Chapter Twenty-One:
Vinieria
"Hello, Zaerintoleran," the Australian bartender greeted the small demon standing before him. "And here I thought you were in the Shitty States of America evoking the Apocalypse and all that happy-crappy shit." The bartender hadn't been born in Australia; he had moved there from--where else?--the United States of America. Zaerintoleran and Vernon, the bartender's name, had been friends for a long time. For twenty of Vernon's thirty years. This is because ten year old Vernon was the only human being who didn't scream and run away from Zaerintoleran. Now, granted, Z. didn't want attention from humans, but this lack of fear struck him as very interesting. So he socialized with the kid.
"Nope," Z. replied. "I'm not in the U.S. of A. evoking the Apocalypse and all that happy-crappy shit. See, I'm in Australia evoking the Apocalypse and all that happy-crappy shit."
Vernon nodded. His bald head reflected the sunlight brightly. They were sitting on a bench on the southern tip of the continent overlooking the vast ocean. "Here to collect something?"
"Yep."
"What?" Vernon asked. He was quite intrigued and smiling just at the corners of his mouth.
"Huh?" Zaerintoleran had been zoning out as he stared out at the ocean.
"What are you here in Australia to collect?" Vernon reiterated slowly.
"A Slayer."
"Mm-hmm… and that would be?"
"Teenage girl appointed the job of dusting vampires for her usually short life. Every time one dies another is put in her place. Follow me?"
"Yes." A couple of passing kids holding variously colored balloons pointed at the two. Their parents informed them that it was just a short guy in a ridiculous costume.
"That used to be how it was done, anyway. This is the confusing part so be prepared. This one Slayer, Buffy Summers, died. But the thing is that she was brought back to life. However, another Slayer was born nonetheless. I don't remember her name, but there were then two Slayers instead of one. That new Slayer died and another Slayer--I can remember her name easily because it's a name I haven't heard much before--Faith was appointed. The story with Faith is irrelevant because it doesn't help me explain everything. Anyway, a bunch of potential Slayers were taken to a place called Sunnydale. Sunnydale was where Buffy Summers lived. There they practiced and trained for a long while in order to battle and defeat the First. You know what the First is, right?"
"Yes."
"So you have a Slayer and a dozen potential Slayers up against the First with a couple of other people. One a witch, one an ex-demon--"
"How do you become an ex-demon?" Vernon interrupted.
"Why do you think I should know?"
"Because you're a demon."
"…Good point. That doesn't I know… I mean that doesn't mean I know. Anyway… witch and ex-demon, yeah. Then you got a wimpy kid named Andrew. I think he's dead now. You hear about what happened in the US?"
"It's all over the place."
"He probably died in that. Then you've got some other miscellaneous guys and gals. Anyway, they found this axe that they could use to give all of the potential Slayers the power of the Slayer. So, of course, they cast the spell. Now there's hundreds of Slayers running around all over the damn place decreasing the decreasing amount of vampires. Now I've come here to get this bitch who hadn't been collected when all the Slayers were taken to L.A. because she wasn't easily accessible all the way over here."
"Why are you collecting her?"
"I'm killing her."
"Why?"
"Big man don't say."
"Whose the big man?"
"Lindsey McDonald."
"Like McDonald's?" Vernon asked with a laugh.
"Yeah."
"So you're obeying some guy with clown make-up on his face 24/7?"
"No. He doesn't where make-up and no he's not just 'some guy'. Some greater power is working through him."
"Who?"
"I don't know. Someone."
"Why'd you visit me?"
"Cause when the bombs drop--figuratively speaking--you and all of humanity are gonna be vaporized. This is the last chance I'm gonna get to talk to you."
"I'm touched," Vernon stated sarcastically. There was a short moment of silence in which they heard the seagulls crying, the waves splashing against the shore, car horns, and children and adults. The world outside of the U.S. was continuing as normal while those left alive in the doomed country suffered. "When are the bombs gonna drop?" Vernon asked. He hadn't been living a great life to say the least, so he didn't give a shit about the world ending. He had a lot of money, considering he moved all the way across the ocean, but money doesn't mean happiness. Just like the Shape-Shifting Magi of Old, he was bored. Except he was bored of wealth, not of being alone in the same chamber for millenniums upon millenniums.
"Within a week."
"Bring it on." The two old friends then shared an uncomfortable moment of silence. It was their last. It seemed to go on forever when it was just half of a minute. And then Zaerintoleran decided he had better get to killing the Slayer, lest he incur the wrath of Lindsey.
"See you in Hell," Vernon said.
"See ya." And the small demon left the bench that overlooked the ocean. Vernon began to live everyday like it was his last. He called up everyone in his family and told them he loved them. He hadn't spoken to any of them in five years. Then he got a girlfriend, Alexus Shaun. And he waited for death as he tried to make the last week of his life the best.
It was ten at night when Claire Jameson returned to her parents' house. She was sixteen and it was the weekend. She had just gotten stoned at a party and hadn't expected to see her mother and father dead in the living room with their guts duct taped to the walls and ceiling to hang around like Christmas lights.
She then saw Zaerintoleran at the couch. He held out his hand and a sword materialized there again. That same sword slashed through Claire's cuts moments later. Her spinal cord was left undamaged, but the pretty girl died anyway. Her last thought--which she didn't understand--was, "with Lucifer I wanted to rule."
Zaerintoleran got onto a boat and threatened the owner with his sword. An hour after Claire was dead her body was being transported across the ocean for the grotesque purpose that the power controlling Lindsey had in mind.
Meanwhile…
Illyria formed a tentacle and wrapped it around Bob tightly. There was a tingling sensation for Bob and then the tentacle unwrapped. If a human were to get the message Illryia put into Lindsey's head, they would've died in immense pain as their brain imploded.
"The task you want to appoint this one is almost an insult to him," was the message.
"Insult or no I'm still giving it to him," Lindsey stated. "I got a job for ya Robert."
"What's that?" Bob asked.
"I want you to collect all the computer chips, damaged or no, that you can find in L.A. At least three intact memory chips. I also want you to collect all the wiring, damaged or no, that you can find. I want at least seven miles worth of it. Eight would be swell and nine would be perfect. Seven is the minimum. Got that?"
"Yes."
"Then I want you to collect twenty pounds of sheet metal. Scratch that. Make it thirty."
"Okay." Bob was wondering why such a magical entity would need things like that, but said magical entity wanted it so said magical entity would get it.
He set out. Household computers were everywhere in ruins. Yes he could find intact memory chips, but it'd take him a while to collect three of them. He collected a hundred fragments before he got one intact in the thirtieth intact apartment he checked out.
The second one he found that was intact was about sixty or seventy apartments after that. He had at least two thousand fragments in the backpack he was carrying with him, which he enlarged and lightened continuously with his mind. Tiny and large. Extremely tiny mostly.
He was two-thirds of the way there. Unfortunately that third was very hard to find. He stopped collecting fragments and just kept searching for that memory chip. Hundreds of apartments zipped by in a flash, literally, before he actually found it.
He then returned with the chips. He gave them to Lindsey and then got another pack for the wiring. He didn't ask questions.
Tearing wires out of walls and ceilings and demolished appliances took only a few minutes. He got nine miles in a matter of an hour and began to connect the wires so that they could transport energy and information. He then returned to Lindsey.
Now he needed to find sheet metal.
Meanwhile…
Kennedy was staring into space still. She was lying on the ground where Willow had left her. Ashley had begun to heal the wounded when Willow had realized just what was going on around her.
Robin was the first to be healed by Willow. Willow then healed Dawn. Robin felt phantom pain in his forehead where he had been cut. Dawn couldn't move well and felt light-headed from her loss of blood, but she wasn't bleeding anymore. She had trouble talking.
Fred was watching this spectacle of healing, not understanding why she wasn't lying on her back unconscious from the hole in her stomach. It made no sense.
None of those healed were perfect afterward, and no one believed they would ever be perfect again. Especially Oz, who remained more than half dead even after his bleeding had been stopped. Two living Slayers, both only with minor injuries, had arrived an hour or so after Angel and his crew had left.
Sally Markinson with her short, brunette hair and cheeks that had not yet lost all of their baby fat had been the first. She was the youngest of the group at fourteen. They had all been confused as to why a fourteen year-old had been recruited. The world was a strange place and they needed all the Slayers they could get is all that any of them could come up with. Sally looked jaded and angry and sad. She had never left the country that she lived in, which meant that her entire family was most likely dead and running around, wanting to feed on living tissue.
Megan Enders was the second. She was in her late teens and had a scar that started on her forehead and went diagonally across her face to her earlobe. This was a fresh scar, but not very recent. Megan was from Canada and feared her family dead like Sally did, not knowing that only the portions of countries bordering the U.S. had been affected or that it was an incident that hadn't wiped out most of the world.
Faith was out hunting some wounded Mochlackdangodenacks that had wandered into the group accidentally in search of their pack.
It was when Ashley was healing the last of the wounded that Angel, Giles, Amber, and Edward returned. The three humans looked winded and Angel looked very, very worried. He went up to Ashley and asked if Buffy and the others were back.
Coincidentally Spike, Xander, and Buffy arrived directly after that question was asked as if on cue.
He then told them what had happened and requested their help in getting a meeting set up. They needed food and water. The water problem had been taken care of; Buffy and Spike had stumbled upon a large puddle--almost a pond--of sewer water. They had gone back and gotten buckets. Xander had gone for a bucket, but then he had realized he couldn't easily fill it with only one arm, and he wouldn't have an arm to transfer the bucket to if his one arm got tired.
The three hadn't found any medical supplies, but that wasn't necessary anymore. Not to mention water was more important at the moment.
The plastic buckets had been found lying on the ground at the base. They had been dropped off by Richard, but none of them knew that. The buckets were covered in dirt and dust and soot, and the water was brown from it, but some boiling should take care of all of the harmful substances in it.
Before Angel told the others what had transpired, Faith returned. Silver blood was dripping down her arms, hands, and the metal pole she had gotten from God knows where. She looked wound up.
The meeting then began.
Meanwhile…
Andrew couldn't believe what he had seen in the last several hours. Decapitated dead bodies, collapsed buildings, people running around with human flesh hanging from their teeth and screeching, and now this.
Andrew had come to the conclusion that there were zombies all around, but this white thing that had just been born right before his eyes he couldn't figure out. The zombies had gone through this odd ritual. At the end of the ritual there had been a big, white demon standing in the middle of the crater the zombies filled. The huge crater that had been created unbeknownst to him by Ashley two days ago.
As he stared in disbelief and horror two more of those white demons came into view and walked through the crowd of zombies to the center to apparently greet the newly born one. In the distance Andrew could see zombies pouring into the city like water. He had come up onto the rooftop he was on so he could try and see any survivors. What he had seen instead was this gathering of zombies.
The crater emptied of zombies as those that had been in it ran out of it and into the jungle of debris and buildings. More filtered into the crater as the three white demons left. Another one was about to be born.
Andrew knew now that he needed to find the others so he could warn them about these things.
Otherwise he feared they would die at the hands of these strange things.
Meanwhile…
Gunn shot up into a sitting position screaming. By doing so he interrupted the meeting that was just getting rolling. He was screaming words that no one, not even Gunn himself, knew what they were.
Fred ran right to him as did Angel and Faith.
"Vinieria!" Gunn screamed. "I see you! I see you! YOU GODDAMNED BITCH!"
"Gunn!" Fred shouted at him. Gunn was looking at her, but he still looked lost. "What's Vinieria?" Gunn began to calm down and he began to lose that lost look in his eyes.
"Woman in my dreams with metal skin," he replied almost nonchalantly. He then was grounded completely. "…Fred? Fred is that you?"
666
Hello, MorbidMan here. Starting to bring things together now in this story. Next chapter will have more things explained.
Thanks to all of my reviewers. This fic is, in the Microsoft Words file its all saved on, 196 pages long. This is the longest thing I have ever written, and probably the most liked amongst my fics on and my stories on
I'll see you all next chapter, which should be in next week.
"I don't want to ruin it by making it a Hollywood thing. I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end." - Charlie Kaufman "Adaptation"
Vinieria
"Hello, Zaerintoleran," the Australian bartender greeted the small demon standing before him. "And here I thought you were in the Shitty States of America evoking the Apocalypse and all that happy-crappy shit." The bartender hadn't been born in Australia; he had moved there from--where else?--the United States of America. Zaerintoleran and Vernon, the bartender's name, had been friends for a long time. For twenty of Vernon's thirty years. This is because ten year old Vernon was the only human being who didn't scream and run away from Zaerintoleran. Now, granted, Z. didn't want attention from humans, but this lack of fear struck him as very interesting. So he socialized with the kid.
"Nope," Z. replied. "I'm not in the U.S. of A. evoking the Apocalypse and all that happy-crappy shit. See, I'm in Australia evoking the Apocalypse and all that happy-crappy shit."
Vernon nodded. His bald head reflected the sunlight brightly. They were sitting on a bench on the southern tip of the continent overlooking the vast ocean. "Here to collect something?"
"Yep."
"What?" Vernon asked. He was quite intrigued and smiling just at the corners of his mouth.
"Huh?" Zaerintoleran had been zoning out as he stared out at the ocean.
"What are you here in Australia to collect?" Vernon reiterated slowly.
"A Slayer."
"Mm-hmm… and that would be?"
"Teenage girl appointed the job of dusting vampires for her usually short life. Every time one dies another is put in her place. Follow me?"
"Yes." A couple of passing kids holding variously colored balloons pointed at the two. Their parents informed them that it was just a short guy in a ridiculous costume.
"That used to be how it was done, anyway. This is the confusing part so be prepared. This one Slayer, Buffy Summers, died. But the thing is that she was brought back to life. However, another Slayer was born nonetheless. I don't remember her name, but there were then two Slayers instead of one. That new Slayer died and another Slayer--I can remember her name easily because it's a name I haven't heard much before--Faith was appointed. The story with Faith is irrelevant because it doesn't help me explain everything. Anyway, a bunch of potential Slayers were taken to a place called Sunnydale. Sunnydale was where Buffy Summers lived. There they practiced and trained for a long while in order to battle and defeat the First. You know what the First is, right?"
"Yes."
"So you have a Slayer and a dozen potential Slayers up against the First with a couple of other people. One a witch, one an ex-demon--"
"How do you become an ex-demon?" Vernon interrupted.
"Why do you think I should know?"
"Because you're a demon."
"…Good point. That doesn't I know… I mean that doesn't mean I know. Anyway… witch and ex-demon, yeah. Then you got a wimpy kid named Andrew. I think he's dead now. You hear about what happened in the US?"
"It's all over the place."
"He probably died in that. Then you've got some other miscellaneous guys and gals. Anyway, they found this axe that they could use to give all of the potential Slayers the power of the Slayer. So, of course, they cast the spell. Now there's hundreds of Slayers running around all over the damn place decreasing the decreasing amount of vampires. Now I've come here to get this bitch who hadn't been collected when all the Slayers were taken to L.A. because she wasn't easily accessible all the way over here."
"Why are you collecting her?"
"I'm killing her."
"Why?"
"Big man don't say."
"Whose the big man?"
"Lindsey McDonald."
"Like McDonald's?" Vernon asked with a laugh.
"Yeah."
"So you're obeying some guy with clown make-up on his face 24/7?"
"No. He doesn't where make-up and no he's not just 'some guy'. Some greater power is working through him."
"Who?"
"I don't know. Someone."
"Why'd you visit me?"
"Cause when the bombs drop--figuratively speaking--you and all of humanity are gonna be vaporized. This is the last chance I'm gonna get to talk to you."
"I'm touched," Vernon stated sarcastically. There was a short moment of silence in which they heard the seagulls crying, the waves splashing against the shore, car horns, and children and adults. The world outside of the U.S. was continuing as normal while those left alive in the doomed country suffered. "When are the bombs gonna drop?" Vernon asked. He hadn't been living a great life to say the least, so he didn't give a shit about the world ending. He had a lot of money, considering he moved all the way across the ocean, but money doesn't mean happiness. Just like the Shape-Shifting Magi of Old, he was bored. Except he was bored of wealth, not of being alone in the same chamber for millenniums upon millenniums.
"Within a week."
"Bring it on." The two old friends then shared an uncomfortable moment of silence. It was their last. It seemed to go on forever when it was just half of a minute. And then Zaerintoleran decided he had better get to killing the Slayer, lest he incur the wrath of Lindsey.
"See you in Hell," Vernon said.
"See ya." And the small demon left the bench that overlooked the ocean. Vernon began to live everyday like it was his last. He called up everyone in his family and told them he loved them. He hadn't spoken to any of them in five years. Then he got a girlfriend, Alexus Shaun. And he waited for death as he tried to make the last week of his life the best.
It was ten at night when Claire Jameson returned to her parents' house. She was sixteen and it was the weekend. She had just gotten stoned at a party and hadn't expected to see her mother and father dead in the living room with their guts duct taped to the walls and ceiling to hang around like Christmas lights.
She then saw Zaerintoleran at the couch. He held out his hand and a sword materialized there again. That same sword slashed through Claire's cuts moments later. Her spinal cord was left undamaged, but the pretty girl died anyway. Her last thought--which she didn't understand--was, "with Lucifer I wanted to rule."
Zaerintoleran got onto a boat and threatened the owner with his sword. An hour after Claire was dead her body was being transported across the ocean for the grotesque purpose that the power controlling Lindsey had in mind.
Meanwhile…
Illyria formed a tentacle and wrapped it around Bob tightly. There was a tingling sensation for Bob and then the tentacle unwrapped. If a human were to get the message Illryia put into Lindsey's head, they would've died in immense pain as their brain imploded.
"The task you want to appoint this one is almost an insult to him," was the message.
"Insult or no I'm still giving it to him," Lindsey stated. "I got a job for ya Robert."
"What's that?" Bob asked.
"I want you to collect all the computer chips, damaged or no, that you can find in L.A. At least three intact memory chips. I also want you to collect all the wiring, damaged or no, that you can find. I want at least seven miles worth of it. Eight would be swell and nine would be perfect. Seven is the minimum. Got that?"
"Yes."
"Then I want you to collect twenty pounds of sheet metal. Scratch that. Make it thirty."
"Okay." Bob was wondering why such a magical entity would need things like that, but said magical entity wanted it so said magical entity would get it.
He set out. Household computers were everywhere in ruins. Yes he could find intact memory chips, but it'd take him a while to collect three of them. He collected a hundred fragments before he got one intact in the thirtieth intact apartment he checked out.
The second one he found that was intact was about sixty or seventy apartments after that. He had at least two thousand fragments in the backpack he was carrying with him, which he enlarged and lightened continuously with his mind. Tiny and large. Extremely tiny mostly.
He was two-thirds of the way there. Unfortunately that third was very hard to find. He stopped collecting fragments and just kept searching for that memory chip. Hundreds of apartments zipped by in a flash, literally, before he actually found it.
He then returned with the chips. He gave them to Lindsey and then got another pack for the wiring. He didn't ask questions.
Tearing wires out of walls and ceilings and demolished appliances took only a few minutes. He got nine miles in a matter of an hour and began to connect the wires so that they could transport energy and information. He then returned to Lindsey.
Now he needed to find sheet metal.
Meanwhile…
Kennedy was staring into space still. She was lying on the ground where Willow had left her. Ashley had begun to heal the wounded when Willow had realized just what was going on around her.
Robin was the first to be healed by Willow. Willow then healed Dawn. Robin felt phantom pain in his forehead where he had been cut. Dawn couldn't move well and felt light-headed from her loss of blood, but she wasn't bleeding anymore. She had trouble talking.
Fred was watching this spectacle of healing, not understanding why she wasn't lying on her back unconscious from the hole in her stomach. It made no sense.
None of those healed were perfect afterward, and no one believed they would ever be perfect again. Especially Oz, who remained more than half dead even after his bleeding had been stopped. Two living Slayers, both only with minor injuries, had arrived an hour or so after Angel and his crew had left.
Sally Markinson with her short, brunette hair and cheeks that had not yet lost all of their baby fat had been the first. She was the youngest of the group at fourteen. They had all been confused as to why a fourteen year-old had been recruited. The world was a strange place and they needed all the Slayers they could get is all that any of them could come up with. Sally looked jaded and angry and sad. She had never left the country that she lived in, which meant that her entire family was most likely dead and running around, wanting to feed on living tissue.
Megan Enders was the second. She was in her late teens and had a scar that started on her forehead and went diagonally across her face to her earlobe. This was a fresh scar, but not very recent. Megan was from Canada and feared her family dead like Sally did, not knowing that only the portions of countries bordering the U.S. had been affected or that it was an incident that hadn't wiped out most of the world.
Faith was out hunting some wounded Mochlackdangodenacks that had wandered into the group accidentally in search of their pack.
It was when Ashley was healing the last of the wounded that Angel, Giles, Amber, and Edward returned. The three humans looked winded and Angel looked very, very worried. He went up to Ashley and asked if Buffy and the others were back.
Coincidentally Spike, Xander, and Buffy arrived directly after that question was asked as if on cue.
He then told them what had happened and requested their help in getting a meeting set up. They needed food and water. The water problem had been taken care of; Buffy and Spike had stumbled upon a large puddle--almost a pond--of sewer water. They had gone back and gotten buckets. Xander had gone for a bucket, but then he had realized he couldn't easily fill it with only one arm, and he wouldn't have an arm to transfer the bucket to if his one arm got tired.
The three hadn't found any medical supplies, but that wasn't necessary anymore. Not to mention water was more important at the moment.
The plastic buckets had been found lying on the ground at the base. They had been dropped off by Richard, but none of them knew that. The buckets were covered in dirt and dust and soot, and the water was brown from it, but some boiling should take care of all of the harmful substances in it.
Before Angel told the others what had transpired, Faith returned. Silver blood was dripping down her arms, hands, and the metal pole she had gotten from God knows where. She looked wound up.
The meeting then began.
Meanwhile…
Andrew couldn't believe what he had seen in the last several hours. Decapitated dead bodies, collapsed buildings, people running around with human flesh hanging from their teeth and screeching, and now this.
Andrew had come to the conclusion that there were zombies all around, but this white thing that had just been born right before his eyes he couldn't figure out. The zombies had gone through this odd ritual. At the end of the ritual there had been a big, white demon standing in the middle of the crater the zombies filled. The huge crater that had been created unbeknownst to him by Ashley two days ago.
As he stared in disbelief and horror two more of those white demons came into view and walked through the crowd of zombies to the center to apparently greet the newly born one. In the distance Andrew could see zombies pouring into the city like water. He had come up onto the rooftop he was on so he could try and see any survivors. What he had seen instead was this gathering of zombies.
The crater emptied of zombies as those that had been in it ran out of it and into the jungle of debris and buildings. More filtered into the crater as the three white demons left. Another one was about to be born.
Andrew knew now that he needed to find the others so he could warn them about these things.
Otherwise he feared they would die at the hands of these strange things.
Meanwhile…
Gunn shot up into a sitting position screaming. By doing so he interrupted the meeting that was just getting rolling. He was screaming words that no one, not even Gunn himself, knew what they were.
Fred ran right to him as did Angel and Faith.
"Vinieria!" Gunn screamed. "I see you! I see you! YOU GODDAMNED BITCH!"
"Gunn!" Fred shouted at him. Gunn was looking at her, but he still looked lost. "What's Vinieria?" Gunn began to calm down and he began to lose that lost look in his eyes.
"Woman in my dreams with metal skin," he replied almost nonchalantly. He then was grounded completely. "…Fred? Fred is that you?"
666
Hello, MorbidMan here. Starting to bring things together now in this story. Next chapter will have more things explained.
Thanks to all of my reviewers. This fic is, in the Microsoft Words file its all saved on, 196 pages long. This is the longest thing I have ever written, and probably the most liked amongst my fics on and my stories on
I'll see you all next chapter, which should be in next week.
"I don't want to ruin it by making it a Hollywood thing. I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end." - Charlie Kaufman "Adaptation"