spiritual energy that she got her first clue about what the monster was about to do. There was a massive energy build up going on inside the creature's body and, when she tried to compare it with what she'd sensed in the past, the truth hit her right between the eyes.
"Willow! Run! He's going to fire that red blast!" she yelled before turning to gain some distance of her own.
She got a total of fifteen meters before she heard the sound of the blast being unleashed and somehow she knew that it was coming at her rather than flying towards Willow. She'd seen the speed at which the crimson blast had flown from the giant Hollow and knew that there was no way that she'd be able to evade it. If she thought she'd have a chance, she'd try to endure it by pitting her own spiritual energy against whatever type of power the blood red blast was made of but her senses told her she had no chance. Resigning herself to death, she tried to take some comfort in the fact that it'd likely be over in an instant and that it'd be unlikely that a body would be left behind.
Then, just as she expected to feel the front edge of the blast, she felt the ground shake for a moment as though something had hit it hard and then she felt an explosion of power behind her. She recognized that power immediately and turned around to see Xander standing in the path of the crimson blast with his own fiery orange energy raging around him. To her eyes it looked like he was throwing his power against the blast in an effort to overpower it and therefore save both their lives, but she had to wonder how long he could keep it up. Her friend had been fighting without his eye patch on for some time now and she knew that sooner or later his body would give out under the strain of channeling so much power. She just hoped that Froggy's blast would give out sooner or else she might still get her quick and painless death after all.
In a turn of events she hadn't been expecting, lady luck decided to grant her wish because the crimson energy dissipated, leaving only Xander's crackling spiritual energy behind. Seeing the devastation left behind by the Hollow's blast, it amazed her that the teenager possessed enough power to defeat it. It was only when Xander dropped to one knee that she saw proof that such power came at a price and now her friend's body was demanding that he pay it.
"Xander? Are you-?" she asked only to be cut off by Xander with a raised arm.
"I won't say that I'm peachy, Buff, but I can still fight." Xander forced himself to his feet, "Just don't make me do a lot of moving about."
"I don't think that'll be much of an option, Xan. Look."
Apparently the Big Bad liked to take out the weakened first before going after the strong and, at the moment, Xander was right in the Hollow's crosshairs.
"I'll admit that I'm a little surprised, human," Toshio said, not breaking stride. "That was one of my more powerful Cero blasts you just stood up to, even if there was no skill involved. Given enough time you could be a real problem for me and my people, so I think I'm just to finish you off here and now. Pray to whatever gods you worship because you'll be meeting them soon enough!"
The Hollow charged with more speed than he'd exhibited up until the present, as well as a great deal more spiritual energy. Before she had time to register more than that, he was right in front of her and a second later she found herself flying through the air, her head feeling like someone had spent an hour using it for a soccer ball. Thankfully impacting on the ground knocked her senses back online and, with a little work, she was able to use the momentum from the blow to get into a crouching position. Looking back up, she saw a sight she never wanted to see for the rest of her life: being held off the ground by one arm and trying with increasing urgency to pry loose the hand around his throat was Xander. Somehow, in between her being hit and recovering, the Big Bad Hollow had gotten his webbed hand around her fellow Scooby's throat and was choking the life out of him.
"Xander!" she exclaimed as she tried to charge forth to save her friend.
However she didn't get more than a step before a wave of disorientation washed over her, causing her to drop to all fours and wait for a few seconds until it passed. Hearing the chuckling of the Hollow, she pushed herself back to her feet, knowing that if she didn't do something quickly she would be losing a friend. Sadly her second attempt at charging the rescue didn't end much better than the first one did, since this time it took three steps before the disorientation forced her to her knees again. The blow that the Hollow had originally used to knock her away from Xander's side must've given her a concussion but she couldn't let it slow her down. Xander was depending on her! Nevertheless, no matter how strong her willpower was, she couldn't run. Hell, she could barely walk more than a few feet, and her increasing desperation to save her friend was beginning to manifest on her face. Her breathing rate increased, her pupils dilated and her grunts of effort began to make what she was feeling inside perceivable to those looking at her. As she watched Xander's efforts to free himself become weaker and fewer, though, she flashed back to that awful night when Merrick died right in front of her.
Her first Watcher had sacrificed his own life to save her from Lothos. Now her friend was going to die because he had used up all his strength protecting her.
It wasn't RIGHT!
It wasn't right and she wasn't going to let the monsters, Fate or anything else take anything that was precious away from her ever AGAIN!
And with that thought came a cold clarity akin to the grave.
Willow's POV
Pain.
It was something she wasn't exactly new to, whether it was the emotional sort or of the physical variety, but it was not something she enjoyed. At the moment it didn't matter because her best friend, the man she wished to marry, was in trouble and she would not let anything keep her from rescuing him. Already she had managed to get to her feet and using her katana, something she had willed back into its previous form, in place of the leg the Hollow Toshio had pierced with his tongue, and she was making progress towards her destination. She knew that if she allowed the blade to dissolve into its other form it could cross the distance but what good would that do against the masked monster? The dark grains had proven to be only good for giving Toshio minor scrapes and drawing mere drops of blood, which wasn't even close to what she'd need to save her friend.
Therefore she had decided to get in closer and, once within range, channel all of her remaining spiritual energy into her katana before ramming it someplace vital within the frog Hollow's body. However, as she was about halfway, a blur of motion attracted her attention but, when that blur solidified, she got a bit of a shock. Balanced on the arm that Toshio was using to strangle Xander was Buffy and the former Slayer looked like she was using the Hollow's limb like a parallel bar. The Summers girl's left hand was on the monster's elbow while the right hand was bringing the wakizashi around in a swift attack aimed at the mask of the creature. Out of shock, most likely, Toshio released his grip on Xander and jerked backwards to avoid the deadly blade but the action came a little too late, allowing the blade to leave a mark on the bone white mask. Watching as both her best friends dropped to their knees on the ground as their foe took a few steps back, she wondered where Buffy had gotten her second wind.
It was then, when she had a clear look at the ex-Slayer, she gasped in surprise: Buffy's hair was a much lighter shade of blonde than it had been a couple of minutes ago. It was like someone had taken a cup of yellow paint and then watered it down to the point where you could barely tell that it was yellow. The next thing she noticed was that the Summers girl's skin had taken on a slightly paler color but that could've just been due to exhaustion because she knew that she was feeling more than a little fatigue at the moment. The eyes, though… the eyes couldn't be so easily written off because now they were the same color as Buffy's hair but with a chilly light in them she didn't recognize nor cared to see ever again. Gone was the life, the wisecracking humor, that to her had so epitomized the girl who'd arrived in Sunnydale almost two years ago and in its place was something as cold as death itself.
Buffy… what's happened to you?
She didn't get an answer in words but instead got them in the form of actions as her first real female friend renewed her assault on the frog Hollow. It was then that she learned that the changes to Buffy were more than cosmetic because now the light blonde was moving with speed and agility that had not been exhibited by the teenager before, even when channeling her spiritual energy. So different was it that Toshio was actually getting pushed back, even though before he had been dominating the Scooby gang. While normally this would be a good thing, it was when the frog Hollow actually counterattacked that she saw something that worried her. Where before Buffy would make sure to be well clear of where her adversary's attacks were going to land, now the blonde was only repositioning her body just enough to keep any wounds she incurred down to flesh wounds. Worse than that, if the expression on her face was true, the teenager didn't care that she was being hurt or that her own blood was being cast about the battlefield.
All that seemed to matter was killing Toshio.
On and on the exchange of blows went until, with a howl of rage, the Hollow let loose his power in the form of a shockwave that succeeded in knocking the blonde harassing him away.
"I don't know where you found this energy all of a sudden, blondie, but this has ceased to be amusing," Toshio growled as his energy crackled about his skin. "Time for you all to die!"
"We will not be the ones to die here, Hollow," Buffy said with less emotion than someone's pet rock. "Let your dark storm rule upon the battlefield, Gunjokou Karaiyami."
A spike in spiritual energy caused the wakizashi in Buffy's hand turned into a black and purple energy before flowing back towards her hand and coating it almost up to the elbow, where it snapped into metal form, once more looking like a knight's gauntlet except that on each finger were inch-long metal talons. When Buffy brought it up in preparation to use it, she noticed almost invisible arcs of purple-black electricity dance along the surface of the gauntlet, while it also left a small comet-like tail behind it. On the surface she couldn't really see anything too impressive but she had a feeling that anyone who let appearances be the basis of judging the metal glove's threat level would live just long enough to want to kick themselves hard.
"So you traded up your sword for added protection to your right arm. Big deal!" Toshio said, sounding distinctly unimpressed by what he'd seen. "All that means is I gotta tear you up everywhere but there!"
"You'll find that significantly harder than you think," Buffy said before she surged forward with speed a bit above what she'd shown so far.
Too bad the Hollow had also sped up by quite a bit and Toshio was genuinely giving it his all. For a time neither combatant succeeded in landing a blow since both likely had enough experience now fighting the other that they were able to predict attacks. However it was when the frog Hollow made a mistake with a broad swipe of his left hand that Buffy was finally able to land a blow and the effects were quite dramatic.
"AARRRGGGGHHH!" cried out the Hollow as he pressed a webbed hand to his chest, stumbling back a few steps.
Watching as Toshio removed his hand from his chest, most likely to look at the wound, they were surprised to see that the damage wasn't all that great. Blood had been drawn but it was nowhere near bad enough to cause the sort of pain that the frog monster had expressed moments ago.
"What did you do to me?"
"Returned to you some of the pain you've put me and my friends through this night." Buffy still showed no emotion. "Get used to it. There's a lot more where that came from."
Toshio roared in defiance and initiated the conflict this time and once more the dance of death began for the duo, with no indication as to who would score a hit next. It was almost unreal how much the Hollow and the ex-Slayer were going at it and, with a shake of her head, she decided to do something other than play spectator. Crawling on her hands and knees, she made her way over to where Xander seemed to slowly be recovering his senses, to see what he could do to help him. She didn't think he'd be able to recover quickly enough to help Buffy double team Toshio but that didn't mean that she would just leave him to fend for himself. If he was strong enough that he could move about like she could, then maybe they could go to where Cordy lay unconscious and see if they could get the rich girl awake. A hard kick from the frog Hollow had knocked the brunette unconscious earlier but, thankfully, the Big Bad had ignored her from that point on and focused completely on her. They had to check on her to make sure that she was okay and not in need of immediate medical attention. If it turned out that Cordelia was hurt, then hopefully between her and Xander they'd be able to drag the cheerleader to the factory where Giles and Ms. Dormer could do something. If Cordy be in roughly the same shape as Xander and her, though, they'd have to have a quick group chat to see how they could help Buffy.
I don't know if Buffy can finish off Toshio all by herself but I'm not willing to bet her life on it.
"Hey, Wills. How…how're we doin'?" Xander coughed out, massaging his throat a bit.
"Buffy's managing to hold her own for now," she replied, looking over her shoulder for a moment to make sure that that was still the case. "Don't know how long she can keep it that way, though."
"Then we gotta help her," Xander said as he tried to get to his feet.
Try being the important word.
He got about as far as beginning to use his legs to rise up off the ground before wobbling and dropping back down to his hands and knees.
"Easy there! Between you taking your eye patch off and getting smacked around by Toshio, you're lucky to be conscious right now." She moved to prevent him from trying to stand again, "In fact, you better put the patch back on. Keeping it off any longer can't be good for you."
With a nod Xander reached into his pocket and had his unique eye patch back on his head in seconds. Immediately she felt his power recede and, while she didn't know if it'd speed up his body's recovery, she was certain that it would keep him from getting any worse.
She didn't want to find out the hard way that keeping his power all out for too long did permanent harm to his body.
Toshio's POV
This is absurd! he thought as he continued to try and fail in his efforts to tear apart the blonde bitch. I'm stronger! I AM ADJUCHAS! I should be able to swat this infuriating wench aside with ease! So why is it I can't hit her!?
It was a question that kept repeating in his mind over and over again but every time he thought he had the answer, a way to finally end the fight, it only ended in failure. For a time he'd thought the blonde might be some sort of blasted shinigami but, despite some similarities, there were just too many missing attributes for that to be the case. Nevertheless, she was as infuriating as some of those self-important bastards and, just like all of his Hollow brethren, he would see this one dead!
Thirteen minutes later was when he finally got a break when he discerned a pattern to the blonde's attacks and it took all the self-control he could muster to keep from chuckling with glee. Instead he bided his time, waited until the moment was right, and then, when the opening he was looking for presented itself, he launched his long tongue from his mouth with the utmost speed. At a speed almost double that of the fastest arrow, the pink weapon crossed the distance between himself and his chosen target. All the whore could do was watch as it pierced her upper left thigh, popped out the other side and then embedded itself a good inch into the lower part of the right leg. There wasn't satisfying shrill scream of pain, hell there was barely a grunt, but the end the result was just how he wanted things. The infuriating wench was down on the ground and, from what he could see, had no hope of being able to get back to her feet much less continue the fight.
"You ran a good race, bitch, but now it's over!" he laughed victoriously as he looked down at the pale piece of meat. "If you have any last words, now's the time to say them."
"I have only two words to say to you: turn around."
For a moment he considered doing precisely that but then recognized his prey's words for the bluff that they were. In all likelihood an act of desperation intended to either provide her with a chance to stab him in the back or sneak away on her hands and knees. Since he was not feeling particularly charitable at the moment, he chose not to oblige her.
"Nice try but I'm not going to fall for that old trick."
"Sometimes it's not a trick, though," spoke an unfamiliar voice from behind him. "Nake, Benihime."
Whirling around to confront the threat he hadn't even known was there, he barely got more than halfway before he felt something pass through him. He tried to look down to see what had happened but all he got was a glimpse of a bloody scar running the length of his body.
After that… he felt nothing more than a rising nothingness that soon enveloped him completely.
Xander's POV
I hope this new guy is a friend, 'cause if he's not we're screwed, he thought as he looked at the newcomer who'd just sliced the frog Hollow Toshio in half.
He knew that he wasn't in very good shape thanks to his removal of his patch and that massive discharge of power he'd used to block the crimson blast that Toshio sent at Buffy. Of course the interrupted choking hadn't helped, though he could've ignored and still fought, but a worn out body was another thing entirely. Nevertheless, he gathered what strength he had left and forced himself to his feet while doing his best not to let the full extent of his weakness show visibly. Gripping his katana in both hands, he didn't bring it to bear just yet but he made sure that if he had to he could do just that if the guy with the weird sandals made one false move. He doubted that he would be able to do more than block attacks but at least if the guy was busy trying to slice him up, it'd give the others an opening to attack.
Or at least that would've been the case if Buffy hadn't keeled over like some faint hearted girly-girl.
"BUFFY!" Willow exclaimed before trying to get over to the now unconscious blonde as quickly as she could despite her injuries.
"You don't need to worry about your friend," the man wearing the green and white hat said as he knelt down by the former Slayer's side. "It looks like she just overexerted herself. She should be fine if her wounds are bandaged and she's given a day to rest."
While partially relieved by the unknown person's statement, he knew better than to blindly believe it and therefore stretched out with his own senses to see how his blonde bud was doing. Reaching out with his ability to sense the spiritual energy of others, he did his best to figure out just how serious Buffy's condition was and let go of the metaphorical breath he'd been holding when he could still feel a strong center of energy within her.
Turning his attention back to the unknown man, he saw his hands had just started to glow a greenish color as the guy held them over the ex-Slayer's wounds. "While I might not be as skilled with healing kidou as Unohana-san, I can at least deal with the worst of the bleeding so that you can get her to a hospital."
"That's good but… just who are you?" he asked deciding that he wanted a name to call this guy by.
"Me? I'm just a humble shopkeeper from Japan who was interested in the light show you and your friends put on," Mr. Shopkeeper replied, trying to make it sound as though he was nothing special.
It didn't fool Xander for a moment.
"Nice try but shopkeepers don't kill things that ten seconds ago were wiping the floor with me and my friends. They also can't heal people with glowy green hands," he said with a bit of steel, making it clear he wouldn't be accepting any bullshit.
"Oh, that? That was just a lucky shot along with a few parlor tricks I know," Mr. Shopkeeper said before taking on a more serious tone of voice. "However if you insist on a name, it's Urahara Kisuke."
He still didn't like the fact that someone he didn't know was working some kind of magic on one of his girls but it didn't make sense for someone who wanted them harm to help them. Of course that didn't mean that this guy wouldn't harm them in the future or that a situation he didn't understand automatically meant something positive. Still, with his body still maxed out and the rest of the Scoobies weren't much better off, that left only—
"Step away from the girl nice and slowly, sir, or I will allow you to discover what an arrow through the back feels like."
Turning his head, he had to smile a bit as he watched G-Man, Ms. D and Faith walking up with weapons at the ready in case there was trouble. Looking back at the man wearing the weird looking wooden sandals, though, it only took a moment for him to decide that for the time being he'd give the guy the benefit of a doubt. "Ease off, G-Man. Urahara saved our bacon and patched up Buffy's wounds a bit. I say give the guy a chance."
A few minutes of consideration were all it took in the end for the former Watcher to come to a decision and, thankfully, that choice was to indeed stand down. Ms. Dormer and Faith were a little reluctant but they soon followed Giles' example.
"Thank you. I assure you that my intentions are good," Urahara said as the green glow faded from his hands. "There. I've done all I can for your young blonde friend here, young man. I suggest that you get her to a hospital so that they can complete the treatment."
With those words Kisuke stood up and began to walk away in a direction that was definitely not the way to Sunnydale.
"Where are you going?" asked Willow, who looked like her own injuries were beginning to sap her strength further.
"Oh… somewhere, but I truly hope that we meet again someday," replied Urahara without turning around to look at her. "In fact, I'm sure we will."
With those words the man disappeared in a blur and, no matter what direction anyone turned in, they couldn't see a single sign of him. With what strength he had left, he stretched out with his ability to sense spiritual energy and tried to pin down the shopkeeper's location that way. Sadly it turned out to be useless since he couldn't pick up anything within range that would imply someone of incredible strength was close by. Either the guy had gotten out of range in a hurry or was somehow able to hide his strength from detection.
However he did it, I doubt we'll see him coming unless he wants us to, he thought before focusing his attention on staying standing.
"Well, that was unexpected," Giles said with a bit of bafflement.
"Something of an understatement, Rupert, but we have more pressing matters to attend to," Ms. Dormer said after taking a few steps forward and kneeling at Buffy's side. "While Mr. Urahara may have tended to your former Slayer's wounds somewhat, she is still in need of medical care as are the rest of our group."
"Quite right. Xander? Willow? Do you believe you can make it back to the car?" Giles asked, looking at the two of them.
Testing his legs by taking a single step, he found that, while not lacking a wobble factor, he could probably make it to the station wagon so long as he didn't get distracted. Looking over to Willow, he saw that, while just as wobbly as he was, she looked strong enough to make it the required distance if only just barely. "Sure, but don't expect much past that."
He and the others that had been so battered and bruised by the fight withdrew to the vehicle they'd used to arrive at the factory. From there he knew that the adults would take them to the hospital so they could be properly taken care of but his mind wasn't really on that.
No, his mind was on the man responsible for it all, Mayor Wilkins, and how he planned on slicing that asshole into chunks of meat fit for a meat packing plant.
For the suffering that bastard dumped onto his friends, he'd make sure to pay it back tenfold.
The Parking Lot Outside City Hall, Thirty Minutes Later, Mayor Wilkins' POV
To say that Richard Wilkins was in a foul mood at the moment would be the mother of all understatements.
Indeed, while it looked to the casual pedestrian that he was in as good a mood as he ever was, the truth of the matter was that he was furious at the failure of his latest scheme. He had poured considerable resources into creating the Hollow bait at the factory and had been certain that, when overwhelmed by both numbers as well as strength, the four thorns in his side would finally be crushed. From the moment he had driven away from the battlefield he'd set up to the moment he'd pulled into the parking lot, he'd used his arcane senses to monitor the situation. The ex-Slayer and her friends had put up an impressive fight but, then again, he hadn't expected them to fall very easily. Despite the surprises that they'd managed to pull off, everything had gone according to plan right up until the final few minutes of the fight and that was when an unknown snatched success from his grasp. He didn't know who or what the unknown factor was but it had slain the executioner he had summoned, leaving the four threats to survive and recover. He'd tried to learn the identity of the interloper but the truth was stubbornly hidden from him despite the mystical power he possessed, so answers would have to wait until he could make use of the tools in his office.
I think that when I find out the identity of the interloper, I'll have to make an example of them, he thought as he began running through some of his favorite methods of doing so. Maybe even arrange it so that Summers and her allies will be there to watch. Decisions, decisions, decisions!
He was almost at the front steps of city hall when he sensed a presence and, with shock, he turned around as he realized it was right behind him. Calling forth his considerable mystical might, he prepared to reduce the surprise visitor to a pile of ashes but, just before he could bring his power to bear, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Before he could even begin to wonder what the source of the pain was, he felt his strength vanish and watched as his eyes went from taking in the city hall parking lot to seeing the starlit sky overhead.
A paralytic?! He thought with increasing unease as he shifted his efforts towards neutralizing whatever was inhibiting his movements.
As he did this, a feminine form cloaked partially in darkness entered his field of vision and peered down at him with her green, dispassionate eyes. Clad in black, with only a few bits of white thrown in, his mind drew a conclusion that was not only possible but also quite perilous for him, inspiring him to double his efforts to neutralize whatever she'd injected into him.
"I come bear a message to you, Richard Wilkins," the woman murmured in a soft and submissive tone of voice. "A message and punishment for interfering in something that was none of your business. My captain said to tell you 'you may see yourself as a powerful man, Richard Wilkins, but that could not be further from the truth. You are, in fact, a coward running from the fate of all humans and so you act with a disgraceful amount of desperation. Normally I wouldn't care what happened to such an uninteresting subject such as you but you just had to tamper with my most prized experiment to date. Such a thing cannot be ignored.'
"'It is for this reason that you're lying helpless on the ground right now. Do not worry, though, for you will not need to endure such an undignified position for long'," the woman repeated before taking out what appeared to be a small bottle.
She opened it and, with the utmost care, tipped it on its side after holding it over his head. For a time nothing happened but then a single drop of something fell from the bottle and landed on his forehead. He'd expected to feel pain the moment it touched him but instead all he could feel was a spot of tingling where the drop of liquid hit his skin.
"'Do not think that your punishment would be something so common as poison or some sort of corrosive,'" said the woman as she screwed the cap back on the bottle. "'It is a compound containing hundreds of thousands of microscopic organisms that I developed as a weapon to use against the Hollows. Unfortunately it proved to be somewhat uncontrollable once it obtained a measure of momentum and so I was forced to shelve the project until a more reliable method of control could be devised. Consider yourself fortunate that you have been chosen as the first test subject of that new control method.'
"'If everything proceeds as it did in my simulations, the micro-organisms in that single drop will slowly consume your body over the course of the next five hours until there is nothing left.'" The woman tucked the bottle away somewhere, "'The most interesting part of their design though is this: at the same time that they consume your body, they will ensure that you remain both alive as well as conscious. From now until they finally choose to consume your brain, you will experience the gradual destruction of your body along with all the sensations associated with such a process. Goodbye.'"
With those words the woman bowed formally to him and then began to walk away, or at least that was what he surmised by what his sense of hearing was informing him. As she got farther and farther away from him, he began to notice that the tingling sensation that he'd felt on his forehead for the last few seconds began to change. It no longer tingled but rather began to itch with ever increasing strength until he very much wanted to regain the use of at least one arm so he could scratch it. Before he could use his abilities to that end, what his sense of touch was telling him changed once more, shattering what focus he possessed with all the force of a wrecking ball.
This is to be expected when your pain receptors light up like a Christmas tree.
It was impossible to describe what he was feeling at that precise moment but it made him want to shriek out in pain for all of Sunnydale to hear. However he could not due to the injection that had initially landed him in his current predicament and so he remained helplessly immersed in suffering as the torment went on and on. Before long he lost the ability to discern the passage of time and coherent thought soon followed.
By the time the compound had finished doing its job, there was nothing left of the once great and powerful Richard Wilkins of Sunnydale. Then, with their task completed, the micro-organisms self-destructed just as their creator had programmed them to do, leaving nothing but a faint residue on the stone walkway, something that would be swept away by the city hall groundskeeper a little after six in the morning, never to be seen again.
Across the Street from Sunnydale General Hospital, 1a.m, Urahara's POV
Who are they?
It was a question he'd asked himself more than once since he'd first laid eyes on them but he had yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. All four possessed extraordinary reiryoku and that alone was enough to catch his interest because, while encountering one living person with such spiritual energy was rare, encountering four all grouped together was not natural. When you added in that they'd not only brought their zanpakuto outside of their mortal bodies and keep them solid enough to actually use them, it was a mystery that a man such as himself could not possibly resist investigating. As such he'd already called ahead to Tessai-san to let his longtime friend know that he'd be staying in the United States for the foreseeable future. He was pretty sure that it wouldn't take more than a week to gain a strong enough understanding in the four to decide whether or not he wished to pursue matters further.
Not that he didn't have four good reasons already but, given what the future held, he needed undeniable evidence in order to change his plans.
The first significant reason he had for following the group back into town was the fact that one of the young ladies, a redhead, had eyes that looked a great deal like those belonging to the former head of the Shihōin clan. While he had seen eyes of just about every color in his long life, the number of people who had the amber yellow orbs were precious few indeed, with almost all of them belonging to the Shihōin clan. Considering the unknown woman's age and what he knew of one of the four noble houses of Soul Society, it seemed impossible that one of them would venture into the mortal world and have a child in the process. Nevertheless, her eyes could not be denied, nor her spiritual energy, and most of all the fact that she managed to release the shikai of her zanpakuto.
The second reason worth mentioning was how much the only young man of the quartet resembled one Zaraki Kenpachi and, despite what some might think, it wasn't due to the eye patch, though the accessory was distinctive. Black hair, dark eye color, scars in several similar places and power that could be felt miles away by those who possessed the ability. Indeed, when he'd first felt the power in San Francisco, he'd thought for a moment that the eleventh division captain had come to the mortal world and cut loose. However that idea was soon dismissed because, first of all, there was no way that the Commander-General would allow the battle obsessed man into the mortal world without a limiter. There was also the fact that, upon further examination of the young man's reiryoku, he found enough differences even from a distance to discount the half-insane captain and you had mystery number two.
The third example was the strange reiryoku he sensed in the blonde in the minutes leading up to him revealing his presence. For the most part it had been like the others of her group but there was an undercurrent of something… troubling and yet familiar at the same time. Whatever its origins, he doubted that it'd have a beneficial effect on the teenager's future if left to itself for too long.
The fourth reason for taking such an interest in the group was the brunette girl who'd been unconscious when he'd arrived on the battlefield. While on the surface she'd possessed spiritual energy similar to the others, there was an unusual 'flavor' to her reiryoku that was unlike any shinigami he'd ever met. Then there was the fact that she bore a disturbing resemblance to one Shiba Kūkaku and that caused all sorts of unpleasant shivers down his spine. While the current head of the Shiba clan was a valued ally and friend, 'moderation' was most definitely a word the wise used where visiting her was concerned. If there was even a chance of another like her being around, it was probably a good idea to learn as much as he could about her in advance so that he could stay on her good side. If the young woman had a temper like the fireworks expert, then for the sake of this small town and anywhere else the brunette chose to dwell it'd be best not to arouse her anger.
All together the reasons he had to hang around were more than ample and, if things turned out the way he figured they might, then the odds he'd calculated all so long ago just might take a turn for the better.
Still, there's plenty of snooping and sneaking that needs to be done before I can do anything, he thought before turning away from the edge of the rooftop he'd been standing on.
With that he leapt from the roof towards the first stop on his examination of the four little mysteries Fate had decided to drop in his lap.
Giles' POV, His Apartment, Later
Mrs. Summers might not be a demon but she most definitely put fear into me just like one, he thought as he closed his apartment door behind him.
Indeed it had been a rather harrowing experience after Joyce had arrived at the hospital in response to a phone call from him and it was most definitely not one he cared to repeat anytime soon. He'd known the moment that the group had entered the hospital that someone would place a call to the parents of his young charges and so decided to make the calls himself and thus control the flow of information they would receive. There'd been no answer at the Harris household and all he'd gotten from the Rosenberg home was the answering machine. The person who answered at the Chase household had been a butler, he believed, who said that he would relay the message to his employers as soon as it was permissible. Only Joyce had answered the phone when he'd called the Summers home and she had been unusually precise with her inquiries to the point where he'd almost failed to conceive of suitable replies. Eventually, though, she ended the phone call with the promise that she would leave for the hospital immediately and that he'd better have some more specific answers for her when she arrived.
Needless to say he'd spent every minute between the termination of the phone call to seeing the doors part to reveal Mrs. Summers carefully constructing a lie that would be palatable.
In the end he had told her that he'd taken the group out of town to help them on a history project involving the development of Sunnydale from its initial beginnings a hundred years ago. He'd explained how they'd gone to the factory due to its historical significance but had stumbled upon a group of 'gang members on PCP' who'd been using the place as a base of operations. From there he'd described a confrontation that was both feasible yet not too frightening for the worried mother. It'd taken some clever thinking to convince her of the part where the group had managed to fight them off but, in the end, the matron of the Summers home had just been glad that her daughter was alright.
Of course, once she'd seen the injuries her daughter had received, she'd been quick to make her displeasure known with regards to his failure as the adult in charge.
The woman could make the devil himself shrink back, he thought as he moved over to his bookshelf. Now, however, I must focus on more important matters. That remaining Hyena Hollow must be located and dealt with.
Indeed, it was the one thing that had slipped the minds of the others but had remained in his mind from the moment the two monstrous Hollows had arrived in this dimension. As soon as he'd seen it leave in the direction of Sunnydale, his first instinct had been to follow it and prevent it from harming a single innocent. However reason had informed him that even if he did manage to follow and confront it, there would be nothing he could do to prevent it from having its way with the lives of the innocent. The rest of him, though, absolutely refused to take his eyes off of the desperate battle that the four teenagers currently being tended to had made it through.
Now that they were being cared for at the hospital, he could finally begin work on dealing with the sole remaining threat.
"You needn't bother, Rupert. The fleabag has already been dealt with."
Jumping in surprise, he turned around and, after taking a moment to compose himself, glared at the irreverently smiling Angel, who ignored the look completely. "Do not do that again or we shall see if you are truly as indestructible as your fictional counterpart," he said with a voice that could freeze molten lava. "Now, are you going to explain your statement or simply waste more of my time with your antics?"
For a moment he could perfectly see the inner debate going on inside the mind of the red-eyed vampire and he feared that it would be at least thirty minutes before he received the information he desired. Then something changed, as though Angel could hear a voice speaking, and with a sigh of disappointment he took on a more serious expression.
"While you and the others were dealing with the main group, my Master and I intercepted the scavenger before she could enter the city limits," Angel replied with only a bit of humor dancing beneath his serious voice. "While it was fun for a bit, the mutt proved to be no match for me. Too bad, since it's been a while since I could really cut loose."
While he knew Angel had developed a rather cracked sense of humor since transforming into a more potent breed of vampire, he had proven capable of being serious when the situation called for it. Therefore he chose to take the words spoken at face value and breathed a sigh of relief that the loose thread from the fight at the factory had been tied up properly. Truthfully he had been running short on ideas on the matter of how to handle the Hyena Hollow given that, while he could see it, he wouldn't be able to defeat it with his level of fighting skills. There were spells and talismans that had been provided by the Council for dealing with the Hollows but he had doubts about whether or not they'd be effective. Even from a distance, he'd been able to tell that the Frog Hollow and the Hyena Hollow had been different from the masked monsters they'd fought so far. He'd only been able to catch the edges of the power the duo possessed but it had been enough to worry him silly. Knowing that he wouldn't have to face off against that power himself was a rather large weight off of his shoulders.
"While I agree that the immediate problem is over with, Giles, there might be an even bigger one poking its head up over the horizon." Angel said with a slightly more serious tone of voice.
"What do you mean?" he asked, reviewing what had happened a few hours ago.
"I am referring to the man who saved Buffy and the others," Angel replied as he pushed himself off the wall. "I find it a little convenient that he managed to show up just in time to save them and proved strong enough to dispatch the Hollow with a single attack."
"You believe he had something to do with Wilkins' scheme?" he asked, considering the possibility himself.
"Not in the way you're probably thinking. I don't think they ever met and discussed how everything would go down but I do think that the man, this Urahara Kisuke, could have intervened sooner than he did. Indeed, I believe that he purposely waited until the last possible moment before acting," Angel replied with a slightly dangerous glint in his eyes. "I don't trust people who stand by and do nothing when they could help."
"Indeed. That does paint a rather shady picture," he admitted as his mind tried to work out the possibilities of Urahara's actions. "However he may have had perfectly rational reasons for not acting until he did."
"Perhaps, but my Master believes we should take steps to guard the four against him," Angel said as he began to head for the door to the apartment.
"Very well. I will begin researching a means to protect them without being too obvious. Even in a town such as this, people will notice symbols scrawled into the wall," he said as he began to think of what protection spells. "There is one thing that I hope you will tell me. Who exactly is this 'Master' of yours?"
To this Angel merely turned himself halfway around, looked him right in the eye and smiled a fang filled smile, "I was wondering when you'd get around to asking that question. If this'd been a week ago, I'd probably have just left you with a cryptic reply but, as it turns out, she has decided that the time for keeping her identity in the dark has come to an end. So without further delay, Rupert Giles, allow me to present to you my Master."
The True Nosfuratu walked the rest of the way to the door and opened it but, instead of being nothing but empty air, there was a woman dressed in a conservative pea green business suit cut in the modern style with a sheathed sword hanging from her waist and a pair of wire rim glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. What had him dropping the book in his hands in shock was not the woman's clothes but was the face behind the glasses that had him gaping like an idiot. He had seen her countless times in the hallways of Sunnydale High School but had never noticed anything really out of the ordinary in all the time he'd known her. Granted, he couldn't watch her every moment of every day but he saw her often enough that he was surprised that he hadn't detected something.
"Do not look so surprised, Rupert. I went to great lengths to keep the changes I underwent from being detected," the woman standing in his doorway said. "I wanted to keep such information secret until I was ready to reveal it. Now I am ready."
She entered the apartment and, from then until the sun rose, he listened as she spoke of a plan that could very well change the landscape of the supernatural community, even if it was only in the United States.
One Month Later, Summers Home, The Bathroom, Morning, Buffy's POV
It's blonde. It's not supposed to be blonde, she thought as she examined the roots of her hair in the mirror.
Indeed, her natural hair color was brown and, given that she hadn't been able to touch up her roots since the night of the big battle, the roots should be brown. At first it had been because she'd been in the hospital being patched up and kept under observation due to something that had the doctors puzzled. After being released and going home, there'd still been enough residual pain from her injuries that unnecessary movement was avoided as much as possible. Now that she was more or less completely healed, she'd immediately decided to clean herself up and make sure everything was the way she liked it. However it had only taken a single look in the mirror for her to pick up on the change in her hair color. Most people didn't realize that she was, in fact, a natural brunette. She'd been a brunette right up until her freshman year at her old high school when she developed a crush on the captain of the school basketball team. She'd had such a crush on him that, the moment she'd found out that he had a thing for blondes, she immediately dyed her hair that color and then tailored the rest of her appearance to match his likes. In the end though he'd turned her down when she'd confessed her love for him and she'd spent the next month in a funk.
Of course the fact that he'd been a senior at the time and so was a good three years older than her might have had something to do with his reaction.
After that she'd kept the blonde hair out of defiance to those who'd made fun of her for getting shot down by the basketball captain. She'd told them that she'd planned to dye her hair blonde long before her crush had shown up and that it'd just been convenient timing. When she'd been Called as the Slayer, the blonde look had been useful thanks to the stereotype of blondes being dumb, or at least blonde teenagers being stupid. Vamps just couldn't resist feeding on the blonde bimbo and the demons underestimated her, thinking that her hair color was a good sign of her IQ. So with a past still haunting her a bit and there being a tactical use for blonde hair, she'd stuck with it and never really thought about going back to her normal hair color.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't come up with a rational reason why her roots would still be blonde when they should be brown. She couldn't write it off as something to do with the hair dye because, to her knowledge, the stuff couldn't get beneath the skin and the shades of blonde were too different. Her roots were, from what she could see, a light golden blonde whereas the color she usually got from the hair dye bottle was a bright golden blonde.
Moving her face closer to the mirror, she began to inspect the rest of it to see if there was anything else amiss but, for the most part, her features were the same as she remembered them. The only thing she could pick out being different was that her eye color seemed to be darker than she remembered. Of course that could just be the lighting or a mistake in her memory. After all, how many people keep constant tabs on their eye color?
Still, I should probably tell Giles about this, she thought as she skipped touching up her roots and went to the next step in her normal morning routine. Just in case this turns out to be something serious.
After she was done, she trotted downstairs to the kitchen to get something to ear before heading over to her ex-Watcher's apartment. Her mother was already up and, as usual, had already prepared breakfast for her but what she appreciated the most was that her mother wasn't giving her the 'look' anymore. It was an expression that had appeared the moment that her Mom had seen her that night in the hospital and it wasn't one she liked seeing. It was the look of someone deathly afraid for another, of someone trying to come up with a way of keeping something terrible from happening again but was unable to come up with anything satisfactory. She knew that her mother tried so hard every day to give her a good home and a life that was just like every other teenage girl's life but she also knew how hard things were for the Summers woman. She'd seen the bills and, despite what her math teacher might have said, she knew enough to know that her Mom was just barely managing to keep their heads above water financially. Knowing this, she didn't want to worry her mother any more than she had to and seeing 'the look' had been not of the good in any measurable way.
"Good morning, sleepyhead!" said her mother with a smile on her face. "Hungry?"
"Depends. What's on the menu?" she asked, sitting herself down in the nearest chair.
"Blueberry pancakes and bacon."
"In that case I'm starving!" she said with some melodrama and a smile on her face.
"Then I'll make sure to put at least four pancakes on your plate," her mother said happily as she opened a cupboard to take out a fresh plate.
"Better make it three. Gotta watch my weight," she said offhand as she got up and walked over to the dining room table.
That was something else she'd had the misfortune to find out about recently: without having a Slayer's metabolism, she gained pounds quick.
It had been something she had gradually gotten used to since she'd been Called that her Slayer powers burned up energy much quicker than normal, so she had to eat more than she used to back in LA. Now that her Slayer powers had bit the dust, she was just your semi-ordinary teenage girl that had to watch what she ate or else she'd blimp out real fast. This had caused some people to give her odd looks but, as soon as she gave them the 'watching my weight' excuse, they tended to just shrug and forget about the oddness of her behavior. There were still times when she forgot herself and put a bit more on her plate then she should have but, thankfully, most of those times Xander was nearby and took care of any leftovers.
As her mom put a plate of breakfast goodness down in front of her, she had to smile at the delicious smell but, before she could take a bite, the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it. You enjoy your meal," her mother said before heading for the front door.
Nodding, she began to dig into her meal and savored every bite full because, while just about every kid said their mother's cooking was the best, she had a feeling that they'd all put her mom's pancakes in the top ten.
"Hello, Willow! What brings you here this morning?" she heard her mother ask from the front door.
Willow's here? I wonder what's up. she thought remembering that the redhead was recovering from her own injuries.
"I just came to see Buffy about something, Mrs. Summers," she heard Willow reply.
"Really? Well she's having her breakfast at the moment," her mother stated with her usual friendliness. "Would you like to come in and have some? There's plenty to go around."
"Thanks. I'd like that," Willow said and soon after she heard the door shutting.
Her gal pal entered the dining room but almost immediately she could tell that something odd was going on. For one thing, Willow had a bandana on her head that almost completely covered her head and most of her red hair.
"Hey, Will! What's with the pirate look?" she asked casually so as not to pique the curiosity of her mother.
"Well…um…that's sorta what I came here to talk to you about," Willow replied, glancing in the direction of the kitchen every so often.
Taking the hint, she waited until her mother had brought out a second plate of food for Willow and then headed back into the kitchen before raising an inquisitive eyebrow at the redhead.
"Well…you see I…um…ah hell! Just look!" Willow said before pulling off her bandana, causing her hair to fall down the sides and back of her head.
At first she didn't see what the big deal was but, upon giving her friend's hair a second look, she spotted something that had her thinking that the trip to Giles' apartment might be a bit more important than she'd thought. Scattered within Willow's normal crimson locks were small patches of dark purplish hair and, while her first instinct was to think that her friend had gotten something dumped on her head, she knew the academic ace wouldn't have come over just for that. If her hunch was right then both her and Willow were being hit with the same problem, only with different colors and the fact that the perfect student didn't dye her hair.
"Alright, I admit this is a bit wig worthy and definitely something to tell Giles about but we need to keep cool about this," she said as she watched her friend put the bandana back on. "I mean, your hair's not trying to strangle you or anything, so maybe it's not as bad as you think it is."
"I suppose…" Willow said, sounding like she was only partially reassured.
"Trust me, Willow," she said reassuringly before taking another bite of her breakfast. "If it was something serious, we'd be able to pick it up with our 'you-know-what' senses."
It was a fact that, as they'd all gotten better sensing the spiritual energy of others, they'd been able to pick up on other things as well. For one thing, being able to spot demons posing as humans had become a lot easier since the energy in their bodies was distinctly different than the majority of Sunnydale's population. Willow was the one doing the most of the experimentation in terms of what they could do with their spiritual energy but that didn't mean she didn't dabble when the mood struck her. Based on what she could feel about Willow, there was nothing truly out of the ordinary about her spiritual energy so she wasn't all that worried.
Still, the whole 'better safe than sorry' thing might as well be the Scooby motto, she thought as she turned back to her meal. That or one of the top five rules.
Willow's Shikai - Relax under the black leaves, Mokukurosha Dorahyou
Mokukurosha Dorahyou=Black Sand Tree, Lazy Panther
Buffy's Shikai - Let your dark storm rule upon the Battlefield, Gunjokou Karaiyami
Gunjokou Karaiyami=War Empress, Darkness Thunderstorm
