Title: The Evil Undead (Five/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.
*****
Xander stared at the pile of dust that was the mortal remains of the
Scourge of Europe, contemplating. After a moment he reached a
decision. Clearing his throat, he hawked a giant loogie onto the
dust then, satisfied, turned to face his uncle.
"Thanks for the assist, Uncle Ro- Ash." Xander nodded to the other
figure who entered the room, then did a double take. "Miss
Summers?"
"What?"
"I like the new look. But what are you doing here?"
Joyce glanced down at her tattered and bloodstained clothing, but
decided to let Xander's comment pass. "I'm looking for my
daughters."
"Well, dusty over there said they were both in the library."
"That's where we've been trying to go for the last hour." Joyce
directed a glare at Ash.
"Hey, don't blame him. It can be tricky trying to find your way to
the library if you don't know the school's layout."
"That's not the problem." Ash shook his head. "I memorized the way
to the library from the map outside the school. Whatever mojo you
guys unleashed from the Necronomicon is messing with the hallway."
"Right." Xander looked at his uncle skeptically. "Well, why don't
we just try going to the library now and see what happens?"
The two adults reluctantly nodded, and followed Xander as he made
his way to the exit from the cafeteria. When he reached the exit he
paused and turned to face Joyce.
"Miss Summers, I almost forgot, I have some bad news about Dawn..."
---
The sign beside the double doors was small, but the label was
unmistakable: Sunnydale High Library.
"Memorized the way, huh?" Xander asked his uncle.
"I basically memorized it. Maybe not every last twist and turn."
Ash admitted, sheepishly.
Xander grinned at him, then composed his face into a more serious
expression before he turned to face Joyce.
"Are you sure you're going to be ok with this?"
"I'm sure." Joyce's expression was stoic; only the lines around her
eyes betrayed her inner turmoil over what had happened to her
daughter. "I've had to think about something like this happening
ever since I found out about vampires. It's a terrible thing- but I
have to put her body to rest before I can grieve."
"OK." Xander couldn't think of any further comforting words, so he
turned to action. "Let's get this show on the road."
Xander stepped forward with Ash at his side. At Xander's signal, they
both kicked out simultaneously, sending the doors crashing open.
Xander stepped forward confidently.
"Honey, I'm home!"
Xander was taking in the situation in the library as he spoke. The
first thing he noticed was that all of the deadites that they had
been fighting before were milling around the lower area of the
library. The only ones showing any purpose were the four deadites
standing guard in front of the book cage, which currently held
Giles, Willow, and Oz.
"Xander?"
The voice drew Xander's attention to the upper level where he saw
Dawn, or the creature that had once been Dawn, looking down on them.
Behind her he could just make out a table to which Buffy had been
secured. There were no deadites visible on the upper level;
apparently they found Dawn more intimidating than their prisoners.
Xander was just taking note of the book tucked under Dawn's arm when
she continued speaking.
"And here I thought it was someone I should be worried about.
Buffy's not going to bail you out of this one, Xand. Kill them!"
This last command galvanized the deadites into action. They moved
to form a loose semicircle around Xander, Ash, and Joyce. The
deadites paused about ten feet away from the trio, perhaps wary
after the carnage in the cafeteria. As the two sides were sizing
each other up, Xander leaned over to whisper to Ash.
"You and Joyce go spring the wolf, the witch, and the librarian.
I'm going to try to break through. If all goes well I'll save Buffy
and get ahold of the book."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Well, it's not like we can get any more screwed, is it?"
Ash had hardly had time to acknowledge the wisdom of Xander's point
before he put his plan in to motion. Revving his chainsaw to full
speed, Xander charged forward with a savage war cry.
While the deadites greatly outnumbered the humans, they had spread
themselves out in order to hem the humans in. The semicircle that
they had formed did cut off any hope of escape, but it was only two
deadites deep.
Xander didn't even try to dodge the deadites, instead chosing to
confront them straight on. He cut the first deadite down easily,
plunging his chainsaw deep into its chest. He dragged the blade out
through the creature's body as it fell to the ground, never breaking
stride.
The second deadite had no desire to be cut in half and stepped aside
while it took a swipe at Xander as he passed. Xander reacted
quickly and raised his chainsaw up into a defensive position,
lopping off the creature's arm as he passed it and broke into the
clear.
Ash grinned as he watched his nephew run up the stairs. Directing
his attention to the regrouping deadites, he adopted a
conversational tone.
"Regular chip off the old block, isn't he? I taught him everything
he knows. Of course," Ash pulled a spare machete from his leg
sheathe as the idling engine of his chainsaw provided a counterpoint
to his words, "I haven't gotten around to teaching him the dirty
tricks yet."
---
Xander pounded up the stairs as if the hounds of hell were on his
tail. When he reached the top of the staircase, he saw that Dawn
was crouched over Buffy's bound form. As he drew nearer he saw that
she was finger painting some kind of occult symbols on her sister's
arm. He wasn't sure what she was using to paint with, but the
substance looked suspiciously like human blood.
Xander raised his chainsaw over his head as he ran, hoping to finish
Dawn off with one blow. Just as he drew near enough to strike,
however, Dawn threw up her left hand. Xander was thrown backwards
as if he had been hit by an invisible car. He landed flat on his
ass about ten feet away. Dawn finished her writing and turned to
face him.
"Did you really think such a mundane weapon could hurt me?"
"You know me better than that, Dawn. I don't think. I was just
going to carve me up some demon."
Xander jumped to his feet as he finished speaking and charged
towards Dawn once again. His attack was brought up short when he
crashed into an invisible barrier three feet in front of Dawn.
"Give it up Xander. You're way out of your league."
---
"A little help here?"
Joyce gritted her teeth as she dug deep into her reserves. She was
guarding Ash's back while he took on the guards set over the
imprisoned Scoobies. As part of said guarding, she had impaled a
deadite in the stomach with her machete. That deadite was now
straining against her as she used the knife to keep it at arm's
length while she dodged its blows as best she could.
Ash was involved in a fight with two deadites when he heard Joyce's
request for help, and he responded in the only way that he could.
Flinging his machete into the neck of the opponent on his left, he
fended the other one off with his chainsaw while he drew his shotgun
with his left hand. He braced the shotgun on his shoulder and fired
backwards.
Joyce was left holding a bloody machete in her hands as the deadite
was sent flying backwards. Ash didn't even look back as he holstered
his shotgun and redirected his attention to the opponents in front of
him.
"Could you warn me the next time you're going to pull a stunt like
that? I think you damaged my eardrums."
"Look princess, you're going to have to decide," Ash grunted as he
cleaved through one of the guards, "whether you want to have me save
your ass, or you want to tell me how to do it."
Ash decapitated the final guard as he finished speaking, leaving him
with a clear path to the book cage. He strode forward and came face
to face with a worried Rupert Giles.
"Mr. Williams! What a relief to see you. The keys are-"
Giles was interrupted by the scream of metal on metal as Ash brought
his chainsaw down through the locking mechanism. The librarian
continued as the door swung open.
"- quite unnecessary, of course. I'm afraid that the creature that
has inhabited Dawn's body has some terrible plans involving the
Hellmouth. It is imperative that we stop her before-"
"Yeah, yeah, that's great. You want to get out here and give me a
hand?"
Giles glanced at the approaching mob of deadites and nodded before
quickly making his way to the weapons chest. He withdrew a battle
axe for Oz and a crossbow for Willow. Oz accepted his weapon with a
stoic expression, while Willow eyed the crossbow with some
trepidation.
With the children armed, Giles drew his personal weapon from the
chest. The sabre's blade gleamed from constant tender care, while
the light shined off the gold monogram on the hilt as Giles moved to
stand beside Ash and face the oncoming demons.
"Nice sword. You know to use that thing?"
"I was Oxford's representative at the fencing championships for
three years running."
"Well listen to Mr. Fancypants. This isn't a game out here, pal,
and these things-"
Ash stopped speaking when he saw Giles engage his first deadite.
The Englishman neatly blocked the creature's assault with the flat
of his blade and slashed across its face in one smooth motion,
cutting straight through its eyes. While the deadite was still
recoiling from this first blow, Giles neatly reversed his momentum
and sliced back across, severing the thing's head at the neck.
With the creature disabled, Giles set about the grim task of
dismembering the thing with a cool efficiency.
"Right. I'll just leave you to that then."
---
"I guess you're right. There's no way I can take you on."
Xander's shoulders slumped in defeat as a downcast expression
settled on his face.
"Aww, you're so cute when you've given up hope." Dawn's tone turned
affectionate.
Xander looked up in surprise.
"Please, don't try to pretend you didn't know that Dawn had a crush
on you. Some of it must have transferred over to me." She eyed
Xander's body appreciatively. "And when my masters are running this
place, I'm going to need a consort. What do you say?"
"I'd say eww. Come on, you're still in the body of a thirteen year
old girl." Xander was shocked out of his funk by her suggestion.
"That's about four years too young for me, kid."
"Kid? We'll see how young you look after your second millenia. In
any event," Dawn smiled wickedly, "the problems with this body are
easy enough to remedy."
Dawn flipped the Necronomicon open and began to speak in an inhuman
language. A glow began to surround her body while she incanted. As
the spell went on the glow lengthened and seemed to stretch her
body. As her body grew her face began to mature and the rest of her
began to fill out. When the spell drew to a close Dawn was left
standing before Xander looking every inch the seventeen year old.
"Impressive." Xander raised his eyebrow appreciatively. "This
consort thing is starting to look like a pretty good deal."
"You would abandon your friends so easily?" Dawn was surprised.
"Hey, we've already established that I can't do anything to stop
you. The way I see it, it's better to serve in hell than to be
tormented in hell for all eternity."
---
Giles dispatched the latest deadite and looked around the library in
dismay. While he and Ash were dismembering the creatures left and
right, and Oz and Joyce had formed an effective deadite destroying
team, the demons just kept on coming. He knew that there hadn't
been *that* many of them in the library to begin with.
Surveying the battlefield, Giles noticed a strange fact. Several of
the deadites were not fighting. In fact, they were deliberately
avoiding Ash's attempts to engage them as they scurried around the
battlefield, collecting the dismembered pieces of their fallen
comrades. Giles watched as they gathered up the pieces and made
their way back to a figure at the rear of the library who appeared
to be wielding a needle and thread.
Giles started as he recognized Mrs. Cutchens, the home economics
teacher. Of course! He should have remembered that she was the
only faculty member who regularly stayed at the school as late as he
did. As Giles watched, she finished with her stitching. The body
that she had been working on rose, a hideous patchwork of corpse
remnants, and staggered forward with unnatural vitality to attack
the Scoobies.
Giles's attention was diverted to a matter closer at hand when a
deadite tried to slip past him to blindside Ash. Giles managed to
defeat the creature, but couldn't avoid taking a nasty gash to his
left arm. Turning to face over his shoulder, he called out to
Willow. She had been standing back from the fight, as her crossbow
was largely ineffective against the deadites.
"Willow! Mrs. Cutchens is stitching them back together as quickly
as we cut them apart. You need to figure out a way to take her out
before we're overwhelmed."
Struck by an idea, Willow quickly rummaged through the weapons
chest. After finding her prize she called out to Giles.
"I found one of my balloon bombs. I only have one though."
"Well, you better not bloody miss then!"
Giles shouted this last comment between strikes against his latest
opponent.
Willow looked down at the missile in her hand, and then tried to
gauge the distance to the zombie teacher. It was awfully far. She
decided to use a little magic to help her odds. Willow quickly
fished her nail polish out of her purse and sketched a glyph on the
nose of the balloon, incanting as she drew.
"Mother Gaia, rouse your ire
And grant me now my heart's desire
Our need is great, our peril dire
So help me set this bitch on fire"
With the prayer completed, Willow hefted the balloon in her hand and
threw it in the general direction of the home ec teacher. As it
happened, she had applied too much force to her throw. But just as
the balloon was about to overshoot the target a sudden gust of wind
knocked it down, dropping it directly onto the head of Mrs.
Cutchens. The balloon burst and spread its flammable contents as
the detonator went off according to design. Mrs. Cutchens was
covered in a searing fire which soon spread to the creature that she
had been stitching up.
While Willow watched the fire with some satisfaction, Oz drifted
back from the front line.
"Potty mouth." He chided her.
Willow shrugged.
"The Goddess is more of a stickler for cadence than for G rated
language."
---
"I knew you'd see things my way." Dawn leered. "I just didn't
think it would be this easy."
She took a step closer to Xander, entering into his personal space.
She didn't waste any time reaching behind Xander and grabbing his
ass with her left hand. At the same time she brought her right
hand, still holding the Necronomicon, up to caress Xander's face.
As her right hand approached him, Xander exploded into action. His
chainsaw, which had been idling the whole time, roared to full speed
as he slashed it across his body. Dawn's hand was severed at the
wrist before she had a chance to react.
Xander caught the book, with Dawn's hand was still clinging to the
cover, and took a step back. He turned and flung the book, hand and
all, in the general direction of the Scoobies. That mission
accomplished, he turned back to confront the demon inhabiting the
body of his friend's sister.
Dawn, having been deprived of her magical weapon, was forced to
resort to guile.
"Xander, how can you kill me? You've been walking me to school for
years."
Xander shook his head.
"I know that Dawn is already dead. It's time to put her body to
rest."
---
Willow had been the only member of the group that had been watching
Xander and Dawn's confrontation. Accordingly, she was the one who
managed to catch the flying Necronomicon. As she did so, the hand
that had been clinging to the book suddenly lunged at her.
Willow managed to emit a frightened squeak before the fingers
reached her throat. She focused all her energy on grabbing the hand
by the wrist and holding it far enough away from her that she could
breathe. She had almost managed to pull the hand completely off of
her when a dagger suddenly appeared in her vision, impaling the hand
in its center. Willow looked up to see the grizzled visage of
Xander's uncle.
"You have to be careful with these things." Ash waved the wiggling
appendage around to illustrate his point. "They'll get you in all
kinds of trouble."
With that, Ash drove his dagger into a nearby wall, pinning the hand
down.
---
Meanwhile, on the upper level, Xander had finished his grim task of
separating Dawn's body into his component pieces. When the
dismemberment was complete Xander could here a collective thud as
the deadites fell to the ground.
Xander was staring at Dawn's remains, grieving, when they suddenly
disappeared in a green flash.
Xander scratched his head, puzzled, then spotted Giles on the lower
level of the library.
"Hey! G-man! What are we doing in the library?"
"I'm not sure..." Giles said uncertainly, then started as he
recognized the book in Willow's hands. "The Necronomicon! The
spirits were unleashed, but you defeated their leader!"
"What I want to know is, is my daughter ok?" Joyce asked.
"She should be fine. When Xander killed their leader, the spirits
must have retreated in disarray."
A crashing noise from up above belied Giles's words. As the
Scoobies watched in horrified fascination, Buffy's body tore through
the straps that had bound her to the table and levitated several
feet above the ground. Simultaneously, the bodies of the deadites
scattered throughout the library began to reassemble themselves,
compelled by some unseen power.
The humans in the room were still stunned into silence when the
voice of the vampire slayer echoed through the room.
"I'm afraid things aren't going to be so simple."
* * *
Finally, chapter five is complete. The wait for chapter six
shouldn't be *quite* as long.
--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.
*****
Xander stared at the pile of dust that was the mortal remains of the
Scourge of Europe, contemplating. After a moment he reached a
decision. Clearing his throat, he hawked a giant loogie onto the
dust then, satisfied, turned to face his uncle.
"Thanks for the assist, Uncle Ro- Ash." Xander nodded to the other
figure who entered the room, then did a double take. "Miss
Summers?"
"What?"
"I like the new look. But what are you doing here?"
Joyce glanced down at her tattered and bloodstained clothing, but
decided to let Xander's comment pass. "I'm looking for my
daughters."
"Well, dusty over there said they were both in the library."
"That's where we've been trying to go for the last hour." Joyce
directed a glare at Ash.
"Hey, don't blame him. It can be tricky trying to find your way to
the library if you don't know the school's layout."
"That's not the problem." Ash shook his head. "I memorized the way
to the library from the map outside the school. Whatever mojo you
guys unleashed from the Necronomicon is messing with the hallway."
"Right." Xander looked at his uncle skeptically. "Well, why don't
we just try going to the library now and see what happens?"
The two adults reluctantly nodded, and followed Xander as he made
his way to the exit from the cafeteria. When he reached the exit he
paused and turned to face Joyce.
"Miss Summers, I almost forgot, I have some bad news about Dawn..."
---
The sign beside the double doors was small, but the label was
unmistakable: Sunnydale High Library.
"Memorized the way, huh?" Xander asked his uncle.
"I basically memorized it. Maybe not every last twist and turn."
Ash admitted, sheepishly.
Xander grinned at him, then composed his face into a more serious
expression before he turned to face Joyce.
"Are you sure you're going to be ok with this?"
"I'm sure." Joyce's expression was stoic; only the lines around her
eyes betrayed her inner turmoil over what had happened to her
daughter. "I've had to think about something like this happening
ever since I found out about vampires. It's a terrible thing- but I
have to put her body to rest before I can grieve."
"OK." Xander couldn't think of any further comforting words, so he
turned to action. "Let's get this show on the road."
Xander stepped forward with Ash at his side. At Xander's signal, they
both kicked out simultaneously, sending the doors crashing open.
Xander stepped forward confidently.
"Honey, I'm home!"
Xander was taking in the situation in the library as he spoke. The
first thing he noticed was that all of the deadites that they had
been fighting before were milling around the lower area of the
library. The only ones showing any purpose were the four deadites
standing guard in front of the book cage, which currently held
Giles, Willow, and Oz.
"Xander?"
The voice drew Xander's attention to the upper level where he saw
Dawn, or the creature that had once been Dawn, looking down on them.
Behind her he could just make out a table to which Buffy had been
secured. There were no deadites visible on the upper level;
apparently they found Dawn more intimidating than their prisoners.
Xander was just taking note of the book tucked under Dawn's arm when
she continued speaking.
"And here I thought it was someone I should be worried about.
Buffy's not going to bail you out of this one, Xand. Kill them!"
This last command galvanized the deadites into action. They moved
to form a loose semicircle around Xander, Ash, and Joyce. The
deadites paused about ten feet away from the trio, perhaps wary
after the carnage in the cafeteria. As the two sides were sizing
each other up, Xander leaned over to whisper to Ash.
"You and Joyce go spring the wolf, the witch, and the librarian.
I'm going to try to break through. If all goes well I'll save Buffy
and get ahold of the book."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Well, it's not like we can get any more screwed, is it?"
Ash had hardly had time to acknowledge the wisdom of Xander's point
before he put his plan in to motion. Revving his chainsaw to full
speed, Xander charged forward with a savage war cry.
While the deadites greatly outnumbered the humans, they had spread
themselves out in order to hem the humans in. The semicircle that
they had formed did cut off any hope of escape, but it was only two
deadites deep.
Xander didn't even try to dodge the deadites, instead chosing to
confront them straight on. He cut the first deadite down easily,
plunging his chainsaw deep into its chest. He dragged the blade out
through the creature's body as it fell to the ground, never breaking
stride.
The second deadite had no desire to be cut in half and stepped aside
while it took a swipe at Xander as he passed. Xander reacted
quickly and raised his chainsaw up into a defensive position,
lopping off the creature's arm as he passed it and broke into the
clear.
Ash grinned as he watched his nephew run up the stairs. Directing
his attention to the regrouping deadites, he adopted a
conversational tone.
"Regular chip off the old block, isn't he? I taught him everything
he knows. Of course," Ash pulled a spare machete from his leg
sheathe as the idling engine of his chainsaw provided a counterpoint
to his words, "I haven't gotten around to teaching him the dirty
tricks yet."
---
Xander pounded up the stairs as if the hounds of hell were on his
tail. When he reached the top of the staircase, he saw that Dawn
was crouched over Buffy's bound form. As he drew nearer he saw that
she was finger painting some kind of occult symbols on her sister's
arm. He wasn't sure what she was using to paint with, but the
substance looked suspiciously like human blood.
Xander raised his chainsaw over his head as he ran, hoping to finish
Dawn off with one blow. Just as he drew near enough to strike,
however, Dawn threw up her left hand. Xander was thrown backwards
as if he had been hit by an invisible car. He landed flat on his
ass about ten feet away. Dawn finished her writing and turned to
face him.
"Did you really think such a mundane weapon could hurt me?"
"You know me better than that, Dawn. I don't think. I was just
going to carve me up some demon."
Xander jumped to his feet as he finished speaking and charged
towards Dawn once again. His attack was brought up short when he
crashed into an invisible barrier three feet in front of Dawn.
"Give it up Xander. You're way out of your league."
---
"A little help here?"
Joyce gritted her teeth as she dug deep into her reserves. She was
guarding Ash's back while he took on the guards set over the
imprisoned Scoobies. As part of said guarding, she had impaled a
deadite in the stomach with her machete. That deadite was now
straining against her as she used the knife to keep it at arm's
length while she dodged its blows as best she could.
Ash was involved in a fight with two deadites when he heard Joyce's
request for help, and he responded in the only way that he could.
Flinging his machete into the neck of the opponent on his left, he
fended the other one off with his chainsaw while he drew his shotgun
with his left hand. He braced the shotgun on his shoulder and fired
backwards.
Joyce was left holding a bloody machete in her hands as the deadite
was sent flying backwards. Ash didn't even look back as he holstered
his shotgun and redirected his attention to the opponents in front of
him.
"Could you warn me the next time you're going to pull a stunt like
that? I think you damaged my eardrums."
"Look princess, you're going to have to decide," Ash grunted as he
cleaved through one of the guards, "whether you want to have me save
your ass, or you want to tell me how to do it."
Ash decapitated the final guard as he finished speaking, leaving him
with a clear path to the book cage. He strode forward and came face
to face with a worried Rupert Giles.
"Mr. Williams! What a relief to see you. The keys are-"
Giles was interrupted by the scream of metal on metal as Ash brought
his chainsaw down through the locking mechanism. The librarian
continued as the door swung open.
"- quite unnecessary, of course. I'm afraid that the creature that
has inhabited Dawn's body has some terrible plans involving the
Hellmouth. It is imperative that we stop her before-"
"Yeah, yeah, that's great. You want to get out here and give me a
hand?"
Giles glanced at the approaching mob of deadites and nodded before
quickly making his way to the weapons chest. He withdrew a battle
axe for Oz and a crossbow for Willow. Oz accepted his weapon with a
stoic expression, while Willow eyed the crossbow with some
trepidation.
With the children armed, Giles drew his personal weapon from the
chest. The sabre's blade gleamed from constant tender care, while
the light shined off the gold monogram on the hilt as Giles moved to
stand beside Ash and face the oncoming demons.
"Nice sword. You know to use that thing?"
"I was Oxford's representative at the fencing championships for
three years running."
"Well listen to Mr. Fancypants. This isn't a game out here, pal,
and these things-"
Ash stopped speaking when he saw Giles engage his first deadite.
The Englishman neatly blocked the creature's assault with the flat
of his blade and slashed across its face in one smooth motion,
cutting straight through its eyes. While the deadite was still
recoiling from this first blow, Giles neatly reversed his momentum
and sliced back across, severing the thing's head at the neck.
With the creature disabled, Giles set about the grim task of
dismembering the thing with a cool efficiency.
"Right. I'll just leave you to that then."
---
"I guess you're right. There's no way I can take you on."
Xander's shoulders slumped in defeat as a downcast expression
settled on his face.
"Aww, you're so cute when you've given up hope." Dawn's tone turned
affectionate.
Xander looked up in surprise.
"Please, don't try to pretend you didn't know that Dawn had a crush
on you. Some of it must have transferred over to me." She eyed
Xander's body appreciatively. "And when my masters are running this
place, I'm going to need a consort. What do you say?"
"I'd say eww. Come on, you're still in the body of a thirteen year
old girl." Xander was shocked out of his funk by her suggestion.
"That's about four years too young for me, kid."
"Kid? We'll see how young you look after your second millenia. In
any event," Dawn smiled wickedly, "the problems with this body are
easy enough to remedy."
Dawn flipped the Necronomicon open and began to speak in an inhuman
language. A glow began to surround her body while she incanted. As
the spell went on the glow lengthened and seemed to stretch her
body. As her body grew her face began to mature and the rest of her
began to fill out. When the spell drew to a close Dawn was left
standing before Xander looking every inch the seventeen year old.
"Impressive." Xander raised his eyebrow appreciatively. "This
consort thing is starting to look like a pretty good deal."
"You would abandon your friends so easily?" Dawn was surprised.
"Hey, we've already established that I can't do anything to stop
you. The way I see it, it's better to serve in hell than to be
tormented in hell for all eternity."
---
Giles dispatched the latest deadite and looked around the library in
dismay. While he and Ash were dismembering the creatures left and
right, and Oz and Joyce had formed an effective deadite destroying
team, the demons just kept on coming. He knew that there hadn't
been *that* many of them in the library to begin with.
Surveying the battlefield, Giles noticed a strange fact. Several of
the deadites were not fighting. In fact, they were deliberately
avoiding Ash's attempts to engage them as they scurried around the
battlefield, collecting the dismembered pieces of their fallen
comrades. Giles watched as they gathered up the pieces and made
their way back to a figure at the rear of the library who appeared
to be wielding a needle and thread.
Giles started as he recognized Mrs. Cutchens, the home economics
teacher. Of course! He should have remembered that she was the
only faculty member who regularly stayed at the school as late as he
did. As Giles watched, she finished with her stitching. The body
that she had been working on rose, a hideous patchwork of corpse
remnants, and staggered forward with unnatural vitality to attack
the Scoobies.
Giles's attention was diverted to a matter closer at hand when a
deadite tried to slip past him to blindside Ash. Giles managed to
defeat the creature, but couldn't avoid taking a nasty gash to his
left arm. Turning to face over his shoulder, he called out to
Willow. She had been standing back from the fight, as her crossbow
was largely ineffective against the deadites.
"Willow! Mrs. Cutchens is stitching them back together as quickly
as we cut them apart. You need to figure out a way to take her out
before we're overwhelmed."
Struck by an idea, Willow quickly rummaged through the weapons
chest. After finding her prize she called out to Giles.
"I found one of my balloon bombs. I only have one though."
"Well, you better not bloody miss then!"
Giles shouted this last comment between strikes against his latest
opponent.
Willow looked down at the missile in her hand, and then tried to
gauge the distance to the zombie teacher. It was awfully far. She
decided to use a little magic to help her odds. Willow quickly
fished her nail polish out of her purse and sketched a glyph on the
nose of the balloon, incanting as she drew.
"Mother Gaia, rouse your ire
And grant me now my heart's desire
Our need is great, our peril dire
So help me set this bitch on fire"
With the prayer completed, Willow hefted the balloon in her hand and
threw it in the general direction of the home ec teacher. As it
happened, she had applied too much force to her throw. But just as
the balloon was about to overshoot the target a sudden gust of wind
knocked it down, dropping it directly onto the head of Mrs.
Cutchens. The balloon burst and spread its flammable contents as
the detonator went off according to design. Mrs. Cutchens was
covered in a searing fire which soon spread to the creature that she
had been stitching up.
While Willow watched the fire with some satisfaction, Oz drifted
back from the front line.
"Potty mouth." He chided her.
Willow shrugged.
"The Goddess is more of a stickler for cadence than for G rated
language."
---
"I knew you'd see things my way." Dawn leered. "I just didn't
think it would be this easy."
She took a step closer to Xander, entering into his personal space.
She didn't waste any time reaching behind Xander and grabbing his
ass with her left hand. At the same time she brought her right
hand, still holding the Necronomicon, up to caress Xander's face.
As her right hand approached him, Xander exploded into action. His
chainsaw, which had been idling the whole time, roared to full speed
as he slashed it across his body. Dawn's hand was severed at the
wrist before she had a chance to react.
Xander caught the book, with Dawn's hand was still clinging to the
cover, and took a step back. He turned and flung the book, hand and
all, in the general direction of the Scoobies. That mission
accomplished, he turned back to confront the demon inhabiting the
body of his friend's sister.
Dawn, having been deprived of her magical weapon, was forced to
resort to guile.
"Xander, how can you kill me? You've been walking me to school for
years."
Xander shook his head.
"I know that Dawn is already dead. It's time to put her body to
rest."
---
Willow had been the only member of the group that had been watching
Xander and Dawn's confrontation. Accordingly, she was the one who
managed to catch the flying Necronomicon. As she did so, the hand
that had been clinging to the book suddenly lunged at her.
Willow managed to emit a frightened squeak before the fingers
reached her throat. She focused all her energy on grabbing the hand
by the wrist and holding it far enough away from her that she could
breathe. She had almost managed to pull the hand completely off of
her when a dagger suddenly appeared in her vision, impaling the hand
in its center. Willow looked up to see the grizzled visage of
Xander's uncle.
"You have to be careful with these things." Ash waved the wiggling
appendage around to illustrate his point. "They'll get you in all
kinds of trouble."
With that, Ash drove his dagger into a nearby wall, pinning the hand
down.
---
Meanwhile, on the upper level, Xander had finished his grim task of
separating Dawn's body into his component pieces. When the
dismemberment was complete Xander could here a collective thud as
the deadites fell to the ground.
Xander was staring at Dawn's remains, grieving, when they suddenly
disappeared in a green flash.
Xander scratched his head, puzzled, then spotted Giles on the lower
level of the library.
"Hey! G-man! What are we doing in the library?"
"I'm not sure..." Giles said uncertainly, then started as he
recognized the book in Willow's hands. "The Necronomicon! The
spirits were unleashed, but you defeated their leader!"
"What I want to know is, is my daughter ok?" Joyce asked.
"She should be fine. When Xander killed their leader, the spirits
must have retreated in disarray."
A crashing noise from up above belied Giles's words. As the
Scoobies watched in horrified fascination, Buffy's body tore through
the straps that had bound her to the table and levitated several
feet above the ground. Simultaneously, the bodies of the deadites
scattered throughout the library began to reassemble themselves,
compelled by some unseen power.
The humans in the room were still stunned into silence when the
voice of the vampire slayer echoed through the room.
"I'm afraid things aren't going to be so simple."
* * *
Finally, chapter five is complete. The wait for chapter six
shouldn't be *quite* as long.
--Randy