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A faint April drizzle dampened the night as Buffy walked through the garbage-strewn alleys on her way to the arrival point. She passed a pile of refuse that stank of urine. As she wrinkled her nose and walked faster, the pile turned over, revealing itself as a man sleeping in the garbage. "Yo baby, whas happnin'?" a decrepit-looking black man with broken, yellowing teeth strode from another alley into her path. Distracted by her surroundings, Buffy hadn't noticed him. She stepped back from the alcohol stink that emenated from him. "Pretty white girl like you shouldn't be here. You needs a escort." he said, looking at her speculatively. "Um, that's okay," said Buffy. "I was just...out for a walk. I'll just keep walking." "You ain't from anoun' here, are ya?" He stepped a little closer. "You best let ol' Joe walk you outta here. They's bad folk here 'bout. 'tain't safe." "She's safe enough with us, nigger." Buffy and Joe turned to see three young men walking out of an alley. Two of the men wore black shirts with deathmetal band logos and upside-down crosses around their necks. The speaker, and apparently the leader wore similar attire and jewelry. In addition his face was tattooed with a giant swastika. In his hands he cradled a shotgun that was leveled at the black man. "She's comin' with us, *boy*. Now get the fuck outta here 'for I blow your black ass in two." said Nazi-boy. The black man hesitated and Buffy said "Don't worry, I'll be fine." Joe looked at her with mingled pity and disappointment in his eyes, then turned and walked away. Buffy geared up for battle. She turned back and saw the two guards on their knees and Nazi-boy with his head bowed toward her. "My lady," said Nazi-boy in as earnest and respectful a tone as he could seem to manage, "the Queen bade us to escort you to her." Buffy just stared at them in confusion for a second. They looked back at her and moved nervously, concerned they'd done something wrong. Buffy suddenly realized the situation then. She tried to imitate Cordy at her snootiest and said. "Don't just stand there. Take me to her." Relieved, they formed into an honor guard and led her through the alleyways. In front of what looked like an old storage building, they stopped. Nazi-boy walked to the door and knocked. The door cracked open and he held a whispered conference with the door's guard. The door opened completely. Buffy and her guards walked inside. The place had no windows and was stiflingly hot. A few ceiling fans stirred the smelly, humid air. The place was fairly crowded with people dressed similarly to the other guards. As she entered they stopped whatever they were doing and formed into a double line. Stairs led up to a balcony set several yards above the floor. A figure walked onto the balcony. The figure was barely recognizable as Melissa. She was still short, but her hair was now jet black and long. Her face was clean of that raccoon mask of makeup, but was now painted geisha white. She wore a short black evening dress. On her cheeks were symbols. Flashing back to a rare time she'd paid attention in History class, Buffy recognized them as the twin lightning bolt symbols of the Nazi S.S. stormtroopers. Around Melissa's neck hung an upside-down crucifix. She carried a dagger decorated with red and white gemstones. *The* Dagger. "She has come, my faithful followers." started Melissa in an echoing, charismatic tone. "My aide, the Duchess of the Darkling Summers has arrived. Soon the gates of Hell shall open wide and we shall claim this world as our own!" Buffy struggled to maintain her composure as she walked toward the stairs. 'Giles was right. She's totally lost it.' As Buffy came near the steps, she saw Melissa gesture and she felt herself floating through the air. Buffy stifled a noise of panic and let herself be guided by Melissa until her feet touched the balcony floor. Melissa gazed arrogantly over the crowd. Buffy slipped her hand inside her pocket and broke the walnut, still watching the Dagger in Melissa's hand. Melissa spoke to the crowd again. "Let there be guards set with guns at the ready. Let nothing interfere with this most unhallowed rite." A murmur of approval came from the crowd. Buffy in tow, Melissa stepped through the balcony's archway entrance and shut the door. Then she exploded into laughter. * * * Giles watched his troops and examined a pocketwatch that now showed the warehouse through Buffy's eyes. "She's at the Dagger." He looked over at the grim troops of vampires and werewolves as well as the men in urban camouflage. "Shortly, we're going in. You all know your assigned tasks. But remember again, get the Dagger *and* get Buffy to safety." One of the vampires spoke. "What if we can't get the girl out? I mean, the Dagger's all that's really important, isn't it?" Giles walked over to the speaker and gazed coldly into his eyes. "If the girl is harmed, I will be *very* upset. *You* don't want me to be very upset, do you?" "N-No sir!" gulped the vampire. "*Do you?*" Giles called aloud to the rest of the troops. "*No, sir!*" they shouted as one. "Excellent." he said in a cheerful tone. "Then let us move it out and get this done!" * * * Buffy watched in shocked puzzlement as Melissa just died laughing. Finally, the vampire girl regained control of herself. "Oh, God." she said, "That is *so* great." "Um, Melissa, what's going on?" asked Buffy. "Huh? Oh. I've got my own cult of Nazi-Satanists, isn't it cool? Yeh, I'm the Queen of Hell on Earth. It's great." she said, still snickering. "Could you give me just a *little* more detail? I've just spent the last couple of hours or so running through this city trying to avoid the police. I've been a little out-of-touch, if you know what I mean." Buffy tried to put just the right note of peevishness in her voice for realism, but not enough to anger the vampire. "And what was that stuff about opening the gates of Hell?" "Oh, okay. So I hauled ass outta there when you ran off. I lost the blueboys that were after me and I ended up near here. Some guy tried to rape me at knifepoint, which was cool since I was thirsty. After I stuffed his body in a dumpster, I walked a little bit more and found this place. Some vampire had set himself up as the Devil or something and gathered these idiots around him. I figured, 'what the fuck?' I wanted a safe place to crash. And these guys had a lot of what I was looking for in a man right then. Really big guns and itty-bitty little brains. I challenged their "King of Hell", wasted his ass with that boiling blood thing, 'cause it's pretty impressive, and set myself up as *Queen* of Hell." "What about the opening Hell thing?" asked Buffy, surely she couldn't have gotten everything wrong. "Oh that. That was just to get 'em to do what I wanted without asking any questions. If they've got a goal they think they're workin' toward they'll concentrate on that instead of poking holes in my story. So, how's it feel to be a Duchess of Hell?" Buffy frowned slightly. "What was *that* for?" "So they wouldn't treat you like my pet or something. Now they won't fuck with you any more than they would with me. I thought I gave you a pretty cool name. I mean, even those morons wouldn't buy *Buffy* the demonbitch. What, you didn't *want* to be a nobledemon?" "Oh yeah," Buffy said sarcastically, "Ever since I was a little girl, *that* was my dream in life." "Aw, you're just pissed 'cause I got to be Queen of Hell first. Tell you what, in a little bit I'll let you lead 'em in the Dance of Power." offered Melissa. Buffy raised an eyebrow, "The *what*?" "The Dance of Power. You lead them through this ritual dance that raises 'mystical power'." she said, folding her fingers into quotation marks. Melissa snickered again and continued. "I just made up some mumbo-jumbo and set it around another dance's steps. I'm tellin' ya, you just haven't *lived* 'til you've gotten a bunch of Nazi-Satanists to do the Hokey-Pokey!" Even Buffy chuckled at *that* image. Then she sobered and asked "What happened to Cyke?" as she concentrated on Melissa. Melissa shrugged. "He went back home to the sewers." she lied smoothly. Buffy felt her deceit. "What about Scratches and Rebecca?" "They're waiting for the teleport gates to fully charge so they can get picked up, same as we are." she said, lying. Buffy nodded in apparent acceptence, feeling something die inside her. To keep Melissa distracted she asked "What is the deal about the Dagger?" "It's like a key. The doorway is that Hellmouth thing. The Dagger can either lock or unlock and open the door. It can do a lot of other shit too, if you know the proper rituals." she said. "Can I see it?" asked Buffy, aware of the risk but deciding to chance it anyway. Melissa gave her a long look, but then shrugged and slid it over. "Sure, just don't lose it. That would *seriously* suck." said the vampire girl. Buffy held the Dagger in her hands. She imagined she could almost *feel* the cool aura of power radiating from it. Power indifferent to the morality of its user. Suddenly, they heard a muffled explosion. A second later the sounds of gunfire and screaming filtered up from below. * * * Giles and his troops stormed into the building like avenging angels. *Hell's* avenging angels. The vampires and werewolves ripped a swath of red murder through the hapless humans, while his human troops mowed down the opposition with automatic weapons. A youth with a shotgun and a swastika tattooed on his face ran screaming at Giles. "You won't stop the Queen, you Kike-lovin-" "Oh, shut up." said Giles, as he shot him through the face. "Now where the bloody hell is Buffy?" * * * Buffy and Melissa ran to the balcony's edge. The room was filling with smoke from gas grenades. Buffy could dimly see shapes struggling in the fog below. She could hear screaming and gunfire, as well as the occasional growling and ripping sound. She tried not to think too hard about that. Melissa had grabbed a belt of grenades. She pulled the pin on one and started to hurl it. Instantly Buffy pulled the stake that Giles had given her and slammed it into Melissa's heart. "That's for Cyke, Rebecca and Scratches, you bloodsucking bitch!" said Buffy in a cold fury. As it plunged through flesh the stake mystically disintegrated. "Got a ritual that stops the first stake of the night." She snarled at Buffy, still holding the grenade. "You stupid-" Suddenly, rounds of autofire slammed into Melissa, smashing her back through the balcony doorway. Giles was firing an automatic rifle at the vampiress. Melissa dropped the grenade as she was blasted back. Swiftly Buffy kicked the grenade through the door after her and then dove in an acrobatic leap off the balcony. Explosion after explosion sounded above her as she hit the ground and then rolled to her feet. She pulled out the Dagger. Giles smiled and nodded in relief. Buffy started to walked toward him when one final explosion sounded and she felt something slam into the back of her head, catapulting her into darkness. * * * When Buffy awoke she found that she was outside. For some reason she was on her back and couldn't move her arms and legs. Giles was standing near her, a sorrowful expression on his face. With a chill Buffy realized that the reason she couldn't move was that she was tied to some kind of table or altar. There was a fur covering beneath her. "Giles, Deveraux, cut me loose! What's going on?!" she asked, frightened and confused. "I'm afraid I wasn't allowed to be completely honest with you, Buffy. I have seen you before. I saw you as I looked upon other worlds. The sight of you living and breathing gave me the inspiration to try to revive my own daughter back to true life. I sought out creatures of the Umbra in order to gain the power I needed. I chose...unwisely." he finished. An alien expression of unholy glee seemed to sparkle in Giles' eyes. "But enough about him, let's talk about you. You look *so* cute like that, absolutely de-licious!" said a voice in a southern accent, a voice that came from Giles' mouth. Buffy looked at him. "Who are you? *What* are you?" she asked. "That's an interesting question. A guy in Texas wrote a bit of verse 'bout me 'fore he blew his head off. I kinda liked it." The Giles-thing gestured and "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones began playing on the boombox. Lyrics: Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste. Giles began reciting a poem in that same vilely joyous tone. "I am the thorn in foot, I am the blur in the sight;"
Lyrics: I've been around for a long, long year, stole many a man's soul and faith. "I am the rat in the wall, the leper that leers at the gate;"
Lyrics: And I was 'round when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain. "I am the rust on the corn, I am the smut on the wheat;"
Lyrics: Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed His fate. "I am canker and mildew and rot, danger and death and decay;"
Lyrics: Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name. "I warp and wither with drought, I work in the swamp's foul yeast;"
Lyrics: But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game. Giles' face turned back to his wide-eyed captive. He held the Dagger in his hand. In a gloating tone he said "I am Belial. And thanks to this, and to you, this world and all others will soon be mine!"
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