Chapter 10
BashfulC-Okay. Very long, winded, non-spell checked review.huge, ginormus. Agh! *brain bursts* well, since it's so long, I'll email a response back . . . my email is rabid_rabbit9@hotmail.com, just so you won't think a freaky stranger is emailing you . . . uh . . . yes, I'm stalker-rific, FYI.
Disclaimer: Let us see . . . I own, a paper clip, 24 cents, and a bazooka gum wrapper, none of which resemble Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Smallville. So cruel.
Okay! *rubs hands together* Guess what? I'm in the 2-digit chapters now! GO ME! *does a little dance*
CGM: I helped too, you know.
Me: *gasp* You speak NORMALLY?!
CGM: Shut up, loser.
***
Chapter 10: What Follows Will Swallow Whole
Lex mouth wordlessly for a moment.
"Helen?" He managed to croak out, face pale.
"Well, duh," Helen snarked, flinging away her nun's veil. "Honestly. You can't even remember my name. It's a wonder I remembered yours."
The younger Luther seemed paralyzed with confusion. "What . . . where . . ."
Helen's voice was raised in a cruel mockery. "What? Where? Ooh, Helen darling, I've missed you sooooo much, I was going to DIE without you, ooh, baby . . . " she laughed.
Lex was gaping from shock and confusion. Helen walked over to him, putting her face close to his neck.
"But it's alright now . . . " she whispered, gently kissing his neck. "I'm here . . . "
Lex closed his eyes, before realizing what the hell he was doing. He shoved Helen away from him. "You're not her," He said, trying to convince himself. "You're not Helen."
Helen huffed. "Really! I am too Doctor-Peace-Happy-Love Bryce!" she grabbed Lex's neck. "And you're going to tell me where the key is!"
Lex didn't answer, but fought his instincts and punched Helen in the stomach. She grunted and released.
Lex backed up, more panicked and angry than confused. "What have you done with her!"
"Nothing," Helen said with a grin. "Nothing. The real me has just been . . . unleashed. It's like I've been given new eyes." Lex turned away. "I understand everything."
Lex turned his head slightly to the side, half looking at the shadow that claimed to be Helen Bryce.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Helen purred, cautiously bending down to retrieve her veil. "But . . . well I'd do the same to you, but-"
"Do the same to me?" Lex glanced up, only to find Helen swinging her fist into his face.
Helen grinned slightly as Lex tumbled to the floor. "Sweet dreams," She whispered, planting a kiss on the bloody wound on her fiancée's forehead.
***
Chloe slashed open the punching bag with her sword.
"No!" Willow said irritably. "You're supposed to aim for the head, not the waist. They die when you cut off their heads."
Chloe gestured, just as irritably. "The thing slipped as I was stabbing it!"
Willow turned the punching bag around, and saw that indeed, her crude paper sketch of a vampire had slipped down the bag. She sighed. "I have to pay for this, you know."
Chloe put down the sword and ran a hand through her hair. "Actually, I'm more interested in Sunnydale . . . "
"No, it's really-it's really not that interesting . . . really," Willow said unconvincingly. Chloe raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Not interesting . . . at all?" Willow sighed and sat down on one of the cushions on the ground. Chloe followed suit.
"Well . . . " Willow began. "You know the vampire you staked last night?"
Chloe nodded.
"Sunnydale is - was - like that all the time. Vampires, demons, blah blah blah."
"I know all that, you explained it to me already," Chloe interrupted. "And the whole slayer thing, too."
Willow nodded. "Yeah. Everything changed when Buffy moved there. Suddenly, it was like I knew what went bump in the night."
"But," Chloe interrupted again. "If there's only supposed to be one slayer per generation or until the other one dies, how come there's thousands?"
"Buffy. She died. Twice."
"Twice? Harsh."
Willow chuckled. "Yeah. My friend Xander brought her back with CPR the first time. I - uh, she kinda - uh, clawed herself out of her grave the second time. That's when everything got screwed up."
Chloe looked intrigued. She wiped her forehead as Willow continued.
"Apparently - there was this thing."
"Really?"
Willow rolled her eyes. "Uh, a demon. No, no, not a demon, the First. The First Evil."
"Sounds a lot like my English teacher," Chloe said skeptically.
"No. No. This was not possibly as bad as your English teacher." Willow absently twirled a strand of her hair. "It recognized that the Slayer line was weak and decided to wipe it out all together, starting with the girls who might be the Slayer if Buffy died, and ending with, well, Buffy."
"But . . . " Chloe paused.
"What?"
"Why wasn't I attacked or whatever? I mean, I'm a slayer now. I wasn't before."
"Uh . . . I guess you were too far down on the slayer line."
"I feel special now," Chloe snarked, causing the two of them to laugh.
Willow stood up. "Well, I know you have stuff to do, so, uh, meet me at the graveyard at, uh, 9, 'kay?"
Chloe shrugged on her coat. "Sure. 9 it is."
***
"So," Clark began, setting down a few rolled up pieces of paper. "There's supposed to be a, um, secret compartment - "
Dawn snorted. "Secret passage-way, Clark, not compartment. There's a difference."
"Whatever. My point being, there's a secret passage way inside the caves." Clark unraveled the paper to reveal a few crudely drawn sketches of the Cawache Caves. "My drawing skills have a lot to be desired, though . . . "
Dawn smiled. "Join the club." She winced, and rolled up her sleeve. "Ugh. This hurts a lot." She unwound the bandage from her arm. "I need to change this. Again." She held a new strip of fabric in her teeth.
"Here," Clark said, taking the bandage. "Let me help."
Dawn held her arm steady as Clark gently wrapped up her wound.
"Thanks," Dawn said, smiling.
"You're welcome." Clark smiled back, then blushed and quickly looked back down at his drawings. "Um. The passage is somewhere around . . . uh . . . "
The two of them suddenly heard the doors of the room push open, though they couldn't see them. The teenagers glanced at each other.
"Hello?" Clark called out. "Who is it?"
There wasn't any answer, but they both heard the sound of heels clicking on the wooden floor.
Clark and Dawn glanced uncertainly at each other, and then slowly walked to the balcony.
(A/N - sorry about the totally inconvenient A/N, but this is the balcony where Lionel the Magnificent Bastard got shot in "Suspect". Thanks to TiVo, you can see there's a library behind him. That's where Dawn and Clark are. Right. Now. Go look.)
"Doctor Bryce!" Clark said in a shocked voice.
The veiled nun-like figure turned sharply.
"How can you tell that's her?" Dawn hissed sharply.
"Uh . . . "
The nun spoke. "Hello, Clark. And . . ." Her head turned slightly to Dawn. "You are?"
"She's Dawn," Clark said, running down the stairs. Dawn followed.
"Where have you been? Have you seen Lex yet? He was really worried - "
"Yes," Helen said impatiently. "I have."
Clark frowned. "What? I thought you'd be happy to see him . . . "
Helen sighed, overly dramatic. "Well, yes . . . and no."
Dawn looked completely confused.
"What?" Clark repeated. "Dr. Bryce, is everything all right?"
"Everything's . . . fine, Clark." Before he could blink Helen had suddenly shoved Dawn aside, causing her to tumble and hit her head on the wall without so much as a scream.
Clark grabbed Helen's shoulders in a way that might break a normal human's shoulders. "Who the hell are you?" He asked harshly.
Helen, in response, pulled Clark's hands away from her shoulders. "The same person I was last week." She drew a small, green, glowing dagger with strange markings on it. Clark groaned, and staggered backwards.
"You see, Clark," Helen said coolly. "I need a key." She placed the knife on Clark's throat. He whimpered and his breathing got more shallow and ragged. "And I think you know where this key might be."
Suddenly Helen felt something hard land on her head, accompanied by Dawn's voice yelling, "Get off of him, you bitch!"
With lightning speed, the vampire swung around and grabbed the pool stick from Dawn's hand, who uttered a small 'meep' of surprise.
She grabbed Dawn's hair, and stood up, dagger held at arm's length to keep Clark at bay. "I think you'll tell me soon enough." She shook Dawn by the hair, causing her to cry out. "I have your friend."
Helen ran out of the room, dragging Dawn with her. Clark lay on the ground, panting. Unbeknownst to anyone, his neck had been cut with the Kryptonite knife.
"Dawn?" He whispered, before the world spun into an abyss of blackness.
***
Ooh! Spooky-er-ish-ness! Not really. Just kidding. Wait, did I just do a cliffhanger? I think I did. Wow. Go me. Please review, I'll love you forever and give you . . . uh . . . *searches pockets* A bazooka gum wrapper, a paper clip, and 24 cents!
Trailer - Welcome Back to Cleveland! We meet the Scoobies and what-not. Blah blah blah. Willow calls, blah blah blah, Buffy freaks, blah blah blahahaha. That is all.
BashfulC-Okay. Very long, winded, non-spell checked review.huge, ginormus. Agh! *brain bursts* well, since it's so long, I'll email a response back . . . my email is rabid_rabbit9@hotmail.com, just so you won't think a freaky stranger is emailing you . . . uh . . . yes, I'm stalker-rific, FYI.
Disclaimer: Let us see . . . I own, a paper clip, 24 cents, and a bazooka gum wrapper, none of which resemble Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Smallville. So cruel.
Okay! *rubs hands together* Guess what? I'm in the 2-digit chapters now! GO ME! *does a little dance*
CGM: I helped too, you know.
Me: *gasp* You speak NORMALLY?!
CGM: Shut up, loser.
***
Chapter 10: What Follows Will Swallow Whole
Lex mouth wordlessly for a moment.
"Helen?" He managed to croak out, face pale.
"Well, duh," Helen snarked, flinging away her nun's veil. "Honestly. You can't even remember my name. It's a wonder I remembered yours."
The younger Luther seemed paralyzed with confusion. "What . . . where . . ."
Helen's voice was raised in a cruel mockery. "What? Where? Ooh, Helen darling, I've missed you sooooo much, I was going to DIE without you, ooh, baby . . . " she laughed.
Lex was gaping from shock and confusion. Helen walked over to him, putting her face close to his neck.
"But it's alright now . . . " she whispered, gently kissing his neck. "I'm here . . . "
Lex closed his eyes, before realizing what the hell he was doing. He shoved Helen away from him. "You're not her," He said, trying to convince himself. "You're not Helen."
Helen huffed. "Really! I am too Doctor-Peace-Happy-Love Bryce!" she grabbed Lex's neck. "And you're going to tell me where the key is!"
Lex didn't answer, but fought his instincts and punched Helen in the stomach. She grunted and released.
Lex backed up, more panicked and angry than confused. "What have you done with her!"
"Nothing," Helen said with a grin. "Nothing. The real me has just been . . . unleashed. It's like I've been given new eyes." Lex turned away. "I understand everything."
Lex turned his head slightly to the side, half looking at the shadow that claimed to be Helen Bryce.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Helen purred, cautiously bending down to retrieve her veil. "But . . . well I'd do the same to you, but-"
"Do the same to me?" Lex glanced up, only to find Helen swinging her fist into his face.
Helen grinned slightly as Lex tumbled to the floor. "Sweet dreams," She whispered, planting a kiss on the bloody wound on her fiancée's forehead.
***
Chloe slashed open the punching bag with her sword.
"No!" Willow said irritably. "You're supposed to aim for the head, not the waist. They die when you cut off their heads."
Chloe gestured, just as irritably. "The thing slipped as I was stabbing it!"
Willow turned the punching bag around, and saw that indeed, her crude paper sketch of a vampire had slipped down the bag. She sighed. "I have to pay for this, you know."
Chloe put down the sword and ran a hand through her hair. "Actually, I'm more interested in Sunnydale . . . "
"No, it's really-it's really not that interesting . . . really," Willow said unconvincingly. Chloe raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Not interesting . . . at all?" Willow sighed and sat down on one of the cushions on the ground. Chloe followed suit.
"Well . . . " Willow began. "You know the vampire you staked last night?"
Chloe nodded.
"Sunnydale is - was - like that all the time. Vampires, demons, blah blah blah."
"I know all that, you explained it to me already," Chloe interrupted. "And the whole slayer thing, too."
Willow nodded. "Yeah. Everything changed when Buffy moved there. Suddenly, it was like I knew what went bump in the night."
"But," Chloe interrupted again. "If there's only supposed to be one slayer per generation or until the other one dies, how come there's thousands?"
"Buffy. She died. Twice."
"Twice? Harsh."
Willow chuckled. "Yeah. My friend Xander brought her back with CPR the first time. I - uh, she kinda - uh, clawed herself out of her grave the second time. That's when everything got screwed up."
Chloe looked intrigued. She wiped her forehead as Willow continued.
"Apparently - there was this thing."
"Really?"
Willow rolled her eyes. "Uh, a demon. No, no, not a demon, the First. The First Evil."
"Sounds a lot like my English teacher," Chloe said skeptically.
"No. No. This was not possibly as bad as your English teacher." Willow absently twirled a strand of her hair. "It recognized that the Slayer line was weak and decided to wipe it out all together, starting with the girls who might be the Slayer if Buffy died, and ending with, well, Buffy."
"But . . . " Chloe paused.
"What?"
"Why wasn't I attacked or whatever? I mean, I'm a slayer now. I wasn't before."
"Uh . . . I guess you were too far down on the slayer line."
"I feel special now," Chloe snarked, causing the two of them to laugh.
Willow stood up. "Well, I know you have stuff to do, so, uh, meet me at the graveyard at, uh, 9, 'kay?"
Chloe shrugged on her coat. "Sure. 9 it is."
***
"So," Clark began, setting down a few rolled up pieces of paper. "There's supposed to be a, um, secret compartment - "
Dawn snorted. "Secret passage-way, Clark, not compartment. There's a difference."
"Whatever. My point being, there's a secret passage way inside the caves." Clark unraveled the paper to reveal a few crudely drawn sketches of the Cawache Caves. "My drawing skills have a lot to be desired, though . . . "
Dawn smiled. "Join the club." She winced, and rolled up her sleeve. "Ugh. This hurts a lot." She unwound the bandage from her arm. "I need to change this. Again." She held a new strip of fabric in her teeth.
"Here," Clark said, taking the bandage. "Let me help."
Dawn held her arm steady as Clark gently wrapped up her wound.
"Thanks," Dawn said, smiling.
"You're welcome." Clark smiled back, then blushed and quickly looked back down at his drawings. "Um. The passage is somewhere around . . . uh . . . "
The two of them suddenly heard the doors of the room push open, though they couldn't see them. The teenagers glanced at each other.
"Hello?" Clark called out. "Who is it?"
There wasn't any answer, but they both heard the sound of heels clicking on the wooden floor.
Clark and Dawn glanced uncertainly at each other, and then slowly walked to the balcony.
(A/N - sorry about the totally inconvenient A/N, but this is the balcony where Lionel the Magnificent Bastard got shot in "Suspect". Thanks to TiVo, you can see there's a library behind him. That's where Dawn and Clark are. Right. Now. Go look.)
"Doctor Bryce!" Clark said in a shocked voice.
The veiled nun-like figure turned sharply.
"How can you tell that's her?" Dawn hissed sharply.
"Uh . . . "
The nun spoke. "Hello, Clark. And . . ." Her head turned slightly to Dawn. "You are?"
"She's Dawn," Clark said, running down the stairs. Dawn followed.
"Where have you been? Have you seen Lex yet? He was really worried - "
"Yes," Helen said impatiently. "I have."
Clark frowned. "What? I thought you'd be happy to see him . . . "
Helen sighed, overly dramatic. "Well, yes . . . and no."
Dawn looked completely confused.
"What?" Clark repeated. "Dr. Bryce, is everything all right?"
"Everything's . . . fine, Clark." Before he could blink Helen had suddenly shoved Dawn aside, causing her to tumble and hit her head on the wall without so much as a scream.
Clark grabbed Helen's shoulders in a way that might break a normal human's shoulders. "Who the hell are you?" He asked harshly.
Helen, in response, pulled Clark's hands away from her shoulders. "The same person I was last week." She drew a small, green, glowing dagger with strange markings on it. Clark groaned, and staggered backwards.
"You see, Clark," Helen said coolly. "I need a key." She placed the knife on Clark's throat. He whimpered and his breathing got more shallow and ragged. "And I think you know where this key might be."
Suddenly Helen felt something hard land on her head, accompanied by Dawn's voice yelling, "Get off of him, you bitch!"
With lightning speed, the vampire swung around and grabbed the pool stick from Dawn's hand, who uttered a small 'meep' of surprise.
She grabbed Dawn's hair, and stood up, dagger held at arm's length to keep Clark at bay. "I think you'll tell me soon enough." She shook Dawn by the hair, causing her to cry out. "I have your friend."
Helen ran out of the room, dragging Dawn with her. Clark lay on the ground, panting. Unbeknownst to anyone, his neck had been cut with the Kryptonite knife.
"Dawn?" He whispered, before the world spun into an abyss of blackness.
***
Ooh! Spooky-er-ish-ness! Not really. Just kidding. Wait, did I just do a cliffhanger? I think I did. Wow. Go me. Please review, I'll love you forever and give you . . . uh . . . *searches pockets* A bazooka gum wrapper, a paper clip, and 24 cents!
Trailer - Welcome Back to Cleveland! We meet the Scoobies and what-not. Blah blah blah. Willow calls, blah blah blah, Buffy freaks, blah blah blahahaha. That is all.