Seeking the Incomplete
By Marz
Interlude 2: The Forests of Dublith
Day 25 in New World
I haven't written for a while, because things have been busy and I've been lazy. Today's different, though. Izumi picked a fight with me again today. I couldn't remember what I'd read in that stupid alchemy book she'd handed me. I'd only skimmed it, so that wasn't a big surprise. I don't get why she won't listen when I tell her Alchemy and my Magic are not the same thing.
I tried that basic transmutation thing fifty million times. All I got was burns on my hands. Izumi says it's because I'm not focused enough, but I'm like the most focused person ever. Jimmy is the one with no focus and he does just fine. I think I need to focus less.
Day 26 in New World
I took a day off. I asked Jimmy if he wanted to come with me, so of course he didn't want to go, which was the idea. Izumi said I wouldn't be able to get anywhere since I couldn't afford the train, so of course I had to prove her wrong and went walking in a random direction until my blisters had blisters and I had to stop. I did find a good place to collapse. There was a little creek with fish in it, and it sort of reminded me of the fountain in the Sunnydale mall, so I decided to soak my feet and chill. When I closed my eyes I could totally picture the mall around me, with escalators and outlet stores and my mom's credit card, and that stand that sells the cinnamon and sugar soft pretzels with the icing dip…
I forgot to pack food when I left Izumi's too, of course.
Anyway, I was sitting there thinking about all the wonderfully processed food I wished they had in this world when my Sunnydale sense went off like one million percent. So I was looking around, but trying to look like I wasn't looking, while also appearing large and threatening, when a sheepdog with spines comes out of the bushes across the creek from me. And I was starting to think it was just some weird local variety of dog, but then a German Shepherd with bird claws instead of paws walked out right next to the first freaky dog, and they were both looking right at me.
So in the spirit of inter-species communication, I said "Hey."
And then the sheepdog says "Hey" back. Well, it was kind of hard to understand him, but I could tell he was trying to talk.
So then I'm like "What's up?"
And the sheepdog is like, "Not much. Who are you?"
"I'm Dawn," I said.
"I'm Lurk," said the sheepdog, "This is James, and this is Samry," he said, nodding to the German Shepherd and then to something that looked like a half-armadillo, half-bear that had just come out of some kind of burrow.
"Nice to meet you," I said.
We looked at each other for a while, and I decided I should probably get my feet out of the water and put my shoes back on, in case I had to run somewhere. They just watched me, and I was getting a little creeped out, so I tried to make conversation.
"Are you all, like, cursed or something?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure," burbled James, the dog with the bird feet. "Can you bring us a couple of bottles of whisky and a coupla' packs of smokes? That might…uh…break the curse."
I rolled my eyes. "If you need somebody to make a beer run, you like, could totally have asked."
"Really?" asked Lurk.
And I was like, "Yeah, sure. Sucks to be cursed, or whatever."
"Chimera," barked Samry, the armadillo-bear.
And I did remember that word from the books Izumi made me read. This world had an ancient Greece just like my world did, and they had the same mythical monsters. Their alchemists had recycled the name for man-made monsters, people or animals squashed together into one slightly larger and much more miserable creature.
"Oh," I said.
"You seem to be taking this…pretty well," Lurk choked out.
I shrugged. "Where I come from, this is pretty run of the mill."
"Where the hell do you come from?"
"Exactly," I said.
(And I actually said it then, too. I think that was my best one-liner ever. Usually I just think of cool responses like an hour after the conversation is over and then mentally edit them back in to make myself seem cooler, but this time I actually said it and I managed to do an eyebrow thing, too. All the practice is paying off.)
Anyway, we talked for a while, though the best of them still sounded like he was trying to converse in the middle of a killer coughing fit. They had a pretty good sob story, and it was kind of Initiative-esque. Apparently they had all escaped from a lab and were on the run from the government. They'd been busted out by some mystery woman called the Scrap Demon, but as I tried to get more information on her, they got more and more vague. When I finally up and asked if the Scrap Demon was a short bossy blond with green eyes, they clammed up completely.
I guess they wanted liquor first, so I told them I'd come back with it when I could.
Day 27
Couldn't get away today. Had to practice Alchemy and fighting. Izumi is the world's biggest bitch!
Day 28
Izumi was yelling at me for slacking and then she started throwing up blood. I made Jimmy run and get Sig, and the kid actually did what he was told, for once. The doctor came and saw her. Apparently she's had…whatever she has for a while. Maybe that's why she's so bitchy all the time. Only, now I feel bad for calling her bitchy.
Sig wouldn't say what was wrong with her, but…I don't know. Do people with cancer throw up blood? I went in to talk to her later, after she ordered Sig to go back to work so they wouldn't go broke and starve, (and she and Sig had a totally gag moment of "no, I love you more" which I totally could not picture people like them having).
Anyway, I went in to ask her, and she was like "Why do you care what's wrong with me?"
And I was like, "Well, if it's catching I don't want to hang around."
And she stares at me for like five whole minutes. And then she says, "What do you think I have?"
And I hadn't really meant to say anything, but it just sort of came out. "Cancer."
She says, "Cancer."
Only she doesn't have a tone or anything, so I can't tell if that's a yes or a no. So I'm like "Yeah, Cancer. My mom had the same thing," and I hadn't really meant to tell her that, but then she just kept staring at me and more words just kept coming out, but I guess I got into a rant and I don't remember most of what I said, but I know I ended with "and then the doctors let you out of the hospital and say everything's fine but then one of your daughters gets home and finds you dead on the couch in the living room, and she goes to school to tell her sister…and…"
And then I trailed off and sort of ran away.
Day 29
I know I'm the most horrible person for leaving Izumi by herself, but she didn't ask me to stay. She gets mad whenever anyone besides Sig tries to be nice to her, anyway.
I liberated a couple of bottles of gin and a couple of tins of tobacco from Dublith's market, and spent most of the morning walking back to the chimera creek. There were a few more of them hanging out there today, and I was introduced to Liddia, a cheetah with feathers an almost-human face, and Shell, who looked kind of like a dinosaur.
I spent most of the day there fishing for information on the girl that rescued them from the lab. I had to roll and hold cigarettes for a couple of them, since they didn't have thumbs anymore. We nearly started a forest fire that way.
I was getting kind of frustrated, so I finally dropped the name Slayer. And I could tell by the way they were looking at each other that they had totally heard of her, but they didn't say anything, even after they'd gone through all the booze I'd stolen. Chimera can really hold their liquor. Anyway, I was getting ready to head back to town when a couple of guys came walking out of the woods.
They were both kind of freaky-looking. One had cat ears and claws, and the other was seven feet tall with a scaly lizard face. It took me a second to remember where I'd seen them before; that dive bar, the Devil's Nest. And one of them just had to be the goon I'd kicked in the nuts. And my bad luck, he recognized me right off. Well, I'm assuming he did, because he pointed at me, yelled "You!" and charged.
I waited until the last second, sidestepped, and kicked him in the back of the knee as he passed me. I pulled a big knife I'd borrowed from Izumi's butcher shop and I had it against his throat the second he hit the ground. I was about to say something cool and threatening, when Lurk chomped down on my shirt and pulled me off the lizard man. And then more of the chimera were jumping in between me and the guys from the bar. And they were all yelling and barking and howling at each other, it was like totally not conducive to hiding from an evil government agency.
By the time everybody had shut up and calmed down, it had gotten pretty dark, and I know Izumi was going to throw a fit if I ever got back to her place.
"Alright," the cat-guy said. "Who is she?"
"She's Dawn," James said.
"And what are you letting her snoop around for?" Cat-guy asked.
"She's not doing anything," Samry said.
"She asked about the Slayer," Liddia said.
I glared at her. I glared at all of them, except for Lurk, who was still behind me with his teeth sunk into my shirt so I couldn't run off.
"People who talk about the Slayer have to see the Boss," the Cat-guy said.
And James is like "She's just a kid."
"She won't get hurt if she comes quietly," says Cat-guy.
And Ulchi is all "Not too hurt, any way."
So I'm like, "Well I guess I could come quietly, but hey! Kicking ass is so much more my thing."
They all stopped and stared when I said that.
And then the lizard guy is like, "Damn, sounds just like her."
"Like who?" I demanded.
Of course they didn't answer.
Day 30 (this went down after midnight, so I'm counting it as the next day)
So I was being totally immature, but when you're being kidnapped, you get to act like a kid, right? So I was sitting in a booth in the Devil's Nest with my arms crossed, glaring at the guy across from me. He sort of reminded me of Spike with his "I'm so cool and I know it" attitude. It was the same guy I'd seen a month ago when I came in here with Jimmy. And I was sort of wishing Jimmy was still with me, cause my ability to float a plate or a pencil were feeling woefully inadequate now.
And he's like "Didn't think I'd see you again, Doll. What's your name?"
And I'm like "Well it sure as shit ain't Doll."
And he just smirks. "I don't know what else to call you."
"I'm Dawn."
He raised an eyebrow when I said that.
"I'm Greed," he said. And then he's like "I hear you're looking for the Slayer."
And I'm like "Maybe."
"Maybe?" he asks.
And I'm like "Maybe it's none of your business."
He just smirks some more. "The Slayer is my business. She owes me one, well…sort of."
And I'm like "Well she's about to owe me one, so where is she?"
He's all "I don't know if I should tell you. You could be anybody. She never mentioned anyone named Dawn to me."
"Yeah, I'm sure she told you every detail of her life."
"She told me enough to get me interested. So tell me, Dawn, are you the one that raised her?"
And I was a little bit shook up by that, since it seemed like he really did know her if he knew that and it also meant that she really had come back here, but if it was obvious she was raised, and if someone like this knew, what did that mean?
So finally I say "I'm not the one that raised her. I'm the one that's trying to warn her that the one that raised her has flipped out utterly and she better watch her ass."
"So she has an alchemist after her?" he asked.
"No, a witch."
And he just sits back in his chair like he doesn't believe a word I'm saying. And for a moment I was really tempted to make something float, but as that got me into the awkward, (but rent free), situation I was currently in with Izumi, I kept my levitations to myself.
"So are you gonna tell me where the Slayer is or not?" I asked.
And he's all. "Well I think I'm just going to keep you here, and tell her she ought to come by and see you. She doesn't visit me as often as I'd like."
"Someone's avoiding you? What an astounding surprise," I said. "And I'm not gonna wait in some dive bar on the off chance she'll show."
"You don't have much of a choice," he said, grinning.
And so I roll my eyes. "You know there are people going to come looking for me if you try to keep me here. It's not like your goons don't stand out, and I made a total scene when they dragged me in."
"You think someone's coming to rescue you?" he asked.
"Rescue's putting too fine a point on it, but yeah, somebody'll come looking for me. And they're a real bad-ass too!"
I was sort of hopping Izumi would bust in a wall right then, or something equally dramatic, but I was just left waiting in the booth for two more hours while Greed wandered around the bar drinking and talking to the hookers. Finally, at like three in the morning, a scuffle starts at the entrance, and then two goons walk in on either side of Jimmy.
"Mommy says you're in trouble and she's going to beat your butt!" Jimmy declared as he was manhandled into the booth next to me.
That wasn't the rescue I was expecting.
Greed walked back over to us. He was looking at Jimmy really intently as he sat down, and I guess he noticed how much they looked alike.
"Is this the bad-ass?" he asked.
"No," I said. "This is the dumb-ass. Say 'hi,' Jimmy."
And Jimmy's all "No, Stupid!"
"You want to answer some questions for me, Jimmy?" Greed asked.
"NO!" I said. "He doesn't."
"I want candy!" Jimmy said.
"I'm sure we can arrange something," Greed said. "Now tell me, who is she?"
And he pointed at me. Pointing is so rude.
"She's Dawn Summers!" Jimmy declared.
I repressed the urge to slap him.
"Summers?" Greed asked.
"Yeah!" Jimmy said. "Gimme' candy!"
"Where'd she come from?" Greed asked.
"Out of the dark, same as me!" Jimmy said. "But she's full of green light when she's inside out. Now gimme' candy!"
Greed went through his pockets, pulled out a fistful of junk, and dropped it on the table. There were a couple of chunks of taffy in wax paper, some coins, and some red rocks that were giving off bad vibes.
"What do you want, kid?" Greed asked, and he was watching Jimmy really intently as the kid looked at the pile of prizes.
"Candy!" Jimmy yelled, even though Greed was like two feet away from him.
Jimmy grabbed up the taffy and I don't know why, but I was totally relieved. Greed looked at the coins and the red stones. He swept most of them off the table into his hand and put them back in his pocket. There were a couple of stones left. Greed picked one up and popped it into his mouth. He flicked the other one across the table at me.
"I don't want that!" I said.
I had meant to just flick it back at him, but the second my finger touched it, there was this flash of red light and a screaming sound. And then all these--I guess the best way to describe them is ghosts- -came flying out of it across the bar. There must've been twenty people in that thing, all of them looking scared. As they got farther away from where the stone was, they faded away until they were just red haze passing through the walls.
"That was odd," Greed said. "What the hell are you?"
"I'm Dawn," was all I could say as the last of the ghosts went through the wall. It was a girl, maybe the same age as me. I think she smiled.
"Well, Dawn," Greed said. "Maybe you're a little too much trouble to keep around here, after all. Not that I won't be keeping an eye on you. But I'll let you go for now with a warning. There's an alchemist around here, a Hag named Dante. If she learns you can do that, you won't be around for long."
The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. So I just shrugged.
He let me and Jimmy go, and I'm pretty sure he tailed us back to Izumi's, but I was too sick of it to care. She yelled at me for staying out late, and keeping Jimmy out late, and said we were going somewhere the next day, so I should sleep while I had the chance.
Day 30 (continued)
The Old lady Izumi wanted me to see was the same one Greed had warned me about; Dante. I should have known some evil conspiracy was going on. I don't know if Izumi knows what's up, but she was going to bring Jimmy along, and I didn't think that would be such a good idea, so I convinced him not to come.
(Well, actually I challenged him to a game of hide and seek right before we were about to leave, and then didn't look for him.)
So me and Izumi set out for Dante's mansion. It was way out in the woods and it was utterly creepy. I'm also pretty sure somebody was following us the whole way there, though I didn't see anyone.
Dante's house didn't just have old-lady-smell, it had I've-been-decomposing-underground-for-three-weeks-and-am-trying-to-cover-it-up-with-perfume-smell. Otherwise it seemed like a regular old lady house. When we finally met Dante, she gave off creepy vibes like Willow did right before I left.
She and Izumi just kind of watched each other after the snotty servant girl Lyra let us in. I tried to figure out what the hag was. She didn't seem like a real-stand-at-the-end-of-your-bed-and-steal-your-life-while-you-sleep kind of hag, but something about her was off, and the silence in the room was getting to me, so I broke it.
"You got a body under the stairs or something?" I asked. "Cause if you do, you need to put some more lime on it or something. It's utterly foul in here."
Izumi backhanded me.
"New apprentice?" Dante asked as I checked for loose teeth.
"After a fashion," Izumi said. "I came to ask you about something."
"What?" Dante asked.
And Izumi pulls out a piece of paper with sketch of Jimmy's foot tattoo, hands it to Dante, and says "this."
And Dante is all. "The orobourous, the snake eating its own tail. It means immortality. It means everything, Izumi."
"What does it have to do with Homunculi?" Izumi asks.
(I was listening to all this while looking around for anything valuable and pocket-sized to lift. Unfortunately, it seemed like the hag had spent all her money on heavy furniture.)
"Why do you ask me these things?" Dante said.
"Because you know," Izumi said.
And then the Hag looks at me. So I feel obligated to mention that "I don't have any creepy tattoos, thanks very much."
And she's all "You've seen someone with this tattoo."
And I was like, oh crap, because nobody had mentioned tattoos yet, so I tried to think of who would be the opposite of Greed (a guy) and Jimmy (a kid).
So I'm like, "Yeah. Saw it on some skanky woman a while ago."
And Dante is all "Can you describe this woman."
And I'm like. "I guess I could if I felt like it."
And I could tell that pissed her off, even though she was acting all "polite old lady" still. Since Izumi didn't mention Jimmy having that tattoo on his foot, I figured she wasn't mad about my lying. And then Izumi starts talking about arrays and other boring alchemy stuff and they act like they aren't interested in that tattoo anymore, but you can tell they both are. But after like an hour with neither of them bringing it up again, Izumi declared that we were leaving, and Dante sent the servant girl to get Izumi's medicine.
Day 33
I was too busy to write yesterday. When I went to the Devil's nest to warn Greed about how Dante might be looking for him because of that tattoo that I totally did not bring up, there were a bunch of chimera talking and I didn't see Greed anywhere, and when I asked the cat-ears guy, he said Greed was on the phone with somebody in Central. I was going to wait for him to come back, but then I heard one of the chimera say something about the Slayer and a lab in Central, and it occurred to me that maybe I should get myself to that city where everything interesting seemed to be happening. I took off out of the bar and a couple of guys tried to grab me but they weren't at all fast enough. So I was running for Izumi's (she was back on bed-rest, but feeling well enough to bitch at me) when a guy in a military uniform steps into the street in front of me.
I was like "Can I help you with something?"
And he's all "Probably not, but I've been sent to collect you."
And I was like "You work for that hag Dante, don't you? I totally knew she was evil!"
And he just shrugs and says "You can walk or I can drag you by your hair."
And I was all "You're gonna pull my hair? What is this, a chick fight?"
Apparently this guy really hates chick fights, cause he went totally nuts when I said that. I tried to run back to the bar, because this guy seemed more like he should be Greed's problem than mine, but he kicked me in the back and I went flying into a bunch of trash cans, I pretty much figured out I wasn't going to outrun him anywhere.
I pretended I was stunned and pulled the most recent knife I'd borrowed from the butcher shop as he walked over to grab me. When he was right by me I slashed him across the legs. I figured he'd fall down or something, as the knife had managed to cut and there was blood getting everywhere, but he ignored it and just slapped the knife out of my hand, and then dragged me to my feet. The slashes in his legs were sealing up and putting out all these purple sparks. I decided to change strategy and screamed for help. He belted me across the face, but all these people started coming outside to see what was going on.
And the creepy guy is all, "Now look at all the witnesses I have to kill."
And I was like "Dang."
I was kind of pressed for a distraction, so I pointed past him, and yelled, "Look, it's the Slayer!" He didn't turn to look, so I poked him in the eyes. He started yelling again and I kicked him as hard as I could in the side. He let go and I jumped back. I didn't have much in my magical arsenal besides levitation, so I went with that.
I was kind of stunned when the guy was lifted off his feet and thrown back through a window, but I wasn't going to sweat the details right then. I ran for it, and screamed for everyone else to run, too, and they did.
I took the long way around to get back to Izumi's, and climbed in a back window instead of using the door, just to be sure. Everything seemed dark and quiet (which was odd, since Jimmy didn't sleep, ever) so I tried to creep back to my room, but as I passed the door to Izumi's room, a knife came flying at me.
I hear there are normal people in the world who just say your name when they want your attention.
So I went in to talk to her.
"A soldier stopped by looking for you," Izumi said. "He was looking for Jimmy too, though he didn't say anything. He and Sig are staying at the shop tonight."
"I haven't done anything to piss off a soldier," I said. "Real ones, anyway."
Izumi says "I know."
"Your crazy friend Dante sent somebody after me," I said.
"I know," she said again.
And she stares at me for a long time until I get totally creeped out. And then she says "I know you aren't human."
And I'm like "Nobody made you the judge of human."
And she just stares at me some more. And then she says, "Open that drawer over there."
So I did, and it was full of money, (and that was new, because I'd totally snooped there before.)
"Go buy your train tickets," she said.
And I'm like "That's a lot of money."
And she's all "You're taking Jimmy with you."
I fought the urge to yell "Hell no!"
"Why?" I finally asked. "I thought he was your…whatever."
"He doesn't belong here," Izumi said. "I'd do anything to make him belong here, but he doesn't. He belongs on the other side…and I don't have it in me to send him there."
"There's more that one other side, you know," I said.
"What was it like where you came from?" she asked.
"It was hell on earth, but my family was there," I said. "I'll bring Jimmy back when things cool down and you get your crazy under control."
So I took the money to my room and shoved it and the clothes I'd been given into a bag I'd taken from the closet. I told Jimmy we were going on a trip to a candy factory and that he had to pack, too. He asked what I meant, and I told him to put his clothes in a bag. He took off the clothes he was wearing and put them in a bag. I hope he gets out of the habit of being dumb before we get to Central.
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long, I had a computer breakdown and a bunch of work to catch up on, and varied other excuses. Don't forget to review.