Sunnydale High School Library, Sunnydale
November 3rd, 1997
Buffy held the frozen undead hands in each of her hands, trying not be creeped out by them. Looking at Vamp Riley's frozen hands reminded her of Sub-Zero, and how he froze his opponents in Mortal Kombat. { Okay, that's it - I've been spending way too much time around Xander and picking up his nerdy interests, if I'm able to think of something like THAT! }
Over in Scotland, Xander and Moaning Myrtle had arrived at Hogwarts, trudging through the rain. It finally let up a little as she showed the wizard a hidden wall, which he tapped with his wand. Immediately, the wall simply - moved out of the way.
Xander and the ghost entered through the mystical doorway and then the wall moved back in place - leaving them in total darkness.
"Lumos!" Xander banished the darkness with his wand. "That's better. Okay, which way?"
"Follow me," Myrtle said, as they made their way through the sewers towards the Chamber of Secrets. Then the female spirit added, "I saw you kill the acromantulas, you know. That was pretty cool!"
"Ah, thanks. I'm Xander, by the way," the young man introduced himself.
The ghost nodded. "Everyone calls me Moaning Myrtle."
Xander frowned. "Why do they call you that?"
Myrtle shrugged. "I was killed crying in the girls' bathroom."
Xander remained quiet before nodding slowly. He knew enough about teenage females that he knew not to ask anything further. All he said was, "That sucks."
"Tell me about it. Why are you here, by the way? Didn't you know Hogwarts, and all the lands surrounding it, belong to the vampires now?"
Xander nodded. "I'm looking for Bellatrix Lestrange's dagger, which happens to be inside the Dark One's temple. Plus - I need a sword to kill the guardian dragon in there. Probably."
Myrtle seemed to focus only on the first part of the explanation, though. "Why would her dagger be *there* of all places?!"
Xander shrugged, recalling what the Dark One had said. "Bellatrix musta thought it was the best place, for some reason. Or so the Dark One told me -"
"Xander, don't trust the Dark One. What I read about him in the books at the Forbidden Library..."
The wizard immediately looked surprised. "Forbidden Library? Why would there be a library like that?!"
Myrtle shrugged slightly. "There's a lot of things the school board of Hogwarts didn't want anyone to know. They couldn't destroy the books, or hide them in the restricted area of the school's library, so they - banished them. I always thought that was a pity, really - the knowledge I learned from them would have saved many lives in the war against the Dark Lord..."
At that point, they entered the Chamber of Secrets from the mouth of a huge stone face. Xander looked around; wow, this place was huge! He imagined a snake demon-like cult led by Cobra Commander, and their human sacrifice was the leader of GI Joe, Duke...
"Are you all right?" Myrtle asked him with a worried look.
Xander shook his head. "I'm fine. Just been reading too many comic books over the years, I guess."
Myrtle rolled her eyes and sighed. { Boys... }
Back in Sunnydale, Buffy and Faith put Miho into a freezer; the same freezer that had held the corpse of Dr. Gregory last year. After Giles used a lock charm on the freezer door, he told them to leave - since the Watchers Council was sending a wet works team that dealt with this kind of thing to collect the prisoner. But neither Faith nor Buffy were willing to do that.
"Are you sure about this, Giles?" Buffy demanded.
"Yes I'm sure. Besides - I can kill her with this sword, if I must," Giles insisted.
"Would a sword even stop that crazy b itch?" Faith asked. She hadn't known Giles for very long, and yet she didn't want anything to happen to him. Mostly for Dawn's sake, granted, but still. Buffy was also worried for him. Giles had been like a father to her lately.
"Well, very few things can survive decapitation," Giles responded wryly. "Even a Slayer isn't, err, immune to that."
"Still. We should stay and help you," Buffy insisted.
Giles shook his head. "I-I-I'll be fine, Buffy. I'll contact you both if anything, uh, untoward happens. Besides, I don't think Cordelia likes to be kept waiting!" he joked, as he showed the girls his backup plan. Namely, a gem roughly the size of your thumb.
Back in Hogwarts, Xander looks around for any basilisk eggs after hearing from Moaning Myrtle just what used to live here.
The ghost rolled her eyes. "There are no eggs, Xander. The Headmaster either destroyed them all, or used them for - something."
Xander nodded. "That's good to hear."
He spotted what was left of the basilisk's bones. Frowning, Xander picked up the fang that Harry Potter had used to beat Voldemort all those years ago - by stabbing that diary horcrux and saving Ginny Weasley. Not that he knew anything about that, of course.
Myrtle noticed him staring at the basilisk's fang. "Planning on using it, Xander?"
He shrugged. "It could be useful on a vampire - or anything else. Nothing wrong with having a hidden ace up your sleeve!" Frowning, Xander put the tooth into his jacket pocket. "How much time do we have for me to find a sword?" he asked the ghost.
Myrtle shrugged. "Since it's raining, hard to tell. But as long as we stay away from the former dorm rooms where the vampires sleep, we should be fine."
Myrtle didn't bother mentioning that the vampires had replaced the beds with coffins and kept pillows and sheets in their coffins. Moving quickly, the odd couple found the stairs which led to one of many bathrooms in the castle. After reaching the top, the sink entrance closed down into the floor behind them.
Xander looked around, semi-astounded. "Wow, this bathroom is pretty big!"
Myrtle had no interest in hanging around here, though. "We don't have time for a tour. Come on!"
"Just a second. Where do they keep the black raincoats, Myrtle?"
She shrugged again. "There's a supply closet not too far from here..."
Back in Sunnydale, Giles explained about the gem - which could take you to any world in any universe or dimension. He didn't explain where he got it from, and both Buffy and Faith could tell he wouldn't say even if they asked.
"Do you have another one, Giles, for Xander? Just in case we find out where he is from Bellatrix," Buffy asked.
"Well, no. But I do have a fake one. We don't want the real gem get into the wrong hands, y'know."
Afterwards, they made their way to the school's parking lot to meet with Cordelia, through the destroyed hallway. Along the way, Faith asked Buffy what Xander was like.
"Xander is one of my two best friends. I know he has a crush on me, but he's more like a brother than a boyfriend. One which tells bad jokes and reads comics," Buffy said, shaking her head. "Not exactly boyfriend material, actually - well, as far as I'm concerned."
"Anything else B? Is he, y'know, cute?"
"I guess, Faith. Well, if you think guys that cross-dress and do drag are cute," Buffy laughed.
Faith didn't laugh, though. "My older brother did that too, before getting turned and killing our good-for-nothing family. Leaving me and Dawn homeless, before I hooked up with my Watcher." She had no idea that those memories were just fakes, though, courtesy of the monks who had turned the Key into Dawn.
Buffy stopped laughing. "Oh. So, uh, where's your brother now?"
Faith shrugged. "Not really sure, but with my luck? Betcha I might run into him, sooner or later..."
TBC