Authors note: If you want to review I would like it if you reviewed some of
the characters and not just the story. I was wondering if anyone has a fave
character of the ones I've created or if any are really annoying you. My
fave character that I've created is Anna.
"Xander, are you awake?" it was Anna.
"Yep, I'm kinda worried what will happen if I fall asleep." The sun was up now. He could only tell by the fraction of light that made it through the blacked out windows.
"I know what to do now." Anna closed in on Xander.
"Could you tell me first?" He knew what her plan was when she put on her vampire face. "Anna you can't kill me, I mean you could but it wouldn't be a good idea. See if you change me now what his face would kill you and probably me when I would rise. How would that make you feel?"
"Xander, do you care about me or are you trying to save your own cute butt?"
She changed her features back to normal.
"Probably trying to save me, but raising a valid thought, which may come true."
"I would feel like an idiot."
"Huh?"
"If that happened I would feel like an idiot. I should have really thought though it a little more instead of jumping to first idea that came to my mind."
"You know what I have a great idea, why don't you let me go and then I can live. That's what you would do if you really cared about me."
"I'm not to keen on that idea, you may get to live but I would probably get staked and never see you again. That's two cons I believe, now what's a pro? One for you but none for me really."
"Get away from him." Xander hoped it was Shannon or Buffy who had come to rescue him. The voice was identifiable as Lynettes though.
"Don't you trust me?"
"Frankly no I don't, I know you've got a sort of crush on him. Look Anna maybe if we just give him Xander he'll bugger off and he'll leave us alone."
"Lynette I can't believe you're saying this. Lately I feel that you and Naomi are ganging up on me. We're stuck in a rut and he's probably gonna kill us afterwards or me at least."
"Why you?"
"I've just got the feeling he dislikes me the most for several reasons. You know how I have this way of annoying people." Anna gave Lynette a look when she nodded in agreement. "What we did back home was what many have wanted to do but haven't. The only reason he came back after us is that we can't be allowed to go around bragging about disrupting his power. He's meant to be the big bad demon that everyone's afraid of, but three rather new little girlie vampires stood up against him. He's gonna need something to take back to regain the respect and fear he's lost. Plus I'm sure he didn't throw Naomi against the wall as hard."
"Oh, well I kinda knew that."
"Good speech though worthy of an award." Anna wouldn't have minded being an actress like a lot of girls and as a vampire she would never grow old. The problem was those daylight scenes and also she wasn't that good of an actress
"It wasn't that good."
"I know but in my mind it was very good." She imagined the audience standing up, cheering, applauding, throwing roses. As Anna took a bow she caught a bouquet of beautiful roses in her arms. Thankyou, Thankyou! Her mind returned to reality just in time to hear Lynette say,
"Whatever."
"I thought it was okay it explained a few things to me." Said Xander who still wanted to know more. He hadn't really heard them mention anything of Shannon. He decided that he should bring her up. It was the only way he was only going to find out anymore about her. "Hey you know Shannon very well."
Both girls turned and looked at him with a pissed off expression. The name Shannon had certainly touched a nerve. He just hoped that they weren't going to take out their anger on him. Then they changed face.
"Yep our good friends Shannons in town. We've seen her about with you." Said Lynette "You two have really hit it off. I'm actually happy that she's making new friends. See we were her only friends and anyone else that was anyone near the status of a friend never arrived or their playdate."
"We caused havoc in our high school. She even helped out on one occasion."
"Yeah I heard about that."
"You know what pisses me off. She's meant to be our friend. She was to have been all 'oh no I can't kill you you're my friends', but she tries all the time." Anna loved being the typical villain who couldn't die otherwise there would be no more arch-nemesis and life turns to one fight stands.
"She can't destroy us as it's that little nagging thing in the back of her head stopping her. Even though she is looking at the vampire format of her friends, she can't kill her best friends." Lynette explained her little idea of why Shannon could dust most vampires but not them.
"Oh I've just come up with a brand new theory! Even though we aren't the big bad we are still her arch nemesis and if you get rid of us there is a gap that needs to filled by something that's even worse, even badder, even eviler. This theory is now my number answer to the question, it's so much better. It also explains why there is a never ending supply of bad guys." Anna was filled with self-satisfaction and smiled happily at her genius. Xander runs over to her after she's caught the flowers and gives her a big congratulation kiss. Anna was running off with her big imagination again. Lynette noticed her doing this.
"Come away from guy tied to a big stick now, big a good little vampire and skip along to your coffin." Lynette pushed Anna away from Xander.
"Wait you guys actually have coffins." That was a very weird thing he had never come across vampires who actually did the whole coffin thing.
"No whatever gave you that idea." Answered Lynette who walked with Anna.
"Great I'm all alone and talking to myself again, what fun!" He tried to go to sleep, but were he stood was not exactly luxury. In his mind he knew that it was strange that he actually wanted Anna to come back so he'd have some company. He also wanted food because he hadn't eaten in along time, but it seemed that he was food in the dark, lonely abandoned warehouse.
"Xander you're alive and here." Said Shannon who ran up to him and gave him a huge hug.
"Actually I'm sort of dead and it's all your fault." Xander pushed her away. She tripped and fell to ground; Xander didn't help her he just smiled.
"You're only sort of dead, you're smiling about being mean and oh my God you look hot in that leather jacket. Shit, oh I heard about this from Buffy and Willow. You wearing a leather jacket can mean one thing you're evil. You're an evil undead bloodsucking soul less creature of the night bloodsucking fiend. Okay before you say it I know I said bloodsucking twice but it's a very important feature of you being a vampire, you evil vampire you." She got up Shannon didn't believe that sitting down was a safe thing to do.
"Ouch that hurt so much I think I'm going to cry now." He put his hand on his heart and frowned at her.
"Don't be sarcastic I'm so much better."
"I'm hungry and I guess you'll do just about fine." Xander was approaching Shannon she got in to a fighting stance. One kick to his belly sent him flying so far he looked liked a dot.
"I didn't want to do it, but it had to be done." She turned around to find Xander there "Did I just kick you all around the world?"
"I've went all around the world just to find my tea just standing here."
"Yeah well I didn't expect you to get here so soon." She tried to move her feet to kick the vampire Xander again but it was if her feet had been glued to the floor.
"You're still just standing there." He circled her.
"I'm having slight technical difficulties right now." She tried to use her hands to pull her feet off the floor but it was useless.
"Too scared to move or is it something else?" Xander chucked her a small tube. Shannon looked at the label it said SUPER STICKY SUPER GLUE LASTS FOR HOURS!
"Oh that's great but I call it cheating!" She chucked the glue back at him but he dodged it.
"I think it's deserved after all it's your fault I'm like this."
"Thanks just rub it in some more why don't you!"
"Why am I still talking to you I'm really hungry and you're not going anywhere."
"And I'm so happy about it."
"Think about it that's the last sarcastic comment you'll ever say."
"Wait give me a while longer I can think of something better." Before she had chance to rethink it his teeth were biting her neck and her blood was being drained from her body. She couldn't feel it though.
Shannon woke up at Giles' house. She had left to search for Xander but after an hour and a half of finding nothing she realised she had no place to go. Giles hadn't minded her coming in an early hour, but was probably more relieved that she hadn't collapsed in front of cave where vampires inhabited. She had decided that she couldn't let anything like pride let her get killed.
Shannon didn't like her nightmare; it was playing on all her current fears much like a nightmare tends to do. The only thing that she could hope about that none of it would come true. To make sure it wouldn't come true she needed to look for Xander. She looked down at her watch.
"Damn it, shit, crap, fuck! Oh bugger!""
"What's with all the language?" Giles came down the stairs wearing his robe.
"I've decided to expand my vocabulary, what do you think?"
"That those words aren't exactly the most intelligent words they teach in school."
"Look at the time." she shoved her watch in Giles' face and he pulled his head back.
"I'm not blind you know? It's almost eleven thirty, gosh I haven't slept in like that for a while." Said Giles
"Xanders life is mortal peril and I get to have a sleep, I might of well of had a manicure before I rip Annas' heart and showed her me putting a stake through her heart."
"I thought you and Anna use to be friends?"
"Well we were before she died came back as a vampire, turned my other friend into a vampire, blew up Westlife and kidnapped Xander. So I think I have a few reasons to be pissed off with her!"
"She's not your friend though anyway she's the thing that killed your friend."
"Well I'm pissed off with that thing too!" Shannon grabbed her coat and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" he knew but he thought he'd better ask.
"Looking for Xander of course. I hope I'll find him now while I'm this pissed off."
"Why are you pissed off with him also?"
"No haven't you been listening to me, I'm pissed off with my friends though I wouldn't mind finding out who Anya is, do you know Giles?"
"Um… well I think you better ask Xander when you find him. I'll ring Buffy and Willow to see how they're doing."
She walked off hoping that she would be lucky and would find Xander before anything happened to him. Before she left Shannon turned back to Giles to say one more thing.
"I'll probably report back a little bit after sunset, just to see if you've found anything, now I'm off to redo my dramatic exit." She did think about telling Giles about her dream, but she was more concerned about making sure that the events of it wouldn't be repeated.
"Shannons really concerned about Xander." Said Willow as her and Buffy walked along the college campus.
"I noticed." Replied Buffy
"But that's the problem, she's only known him for a few days and she seems more about him then we are and I've known him for most of my life."
"Will, it's not like she is more concerned, maybe we're just more sure we're going to find Xander then she is."
"No, but I fell straight a sleep last night, I should be more worried, I should of…"
"Look you were tired, we all were. Any second now a big clue will pop and we'll know exactly where he is, burst in and save the day." Buffy was trying to reassure Willow, but firstly she had to reassure herself. "Have I ever let the gang down?"
"Well there was the time you ate most of the jelly doughnuts and Giles wasn't to happy about that."
"Yes but I pretty much made up for that by stopping the apocalypse sisters."
"I remember that end of the world call, Xander wasn't there because we were to worried that he'd get hurt."
"We're underrating Xander here. I mean he's brought me back from dead and saved my life a few times, remember fish dudes."
"I don't like the way we're talking it's as if he's dead and we're trying to think of good things to say about him for the eulogy."
"I'm gonna make sure that it doesn't even come close, nobody kidnaps my friends and expects not to get a big can of whoop ass."
He stood there in the shadows once more watching Anna disappear into Sunnydales mass network of sewers. She had got an early start on her friends who wouldn't leave till the sun had set and they could see their safety blanket of night. He returned his private part of the warehouse. His minions waited for him in there. The soulless vampires lay asleep on the floor. There were six of them who had travelled with him and who had done most of the searching. He tried to make them fearful, but now there were the three girls who had dared tried to destroy him.
"Get up." He kicked the closest one in the stomach; they curled over into a ball. "They'll be leaving soon to find me the slayer."
"The slayers here they would never survive a fight against her."
"Don't you think I know that?" He clapped the one who had just spoken around the head. "I have made a deal with them that if they can bring me the slayer they may live and so will Xander."
"I thought you were going to consume his soul." Said another vampire.
"I am, when they have all gone. I see it as a win-win situation. I will either have one soul and them dead or two souls, one who's going to make me very powerful."
"If they return with the slayer what will you do with them?"
"If, they can defeat her which I doubt I think it would be very good to have vampires on my side which are strong enough to defeat a slayer. I doubt they will though, they're still young and foolish. I've been able to split there group up, so now Anna's going to attempt to get the slayer herself and Naomi and Lynette are annoyed that they have to face the slayer due to Anna having a crush on Xander. I'm very happy and I also believe I'm gloating."
Gerathon stopped he could Naomi and Lynette talking and he wanted to listen.
"Gera..." one of the vampires wanted to compliment him on his plan.
"Shut up or I'll rip out your heart with my own two hands." He whispered his threat so that the two females wouldn't hear it.
"I think I saw Anna leave without us." Naomi told Lynette.
"Whatever, if she wants to go out and get herself killed that's fine by me."
"You want Anna to die."
"No, but she's always the one who's running out into the middle of the road and I just feel that we've been dragged out there also."
"Do you want to go find her?"
"Sure, it's better than hanging around here."
"True, but how long is it till sunset."
"Half an hour." Naomi looked at her watch. "We'll take the sewers till then."
"Ew, I hope they're not as yucky as the ones at home."
He saw Naomi open the grid, which Lynette jumped into followed shortly by herself. He thought he heard Lynette say something else like "there just as bad", but he couldn't be sure.
"They're gone." The demon and the vampires left the private room and walked to the main part of the warehouse.
All of the vampires had left Xander leaving him on his own with the demon. That was a thought he didn't particularly like. He had eventually gone to sleep though he didn't sleep well. He had a similar nightmare to the one he had the other night. It was if it had been continued except he hadn't been burnt at the stake, which always thought was a good thing. He had to choose between Anya and Shannon or else they would kill him. It would have been interesting to find out whom he had chosen, but he had woken up just as the name was about to be spoken. He pondered over whom he would pick in his head. Had he ruined his relationship with Anya? Were him and Shannon meant for each other? He didn't feel like thinking about it too much just in case his head exploded.
There was movement but it looked like there was more then what could be caused by one demon. Xander was right. After Gerathon entered where Xander was standing four more vampires followed him. He knew from experience that that was not a good sign.
"Start preparing I'm hungry."
Buffy, Willow and Oz waited with Giles in his condo for Shannon. None of them had had any luck with the search for Xander; they only hoped that she had. There was a knock at the door.
"Finally, let's hope she's got some good news. Come in it's open." Invited Giles.
"Thanks for the invite," said Anna who stood there at the open door "it's getting a little chilly outside."
" What are you doing here?" Giles was joined by Buffy, the other were also out of their seats.
"You know perfectly well why and Buffy put that stake down, you're not exactly scaring me with it."
"Well you should be scared I'm gonna be introducing it to your heart any second now." She held it ready to plunge it into Annas' heart.
"If you stake me though you'll never know where Xander is." She stepped further into the house, running her finger along the desk.
"Okay, you've got a good point, but with you dead he won't be harms way." "That's what you think he's in big trouble and it's not me who's gonna cause the pain."
"Continue."
"Basically our ex-boss has come to town and he's hungry."
"I think we need more information than that." Buffy threatened Anna with the stake.
"There's no need to do that, I'll spill. See back home we were like a group, we're like you guys working together to help keep down the vampire population. There were quite a few considering it wasn't the Hellmouth or anything. "
"You mean you would help Shannon?" Questioned Giles.
"Oh she didn't tell you."
"Tell you what?" it was Shannon she looked around then she saw Anna and fire was in her eyes. "Bitch! Where's Xander?" She was about to charge but Buffy stopped her.
"Anna was just saying how when you guys were friends and they were alive you worked together."
"Until the night on the way out of the cinema we met a group of vampire friends, we dusted about two but we kinda failed miserably. Shannon here was out of town and Lynette was getting over the 'flu'. We weren't really liked at all because we had staked a few vampires, but we still discovered why there were so many vampires.
"There's a demon he calls himself Gerathon, he consumes good peoples souls and they make him more powerful. The more good the persons done over the years, the more it increases his power. "
"A soul seeking demon, what does he look like?" Giles walked towards his bookcase.
"He's a grey, wrinkly, big demon, who smells kinda funny, strong too and he's always boasting about some great power. He says that as soon as he has enough power, he'll unleash something that will kill most of man and allow more demons to roam the world."
"That's stupid if he kills most of man won't that means no more food for you guys." Shannon looked at Anna as if she was saying; "ha you were too stupid to realise that."
"I asked that question too, he said that somehow the bodies will still be fresh enough to eat. Vampires liked the idea of getting food without having to try that hard, so they were willing to join him. I'm sure everyone's just getting lazy. We joined in. We thought it best to keep with this guy; vampires that work for him aren't allowed to kill each other without his permission. He'd tell you who was ready and where to go and get them. He has some sort of sense to know where these people are. We got to do some travelling around Britain looking for these guys. "Eventually it got boring having someone else tell you what to do and I personally don't trust him. That whole people will be fresh to eat and demons walking along the earth bit. I don't believe it. Plus I did some research most demons don't like vampires think they're rats and useless."
"Technically that's true vampires are the scum of the earth." Buffy bitched.
"Hey do think I'm totally happy, most people think it's cool the whole living forever and the being stronger thing. It's cool I got to admit it and I'm gonna see the world evolve and change, I'm never going to grow old. Anyone who gets on my nerves I eat. I'm happy with myself again. What was I talking about again, I kinda trailed off for a second." The people in the room who weren't undead gave Anna a strange look. "Oh yeah, we blew up the room he was in with a rocket launcher and fled the place. Now he's in Sunnydale and pissed off. Tonight he's gonna kill Xander, I don't want that to happen and neither do you. Xander been a good boy from the looks of it and the hungrier he gets the less likely it will be good for Xander."
"So after all your yapping tell us where he is!" demanded Shannon.
"That was such a great plan, I have Xander and you guys have no idea where to find him."
"Found it!" announced Giles.
"Xanders location?" asked Willow.
"No, no Gerathon. He's a soul-seeking demon and he does boast that he will destroy mankind. The funny thing is that it doesn't say how. I think that he just is using that to create more fear. The power he has though can only be released once he has enough power, but it is unknown how many."
"I knew it, though if he was going to destroy the world it would probably be from the smell of his BO. The guys been around for a few centuries with time on his hand and he never thought to take a bath. Thinking about it if he's been around so long why does he still need to gather souls for energy? I guess he could have lost them at one point and have to start all over again or he's just too lazy to get his own food so he gets vampire to retrieve it for him." Said Anna. No one was listening to her at this point even though she had just finally worked out what Gerathon had probably been doing. She was use to it though and it was their lost.
"Anna tell us where Xander is now?" this time Buffy demanded the address.
"I'll take you there, otherwise as soon as I tell you, you're gonna stake me. Is that okay with you?"
"No, but Xander hasn't got enough time for us to just stand around here trying to get it out of you. We're going now, grab some weapons. Giles what kills him?" Buffy was giving out the commands.
"I believe chopping his head off will do the trick."
"Fine." Buffy walked over to the weapons trunk and grabbed a big sword.
"Anna, he better be alive." The entire group told her this.
"Trust me, anyway it's been said that sometimes it doesn't kill the person. On more than a couple of occasions the persons stays alive, he just has no soul. He spends the rest of his life angry with everyone and never feels love. They also have the tendency to be slightly psychotic."
"Anna, he still better have his soul." Threatened Shannon who put an extra stake in her pocket. She could of hit or killed Anna, but decided against it. Xanders life was at stake and she didn't want to increase the odds, which were already against them.
"Whatever." She said it in a phoney clueless American accent. She also moved her fingers to form a W shape and then shoved it in Shannons' face.
"You annoy me a lot." Said Shannon followed by an annoyed grunt, but all she got from Anna, as a response was her indicating to the Slayers gang indicating yet again with her hands that Shannon was nagging.
They walked up the stairs to the street where Oz had parked his van and they all got inside. Anna sat shotgun so that she could direct Oz to the whereabouts of Xander. Willow was not keen about having a vampire sitting next to her boyfriend.
"Hey I have one more thing to add to this deal, there is to be no staking me or decapitating me or anything which has me ending up as a big pile of dust on the floor."
Buffy thought about it. She knew that she could just stake Anna after they had found Xander.
"Buffy will stop thinking about how you're going to stake me after you've found Xander."
"Are you psychic or something?" Buffy hoped Anna would say no, if Anna could read minds then she would know all of Buffys moves. Giles had discussed this with Buffy when she had the opportunity to read minds, but she had more interested in using her power in class to surprise teachers. She had enjoyed that power. The problem was that after a while the voices in her head nearly driven her crazy.
"Yes Buffy I can read minds and now please excuse me while I turn into a bat."
Buffy leaned over to Giles and whispered in his ear,
"Please tell me she was being sarcastic."
"I think she was by the tone of her voice."
"Good, I've never had to deal with a psychic vampire who could turn into a bat before. Actually I hope I never do meet one. Hey," she turned to face Anna again "how did you know I was planning to stake you, maybe."
"You're a slayer, I'm a vampire who's not stupid." Anna thought it would be cool to be able to read minds or fly, but for the moment all she had was super strength and immortality. Even more important she was going to have Xander.
"Xander, are you awake?" it was Anna.
"Yep, I'm kinda worried what will happen if I fall asleep." The sun was up now. He could only tell by the fraction of light that made it through the blacked out windows.
"I know what to do now." Anna closed in on Xander.
"Could you tell me first?" He knew what her plan was when she put on her vampire face. "Anna you can't kill me, I mean you could but it wouldn't be a good idea. See if you change me now what his face would kill you and probably me when I would rise. How would that make you feel?"
"Xander, do you care about me or are you trying to save your own cute butt?"
She changed her features back to normal.
"Probably trying to save me, but raising a valid thought, which may come true."
"I would feel like an idiot."
"Huh?"
"If that happened I would feel like an idiot. I should have really thought though it a little more instead of jumping to first idea that came to my mind."
"You know what I have a great idea, why don't you let me go and then I can live. That's what you would do if you really cared about me."
"I'm not to keen on that idea, you may get to live but I would probably get staked and never see you again. That's two cons I believe, now what's a pro? One for you but none for me really."
"Get away from him." Xander hoped it was Shannon or Buffy who had come to rescue him. The voice was identifiable as Lynettes though.
"Don't you trust me?"
"Frankly no I don't, I know you've got a sort of crush on him. Look Anna maybe if we just give him Xander he'll bugger off and he'll leave us alone."
"Lynette I can't believe you're saying this. Lately I feel that you and Naomi are ganging up on me. We're stuck in a rut and he's probably gonna kill us afterwards or me at least."
"Why you?"
"I've just got the feeling he dislikes me the most for several reasons. You know how I have this way of annoying people." Anna gave Lynette a look when she nodded in agreement. "What we did back home was what many have wanted to do but haven't. The only reason he came back after us is that we can't be allowed to go around bragging about disrupting his power. He's meant to be the big bad demon that everyone's afraid of, but three rather new little girlie vampires stood up against him. He's gonna need something to take back to regain the respect and fear he's lost. Plus I'm sure he didn't throw Naomi against the wall as hard."
"Oh, well I kinda knew that."
"Good speech though worthy of an award." Anna wouldn't have minded being an actress like a lot of girls and as a vampire she would never grow old. The problem was those daylight scenes and also she wasn't that good of an actress
"It wasn't that good."
"I know but in my mind it was very good." She imagined the audience standing up, cheering, applauding, throwing roses. As Anna took a bow she caught a bouquet of beautiful roses in her arms. Thankyou, Thankyou! Her mind returned to reality just in time to hear Lynette say,
"Whatever."
"I thought it was okay it explained a few things to me." Said Xander who still wanted to know more. He hadn't really heard them mention anything of Shannon. He decided that he should bring her up. It was the only way he was only going to find out anymore about her. "Hey you know Shannon very well."
Both girls turned and looked at him with a pissed off expression. The name Shannon had certainly touched a nerve. He just hoped that they weren't going to take out their anger on him. Then they changed face.
"Yep our good friends Shannons in town. We've seen her about with you." Said Lynette "You two have really hit it off. I'm actually happy that she's making new friends. See we were her only friends and anyone else that was anyone near the status of a friend never arrived or their playdate."
"We caused havoc in our high school. She even helped out on one occasion."
"Yeah I heard about that."
"You know what pisses me off. She's meant to be our friend. She was to have been all 'oh no I can't kill you you're my friends', but she tries all the time." Anna loved being the typical villain who couldn't die otherwise there would be no more arch-nemesis and life turns to one fight stands.
"She can't destroy us as it's that little nagging thing in the back of her head stopping her. Even though she is looking at the vampire format of her friends, she can't kill her best friends." Lynette explained her little idea of why Shannon could dust most vampires but not them.
"Oh I've just come up with a brand new theory! Even though we aren't the big bad we are still her arch nemesis and if you get rid of us there is a gap that needs to filled by something that's even worse, even badder, even eviler. This theory is now my number answer to the question, it's so much better. It also explains why there is a never ending supply of bad guys." Anna was filled with self-satisfaction and smiled happily at her genius. Xander runs over to her after she's caught the flowers and gives her a big congratulation kiss. Anna was running off with her big imagination again. Lynette noticed her doing this.
"Come away from guy tied to a big stick now, big a good little vampire and skip along to your coffin." Lynette pushed Anna away from Xander.
"Wait you guys actually have coffins." That was a very weird thing he had never come across vampires who actually did the whole coffin thing.
"No whatever gave you that idea." Answered Lynette who walked with Anna.
"Great I'm all alone and talking to myself again, what fun!" He tried to go to sleep, but were he stood was not exactly luxury. In his mind he knew that it was strange that he actually wanted Anna to come back so he'd have some company. He also wanted food because he hadn't eaten in along time, but it seemed that he was food in the dark, lonely abandoned warehouse.
"Xander you're alive and here." Said Shannon who ran up to him and gave him a huge hug.
"Actually I'm sort of dead and it's all your fault." Xander pushed her away. She tripped and fell to ground; Xander didn't help her he just smiled.
"You're only sort of dead, you're smiling about being mean and oh my God you look hot in that leather jacket. Shit, oh I heard about this from Buffy and Willow. You wearing a leather jacket can mean one thing you're evil. You're an evil undead bloodsucking soul less creature of the night bloodsucking fiend. Okay before you say it I know I said bloodsucking twice but it's a very important feature of you being a vampire, you evil vampire you." She got up Shannon didn't believe that sitting down was a safe thing to do.
"Ouch that hurt so much I think I'm going to cry now." He put his hand on his heart and frowned at her.
"Don't be sarcastic I'm so much better."
"I'm hungry and I guess you'll do just about fine." Xander was approaching Shannon she got in to a fighting stance. One kick to his belly sent him flying so far he looked liked a dot.
"I didn't want to do it, but it had to be done." She turned around to find Xander there "Did I just kick you all around the world?"
"I've went all around the world just to find my tea just standing here."
"Yeah well I didn't expect you to get here so soon." She tried to move her feet to kick the vampire Xander again but it was if her feet had been glued to the floor.
"You're still just standing there." He circled her.
"I'm having slight technical difficulties right now." She tried to use her hands to pull her feet off the floor but it was useless.
"Too scared to move or is it something else?" Xander chucked her a small tube. Shannon looked at the label it said SUPER STICKY SUPER GLUE LASTS FOR HOURS!
"Oh that's great but I call it cheating!" She chucked the glue back at him but he dodged it.
"I think it's deserved after all it's your fault I'm like this."
"Thanks just rub it in some more why don't you!"
"Why am I still talking to you I'm really hungry and you're not going anywhere."
"And I'm so happy about it."
"Think about it that's the last sarcastic comment you'll ever say."
"Wait give me a while longer I can think of something better." Before she had chance to rethink it his teeth were biting her neck and her blood was being drained from her body. She couldn't feel it though.
Shannon woke up at Giles' house. She had left to search for Xander but after an hour and a half of finding nothing she realised she had no place to go. Giles hadn't minded her coming in an early hour, but was probably more relieved that she hadn't collapsed in front of cave where vampires inhabited. She had decided that she couldn't let anything like pride let her get killed.
Shannon didn't like her nightmare; it was playing on all her current fears much like a nightmare tends to do. The only thing that she could hope about that none of it would come true. To make sure it wouldn't come true she needed to look for Xander. She looked down at her watch.
"Damn it, shit, crap, fuck! Oh bugger!""
"What's with all the language?" Giles came down the stairs wearing his robe.
"I've decided to expand my vocabulary, what do you think?"
"That those words aren't exactly the most intelligent words they teach in school."
"Look at the time." she shoved her watch in Giles' face and he pulled his head back.
"I'm not blind you know? It's almost eleven thirty, gosh I haven't slept in like that for a while." Said Giles
"Xanders life is mortal peril and I get to have a sleep, I might of well of had a manicure before I rip Annas' heart and showed her me putting a stake through her heart."
"I thought you and Anna use to be friends?"
"Well we were before she died came back as a vampire, turned my other friend into a vampire, blew up Westlife and kidnapped Xander. So I think I have a few reasons to be pissed off with her!"
"She's not your friend though anyway she's the thing that killed your friend."
"Well I'm pissed off with that thing too!" Shannon grabbed her coat and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" he knew but he thought he'd better ask.
"Looking for Xander of course. I hope I'll find him now while I'm this pissed off."
"Why are you pissed off with him also?"
"No haven't you been listening to me, I'm pissed off with my friends though I wouldn't mind finding out who Anya is, do you know Giles?"
"Um… well I think you better ask Xander when you find him. I'll ring Buffy and Willow to see how they're doing."
She walked off hoping that she would be lucky and would find Xander before anything happened to him. Before she left Shannon turned back to Giles to say one more thing.
"I'll probably report back a little bit after sunset, just to see if you've found anything, now I'm off to redo my dramatic exit." She did think about telling Giles about her dream, but she was more concerned about making sure that the events of it wouldn't be repeated.
"Shannons really concerned about Xander." Said Willow as her and Buffy walked along the college campus.
"I noticed." Replied Buffy
"But that's the problem, she's only known him for a few days and she seems more about him then we are and I've known him for most of my life."
"Will, it's not like she is more concerned, maybe we're just more sure we're going to find Xander then she is."
"No, but I fell straight a sleep last night, I should be more worried, I should of…"
"Look you were tired, we all were. Any second now a big clue will pop and we'll know exactly where he is, burst in and save the day." Buffy was trying to reassure Willow, but firstly she had to reassure herself. "Have I ever let the gang down?"
"Well there was the time you ate most of the jelly doughnuts and Giles wasn't to happy about that."
"Yes but I pretty much made up for that by stopping the apocalypse sisters."
"I remember that end of the world call, Xander wasn't there because we were to worried that he'd get hurt."
"We're underrating Xander here. I mean he's brought me back from dead and saved my life a few times, remember fish dudes."
"I don't like the way we're talking it's as if he's dead and we're trying to think of good things to say about him for the eulogy."
"I'm gonna make sure that it doesn't even come close, nobody kidnaps my friends and expects not to get a big can of whoop ass."
He stood there in the shadows once more watching Anna disappear into Sunnydales mass network of sewers. She had got an early start on her friends who wouldn't leave till the sun had set and they could see their safety blanket of night. He returned his private part of the warehouse. His minions waited for him in there. The soulless vampires lay asleep on the floor. There were six of them who had travelled with him and who had done most of the searching. He tried to make them fearful, but now there were the three girls who had dared tried to destroy him.
"Get up." He kicked the closest one in the stomach; they curled over into a ball. "They'll be leaving soon to find me the slayer."
"The slayers here they would never survive a fight against her."
"Don't you think I know that?" He clapped the one who had just spoken around the head. "I have made a deal with them that if they can bring me the slayer they may live and so will Xander."
"I thought you were going to consume his soul." Said another vampire.
"I am, when they have all gone. I see it as a win-win situation. I will either have one soul and them dead or two souls, one who's going to make me very powerful."
"If they return with the slayer what will you do with them?"
"If, they can defeat her which I doubt I think it would be very good to have vampires on my side which are strong enough to defeat a slayer. I doubt they will though, they're still young and foolish. I've been able to split there group up, so now Anna's going to attempt to get the slayer herself and Naomi and Lynette are annoyed that they have to face the slayer due to Anna having a crush on Xander. I'm very happy and I also believe I'm gloating."
Gerathon stopped he could Naomi and Lynette talking and he wanted to listen.
"Gera..." one of the vampires wanted to compliment him on his plan.
"Shut up or I'll rip out your heart with my own two hands." He whispered his threat so that the two females wouldn't hear it.
"I think I saw Anna leave without us." Naomi told Lynette.
"Whatever, if she wants to go out and get herself killed that's fine by me."
"You want Anna to die."
"No, but she's always the one who's running out into the middle of the road and I just feel that we've been dragged out there also."
"Do you want to go find her?"
"Sure, it's better than hanging around here."
"True, but how long is it till sunset."
"Half an hour." Naomi looked at her watch. "We'll take the sewers till then."
"Ew, I hope they're not as yucky as the ones at home."
He saw Naomi open the grid, which Lynette jumped into followed shortly by herself. He thought he heard Lynette say something else like "there just as bad", but he couldn't be sure.
"They're gone." The demon and the vampires left the private room and walked to the main part of the warehouse.
All of the vampires had left Xander leaving him on his own with the demon. That was a thought he didn't particularly like. He had eventually gone to sleep though he didn't sleep well. He had a similar nightmare to the one he had the other night. It was if it had been continued except he hadn't been burnt at the stake, which always thought was a good thing. He had to choose between Anya and Shannon or else they would kill him. It would have been interesting to find out whom he had chosen, but he had woken up just as the name was about to be spoken. He pondered over whom he would pick in his head. Had he ruined his relationship with Anya? Were him and Shannon meant for each other? He didn't feel like thinking about it too much just in case his head exploded.
There was movement but it looked like there was more then what could be caused by one demon. Xander was right. After Gerathon entered where Xander was standing four more vampires followed him. He knew from experience that that was not a good sign.
"Start preparing I'm hungry."
Buffy, Willow and Oz waited with Giles in his condo for Shannon. None of them had had any luck with the search for Xander; they only hoped that she had. There was a knock at the door.
"Finally, let's hope she's got some good news. Come in it's open." Invited Giles.
"Thanks for the invite," said Anna who stood there at the open door "it's getting a little chilly outside."
" What are you doing here?" Giles was joined by Buffy, the other were also out of their seats.
"You know perfectly well why and Buffy put that stake down, you're not exactly scaring me with it."
"Well you should be scared I'm gonna be introducing it to your heart any second now." She held it ready to plunge it into Annas' heart.
"If you stake me though you'll never know where Xander is." She stepped further into the house, running her finger along the desk.
"Okay, you've got a good point, but with you dead he won't be harms way." "That's what you think he's in big trouble and it's not me who's gonna cause the pain."
"Continue."
"Basically our ex-boss has come to town and he's hungry."
"I think we need more information than that." Buffy threatened Anna with the stake.
"There's no need to do that, I'll spill. See back home we were like a group, we're like you guys working together to help keep down the vampire population. There were quite a few considering it wasn't the Hellmouth or anything. "
"You mean you would help Shannon?" Questioned Giles.
"Oh she didn't tell you."
"Tell you what?" it was Shannon she looked around then she saw Anna and fire was in her eyes. "Bitch! Where's Xander?" She was about to charge but Buffy stopped her.
"Anna was just saying how when you guys were friends and they were alive you worked together."
"Until the night on the way out of the cinema we met a group of vampire friends, we dusted about two but we kinda failed miserably. Shannon here was out of town and Lynette was getting over the 'flu'. We weren't really liked at all because we had staked a few vampires, but we still discovered why there were so many vampires.
"There's a demon he calls himself Gerathon, he consumes good peoples souls and they make him more powerful. The more good the persons done over the years, the more it increases his power. "
"A soul seeking demon, what does he look like?" Giles walked towards his bookcase.
"He's a grey, wrinkly, big demon, who smells kinda funny, strong too and he's always boasting about some great power. He says that as soon as he has enough power, he'll unleash something that will kill most of man and allow more demons to roam the world."
"That's stupid if he kills most of man won't that means no more food for you guys." Shannon looked at Anna as if she was saying; "ha you were too stupid to realise that."
"I asked that question too, he said that somehow the bodies will still be fresh enough to eat. Vampires liked the idea of getting food without having to try that hard, so they were willing to join him. I'm sure everyone's just getting lazy. We joined in. We thought it best to keep with this guy; vampires that work for him aren't allowed to kill each other without his permission. He'd tell you who was ready and where to go and get them. He has some sort of sense to know where these people are. We got to do some travelling around Britain looking for these guys. "Eventually it got boring having someone else tell you what to do and I personally don't trust him. That whole people will be fresh to eat and demons walking along the earth bit. I don't believe it. Plus I did some research most demons don't like vampires think they're rats and useless."
"Technically that's true vampires are the scum of the earth." Buffy bitched.
"Hey do think I'm totally happy, most people think it's cool the whole living forever and the being stronger thing. It's cool I got to admit it and I'm gonna see the world evolve and change, I'm never going to grow old. Anyone who gets on my nerves I eat. I'm happy with myself again. What was I talking about again, I kinda trailed off for a second." The people in the room who weren't undead gave Anna a strange look. "Oh yeah, we blew up the room he was in with a rocket launcher and fled the place. Now he's in Sunnydale and pissed off. Tonight he's gonna kill Xander, I don't want that to happen and neither do you. Xander been a good boy from the looks of it and the hungrier he gets the less likely it will be good for Xander."
"So after all your yapping tell us where he is!" demanded Shannon.
"That was such a great plan, I have Xander and you guys have no idea where to find him."
"Found it!" announced Giles.
"Xanders location?" asked Willow.
"No, no Gerathon. He's a soul-seeking demon and he does boast that he will destroy mankind. The funny thing is that it doesn't say how. I think that he just is using that to create more fear. The power he has though can only be released once he has enough power, but it is unknown how many."
"I knew it, though if he was going to destroy the world it would probably be from the smell of his BO. The guys been around for a few centuries with time on his hand and he never thought to take a bath. Thinking about it if he's been around so long why does he still need to gather souls for energy? I guess he could have lost them at one point and have to start all over again or he's just too lazy to get his own food so he gets vampire to retrieve it for him." Said Anna. No one was listening to her at this point even though she had just finally worked out what Gerathon had probably been doing. She was use to it though and it was their lost.
"Anna tell us where Xander is now?" this time Buffy demanded the address.
"I'll take you there, otherwise as soon as I tell you, you're gonna stake me. Is that okay with you?"
"No, but Xander hasn't got enough time for us to just stand around here trying to get it out of you. We're going now, grab some weapons. Giles what kills him?" Buffy was giving out the commands.
"I believe chopping his head off will do the trick."
"Fine." Buffy walked over to the weapons trunk and grabbed a big sword.
"Anna, he better be alive." The entire group told her this.
"Trust me, anyway it's been said that sometimes it doesn't kill the person. On more than a couple of occasions the persons stays alive, he just has no soul. He spends the rest of his life angry with everyone and never feels love. They also have the tendency to be slightly psychotic."
"Anna, he still better have his soul." Threatened Shannon who put an extra stake in her pocket. She could of hit or killed Anna, but decided against it. Xanders life was at stake and she didn't want to increase the odds, which were already against them.
"Whatever." She said it in a phoney clueless American accent. She also moved her fingers to form a W shape and then shoved it in Shannons' face.
"You annoy me a lot." Said Shannon followed by an annoyed grunt, but all she got from Anna, as a response was her indicating to the Slayers gang indicating yet again with her hands that Shannon was nagging.
They walked up the stairs to the street where Oz had parked his van and they all got inside. Anna sat shotgun so that she could direct Oz to the whereabouts of Xander. Willow was not keen about having a vampire sitting next to her boyfriend.
"Hey I have one more thing to add to this deal, there is to be no staking me or decapitating me or anything which has me ending up as a big pile of dust on the floor."
Buffy thought about it. She knew that she could just stake Anna after they had found Xander.
"Buffy will stop thinking about how you're going to stake me after you've found Xander."
"Are you psychic or something?" Buffy hoped Anna would say no, if Anna could read minds then she would know all of Buffys moves. Giles had discussed this with Buffy when she had the opportunity to read minds, but she had more interested in using her power in class to surprise teachers. She had enjoyed that power. The problem was that after a while the voices in her head nearly driven her crazy.
"Yes Buffy I can read minds and now please excuse me while I turn into a bat."
Buffy leaned over to Giles and whispered in his ear,
"Please tell me she was being sarcastic."
"I think she was by the tone of her voice."
"Good, I've never had to deal with a psychic vampire who could turn into a bat before. Actually I hope I never do meet one. Hey," she turned to face Anna again "how did you know I was planning to stake you, maybe."
"You're a slayer, I'm a vampire who's not stupid." Anna thought it would be cool to be able to read minds or fly, but for the moment all she had was super strength and immortality. Even more important she was going to have Xander.