Part 2: Target: Ethan Rayne
One, two, three… "Dawn? What are you doing here? You're grounded." Right on schedule, Dawn thought as she entered Sunnydale Highschool Library. It was good to see that no matter what happened, Buffy remained her same predictable self. Not that she had expected anything else from her sister of course.
"Mom's at work and I was getting bored." As if she had any intention of letting something as silly as being grounded interfere with her life. And since she thought it important to learn about the nightlife in Sunnydale, where else would she go?
"You snuck out?"
"Well, walked actually. There wasn't anyone around to stop me, was there?" Dawn decided to annoy her sister a little more and conjured up her most innocent smile which she then sent into Buffy's direction. Then for the first time since entering she took a good look around the library which obviously had been the site of a fight. "Uh… What happened here?"
"I thought I heard the voice of someone I actually like." Cordelia said as she came walking out of the office. "Dawn! Good to see you again, what are you doing here?"
"Trying to find out what happened."
"Oh, there's something going on with Giles but he won't tell us what it is." The brunette answered, obviously happy to be out of the office.
"Cordelia, go back and help Xander." Buffy then interrupted before the girl was able to say more.
"You know, that really wasn't working well. Maybe I should be doing something else." Cordelia said before she noticed the way Buffy was looking at her. "On the other hand, maybe I will be able to find something there."
Wearing a bemused expression on her face her sister kept looking at Cordelia until the girl had finally reentered the office. Once that had happened however she turned back to Dawn. "Now, I want you to go home. We're busy here and you can't help with the fighting anyway."
"Oh come on, that's not fair. I can help look things up like the others are doing. Please? Can you at least tell me what's going on?"
As she then saw Buffy sigh Dawn felt the thrill of success. "Fine, I'll tell you what happened but once that's done I want you to go home. I really don't want mom to be mad at me as well."
"Fine, whatever. Tell me." As she saw Buffy's eyes narrow in suspicion she mentally cursed herself. There was nothing wrong with knowing she was better than everyone else but she really shouldn't show that so openly to her sister. Maybe another innocent smile would stop Buffy from thinking wrong thoughts.
It didn't really seem to work but as Buffy began to tell her story anyway it was obvious her sister didn't think it important enough to pursue. Like always Buffy wasn't able to give any good descriptions of what had happened but with a little imagination she should still be able to figure out the events that had actually taken place. So she listened carefully to the incoherent tale until she heard a certain name.
"Ethan Rayne? The one from the costume shop?" Dawn was aware she hadn't managed to hide the anger and hatred in her voice but this time she didn't care. There was only one person on this entire planet that she hated this much. And that was the man who had used that cursed magic on her. The man who had given her the memories of Kirika Yumura. The man who was the reason that she now spent half of her days with a pounding headache against which no medicine seemed to help.
Not that she understood why the merging of her different personalities caused headaches, after all the brain itself didn't have any pain receptors. No! Stay focused. No thinking about things besides the man who was supposed to die. The man who had, however indirectly, caused her to get both detention and being grounded.
"Yes, that one. Apparently he's an old friend of Giles or something, we're not certain about all of that actually. Giles had told him to leave town after the Halloween thing but he didn't. And today there was this dead guy that attacked Ethan so I had to protect him and in the end he ran away again and I couldn't find him." Okay, it took a moment for her to understand what had happened but she could understand why Buffy was acting a little strange. If Giles was somehow involved with all this, and from listening to the tale she figured he wasn't exactly the good guy, Buffy was probably either a little confused or disappointed.
"So what happened to the dead guy?" Don't let Buffy notice that the soon to be late Ethan Rayne is all you're thinking about. Distract her from that information.
"Oh, he turned into some kind of slimy puddle and now Giles is taking care of Ms Calendar."
Willow then walked up to the two of them while looking in a book. "I think I found something Buffy."
"You did? Good." The Slayer then turned back to her and more or less shooed Dawn out of the library. While she would normally have taken exception to being treated like that by anyone, let alone her sister, she didn't really mind it now. After all, there was someone she needed to have a… conversation with.
Walking out of the school she could feel the hatred and anger in her body coalescing and filling her with a purpose. For the past couple of days, each time that had happened she had reached for the fake watch she kept in her pocket. The watch that was meant to ground her into reality and which had steadily become the only thing that could indeed stop her from going on a path of destruction. This time however she had no intention of stopping the dreadful purpose that was taking over her body. So, ignoring the watch that seemed to be burning inside her pocket, she turned in the direction of her target.
Listening to Willow explain what Eyghon really was didn't prevent Xander from wondering why Dawn had left already. It was strange but in the two weeks since Buffy had told everyone the girl had a crush on him he had hardly seen her. Well, he thought with a slight smile, it wasn't that strange since it was obvious even to him that she was avoiding him but still.
"I still don't get what this has to do with Giles." Buffy spoke up after hearing the explanation. A statement he couldn't agree more with, after all, why would this Eyghon be after Giles or for that matter Ethan Rayne? Willow's answer was even more disturbing than he had thought possible however.
"I don't know about Giles, but ancient sects used to induce possession for bacchanals and, and orgies."
That was something he really couldn't let go, no matter how much he wanted it to. "Okay! Giles and orgies in the same sentence. I coulda lived without that one."
Luckily for her however, Buffy seemed to be capable of not thinking about that disturbing image and while Xander was still busy trying to dispel it from his mind she was obviously wondering if there was still any danger left. It was only when the others started talking about it that he realized what had been bugging him since Willow had mentioned it.
"No, no one dead." Buffy said before he finished her sentence.
"But someone unconscious." How could they have missed it? It was so obvious now that he thought about it. Xander could see realization hit the others and Buffy moved to the phone in the office.
While she was calling Giles he decided to ask Willow about Dawn. "Wills? Do you know why Dawn left again so soon? I don't think she was here for more then ten minutes."
"Oh, she's grounded. So she probably went home."
"Grounded?" He couldn't really remember her being grounded before so she must have done something bad.
"Yeah, she ah, beat someone up." His friend answered.
Okay, had he really heard that? That needed confirmation because he couldn't possibly have heard that she beat someone up.
"No really, at school. From what Buffy told me she got expelled for a couple of weeks and got about a month worth of detention and her mother decided to ground her for that same period."
"But… This is Dawn we're talking about. How can she beat someone up? Because I really can't believe she'd pick on someone smaller than her and well, the bigger people… She isn't exactly Mrs. Bruce Lee."
"I don't really know the details but from what I heard it was some kind of bully that took something from her."
"And why wouldn't you believe she could do that?" Cordelia interrupted. "I mean, she kicked Larry unconscious during Halloween."
"She did what?" He asked before he remembered the conversation he'd had with Larry the day after Halloween. "Oh yeah, I remember now. He told me about that although he didn't know it was Dawn."
"Larry talked to you?" Both girls asked incredulously.
"Well, it was the day after Halloween and we had something in common. We had both gotten acquainted with Cordy's knee." Damn, just thinking about it almost made it hurt again.
"Oh that." The brunette said with a shrug, obviously not thinking it very important. "Both of you deserved it."
While he knew she might be right about it that didn't mean he wouldn't protest. But the moment he opened his mouth Buffy came walking back to them. "There's no answer at Ms. Calendar's, and Giles' phone is out of order. I'm gonna go over there."
Ethan was pacing while thinking things over. Life was not good at the moment. Here he was, stuck in an American town and it was almost as if everyone was after him. Hah, who was he trying to kid? Everybody was after him. Why not go to the Hellmouth and dispense a little chaos so you can annoy Ripper? Yes, why not? Because it caused you a lot of problems, you moron!
Lesser minds might have been afraid of the Slayer but he was Ethan Rayne, no American teenager could outsmart him, especially this particular American teenager. During his visit to the library it became obvious that Ripper was the only one there with something approaching half a brain. The redhead had some potential as well but it was obvious that most of that had been blunted by the ridiculous schooling system here.
But his real problem didn't come from that direction anyway. This time it was Eyghon that was messing up his life. If only that fool Randall had managed to retain control none of this would have happened. Now he was in trouble and even if nobody else appeared to have noticed, it was obvious to him that after Philip's body had been destroyed the demon had once again jumped into a fresh body.
Not even Ripper seemed to have noticed, he had been so concerned over that Jenny bird he hadn't thought about what it meant that she was unconscious while Eyghon was looking for a new host. Which meant that by now Rupert was most likely dead and the demon would come looking for him soon. Rubbing the tattoo on his left arm he wondered how he could get out of this alive. The tattoo worked as a beacon for the demon which meant it would find him no matter where he'd run.
Unless… An idea began to form in his mind. Maybe he could get rid of two problems at the same time, he was pretty sure the Slayer would come here again, probably in order to protect him. And once she was here all he needed to do was draw the tattoo on her body, remove it from his own and Eyghon would take care of her. Leaving him alone and in no more danger from either of them. Yes, that would be the perfect solution to this mess. Of course he would have to leave town immediately afterwards but that was something he intended to do anyway. Now, all that was needed was for the stupid child to actually arrive.
The waiting was the hardest thing to do until, after what seemed to be an eternity but was actually sooner then he had expected, the bell rang indicating someone had entered the store. He immediately went there to greet the Slayer but when he entered he noticed it wasn't the Slayer but some other, even younger, child.
"Who are you?"
The guileless child who for some strange reason was wearing cheap rubber gloves looked at him and asked. "Are you Ethan Rayne?"
"Yes, but I ask again. Who are you?" He couldn't imagine who this girl was or why she was here. Somehow she seemed to be familiar but since in the days before Halloween he had probably seen practically every child that lived in this miserable town that didn't exactly mean much.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Dawn. Dawn Summers. Buffy sent me here." Summers? This was the Slayer's little sister? She seemed to be such an innocent little girl but it was his life that was on the line. He stopped for a moment to search his soul, was he capable of what amounted to the cold-blooded murder of a child if it meant he would survive? The soul-searching didn't last long since the answer was obvious. His life or that of some bloody stupid American, like there could be any doubt.
While smiling as sincerely as possible at the little child who would take his place he asked her why she was send.
"Oh, Buffy thought you needed protection from that demon-thingie? I forgot its name, but anyway she thought it was best if you came back to the library where she could keep you safe."
"Really? And why didn't she come herself?"
"Oh, she couldn't come. I think she was going over to Giles to protect him so she asked me to come and get you." Well, if the way this girl talked was any indication the Slayer might actually the smart one in the family after all. That at least assuaged him from the last vestige of guilt about what was going to happen to her.
"Very well. I'll need to get some things first, if you want you can come with me and have a seat."
"Thank you, that's very kind." She smiled back at him.
When she remained standing however it was obvious she wouldn't go through the door before him. Well, that meant he couldn't knock her out from behind but while he might not have been able to handle a Slayer, a little girl wouldn't pose any trouble. Now all he needed to do was keep up appearances.
"So, you look rather familiar. Have you been here before?"
"Yes, actually I have. I came with some friends of mine for our costume." The girl answered from behind him.
"Ah, I take you don't have any hard feelings from that? Who did you go as anyway?"
Instead of receiving an answer he suddenly felt a sharp pain when what could only be a knife pierced his right lung and he fell to the ground screaming.
"Damn! I missed." Pissed beyond measure Dawn walked forward to the pitiful mass of screaming human. She hadn't missed that tree a couple of days ago so why did she miss now that it was important? "Bloody weak body."
Continuing to curse her bad aim she stomped on the hand reaching for the knife she had thrown in Ethan's back, breaking several fingers, before doing the same with his knees and elbows. Well, even if it meant this wasn't a clean kill she was at least able to fend some of her frustration on the person who deserved it the most.
The target continued screaming and the pitch became higher each time she broke something else. A feral smile formed on her lips as she stepped back to enjoy the view of her handiwork. He hadn't received any mortal wounds yet but it was obvious he wasn't going to be doing anything else anytime soon. Suddenly she stopped smiling, she had never done anything like this before. While she wasn't always able to kill anyone as fast as possible that didn't mean she extended it like this either.
No, this was wrong. While the target lying on the ground did indeed represent everything she hated that didn't mean she should be doing this. She started trembling a little, never before had she been capable of this kind of cruelty. Oh she had no problems killing anyone and, unlike Leon in that movie Jane had mentioned, she didn't even care if her target was a man, woman or child but never had she imagined herself torturing someone to death.
This was the problem with these merging personalities she understood in a moment of clarity. She couldn't control herself like she could before, right now she was a mix of all three personalities and, unless she was very mistaken, more specifically a mix of the worst characteristics of each person.
But how could she stop this from overwhelming her? Inside her mind she could hear the seducing whispers telling her the one way she could be certain no emotions bothered her. Whispers that told her of a time not long ago when no emotions had bothered her. It was so incredibly tempting to accept but she also remembered the events that took place the last time she had allowed that to happen. A sudden louder whimper broke her concentration and she looked at Ethan as he once more tried to reach the knife sticking out of his back. Hatred started to fill her up again and in that single moment her decision was made.
"I've got the solution right here.'To kill a demon cut off its head.'" Cordelia spoke up.
"Oh, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah! We'll, uh, find Ms. Calendar, then we'll decapitate her. Hey! She'll be the first headless computer teacher in school. You think anybody'll notice?" It was rather obvious that wasn't going to work, wasn't it? But that hadn't kept the aggravating girl from making the comment. And there was no doubt in Xander's mind that this was going to spawn another comment from her.
"Do you know what you need, Xander, besides a year's supply of acne cream? A brain." See? He was right, but this time around he wasn't going to just take it so he stood up.
"That's it! Twelve years of you and I'm snappin'! I don't care if you're a girl or not, I'm throwin' down! Come on!"
"Oh yeah, like I'm gonna be afraid of you. Remember the last time, loser? That was when you were actually capable of fighting and I've seen you fight without being a soldier, so don't think I can't take you!" As the brunette came stalking towards him he actually had to shake himself to get rid of a thought that had somehow managed to worm its way into his head. Not that the shaking helped a lot since the thought returned almost immediately. But the thought was right too, she was pretty when she was angry and not only when she was angry.
No Xander, that is the path that leads to damnation! You are not in any way or form interested in Cordelia's body. A distraction from dangerous thoughts was needed so he provided himself with one. "Yeah? Well, give it your best shot then."
The glint in her eyes told him exactly what best shot she was going to give him and since he had seen her in action on Ethan no more then two hours before Xander knew what to do. His hands started moving down to protect that most important of body parts when their fight was interrupted.
"HEY! We don't have time for this! Our friends are in trouble! Now, we have to put our heads together and, and get them out of it! And if you two aren't with me a hundred and ten percent, then get the hell out of my library!" Willow in action, he wasn't quite sure whether to be happy she had saved that most important part of him or scared because she was so angry. A good look at her furious face told him the answer however.
Cordelia seemed to have come to the same conclusion as she meekly said. "We're sorry."
Not wanting to be outdone by her in the apology department he added his own five cents. "We'll be good."
Willow just nodded as if she had expected them to react like that to her outburst, although how she could have known it was something he couldn't understand, especially since he couldn't remember her ever behaving quite like that. She then sat down and brought his mind back to what he should be thinking about. "Okay. Now, we've done the research. We just have to figure out how to use it."
Think Xander, think. "Oh, hey! Why don't we find another dead body for the demon to jump into!" That should help them save Ms Calendar.
His plan appeared to be approved by Cordelia who then added her own idea at where they could get a corpse. "Yes! At the cemetery."
"Well, that won't kill the demon." Willow ruined the plan. He hadn't really thought that far ahead, but then, that's what Willow was here for wasn't she? "It'll only give it a change of scenery. Oh. Oh! Oh, I've got it! I've got it!"
As the redhead then ran for the phone Xander was pretty certain his friend had once again solved the mystery and he proudly turned to the other girl who he told. "She's good." He then followed Willow so he too could find out what her latest brainchild was.
Despite the excruciating pain he tried once more to reach the knife sticking out of his back. The little hellion had momentarily stopped torturing him and with a little luck she might actually be out of the room. Bloody hell, how many broken bones did he have anyway?
Maybe if he actually managed to get the knife out of his back he might be able to drag himself to some of his spell-components. Even the sulfuric acid he had standing ready for the removal of his own tattoo might help here. This child, if you could actually call her child, definitely deserved to be destroyed by Eyghon and when that happened he would smile. Hah! Once he was able to walk again he would come back to this blasted town one last time so he could dance on her grave!
Yes, yes! He actually had it. Exultation flooded his body, momentarily dispelling the pain as he held the heft of the knife. Another wave of agony coursed through him however as his hand was kicked away. Unfortunately, this time around the pain wasn't only centered on his hand but the knife had been jarred as well, more than doubling the pain.
He could taste fresh blood entering his mouth and he lifted his head when he noticed the girl had moved in front of him. Spitting out the blood Ethan mentally cursed the fact that he was so weakened he couldn't even hit her with it. "What are you?" The words came out even more difficult than he had feared, underlining the fact that he was hurt badly. But at least he had the comforting knowledge this girl was one of the so-called good guys which meant that she wasn't supposed to kill him.
"In a way you could say that I'm your creation." She answered him. Looking at the emotionless gaze shining out from the slitted eyes he suddenly understood he had underestimated her, badly.
"You're not just another stupid American are you?"
This actually managed to inspire the ghost of a smile on the face before him. "No, while Dawn wasn't exactly dumb in her own right, you made a rather big mistake when you sold her the costume she wanted."
"What do you mean?" More blood came out of his mouth as he had to cough, once more jarring every little part of his body that hurt.
"Like I said, you created me. The only thing that you should care about is that I am the best assassin currently alive and you took me away from my partner." The last part was delivered in such a hateful voice it caused him to shiver in fright. The girl was indeed correct, he had made a rather big mistake in selling that costume. If he actually got the chance to do something like that again he'd have to make sure he didn't sell costumes with that kind of background.
But there was something more important than even the question of why she was still able to access the personality of her costume. He had believed that she wouldn't kill him because she was one of the good guys. Now he wasn't so sure about that anymore, if she was telling the truth about being an assassin there was no doubt in his mind that he wouldn't survive this meeting.
"What are you going to do to me?"
"I am in three minds on that actually." Three minds? Well, no matter what she said about not being a typical American the lack of knowledge about sayings indicated otherwise. "Part of me wants to kill you as soon as possible and leave before Buffy gets here. Then there's the part of me that wants to cut out your tongue out and leave you bleeding to death so that Buffy can be the one to see you die. But that's only a tiny part since it would risk her finding out about me and she probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture anyway. And finally there's the part that wants to drag you away from here to find someplace where I can continue doing what I've been doing until now."
While the words themselves were chilling, it was the way she actually said it that bothered Ethan the most. There was absolutely no emotion in her voice and he wasn't used to that. It just wasn't natural, when you said something like that you had to sound anticipatory or you should at least have some madness shading your voice. You shouldn't sound as if you were discussing your bloody dinner plans!
There was no doubt in his mind that she noticed his terror but even now there was nothing in her face that showed how she was feeling about this. A poker face like that could probably earn her a lot of money in card games. He had to blink at that strange thought and had he not been so terrified and angry he might have actually spend some time trying to figure out where it had come from.
"It doesn't matter what the other minds think though, I'm in control now, not Dawn." She then bent over until he could feel her hot breath as she whispered in his ear. "But you should be happy that you didn't try any magic against me, had that happened I don't think I could have stopped myself."
The girl then stood up, stepped over his body and he could feel her tearing the knife non to gently out of his back. She then took hold of his hair and wrenched his head back. As the cold metal of the knife then parted the skin of his throat Ethan sent a mental prayer of thanks to whatever deity had stopped her from choosing one of the other options.
Stepping back from the corpse and cleaning the knife Kirika wondered what she should do now. It was obvious to her that she wouldn't be able to remain in charge of the body for long. Undoubtedly the Dawn personality would try to regain control now that this was taken care of and as the original personality she was indeed capable of taking the body back. But that was for now, once the merging was over a whole new personality would be in control and together with her weaker self she would most likely have more influence on the new her than Dawn had.
A pang of discomfort flitted through her mind at that thought. Somehow that just didn't feel right but she was honest enough with herself to realize that didn't really matter to her. On the other hand, that emotion reminded her of something that she definitely did not like. Although the target hadn't been able to notice it, her mask of having no emotions had been exactly that, a mask, one that had actually slipped for a moment. Where before she had always been able to purge all emotions from her body this time around she had only controlled them nearly perfect.
No doubt that had been caused by the merging but she wasn't happy with the fact that the effect wasn't only one way as she had half expected it to be. It should have only been the Dawn personality that was inflicted with these problems, not her. Just look at the way she had been talking to the target, she had never talked to a target while she was killing it. She frowned, now she was doing it again. Only this time she was rambling to herself instead of a target and she couldn't honestly say that was an improvement.
Brutally suppressing every thought that wasn't supposed to be there Kirika once more turned to her present situation. Buffy would probably arrive within maybe fifteen minutes and she had no wish to meet the blonde at this time. Let alone while standing over the corpse of the person she had undoubtedly come to protect.
Now, this was a store so there should be things here she could use. The costumes were of course useless but the money that had been paid for them wasn't. That was a first as well, and this time she couldn't stop herself from letting a smile grace her face, being paid by the person she had killed. Even if it was after the fact.
Checking the corpse's pockets she found his wallet and looked inside. A one-way ticket from Los Angeles to London, well it was a good thing she had found him before he'd managed to leave. It would have been a lot harder to kill him if he'd been on the other side of the world. Creditcard, running her fingers over the card she could feel the protruding numbers even through the gloves. No, she couldn't risk it. No matter how tempting it was to use this it would undoubtedly lead the police to her and she couldn't use that.
Taking the money out of the wallet she then returned to the store in order to check the counter. Once she had all the money from there as well Kirika returned to the living room and looked around to see if there was anything that she might be able to use. Unfortunately it looked as if the fool had been so trusting in magic abilities he didn't have any other weapons.
"Ethan? Ethan? Giles told me everything. Look, it's coming for you." Ah, Buffy had arrived, which meant she would need to leave. Calmly walking to the backdoor she opened it and stepped out before Buffy even had a chance to discover the body.
Walking home she counted the money she now had, it was a decent amount but while she was now able to pay for the things she needed there was still no way to get them. Around here nobody would sell weapons to twelve year old girls. So she needed to go somewhere they wouldn't mind that kind of thing, which meant she would probably need to go shop in one of the less than pleasant neighborhoods of Los Angeles. And guess what? She couldn't go there because she was grounded. Contemplating that problem she threw the bloody gloves in a garbage can and added a new pair to her mental shopping list.
While walking past the park a sudden wave of emotions shocked her and Kirika realized she was losing control. She barely had time to put away the money before with a dizzying feeling Dawn once more was in control of her own body. It took her a moment or two to orient herself but once she had done so she remembered exactly what she had done. And this time she didn't have any excuse like being possessed. She barely had time to reach the cover of the trees before she fell to her knees and threw up.
Following Angel the three of them ran into the shop and not finding anything there continued into the house from where sounds of a fight were coming. When he reached the living room Xander couldn't help but stop and gape at the, there was no other word for it, massacred body. Next to him he heard both Willow and Cordelia utter sounds of disgust at the sight but he could think of only one thing. He had seen only one other body in his entire life that had been meant to suffer like this, the vampire that had been stabbed, shot and left out to be sunburned during Halloween.
Before he could contemplate the similarities between the two however the fighting that was going on tore his attention back to the here and how. As Angel was holding Ms Calendar, no the demon, he could see Buffy still on the ground where she had been thrown while Giles was moving to get up. As the Brit then tried to go to the ongoing fight however he was stopped by Willow.
"He's killing her!"
"No! Trust me! This is gonna work!" Willow answered the panicking man, while Xander suddenly realized that a new factor had appeared, one they had not thought of but that could be a danger to the plan.
"Cordelia, help me move the body."
The girl looked at him as if he was crazy. "What are you talking about Harris? You want me to move a dead guy? Are you totally insane?"
After checking to see if the demon was still distracted he leaned close enough so he could actually smell her perfume even over the stench of blood, down Xander! You weren't gonna think of her like that remember? "That is indeed a dead body and do you remember what Eyghon does with dead bodies?"
"Oh yeah." Cordelia seemed to realize what he was driving at. "We've got to move the body. Xander, help me."
Slightly baffled at how she had managed to turn the tables Xander took one of Ethan's legs while Cordelia did the same with the other leg and together they dragged him away from the ongoing fight.
Noticing how Angel continued choking the possessed woman they started pulling harder until finally Ms Calendar's body fell to the ground and Angel was thrown into the wall and started shaking. Knowing there was no more need for them to keep dragging he let go of the leg and walked to where Willow was now helping Buffy get up. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Giles helping Ms. Calendar back to her feet but his attention was focused on the ongoing internal struggle.
The fight between the two demons was strangely visible in Angel's face. Everything that happened between the two beings possessing him seemed to be displayed somehow and Xander couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Not too sorry of course, especially since he wasn't entirely certain which demon he wanted to win, but still... When Eyghon was then thrown out of the vampire's body Xander felt a momentary pang of doubt. Did it actually need to be able to see the dead body or could it possess Ethan despite the fact that they had moved him?
That question was soon answered as the corpse behind him moved to stand up. "Oh shit."
"No! He, he wasn't supposed to be here." Willow stuttered, dismayed that her plan hadn't worked the way it should.
Angel was still barely able to move but Xander noticed with relief that Buffy was already on the move and had somehow managed to lay her hands on a sturdy table leg. Standing before the weakened demon she didn't hesitate and with a meaty sound the wooden pole connected with its head, destroying the already fragile neck even more. A couple more hits followed until the pole broke and Ethan's head was dangling from only a little bit of skin.
As the body dissolved Eyghon once again wanted to try again for Angel's body but weak as it was didn't even make it there before crumbling into ashes.
"Was that what you wanted to happen, Wills?" A slightly out of breath Buffy asked.
"Yeah, more or less. Except that I didn't count on there being another dead body."
"Well, that did come as a bit of a surprise didn't it. Did the demon kill him?" Xander wanted to know.
"No." Buffy shook her head. "He was dead when I arrived and Eyghon didn't show up until I was already here."
"Who was it then?"
"Beats me."
"You know, the way he died kinda reminded me of that vampire during Halloween."
"What vampire?" Giles asked him, looking up from where he had been helping Ms. Calendar.
"When we were looking for Dawn we found this vampire who had knives sticking out of his throat and was riddled with bullets. And then he had been left out on the street to wait for the sunrise."
"Oh, quite. And why wasn't I informed about this before?"
"Ehm." Looking at Buffy he wondered what she would have said, and hey, he wasn't the only one who had been there. "I kinda forgot."
"So did I." Buffy admitted. "And besides, it wasn't exactly a time I want to think about. Being a brainless twit doesn't inspire great memories."
Giles then looked at Willow who held up her hands defensively. "I wasn't there. This is the first time I've heard about it."
A deep sigh went out of the Brit as he admitted defeat and let it go. "Well, I guess there's someone new on the Hellmouth then and while this person appears to be on our side his methods aren't quite what I'd like to see."
"It could have just been someone who didn't like his costume." Xander offered as a possibility. As everyone then gave him an ugly look for joking about something like that he tried to defend himself. "Oh come on, you were all thinking it. I mean there must have been someone with a costume that wasn't as nice as the ones we wore."
Once more she was staring out of the window of her room. It was actually starting to become a habit, well not exactly starting since she had been doing it before she even met Mireille. No! Stop that! Slipping her hand in her pocket she took out the fake silver watch that until today had done such a good job at keeping her from going over the edge.
No, that wasn't exactly fair either. What happened today wasn't the watch's fault. She had consciously chosen not to make use of its calming influence. And for a first job it hadn't gone that bad, well except for the part where she almost tortured the target to death but even there the important word was almost. She had managed to stop herself from going completely berserk even while faced with the man that took her away from Mireille.
The one thing that did bother her however was how easy it had been for the other personality to take over. Nothing she had read so far had indicated that possibility and she doubted this would be the last time something like it happened. There had to be a way for her to remain in control however and she swore to herself she would do what she could to find it.
All in all however, she had to admit that the day had been a good one. The information she had managed to wheedle out of her sister about the day's events had cheered her up considerably. Even now she felt a tiny glimmer of joy locked inside her dark heart. Nobody would be investigating the death of Ethan Rayne because the authorities would never see a body.
While dissolving the body had never been something she'd thought of before, considering it would make verification too hard for her clients, it was rather useful in this case. Before she forgot to do so, she took out her secret diary in order to tear out the last page. Except for the knife it was the last bit of evidence that might point in her direction and unlike that she could do without a page that had only three words written on it.
Once the evidence had been destroyed however she felt a little empty. For the past weeks the need for revenge on Ethan had been the driving force behind her actions and now that was gone. Having no real plan about what to do didn't really approve with her but on the other hand it might be useful to be able to get some more training in before the next situation turned up. After all, she was pretty sure that Buffy would get herself into some serious trouble sooner or later.
----------------------------------
Post-fic comments: Once again I hope you enjoyed it and like always I'd appreciate a review. The next part called 'Competition' will arrive in two days.