Chapter 3: Bizarro-Mirror
After a bad first impression, Buffy had left to get proof. As they waited, Mokuba rummaged through various books.
"There's books on demons, vampires, and everything! Where do you get this stuff? Oh wow! A spell book!" Mokuba exclaimed excitedly, flipping through yet another book.
"Mokuba put that down this instant. What the hell is wrong with all of you?!" Kaiba demanded mainly to Giles.
"I'll explain this once more very clearly: This is the mouth of hell and Buffy is the Slayer: One girl in the entire world, the Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers." Giles droned on.
Xander turned to the group of people listening. "He loves saying that."
"I assure you, I've read all that bull before, nothing you do or say can convince me." Kaiba stated, irritated.
"How about a vamp?" Buffy yelled from the entrance, dragging what seemed like an ordinary girl. She threw the person onto the table and grabbed it by the throat. "Do it."
The person grinned evilly. "Like you can make me."
Buffy smiled at the girl as the onlookers looked on still in disbelief. The Slayer then pulled a cross out of her jacket pocket, and hovered it over the girl's face. "Well, the thing is, I like to play this game. It's called 'How Far Can the Cross Go Down a Vampire's Throat?' Feel like it now?"
The girl looked horrified, as her face morphed. The vampire pulled out of Buffy's grasp and faced the group of shocked teens. As the vampire lunged toward Kaiba, Buffy pulled a stake out and plunged it into its heart. The group looked beyond shocked as the vampire exploded into dust.
Buffy smiled triumphantly. "How's that for convincing?"
Kaiba made a noise between a startled gasp and a 'hmph', than scowled, grabbed a random book of the shelf and stalked off.
"Okay, not to be all annoying or anything, but I kinda need to know about this dueling stuff." Xander commented to the rest.
Cordelia scoffed. "You're still going to do that dueling crap? How much more of a loser can you possibly be? I mean, 'Star Trek' I can deal with, but dueling? Oh, please."
Joey, being the first one to break out of the shocked state everyone seemed to currently be in spoke up. "First off, Duel Monsters is one of the most popular games on Earth at this moment, and second off, Star Trek rocks!"
"So says Xander 2." Cordelia quipped, shooting a laser-like glare towards him.
"If ya wanna talk about how much dueling sucks, take it up with him." Joey pointed at Kaiba who happened to be giving them all a blank stare, causing Tristan to shift uneasily and mutter something about serial killers.
"Hmm. If you think about it it's like looking into a bizarre mirror." Oz commented glancing at each visitor.
"What do you mean?" Mokuba asked confused.
"One question: Do you guys have an old guy that helps you out?" Oz asked and Giles gave him a questioning look. "No offense."
"Grandpa!" Yugi exclaimed suddenly. "He's always helped all of us, including you," he pointed at Kaiba "with different situations."
"Pft, he only helped me in seeing how pathetic all of you really are." Kaiba retorted.
"If it weren't for his Blue Eyes, you would have never trusted in the heart of the cards." Yugi reminded.
"I still don't." Kaiba replied quietly, though everyone knew differently.
"Anyway," Oz continued, the Scoobies surprised he's even said more than two words. "It's kinda like a doppelganger type of thing."
"Each of your team has a corresponding member of ours." Giles concluded.
"Anyone else wanna join me in saying 'huh'?" Xander spoke up.
"Each one of their team is like a member of our team." Willow explained.
"Even Kaiba?" Tea asked a bit distastefully.
"He's like Spike and Angel when he was a good guy." Xander answered immediately.
"Didn't you hate Angel?" Willow asked a bit too loudly.
Xander glanced quickly at them all and answered weakly, "No! Of course not! Jeez! How dare you say such a thing?"
"That's convincing." Joey smiled. "Besides, if this Angel person is anything like Kaiba, I'm sure I hate him too."
"Wait…was that one guy named Spike?" Mokuba asked, looking up from the spell book. {A/N: SPIKEY-WIKEY! –Vikki}
"Wait, who am I like?" Tristan queried. "And who's who anyway?"
"You guys go first since you're the guests." Buffy suggested. "I know those two," she pointed to Mokuba and Kaiba, "But I'm pretty much drawing a blank for the rest of you."
"Well, I'm Tea Gardner, and Tristan and I are just supportive of these two duelists." Tea started, introducing herself and Tristan.
"Consider us the cheer leaders." Tristan replied dully, getting a snicker from Kaiba.
"And my bud here is Yugi Mouto, the King of Games and a much better duelist than that sleaze ball Kaiba." Joey commented proudly. "And I'm Joey Wheeler, runner up in Pegasus's tournament!" he exclaimed proudly.
"He's still just a third rate duelist." Kaiba smirked.
Joey ignored him and continued. "Mokuba over there is Kaiba's little bro, but he's nothing like Kaiba at all as far as I can see, so don't worry about him being a total jerk." Joey finished, not bothering to introduce Kaiba since he was pretty much well known already.
"Okay, well, I'm Buffy Summers and I'm sure all my friends over there already filled you in on the Slayer lore." She turned to Giles, "By the way that's my watcher slash librarian, Rupert Giles." Buffy pointed to her friends. "That's Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, my best friends." Willow and Xander waved a little as she continued and pointed to Oz, "That's Daniel Osborne, but everyone calls him Oz." Oz nodded in acknowledgement. Buffy then turned to Cordy. "And this is Cordelia Chase. She helps us sometimes."
"An emphasis on 'sometimes'." Cordelia added and scoffed.
"What about those Angel and Spike people?" Yugi asked curiously.
"They're evil vampires who want to kill us." Xander responded lightly. Yugi and his friend's eyes grew wide and they all turned to Kaiba.
"I'll give you ten minutes to run before I hunt you down." Kaiba replied sarcastically.
"Of course, with Angel and Spike they like to play mind games with their victims and then they kill them." Willow added meekly.
"Didn't you say Angel was good?" Tea asked, confused.
"He was until she and Angel got all groiny." Cordy replied way too honestly as she pointed to Buffy.
Buffy gave Cordy a death glare.
Cordy shrugged. "What? It's true." She commented calmly.
"And having fun in bed makes a guy go nuts?" Joey asked, confused.
"I don't think this talk is at all suitable around Mokuba." Kaiba snapped annoyed.
"Oh don't worry Seto; I hear stuff worse than this at school all the time." Mokuba replied a little too enthusiastic. Kaiba gaped at him a bit.
Buffy remained quiet, a bit uncomfortable.
"Well, vamps don't really have souls unless they're cursed and stuff. And that's what Angel was, cursed that is. Before that he was the most badass vamp ever. He killed a gypsy girl and the clan cursed him." Xander started off.
Willow continued, "Well there was kinda a clause: If he experiences a moment of true happiness, he'd lose his soul again. So now he's pretty much of the soulless variety."
"Well that's quite informative. How'd a slayer and vampire get there groove started in the first place? Unless this vamp is so badass that he can take advantage of even the strongest people?" Joey questioned.
"We fell in love…" Buffy finally answered, still in a trance. "I'm gonna go, guys. Ya know, I'm not finished patrolling and all. Angelus might turn up."
She walked out quietly.
"What was that about? Did I say something wrong?" Joey asked guiltily.
"She's not over him yet." Willow replied sadly, her eyes downcast.
"Oh. That's horrible." Tea replied sympathetically.
"That's nice and all." Kaiba replied sardonically, standing up from table he had been sitting at. "I need a room to myself where I can organize my deck and prepare for the dueling tournament that's in a week."
"I want to stay here a bit longer Seto. They have some pretty neato books!" Mokuba exclaimed excitedly turning to Willow and Xander. "Can either of you teach me how to do a simple spell? This stuff is really interesting!"
"Want to learn how to float a pencil?" Willow asked innocently.
"Mokuba…" Kaiba growled irately.
"Oh don't worry big brother, nothing dangerous will happen." Mokuba replied reassuringly.
"I don't care if it's safe or not! I don't want you doing any magic whatsoever!" Kaiba reasoned, voice rising dangerously.
Mokuba smiled a bit regretfully at his big brother as if saying 'Sorry about getting on your nerves, but this is something I really want'. "You know…you have yet to come up with a good reason why I should or shouldn't try one little spell. There's nothing wrong with floating a pencil! Right Willow?" Mokuba looked to Willow hopefully.
"Mokuba, I don't need to give out a good reason. I'm not entirely confident that those spells are even worth trying, because they're most likely false. Even if those spells were real, one spell could lead to more, and I don't want you to turn into a freak." Kaiba growled, looking at Willow when he had said 'freak'.
Willow smiled innocently as a sharp pencil floated from behind Kaiba, pointing to the back of his head going back and forth quickly, as if it were to stab him. "Yep, cause magic's real bad."
"Willow?" Xander spoke up, making Willow jump and the pencil fall with a small 'clack'.
Kaiba turned at the noise, and stared at the pencil lying on the ground, then glared at Willow. Mokuba stared in admiration, muttering under his breath about being a freak's not so bad.
"Not to interrupt the non-stop banter, but, uh, where's Joey?" Xander queried as he looked around the library.
"The mutt probably found a bone to chew on." Kaiba said, smirking.
"He's not the kind of person who'd do something as stupid as follow Buffy…right?" Willow asked, being answered by his friend's worried looks. "Uh-Oh."
---
Buffy entered Restfield Cemetery armed with her usual stake, Holy water, and cross. The graveyard seemed way too quiet for to be nothing there. She listened to the steady beat of her shoes thudding the paved walkway until she heard another set of foot steps. She kept walking, slowing her pace a bit. She put her hands in her pockets casually, unknowingly grabbing for her stake. Her grip tightened around the piece of wood, as she twirled around and punched the stranger across the right side of their jaw. Before attacking again, she got in a fighting stance. Her vision focused and her eyes widened. "Joey?"
"Ow. You should've punched Kaiba with a fist like that." Joey rubbed his jaw slightly. He suddenly gasped. "Buffy! Look out!"
---
YRF: muahaha and dat is where we end chappie 3!
TF: Hmm…maybe it's Angelus! Dun, dun, DUN!!!!!! Oh yeah, I forgot! I'm taking a poll: Who should the Buffster be paired with??? YOU DECIDE. Joey, Tristan (OO), Yugi (HAHAHAHAHA!), or Kaibie-Waibie, er, Kaiba.
YRF: KAIBIE-WAIBIE? WHERE?!
TF: Don't mind my friend. She's just crazy.
YRF: Oh and YOU aren't???
TF: ANGIE-WANGIE! I heart Angel.
YRF: Exactly. Byerz!