Title: The Evil Undead (Three/Seven)
Author: Randall Stone
Disclaimer: All characters are belong to someone else.
Summary: Xander finds out more about his Uncle Rory's past than
he ever wanted to know.
Notes:
Spoilers: S1-3
Clearly the Uncle Rory we saw in Hell's Bells was some kind of
cheap imposter. What would a story be like with the _real_ Uncle
Rory interacting with the Scoobs?
This story takes place in season 3 some short time after the
events of The Zeppo.
Category: B/X
Rating: PG-ish- nothing worse than what's on the show.
Feedback: Yes please.
*****
A hush fell over the library as soon as Angelus and Dawn left the
library. Buffy sat, shell shocked, staring at the library door.
Willow and Oz shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to say.
Xander took this situation in and walked over to speak softly to
Giles.
"Maybe you better give Wesley a call. It looks like we could use
some backup on this."
Giles nodded at Xander and retreated into his office to make the
call. He returned a moment later.
"I'm afraid that the phone lines are down."
Giles's announcement roused Buffy from her reverie.
"What are we going to do Giles? What happened to Dawn? And can
we get Angel back?"
"I have kept a copy of the curse and an Orb of Thessula in my office
for the last few months as insurance against just such an occasion
as this. However, I don't know how we can free Dawn. I've told you
all that I know about deadites, and it isn't much. Unless..."
Giles paused. "Xander, what did your uncle say is his real name?"
"Umm... Ash?"
"That's what I thought."
Giles walked over to a rarely visited portion of the library and
removed a book labeled 'Fantastick Tailes' from the shelf.
"Most reasonable authorities consider this a work of pure fiction.
However..."
Giles flipped through the book until he found the page he was
looking for, and held it out for Xander to read aloud.
"And the demon sayeth unto him: 'You've spoiled my plans for
conquest, and now you're going to die.'
"And the Lord Ashe spake thusly: 'Buckle up bonehead, 'cause you're
going for a ride!'"
Xander looked up from his reading. "That does sound like Uncle
Rory."
"Yes. And if this information is accurate, the other information in
the book regarding the Necronomicon may be accurate as well."
Giles explained as he eagerly began reading through the book.
"Ah, this might explain what managed to possess Dawn. It says... oh
dear."
"What do you mean, 'oh dear'? What happened to my sister, Giles?"
Buffy was getting agitated.
"It appears that Dawn has been taken over by one of the
Throquamatuurz, or Soul Devourers. It appears that as in the case
of vampiric possession, the only way to destroy the evil spirit is
to destroy the mortal shell."
"You're telling me there's no way to save Dawn?" Buffy's voice
cracked.
"I'm afraid not, Buffy. Dawn as we knew her is already dead. It's
as if she had been turned into a vampire. The spirit will have
assimilated her memories and will be able to mimic her personality,
but Dawn is gone.
"And that isn't the worst news. It appears that the demon which has
possessed your sister belongs to a larger class of servant demons.
Now that it is free, it will bend its mind to one task: summoning
forth the Buurzgoth- the Shadow King and Queen."
"That would be bad?"
"Quite apocalyptic, actually."
"Well then, damn it, we're not going down without a fight." Buffy's
voice strengthened with resolve. "I'm not going to let some demon
use my sister's body to take over the world."
---
Joyce struggled against the deadite in front of her. Four of them
had attacked her and Ash as they made their way down the hallway.
Ash had managed to engage three of them, but the fourth had made it
past him to attack Joyce.
She probably would have been dead by now, but the creature seemed
more intent on tearing off her clothes than killing her. It had
already managed to tear off the bottom half of her skirt, and it was
only Joyce's grip on its throat that kept its face away from her.
As it was, Joyce could smell the fetid breath of the walking corpse
as it forced its way closer to her with inhuman strength.
Suddenly the pressure on Joyce's arms was diminished as a chainsaw
appeared in the middle of the creature's torso. Ash quickly ripped
the chainsaw up through the deadite, splitting its upper body in
half and spraying blood everywhere. The deadite fell to the ground,
and Ash bent over and sliced it into harmless pieces before checking
on Joyce.
"You ok?"
"Yeah." Joyce looked down. "Which is more than I can say for this
shirt. This was one of my favorite shirts, too."
Ash sighed. "Here."
He reached around and pulled a machete out from the holster at the
small of his back. After pausing to admire the giant blade, he
handed it over to Joyce.
"Your targets are the throat, the eyes, and the groin. You're not
going to be able to kill these things, but at least you can hold
them off-"
"Until a big, strong man can come to save me? Great." Joyce
snapped, then turned to walk up the hallway. "Let's go find my
daughter."
---
Buffy looked around her with some satisfaction. The gang was geared
up and ready to go hunting for deadites. She and Giles were
carrying swords, while Oz was carrying a crossbow. Xander was
armed with the slightly less conventional chainsaw, but he seemed
comfortable with it. Willow was toting the components for the soul
restoration spell.
Buffy was about to lead the group out of the library when a thought
occurred to her.
"Hey Giles, are these things vulnerable to fire the way vampires
are?"
"I believe so, yes."
"Willow." Buffy turned to face the witch. "Do you have any
spells..."
"Better than that." Willow's face lit up. "I can't believe I
forgot them."
Willow set her gear down and ran over to an anonymous looking cubby.
She unlocked it with one of the keys on her key chain and withdrew
an anonymous looking box, which she carried over to the library
table. The rest of the gang gathered around as she opened the lid
of the box, revealing an odd looking arsenal.
The box was filled with water balloons, each of which had a small
piece of cardboard attached to the nose and cardboard fins fastened
to its tail.
"I came up with these over the summer." Willow said proudly. "The
balloons are filled with jellied gasoline-"
"Napalm?" Xander asked, shocked.
"Yeah." Willow explained. "If you used liquid gasoline most of it
would spatter around at random instead of sticking to your target.
Now-"
"No, I mean, where did you get ahold of napalm?"
"Oh, like it's *so* hard to make. I did take Honors Chemistry, you
know." Willow looked at him, then back down at her inventions.
"Now, as I was saying, the balloon is filled with jellied gasoline.
The fins are to help it fly true, and keep the front oriented right.
This little cardboard pad covers up a contact fuse consisting of a
watch battery and some black powder that I mixed up. You hit the
vampire, and boom. Flambe."
"Impressive." Oz commented while making a mental note to never,
ever get Willow angry at him.
"Yes, and we'll have to have a discussion about storing explosives
in my library some other time." Giles said. "Right now, we have
to find Dawn before she can summon the Shadow Lords."
Oz abandoned his crossbow in favor of carrying the box of firebombs,
and the group finally made their way out the door. Buffy and Xander
took the lead, with Oz and Willow following close behind them.
Giles brought up the rear.
They had not traveled far from the library when they heard the now
familiar cry.
"We're going to eat your souls!"
Buffy brought her sword up to a ready position as she sized up the
group of deadites ahead of them. Beside her, Xander revved his
chainsaw.
"Come get some."
---
When Ash saw the figure running toward them, his first thought was
that it was another deadite. Then he realized that the figure had
the look of somebody running away from something, rather than
running at somebody.
As the boy got closer, Ash could see that the scrawny youth wouldn't
present much of a threat to anybody even if he were possessed by
some kind of evil spirit. The creature giving chase to him looked
considerably more dangerous. Judging from the letterman's jacket
that it was wearing, the creature had once been part of Sunnydale
High's football team. Now, however, he was just another deadite.
"We're going to- aargh."
Ash interrupted the deadite's war cry through the simple expedient
of jamming the chainsaw blade into its mouth. The creature's head
exploded satisfyingly in all directions, and Ash made quick work of
the rest of the body. Joyce even got in a few good shots with her
machete. When they finished, they turned their attention to the
boy.
"Thanks... Miss Summers?"
Joyce didn't look like the soccer mom that Andrew remembered. Her
clothing was tattered in many places, and covered in gore where it
was left intact. Also, the bloody machete in her hand definitely
gave her a different look. She also had a distinctly predatory
gleam in her eye that was a little unnerving.
"Do I know you?"
"I'm Andrew." He paused. "Tucker's cousin?"
"Oh," Joyce thought back. "I think I remember him. What are you
doing here?"
"I was in detention, when everybody started... changing. I could
hear voices. They said I was too week to be good for anything-
just that I would be fun to chase."
Andrew hung his head. This time it was Ash who spoke.
"Um... kid, how many people were in detention with you?"
Andrew thought back. "About ten or fifteen, I think. Only six of
them were chasing me, though. And I lost most of them."
Ash squinted down the hallway. "Think again, kid."
The five figures pelting down the hall stopped in their tracks as
Ash let out a primal roar.
As he finished with the wordless scream, Ash drew his shotgun from
behind his back and advanced on the deadites.
"OK, I've had it up to here with you sons of bitches." Ash took
aim. "Why. are. you. ruining. my. life?"
He punctuated each word with a blast from the shotgun. Soon only
two deadites were left standing, as the others groaned from the
floor and tried to get themselves together.
"Who wants some? Come on, who wants some? You?" Ash took a swipe
at the deadite on his left, cutting off its right arm. "You like
that? I think he wants some more, don't you?"
He addressed this comment to the deadite on his right as he lopped
his companion's left hand off at the wrist.
"I'm sorry, you're feeling left out, aren't you?" The intact
deadite flinched back at Ash's words, then attempted to launch a
surprise attack. Ash sidestepped the creature's charge, dragging
the chainsaw across its torso as he did so. The deadite's legs
continued to charge for a few steps while its torso fell to the
floor next to Ash.
Ash kicked the other deadite back while he reloaded the shotgun.
Once that was done, he blasted the standing deadite to the floor
and turned his attention to dismembering its fallen comrades.
Once that was done, Ash returned to his companions. Andrew was
standing slightly behind Joyce as if for protection. They both
looked slightly disturbed by his actions.
"You know, I actually feel much better now."
---
Buffy was losing count of the number of deadites that they had
destroyed. Xander was wading through the walking dead with a
frightening efficiency that almost matched her own, while Oz was
proving a dead shot with the fire balloons. Giles was following
them and making sure that any downed demons were completely
dismembered.
The amount of deadites that they encountered had been steadily
increasing, which Buffy took to mean that they were approaching
Dawn's location. Suddenly they passed through a doorway and found
themselves in a large open room- the cafeteria.
The room was filled with deadites. Some of them were in a much
worse state of repair than the ones that had been attacking them
earlier- Buffy wondered just how many bodies had been buried under
Sunnydale High, and for how long.
Across the room from them Buffy could see the figures of Dawn and
Angelus. Her heart leaped when she saw her former nemesis and
remembered the torture that he had put her through last year. This
time would be different, she resolved to herself. This time they
would restore his soul before he could hurt anybody.
"Giles, Xander, get up here and form a perimeter." Buffy called
out. "Willow, get Angel his soul back!"
The others moved to follow her orders, while at the same time the
deadites took Buffy's words as a signal to attack.
Buffy decapitated the first deadite to approach her, then quickly
sliced off its legs while ducking an attack from the second deadite
through. She speared that one with her sword, then ripped it down
through the deadite's body, removing the deadite's support. As it
fell to the floor, Buffy risked a quick look around.
She saw Xander finish bringing his chainsaw through the body of the
deadite in front of him, while another was about to attack him from
the side. Buffy was about to move to his aid when she saw a balloon
fly over his head and strike the deadite square in the chest.
There was a whooshing noise as the balloon exploded and fire spread
over the deadite's chest. It was unable to put the fire out, and in
fact when it tried to beat the fire out with its arms, the flaming
napalm stuck to its arms. As the creature blundered around in a
panic, it actually managed to set some of its companions ablaze.
Buffy was unable to watch the ensuing hilarity, however, as she had
to deal with the next deadite trying to kill her. Through the press
of the assault, she could sense the Willow's progress. A heaviness
seemed to pervade the air as Willow neared the completion of the
spell. Finally there was a crack of lightning and the lights in the
room dimmed.
Across the room, Buffy saw Angel fall to the floor. The deadites
pulled back as if confused about the situation, allowing her a clear
view of her former boyfriend. She saw that he was on the ground
sobbing, and immediately ran to his side.
"Angel, it's not your fault they took your soul. The important
thing is that you help us now. Help us stop Dawn from taking over
the world."
As Angel stood up Buffy realized that he had not been sobbing- in
fact, his sides had been shaking with barely suppressed laughter.
"I can't believe it. You're almost as gullible as you are
predictable." Angel laughed.
"My new friend here-" he gestured at Dawn- "didn't set my soul free-
she ate it. The fangless wonder is never coming back."
Buffy just stared at him, shocked.
"God," he smiled. "You should see the look on your face. It feels
almost as good as this is going to."
With that, Angelus drew a club from his belt and brutally cracked
the stunned Slayer across the temples.
Buffy's world went black as she fell to the floor unconscious.
*****
Aaaaand that's the end of part 3. I'll be working on this and
_From Sunnydale, With Love_ in parallel now. But production on
both will have to wait for a little while, as I have to do some
writing for the Real World.
Of course, if I get enough feedback I may have to change my mind.
;-)
--Randy
Author: Randall Stone
Disclaimer: All characters are belong to someone else.
Summary: Xander finds out more about his Uncle Rory's past than
he ever wanted to know.
Notes:
Spoilers: S1-3
Clearly the Uncle Rory we saw in Hell's Bells was some kind of
cheap imposter. What would a story be like with the _real_ Uncle
Rory interacting with the Scoobs?
This story takes place in season 3 some short time after the
events of The Zeppo.
Category: B/X
Rating: PG-ish- nothing worse than what's on the show.
Feedback: Yes please.
*****
A hush fell over the library as soon as Angelus and Dawn left the
library. Buffy sat, shell shocked, staring at the library door.
Willow and Oz shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to say.
Xander took this situation in and walked over to speak softly to
Giles.
"Maybe you better give Wesley a call. It looks like we could use
some backup on this."
Giles nodded at Xander and retreated into his office to make the
call. He returned a moment later.
"I'm afraid that the phone lines are down."
Giles's announcement roused Buffy from her reverie.
"What are we going to do Giles? What happened to Dawn? And can
we get Angel back?"
"I have kept a copy of the curse and an Orb of Thessula in my office
for the last few months as insurance against just such an occasion
as this. However, I don't know how we can free Dawn. I've told you
all that I know about deadites, and it isn't much. Unless..."
Giles paused. "Xander, what did your uncle say is his real name?"
"Umm... Ash?"
"That's what I thought."
Giles walked over to a rarely visited portion of the library and
removed a book labeled 'Fantastick Tailes' from the shelf.
"Most reasonable authorities consider this a work of pure fiction.
However..."
Giles flipped through the book until he found the page he was
looking for, and held it out for Xander to read aloud.
"And the demon sayeth unto him: 'You've spoiled my plans for
conquest, and now you're going to die.'
"And the Lord Ashe spake thusly: 'Buckle up bonehead, 'cause you're
going for a ride!'"
Xander looked up from his reading. "That does sound like Uncle
Rory."
"Yes. And if this information is accurate, the other information in
the book regarding the Necronomicon may be accurate as well."
Giles explained as he eagerly began reading through the book.
"Ah, this might explain what managed to possess Dawn. It says... oh
dear."
"What do you mean, 'oh dear'? What happened to my sister, Giles?"
Buffy was getting agitated.
"It appears that Dawn has been taken over by one of the
Throquamatuurz, or Soul Devourers. It appears that as in the case
of vampiric possession, the only way to destroy the evil spirit is
to destroy the mortal shell."
"You're telling me there's no way to save Dawn?" Buffy's voice
cracked.
"I'm afraid not, Buffy. Dawn as we knew her is already dead. It's
as if she had been turned into a vampire. The spirit will have
assimilated her memories and will be able to mimic her personality,
but Dawn is gone.
"And that isn't the worst news. It appears that the demon which has
possessed your sister belongs to a larger class of servant demons.
Now that it is free, it will bend its mind to one task: summoning
forth the Buurzgoth- the Shadow King and Queen."
"That would be bad?"
"Quite apocalyptic, actually."
"Well then, damn it, we're not going down without a fight." Buffy's
voice strengthened with resolve. "I'm not going to let some demon
use my sister's body to take over the world."
---
Joyce struggled against the deadite in front of her. Four of them
had attacked her and Ash as they made their way down the hallway.
Ash had managed to engage three of them, but the fourth had made it
past him to attack Joyce.
She probably would have been dead by now, but the creature seemed
more intent on tearing off her clothes than killing her. It had
already managed to tear off the bottom half of her skirt, and it was
only Joyce's grip on its throat that kept its face away from her.
As it was, Joyce could smell the fetid breath of the walking corpse
as it forced its way closer to her with inhuman strength.
Suddenly the pressure on Joyce's arms was diminished as a chainsaw
appeared in the middle of the creature's torso. Ash quickly ripped
the chainsaw up through the deadite, splitting its upper body in
half and spraying blood everywhere. The deadite fell to the ground,
and Ash bent over and sliced it into harmless pieces before checking
on Joyce.
"You ok?"
"Yeah." Joyce looked down. "Which is more than I can say for this
shirt. This was one of my favorite shirts, too."
Ash sighed. "Here."
He reached around and pulled a machete out from the holster at the
small of his back. After pausing to admire the giant blade, he
handed it over to Joyce.
"Your targets are the throat, the eyes, and the groin. You're not
going to be able to kill these things, but at least you can hold
them off-"
"Until a big, strong man can come to save me? Great." Joyce
snapped, then turned to walk up the hallway. "Let's go find my
daughter."
---
Buffy looked around her with some satisfaction. The gang was geared
up and ready to go hunting for deadites. She and Giles were
carrying swords, while Oz was carrying a crossbow. Xander was
armed with the slightly less conventional chainsaw, but he seemed
comfortable with it. Willow was toting the components for the soul
restoration spell.
Buffy was about to lead the group out of the library when a thought
occurred to her.
"Hey Giles, are these things vulnerable to fire the way vampires
are?"
"I believe so, yes."
"Willow." Buffy turned to face the witch. "Do you have any
spells..."
"Better than that." Willow's face lit up. "I can't believe I
forgot them."
Willow set her gear down and ran over to an anonymous looking cubby.
She unlocked it with one of the keys on her key chain and withdrew
an anonymous looking box, which she carried over to the library
table. The rest of the gang gathered around as she opened the lid
of the box, revealing an odd looking arsenal.
The box was filled with water balloons, each of which had a small
piece of cardboard attached to the nose and cardboard fins fastened
to its tail.
"I came up with these over the summer." Willow said proudly. "The
balloons are filled with jellied gasoline-"
"Napalm?" Xander asked, shocked.
"Yeah." Willow explained. "If you used liquid gasoline most of it
would spatter around at random instead of sticking to your target.
Now-"
"No, I mean, where did you get ahold of napalm?"
"Oh, like it's *so* hard to make. I did take Honors Chemistry, you
know." Willow looked at him, then back down at her inventions.
"Now, as I was saying, the balloon is filled with jellied gasoline.
The fins are to help it fly true, and keep the front oriented right.
This little cardboard pad covers up a contact fuse consisting of a
watch battery and some black powder that I mixed up. You hit the
vampire, and boom. Flambe."
"Impressive." Oz commented while making a mental note to never,
ever get Willow angry at him.
"Yes, and we'll have to have a discussion about storing explosives
in my library some other time." Giles said. "Right now, we have
to find Dawn before she can summon the Shadow Lords."
Oz abandoned his crossbow in favor of carrying the box of firebombs,
and the group finally made their way out the door. Buffy and Xander
took the lead, with Oz and Willow following close behind them.
Giles brought up the rear.
They had not traveled far from the library when they heard the now
familiar cry.
"We're going to eat your souls!"
Buffy brought her sword up to a ready position as she sized up the
group of deadites ahead of them. Beside her, Xander revved his
chainsaw.
"Come get some."
---
When Ash saw the figure running toward them, his first thought was
that it was another deadite. Then he realized that the figure had
the look of somebody running away from something, rather than
running at somebody.
As the boy got closer, Ash could see that the scrawny youth wouldn't
present much of a threat to anybody even if he were possessed by
some kind of evil spirit. The creature giving chase to him looked
considerably more dangerous. Judging from the letterman's jacket
that it was wearing, the creature had once been part of Sunnydale
High's football team. Now, however, he was just another deadite.
"We're going to- aargh."
Ash interrupted the deadite's war cry through the simple expedient
of jamming the chainsaw blade into its mouth. The creature's head
exploded satisfyingly in all directions, and Ash made quick work of
the rest of the body. Joyce even got in a few good shots with her
machete. When they finished, they turned their attention to the
boy.
"Thanks... Miss Summers?"
Joyce didn't look like the soccer mom that Andrew remembered. Her
clothing was tattered in many places, and covered in gore where it
was left intact. Also, the bloody machete in her hand definitely
gave her a different look. She also had a distinctly predatory
gleam in her eye that was a little unnerving.
"Do I know you?"
"I'm Andrew." He paused. "Tucker's cousin?"
"Oh," Joyce thought back. "I think I remember him. What are you
doing here?"
"I was in detention, when everybody started... changing. I could
hear voices. They said I was too week to be good for anything-
just that I would be fun to chase."
Andrew hung his head. This time it was Ash who spoke.
"Um... kid, how many people were in detention with you?"
Andrew thought back. "About ten or fifteen, I think. Only six of
them were chasing me, though. And I lost most of them."
Ash squinted down the hallway. "Think again, kid."
The five figures pelting down the hall stopped in their tracks as
Ash let out a primal roar.
As he finished with the wordless scream, Ash drew his shotgun from
behind his back and advanced on the deadites.
"OK, I've had it up to here with you sons of bitches." Ash took
aim. "Why. are. you. ruining. my. life?"
He punctuated each word with a blast from the shotgun. Soon only
two deadites were left standing, as the others groaned from the
floor and tried to get themselves together.
"Who wants some? Come on, who wants some? You?" Ash took a swipe
at the deadite on his left, cutting off its right arm. "You like
that? I think he wants some more, don't you?"
He addressed this comment to the deadite on his right as he lopped
his companion's left hand off at the wrist.
"I'm sorry, you're feeling left out, aren't you?" The intact
deadite flinched back at Ash's words, then attempted to launch a
surprise attack. Ash sidestepped the creature's charge, dragging
the chainsaw across its torso as he did so. The deadite's legs
continued to charge for a few steps while its torso fell to the
floor next to Ash.
Ash kicked the other deadite back while he reloaded the shotgun.
Once that was done, he blasted the standing deadite to the floor
and turned his attention to dismembering its fallen comrades.
Once that was done, Ash returned to his companions. Andrew was
standing slightly behind Joyce as if for protection. They both
looked slightly disturbed by his actions.
"You know, I actually feel much better now."
---
Buffy was losing count of the number of deadites that they had
destroyed. Xander was wading through the walking dead with a
frightening efficiency that almost matched her own, while Oz was
proving a dead shot with the fire balloons. Giles was following
them and making sure that any downed demons were completely
dismembered.
The amount of deadites that they encountered had been steadily
increasing, which Buffy took to mean that they were approaching
Dawn's location. Suddenly they passed through a doorway and found
themselves in a large open room- the cafeteria.
The room was filled with deadites. Some of them were in a much
worse state of repair than the ones that had been attacking them
earlier- Buffy wondered just how many bodies had been buried under
Sunnydale High, and for how long.
Across the room from them Buffy could see the figures of Dawn and
Angelus. Her heart leaped when she saw her former nemesis and
remembered the torture that he had put her through last year. This
time would be different, she resolved to herself. This time they
would restore his soul before he could hurt anybody.
"Giles, Xander, get up here and form a perimeter." Buffy called
out. "Willow, get Angel his soul back!"
The others moved to follow her orders, while at the same time the
deadites took Buffy's words as a signal to attack.
Buffy decapitated the first deadite to approach her, then quickly
sliced off its legs while ducking an attack from the second deadite
through. She speared that one with her sword, then ripped it down
through the deadite's body, removing the deadite's support. As it
fell to the floor, Buffy risked a quick look around.
She saw Xander finish bringing his chainsaw through the body of the
deadite in front of him, while another was about to attack him from
the side. Buffy was about to move to his aid when she saw a balloon
fly over his head and strike the deadite square in the chest.
There was a whooshing noise as the balloon exploded and fire spread
over the deadite's chest. It was unable to put the fire out, and in
fact when it tried to beat the fire out with its arms, the flaming
napalm stuck to its arms. As the creature blundered around in a
panic, it actually managed to set some of its companions ablaze.
Buffy was unable to watch the ensuing hilarity, however, as she had
to deal with the next deadite trying to kill her. Through the press
of the assault, she could sense the Willow's progress. A heaviness
seemed to pervade the air as Willow neared the completion of the
spell. Finally there was a crack of lightning and the lights in the
room dimmed.
Across the room, Buffy saw Angel fall to the floor. The deadites
pulled back as if confused about the situation, allowing her a clear
view of her former boyfriend. She saw that he was on the ground
sobbing, and immediately ran to his side.
"Angel, it's not your fault they took your soul. The important
thing is that you help us now. Help us stop Dawn from taking over
the world."
As Angel stood up Buffy realized that he had not been sobbing- in
fact, his sides had been shaking with barely suppressed laughter.
"I can't believe it. You're almost as gullible as you are
predictable." Angel laughed.
"My new friend here-" he gestured at Dawn- "didn't set my soul free-
she ate it. The fangless wonder is never coming back."
Buffy just stared at him, shocked.
"God," he smiled. "You should see the look on your face. It feels
almost as good as this is going to."
With that, Angelus drew a club from his belt and brutally cracked
the stunned Slayer across the temples.
Buffy's world went black as she fell to the floor unconscious.
*****
Aaaaand that's the end of part 3. I'll be working on this and
_From Sunnydale, With Love_ in parallel now. But production on
both will have to wait for a little while, as I have to do some
writing for the Real World.
Of course, if I get enough feedback I may have to change my mind.
;-)
--Randy