Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or its characters, the same for Panzer
Dragoon Saga, the inspiration for this story
Do They Really Breathe Fire?
Chapter 1.
The Gang had assembled at the Summers residence. This had become the new base of operations, since the magic box had been trashed.
They were sat in the living room, Willow, Xander and Dawn on the sofa, in that order, and Giles and Anya sat in chairs, Buffy stood, and occasionally leaned against the wall. Stacks and boxes full of books from the shop had been piled around. Luckily not many of the books the Scooby gang used for research had been lost; it was more a case of digging them out of the rubble.
Giles had rented a small apartment, he had stored more books there, but since it was a very small place, there was little room for storage, while still being habitable.
After Xander had told Buffy about what he had seen on the news, she had told him about her strange dream, and he agreed it seemed more than coincidental, actually his exact words were more like:
"What is it with this weird crap coming to you in dreams?" "And why is it always the worst stuff, why can't you have a dream about a demon that wants to send us on vacation, or, um, uh, never mind" he had ranted, cornflakes flying from his mouth.
After which, Buffy had given him an odd look.
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It was time to form a plan of action; they had no doubt there would be much research and searching of books. But maybe they would get lucky and Giles would know it off the top of his head, it didn't happen often with the rare kinds of demons, it would be unreasonable for the watchers council to expect watchers to memorize all demon types, it would quite probably be impossible for a human to do, it was possible that Giles would know what the creature was.
Buffy had just finished describing the creature, and all eyes turned to Giles, who took this as a prompt.
"I have never heard of a demon like this before, however this green light sounds, interesting, a good place to start researching." Giles said while cleaning his glasses, the disappointment was evident; the gang knew this meant a lot of work.
"I could look on the net, to see if there have been any other sightings of the creature." Willow suggested from her place on the couch next to Xander. Out of all the people in the room, Willow was probably the least disappointed with the task of research; it was a distraction, something that was welcome, thinking about things hurt.
"Hmm, yes, it is odd for a demon to draw attention to itself, especially without death and destruction, this demon may have revealed itself for a reason, and if not there could be a trail of sightings. It may just be careless" Giles agreed while replacing his glasses.
"I saw it in a dream, so its bound to something big, or a sign of something big to come, but what bothers me is that it can fly, that will give it an advantage in a fight" Buffy summarised
"Precisely. And we have no idea of its powers yet" Giles Added. They never tried to find a demon to kill it without knowing something about it first, unless confronting it was absolutely necessary.
"I hope this isn't going to delay the work on the shop" Anya added her own concerns, but no one took any notice.
Xander, in one of his very occasional moments of military inspired tactic observation, which had been becoming fewer and further between since the Halloween he had become a soldier, realised something:
"It could be a trap, it could to be trying to get Buffy's attention, and wants to be tracked down" Xander suggested, the rest looked mildly surprised by his insight.
"That's an interesting theory, now that you mention it, it does seem possible that it could want Buffy to notice it, trying to lure her perhaps, we'll have to be careful about finding the creature, and it could be expecting us." Giles expanded, and decided his glasses needed another cleaning.
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After none of the gang could think of anything more that was useful, they started the research. After about 10 minutes Dawn had become bored and wandered off. After another 45 minutes Willow had found nothing to speak of, and Xander had noticed her attention was drifting, and her typing had slowed, and he had seen her face turn grim. He had known she was thinking about Tara, none of the others had noticed. He had spent a while thinking of a way to distract her thoughts, without bringing it up in front of the others. Xander had been sitting with his chair tilted on its back legs, and after rocking back and forth a few more times, got an idea.
With a quick glance behind him, to make sure it was safe, and a quick look around the table to check none of them were watching, he had let go of the table and the chair flew back, crashing to the floor with him on it.
"Owww" Xander moaned before getting up, the laughter had already started even willow was giggling. 'Hehe, and no one noticed I did it on purpose, Haris you're a genius, or as close to a genius as you can be when your not that smart, hmm, maybe more resourceful then genius' Xander had babbled to himself as he had picked up the chair and sat back down.
"Xander, you bloody idiot, didn't I warn you just last week that you shouldn't swing on chairs" Giles had said, through short snorts of laughter.
'That's right, he did, perhaps it's more random memory than resourcefulness, oh well' Xander had thought, and looked over to willow who was smiling slightly as she typed away at her usual speed. 'But skilful none the less' He had thought with a smile 'mission accomplished'
Now, ten minutes later, the table was again calm, Willow was still typing away, and the others reading. I was just gone noon, it was a hot summer day, and the sun beamed through the windows, a curtained had been pulled across on the window closest to the table, to stop the sunlight getting in the way of the research going on. The air conditioning made the interior of the house cool, in comparison to the scorching heat outside. At the moment the gang were quietly researching, none were really in the mood for idle chat. So it was a small surprise when suddenly Willow stopped typing, and clicking with her mouse, and addressed the group.
"I think I've got something" She said simply, the others crowded round her laptop screen, at one time, years ago, this many people crowding around her would have made her nervous.
"Here, there are several sightings of a large bird in the night, at several locations, and also nearby, there have been, uh, a few strange things" Willow said finishing with the best answer she could think of.
"Here in a farming town, that can't be more than 200 miles from here, a large bird was seen by farmers one night 4 days ago" She clicked to a new screen, "In this town, that is closer to here, three nights ago, a drunk claims to have seen a huge bat, and a strangely, "arrows of light in the sky" she quoted from the article. "This was reported only by an amateur reporter because the witness was 'unreliable', but the reporter claims to have seen scorch marks on a field near the sighting of the lights, but no real evidence was found" She changed to another screen, "A small village, a girl being chased by some men hears an animal shriek and sees a giant winged creature in the sky above her, The girl was found unconscious the next morning, the men chasing the girl haven't been identified or found, they could have been vamps, I guess, saw the creature and fled" She changed the screen to show a police incident report, "This might be unrelated but about 45 miles from here yesterday, an abandoned house just exploded, the cause is as of yet unexplained" Willow stated. Willow then showed a map of the area around Sunnydale, with the locations of the events plotted on it, a line was drawn through them, creating a perfect line to Sunnydale on the map.
"It's a trail of breadcrumbs for us or maybe someone else to follow" Buffy remarked
"Agreed, it does seem to have a plan already, we must attempt to find out what it is. It's too much of an assumption that it's just not very good at hiding" Giles added
"Maybe its annoyed at the store closing, we should rebuild and open it, immediately!" Anya selfishly recommended.
Everyone turned toward Anya, and many gave her 'the look'.
"What?" she asked, unaware of how self-centred her suggestion was, as usual.
Giles took off his glasses to give them a quick polish. "I think all we can do now is continue researching, Willow, keep trying to find out something, everyone else; books, except you Xander, Coffee, please."
Xander straightened as everyone else returned to their respective research materials, and walked to the kitchen, and went about his task of making coffee for the gang. It was surprising to think how much a part coffee had played in the stopping of many apocalypses. Xander realised that if their actions were ever discovered and a statue of them made due to their achievements, it would have to have the man who first invented coffee somewhere in the background, or at least them all holding a cup of coffee. He could see it in his minds eye, battle axe in one hand, coffee in the other, the deadliest of demon hunters.
Xander filled the kettle, and got out the mugs, he then leaned against the kitchen island and looked around idly while waiting for the water to boil, and he was lost in thought. He had things on his mind, or rather a person. After a while the kettle slowly began to steam, this roused Xander's attention enough that when he looked out the window he noticed a bird flying slowly close to the house, from behind the steam created by the kettle. The kettle switched itself off as it began to boil, and Xander picked it up and placed it by the mugs, as he had been so distracted, he had forgotten to put the coffee in the mugs ready, he sighed.
As he crossed the kitchen he couldn't help but notice the bird near the house now took up most of the window. Xander froze as the creature flew at him at a high speed.
Before he had mistaken it in the distance for a small bird near the house, now the creature was on top of him, it was dark grey skinned with silver and the wings and tail wing were a dark orange, it had a long horn on its head and a slender body, it had powerful looking hind legs tucked underneath its lower body, with silver claws. Although Xander did not see the sleek being in as much detail, as it was only in Xander's line of sight or a second or two, before it pulled up.
Xander was relieved to see it fly over the house. For a second he was stunned, but he was used to shocks now, living in Sunnydale had that effect.
"GUYS! It flew over the house! That.thing flew over the house!!" Xander called out but it was unnecessary, the others had already heard the displacement of air above the house, as the flying demon fought the momentum of gliding downwards so fast towards the house, had they seen it they would have seen how it had gracefully managed without even seeming to exerting itself. They all rushed for the front door, Xander arrived there last, just in time to see it flying off into the distance
"It came right at the house like it was gonna' ram me!" Xander exclaimed the shock not yet worn off
"That didn't look like a bird at all" Willow said from her place between Anya and Giles, mocking the reports of other sightings.
"That looked like a dragon" Anya said the first intelligent thing that day, and all eyes turned from the clouds that the winged spectre had disappeared into.
"Have your ever seen a dragon?" Buffy turned and asked Anya
"Only demons in the form of dragons" Anya replied with some awe.
"There's a difference?" Buffy asked
"If that is a real dragon, we must hope we don't have to fight it, according to a legend I heard a long time ago, dragons are very, very, very, very, very rare, their rarity only matched by their power, Dragons aren't demons, they are in a class all of their own" Anya spoke, her voice a mixture of wonder, and fear, her eyes looking toward the sky.
The whole gang was standing on the doorstep; dreading the further contact with the dragon, accept one.
"Wow, do they really breathe fire?" Dawn asked, she had been asleep, woken by the commotion, but made it to the door to late to see the dragon fly off, with the sun gleaming off its skin.
"If it holds true to legend, yes, and much more" replied Anya ominously.
"What is this legend you heard Anya?" Giles curiously asked.
"Apparently many thousand years before I became a vengeance demon, it was said that there was once a great civilisation, that was using dark magic's to take over the whole world, and according to the legend a dragon came and completely wiped out this advanced civilisation and their magic's" Anya recalled the legend from memory
"These dragons sound incredibly powerful, if not even an entire civilisation of dark sorcerers could stop one, then we must pray that this dragon does not intend to challenge us." Giles said, yet again deciding that his lenses just weren't shiny enough for him, and began to clean them.
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The rest of that day was spent researching dragons, the only progress made was finding demons resembling dragons, or that claimed to be dragons. Giles had phoned the watchers council to see if they had any information available on dragons, they had been surprisingly helpful; the talk of dragons intrigued them, especially after they were told of its supposed power. Giles had been reluctant at contacting them, but it was necessary, Giles had no knowledge in the area of dragons, they were just believed to be types of demons.
However it was pointless, the council had only one resource worth mentioning, an ancient account of a similar dragon sighted near the site of the vampire army massacre of 459AD, a large group of vampires had spent a century building a huge army, a two vampire scouting group went of to scout the area ahead, and when they returned but half an hour later, all that was left of the army was dust and weapons, not a single human body, not a chip in any sword from battle. The only thing that told them a dragon had caused the destruction of the legion was that the vampires saw the dragon perched on the rocky hill, which housed the caves that the vampire army resided in during the daylight hours.
But the dragon's description was vivid, it may have been a dragon similar to the one flying around Sunnydale, and possibly the same one, or it may not have been a dragon at all. After the shock of the encounter had worn off, Xander had been convinced by Giles to finish the coffee.
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It was early evening when Buffy decided she would go and patrol, Giles had warned her to be extra careful, and to try and flee from the dragon if it attacked, and not to confront it.
It was a humid summer night, although a slight breeze made the temperature quite pleasant, and the fresh smell of the outside, even in a graveyard, was a nice change from the reconditioned air in the house. Buffy had patrolled three cemeteries and not seen a single vamp, this was not an odd occurrence, but Buffy had seen two fresh graves that had obviously contained vamps, but the vamps that had just broke free were nowhere to be seen, and fledgling vamps rarely had the intelligence to steer clear of her, they were driven by their hunger.
Buffy continued walking until she saw something on the ground; it was a cigarette end, one of Spikes brand, it was possible that somebody, most likely a guy due to the lack of lipstick on the cigarette, was walking through the graveyard smoking cigarettes, but her instincts told her otherwise. The cigarette was cold, it was dropped a while ago, Spike was probably long gone by now, perhaps hours ago but it had only been dark for a couple of hours. He couldn't get that far. Buffy decided that she should try to find Spike; he may be useful for his fighting skills, he may even know something about dragons, it was worth the effort, and it was a quiet night, and she was bored.
Buffy had managed to follow Spike's trail of cigarette ends, he was smoking a lot more than usual it would seem, nicotine did effect vampires, the reason he smoked was more than just a look.
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Buffy tracked Spike to a corner of the cemetery where even vamps rarely travelled, this cemetery was on the outskirts of town and this corner of the cemetery was nowhere near where people ever travelled.
It was here she found an almost whole cigarette; Spike only dropped his smokes when he had to fight, or something needed attending to. Buffy looked up and saw a light in the bushes about 100 yards ahead, two in fact, the one on the left was dimmer though, it wasn't long before Buffy realised it was a car. She cautiously walked to the car, as she got closer; she noticed the smoke, coming from the car. The car had hit a tree, but not hard, near the left headlight, the fog light on the right was on, the fog light on the left was broken, the radiator was leaking water slowly. As she got to the bush and looked over she realised that something had happened there, what, she didn't know, but it had happened, and she had missed the show.
The car had been almost ripped apart the doors torn off, windows smashed, inwards it would seem, the roof caved it, Buffy noticed the smoke from the engine, a closer inspection showed a hole in the hood, the metal bent inward, and scorched, it had been blown inward by a blast or something, not a strong demon smashing at it with a claw or fist. She look to the rear of the car, there where large gashes out of the trunk lid, they were unmistakeably claw marks, clean single strokes.
Behind the car and up the hill to the small road at the top there were skid marks in the grass, but seemed fainter as they neared the cars current position, it appeared the car was not travelling fast when it hit the tree, so Buffy assumed the cars engine had been damaged by the look of the hole in the hood, it had then gone off the road. Buffy examined the seats inside the car for blood, there was none, but there was what appeared to be dust, perhaps vampire dust, she wasn't sure, it was mixed to badly with the shattered glass.
On the dashboard behind the steering wheel Buffy noticed a piece of paper. Buffy picked it up and found this it was in fact a torn off part of Spikes cigarettes packet, on one side was the company logo and the inked packaging one would expect to find on the outside, on the other side was a quickly scribbled note in what appeared to be Spike's handwriting. It took Buffy a moment to read it but she eventually managed, Spikes old style handwriting was not what Buffy was used to reading, the note read: -
"Slayer, I found the car earlier this evening; looks like you might need a hand taking out whatever did this. I checked around they were vamps driving, I smelt em', at least 4, they had a girl in the trunk, there's a little blood), but not that much, I think she got away, saw some footprints in the mud not far from the car, probably the girl's, looks roughly in the direction of town, she should make it ok, not many vamps out tonight. If you want my help, I'll be around the bronze till closing.
Spike.
Buffy also noticed the 'Check Oil' light was lit on the dashboard; it was more than likely that whoever had driven the car, would never check the oil again.
Before leaving the car, Buffy put on a glove and switched off the car's headlights, the reason for wearing a glove was not to leave fingerprints for when the police found the car, and the headlights, to delay the police finding the car, if the girl in the trunk didn't report the incident when she got to town. There may be evidence on the car as to what attacked the vamps inside, and left the human girl to escape, evidence that she couldn't see, perhaps magical. If they had to come back later, it would be difficult if the police found the car and either removed it or had it under close watch.
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Buffy considered the note, why had Spike cared about the girl being alive. 'Perhaps he's trying to convince me that he's changed again, or maybe just being useful, maybe he just thought I'd want to know' Buffy contemplated. 'Well I probably should go and see him; we might need his strength and fighting skills' Buffy continued to think as she walked to the Bronze. 'He's been keeping to himself, he's done that before when he's been up to something, and he may even be behind the appearance of this dragon' Buffy stopped when she heard rustling in the bushes nearby. Buffy drew her stake, and slowly crept up to the bush, ready to kill her first enemy that night. She slowly peered over the edge of the bush, and then jumped back in shock. The inspection of the scene behind the shoulder height plant, found Buffy in a difficult situation, when she found a young couple in there, 'having fun'. So Buffy decided to leave matters that were none of her business alone, and continued to the Bronze.
'Hmm, it just doesn't seem like Spikes style, and he's been back a while already, long before the dragon arrived' Buffy became lost in her thoughts, as her feet took her automatically along the well known route to the club.
Buffy arrived at the Bronze, a lot of past was connected with the place, and it had already been rebuilt once, and changed owners many times
Buffy didn't make it to the door, before Spike stopped her; it was unusual for Spike to meet her outside, he was partial to his spicy chicken wings, which he usually made her buy him.
Buffy's initial shock soon change to a new shock, Spike looked, different, he looked, depressed, would be a good word, Buffy could hardly believe the sadness in his eyes but she had seen it before, but couldn't remember where, she quickly shrugged it off, it wasn't the time or place
"So you found that car then?" Spike asked already knowing the answer; however his voiced lacked some of the usual defiant tone.
"I did, what do you know about it?" Buffy demanded, pretending not to notice the change in his voice.
"Not much, luv, only that whatever did it was big, and was fast enough to catch up with the thing while it was speedin' down that road" Spike answered, Buffy sensed he wasn't hiding anything, she tried to tell herself that Spike was good at hiding things, that she should suspect him.
"Have you watched the news lately?" Buffy asked the vampire.
"No, I haven't even seen a telly for a while, I've been away" Spike replied "Why?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, knowing Buffy had asked for a reason.
"Come back to the house, it would be an idea to let the whole gang tell you about it" Buffy said, and got up to walk back home. Spike didn't move.
"Buffy?" Spike said softly, getting Buffy's attention.
"What?" Buffy asked him, surprised by yet another anomaly in his voice.
"Is it true what I heard?" he asked looking serious
"Is what true?" Buffy wasn't sure what he was referring to.
"What I heard about the wi-, I mean, Tara" Spike clarified, looking at her expectantly "she didn't cop it while I was gone did she?" Buffy was so saddened by his words, she didn't notice that he was half way to letting a tear fall.
Buffy looked down, bad memories stirred "Yes it is true"
"No." Spike looked down, and turned away, as the tear that threatened to fall, fell, followed shortly by its counterpart in his other eye, "I shouldn't have left I might have been able to stop her from dying" Spike looked ashamed by the way he hung his shoulders, he wiped away the tears before Buffy could see them.
Buffy was unsure he was sincere in his emotion, but it seemed too real, she decided not to remark on his emotion being not real, but instead comfort him a bit, she looked back up at him.
"There's nothing you could have done, she wasn't killed in a fight, or by a demon, not anything you could have protected her from, only a stray bullet in broad daylight, nothing even I could have protected her from" Buffy recounted the death of her friend.
Spike sighed, "I suppos' not, but I could have killed the bastard whoever he was, before he could do it, that's what us vamps are good for." Spike seemed angered, that he hadn't killed the thing that killed Tara, shown it the pain and suffering he had inflicted on countless innocent people.
"He was human, you couldn't have killed him" Buffy said simply
"I could av' if I really tried" Spike responded truthfully, with enough willpower, it was possible, he could have done it.
"Maybe but you wouldn't have known what he would do at that time, none of us knew" Buffy finished, her tone saying simply, 'It's not your fault; there is nothing you could have done'.
Spike only nodded solemnly in response, after standing there for a while longer, for Spike to come to terms, and for Buffy to think about why he cared, Spike finally sighed, signalling he was ready to go.
On their way back, they again passed the rustling bush. Buffy rolled her eyes, but Spike not knowing motioned for Buffy to stay while he checked it out. Buffy tried not to chuckle as Spike looked behind the bush and his eyes went wide, and he pulled back, and tried to creep away silently. The expression on his face was priceless, if vampires could blush, Spike would have. As an afterthought, Spike pulled off a 'Beware of Dog' sign on a nearby gate and hung it on the bush.
"That'll make sure they're not disturbed" Spike whispered grinning at his ingenuity, Buffy just tried to stifle her laughter as much as possible.
Spike was tempted to stay and see if his little plan worked, but decided he had better get to Buffy's house, something big was obviously going down.
Spike's attention was distracted for a second, he could have sworn he saw something move in front of the moon for a split second, but decided he must have imagined it.
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Ok people, R&R, I want some reviews before I continue, as I predict there is quite a bit more to do, and I don't want to continue if you all hate it so far. And NO flames, my review page is like a gas station, no smoking, open flames or mobile phones for that matter! And you had better switch off your engines too. :P Bad Grammer.FIXED.Mostly
Do They Really Breathe Fire?
Chapter 1.
The Gang had assembled at the Summers residence. This had become the new base of operations, since the magic box had been trashed.
They were sat in the living room, Willow, Xander and Dawn on the sofa, in that order, and Giles and Anya sat in chairs, Buffy stood, and occasionally leaned against the wall. Stacks and boxes full of books from the shop had been piled around. Luckily not many of the books the Scooby gang used for research had been lost; it was more a case of digging them out of the rubble.
Giles had rented a small apartment, he had stored more books there, but since it was a very small place, there was little room for storage, while still being habitable.
After Xander had told Buffy about what he had seen on the news, she had told him about her strange dream, and he agreed it seemed more than coincidental, actually his exact words were more like:
"What is it with this weird crap coming to you in dreams?" "And why is it always the worst stuff, why can't you have a dream about a demon that wants to send us on vacation, or, um, uh, never mind" he had ranted, cornflakes flying from his mouth.
After which, Buffy had given him an odd look.
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It was time to form a plan of action; they had no doubt there would be much research and searching of books. But maybe they would get lucky and Giles would know it off the top of his head, it didn't happen often with the rare kinds of demons, it would be unreasonable for the watchers council to expect watchers to memorize all demon types, it would quite probably be impossible for a human to do, it was possible that Giles would know what the creature was.
Buffy had just finished describing the creature, and all eyes turned to Giles, who took this as a prompt.
"I have never heard of a demon like this before, however this green light sounds, interesting, a good place to start researching." Giles said while cleaning his glasses, the disappointment was evident; the gang knew this meant a lot of work.
"I could look on the net, to see if there have been any other sightings of the creature." Willow suggested from her place on the couch next to Xander. Out of all the people in the room, Willow was probably the least disappointed with the task of research; it was a distraction, something that was welcome, thinking about things hurt.
"Hmm, yes, it is odd for a demon to draw attention to itself, especially without death and destruction, this demon may have revealed itself for a reason, and if not there could be a trail of sightings. It may just be careless" Giles agreed while replacing his glasses.
"I saw it in a dream, so its bound to something big, or a sign of something big to come, but what bothers me is that it can fly, that will give it an advantage in a fight" Buffy summarised
"Precisely. And we have no idea of its powers yet" Giles Added. They never tried to find a demon to kill it without knowing something about it first, unless confronting it was absolutely necessary.
"I hope this isn't going to delay the work on the shop" Anya added her own concerns, but no one took any notice.
Xander, in one of his very occasional moments of military inspired tactic observation, which had been becoming fewer and further between since the Halloween he had become a soldier, realised something:
"It could be a trap, it could to be trying to get Buffy's attention, and wants to be tracked down" Xander suggested, the rest looked mildly surprised by his insight.
"That's an interesting theory, now that you mention it, it does seem possible that it could want Buffy to notice it, trying to lure her perhaps, we'll have to be careful about finding the creature, and it could be expecting us." Giles expanded, and decided his glasses needed another cleaning.
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After none of the gang could think of anything more that was useful, they started the research. After about 10 minutes Dawn had become bored and wandered off. After another 45 minutes Willow had found nothing to speak of, and Xander had noticed her attention was drifting, and her typing had slowed, and he had seen her face turn grim. He had known she was thinking about Tara, none of the others had noticed. He had spent a while thinking of a way to distract her thoughts, without bringing it up in front of the others. Xander had been sitting with his chair tilted on its back legs, and after rocking back and forth a few more times, got an idea.
With a quick glance behind him, to make sure it was safe, and a quick look around the table to check none of them were watching, he had let go of the table and the chair flew back, crashing to the floor with him on it.
"Owww" Xander moaned before getting up, the laughter had already started even willow was giggling. 'Hehe, and no one noticed I did it on purpose, Haris you're a genius, or as close to a genius as you can be when your not that smart, hmm, maybe more resourceful then genius' Xander had babbled to himself as he had picked up the chair and sat back down.
"Xander, you bloody idiot, didn't I warn you just last week that you shouldn't swing on chairs" Giles had said, through short snorts of laughter.
'That's right, he did, perhaps it's more random memory than resourcefulness, oh well' Xander had thought, and looked over to willow who was smiling slightly as she typed away at her usual speed. 'But skilful none the less' He had thought with a smile 'mission accomplished'
Now, ten minutes later, the table was again calm, Willow was still typing away, and the others reading. I was just gone noon, it was a hot summer day, and the sun beamed through the windows, a curtained had been pulled across on the window closest to the table, to stop the sunlight getting in the way of the research going on. The air conditioning made the interior of the house cool, in comparison to the scorching heat outside. At the moment the gang were quietly researching, none were really in the mood for idle chat. So it was a small surprise when suddenly Willow stopped typing, and clicking with her mouse, and addressed the group.
"I think I've got something" She said simply, the others crowded round her laptop screen, at one time, years ago, this many people crowding around her would have made her nervous.
"Here, there are several sightings of a large bird in the night, at several locations, and also nearby, there have been, uh, a few strange things" Willow said finishing with the best answer she could think of.
"Here in a farming town, that can't be more than 200 miles from here, a large bird was seen by farmers one night 4 days ago" She clicked to a new screen, "In this town, that is closer to here, three nights ago, a drunk claims to have seen a huge bat, and a strangely, "arrows of light in the sky" she quoted from the article. "This was reported only by an amateur reporter because the witness was 'unreliable', but the reporter claims to have seen scorch marks on a field near the sighting of the lights, but no real evidence was found" She changed to another screen, "A small village, a girl being chased by some men hears an animal shriek and sees a giant winged creature in the sky above her, The girl was found unconscious the next morning, the men chasing the girl haven't been identified or found, they could have been vamps, I guess, saw the creature and fled" She changed the screen to show a police incident report, "This might be unrelated but about 45 miles from here yesterday, an abandoned house just exploded, the cause is as of yet unexplained" Willow stated. Willow then showed a map of the area around Sunnydale, with the locations of the events plotted on it, a line was drawn through them, creating a perfect line to Sunnydale on the map.
"It's a trail of breadcrumbs for us or maybe someone else to follow" Buffy remarked
"Agreed, it does seem to have a plan already, we must attempt to find out what it is. It's too much of an assumption that it's just not very good at hiding" Giles added
"Maybe its annoyed at the store closing, we should rebuild and open it, immediately!" Anya selfishly recommended.
Everyone turned toward Anya, and many gave her 'the look'.
"What?" she asked, unaware of how self-centred her suggestion was, as usual.
Giles took off his glasses to give them a quick polish. "I think all we can do now is continue researching, Willow, keep trying to find out something, everyone else; books, except you Xander, Coffee, please."
Xander straightened as everyone else returned to their respective research materials, and walked to the kitchen, and went about his task of making coffee for the gang. It was surprising to think how much a part coffee had played in the stopping of many apocalypses. Xander realised that if their actions were ever discovered and a statue of them made due to their achievements, it would have to have the man who first invented coffee somewhere in the background, or at least them all holding a cup of coffee. He could see it in his minds eye, battle axe in one hand, coffee in the other, the deadliest of demon hunters.
Xander filled the kettle, and got out the mugs, he then leaned against the kitchen island and looked around idly while waiting for the water to boil, and he was lost in thought. He had things on his mind, or rather a person. After a while the kettle slowly began to steam, this roused Xander's attention enough that when he looked out the window he noticed a bird flying slowly close to the house, from behind the steam created by the kettle. The kettle switched itself off as it began to boil, and Xander picked it up and placed it by the mugs, as he had been so distracted, he had forgotten to put the coffee in the mugs ready, he sighed.
As he crossed the kitchen he couldn't help but notice the bird near the house now took up most of the window. Xander froze as the creature flew at him at a high speed.
Before he had mistaken it in the distance for a small bird near the house, now the creature was on top of him, it was dark grey skinned with silver and the wings and tail wing were a dark orange, it had a long horn on its head and a slender body, it had powerful looking hind legs tucked underneath its lower body, with silver claws. Although Xander did not see the sleek being in as much detail, as it was only in Xander's line of sight or a second or two, before it pulled up.
Xander was relieved to see it fly over the house. For a second he was stunned, but he was used to shocks now, living in Sunnydale had that effect.
"GUYS! It flew over the house! That.thing flew over the house!!" Xander called out but it was unnecessary, the others had already heard the displacement of air above the house, as the flying demon fought the momentum of gliding downwards so fast towards the house, had they seen it they would have seen how it had gracefully managed without even seeming to exerting itself. They all rushed for the front door, Xander arrived there last, just in time to see it flying off into the distance
"It came right at the house like it was gonna' ram me!" Xander exclaimed the shock not yet worn off
"That didn't look like a bird at all" Willow said from her place between Anya and Giles, mocking the reports of other sightings.
"That looked like a dragon" Anya said the first intelligent thing that day, and all eyes turned from the clouds that the winged spectre had disappeared into.
"Have your ever seen a dragon?" Buffy turned and asked Anya
"Only demons in the form of dragons" Anya replied with some awe.
"There's a difference?" Buffy asked
"If that is a real dragon, we must hope we don't have to fight it, according to a legend I heard a long time ago, dragons are very, very, very, very, very rare, their rarity only matched by their power, Dragons aren't demons, they are in a class all of their own" Anya spoke, her voice a mixture of wonder, and fear, her eyes looking toward the sky.
The whole gang was standing on the doorstep; dreading the further contact with the dragon, accept one.
"Wow, do they really breathe fire?" Dawn asked, she had been asleep, woken by the commotion, but made it to the door to late to see the dragon fly off, with the sun gleaming off its skin.
"If it holds true to legend, yes, and much more" replied Anya ominously.
"What is this legend you heard Anya?" Giles curiously asked.
"Apparently many thousand years before I became a vengeance demon, it was said that there was once a great civilisation, that was using dark magic's to take over the whole world, and according to the legend a dragon came and completely wiped out this advanced civilisation and their magic's" Anya recalled the legend from memory
"These dragons sound incredibly powerful, if not even an entire civilisation of dark sorcerers could stop one, then we must pray that this dragon does not intend to challenge us." Giles said, yet again deciding that his lenses just weren't shiny enough for him, and began to clean them.
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The rest of that day was spent researching dragons, the only progress made was finding demons resembling dragons, or that claimed to be dragons. Giles had phoned the watchers council to see if they had any information available on dragons, they had been surprisingly helpful; the talk of dragons intrigued them, especially after they were told of its supposed power. Giles had been reluctant at contacting them, but it was necessary, Giles had no knowledge in the area of dragons, they were just believed to be types of demons.
However it was pointless, the council had only one resource worth mentioning, an ancient account of a similar dragon sighted near the site of the vampire army massacre of 459AD, a large group of vampires had spent a century building a huge army, a two vampire scouting group went of to scout the area ahead, and when they returned but half an hour later, all that was left of the army was dust and weapons, not a single human body, not a chip in any sword from battle. The only thing that told them a dragon had caused the destruction of the legion was that the vampires saw the dragon perched on the rocky hill, which housed the caves that the vampire army resided in during the daylight hours.
But the dragon's description was vivid, it may have been a dragon similar to the one flying around Sunnydale, and possibly the same one, or it may not have been a dragon at all. After the shock of the encounter had worn off, Xander had been convinced by Giles to finish the coffee.
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It was early evening when Buffy decided she would go and patrol, Giles had warned her to be extra careful, and to try and flee from the dragon if it attacked, and not to confront it.
It was a humid summer night, although a slight breeze made the temperature quite pleasant, and the fresh smell of the outside, even in a graveyard, was a nice change from the reconditioned air in the house. Buffy had patrolled three cemeteries and not seen a single vamp, this was not an odd occurrence, but Buffy had seen two fresh graves that had obviously contained vamps, but the vamps that had just broke free were nowhere to be seen, and fledgling vamps rarely had the intelligence to steer clear of her, they were driven by their hunger.
Buffy continued walking until she saw something on the ground; it was a cigarette end, one of Spikes brand, it was possible that somebody, most likely a guy due to the lack of lipstick on the cigarette, was walking through the graveyard smoking cigarettes, but her instincts told her otherwise. The cigarette was cold, it was dropped a while ago, Spike was probably long gone by now, perhaps hours ago but it had only been dark for a couple of hours. He couldn't get that far. Buffy decided that she should try to find Spike; he may be useful for his fighting skills, he may even know something about dragons, it was worth the effort, and it was a quiet night, and she was bored.
Buffy had managed to follow Spike's trail of cigarette ends, he was smoking a lot more than usual it would seem, nicotine did effect vampires, the reason he smoked was more than just a look.
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Buffy tracked Spike to a corner of the cemetery where even vamps rarely travelled, this cemetery was on the outskirts of town and this corner of the cemetery was nowhere near where people ever travelled.
It was here she found an almost whole cigarette; Spike only dropped his smokes when he had to fight, or something needed attending to. Buffy looked up and saw a light in the bushes about 100 yards ahead, two in fact, the one on the left was dimmer though, it wasn't long before Buffy realised it was a car. She cautiously walked to the car, as she got closer; she noticed the smoke, coming from the car. The car had hit a tree, but not hard, near the left headlight, the fog light on the right was on, the fog light on the left was broken, the radiator was leaking water slowly. As she got to the bush and looked over she realised that something had happened there, what, she didn't know, but it had happened, and she had missed the show.
The car had been almost ripped apart the doors torn off, windows smashed, inwards it would seem, the roof caved it, Buffy noticed the smoke from the engine, a closer inspection showed a hole in the hood, the metal bent inward, and scorched, it had been blown inward by a blast or something, not a strong demon smashing at it with a claw or fist. She look to the rear of the car, there where large gashes out of the trunk lid, they were unmistakeably claw marks, clean single strokes.
Behind the car and up the hill to the small road at the top there were skid marks in the grass, but seemed fainter as they neared the cars current position, it appeared the car was not travelling fast when it hit the tree, so Buffy assumed the cars engine had been damaged by the look of the hole in the hood, it had then gone off the road. Buffy examined the seats inside the car for blood, there was none, but there was what appeared to be dust, perhaps vampire dust, she wasn't sure, it was mixed to badly with the shattered glass.
On the dashboard behind the steering wheel Buffy noticed a piece of paper. Buffy picked it up and found this it was in fact a torn off part of Spikes cigarettes packet, on one side was the company logo and the inked packaging one would expect to find on the outside, on the other side was a quickly scribbled note in what appeared to be Spike's handwriting. It took Buffy a moment to read it but she eventually managed, Spikes old style handwriting was not what Buffy was used to reading, the note read: -
"Slayer, I found the car earlier this evening; looks like you might need a hand taking out whatever did this. I checked around they were vamps driving, I smelt em', at least 4, they had a girl in the trunk, there's a little blood), but not that much, I think she got away, saw some footprints in the mud not far from the car, probably the girl's, looks roughly in the direction of town, she should make it ok, not many vamps out tonight. If you want my help, I'll be around the bronze till closing.
Spike.
Buffy also noticed the 'Check Oil' light was lit on the dashboard; it was more than likely that whoever had driven the car, would never check the oil again.
Before leaving the car, Buffy put on a glove and switched off the car's headlights, the reason for wearing a glove was not to leave fingerprints for when the police found the car, and the headlights, to delay the police finding the car, if the girl in the trunk didn't report the incident when she got to town. There may be evidence on the car as to what attacked the vamps inside, and left the human girl to escape, evidence that she couldn't see, perhaps magical. If they had to come back later, it would be difficult if the police found the car and either removed it or had it under close watch.
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Buffy considered the note, why had Spike cared about the girl being alive. 'Perhaps he's trying to convince me that he's changed again, or maybe just being useful, maybe he just thought I'd want to know' Buffy contemplated. 'Well I probably should go and see him; we might need his strength and fighting skills' Buffy continued to think as she walked to the Bronze. 'He's been keeping to himself, he's done that before when he's been up to something, and he may even be behind the appearance of this dragon' Buffy stopped when she heard rustling in the bushes nearby. Buffy drew her stake, and slowly crept up to the bush, ready to kill her first enemy that night. She slowly peered over the edge of the bush, and then jumped back in shock. The inspection of the scene behind the shoulder height plant, found Buffy in a difficult situation, when she found a young couple in there, 'having fun'. So Buffy decided to leave matters that were none of her business alone, and continued to the Bronze.
'Hmm, it just doesn't seem like Spikes style, and he's been back a while already, long before the dragon arrived' Buffy became lost in her thoughts, as her feet took her automatically along the well known route to the club.
Buffy arrived at the Bronze, a lot of past was connected with the place, and it had already been rebuilt once, and changed owners many times
Buffy didn't make it to the door, before Spike stopped her; it was unusual for Spike to meet her outside, he was partial to his spicy chicken wings, which he usually made her buy him.
Buffy's initial shock soon change to a new shock, Spike looked, different, he looked, depressed, would be a good word, Buffy could hardly believe the sadness in his eyes but she had seen it before, but couldn't remember where, she quickly shrugged it off, it wasn't the time or place
"So you found that car then?" Spike asked already knowing the answer; however his voiced lacked some of the usual defiant tone.
"I did, what do you know about it?" Buffy demanded, pretending not to notice the change in his voice.
"Not much, luv, only that whatever did it was big, and was fast enough to catch up with the thing while it was speedin' down that road" Spike answered, Buffy sensed he wasn't hiding anything, she tried to tell herself that Spike was good at hiding things, that she should suspect him.
"Have you watched the news lately?" Buffy asked the vampire.
"No, I haven't even seen a telly for a while, I've been away" Spike replied "Why?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, knowing Buffy had asked for a reason.
"Come back to the house, it would be an idea to let the whole gang tell you about it" Buffy said, and got up to walk back home. Spike didn't move.
"Buffy?" Spike said softly, getting Buffy's attention.
"What?" Buffy asked him, surprised by yet another anomaly in his voice.
"Is it true what I heard?" he asked looking serious
"Is what true?" Buffy wasn't sure what he was referring to.
"What I heard about the wi-, I mean, Tara" Spike clarified, looking at her expectantly "she didn't cop it while I was gone did she?" Buffy was so saddened by his words, she didn't notice that he was half way to letting a tear fall.
Buffy looked down, bad memories stirred "Yes it is true"
"No." Spike looked down, and turned away, as the tear that threatened to fall, fell, followed shortly by its counterpart in his other eye, "I shouldn't have left I might have been able to stop her from dying" Spike looked ashamed by the way he hung his shoulders, he wiped away the tears before Buffy could see them.
Buffy was unsure he was sincere in his emotion, but it seemed too real, she decided not to remark on his emotion being not real, but instead comfort him a bit, she looked back up at him.
"There's nothing you could have done, she wasn't killed in a fight, or by a demon, not anything you could have protected her from, only a stray bullet in broad daylight, nothing even I could have protected her from" Buffy recounted the death of her friend.
Spike sighed, "I suppos' not, but I could have killed the bastard whoever he was, before he could do it, that's what us vamps are good for." Spike seemed angered, that he hadn't killed the thing that killed Tara, shown it the pain and suffering he had inflicted on countless innocent people.
"He was human, you couldn't have killed him" Buffy said simply
"I could av' if I really tried" Spike responded truthfully, with enough willpower, it was possible, he could have done it.
"Maybe but you wouldn't have known what he would do at that time, none of us knew" Buffy finished, her tone saying simply, 'It's not your fault; there is nothing you could have done'.
Spike only nodded solemnly in response, after standing there for a while longer, for Spike to come to terms, and for Buffy to think about why he cared, Spike finally sighed, signalling he was ready to go.
On their way back, they again passed the rustling bush. Buffy rolled her eyes, but Spike not knowing motioned for Buffy to stay while he checked it out. Buffy tried not to chuckle as Spike looked behind the bush and his eyes went wide, and he pulled back, and tried to creep away silently. The expression on his face was priceless, if vampires could blush, Spike would have. As an afterthought, Spike pulled off a 'Beware of Dog' sign on a nearby gate and hung it on the bush.
"That'll make sure they're not disturbed" Spike whispered grinning at his ingenuity, Buffy just tried to stifle her laughter as much as possible.
Spike was tempted to stay and see if his little plan worked, but decided he had better get to Buffy's house, something big was obviously going down.
Spike's attention was distracted for a second, he could have sworn he saw something move in front of the moon for a split second, but decided he must have imagined it.
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Ok people, R&R, I want some reviews before I continue, as I predict there is quite a bit more to do, and I don't want to continue if you all hate it so far. And NO flames, my review page is like a gas station, no smoking, open flames or mobile phones for that matter! And you had better switch off your engines too. :P Bad Grammer.FIXED.Mostly