Disclaimer: I own nothing in the BTVS universe, just the story I'm writing,
Joss Whedon owns everything Buffy.
Rating: PG-13, Language, violence, and a little sexual innuendo.
Pairings: W/T, X/Anya, others later maybe
Time: about midseason of season 5
Summary: A new player arrives in Sunnydale with his own agenda concerning Dawn and Glory. Who is he and how will it affect the gangs future?
It had been almost two weeks since Kenzig had come to the Scoobies and asked for their help in stopping Glory. In the two weeks since, very little had happened. The local Vamps were keeping their heads down, not wanting to get caught in any of the crossfire, Buffy hadn't seen so little activity since she had become the slayer.
Giles had so far come up with nothing about how to defeat Glory in any of his texts. He was growing ever more frustrated and frightened for his slayer. If he couldn't find some sort of answer soon, they might all perish, along with the rest of the world.
Tara and Willow had worked up a few spells they hoped might slow Glory down a bit, but they were unsure of them. How do you fight an honest to goodness God, anyway? Still, they had to try, so they continued to refine and research their spells.
Xander and Anya had assisted in the dull business of research. Anya felt that there was something she was forgetting, something important but she couldn't quite pin it down. This feeling made her ever more quiet and distracted. Xander on the other hand, tended to babble as he became frustrated with the lack of progress on the research front.
Dawn did her best to help with research, but she was so frightened that her contributions were nonexistent. She knew that she was the Key, and that Glory wanted her to open the way between dimensions, if that happened, then Dawn would cease to be, something she didn't want, even if her whole life had been a lie, she didn't want to give it up.
Spike had remained on the fringe, showing up to annoy during patrols and such. He hadn't yet run across Kenzig and he didn't for one second believe that the Boogey-man of Demondom was in town, much less real. Even Anya's warnings went unheeded. Spike simply couldn't conceive an entity that he should fear. He didn't fear Glory either, so perhaps Spike was simply not too smart.
Kenzig had taken to dropping by the Magic Box every few days to check up on the gang, they didn't see him otherwise, nor did they have any idea where he was staying. Xander had tried to follow him once, but he had turned a corner and simply vanished. He apparently didn't want any kind of social interaction with anyone. He asked about new developments in the search for the key, and also what moves Glory had made lately.
The gang had agreed not to tell anyone about dawn being the Key, so they didn't tell him, they had no new information about Glory, so he rarely spent more than five minutes in the shop when he did show up. His lack of interest in anything but Glory and the key was disturbing to the group, they spent a lot of time puzzling over his motivations and possible reasons not to get close to them.
"I don't get it." Xander was saying, "Are we just not cool enough for him to hang with, or is it something else? Maybe my deodorant isn't living up to its promise to keep me fresh smelling?"
"I doubt that it is anything so mundane as that." Giles said.
"He seems a bit obsessive. Maybe he spends all his time planning how he's going to take out his brother." Willow observed.
"Maybe he's planning new ways to hunt down and kill Demons. After all, old habits die hard. He didn't have any bunnies with him last time he was here, did he?" Anya began to panic a bit.
"Relax Ahn. He didn't have any bunnies. And he said he wasn't after you, remember?"
"But what if he changes his mind?"
"I doubt he will, Anya. I suspect that perhaps living as long as he has, he has learned not to associate to closely with others, after all, we are rather short-lived compared to him." Giles said.
"That must be so sad. Living so long but not wanting to get to know people because you know they will eventually grow old and die while you don't." Tara said quietly.
"I guess that would get to be depressing after a while." Buffy remarked as she came in from the back room. "Did the old guy have anything new to tell us?"
"Unfortunately no, Buffy." Giles replied. Buffy had been in the back room working out when Kenzig had come in so she had missed him. She was still wearing her sweats and had a towel draped over her shoulders. "He asked about the Key and Glory and then went on his way."
"Huh, he seems almost as interested in the Key as he does in Glory or his brother." Buffy observed.
"Yes, well, if he located the Key, he would be assured that his brother would seek him out to obtain it." Giles reasoned.
"Not gonna happen. Dawn stays our little secret." Buffy said flatly.
Across town in the motel
Faith sat up and hit the rewind on the VCR that was connected to the monitor she had been watching, "Hey Old Man! I think we got something here!" She called out.
Harry stepped out of the bathroom, his hair was still wet and he was dressed only in a towel around his waist. Faith took a few seconds to stare at the incredible number of scars on his body. There were literally scars on top of scars. Harry didn't notice her moment of distraction, "What have you got?" He asked.
"Uhm. Something B just said. I think you need to hear it and tell me what you think." Faith hit the play button and leaned back so she could see his back. It was covered in scars as well. It appeared that almost his entire torso was covered in scars. She found herself intensely curious about them for some reason.
Harry listened to the exchange between Buffy and Giles and then sat on the bed thinking for a few minutes. During the first week, he had installed miniature camera all over town. In the Magic box, Buffy's house, Her dorm, the Bronze, all of the cemeteries, Giles's house, and even Xander's apartment. In short, every place he might observe the gang. Faith had particularly enjoyed the show from Xander's apartment.
"Dawn is the Key." Harry muttered to himself, "Very clever."
"How so?" Faith asked.
"Put the Key in human form, place her as the Slayer's sister, gives her a ready-made guardian. Those monks were pretty bright about this one."
"So Dawn isn't real?"
"Oh, she's real alright. Just everything prior to her creation is implanted false memories." Harry said thoughtfully.
"Damn! I remember meeting her, and hanging out with her a little, that never happened?" Faith asked quietly.
"No, I'm afraid not. But she will remember you as you remember her, so, in a way, it is real."
"Wow! Way to confusing here." Faith decided to change topics, "So what's with all the scars?"
"a legacy, if you will." Harry said as he looked down at them. "I can't be killed, but that doesn't mean I can't be hurt."
"You mean you take damage from time to time, huh?"
"Yes, but only killing blows leave the scars."
"You mean each one of these would have killed you if you weren't."
"Yes."
"Wow!" Faith was impressed. There were a lot of scars on his body. She reached over and traced her fingers over on over his heart. "What did this?"
"A Roman spear around 100B. C." He replied. He shuddered a bit as her fingers continued to trace other scars. "I think you should stop now."
"Why? Don't you like it?"
"On the contrary, I like it very much. It has been a long time since.well, I don't generally allow myself to get close enough to anyone to get intimate with them." Harry replied as he took her hands and removed them from his chest.
"C'mon, it's only sex, nothing to get all deep and personal about." Faith said with a sexy grin, "As long as you been around, I bet you know some wicked tricks." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed up against him. She could feel him pressing back as he slipped his arms around her waist. He looked into her eyes and she hesitated.
"Oh but you are so wrong about that. Sex is the most deep and personal thing two people can ever share." He told her, "But after so many years, I get tired of people I care for leaving me. I don't enter into any kind of relationship lightly."
"I'm a big girl, I don't need protecting."
"No, you don't. But I do. I don't want to start getting attached to you and then have to watch you die."
"We all die, even Gods die, if you kill your brother then you can die too, right?"
"If I understand the curse correctly, yes, once I kill him, I will live out the rest of my life as a normal man."
"So what's the big deal then?"
"If he escapes me again, I'm back where I started."
"Not gonna happen, Old Man. I've watched you working for the last few weeks. He's not gonna get away from you this time, you're too good. You're gonna get him and then this'll all be over. Then what are you gonna do?" She had begun to run her hands over his back, marveling in the odd texture of his scarred skin.
"I.I haven't really thought about what happens then." He admitted, "I have been a bit too busy focussing on killing Denali to think about that."
"I thought so. Once he's dead, you won't have any kind of life, 'cause you won't have any reason to keep going, right?"
"Uhm, I don't know."
"I'm offering you a reason. You gave me a second chance and you believed in me. The least I can do is be there for you when this is over."
"Why?"
"I guess maybe I managed to learn something. If someone helps you out, you help them out. I haven't been very good at that before. If I'm gonna be one of the good guys, I need to be better at that."
"Oh, so I am a test case then?"
"If you wanna see it that way, then yeah. Besides, you've got a nice bod and the scars are kind of a turn on."
"You're impossible, Faith."
"You know it. Now how about you spill about your life? I want all the details, if I'm gonna be your little helper, I need to know these things, Old Man."
"Faith?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't call me that." But he was smiling when he said it.
Glory's apartment
Glory was in one of her bad moods. She was trying to find just the right scarf to go with her dress and those toadying Demons were no help at all, no matter what she tried they assured her that it was magnificent. Useless dolts, all of them. To top it off, she was still no closer to finding her Key. And that Slayer was hiding it from her, she just knew it.
She paused and thought for a minute, perhaps she should just go and beat it out of the little Bitch herself. Her minions were useless in that area as well, each time she sent them out, they came back, beaten and bloody. Yes, that sounded like a fine idea, beat it out of the Slayer, get her Key, open a portal and go home!
She was just starting to hum a happy little tune, satisfied that her day was looking up, when the front door opened and a short man entered her apartment, "Who the Hell are you?" She asked irritably.
"Forgive my intrusion, Glorificus. But I needed to speak with you. My name is Denali."
"And why would I wish to speak to a lowly mortal like you?"
"You are looking for something, and I wish to offer my services in locating it."
"And what makes you think I need your so called 'services'?"
"For starters, you haven't found your Key yet. Second, I have infiltrated the Slayers team."
"Hmm. Alright, I'll listen, what do you want?"
"I want you to take me with you when you go home."
"That's all?!!" Glory tried hard not to laugh, a human wouldn't last five minutes in her dimension, but this idiot apparently didn't know that. Still, if he had infiltrated the Slayers team, he could be useful.
"Yes, I wish to return with you so that I may live my life without worry of a person killing me. In return, I will turn the Key over to you when I find it."
"Very well, but if you fail to deliver, your death will be very messy and painful." Glory smiled at him, no person would kill him in her dimension, but there were plenty of Demons who would. Mortals were so stupid. She wondered how they managed to survive most of the time. She dismissed him with a wave and went back to her closet.
Okay, that's it for now, let me know what you think.
Rating: PG-13, Language, violence, and a little sexual innuendo.
Pairings: W/T, X/Anya, others later maybe
Time: about midseason of season 5
Summary: A new player arrives in Sunnydale with his own agenda concerning Dawn and Glory. Who is he and how will it affect the gangs future?
It had been almost two weeks since Kenzig had come to the Scoobies and asked for their help in stopping Glory. In the two weeks since, very little had happened. The local Vamps were keeping their heads down, not wanting to get caught in any of the crossfire, Buffy hadn't seen so little activity since she had become the slayer.
Giles had so far come up with nothing about how to defeat Glory in any of his texts. He was growing ever more frustrated and frightened for his slayer. If he couldn't find some sort of answer soon, they might all perish, along with the rest of the world.
Tara and Willow had worked up a few spells they hoped might slow Glory down a bit, but they were unsure of them. How do you fight an honest to goodness God, anyway? Still, they had to try, so they continued to refine and research their spells.
Xander and Anya had assisted in the dull business of research. Anya felt that there was something she was forgetting, something important but she couldn't quite pin it down. This feeling made her ever more quiet and distracted. Xander on the other hand, tended to babble as he became frustrated with the lack of progress on the research front.
Dawn did her best to help with research, but she was so frightened that her contributions were nonexistent. She knew that she was the Key, and that Glory wanted her to open the way between dimensions, if that happened, then Dawn would cease to be, something she didn't want, even if her whole life had been a lie, she didn't want to give it up.
Spike had remained on the fringe, showing up to annoy during patrols and such. He hadn't yet run across Kenzig and he didn't for one second believe that the Boogey-man of Demondom was in town, much less real. Even Anya's warnings went unheeded. Spike simply couldn't conceive an entity that he should fear. He didn't fear Glory either, so perhaps Spike was simply not too smart.
Kenzig had taken to dropping by the Magic Box every few days to check up on the gang, they didn't see him otherwise, nor did they have any idea where he was staying. Xander had tried to follow him once, but he had turned a corner and simply vanished. He apparently didn't want any kind of social interaction with anyone. He asked about new developments in the search for the key, and also what moves Glory had made lately.
The gang had agreed not to tell anyone about dawn being the Key, so they didn't tell him, they had no new information about Glory, so he rarely spent more than five minutes in the shop when he did show up. His lack of interest in anything but Glory and the key was disturbing to the group, they spent a lot of time puzzling over his motivations and possible reasons not to get close to them.
"I don't get it." Xander was saying, "Are we just not cool enough for him to hang with, or is it something else? Maybe my deodorant isn't living up to its promise to keep me fresh smelling?"
"I doubt that it is anything so mundane as that." Giles said.
"He seems a bit obsessive. Maybe he spends all his time planning how he's going to take out his brother." Willow observed.
"Maybe he's planning new ways to hunt down and kill Demons. After all, old habits die hard. He didn't have any bunnies with him last time he was here, did he?" Anya began to panic a bit.
"Relax Ahn. He didn't have any bunnies. And he said he wasn't after you, remember?"
"But what if he changes his mind?"
"I doubt he will, Anya. I suspect that perhaps living as long as he has, he has learned not to associate to closely with others, after all, we are rather short-lived compared to him." Giles said.
"That must be so sad. Living so long but not wanting to get to know people because you know they will eventually grow old and die while you don't." Tara said quietly.
"I guess that would get to be depressing after a while." Buffy remarked as she came in from the back room. "Did the old guy have anything new to tell us?"
"Unfortunately no, Buffy." Giles replied. Buffy had been in the back room working out when Kenzig had come in so she had missed him. She was still wearing her sweats and had a towel draped over her shoulders. "He asked about the Key and Glory and then went on his way."
"Huh, he seems almost as interested in the Key as he does in Glory or his brother." Buffy observed.
"Yes, well, if he located the Key, he would be assured that his brother would seek him out to obtain it." Giles reasoned.
"Not gonna happen. Dawn stays our little secret." Buffy said flatly.
Across town in the motel
Faith sat up and hit the rewind on the VCR that was connected to the monitor she had been watching, "Hey Old Man! I think we got something here!" She called out.
Harry stepped out of the bathroom, his hair was still wet and he was dressed only in a towel around his waist. Faith took a few seconds to stare at the incredible number of scars on his body. There were literally scars on top of scars. Harry didn't notice her moment of distraction, "What have you got?" He asked.
"Uhm. Something B just said. I think you need to hear it and tell me what you think." Faith hit the play button and leaned back so she could see his back. It was covered in scars as well. It appeared that almost his entire torso was covered in scars. She found herself intensely curious about them for some reason.
Harry listened to the exchange between Buffy and Giles and then sat on the bed thinking for a few minutes. During the first week, he had installed miniature camera all over town. In the Magic box, Buffy's house, Her dorm, the Bronze, all of the cemeteries, Giles's house, and even Xander's apartment. In short, every place he might observe the gang. Faith had particularly enjoyed the show from Xander's apartment.
"Dawn is the Key." Harry muttered to himself, "Very clever."
"How so?" Faith asked.
"Put the Key in human form, place her as the Slayer's sister, gives her a ready-made guardian. Those monks were pretty bright about this one."
"So Dawn isn't real?"
"Oh, she's real alright. Just everything prior to her creation is implanted false memories." Harry said thoughtfully.
"Damn! I remember meeting her, and hanging out with her a little, that never happened?" Faith asked quietly.
"No, I'm afraid not. But she will remember you as you remember her, so, in a way, it is real."
"Wow! Way to confusing here." Faith decided to change topics, "So what's with all the scars?"
"a legacy, if you will." Harry said as he looked down at them. "I can't be killed, but that doesn't mean I can't be hurt."
"You mean you take damage from time to time, huh?"
"Yes, but only killing blows leave the scars."
"You mean each one of these would have killed you if you weren't."
"Yes."
"Wow!" Faith was impressed. There were a lot of scars on his body. She reached over and traced her fingers over on over his heart. "What did this?"
"A Roman spear around 100B. C." He replied. He shuddered a bit as her fingers continued to trace other scars. "I think you should stop now."
"Why? Don't you like it?"
"On the contrary, I like it very much. It has been a long time since.well, I don't generally allow myself to get close enough to anyone to get intimate with them." Harry replied as he took her hands and removed them from his chest.
"C'mon, it's only sex, nothing to get all deep and personal about." Faith said with a sexy grin, "As long as you been around, I bet you know some wicked tricks." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed up against him. She could feel him pressing back as he slipped his arms around her waist. He looked into her eyes and she hesitated.
"Oh but you are so wrong about that. Sex is the most deep and personal thing two people can ever share." He told her, "But after so many years, I get tired of people I care for leaving me. I don't enter into any kind of relationship lightly."
"I'm a big girl, I don't need protecting."
"No, you don't. But I do. I don't want to start getting attached to you and then have to watch you die."
"We all die, even Gods die, if you kill your brother then you can die too, right?"
"If I understand the curse correctly, yes, once I kill him, I will live out the rest of my life as a normal man."
"So what's the big deal then?"
"If he escapes me again, I'm back where I started."
"Not gonna happen, Old Man. I've watched you working for the last few weeks. He's not gonna get away from you this time, you're too good. You're gonna get him and then this'll all be over. Then what are you gonna do?" She had begun to run her hands over his back, marveling in the odd texture of his scarred skin.
"I.I haven't really thought about what happens then." He admitted, "I have been a bit too busy focussing on killing Denali to think about that."
"I thought so. Once he's dead, you won't have any kind of life, 'cause you won't have any reason to keep going, right?"
"Uhm, I don't know."
"I'm offering you a reason. You gave me a second chance and you believed in me. The least I can do is be there for you when this is over."
"Why?"
"I guess maybe I managed to learn something. If someone helps you out, you help them out. I haven't been very good at that before. If I'm gonna be one of the good guys, I need to be better at that."
"Oh, so I am a test case then?"
"If you wanna see it that way, then yeah. Besides, you've got a nice bod and the scars are kind of a turn on."
"You're impossible, Faith."
"You know it. Now how about you spill about your life? I want all the details, if I'm gonna be your little helper, I need to know these things, Old Man."
"Faith?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't call me that." But he was smiling when he said it.
Glory's apartment
Glory was in one of her bad moods. She was trying to find just the right scarf to go with her dress and those toadying Demons were no help at all, no matter what she tried they assured her that it was magnificent. Useless dolts, all of them. To top it off, she was still no closer to finding her Key. And that Slayer was hiding it from her, she just knew it.
She paused and thought for a minute, perhaps she should just go and beat it out of the little Bitch herself. Her minions were useless in that area as well, each time she sent them out, they came back, beaten and bloody. Yes, that sounded like a fine idea, beat it out of the Slayer, get her Key, open a portal and go home!
She was just starting to hum a happy little tune, satisfied that her day was looking up, when the front door opened and a short man entered her apartment, "Who the Hell are you?" She asked irritably.
"Forgive my intrusion, Glorificus. But I needed to speak with you. My name is Denali."
"And why would I wish to speak to a lowly mortal like you?"
"You are looking for something, and I wish to offer my services in locating it."
"And what makes you think I need your so called 'services'?"
"For starters, you haven't found your Key yet. Second, I have infiltrated the Slayers team."
"Hmm. Alright, I'll listen, what do you want?"
"I want you to take me with you when you go home."
"That's all?!!" Glory tried hard not to laugh, a human wouldn't last five minutes in her dimension, but this idiot apparently didn't know that. Still, if he had infiltrated the Slayers team, he could be useful.
"Yes, I wish to return with you so that I may live my life without worry of a person killing me. In return, I will turn the Key over to you when I find it."
"Very well, but if you fail to deliver, your death will be very messy and painful." Glory smiled at him, no person would kill him in her dimension, but there were plenty of Demons who would. Mortals were so stupid. She wondered how they managed to survive most of the time. She dismissed him with a wave and went back to her closet.
Okay, that's it for now, let me know what you think.