Doesn't Anyone Stay Dead Around Here?
Chapter 20
"Oh" Harmony paused. Then remembering that she didn't care what happened to Spike because of the way their relationship had ended, she exclaimed, "Right! Like I'm really all broke up that he's going to die. He always made all these promises that he never kept. He said he'd take me to Paris and all over Europe. He said we'd be rich and that I was his princess. But I was never good enough. I wasn't his precious, crazy sire and I wasn't you!"
She spun away from the slayer and stormed to the crypt door. When she reached it, she turned around and the sisters could see that she was close to tears.
"You think I didn't know?" she continued. "He was in love with you for, like, ever. Probably even before Drusilla left him. You think I didn't know that he was using me because he could pretend I was you? I knew. But I loved him. He was my Blondie Bear. I just wanted him to be happy. I . . ."
Harmony's voice had slowly lost momentum. As her words trailed off, she glared once more at Buffy and walked out, slamming the door behind her.
***
"Excuse me, did you say that Buffy died?"
Willow, Tara, and Xander froze like a heard of the proverbial deer caught in the headlights of an on-coming car at Father Mike's question, desperately looking at one another for a clue as to how to answer the question. Anya, of course, didn't even blink before she answered factually.
"Yes, she's died twice now. The first time was only for a minute or two. She drowned and Xander brought her back with CPR. The second time, she . . ." the ex-demon paused as Xander increased the pressure with which he was holding her hand in a silent signal to stop talking. ". . . died. But she's better now, and it's not really that interesting."
Father Mike remembered Buffy's earlier comment, *joke?* about waking up in a coffin and hesitantly asked, "She's not a, um, vampire?"
Buffy and Dawn had descended the ladder during Anya's aborted explanation. Buffy sighed, and said, "Nope. Living, breathing, heart- beating human being. It's a long story."
Willow noticed Dawn still standing next to the ladder, her large, tear filled eyes locked on Spike's unconscious body and decided to speak up.
"We decided that there has to be another way. We can't just give up."
Tara was the only one who noticed that Buffy's shoulders dropped slightly in relief at Willow's pronouncement, betraying the rigid I'm-the- strong-one-damnit stance she had been holding.
Dawn looked hopefully to the redhead. "Really?"
"Tell us again what happened before we got there, Dawn," Willow said.
Dawn recounted the events of the evening as best she could remember while the others listened intently.
"Wait," Tara said. She paused, gathering her thoughts. "We think the Master went into Spike because it couldn't survive in Doc, right?"
When the others nodded affirmatively, she continued. "So we know that he can travel between hosts. But, we also don't think he can move to a live host. What about another vampire?"
"Oh!" Willow exclaimed. "That might work. I mean, if we got another vamp and did the exorcism again, the Master might give up and go to the new host."
"Your best bet would probably be another vampire from the Master's line," Anya said. "The younger the better."
Buffy nodded, thinking. "We know he hasn't turned anyone since he got chipped. I wonder if there's anyone left from his Gem of Amara fixation. He probably still had minions then."
"Yeah!" Willow snorted. "And Harmony!" Her voice rose as she imitated the ditzy blonde. "My boyfriend's going to kill you."
"Damn it!" Buffy exclaimed. "Harmony was just upstairs."
"But we don't know that he turned Harmony," Xander pointed out. "I mean, that's kind of low, even for the guy that spent a hundred years having tea parties with Drusilla's dolls."
"Hey!" a muffled voice that sounded suspiciously like Harmony's exclaimed indignantly.
The group went silent and seven heads turned to look into the darkness of one of the tunnels leading from the crypt to the sewer system.
Buffy silently skirted the cavern and paused against the wall next to the opening. She quickly reached inside and pulled a very startled Abe and his camera into the light.
"Oh, for the love of . . ." the slayer rolled her eyes as she figured out exactly who had set the reporters onto her. "Harmony, get your undead ass out here before I hurt your boyfriend!"
"That's not my boyfriend." She walked into the soft candlelight with Blair following her. "This is my boyfriend, my sweet boo-boo."
"Whatever." Buffy responded, not caring who Harmony was dating. "Who's your sire, Harmony?"
"Why?" The vampire asked the question suspiciously, but made no move to run.
"It's for the census. Was it Spike?" Buffy guessed that she hadn't overheard enough of the conversation to feel the need to lie.
"The census keeps track of vampires? Huh. I don't remember his name. You killed him a couple of days after I was turned."
"Did he tell you anything? Like who his sire was, or what your family bloodline was?
Harmony wrinkled her brow, and thought hard. She belonged to one of the good clans, she knew. At least her sire had said it was one of the good ones. What was it? Something about a Disney movie . . .
"Oh!" She brightened as she remembered the information. "The clan of the Little Mermaid!"
Buffy and the Scoobies stared at her as if she had grown a second head.
"What? Is my hair okay?" Harmony began to frantically pat down her hair.
"It's fine, honey," Blair assured her.
Buffy took a deep breath and slowly asked, "The clan of the Little Mermaid? Are you sure?"
"What?" Harmony forgot about her hair, sensing that the slayer was unhappy with her answer. While it was fair to say that Harmony would never have the sharpest fangs in the graveyard, she still knew that an unhappy slayer rapidly lead to one less vampire. "Um, yes? No! Not the Little Mermaid as in 'The Little Mermaid,' but her name. Ariel."
A collective groan arose from the Scoobies as Willow asked, "Aurelius?"
"That's it! I knew it had something to do with the Little Mermaid!"
"I thought your last name was Kendall!" Blair said, looking back and forth anxiously between Buffy and his girlfriend.
"Um, wussy TV guy?" Dawn asked as a giggle escaped. "Remember how you found out that vampires exist earlier?" *And screamed like a girl?* "Let's just say Spike's not the first vampire you met."
The look on Blair's and Abe's faces as they realized what Dawn meant made the teen desperately wish she was holding Abe's camera.
"H-h-honey?" Blair asked, slowly backing away from Harmony.
"Don't worry," Buffy said as she grabbed Harmony by the arm. "Pretty soon you won't have to worry about it."
The Slayer pulled the vampire across the room until she stood next to Spike. "Stay there!" Buffy commanded. She nodded at Tara, who picked the tranquilizer gun up and aimed it at Harmony.
Buffy crossed the room to a wooden chest and began digging around inside it. She came up with a pair of hand cuffs and another chair. She when back to Harmony and quickly snapped the cuffs on her before running the chain up the wall and affixing its other end to the chain holding Spike's left wrist in place.
"Wait!" Blair had finally regained the use of his voice. "What are you going to do to her?"
"Demon transplant," Buffy said nonchalantly, as if that explained the situation perfectly.
"What?" Harmony cried. "But I like my demon! You can't have her!"
"Oh, we're not taking yours out," Anya explained helpfully. "We're going to take the Master's out of Spike and put it in you so we can kill you both without hurting Spike."
"WHAT?" Blair's shout echoed off the walls. "No! You can't kill her! She's my girlfriend! I love her!"
"She's an evil, soulless bloodsucker," Buffy explained. "Granted you probably won't find her on People's 'Top Ten Most Likely to Destroy the World' list, but she will turn on you." *How can someone be so stupid as to get involved with a vampire anywa . . . Okay, overlook the irony much, Buff?*
"Hey! I could destroy the world if I wanted to!" Harmony protested indignantly, then calmed as she remembered how well her earlier threat had worked on the slayer. "But you're forgetting, Buffy. You can't kill me, remember?"
*Right, that damn tape.* Buffy quickly weighed her options and then sighed. "Okay." She unchained and uncuffed the female vampire.
"I still want to help." Harmony said. "You need someone of my bloodline, right? I'll just go turn someone for you to use."
tbc
+++++
A/N: Again, thanks for the reviews! I get all giddy and lightheaded when I read them. And I feel encouraged to write. More soon!
Chapter 20
"Oh" Harmony paused. Then remembering that she didn't care what happened to Spike because of the way their relationship had ended, she exclaimed, "Right! Like I'm really all broke up that he's going to die. He always made all these promises that he never kept. He said he'd take me to Paris and all over Europe. He said we'd be rich and that I was his princess. But I was never good enough. I wasn't his precious, crazy sire and I wasn't you!"
She spun away from the slayer and stormed to the crypt door. When she reached it, she turned around and the sisters could see that she was close to tears.
"You think I didn't know?" she continued. "He was in love with you for, like, ever. Probably even before Drusilla left him. You think I didn't know that he was using me because he could pretend I was you? I knew. But I loved him. He was my Blondie Bear. I just wanted him to be happy. I . . ."
Harmony's voice had slowly lost momentum. As her words trailed off, she glared once more at Buffy and walked out, slamming the door behind her.
***
"Excuse me, did you say that Buffy died?"
Willow, Tara, and Xander froze like a heard of the proverbial deer caught in the headlights of an on-coming car at Father Mike's question, desperately looking at one another for a clue as to how to answer the question. Anya, of course, didn't even blink before she answered factually.
"Yes, she's died twice now. The first time was only for a minute or two. She drowned and Xander brought her back with CPR. The second time, she . . ." the ex-demon paused as Xander increased the pressure with which he was holding her hand in a silent signal to stop talking. ". . . died. But she's better now, and it's not really that interesting."
Father Mike remembered Buffy's earlier comment, *joke?* about waking up in a coffin and hesitantly asked, "She's not a, um, vampire?"
Buffy and Dawn had descended the ladder during Anya's aborted explanation. Buffy sighed, and said, "Nope. Living, breathing, heart- beating human being. It's a long story."
Willow noticed Dawn still standing next to the ladder, her large, tear filled eyes locked on Spike's unconscious body and decided to speak up.
"We decided that there has to be another way. We can't just give up."
Tara was the only one who noticed that Buffy's shoulders dropped slightly in relief at Willow's pronouncement, betraying the rigid I'm-the- strong-one-damnit stance she had been holding.
Dawn looked hopefully to the redhead. "Really?"
"Tell us again what happened before we got there, Dawn," Willow said.
Dawn recounted the events of the evening as best she could remember while the others listened intently.
"Wait," Tara said. She paused, gathering her thoughts. "We think the Master went into Spike because it couldn't survive in Doc, right?"
When the others nodded affirmatively, she continued. "So we know that he can travel between hosts. But, we also don't think he can move to a live host. What about another vampire?"
"Oh!" Willow exclaimed. "That might work. I mean, if we got another vamp and did the exorcism again, the Master might give up and go to the new host."
"Your best bet would probably be another vampire from the Master's line," Anya said. "The younger the better."
Buffy nodded, thinking. "We know he hasn't turned anyone since he got chipped. I wonder if there's anyone left from his Gem of Amara fixation. He probably still had minions then."
"Yeah!" Willow snorted. "And Harmony!" Her voice rose as she imitated the ditzy blonde. "My boyfriend's going to kill you."
"Damn it!" Buffy exclaimed. "Harmony was just upstairs."
"But we don't know that he turned Harmony," Xander pointed out. "I mean, that's kind of low, even for the guy that spent a hundred years having tea parties with Drusilla's dolls."
"Hey!" a muffled voice that sounded suspiciously like Harmony's exclaimed indignantly.
The group went silent and seven heads turned to look into the darkness of one of the tunnels leading from the crypt to the sewer system.
Buffy silently skirted the cavern and paused against the wall next to the opening. She quickly reached inside and pulled a very startled Abe and his camera into the light.
"Oh, for the love of . . ." the slayer rolled her eyes as she figured out exactly who had set the reporters onto her. "Harmony, get your undead ass out here before I hurt your boyfriend!"
"That's not my boyfriend." She walked into the soft candlelight with Blair following her. "This is my boyfriend, my sweet boo-boo."
"Whatever." Buffy responded, not caring who Harmony was dating. "Who's your sire, Harmony?"
"Why?" The vampire asked the question suspiciously, but made no move to run.
"It's for the census. Was it Spike?" Buffy guessed that she hadn't overheard enough of the conversation to feel the need to lie.
"The census keeps track of vampires? Huh. I don't remember his name. You killed him a couple of days after I was turned."
"Did he tell you anything? Like who his sire was, or what your family bloodline was?
Harmony wrinkled her brow, and thought hard. She belonged to one of the good clans, she knew. At least her sire had said it was one of the good ones. What was it? Something about a Disney movie . . .
"Oh!" She brightened as she remembered the information. "The clan of the Little Mermaid!"
Buffy and the Scoobies stared at her as if she had grown a second head.
"What? Is my hair okay?" Harmony began to frantically pat down her hair.
"It's fine, honey," Blair assured her.
Buffy took a deep breath and slowly asked, "The clan of the Little Mermaid? Are you sure?"
"What?" Harmony forgot about her hair, sensing that the slayer was unhappy with her answer. While it was fair to say that Harmony would never have the sharpest fangs in the graveyard, she still knew that an unhappy slayer rapidly lead to one less vampire. "Um, yes? No! Not the Little Mermaid as in 'The Little Mermaid,' but her name. Ariel."
A collective groan arose from the Scoobies as Willow asked, "Aurelius?"
"That's it! I knew it had something to do with the Little Mermaid!"
"I thought your last name was Kendall!" Blair said, looking back and forth anxiously between Buffy and his girlfriend.
"Um, wussy TV guy?" Dawn asked as a giggle escaped. "Remember how you found out that vampires exist earlier?" *And screamed like a girl?* "Let's just say Spike's not the first vampire you met."
The look on Blair's and Abe's faces as they realized what Dawn meant made the teen desperately wish she was holding Abe's camera.
"H-h-honey?" Blair asked, slowly backing away from Harmony.
"Don't worry," Buffy said as she grabbed Harmony by the arm. "Pretty soon you won't have to worry about it."
The Slayer pulled the vampire across the room until she stood next to Spike. "Stay there!" Buffy commanded. She nodded at Tara, who picked the tranquilizer gun up and aimed it at Harmony.
Buffy crossed the room to a wooden chest and began digging around inside it. She came up with a pair of hand cuffs and another chair. She when back to Harmony and quickly snapped the cuffs on her before running the chain up the wall and affixing its other end to the chain holding Spike's left wrist in place.
"Wait!" Blair had finally regained the use of his voice. "What are you going to do to her?"
"Demon transplant," Buffy said nonchalantly, as if that explained the situation perfectly.
"What?" Harmony cried. "But I like my demon! You can't have her!"
"Oh, we're not taking yours out," Anya explained helpfully. "We're going to take the Master's out of Spike and put it in you so we can kill you both without hurting Spike."
"WHAT?" Blair's shout echoed off the walls. "No! You can't kill her! She's my girlfriend! I love her!"
"She's an evil, soulless bloodsucker," Buffy explained. "Granted you probably won't find her on People's 'Top Ten Most Likely to Destroy the World' list, but she will turn on you." *How can someone be so stupid as to get involved with a vampire anywa . . . Okay, overlook the irony much, Buff?*
"Hey! I could destroy the world if I wanted to!" Harmony protested indignantly, then calmed as she remembered how well her earlier threat had worked on the slayer. "But you're forgetting, Buffy. You can't kill me, remember?"
*Right, that damn tape.* Buffy quickly weighed her options and then sighed. "Okay." She unchained and uncuffed the female vampire.
"I still want to help." Harmony said. "You need someone of my bloodline, right? I'll just go turn someone for you to use."
tbc
+++++
A/N: Again, thanks for the reviews! I get all giddy and lightheaded when I read them. And I feel encouraged to write. More soon!