Something in Common Part VII: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction
See Part one for disclaimers.
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The Magic Box
Sunnydale, CA
October 5, 2001 22:06 PDT
As Xander pushes open the door to the Magic Box the roar of Faith's motorcycle pulling away almost drowns out the merry little jingle of the bell announcing his arrival. Glancing back out of the doorway he shakes his head. **Tonight's been a little bit out of the norm, even for me.** Turning back to the shop he notices that his entry had brought everything in the room to a halt. From the tension in the room its apparent that Willow and Tara are having another argument. The two witches have been having some problems lately, they were getting into more and more arguments about smaller and smaller things. With a slight frown Xander stands in the doorway looking at the two girls with a questioning expression. Willow is looking up at Xander with an annoyed tilt to her head and after a second says something quietly to Tara before heading over to the door to help Xander carry in the food.
Xander watches Tara's face as Willow says whatever it was she says and sees sadness and pain lurking in Tara's quite eyes. Over the last few months he had begun to worry about the gentle witch, she seemed so sad all the time. As her lover walks away from her Tara just looks on with dismay and a sad acceptance.
Across the room Cordy and Wes are sitting at the table with their faces buried in books, obviously trying to stay out of the disagreement they had just been subjected to and Fred, the new girl, is off in the corner talking to herself as she looks through one of the larger demonology texts.
Seeing the looks on everyone's faces Xander decides he gets to be 'Referee-Guy' again. Yippie, what joy. The two witches have been going at it like cats and dogs all summer. He is startled to admit it be he is starting to side with Tara about most of the fights now, although he tries to remain neutral. Willow really is relying too much on magic in her daily life. Making eggs scrable themselves magically is just going a little to far... As Willow gets to him Xander puts on a concerned expression and asks her in a quite voice. "What's up?"
"Your late."
Raiseing an sarcastic eyebrow at the redhead Xander states in a dry voice, "I doubt that my being a little late with the pizza's would cause you and Tara to argue. Again. Now what's wrong Wills?"
Sighing the redheaded witch says in a voice designed to be carried across the room to Tara. "Tara doesn't agree with me that I need to go into Buffy's mind again. We need to figure out what went wrong Xander. Buffy just sits there, doing nothing. Unless of course there is a vampire or something near her, then its all slay, slay, slay and kill, kill, kill." Running her hands through her hair Willow looks at Tara with an exasperated expression. "I need... we need to get inside there and find out if we brought Buffy back... or just a... an empty shell filed with nothing but slayer instincts."
Tara speaks up from across the room in a quite voice that has Xander straining to hear. "It's n..n..not that. I... I just think that it's not safe... I was j...just w...worried for Willow." The blondes stutter was making an appearance. Something it hadn't done in a good while.
Flashing Tara a sympathetic look Xander steers Willow over to the counter where he puts the pizza boxes down. Then taking Willow by the arm he leads her into the office and closes the door. Turning to face Willos he stares into her eyes trying to see his life-long friend. And he is scared when he doesn't see what he needs to see in her eyes. Compassion. Caring. Anything like that. All he sees when he looks at her is cold as steel determination mixed with a slight bit of seeming madness. Her eyes have the same look as Glory had, the burning glint of madness. Shaking his head to clear it of those negative thoughts and hoping that he just read to much into them he asks Willow, "Do you really think it's a good idea to just hop back into Buffy's mind like that, Wills? I mean, she is just two days back from the great beyond. That's bound to screw with your head. I mean, Hell, right now it's like Buffy's not home and the Slayer is was left in charge while she stepped out, your right about that. But you should give her some time here Wills, see if she can come out of it on her own."
Seeing Willow about to make a comment, Xander gently takes her hand and says, "Look, lets do a compromise, ok?. Give Buffy a few days, a week, and if she isn't back to at least talking to us we'll go ahead with your telepathy psychoanalyst thing. Ok?" Seeing the resolve on her face start to falter Xander just waits. After a few seconds Willow nods her head in concession and Xander smiles gently down at her. Looking out the door at the distrait Tara he finishes with, "Now go make up with your girlfriend, ok?"
As Willow goes back into the main room Xander leans up against the desk and shakes his head in disbelief. If you had told him two years ago that he was going to be the voice of reason in their little group he would have been the first one to offer you an all expenses paid trip to the loony bin. But, as it turns out that is exactly where he was now. The responsible thing not the loony bin. With Giles leaving for England, Willow acting rather obsessive-compulsive about Buffy's return, and Anya's... Shaking his head and pushing that thought away from him Xander covers his face with both hands and lets out a long low moan of frustration. Then, sighing to himself and shaking his head once more Xander stands up from the desk and leaving the office sees Willow and Tara hugging and talking quitely. Returning the grateful nods that Wes and Cordy give him, Xander grabs a pizza and six pack and heads back to the training area where he had left Buffy and Dawn earlier when he had made up the excuse to go get pizza after feeling the 'buzz'.
**Hope she found the place all right.**
Emmerson Apartments
Sunnydale, CA
October 5, 2001 22:21 PDT
After getting lost once Faith had indeed found Emerson Apartments. She had confused Lakeview and Lakecrest cemeteries. **Think they may have added more graveyards while I was gone.** Faith chuckles to herself as she parks the bike in one of the visitor's spots in front of Xand's apartment building. Hopping off the bike Faith strips off the gloves and helmet and pockets the keys to the Harley while looking at the apartment complex. **Nice digs X-man. Wonder what it's like inside.** Climbing the stairway to the second floor Faith balances the pizza and six-pack in one hand and unlocks Xanders apartment door with the keys he had given her. Pushing the door open with her foot she feels around next to the door for a second before finding the light switch and after flipping on the light she closes the door. Turning around Faith stops for a second and just stares at the apartment. It is a lot nicer then she had thought it would be. It's decoration is done in early bachelor, but its obvious that Xander is doing well for himself. TV with VCR and DVD player and stereo along one wall, a comfortable looking leather couch facing it with a coffee table that's littered in magazines and comic books. There is a heavy oak table in the center of the room that is positively covered with old books, knives, a few stakes, and other miscellaneous items of a slaying lifestyle. Not much in the way of wall decoration except for up over the couch there are three swords. Faith wonders if they are the swords from the 3 Immortals he had said that he'd faced. The windows give a great view of the graveyard. Not the best view for most but it probably dropped the price of the apartment some.
Dropping the pizza and soda on the small space on the table she clears off Faith heads to the kitchen and grabs some paper towels and fills a glass with ice from the freezer. Heading back out to the main room she pops the top of one of the sodas and pours it into the glass. Taking a sip she wanders around to look at the rest of the apartment.
**It is a bachelor's apartment alright,** Faith thinks after checking in the bathroom, **he definitely lives here by himself.** There are no obvious pieces of feminine occupancy anywhere to be found. Most girls leave something in the bathroom a toothbrush, a hair brush, something. There was nothing. She remembers that Angel had mentioned that Xander had been seeing Anya, that ex-demon chick that was responsible for the whole Vampire Willow thing, but its apparent that she doesn't have anything here at all. Faith wondered what had happened to her. **Not a big deal,** Faith thinks, **As long as she is out of the picture now, that's all that matters.** She was just a little bit curious though.
As Faith enters the bedroom she has to laugh out loud. The bed was in the middle of the wall across from the door, under the window, it was unmade and the sheets have Taz on them and one of the pillows has a Spider-Man pillowcase. Smiling and shaking her head she looks around the room and sees the strange mixture that is Xander. On the wall across the room is a floor to ceiling bookcase that goes the length of the room, looking like it was built after Xander moved in. Angel had said he was working construction now. Walking over to the bookcase she glances at the books, hundreds of books filling the shelves. she would never had guessed that he had the time let alone the inclination to read all these. Some as old and musty as the ones that she remembers Giles having, and some are the newest best sellers. The book Vampyre resting next to the latest King novel. David Drake mixed with Van Helsing. She is surprised by the eclectic nature of the collection. Of course, interspersed with the old tomes are comic books, graphic novels and some toys. Spawn and Jason duel to the death near the guy from Akira and his space aged bike. G.I. Joe battle it out with Transformers and Go-Bots. And over in the corner He-Man stands over the defeated body of Skelator.
Over on the other wall is his collection of Babylon 5 plates and on the dresser beneath them are loads of pictures, a few stakes and a box of ammunition. Walking over to the pictures she sees the standard Scooby Gang pics, the ones taken at the Docks, the fair, and the prom. Buffy, Willow and Giles dominate the pictures with Cordy, Dawn and Red's girl coming in a close second. There are some of who she can only guess to be Anya. The big surprise to her are the pictures of her in the collection. She wasn't aware that there were any pictures of her out there, other then maybe some mug shots.
There is one of her and Buffy dancing, taken at some point in the Bronze, it's not 'The Dance', of course, but some other time. She wishes that there had been a picture of them that night, that night just before everything went to shit. The pounding rhythm of the techno song had swept the two slayers along with it, making the world disappear, drowning out the constant pain that had been Faith's life. It had been a good night, she and B had been making some connections. Life was looking up for the dark slayer. That was of course when fate stepped in and kicked Faith's feet out from underneath her.
Another is a picture of her in the library training. A fierce determined look spread across her face, in the middle of a side kick to Giles' ribs. Hell, there is even a picture of her in that damned homecoming dress she had stolen. She looked damn good in it too.
Shaking her head at the unexpectedness of finding pictures of herself on Xanders dresser Faith smiles gently as she traces the edge of a picture frame that holds a picture of Xander and B, two of the three people she gave a damn about. Tracing B's face softly, Faith frowns to herself. **Never got the chance to say I'm sorry, B. Not to your face anyway. So... I'm sorry. I had hoped that once I got out you and X would... accept me back. Looks like Xander has forgiven me, but I'll never get a chance to find out with you.** Putting the picture back on the dresser gently Faith takes one last look around the bedroom and smiles once more at the duality of Xander.
She leaves the bedroom and flipping on the radio to a station she remembers as playing some decent rock 'n roll, she flops down at the table and digs into the still-warm pizza and soda.
After demolishing the pizza Faith throws out the box and the empty soda cans. Looking around the apartment Faith just grins to herself. She has got some plans for tonight, oh yes. Tonight was gonna be something special. Quickly grabing one of Xanders button up shirts from his closet she heads to the bathroom to take a quick shower before he gets home. She's gotta look and smell nice when Xander gets home after all. **Like Hell your sleeping on the couch Xander.** she thinks to herself as she closes the bathroom door.
Motel 6
Room 312
Los Angeles, CA
October 5, 2001 22:35 PDT
The floor in the bathroom of room 312 would never be the same. The motel management is definitely going to have to remove the linoleum and replace it as Visak had burned a series of three circles into the floor, each separated from the other by strange glowing eldrich symbols that were etched with a slow swipe of his finger along the floor. In the center of the innermost circle Visak kneels with just a loincloth, his shimmering scaled skin reflecting the blue symbols eerily. He is muttering words in an unknown language, one that would be unpronounceable to a human, as it involved his forked tongue and second set of teeth to make the hissing clicks and guttural moans. Beside him on the floor is a small bronze bowl and inside that bowl is a small green flame that is dancing merrily upon a pool of fowl smelling liquid. Every fifteen seconds Visak would pick up a pinch of powder from a pile sitting on the tile next to him and drop it into the flame and mutter a quick click-hiss-moan that would grate upon human ears.
Wilhelm and Lea are standing outside the bathroom door watching the ritual with varied degrees of interest. Actually Lea isn't showing any interest at all, as usual, and Wilhelm is just waiting calmly until Visak is able to tell him where the Immortal Slayer is. Patience is a virtue after all and it is something he has had to learn over his five hundred or so years of life.
Coming out of his trance Visak looks up and with a confused look on his scaly face tells Wilhelm, "Either something is going wrong with the spell or she has found a way to block it. All I received was a vague feeling of North."
Nodding to himself as if the news confirmed something he already knew Wilhelm asks "Would the Hellmouth interfere with the reading if she was on it?"
Looking chagrined Visak nods and says, "I should have realized that myself. Yes, it would make the readings vague. And I would need to be on the Hellmouth to get a more reliable reading as there is no way that I can think of to counteract the damper effect of that much chaos energy."
"Ok, pack up then. We are off to Sunnydale."
Restfield Cemetery
Sunnydale, CA
October 5, 2001 22:36 PDT
Soft moonlight shines down and glints gently off of the gravemarkers, the tombstones rendered readable by the brightness of the nearly full moon. The freshly mown grass, even and neat, giving the impression of a carpet spread out under the stars. Row upon row of graves stretch out under the sky in one of Sunnydales largest cemeteries, Restfield. All seems peaceful and quiet, then again this is Sunnydale and the old adage of 'It's always calmest before the storm.' never has proved truer then here. The graveyard's silence is suddenly broken, the quiet interrupted by a meaty thud and a grunt of pain as from behind a crypt a body comes flying through the air. Hitting the ground hard Spike tumbles across the grass and comes to a sudden stop as he impacts against a tombstone. His jacket is wrapped around his legs, making his efforts at getting up awkward and slow. Nearly too slow in fact. Spikes head snaps up when he hears rapid footsteps approaching, and he sees five fully vamped out figures racing across the lawn towards him. **That leaves seven for the poof.** Untangling himself from his duster Spike barely has time to stand up before his attackers reach him.
The vampires are attacking one on one, just as they always do. The demons never seem to learn the advantage of ganging up on their target. Spike had overheard Giles explaining it to Buffy once. Vampire attack patterns stem from the fact that vampires are, first and foremost, predators; not soldiers. Pack mentality leads the strongest to attack first as they get 'First Dibs' per se. Most vampires cannot overcome their instincts. This is something for which Spike is grateful for as the one in charge comes at him first.
Ducking a clumsy haymaker Spike launches a powerful uppercut that catches his opponent squarely in the chin, lifting the vampire up and off the ground and sending him tumbling back into the waiting vampires. Spike reaches down and rips the tombstone that he had tumbled into up out of the ground with one quick tug. Tossing it at the two vampires that are still standing with a quick overhand toss Spike leaps at the tangle of three that were just getting up and sorting themselves out, trusting that the other two would be distracted by the slab of marble.
One of the three is faster then expected and as Spike reaches the vampires he gets a foot to the stomach. Bending over in pain Spike gets his legs swept out from underneath him and lands heavily on his back. Looking up from the ground at the ridged faces of his five foes Spike gets a good look at the leader of this band of vampires.
Standing at 6'4" with shaggy brown hair that hangs down to his shoulders, there are chains and spikes decorating his black leather jacket. A gray sweatshirt with the logo for the Minnesota Vikings football team covers his chest and a pair of black leather chaps covers a pair of faded blue jeans with black steel toed boots completing the ensemble. On his face is a tattoo of a spider web.
"Bloody Hell!! Joshua?"
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TBC...
DaBear
