Roads Less Traveled
by Casix Thistlebane
Story 1: the Marble Steps
Part Four
"Okay, so we've got a definite pattern, going back a hundred years or so. We've got a foundation in the woods, and an unidentified monster running around. What the hell do we do now?" Joanna was gesturing wildly, and in danger of knocking over her soda.
"Well, we've pretty much done the local research that we can." Xander pulled her soda away from her flailing arms. "I put in a call to the Cleveland folks, they're looking into any demons known to have that sort of feeding pattern, that might be able to fit through a one inch crack in the ground. But until we know exactly what it is we're facing, there's not a lot we can do."
"Great. Just great." Joanna put her head in her hands. "It could be eating people as we speak. It could have grabbed someone last night, and we wouldn't know it because it takes twenty four hours for people to officially go missing." She glanced up. "Is it wrong that I kinda hope it'll eat its fill and we won't have to worry about it anymore for a couple years?"
Xander shook his head. "No, that just means you're human."
"But I'm not human. I'm some sort of slayer thingy!"
"Slayers are humans." Dawn reached across the table to grab Joanna's hands. "That's the point. They're humans with a little extra, but in the end, it's the humans who do the dirty, saving the world work, not any heavenly beings."
"That's dumb."
"Maybe, but it's true."
Joanna glanced out the window at the traffic going by. "And no one out there knows about this stuff but you guys? How can people spend their entire lives in a world full of evil demons and not notice?"
"Well, Sunnydale tended to opt for 'gang members of PCP', mostly. People get really, really good at repressing things they don't want to know about." Xander folded his straw. "We once got a group of twenty or so women who were under the influence of a love spell to believe that they'd been participating in a scavenger hunt."
"Sunnydale?" Joanna's eyes went wide. "You're from SUNNYDALE? As in, the town that is now a giant crater in California? The Sunnydale that now lends credence to the idea that California's going to sink into the sea?"
Xander grimaced. "That's the one."
"Wow." Joanna sat back. "Then it wasn't an earthquake?"
"Just the destructive powers of the First Evil, an army of super vampires, another of slayers, and a vampire with a mystical amulet and a soul."
"Vampires don't have souls?"
"Anne Rice is a dirty rotten liar. Only one has one. For a bit there were two, but its back to just the one. He's in LA, he might come by to do guest lectures in Cleveland if he ever gets time off from reforming an evil law firm."
Joanna laughed. "You people sound like a soap opera. Wait, that happened back in May. Around the same time as–"
"EXACTLY the same time that you got your slayer powers." Dawn stirred her soda. "Our friend Willow, she's a witch, did a massive spell to get all the potential slayers to get a hold of their powers. That way, instead of two slayers and a bunch of very well trained normal girls battling an army of ubervamps, we had an army of slayers. That's why Xander and I are out here, we have to find all the extra slayers we can, so they can be trained and protected."
"Two slayers? But I thought you said that there was a Chosen ONE."
"That's a very long story that will probably be covered in a class at the Institute, if you're interested." Xander shifted on the naugahide bench. Joanna's slayer essence kept fluctuating along with her mood, and it was starting to give him a headache. "But Dawn's sister is one of the longest living slayers in history."
"You know," Joanna stirred her ice around, staring at it as though fascinated. "I don't even know if I'll be any good at being a slayer. What if I go out to Cleveland, and it turns out I suck? Or that I'm not even really a slayer, I'm just strong? What if I only got, like, half the slayerness, what if . . . what if I don't want to be a slayer?"
"Too late." Xander closed his eyes. "You ARE a slayer. And even if you don't try to use your abilities, the bad stuff will find you. If you're not properly prepared–" He rubbed his prosthetic, then regretted it as it shifted uncomfortably in his eye socket. "If you're not prepared, you'll probably get killed."
"But how do you KNOW? Sure, you've got this . . . coven thing looking around, but they're all the way in England. What if they found the wrong girl?"
"I know. I knew the moment I saw you. And the coven has a long history of pinpointing potential slayers. Now that the power has been released, its gotten even easier."
"You could SEE it?" Joanna looked skeptical. "Somehow, that's the most farfetched thing you've told me yet. I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Normal Guy in the group."
"I am." Xander moved his hand back up to his eye. "I've just . . . ." He paused, and Dawn started to take over for him, but he waved her off. "There was this . . . preacher. He was a pawn of the First. We went to try and take him out, and he . . . ." He couldn't even say it. Even after everything that had happened, he still couldn't say what Caleb had done. He could crack jokes, pretend it didn't suck, but when it came down to it, he couldn't say what actually happened.
"He stuck his thumb in Xander's eye." Dawn stared at her food.
"Oh." Joanna looked ill. "Oh. God."
"Yeah." Xander's breath came in shakily, but his voice was steady. "I was a cyclops for awhile there, until I got my glass eye. Willow enchanted it, and now I don't have a big honkin' blind spot on my left side any more. And I can see the slayer essence." He leaned forward, his hand hovering a few inches to one side of Joanna's face. "You're definitely a slayer, Joanna. I'm sorry, but it's true."
For a long time, none of them spoke. The waitress brought the bill, giving them an odd look. Once again, Joanna broke the silence.
"You can't tell, though. It's a really good one. The, um, eye, I mean. It looks real. It's–"
"Okay, Joanna." Xander smiled, and pulled out his credit card. "I'm getting used to it. Comes with the territory, I guess. I was lucky. I fought for seven years before I lost my eye."
Joanna snickered, then blushed furiously. "Oh God. I'm a bad person. I just keep thinking: 'it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye . . . ."
Xander smiled back. "And then it's fun with no depth perception."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Dawn sat on her hotel bed, working trigonometry equations for Wood's "home school" assignment. Xander lay back on his, pretending to watch tv, but really staring at the phone, willing it to ring. Joanna had gone home hours ago, to work on her project and talk to her Gran about letting her go to Cleveland. Xander was waiting for one of two things: a call from Gran, probably to yell at him for corrupting her granddaughter, or a call from Willow to let them know what they were probably up against.
He tried threatening the phone, ordering it to ring mentally, promising swift retribution from the morning star of needless bloodshed if it didn't. He tried pleading with the phone, he tried bargaining with it, promising spiffy new ring tones and text messaging. He tried whistling to himself, pretending to ignore it in hopes that he would look away and it would start ringing so he could pounce on it. He was considering the idea of coming on to the phone when it finally rang.
It was a local number, which meant either Gran or Joanna.
"Hello?" He tried really hard not to sound like he had been about to offer sexual favors to a four inch wireless phone, but he doubted it had worked.
"Mr. Harris." It was Gran. She did not sound happy. "Where is my granddaughter?"
Xander sat up straight too quickly, and had to let himself settle back again for a moment before he answered. "I haven't seen her, Mrs. Christenson. My colleague and I are–"
"Perhaps you can explain to me, young man," Gran spoke well over him, which was good because Xander wasn't sure what to say he and Dawn were doing at that moment. Somehow, he didn't think "waiting by the phone for information on a demon that your granddaughter is about to battle" would work very well. "Why Joanna would be sneaking out of her bedroom on a school night, and leaving a good-bye note on her pillow for my husband and I?"
Oh, shit. "Mrs. Christenson, I honestly don't know. Joanna would never have run off to join our school without consulting you first." But she might have run off to Cabin John. And from the sound of the note, she didn't think she'd be coming back.
"I think I know rather better than you what my granddaughter is capable of, Mr. Harris. If you do not find her and bring her back to us, we WILL be pressing charges. I honestly thought you might be interested in her welfare, but you're a no good crook, aren't you. You and that Summers girl are running quite a racket, I'm sure, luring young women away from their families with a false school."
"Ma'am, I assure you, the Helsing Institute–"
"Is not listed on any records that my husband and I have found. And your Watcher's School for Girls closed its doors last year, after the deaths of several of its students and faculty members. I don't know what it is you're trying to pull, or what you want Joanna for, but I swear to God–"
"Ma'am, our school has only been running for six months. I'm aware of what happened in Oxford, and I think you'll find, should you look, that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the deaths provided by Interpol. Now, I do intend to go look for Joanna, and make sure she's alright, and I will bring her right back to you as soon as I find her. Perhaps then we can discuss your doubts about the Institute in a less threateny fashion?"
Oh, good one Harris. That sounded very professional. Is "threateny" even a word?
"We shall see, Mr. Harris. I'm calling the police. I suggest you bring home my granddaughter home before they do."
She hung up. Dawn was staring at him, wide eyed from her bed. "That wasn't what I thought it was, was it?"
"Grab the extra weapons, and put on some shoes." Xander was already half way to the door, pulling on his coat. "Joanna's gone after the thing in the woods."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Joanna's foot prints lead along side of their own from earlier in the day, straight to the foundation in the woods. As they crossed the tennis courts, they could hear her screaming.
"Come on, you-you-WHATEVER! Come and get me! I know you're getting hungry! How's about some prime slayer meat to sate your appetite?"
"She's the only girl I've ever heard who can use the word 'sate' while threatening a demon." Xander swung the battle axe up onto his shoulder, and broke out into a run. Dawn was not far behind, carrying a long sword.
"She's insane!"
"I thought I covered that with the 'sate' thing!"
"Come and get me, you ASSHOLE!"
"Joanna!" Xander spotted her through the trees, holding a long, stiff branch that had been inexpertly sharpened to a point. Dammit, she didn't even have a decent weapon. Xander sincerely doubted that thing was a vampire. "I really hope beheading will kill this thing, cause if not, we're so much dead meat."
"We should . . ." Dawn was panting a little ways behind him, winded from trying to run in the snow. "We should have called . . . Buffy. We need . . . a trans . . . location!"
"We need to know what this thing is." Xander tripped over a hidden branch, nearly decapitating himself with the axe. "Joanna! Dammit, get over here!"
"I'm gonna take the bastard out, Xander!" She was spinning, swinging her branch at nothing. "I figured it out. They said they were just going camping. Everything would be" she grunted, swinging at a bush. "FINE. 19-fucking-99, July. And they NEVER came home!"
"I thought her parents died in an auto accident."
Xander shrugged. "The names of the missing from '99?"
"I don't know, something Jewish."
"Then what the hell is she babbling about?"
"Xander, LOOK."
Dawn was facing the other way now, her sword out in front of her. Xander shoved himself up to his elbows and turned.
A hulking shape, almost like a boulder, moved through the trees. Its shape seemed to flatten as it slithered from one to the next, thinning out into a mist like substance, then hulking again behind a new set of trees. It was coming closer.
"Shit. We need a call from Willow, NOW."
"Joanna!" Dawn called back over her shoulder, her eyes never leaving the thing. It was maybe seventy feet away now, no make that fifty, and closing. "Get back to the car!" Dawn took her own advice and bolted. Xander shoved himself to his knees, searching for the battle axe which had sunk into the snow. He glanced up. Joanna had spotted the thing (oh god, thirty feet), and was sprinting towards him.
"Dammit, girl, get to the car!"
"Not a chance, Normal Guy." And then she was in front of him, stick abandoned for the battle axe itself. Dawn was hovering on the edge of the woods, gesturing wildly.
"Let's GO!"
Xander shifted to a crouch. Fifteen feet. "You damned well better know how to use that thing!"
"Oh yeah, didn't you know? They cover axes in the woman's self defense course in seventh grade."
And then it was on them. Xander caught sight of teeth (Jesus Christ, those teeth, they'd be nightmares for years to come. He could see it now, Caleb poking his eye out with foot long fangs) and claws, and a maw that put t-rex to shame. He rolled to the side just as it lunged on to him, pinning his legs in the snow. Joanna swung the axe at its mouth, and it reeled back in pain, before misting and circling to get behind them.
Xander grabbed Joanna's stick, and slammed it into its mouth. It shook its head for a moment, mouth held wide, then snapped it in half. It held just long enough for Joanna to get in another shot, this time towards its neck. Xander felt something thick and viscous drip onto his chest.
Dawn was running back towards them now, sword swinging loosely as she held a cell phone to her ear. "Go for the eyes!"
"With a frickin' AXE?"
"Doesn't matter," Xander rolled again and Joanna jumped over him to stay in the creature's way. "Do whatever you can, just get the hell out of here alive."
"You too, asshole." Joanna swung at its head as it misted again, this time heading for Dawn. "Shit!"
"Call you back, bye Will!" Dawn tossed her cell phone behind her and raised her sword. "Come and get it, ugly!"
"Dawn, you moron, get out of its way!" Joanna bolted up the hill. Xander wiped at the goo on his shirt, then regretted it as it stuck his fingers together. He rolled to his feet and stumbled after the slayer.
The thing turned, misted, and charged at the unarmed member, obviously thinking its chances were better with Xander than with the girls. Which, Xander knew, was right. He dove to the side and grabbed the only thing he could think of, his Swiss army knife. Too bad he'd have to get way too close to the thing to actually use it . . . .
The thing snapped at his arm. Yeah, that would do it. Xander did exactly what it didn't expect, and slammed the arm up into its mouth, stabbing into the tender flesh at the roof. Viscous blood coursed down his arm, and he snatched it back as the creature pulled away, yowling. Xander snapped his arm back against his chest, hissing at the deep scratches he'd received for his maneuver.
Somehow, Dawn and Joanna had traded weapons. Joanna let out a Xena war cry and leaped at the creature, bringing the sword to bear on its black, glistening eye. She stabbed down, and the blade emerged a few inches on the other side of its head. It thrashed backwards, and she lost her grip on the hilt.
It reared back, half misting and twitching spasmodically. It yelped, then whimpered, pawing at the sword sticking out of its (oh god, the left one. Dammit, why does it always have to be EYES?) skull. Its head fell with a final thud to the snow, and it sank down several inches.
A wind picked up, chilling the three damp warriors through their layers of winter clothes. Xander walked slowly toward it. Dawn shouldered her battle axe, and Joanna just stood and shivered.
"Are you nuts?" She hugged herself. "What about the demon's last scare, the bad guy always comes back at the end!"
"Not in this story." Xander propped his foot on the demon's head. "That's only in the movies." He yanked on the sword, then fell back. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW."
"You're injured!" Joanna ran up to his side.
"Yeah, it happens." Xander clutched at his arm and turned to her. "Now what the hell were you yelling about back there?"
"The Schoenmans. They had a daughter I used to babysit for. They went camping, and that thing . . . ."
"Yeah, I get it." Xander glanced down at his arm, then back at the beast. "Um, we're gonna need that sword back, by the way."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"I," Mrs. Christenson glanced to where her husband had an arm wrapped around Joanna's shoulder. Dawn and Xander were seated on the couch once again. Xander held his arm out as Mrs. Christenson wrapped another layer of gauze across it. "I'm sorry, Xander. Mr. Giles called while you were out looking for Joanna. Your school," she shot a look at the pamphlet which lay in thin, torn strips on the coffee table. "Your school sounds like a wonderful place for Joanna."
"How can we thank you?" Mr. Christenson stepped forward. "That dog would never have attacked you if you hadn't been out looking for our girl."
"It's fine, sir." Xander winced as Mrs. Christenson tied off the gauze. "I just hope the ASPCA can find its owners."
"How did you know she'd be there?" Mrs. Christenson smiled. "Out in Cabin John like that, god knows how she got all the way over there at this time of night,"
"I was worried about the project, Gran," Joanna stepped forward. "I wanted to get a good grade on it, and impress the new teachers. I thought an, um, atmospheric picture would help out. I didn't mean for the note to be so melodramatic, but you were making such a big deal out of me leaving . . . ."
"Well." Mr. Christenson pulled Dawn to her feet and shook her hand. "We're still not entirely certain about this, but if Joanna wants to go . . . . Well, there's really not much my wife and I could ever do to stop her." He gripped Xander's hand tenderly, careful of the wounds. "Thank you again for finding her. I hope to hear from you sometime, let us know how Joanna's getting along."
"Of course." Xander smiled. "But Dawn and I have some other potential students to talk to. We're headed to Florida next, but Mr. Giles and Mr. Wood have promised to have someone waiting to meet Joanna at the airport in Cleveland."
"Florida." Mrs. Christenson smiled. "Well, that should be lovely this time of year. Especially after you've had such a tough time in the snow. It's the sunshine state, you know."
"That's exactly what we're counting on, ma'am. That's exactly it."
end part four
tbc in Lizard Man, coming soon.
by Casix Thistlebane
Story 1: the Marble Steps
Part Four
"Okay, so we've got a definite pattern, going back a hundred years or so. We've got a foundation in the woods, and an unidentified monster running around. What the hell do we do now?" Joanna was gesturing wildly, and in danger of knocking over her soda.
"Well, we've pretty much done the local research that we can." Xander pulled her soda away from her flailing arms. "I put in a call to the Cleveland folks, they're looking into any demons known to have that sort of feeding pattern, that might be able to fit through a one inch crack in the ground. But until we know exactly what it is we're facing, there's not a lot we can do."
"Great. Just great." Joanna put her head in her hands. "It could be eating people as we speak. It could have grabbed someone last night, and we wouldn't know it because it takes twenty four hours for people to officially go missing." She glanced up. "Is it wrong that I kinda hope it'll eat its fill and we won't have to worry about it anymore for a couple years?"
Xander shook his head. "No, that just means you're human."
"But I'm not human. I'm some sort of slayer thingy!"
"Slayers are humans." Dawn reached across the table to grab Joanna's hands. "That's the point. They're humans with a little extra, but in the end, it's the humans who do the dirty, saving the world work, not any heavenly beings."
"That's dumb."
"Maybe, but it's true."
Joanna glanced out the window at the traffic going by. "And no one out there knows about this stuff but you guys? How can people spend their entire lives in a world full of evil demons and not notice?"
"Well, Sunnydale tended to opt for 'gang members of PCP', mostly. People get really, really good at repressing things they don't want to know about." Xander folded his straw. "We once got a group of twenty or so women who were under the influence of a love spell to believe that they'd been participating in a scavenger hunt."
"Sunnydale?" Joanna's eyes went wide. "You're from SUNNYDALE? As in, the town that is now a giant crater in California? The Sunnydale that now lends credence to the idea that California's going to sink into the sea?"
Xander grimaced. "That's the one."
"Wow." Joanna sat back. "Then it wasn't an earthquake?"
"Just the destructive powers of the First Evil, an army of super vampires, another of slayers, and a vampire with a mystical amulet and a soul."
"Vampires don't have souls?"
"Anne Rice is a dirty rotten liar. Only one has one. For a bit there were two, but its back to just the one. He's in LA, he might come by to do guest lectures in Cleveland if he ever gets time off from reforming an evil law firm."
Joanna laughed. "You people sound like a soap opera. Wait, that happened back in May. Around the same time as–"
"EXACTLY the same time that you got your slayer powers." Dawn stirred her soda. "Our friend Willow, she's a witch, did a massive spell to get all the potential slayers to get a hold of their powers. That way, instead of two slayers and a bunch of very well trained normal girls battling an army of ubervamps, we had an army of slayers. That's why Xander and I are out here, we have to find all the extra slayers we can, so they can be trained and protected."
"Two slayers? But I thought you said that there was a Chosen ONE."
"That's a very long story that will probably be covered in a class at the Institute, if you're interested." Xander shifted on the naugahide bench. Joanna's slayer essence kept fluctuating along with her mood, and it was starting to give him a headache. "But Dawn's sister is one of the longest living slayers in history."
"You know," Joanna stirred her ice around, staring at it as though fascinated. "I don't even know if I'll be any good at being a slayer. What if I go out to Cleveland, and it turns out I suck? Or that I'm not even really a slayer, I'm just strong? What if I only got, like, half the slayerness, what if . . . what if I don't want to be a slayer?"
"Too late." Xander closed his eyes. "You ARE a slayer. And even if you don't try to use your abilities, the bad stuff will find you. If you're not properly prepared–" He rubbed his prosthetic, then regretted it as it shifted uncomfortably in his eye socket. "If you're not prepared, you'll probably get killed."
"But how do you KNOW? Sure, you've got this . . . coven thing looking around, but they're all the way in England. What if they found the wrong girl?"
"I know. I knew the moment I saw you. And the coven has a long history of pinpointing potential slayers. Now that the power has been released, its gotten even easier."
"You could SEE it?" Joanna looked skeptical. "Somehow, that's the most farfetched thing you've told me yet. I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Normal Guy in the group."
"I am." Xander moved his hand back up to his eye. "I've just . . . ." He paused, and Dawn started to take over for him, but he waved her off. "There was this . . . preacher. He was a pawn of the First. We went to try and take him out, and he . . . ." He couldn't even say it. Even after everything that had happened, he still couldn't say what Caleb had done. He could crack jokes, pretend it didn't suck, but when it came down to it, he couldn't say what actually happened.
"He stuck his thumb in Xander's eye." Dawn stared at her food.
"Oh." Joanna looked ill. "Oh. God."
"Yeah." Xander's breath came in shakily, but his voice was steady. "I was a cyclops for awhile there, until I got my glass eye. Willow enchanted it, and now I don't have a big honkin' blind spot on my left side any more. And I can see the slayer essence." He leaned forward, his hand hovering a few inches to one side of Joanna's face. "You're definitely a slayer, Joanna. I'm sorry, but it's true."
For a long time, none of them spoke. The waitress brought the bill, giving them an odd look. Once again, Joanna broke the silence.
"You can't tell, though. It's a really good one. The, um, eye, I mean. It looks real. It's–"
"Okay, Joanna." Xander smiled, and pulled out his credit card. "I'm getting used to it. Comes with the territory, I guess. I was lucky. I fought for seven years before I lost my eye."
Joanna snickered, then blushed furiously. "Oh God. I'm a bad person. I just keep thinking: 'it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye . . . ."
Xander smiled back. "And then it's fun with no depth perception."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Dawn sat on her hotel bed, working trigonometry equations for Wood's "home school" assignment. Xander lay back on his, pretending to watch tv, but really staring at the phone, willing it to ring. Joanna had gone home hours ago, to work on her project and talk to her Gran about letting her go to Cleveland. Xander was waiting for one of two things: a call from Gran, probably to yell at him for corrupting her granddaughter, or a call from Willow to let them know what they were probably up against.
He tried threatening the phone, ordering it to ring mentally, promising swift retribution from the morning star of needless bloodshed if it didn't. He tried pleading with the phone, he tried bargaining with it, promising spiffy new ring tones and text messaging. He tried whistling to himself, pretending to ignore it in hopes that he would look away and it would start ringing so he could pounce on it. He was considering the idea of coming on to the phone when it finally rang.
It was a local number, which meant either Gran or Joanna.
"Hello?" He tried really hard not to sound like he had been about to offer sexual favors to a four inch wireless phone, but he doubted it had worked.
"Mr. Harris." It was Gran. She did not sound happy. "Where is my granddaughter?"
Xander sat up straight too quickly, and had to let himself settle back again for a moment before he answered. "I haven't seen her, Mrs. Christenson. My colleague and I are–"
"Perhaps you can explain to me, young man," Gran spoke well over him, which was good because Xander wasn't sure what to say he and Dawn were doing at that moment. Somehow, he didn't think "waiting by the phone for information on a demon that your granddaughter is about to battle" would work very well. "Why Joanna would be sneaking out of her bedroom on a school night, and leaving a good-bye note on her pillow for my husband and I?"
Oh, shit. "Mrs. Christenson, I honestly don't know. Joanna would never have run off to join our school without consulting you first." But she might have run off to Cabin John. And from the sound of the note, she didn't think she'd be coming back.
"I think I know rather better than you what my granddaughter is capable of, Mr. Harris. If you do not find her and bring her back to us, we WILL be pressing charges. I honestly thought you might be interested in her welfare, but you're a no good crook, aren't you. You and that Summers girl are running quite a racket, I'm sure, luring young women away from their families with a false school."
"Ma'am, I assure you, the Helsing Institute–"
"Is not listed on any records that my husband and I have found. And your Watcher's School for Girls closed its doors last year, after the deaths of several of its students and faculty members. I don't know what it is you're trying to pull, or what you want Joanna for, but I swear to God–"
"Ma'am, our school has only been running for six months. I'm aware of what happened in Oxford, and I think you'll find, should you look, that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the deaths provided by Interpol. Now, I do intend to go look for Joanna, and make sure she's alright, and I will bring her right back to you as soon as I find her. Perhaps then we can discuss your doubts about the Institute in a less threateny fashion?"
Oh, good one Harris. That sounded very professional. Is "threateny" even a word?
"We shall see, Mr. Harris. I'm calling the police. I suggest you bring home my granddaughter home before they do."
She hung up. Dawn was staring at him, wide eyed from her bed. "That wasn't what I thought it was, was it?"
"Grab the extra weapons, and put on some shoes." Xander was already half way to the door, pulling on his coat. "Joanna's gone after the thing in the woods."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Joanna's foot prints lead along side of their own from earlier in the day, straight to the foundation in the woods. As they crossed the tennis courts, they could hear her screaming.
"Come on, you-you-WHATEVER! Come and get me! I know you're getting hungry! How's about some prime slayer meat to sate your appetite?"
"She's the only girl I've ever heard who can use the word 'sate' while threatening a demon." Xander swung the battle axe up onto his shoulder, and broke out into a run. Dawn was not far behind, carrying a long sword.
"She's insane!"
"I thought I covered that with the 'sate' thing!"
"Come and get me, you ASSHOLE!"
"Joanna!" Xander spotted her through the trees, holding a long, stiff branch that had been inexpertly sharpened to a point. Dammit, she didn't even have a decent weapon. Xander sincerely doubted that thing was a vampire. "I really hope beheading will kill this thing, cause if not, we're so much dead meat."
"We should . . ." Dawn was panting a little ways behind him, winded from trying to run in the snow. "We should have called . . . Buffy. We need . . . a trans . . . location!"
"We need to know what this thing is." Xander tripped over a hidden branch, nearly decapitating himself with the axe. "Joanna! Dammit, get over here!"
"I'm gonna take the bastard out, Xander!" She was spinning, swinging her branch at nothing. "I figured it out. They said they were just going camping. Everything would be" she grunted, swinging at a bush. "FINE. 19-fucking-99, July. And they NEVER came home!"
"I thought her parents died in an auto accident."
Xander shrugged. "The names of the missing from '99?"
"I don't know, something Jewish."
"Then what the hell is she babbling about?"
"Xander, LOOK."
Dawn was facing the other way now, her sword out in front of her. Xander shoved himself up to his elbows and turned.
A hulking shape, almost like a boulder, moved through the trees. Its shape seemed to flatten as it slithered from one to the next, thinning out into a mist like substance, then hulking again behind a new set of trees. It was coming closer.
"Shit. We need a call from Willow, NOW."
"Joanna!" Dawn called back over her shoulder, her eyes never leaving the thing. It was maybe seventy feet away now, no make that fifty, and closing. "Get back to the car!" Dawn took her own advice and bolted. Xander shoved himself to his knees, searching for the battle axe which had sunk into the snow. He glanced up. Joanna had spotted the thing (oh god, thirty feet), and was sprinting towards him.
"Dammit, girl, get to the car!"
"Not a chance, Normal Guy." And then she was in front of him, stick abandoned for the battle axe itself. Dawn was hovering on the edge of the woods, gesturing wildly.
"Let's GO!"
Xander shifted to a crouch. Fifteen feet. "You damned well better know how to use that thing!"
"Oh yeah, didn't you know? They cover axes in the woman's self defense course in seventh grade."
And then it was on them. Xander caught sight of teeth (Jesus Christ, those teeth, they'd be nightmares for years to come. He could see it now, Caleb poking his eye out with foot long fangs) and claws, and a maw that put t-rex to shame. He rolled to the side just as it lunged on to him, pinning his legs in the snow. Joanna swung the axe at its mouth, and it reeled back in pain, before misting and circling to get behind them.
Xander grabbed Joanna's stick, and slammed it into its mouth. It shook its head for a moment, mouth held wide, then snapped it in half. It held just long enough for Joanna to get in another shot, this time towards its neck. Xander felt something thick and viscous drip onto his chest.
Dawn was running back towards them now, sword swinging loosely as she held a cell phone to her ear. "Go for the eyes!"
"With a frickin' AXE?"
"Doesn't matter," Xander rolled again and Joanna jumped over him to stay in the creature's way. "Do whatever you can, just get the hell out of here alive."
"You too, asshole." Joanna swung at its head as it misted again, this time heading for Dawn. "Shit!"
"Call you back, bye Will!" Dawn tossed her cell phone behind her and raised her sword. "Come and get it, ugly!"
"Dawn, you moron, get out of its way!" Joanna bolted up the hill. Xander wiped at the goo on his shirt, then regretted it as it stuck his fingers together. He rolled to his feet and stumbled after the slayer.
The thing turned, misted, and charged at the unarmed member, obviously thinking its chances were better with Xander than with the girls. Which, Xander knew, was right. He dove to the side and grabbed the only thing he could think of, his Swiss army knife. Too bad he'd have to get way too close to the thing to actually use it . . . .
The thing snapped at his arm. Yeah, that would do it. Xander did exactly what it didn't expect, and slammed the arm up into its mouth, stabbing into the tender flesh at the roof. Viscous blood coursed down his arm, and he snatched it back as the creature pulled away, yowling. Xander snapped his arm back against his chest, hissing at the deep scratches he'd received for his maneuver.
Somehow, Dawn and Joanna had traded weapons. Joanna let out a Xena war cry and leaped at the creature, bringing the sword to bear on its black, glistening eye. She stabbed down, and the blade emerged a few inches on the other side of its head. It thrashed backwards, and she lost her grip on the hilt.
It reared back, half misting and twitching spasmodically. It yelped, then whimpered, pawing at the sword sticking out of its (oh god, the left one. Dammit, why does it always have to be EYES?) skull. Its head fell with a final thud to the snow, and it sank down several inches.
A wind picked up, chilling the three damp warriors through their layers of winter clothes. Xander walked slowly toward it. Dawn shouldered her battle axe, and Joanna just stood and shivered.
"Are you nuts?" She hugged herself. "What about the demon's last scare, the bad guy always comes back at the end!"
"Not in this story." Xander propped his foot on the demon's head. "That's only in the movies." He yanked on the sword, then fell back. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW."
"You're injured!" Joanna ran up to his side.
"Yeah, it happens." Xander clutched at his arm and turned to her. "Now what the hell were you yelling about back there?"
"The Schoenmans. They had a daughter I used to babysit for. They went camping, and that thing . . . ."
"Yeah, I get it." Xander glanced down at his arm, then back at the beast. "Um, we're gonna need that sword back, by the way."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"I," Mrs. Christenson glanced to where her husband had an arm wrapped around Joanna's shoulder. Dawn and Xander were seated on the couch once again. Xander held his arm out as Mrs. Christenson wrapped another layer of gauze across it. "I'm sorry, Xander. Mr. Giles called while you were out looking for Joanna. Your school," she shot a look at the pamphlet which lay in thin, torn strips on the coffee table. "Your school sounds like a wonderful place for Joanna."
"How can we thank you?" Mr. Christenson stepped forward. "That dog would never have attacked you if you hadn't been out looking for our girl."
"It's fine, sir." Xander winced as Mrs. Christenson tied off the gauze. "I just hope the ASPCA can find its owners."
"How did you know she'd be there?" Mrs. Christenson smiled. "Out in Cabin John like that, god knows how she got all the way over there at this time of night,"
"I was worried about the project, Gran," Joanna stepped forward. "I wanted to get a good grade on it, and impress the new teachers. I thought an, um, atmospheric picture would help out. I didn't mean for the note to be so melodramatic, but you were making such a big deal out of me leaving . . . ."
"Well." Mr. Christenson pulled Dawn to her feet and shook her hand. "We're still not entirely certain about this, but if Joanna wants to go . . . . Well, there's really not much my wife and I could ever do to stop her." He gripped Xander's hand tenderly, careful of the wounds. "Thank you again for finding her. I hope to hear from you sometime, let us know how Joanna's getting along."
"Of course." Xander smiled. "But Dawn and I have some other potential students to talk to. We're headed to Florida next, but Mr. Giles and Mr. Wood have promised to have someone waiting to meet Joanna at the airport in Cleveland."
"Florida." Mrs. Christenson smiled. "Well, that should be lovely this time of year. Especially after you've had such a tough time in the snow. It's the sunshine state, you know."
"That's exactly what we're counting on, ma'am. That's exactly it."
end part four
tbc in Lizard Man, coming soon.