[Note:Vamped Buffy will be referred to as V-Buffy]


Chapter 22: Never lurk


Buffy had just left Giles' place a few minutes ago and now was making her way to Willy's. It never dawned on her to check out Willy's until she had that talk with Giles about her reality. She and Kendra had a run in with him when Spike was trying to restore Drucilla back to health, using Angel as the means.

As she made her way to the door she saw a man who looked to be the size of Angel, only bigger, holding Willy over the counter by the collar of his shirt.

"I want to know where SHE is!" the man said as he held up Willy over the counter.

Buffy's spider sense went on alert. Somehow she knew this was the man that Willow and Oz had ran into.

"You want me. I'm right here." she said as she stood at the doorway.

After hearing Buffy the man let go of Willy who scurried to the back of the room saying, "Please don't break anything. I just had the place remodeled."

"Do you know how long I've been waiting for this moment." the man said.

"You know for some reason I don't care, and where did you get that picture from anyway?" Buffy asked as she now saw the picture of herself...well, her alternate self anyway.

"Doesn't matter now. I don't need it anymore." he said as he tore it in half and threw it to the side as he started to attack her, but after a couple of steps he stopped and looked Buffy up and down, "Your human?"

"Yeah, for some time now." Buffy said as she stood in a defensive stance.

"I was told you were a vampire."
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Scene: Giles' apartment


Giles is trying to clean up the mess in front of him, but he still feels weak from his encounter with V-Buffy. Just as he bends down to pick up another one of the many books on the floor a clicking sound is heard. Giles looks around the room as if he hears something, but then continues with the books as he starts to stack them on one another.

"Where is Buffy?"

After hearing the unfamiliar voice, or any voice for that matter, behind him Giles dropped most of the books he had in his hand, except for the one he used to hit the intruder with as he spun around swinging the book at anything it could find, knocking the intruder down.

Giles was still weak and all the strength he had was used when he went on the offensive. However, he did manage to see a stake buried in the side of the couch. By the time that it took him to reach for the stake and turn around the man was standing up. The man looked at Giles with a smirk on his face.

For the first time Giles had a clear view of his intruder's face.

The man, or if he was a man, looked to be in his mid-twenties. However, he had a little bit of a goatee that seemed to make him look a little bit older than he probably was. His hair was as dark as a room with the lights out. He looked to be fairly built. He wasn't a body builder by no means, but he was built enough to were Giles felt like he was lucky to even knock him down at all. However, the eyes seemed to be the focal point of his whole face. They were like a world pool of brown, mostly hazel. There seemed to be an illumination about them.

"I'm not a vampire." the man said looking at the stake Giles had.

Giles didn't try to attack him for two reason's, one being that he was so tired from his earlier offensive attack that he didn't have much left in him and the other being that he was a little curious in what this man might have to say. However, Giles still kept his guard up with his stake in hand as he stood on the other side of the room from the man.

"Who are you? And what do you want with Buffy?"

"I must find her. Where is she?"

If you're not a vampire, then what are you?" Giles asked the man who looked to be a little bored with Giles' questions as he sighed and looked behind him and took a seat on the stool behind him at Giles counter.

"And how did you get in here if you're not a vampire? I didn't hear the door open."

"I thought you watcher's were smart?" the man said as he remained seated on a stool in front of Giles' counter.

Giles just stood without a response to the man's appearant put down as he looked around the room.

"The window."

Giles looked at were the man pointed.

"You know, you really should start locking your windows. This being Sunnydale and all."

Giles just stood in the middle of the room almost as if waiting for the man to attack him.

"Nice place...for an Englishman I guess." the man said as he wiped his finger along Giles' counter, "Although, I thought you guys dusted more."

Giles reached down and picked up a book and started going through it until he found a passage and starting chanting a foreign language out loud as the man watched on in amusement.

After Giles was finished chanting all the books in the room disappeared even the one in his hand.

"Now if you could only do that with the dust." the man said.
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Scene: Outside of the room that Xander is kept in


"What could she possibly be doing in there with him?" a vampire named Thomas said.

"Gee...I wonder." a vampire named Simon said sarcastically.

Thomas put his head to the door and reached for the door knob with his hand only to have Simon knock it away.

To Thomas' questioning expression Simon motioned his hand towards the sign on the door knob that said, [If you hear slurpin, don't come alurkin]

Thomas leaned back against the wall with a growl, "I didn't want to know anyway." he said in an unconvincing tone.

"How old are you anyway?" Simon asked.

"It's none of your business."

Simon smirked, "Don't worry, when you're older we'll have THE TALK."

Just as Thomas was about to reply another vampire appeared in front of Thomas. It was the vampire that V-Buffy had threated to rip out his fangs if he touched Xander again. Without warning he kicked the door open that Simon and Thomas were outside of and made his way into the room where V-Buffy and Xander were while muttering and growling something under his breath. He slammed the door shut after he was inside.

Thomas looked at Simon who was equally stunned.

Thomas looked at the door and then back at Simon, "Should we..."

He didn't finish his sentence because the door opened up as V-Buffy stepped out a couple of feet dumping a cloud of dust out of her hands before looking at Simon, "I thought I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET ANYONE IN!"

If Thomas didn't know any better he would've thought he saw Simon wet his pants right before he turned to dust.

V-Buffy turned to Thomas, "You're in charge now." she said in a much calmer voice before turning and walking back into the room and shutting the door.

"Great, there goes the talk." Thomas said looking at Simon's remains on the floor next to the vampire's remains who kicked in the door.

After a moment the door opened and closed, but not before a pair of fangs were thrown out on the floor beside the remains of the vampire who came alurkin.
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Buffy looked at the man as he stood about twenty feet from her. Once the man said vampire, Buffy knew who he had to be talking about.

"Ah...well, you see there is a vampire of me here...from this reality, but..."

"Enough!" the man yelled, which seemed to scatter the rest of the occupants of the bar.

Buffy wished that Giles was here to explain the whole alternate reality bit to this man because at this moment she didn't seem to know how to explain it clearly. Even if she did know how to explain it she would not have had time to as the man charged her.

Buffy let the man come to her. When he threw a punch at her she ducked it and sent a kick to his ankle, making him slump from the impact. Then she sent another kick towards him, this time to his face, sending him back a few feet on the ground.

Buffy ran towards him just as he was getting up. She tried to send another kick, but he caught her foot and twisted it. However, Buffy went with the twist and while in midair kicked him with her free foot sending him across the room onto the ground once again. This seemed to piss him off even more as he got to his feet.

The man whipped his hands out in front of him towards Buffy. This sent her backwards as she slid across the floor until she connected against the wall. Buffy got up slightly dinged as she tried to focus.

"It's not me you're after!" Buffy said, still trying to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen as he came at her again.

Thinking quickly, Buffy picked up the only weapon in sight, a mop against the jukebox. She broke off the mop part with her foot, leaving only a long piece of wood with a jagged edge. When the man was within reach she swept the pole under his feet, sending him flying to the ground on his back.

Before the man could get up there was a sharp object at his throat.

"Now will you listen?" Buffy said.
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Scene: Back at Giles' place


"I want answers now!" Giles said in a threatening voice.

"Oooh...that must be the Ripper I hear so much about." the man said before getting up off the stool and taking a step towards Giles.

Giles demeanor changed from an offensive position to a defensive one as he took a step back.

The man stopped as he saw Giles' change in demeanor, "Look, I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm just here for Buffy." he said.

Giles demeanor changed once again, "What do you want with her?"

"To put her back were she belongs." the man said.
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