Interesting Times
Interesting Times by John Jones

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Part Twenty-Six

The Dagger fell toward Buffy's heart. Suddenly it shifted in mid-stab as Belial whirled around and redirected it to plunge into Elvis' heart! The King staggered back several steps and Buffy saw him fall to the ground, writhing in agony as the Dagger drained his blood and life.

Belial walked over to the fallen King and squatted on his haunches beside him. "So, how's that whole brevity thing workin' out for ya?" he asked in a tone of friendly cruelty.

Elvis held the Dagger's hilt and tried to pull it out. "Well, I *am* freeing you from the blood-bond." reminded Belial. "Don't I even get a 'Thank you. Thankyou vermuch?' Ungrateful bastard." Elvis tried to speak, but no words came. He collapsed and lay still. Buffy saw his body begin to turn to dust. Soon all that was left was a skeleton clad in a jewel-studded white suit with a dagger sticking out of its breastbone.

The Colonel gasped at the betrayal and turned to flee. His path was blocked by the one-eyed werewolf. While most of the werewolf was still in human form, one of his arms had transformed into a furry, clawed limb. Bringing up the claw, he ripped the Colonel's throat out with one vicious swipe and kicked the blood-spurting body away. A group of the vampires leapt on it, tearing and sucking.

Buffy watched the King's guards. Strangely enough, they had no reaction to any of this. They just stood silently, like robots awaiting fresh instructions. With a chill Buffy saw why.

Stepping into visibility, Emily walked over to Belial. "Can I play with my dolly now?" she asked, looking at Buffy.

"Not just yet, Princess. I'm not through playin' with her myself." he said with a grin.

"But you *said!*" she whined.

"Listen, if you go play dollies with a couple of your boys here, I'll give you a surprise treat." said Belial.

"What treat? Tell me *now!*" she commanded. Even Belial glanced away from her eyes.

"Oh, all right." he said in mock surrender. "A little ways away from here there's a family with a buncha kids. Even a baby. If you're *real* good and let uncle Belial finish up here without makin' any more of a fuss, I'll take you over there and you can make some *baby* dollies. Now won't that be fun?"

"Oh wow!" she said in that childish voice. "I've never made baby dollies before! Okay." She beckoned to two of Elvis' men. "You two come here. I wanna practice without using the marker."

Emily had her scalpel in hand before they mercifully vanished behind the giant TV screen.

"I swear, these kids today, huh?" said Belial, shaking his head in playful despair. "When Giles here put her to bed, I made sure she had a wake-up call. It was time she had a new daddy anyway. One that would support her and encourage her in pursuing her talents."

He scratched his head. "Now where was I? Oh, yes." He placed a foot on the skeleton's neckbone and bent down to grab the hilt of the Dagger. With a visible effort he wrenched the Dagger free, crushing the neckbone under his foot in the process.

He picked up the skull and straightened. He held the skull high in the air and in a mockingly sorrowful voice said, "The King is dead!" Then he shrugged and tossed the skull away to shatter on the side of the altar, making Buffy flinch slightly. "Fuck it." he said and laughed.

Belial walked back over to Buffy, plucked the gag out of her mouth and tossed it away. She glared at him said, "I don't know how or when, but when I get free, I'm going to kill you." She spoke not in rage but with simple, icy determination.

He smirked at her. "I like a girl with spirit, makes breakin' 'em that much more fun." He tapped his chest. "You know, Giles here was always fond of those musical foci. Now me, I've got some *dandy* sex rituals I'm gonna try out. I'll bet you can guess *your* position in 'em." He looked at her as she lay tied to the altar and said "Yep, that's the one."

"Giles! If you're still in there, fight him! You can do it!" she said. The expression on Giles' face seemed to change slightly, then reverted to its state of unholy glee.

"Not bad, he's still got some fight in him. 'Course he's still outvoted. After all, possession *is* nine-tenths of ownership." A speculative look came into his eyes. "You know, he's got all sorts o' surrogate father feelings for you. That's *fine* by me. After all, fucks are deluxe, but incest is best!" He turned away, still chuckling.

Belial pointed at the boombox again. It began playing the Doors song, "Break on Through." As the pounding music began, Belial leapt onto the altar, standing in the space between Buffy's calves. He raised the Dagger high.

Lyrics: Made the scene, week to week,

"Are you ready to raise some hell?!" Belial shouted the question to his followers.

Lyrics: Day to day, hour to hour.

They roared their assent.

"Then lemme hear an A-men!" he replied.

Lyrics: The gate is straight, deep and wide.

"*A-men*" they cried.

"Well, A-fuckin'-men!" shouted Belial, and stepped onto the ground again.

Lyrics: Break on through, to the other side; break on through, to the other side.

Belial walked to an electronic panel that had a slit in it just large enough to insert a Dagger's blade.

Lyrics: Break on through, break on through, break on through, break on through!

Belial stabbed the Dagger into the slot and turned it to the left like a key.

Lyrics: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

The transmission dish began glowing brighter and brighter, preparing to summon the demons. As she watched in despair, Buffy thought she felt someone fiddling with her bonds.

Lyrics: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

The glow of the dish was passing beyond the visible spectrum when Buffy's bonds came free and she was yanked behind the altar. Before her sight was blocked by the altar's heavy stone, she thought she saw something white streaking toward the dish.

Suddenly, there was a thunderous explosion at the dish! Some debris flew at Buffy, but she was shielded behind the altar. When she looked back up, the dish was wrecked and aflame. Belial and his followers were agog and a voice came out of their speakers.

"Sorry, dudes. This episode of 'Highway to Hell' has been postponed indefinately due to technical difficulties. Instead we have a special presentation of 'Apocalypse Now.'"

As she stayed behind the altar, Buffy heard a another piece of music playing. Remembering the movie, she recognized it as Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". She saw the Dagger unattended and she recalled her conversation with Andru earlier.

* * *

As she lay tied to the altar, Buffy heard Belial completing his poem to the accompaniment of "Sympathy for the Devil". 'Talk about crimes against music.' she thought. As she lay there, she felt a tingle in the back of her head and found herself in another place.

In a room of flashing lights and crackling energy, Buffy saw Andru *standing* before her. "First off, you're in virtual reality, that's why I can stand here. We don't have a lotta time so listen close."

"How did I get here? What's going on?" asked Buffy, bewildered.

"Your mind's here, the rest of ya's still back on the altar with demonboy. Deveraux sent me an e-mail with a special access code that let me into his private diaries. He musta slipped it past his demon somehow. I only read the stuff after you guys left the mall and Melissa shut down the link. Then the possessed Deveraux came in and chased me out. By the time I contacted Melissa, the cops had grabbed you. We weren't sure if you were really on his side or not. Melissa didn't think so, but I wasn't sure.

"Anyway, all I could do until the transmitter reached your brain-" he started.

"Reached my *brain*?! What are you *talking* about?" she asked, just starting to piece things together.

"That Snicker's bar had more than the usual artificial ingrediants, okay? Those 'ingrediants' had to go to your brainstem before I could pull you into VR.

"Now *listen!* All I could do before they got there was home in on your location. We didn't know *what* was going on. I convinced Melissa to let you have the Dagger. Then we figured that since you were with Deveraux that he'd lead you to the ceremony site, since it takes your special blood to activate the gate.

"Mel didn't like using you as bait, but I said we couldn't chance telling you the truth after Deveraux was probably filling your head with crap about us. Besides, we *had* to shut down the gateway ASAP. We figure whatever happens, the gate on your world will open tonight. That won't hurt us here, without the ceremony, but it'll screw your world somethin' fierce. That's what else I found in the diaries."

"Oh God, I killed Melissa for nothing!" Buffy felt despair fill her up.

"Look, deal with it elsetime! I can't tell ya all that's gonna happen in case ya get mindprobed. But look, those guys down there are fixin' to get *seriously* distracted. When that happens, you oughta be free. You gotta grab the Dagger and go. Got it?"

Buffy swallowed her sorrow and nodded.

"I gotta send you back now or he'll get wise. Good luck an' don't screw up."

* * *

As she moved with as much stealth as she could manage, Buffy heard another sound, that of helicopter blades. 'Oh Lord,' she thought. 'He *wouldn't!*'

He would. A one-man chopper suddenly came into view, swooping in low over the crowd of Belial's followers. It opened up with heavy machine-gun fire, carving a swath of death and injury through the mob. The mob reeled back before the assault. A cluster of vampires started firing automatic weapons at the chopper while the thrilling music continued.

The chopper banked toward the cluster of vamps and shot something at them from a rocket-pod. The vamps were enveloped in a cloud of flame. As they burned, the voice of Robert Duvall's character echoed over the area in his famous quote of "I love the smell of napalm in the morning! It smells like *victory!*"

More of the mob started shooting at the chopper. Belial was screaming curses and orders. "No, you fucking morons! You're wasting your silver ammo! Switch to regular clips and break out the missles!" He dove for cover as the chopper strafed his area, cutting down more of the humans in urban camouflage.

Buffy used the confusion to her advantage, making her way to the console. A human looked at her. "Hey! You're not-" She smashed the heel of her hand under his chin and he hit the ground, unconscious.

"Fire!" cried Belial. "Fire every last fucking one of 'em and bring that little shit down!" Fwoosh, fwoosh-fwoosh. Missles burst out of their hand-held launchers, eager to bring down the mob's tormenter.

Buffy reached the console and grabbed the Dagger. She gasped as she felt the power from it surge through her for an instant. The gate had not been opened, so the Dagger was still bloated with mystical energy. She looked up. From across the mob she found herself looking straight into Belial's eyes. They widened in rage and recognition. "She's got the Dagger!" he roared. "Get her! Grab her now!"

Buffy started running. Above she saw the chopper diving and banking, trying to avoid the storm of missles chasing it. A vampire grabbed her shoulder. She slashed at him with the Dagger. As the blade touched his flesh, Buffy felt a surge of power. The vampire collapsed and dissolved.

Above, Buffy saw the chopper bank away to the right as something spherical burst from the cockpit, shooting away left and heading for earth. The missles converged on the empty chopper and impacted, creating a huge fireworks display.

The perimeter in front of Buffy had thinned out when she saw Emily step in front of her ahead, blood dripping from her scalpel. Involuntarily she met Emily's eyes as the vampiress cried out "Stop, Dolly!" Buffy felt the power of the Dagger sear into her brain and throw off the mind control, but not before she had locked her knees in response to the command. Thrown off balance, Buffy tumbled to the ground and was buried by tackling bodies.

She struggled mightily but they were too many and too strong. A couple of the deformed werewolves gripped her arms and legs in their hideously strong paws. The Dagger was ripped from her hand.

Belial walked over to her and slapped her viciously across the face. "I'd hoped we could finesse the ceremony and take this world intact." He looked at the ruins of the transmission dish.

"Guess you could play another Stones song." said Buffy. "How about 'You Can't Always Get What You Want.'"

He held up the Dagger. "But sometimes you get what you need. It's still the night of the crescent moon. The sacrifice has already been made. All I need to do is draw out the ritual gate sigil on the ground and the demons come anyway. They'll blow this world apart, and yours, too. But my buddies will take their forms from this world's carcass and go on to consume the universe. I'll live through it, as will my followers, as will you. You ain't gettin' away from me *that* easy. Who knows? Someday, if you beg me real nice, I might even let you die."

"Beg this." said Buffy and spat in his face.

Belial's lips twisted in rage and he brought up his fist when one of the vampires said. "Lord. The other one's down."

The demon smiled at Buffy. "To be continued." he said. The orange escape pod had landing on the ground. Quickly it dissolved, revealing a disheveled-looking Andru half lying on the ground, trailing his crippled legs behind him like a mermaid's fins. He held a large pistol in his hand and watched the crowd in wary fear.

"Well," said Belial in a loud voice. "It looks like Iron Butterfly over there just turned back into a caterpiller. I'll leave it up to y'all. What do you think I should do?"

A rifle shot rang out and the head of one of Buffy's captors exploded. She jerked away from the other's grip and rolled away, looking in the direction the shot came from. As she peered that way, her jaw dropped.

Blinking into visibility were three figures. One was a small, deformed boy wearing a new watch. Another had four legs and oddly intelligent eyes. The third was female, cradling a smoking rifle, with somewhat singed hair. She wore a slightly blasphemous T-shirt and a defiant expression on her face.

"I've got a suggestion." Melissa said to Belial. "How 'bout you put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye!"

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