Episode Two: Swiss Family Jackson
Written by Blitzgal
Disclaimer: The Buffy universe belongs to Joss Wheon, Mutant Enemy, and UPN. However, the original character in this piece of AU fiction belong to me. Do not reproduce in any way. Check out the Undaunted website at
Guest Starring Emma Caulfield as Jade
"Harkon!" a strong female voice called.
Harkon hurried across the rough surface of the jungle floor. The others followed behind, several of them stumbling as they attempted to keep up. He merely sneered at the sound of them falling and continued on his way.
"What is it?" he demanded.
The scouting expedition had returned at last. He'd sent out his three strongest allies the day before to find anything useful to the group. When he caught up with the trio, he immediately saw evidence of their success. They dragged an unconscious creature behind them—something hair and probably too disgusting to eat.
"Jade," he murmured, smiling at the blonde vampire before him.
Jade sauntered toward him, her hips rolling seductively beneath her sodden clothing. As she drew near, Harkon grabbed her by the neck and pulled her close. The kiss was pure cruelty, with teeth and tongues combined. Leslie had never been with a woman like Jade, but Harkon was already bored of the adventure.
Pulling away, he gave her a playful swat on the rump before shoving her away from him. "In the week that I've known you, you have yet to fail me," he murmured.
Jade looked disappointed at being cast aside so quickly. To compensate for the dismissal, she rushed toward her comrades to commandeer their prize. Pushing Ramirez out of her way, she crouched on the ground to pull the animal up by the scruff of its neck.
"We found something," she announced.
Harkon stared down at it in disgust. "What is it?" he asked.
"It's not just an animal," Jade said. "We found a group of them. In a house."
"A house?" Harkon asked, suddenly intrigued.
Ramirez stepped forward. He glowered at Jade for stealing his thunder before commenting, "They'd built the structure in a tree. There are probably more of them."
"And where is the rest of this group?" Harkon wondered.
"The larger ones escaped. We think this one is a child. It should be much sweeter," Jade said. Standing, she leaned toward Harkon and ran her fingers down the front of his shirt. "Remember your first?" she whispered. "The little girl with cherub cheeks all flushed with confusion? She was sweet."
Harkon knelt down beside the unconscious creature. At full height it would stand as tall as Jade, Beneath its gingery hair, it seemed to be thick with well-defined muscles. If this was the smaller sort, the adult creatures had to be seven feet tall at least, and not the sort one wanted to meet on his own.
"Well, aren't you the overgrown poppet?" Harkon murmured.
When he reached out to touch its shoulder, the animal suddenly wakened. Rearing up, it struck Harkon in the face with a flailing arm before lumbering to its feet and attempting to escape. Ramirez quickly stepped in along with Jade. The two of them held the creature in place while Harkon recovered from his surprise.
"Douglas," Harkon drawled.
Behind him, Rivers stepped forward. "Yes?" he asked.
Turning to look over his shoulder, Harkon ordered, "Take a bite and tell us how the blood tastes."
Rivers hesitated. Staring at the confused animal, he seemed to debate whether or not he was willing to obey. Harkon took a step closer to the creature, grasped it by the hair, and twisted its head back to expose its neck. Frightened brown eyes stared up at him. If it weren't for the sparse hair disguising its features, those eyes might have made it look human.
Harkon glanced back at Rivers. "Eat," he commanded.
Finally creeping forward, Rivers gave Harkon one last pleading look before finally bending toward the creature sprawled between Jade and his master. The others watched quietly as Rivers fed. The bite was tentative at first, but quickly grew savage as Rivers allowed the bloodlust to take over. In a matter of moments, he'd taken all there was to drink.
The creature fell limply to the ground, and Rivers stood at full height, his eyes closed. Harkon watched him carefully. "How do you feel?" he inquired.
When Rivers opened his eyes and looked at him, Harkon was taken aback by the strange light shining in them. "It's powerful," he said. "Intoxicating. I feel like I can fly!"
His brow furrowing, Harkon responded, "Well, we can try that later. It's edible, then?"
As Rivers opened his mouth to reply, a strange expression crossed his features. He gagged suddenly and clutched his throat. As Harkon watched, the dead veins in his body became so engorged with blood that they pressed against the surface of his skin. A patchwork of throbbing blue lines crisscrossed his face and hands. In the next instant, they seemed to explode outward. Rivers simply burst like an overfilled balloon, turning to dust in a matter of moments.
The others remained completely silent. Harkon stared at the spot where Rivers had stood. "Right then," he announced. "No eating the locals."
Lark reclined on the warm surface of the metallic roof. For the first time in two days, the sun was shining. Now that their roof was finally attached, she and the others were ready to move into their home. She sighed deeply. For the first time since they crashed into this planet, she almost felt normal again.
Beside her, Tom glanced down at her and smiled. "Nothing like a job well done, huh?" he asked.
Lark squinted and gazed up at him. "For once I'm actually working on something for myself," she said.
"What did Lyssa have to say when she heard the news?"
Laughing, Lark pushed herself up to a sitting position. "She blew a fuse," she admitted. "But she'll just have to deal with it. These prefabs were meant to house ten people. She's damned lucky the four of us get one to ourselves."
They stared out across the busy clearing. The charred earth around them was bustling with activity. People of all classes were pitching in to get as many dwellings up as possible. It would take more than a week to put the bulk of the settlement together, and many more weeks to actually get the place established. Building was one thing—next up was actually moving in and getting settled.
"Where are the Baines sisters, anyway?" Tom asked.
"Elizabeth and Val are still up working on that distress signal," Lark said. "I think Lyssa is hiding somewhere, trying to avoid actual manual labor."
"Give her some credit," Tom said. "She could be lying low after finding out one of the vampires is an ex-boyfriend."
Lark chuckled. "That guy is something else," she agreed. "Granted, I only met him after he became a soulless demon, but you have to wonder what she saw in him."
"I was actually thinking about it the other way around," he said, gesturing. "She seems a little high maintenance."
"Oh, I don't know," Lark said. "I can see you two hitting it off. I mean, we've already established that she goes for dopey types with bad timing."
"Ha," Tom mocked. He was silent a moment before asking, "What's your type?"
"Hmm," Lark murmured, shifting away from him.
"Hey, I didn't mean to—"
She interrupted him. "So this is the point where you tell me that you really feel a connection between us, and then awkwardly make a move on me, right?" she muttered.
Tom frowned. "Don't take it like that," he said.
"I don't want things to get weird between us," Lark told him. "I want to keep that comfortable flow we've got going. I don't have a lot of friends, you know?"
"Yeah," Tom blurted. "I didn't—I want to be friends."
Kindly, Lark covered his hand with hers and squeezed it gently. "My type…let's just say my type wears a skirt and has far less facial hair."
Tom looked stunned. "Oh," he said. Gazing forward a moment, he repeated, "Oh. So you're…"
"Yeah," Lark said. "So now…?"
"It's cool," he assured her. "I'm glad you told me."
"No weirdness?" Lark prodded.
Tom smiled. "No," he said. By his frank tone of voice, Lark knew he was being perfectly honest with her.
"Good," she said. "Because I seriously think you have a chance with Lyssa; you know, if you play your cards right."
"What about you?" Tom teased her. "You've got this whole tough girl mystique going for you."
"Blondes?" Lark asked, wrinkling her nose. "Don't do a thing for me. I'm not really into that whole external beauty thing."
"I can see that about you," Tom laughed. She bounced her shoulder against his jokingly.
"Hey!" a voice shouted from the ground below. They glanced over the edge of the curved roof to see Lyssa Baines standing near the house. "If you're done sitting around on your asses, how about finishing the place before nightfall? I'd really enjoy a roof over my head for one evening on this damned planet."
Lark's brows rose meaningfully as she turned to Tom and said, "She's all yours, stud."
The treehouse was much more elaborate than Harkon had imagined it. Rising elegantly from the jungle floor, a winding staircase circled the broad trunk of a tree. The tree itself was of an unknown species; definitely not found on earth. Its leaves were as big as a human head, and threaded with fluorescent blue veins. Far above the ground, a wide deck spanned the better portion of the tree's sweeping branches. It was impossible to see just how large the house was while peering up from below.
"The creatures have fled?" Harkon asked.
Ramirez nodded.
"This is happy news," Harkon murmured. Beckoning to Jade, he threw an arm companionably over her shoulder and lead her to the staircase.
At the top of the stairs, they were amazed by the sight of a large, two story dwelling cradled by the hulking boughs of the massive tree. Harkon was reminded instantly of the old movies his father had bootlegged and shown to his children—terrible twentieth century tripe shown only in two dimensions. But they'd been entertaining enough to a young boy. His favorites had been the series of films concerning an orphan boy raised by animals. This Tarzan had lived in a jungle environment much like this.
"It's beautiful," Jade whispered, moving forward to enter the open doorway.
Inside, a large main room sat nearly completely open to the outside elements. The walls rose only waist high. Large beams supported the ceiling on three sides of the room, forming rather uniform openings to the outside. A fourth wall in the back of the room appeared to separate the main living area from smaller rooms on the other side of the house.
"Rather cozy, this," he said. "Must have taken a great deal of effort to set this up."
"And it's ours now?" Jade asked, running her fingers over the finely sanded wood table at the center of the room. "We can live here?"
"It's ours," he agreed. "A fine place for such as us." He turned toward the open doorway, where Ramirez and the others hesitated on the outer deck. "It belongs to us," he reiterated, "Me and Jade. You can sleep outside."
He noticed a roll of netting tied neatly above each open window and the doorway. Walking forward, he reached up to untie the roll directly over the door. The gauzy material fell instantly to the floor and obscured the faces of the vampires standing outside. When they began to mumble in outraged surprise, Harkon turned his back on them and sauntered across the room toward Jade. Leaning forward, he curled his lips in a satisfied sneer before leaning forward for a kiss.
"This place is terrible," Lyssa complained. When her sister glanced up from her unpacking, she pointed to her head and added, "Just look at my hair."
Bit sighed. "I don't know what you expected," she said. "It would have been like this on Vic-12, you know."
Frowning, Lyssa dropped onto her bed. "I know," she grumbled. "I should have taken proper hair care precautions before getting on that ship."
"You aren't upset about your hair," Bit argued. Reaching into her bag, she grabbed a few more shirts and tossed them onto her bed. "You're mad that A: you had no idea Leslie was on this ship, and B: that he'd turned into the mega-evil baddie."
"I wouldn't call him the mega-evil," Lyssa mumbled. "More like evil wannabe. I can't believe I ever went out with that guy."
"You went out with that guy to get his brother's attention," Bit explained. "Then you dropped him cold when Arthur finally showed some interest."
"Leslie was…how do I say this?" Lyssa mused. "Boring. And a wimp. Arthur had more pizzazz, more flair…"
"Daddy's bank accounts," Bit prompted.
"You're far too jaded for a sixteen year old," Lyssa responded. Jumping up from her bed, she twisted around to gaze about the room. "I can't believe they think five people could share these quarters."
Bit glanced toward her sister. "It's not that bad," she said. "It's kind of like the summer cottage."
"Ugh," Lyssa groaned. "That place was disgusting. An eighteenth century English cottage, complete with rodents, leaky roof and no running water. Yeah, this place is like that."
"Except no leaks," Bit pointed out. "We've got six inches of steel above our heads."
Lyssa shook her head. "You were always the optimist," she said. "How is your neck?"
Reaching up toward the bandage on the side of her neck, Bit grimaced. "It's fine," she said. "Kind of itchy. I guess that means it's healing. I can't believe Lark's cuts are already gone."
"Yeah, well, Lark isn't human," Lyssa muttered. "She's some bizarre freak of nature sent to torture us."
"That's about right," a voice said from the doorway.
Whirling, Lyssa caught sight of Lark standing just outside their room, watching them with a smirk. "Ever hear of knocking?" she snapped.
Lark shrugged. "Door's open," she said. "It's not like that shriek of yours doesn't carry across the settlement, either."
Lyssa scowled at her. "Did you have a specific reason for interrupting us?" she asked.
"I'm heading out," Lark explained. "Just wanted to know if you needed anything before I go."
"No," Lyssa answered, waving a hand at her imperiously. "You may go."
Lark quirked a grin at Bit, who smiled back at her. "I thought we weren't supposed to go out after dark," Bit pointed out.
"You aren't," Lark answered.
"Of course the rules don't apply to you," Lyssa interjected snidely.
"Not this one," Lark agreed. "Besides, it's not like anything out there is much of a threat to me. I've got this urge to take a walkabout…see what's going on while everybody else is asleep. It's strange."
"That's a fascinating story, but we have a lot of work to do before we can get to bed," Lyssa said, moving forward. "So you can be on your way. Good night."
She yanked the heavy metal door out of the wall and slid it along its track until it slammed shut against the opposite side of the doorway.
"Lyssa, would it kill you to learn some manners?" Bit asked, incredulous.
"I am very well mannered," Lyssa retorted. "I said good night."
Out in the narrow hallway, Lark stared at the closed door. "I think she's warming up to me," she murmured before turning and walking back out into the common room.
Val glanced up from her portable computer and raised her brows. "What was that about?" she asked.
"Lyssa and Elizabeth are just settling in," Lark explained. She looked at the compact piece of equipment sitting on the table and asked, "Can you really link up to Harrison with that?"
Val shrugged. "It's really not that difficult," she said. "So far the only problem I can foresee is power loss across the settlement. The solar panels in the prefabs are able to store a good amount of energy, but this place doesn't seem to have the best weather. Today was the first sunny day since we started building last week."
"And leeching power from the ship would be a bad idea?" Lark questioned.
Nodding, Val replied, "Definitely. The damage caused by the crash is already affecting the ship's power stores. I don't know how much longer it's going to last."
"But the distress signal is wired in through the ship," Lark said.
"That's exactly the problem," Val conceded. "But Harrison and I are working on a solution. We should have plenty of time to fix things."
Frowning, Lark turned toward a large black bag resting in the chair at the head of the table. Inside were all her worldly possessions. While most of the other passengers had brought crates filled with their personal possessions, Lark's luggage was light enough to be slung over one shoulder. Besides a few changes of clothes and some weapons, there wasn't much else worth bringing along.
Reaching inside the bag, she pulled out a wooden stake. Of all the weapons she'd ever wielded, it was the most comfortable. She'd fashioned this one herself out of a nice piece of oak. Smoothly sanded and sharpened into a point, it was sturdy and well able to serve her needs.
Val looked at the stake in dismay. "You're really going out there?" she asked.
"I have to," Lark said.
"Why? You said the…the people can't come inside our homes unless they're invited. If no one goes out at night, we'll all be safe."
"The vampires can't come into a home unless they're invited," Lark agreed. "But that doesn't mean I trust fifteen hundred people to do as they're told. This is just something I have to do."
"Well, take the intercom along with you at least," Val sighed, rising from her chair.
It took several more minutes for Lark to extricate herself from Val's attentions and actually leave their new home. She laughed to herself as she recalled Val's reluctance to admit what they were up against. The woman had to understand that vampires did exist, and that the colonists were in a great deal of danger as long as the creatures were around. But some deep part of her was just too committed to what science told her was the truth to actually believe what was right in front of her eyes. Lark had little use for science. It certainly didn't account for her abilities.
Passing through the monotonous lines of prefabs, Lark felt like she was out on an industrial farm. They marched across the clearing like a multitude of grain silos. In the eyes of a vampire, the contents of these metal cylinders was food. Lark chuckled at the realization.
She heard several hushed voices ahead and hurried forward to investigate. The bright lights strung between the prefabs illuminated an open doorway and small group of people near a house straight ahead. Lark ducked against the wall of the nearest prefab and watched to see what they were up to. Just as she predicted, the colonists weren't about to follow the rules.
A man stood outside of the home. On the doorstep, a woman and young boy remained just inside the doorway, staring out at him. Listening intently, Lark thought she heard the man ask to be let inside. By his stance and carriage, Lark knew he wasn't human. He acted as though his body was foreign to him. His arms and head jerked oddly when he moved. His speech was stilted, as though his tongue had thickened in his mouth. These signs were small enough to go unnoticed by most humans, but to Lark they stood out starkly against the activity of normal human beings.
"Charlotte, invite me inside," the man pleaded. Lark rolled her eyes. Only a new vampire would think that would fool a human into letting him in.
"Martin, your face," the woman murmured. She pressed her son's head tight against her body, as though to shield him from the sight of his father.
"It's cold," Martin said. "I'm so cold."
"Martin," Lark called, stepping forward. "That isn't your family anymore."
When the vampire turned to face her, she was struck by his pained expression. She understood how easy it was to feel empathy for these creatures. They retained all of their human memories, and appeared very much like the people they once were. But the soul, the most important aspect that made them human in the first place, was gone. In its place was a demon. Even Charlotte and her son recognized that at some deep level, or they would have welcomed their loved one back into their home.
Then the man's face shifted into its vampire form. Yellow eyes shone through the shadow cast by his heavy brow. His mouth opened in a yawning snarl. Lark caught her breath when he suddenly lunged at her. She hadn't expected him to react so quickly.
Martin managed to knock her of her feet. Sprawling on the ground, Lark barely managed to keep her grasp on her stake. The vampire settled over her before she was able to rise, shoving her back into the dirt. Gasping, Lark was forced to struggle against him as he grabbed her by the hair and arched her head back to expose her throat.
She could have simply brought up her arm and staked him right then. But as he lowered his head she was able to see over his shoulder. Behind him, his family still stood in the doorway of their home, watching in shock. Lark didn't have the heart to kill him right in front of them.
Rather than using her stake, she thrust upward with her knee. Even when her prey was undead, a direct shot at the crotch had a rather impressive effect. Martin loosened his grip enough to give her the leverage to throw him off. Lark rolled out from under him and jumped to her feet. Taking off at a run, she sprinted away from the open prefab and headed for a darker area of the settlement.
Martin was swift on her heels, easily abandoning his family for the possibility of easy prey. Lark darted off the main path and between two houses. These prefabs weren't yet wired for electricity, so she had the privacy of complete darkness to shield her.
When he rounded the corner, Lark merely thrust her fist against his chest as he passed her. He was running haphazardly, without any thought or care for his actions. New vampires were much easier to kill. Her stake plunged through his breastbone and into his heart. Martin turned to dust an instant later, his body obliterated by the breeze that swept past.
Lark stood where she was for many moments after that, pondering. He must have been the most recent colonist to have gone missing. If Harkon and his vampires continued to attack them, eventually there wouldn't be any humans left at all. She knew that it was in their nature to destroy the life around them, so she couldn't exactly blame them. But it became that much more important that she find the rest of the creatures and kill them, as well. Otherwise the entire settlement would be lost, and there would be nothing left to rescue.
She finally moved on to make a few more sweeps before heading back to their quarters. Their impromptu colony was massive, and it would take several hours for her to thoroughly check its perimeter. Lark sighed. It looked as though she had many sleepless nights to look forward to.
"I'm hearing distressing information," Harkon said soberly.
His vampires stood lined up before him. Only Jade had the courage to return his gaze; the rest stared shamefully at the ground. Harkon wasn't quite insulted by Jade's defiance. He was rather certain she hadn't been the one sneaking into the colony.
"A certain human wound up rising from his grave last evening and being staked by our favorite little freedom fighter," Harkon continued. "I'm wondering just why there are more vampires running around when we are so short on supplies these days."
None of the vampires dared to raise their eyes to look at him. Standing in the back row, Jade shook her head slowly.
"We're not lemmings, people," Harkon said. "We can't overpopulate until we're forced to run ourselves off a cliff."
"That's a misconception," one of the vampires piped up. It was Michael, whose face was littered with about a pound of hardware. He had more holes in his head than a sieve.
Harkon turned on him in surprise. "What?" he growled.
Michael cleared his throat nervously, perhaps realizing his foolishness in interjecting a comment just then. But he pressed on to explain, "Lemmings don't commit mass suicide. That documentary was staged by Disney."
Harkon stared at him incredulously. He then directed his gaze at Jade, standing behind Michael, and jerked his head. Jade nodded and quickly stooped to retrieve a wayward branch from the ground. She plunged it deep into the idiot's back, then stepped away to watch the dust fly.
"All right," Harkon said, clapping his hands together. "Now where was I? Rationing, people. We've got to think about our future. And that means no new mouths to feed. Any human dies, he stays in the ground. Got it?"
The remaining vampires nodded obediently. Exchanging glances amongst themselves, they clearly were unsure of how to react to Michael's death.
"Oh, cheer up," Harkon extolled them. "There are only eight of us left now to provide for. Things are looking up."