Chapter Five: A Dead Man
Buffy decapitated the first demon to appear out of the shadows with her katana. It was another tight, purple - skinned weak thing with spikes sticking out of its head. Said head then rolled across the street and stopped at the feet of Willow. She looked down at it and then back up at Buffy and smiled.
"One down, two - hundred more to go," she stated humorously. Buffy looked down the street and saw a fresh wave of the things that Giles said were Mochlackdangodenacks rushing towards the two of them. The mid - morning sun blazed through the clouds and cast blue light down at them. Buffy didn't like how the early sun cast blue light instead of yellow.
"Think we can take them all?" Buffy inquired.
"All of them? Not a chance. Some of them, yeah. The odds are one in a hundred that we'd take 'em successfully. But with help," Willow nodded behind Buffy and she turned around to see that strange, blue demon called Illyria standing there. She didn't look very happy. Not like she should've been; she had just attended her friend's funeral not twenty hours ago and the other one, Gunn, was still under medical supervision. "I think we can take them fine."
"Hey there," Buffy said. "Ready to kick demon ass?"
"I am not familiar with that phrase," Illyria stated, and then asked with her head cocked: "What does it mean?"
"It means kill demons."
"Then I wish to kick demon ass," Illyria replied.
The demons, whose bones could now be seen through their skin layers of skin thanks to the sunlight, were now quite close. Willow, to the right, began reciting an incantation. The wind speed began to pick up. The air was pungent thanks to the close proximity of the Mochlackdangodenacks.
Suddenly the air heated up quite noticeably and a good twenty to thirty demons burst into flames and started screeching in pain. They ran around, abandoning their weapons and their urge to kill in the process along with starting fire to a good forty or fifty other demons.
Buffy looked at Willow questioningly.
"A spell I absorbed when I was all veiny, dark - haired, and evil Willow," Willow stated.
"No," Buffy replied. "They're wearing armor, how are they starting the others on fire?"
"Their skin is flammable and their sweat is similar to gasoline."
Buffy looked at the increasing number of burning demons and smiled. That was a great weakness to bear in mind.
The three or four dozen demons that escaped the fate of burning to death charged forth with their swords raised. Buffy demolished the closest three quickly. Willow continued to set others on fire. Illyria was snapping them in half like tooth - picks and tossing them away like rag dolls. These things were unbelievably weak. Nothing like the uber - vamps of the First's awe - inspiring army.
Had Illyria not been there, a demon would've stabbed Buffy in the back after she had killed only ten of the small army. Luckily enough for Buffy, Illyria had grabbed its arm before it could and had twisted its head clean off with a satisfied grunt.
Had it not been for Illyria saving Buffy, then Willow would've been decapitated shortly after Buffy's death. Fortunately Buffy shouted to Willow and she ducked the blade, then incinerated the Mochlackdangodenack.
The actual amount of demons that had charged the trio had been two - hundred and twenty - six. Willow had killed ninety - eight. Illyria had killed one - hundred and one. Buffy had killed twenty - seven. It was strange how the Slayer, the one destined to kill demons and vampires, had somehow become the weakest of a book - worm witch and what used to be another book - worm.
After the battle was over and the demon bodies had been reported to the clean - up crew, which came by later and burned all dead bodies from the battle, the three went on the hunt again.
Not twenty minutes later Faith was discovered battling ten of the demons.
Illyria charged forth and grabbed two of the demons. Faith barely took notice of her arrival. Illyria then smashed the heads of the two demons together and brain tissue and bits and pieces of skull flew out in all directions. Not a moment later Illyria punched a hole through the chest of another creature of the night and tore the neck out from under the cranium of yet another. Four dead there. Faith told her to back off and killed the rest effortlessly with swing after swing from her two - sided skull axe.
"I wished to kick demon ass," Illyria said after the last demon of the group dropped to the ground, dead in a pool of its own blood. "Why did you order that I not do so?"
"Well, smurf," Faith began. "I wished to do so as well. And what's with your speech anyway? It creeps me out. What?"
Illyria had been looking at her with her head cocked and a baffled look in her eyes. "What?" Faith repeated herself."
"Why does everyone call me a smurf?" Illyria asked.
Faith stood there silently for a moment and then burst out laughing. Buffy and Willow did likewise. Illyria jumped backwards as if to avoid the dangerous swipe of a blade, did a three - hundred and sixty degree spin to look at all of them, and then looked even more confused than ever. "What is it that you find humorous?"
"N - Nothing," Faith gasped out and then stopped laughing but continued to smile. "You'd have to have a sense of humor to get it."
"I wish to kill more Mochlackdangodenacks," Illyria said, dismissing the entire 'smurf' situation. Faith raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"The what - nows?"
"Mochlackdangodenacks," Willow repeated the name. "The purple - heads." She then proceeded to gesture at the dead Mochlackdangodenacks.
"Ah, I get it."
"I don't understand how you can even say the first two syllables without your tongue getting all twisty and knotty," Buffy said.
"Takes practice," Willow replied with a grin.
"And what's with all of the long names and such? Are demons just exceedingly fascinated by them?"
"I guess it just seems more menacing to have long names. The uber - vamps had too short of a name," Willow declared.
"I liked it," Buffy informed the other three. "It's nice to pronounce your foe's name. Like the Anointed One, the Master--"
"The First!" Xander interrupted as he jogged up to them with an axe in one hand and an ice - cream cone in the other. Buffy eyed the ice - cream and then looked up at Xander.
"What's with the ice - cream Xand?" Buffy asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Huh? Oh. I like ice - cream. It's ice which just happens to be cream."
"Seriously."
Xander smiled. "I saved an ice - cream truck driver from his doom. He was trying to get out of town in his only form of transportation--an ice - cream truck--when a bunch of those things with the purple heads jumped him. I arrived, saved the day for the poor guy, he gave me ice - cream after I requested it jokingly, yada - yada, I have ice -cream and a bloody axe. Oh the horrors of ice - cream truck driving."
Xander then thought of the dream he'd dreamt a long time ago in which he'd been driving an ice - cream truck with Anya and had seen Willow and Tara in the back all lesbian and beckoning him to come back and join them. It saddened him that both Anya and Tara were dead now. He decided it was best not to think of the two of them at the moment. He'd done enough thinking of them since their deaths and he was sick of the grieving.
"You should know," Buffy said.
"That I should."
"You ready to go hunting for more Moch - things to kill?"
"What are 'Moch - things'?" Xander asked.
"Mochlackdangodenacks," Willow piped up helpfully. Xander's blank face remained blank.
"Moch - whateys?"
"The purple heads," Willow grumbled, a little disappointed she was the only one of the three Scoobies to know that a Mochlackdangodenack was. Xander's face lit up with comprehension.
"Ohhh. I know what those are."
"You should. We've only been fighting them for the past… two days?"
"No, one really. We arrived on Wednesday and, despite the fact that it's now Friday, we've only been around for one day in the literal sense of twenty - four hours." Xander finished and then looked around the others. "And in answer to the question that started the whole name thing, no, I don't want to go hunting for more of the Moch - things as you so eloquently put it. I've done enough fighting for now. I'll gladly kill some with you later."
"You'd think it'd be more hectic," Faith stated.
"Think what would be more hectic?" Willow asked.
"The Apocalypse," she replied. "I heard the Master Vamp incident ended with Buffy dying temporarily. Then a year later and Angel dies. A year after that you're blowing up the school after attempting to kill me. Two years later you're battling a god. After that Willow's the enemy and after that we're battling an army of uber - vamps. As far as apocalypses go, this one is pretty mild."
"Thank you for stirring up a bunch of bad memories," Xander said. "But I see your point. Things are going really slowly here Buffy."
"I've noticed. And you forgot one apocalypse Faith, the big multi - headed demon in the school. That one was pretty bad, too. Too bad you missed out on it Xander."
Xander smiled and chuckled. Little did they know he had battled demons and dead people to deactivate a bomb that would've kill the lot of them. Of course, he hadn't deactivated the bomb, he had scared a dead guy into doing it by telling him that the bomb would kill him so fully that he wouldn't be able to be brought back to life again. Xander supposed that the guy had gotten out of town afterwards because he had never been seen again.
What Xander didn't know was that the reason the guy hadn't been seen before was because he had been killed by Oz in his werewolf form. Oz, who was coincidentally being transported to L.A. as they spoke.
"I was busy with… other things," Xander replied. Faith smiled. He sure had been busy with other things, and not just preventing the school from being blown up. He'd had sex with Faith that same night. Xander and Faith exchanged a look that was not unnoticed by Buffy and Willow.
"I am familiar with this being," Illyria spoke up. The others turned to her and saw a man standing before her.
Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Faith were clueless as to who it was that was standing there.
"Angel ordered him assassinated," Illyria continued. Immediately the four behind her jumped to defensive positions. Xander's unfortunate mint ice - cream cone splattered to the ground and melted there through out the process of the day.
Lindsey had wrapped a great deal of cloth around his mid section to stop the bleeding from the two wounds Lorne had dealt him the night before last. He was breathing unevenly and raggedly. He was hunched over and had a sword at his side.
"Nice… to know… that at least one… of you got out… of there," he said. "How… many of the others… made it out?"
"What happened to the empath?" Illyria demanded. She had grown accustomed to the green member of their group.
"He's not… dead… if that's what you mean."
"Why did he not succeed in killing you?"
"Don't… have any idea… hit some vitals… should be dead."
Illyria stretched out one hand and touched Lindsey's chest. "Your body is at room temperature. You are not among the living."
"Figured that out… myself blue - face. My heart… stopped pumping last night after I… got this all tied around me."
"Why do humans find it comical to comment on my blue hair and forehead?"
"Because it's… funny."
"Ah - hem." Illyria and Lindsey looked over at Buffy.
"Hello," Lindsey greeted her. "You must be the Slayer. Let me rephrase that. You must be a Slayer. The only thing you deserve 'the' for now is that you're the Slayer that started the concept of multiple Slayers."
"Who are you?" Buffy asked.
"Name's… Lindsey."
"Lindsey…?" Buffy said.
Lindsey sighed. "Lindsey McDonald."
Buffy cracked a smile while Willow and Xander chuckled. "You mean, like, Ronald McDonald or something?"
That was too much and they all started giggling other than Lindsey and Illyria. Lindsey was used to the battering of his last name. He then turned back to Illyria, who didn't comprehend the punch - line to the Ronald McDonald reference considering she had no idea who that was.
"Is… err… did Angel… survive?" Lindsey expected a 'no'. He was surprised when Illyria replied positively. "Well, then… who… died?"
"Wesley," Illyria stated sadly. "He was killed by the sorcerer he attempted to assassinate."
"No one else?"
"Gunn is injured badly."
"That's… it?" Lindsey exclaimed. "I had… no idea that there would be… so few… casualties."
"I am surprised as well."
"Why were… there so few?"
"Uh… hello," Willow said and raised her hand slightly. "We arrived. Same with an entire army of Slayers and Initiative soldiers."
"But… you were battling… the Senior Partners!"
"They did not appear during the battle."
Lindsey looked at Illyria stunned. "They were… supposed to. It's the final… apocalypse! They… are supposed to cause it."
"Who ever said anything about it being the final apocalypse?" Buffy asked. "I heard from Giles who heard from a source that it was an apocalypse. I never heard anything about it being the final one."
"The… prophecies… th - they say it is."
"Do they?"
"Yes. You thought this was just another avoidable apocalypse? Nuh - uh. This, as I've said before, is THE apocalypse. If the prophecies are correct, there is no stopping it."
Buffy looked around at everyone. "Well… that sucks."
Meanwhile…
Dawn stared out of her open tent flap at the passing soldiers.
"What are you staring at Dawn?" a voice asked from behind her. Dawn didn't look back. She had been hearing that voice a lot in the last day. She just closed her eyes tight.
"Go away. You aren't real. Go away. You aren't real. Go away. Get out."
She opened her eyes after a moment of silence and then drew in breath sharply and fell off of her bed in an attempt to escape the vision before her.
The soldiers were all dead. Their entrails hanging out and some limbs missing and strewn about. But… they were walking around. They were dead and they were walking around. It was like "The Night of the Living Dead" out there.
Fire was spreading somewhere off in the depths of the city and she could see it above the building tops. The fire was so huge!
She clasped her eyes tightly shut and started chanting that it wasn't real. When she opened her eyes the soldiers were normal and walking around. There was no fire in the distance. All was normal.
But… all wasn't normal now was it?
"No it isn't," that light voice spoke. It was a happy - sounding voice, but it was evil. Dawn could sense that it was. "All isn't normal. All isn't good. You're going insane."
"No I'm not," she stated. She sat up. The ground beneath her was cool and hard. The tents had no bottom, so she was sitting on the road that the tent was set up on. "I'm not going insane. You aren't real. Stop talking to me."
"Fine then, I'm not real."
Suddenly a cold hand pressed lightly on Dawn's shoulder.
"Then, who is it that's touching your shoulder?"
Dawn screamed and twirled away from the hand. She looked around for whoever or whatever had been touching her and saw nothing. Then the voice chuckled softly.
"I don't think you're ready to see me, my dear."
"What are you?"
"Just a friend Dawn. Just a friend. Albeit not a very good friend, but a friend to end no less."
"Leave me alone."
"Wish I could… but I can't."
Suddenly the hand was back and rubbing her shoulder.
"Please."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I've already chosen my side. You haven't. I want to ask you if you could choose mine instead of the one that will fail."
"You mean Buffy's side."
"Precisely."
"No."
"You should. I don't want to be pitted against you in battle."
"No."
"Please?"
"No!"
"Come on."
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Dawn tried to get away from the hand, but another held her in place. Suddenly the voice was right in her ear. She felt hot breath on her neck as it spoke and knew that there really was something there.
"In case you didn't get the memo, this isn't one of those other, avoidable apocalypses. This is it. This is the one, final apocalypse. You'll suffer more than any of them… and I'll be there laughing when you are finally released into a very painful death."
Then the hands and the voice and the breath were gone, leaving Dawn all alone sitting on the cold ground and hugging her chest. A few hours later Buffy appeared at the tent and asked her what was wrong and why she was sitting on the floor. Dawn looked up at Buffy and then replied simply.
"Nothing."
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Hey, MorbidMan here. Lindsey's a bit more chockfull of sanity now, Lorne's still absent--ditto for Giles--, and Dawn's been given an entire section dedicated to her. Bob and Dick didn't make an appearance. Drusilla's somewhere around in there. The Jarlkarlones weren't mentioned this time around. And the dead men will be coming soon. Don't doubt that for a second.
I enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
I'm setting up a lot of things way too fast. I'm only five chapters in!
All questions will be answered at some point in the story. Maybe not for several chapters, but they will be answered. You can bet your fur on that. For those who don't know, "bet your fur" is a phrase from Stephen King's book "It".
"If you need help, Don, help yourself to a balloon. They float. Down here we all float; pretty soon your friend will float, too." - Pennywise the Dancing Clown a.k.a. Bob Gray a.k.a. It "It"
Buffy decapitated the first demon to appear out of the shadows with her katana. It was another tight, purple - skinned weak thing with spikes sticking out of its head. Said head then rolled across the street and stopped at the feet of Willow. She looked down at it and then back up at Buffy and smiled.
"One down, two - hundred more to go," she stated humorously. Buffy looked down the street and saw a fresh wave of the things that Giles said were Mochlackdangodenacks rushing towards the two of them. The mid - morning sun blazed through the clouds and cast blue light down at them. Buffy didn't like how the early sun cast blue light instead of yellow.
"Think we can take them all?" Buffy inquired.
"All of them? Not a chance. Some of them, yeah. The odds are one in a hundred that we'd take 'em successfully. But with help," Willow nodded behind Buffy and she turned around to see that strange, blue demon called Illyria standing there. She didn't look very happy. Not like she should've been; she had just attended her friend's funeral not twenty hours ago and the other one, Gunn, was still under medical supervision. "I think we can take them fine."
"Hey there," Buffy said. "Ready to kick demon ass?"
"I am not familiar with that phrase," Illyria stated, and then asked with her head cocked: "What does it mean?"
"It means kill demons."
"Then I wish to kick demon ass," Illyria replied.
The demons, whose bones could now be seen through their skin layers of skin thanks to the sunlight, were now quite close. Willow, to the right, began reciting an incantation. The wind speed began to pick up. The air was pungent thanks to the close proximity of the Mochlackdangodenacks.
Suddenly the air heated up quite noticeably and a good twenty to thirty demons burst into flames and started screeching in pain. They ran around, abandoning their weapons and their urge to kill in the process along with starting fire to a good forty or fifty other demons.
Buffy looked at Willow questioningly.
"A spell I absorbed when I was all veiny, dark - haired, and evil Willow," Willow stated.
"No," Buffy replied. "They're wearing armor, how are they starting the others on fire?"
"Their skin is flammable and their sweat is similar to gasoline."
Buffy looked at the increasing number of burning demons and smiled. That was a great weakness to bear in mind.
The three or four dozen demons that escaped the fate of burning to death charged forth with their swords raised. Buffy demolished the closest three quickly. Willow continued to set others on fire. Illyria was snapping them in half like tooth - picks and tossing them away like rag dolls. These things were unbelievably weak. Nothing like the uber - vamps of the First's awe - inspiring army.
Had Illyria not been there, a demon would've stabbed Buffy in the back after she had killed only ten of the small army. Luckily enough for Buffy, Illyria had grabbed its arm before it could and had twisted its head clean off with a satisfied grunt.
Had it not been for Illyria saving Buffy, then Willow would've been decapitated shortly after Buffy's death. Fortunately Buffy shouted to Willow and she ducked the blade, then incinerated the Mochlackdangodenack.
The actual amount of demons that had charged the trio had been two - hundred and twenty - six. Willow had killed ninety - eight. Illyria had killed one - hundred and one. Buffy had killed twenty - seven. It was strange how the Slayer, the one destined to kill demons and vampires, had somehow become the weakest of a book - worm witch and what used to be another book - worm.
After the battle was over and the demon bodies had been reported to the clean - up crew, which came by later and burned all dead bodies from the battle, the three went on the hunt again.
Not twenty minutes later Faith was discovered battling ten of the demons.
Illyria charged forth and grabbed two of the demons. Faith barely took notice of her arrival. Illyria then smashed the heads of the two demons together and brain tissue and bits and pieces of skull flew out in all directions. Not a moment later Illyria punched a hole through the chest of another creature of the night and tore the neck out from under the cranium of yet another. Four dead there. Faith told her to back off and killed the rest effortlessly with swing after swing from her two - sided skull axe.
"I wished to kick demon ass," Illyria said after the last demon of the group dropped to the ground, dead in a pool of its own blood. "Why did you order that I not do so?"
"Well, smurf," Faith began. "I wished to do so as well. And what's with your speech anyway? It creeps me out. What?"
Illyria had been looking at her with her head cocked and a baffled look in her eyes. "What?" Faith repeated herself."
"Why does everyone call me a smurf?" Illyria asked.
Faith stood there silently for a moment and then burst out laughing. Buffy and Willow did likewise. Illyria jumped backwards as if to avoid the dangerous swipe of a blade, did a three - hundred and sixty degree spin to look at all of them, and then looked even more confused than ever. "What is it that you find humorous?"
"N - Nothing," Faith gasped out and then stopped laughing but continued to smile. "You'd have to have a sense of humor to get it."
"I wish to kill more Mochlackdangodenacks," Illyria said, dismissing the entire 'smurf' situation. Faith raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"The what - nows?"
"Mochlackdangodenacks," Willow repeated the name. "The purple - heads." She then proceeded to gesture at the dead Mochlackdangodenacks.
"Ah, I get it."
"I don't understand how you can even say the first two syllables without your tongue getting all twisty and knotty," Buffy said.
"Takes practice," Willow replied with a grin.
"And what's with all of the long names and such? Are demons just exceedingly fascinated by them?"
"I guess it just seems more menacing to have long names. The uber - vamps had too short of a name," Willow declared.
"I liked it," Buffy informed the other three. "It's nice to pronounce your foe's name. Like the Anointed One, the Master--"
"The First!" Xander interrupted as he jogged up to them with an axe in one hand and an ice - cream cone in the other. Buffy eyed the ice - cream and then looked up at Xander.
"What's with the ice - cream Xand?" Buffy asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Huh? Oh. I like ice - cream. It's ice which just happens to be cream."
"Seriously."
Xander smiled. "I saved an ice - cream truck driver from his doom. He was trying to get out of town in his only form of transportation--an ice - cream truck--when a bunch of those things with the purple heads jumped him. I arrived, saved the day for the poor guy, he gave me ice - cream after I requested it jokingly, yada - yada, I have ice -cream and a bloody axe. Oh the horrors of ice - cream truck driving."
Xander then thought of the dream he'd dreamt a long time ago in which he'd been driving an ice - cream truck with Anya and had seen Willow and Tara in the back all lesbian and beckoning him to come back and join them. It saddened him that both Anya and Tara were dead now. He decided it was best not to think of the two of them at the moment. He'd done enough thinking of them since their deaths and he was sick of the grieving.
"You should know," Buffy said.
"That I should."
"You ready to go hunting for more Moch - things to kill?"
"What are 'Moch - things'?" Xander asked.
"Mochlackdangodenacks," Willow piped up helpfully. Xander's blank face remained blank.
"Moch - whateys?"
"The purple heads," Willow grumbled, a little disappointed she was the only one of the three Scoobies to know that a Mochlackdangodenack was. Xander's face lit up with comprehension.
"Ohhh. I know what those are."
"You should. We've only been fighting them for the past… two days?"
"No, one really. We arrived on Wednesday and, despite the fact that it's now Friday, we've only been around for one day in the literal sense of twenty - four hours." Xander finished and then looked around the others. "And in answer to the question that started the whole name thing, no, I don't want to go hunting for more of the Moch - things as you so eloquently put it. I've done enough fighting for now. I'll gladly kill some with you later."
"You'd think it'd be more hectic," Faith stated.
"Think what would be more hectic?" Willow asked.
"The Apocalypse," she replied. "I heard the Master Vamp incident ended with Buffy dying temporarily. Then a year later and Angel dies. A year after that you're blowing up the school after attempting to kill me. Two years later you're battling a god. After that Willow's the enemy and after that we're battling an army of uber - vamps. As far as apocalypses go, this one is pretty mild."
"Thank you for stirring up a bunch of bad memories," Xander said. "But I see your point. Things are going really slowly here Buffy."
"I've noticed. And you forgot one apocalypse Faith, the big multi - headed demon in the school. That one was pretty bad, too. Too bad you missed out on it Xander."
Xander smiled and chuckled. Little did they know he had battled demons and dead people to deactivate a bomb that would've kill the lot of them. Of course, he hadn't deactivated the bomb, he had scared a dead guy into doing it by telling him that the bomb would kill him so fully that he wouldn't be able to be brought back to life again. Xander supposed that the guy had gotten out of town afterwards because he had never been seen again.
What Xander didn't know was that the reason the guy hadn't been seen before was because he had been killed by Oz in his werewolf form. Oz, who was coincidentally being transported to L.A. as they spoke.
"I was busy with… other things," Xander replied. Faith smiled. He sure had been busy with other things, and not just preventing the school from being blown up. He'd had sex with Faith that same night. Xander and Faith exchanged a look that was not unnoticed by Buffy and Willow.
"I am familiar with this being," Illyria spoke up. The others turned to her and saw a man standing before her.
Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Faith were clueless as to who it was that was standing there.
"Angel ordered him assassinated," Illyria continued. Immediately the four behind her jumped to defensive positions. Xander's unfortunate mint ice - cream cone splattered to the ground and melted there through out the process of the day.
Lindsey had wrapped a great deal of cloth around his mid section to stop the bleeding from the two wounds Lorne had dealt him the night before last. He was breathing unevenly and raggedly. He was hunched over and had a sword at his side.
"Nice… to know… that at least one… of you got out… of there," he said. "How… many of the others… made it out?"
"What happened to the empath?" Illyria demanded. She had grown accustomed to the green member of their group.
"He's not… dead… if that's what you mean."
"Why did he not succeed in killing you?"
"Don't… have any idea… hit some vitals… should be dead."
Illyria stretched out one hand and touched Lindsey's chest. "Your body is at room temperature. You are not among the living."
"Figured that out… myself blue - face. My heart… stopped pumping last night after I… got this all tied around me."
"Why do humans find it comical to comment on my blue hair and forehead?"
"Because it's… funny."
"Ah - hem." Illyria and Lindsey looked over at Buffy.
"Hello," Lindsey greeted her. "You must be the Slayer. Let me rephrase that. You must be a Slayer. The only thing you deserve 'the' for now is that you're the Slayer that started the concept of multiple Slayers."
"Who are you?" Buffy asked.
"Name's… Lindsey."
"Lindsey…?" Buffy said.
Lindsey sighed. "Lindsey McDonald."
Buffy cracked a smile while Willow and Xander chuckled. "You mean, like, Ronald McDonald or something?"
That was too much and they all started giggling other than Lindsey and Illyria. Lindsey was used to the battering of his last name. He then turned back to Illyria, who didn't comprehend the punch - line to the Ronald McDonald reference considering she had no idea who that was.
"Is… err… did Angel… survive?" Lindsey expected a 'no'. He was surprised when Illyria replied positively. "Well, then… who… died?"
"Wesley," Illyria stated sadly. "He was killed by the sorcerer he attempted to assassinate."
"No one else?"
"Gunn is injured badly."
"That's… it?" Lindsey exclaimed. "I had… no idea that there would be… so few… casualties."
"I am surprised as well."
"Why were… there so few?"
"Uh… hello," Willow said and raised her hand slightly. "We arrived. Same with an entire army of Slayers and Initiative soldiers."
"But… you were battling… the Senior Partners!"
"They did not appear during the battle."
Lindsey looked at Illyria stunned. "They were… supposed to. It's the final… apocalypse! They… are supposed to cause it."
"Who ever said anything about it being the final apocalypse?" Buffy asked. "I heard from Giles who heard from a source that it was an apocalypse. I never heard anything about it being the final one."
"The… prophecies… th - they say it is."
"Do they?"
"Yes. You thought this was just another avoidable apocalypse? Nuh - uh. This, as I've said before, is THE apocalypse. If the prophecies are correct, there is no stopping it."
Buffy looked around at everyone. "Well… that sucks."
Meanwhile…
Dawn stared out of her open tent flap at the passing soldiers.
"What are you staring at Dawn?" a voice asked from behind her. Dawn didn't look back. She had been hearing that voice a lot in the last day. She just closed her eyes tight.
"Go away. You aren't real. Go away. You aren't real. Go away. Get out."
She opened her eyes after a moment of silence and then drew in breath sharply and fell off of her bed in an attempt to escape the vision before her.
The soldiers were all dead. Their entrails hanging out and some limbs missing and strewn about. But… they were walking around. They were dead and they were walking around. It was like "The Night of the Living Dead" out there.
Fire was spreading somewhere off in the depths of the city and she could see it above the building tops. The fire was so huge!
She clasped her eyes tightly shut and started chanting that it wasn't real. When she opened her eyes the soldiers were normal and walking around. There was no fire in the distance. All was normal.
But… all wasn't normal now was it?
"No it isn't," that light voice spoke. It was a happy - sounding voice, but it was evil. Dawn could sense that it was. "All isn't normal. All isn't good. You're going insane."
"No I'm not," she stated. She sat up. The ground beneath her was cool and hard. The tents had no bottom, so she was sitting on the road that the tent was set up on. "I'm not going insane. You aren't real. Stop talking to me."
"Fine then, I'm not real."
Suddenly a cold hand pressed lightly on Dawn's shoulder.
"Then, who is it that's touching your shoulder?"
Dawn screamed and twirled away from the hand. She looked around for whoever or whatever had been touching her and saw nothing. Then the voice chuckled softly.
"I don't think you're ready to see me, my dear."
"What are you?"
"Just a friend Dawn. Just a friend. Albeit not a very good friend, but a friend to end no less."
"Leave me alone."
"Wish I could… but I can't."
Suddenly the hand was back and rubbing her shoulder.
"Please."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I've already chosen my side. You haven't. I want to ask you if you could choose mine instead of the one that will fail."
"You mean Buffy's side."
"Precisely."
"No."
"You should. I don't want to be pitted against you in battle."
"No."
"Please?"
"No!"
"Come on."
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Dawn tried to get away from the hand, but another held her in place. Suddenly the voice was right in her ear. She felt hot breath on her neck as it spoke and knew that there really was something there.
"In case you didn't get the memo, this isn't one of those other, avoidable apocalypses. This is it. This is the one, final apocalypse. You'll suffer more than any of them… and I'll be there laughing when you are finally released into a very painful death."
Then the hands and the voice and the breath were gone, leaving Dawn all alone sitting on the cold ground and hugging her chest. A few hours later Buffy appeared at the tent and asked her what was wrong and why she was sitting on the floor. Dawn looked up at Buffy and then replied simply.
"Nothing."
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Hey, MorbidMan here. Lindsey's a bit more chockfull of sanity now, Lorne's still absent--ditto for Giles--, and Dawn's been given an entire section dedicated to her. Bob and Dick didn't make an appearance. Drusilla's somewhere around in there. The Jarlkarlones weren't mentioned this time around. And the dead men will be coming soon. Don't doubt that for a second.
I enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
I'm setting up a lot of things way too fast. I'm only five chapters in!
All questions will be answered at some point in the story. Maybe not for several chapters, but they will be answered. You can bet your fur on that. For those who don't know, "bet your fur" is a phrase from Stephen King's book "It".
"If you need help, Don, help yourself to a balloon. They float. Down here we all float; pretty soon your friend will float, too." - Pennywise the Dancing Clown a.k.a. Bob Gray a.k.a. It "It"