Part Two
"The tides that had once carried you away
They bring you back again today"
- Just The Way It Is, Baby: The Rembrandts
"...And Tilisee, the prophet of Quas, did stand up in front of the unbeliever, and he did say, "Be silent and humble! For Quas watches you even now!" And he did reply, "Oh my god, it hurts, it hurts!" for he had been run through with a five foot sword..."
"All right, that's it. I'm going to clock him one."
She reached out a hand and grabbed him before he managed to make it off the bench. "Spike, sit down . We've still got three more guys to give their talk. What do you think they're going to do if you go up and hammer their pal?"
"If he's always like this? Applaud, I reckon."
Clem nodded helpfully. "He's not exactly best buddies with anyone here. They probably wouldn't even care..."
"Clem! You're the guy who invited him, for heaven's sake."
"Yeah, well, you know, we all make mistakes..."
"Okay, we'll give him five more minutes. If he's still going then, I give you full permission to clock him. And I have to say..." She stopped abruptly and frowned.
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, pet?"
She'd gone tense, standing up from the bench and slowly scanning the nearby bushes.
Clem looked worried. "Buffy?"
The Slayer held up a hand. "Shh... I can... I can sense something. Someone... Something was watching us... From over there."
Spike cautiously turned to look. "Can't see nothing there now..."
And Clem frowned. "What happened to Ned?"
************
"Mmmmm! Mummmph!"
He slid back from the group as quickly and as quietly as he could, one hand locked around the struggling demon and another clamped over its mouth. The stupid thing was about a foot bigger than him, but the extra muscular strength he'd obtained from chomping down on a vampire soon after he'd acquired his interesting abilities was enough to keep it from escaping. It was wriggling around a lot though.
He stopped briefly in a handy cluster of bushes and concentrated on his hand. He'd only done this once or twice before, so it didn't really come naturally but...
Muscles flowed. There was a faint "snick" sound, and a two-inch poison tipped dart erupted from his left index finger and embedded itself into the flesh of the Colololo demon. It's eyes widened briefly and it struggled a little longer, but the battle was already lost. Unconsciousness came quickly.
He grinned to himself. That ought to keep the stupid thing quiet. And now he'd better get out of here with his catch and...
"Going somewhere?"
Dammit.
Carefully holding onto his prey, he shuffled around. Buffy Summers was standing four feet away from him, peering through the branches of his hiding place. Slightly behind her stood a compact looking guy with bleached white hair and an extremely floppy demon who was looking completely appalled.
"Ned! What did you do to Ned?!"
"Good question." She looked at him steadily. "So, how about you give me an answer? What did you do to Ned?"
Okay, don't panic. He had a hostage, after all. Talk to her...
His voice came out as a hiss. It had pretty much been like that ever since he'd swallowed the fire-breathing Draget two weeks ago and acquired glands that weren't designed to be in the same throat as vocal chords. "Ssssimple poisson. He'sss not dead. Jussst out. I want to eat him later, you sssee."
"I see. And you actually think I'm going to let you do that?"
He shrugged, blinked his lizard eyes (Tellicon demon, four weeks ago) and ruffled the small electrical dampening fins on his neck (Socat sprite, 2 months ago). He could still pass for human if he had sunglasses and people didn't look too hard and he had everything tucked away, but that wasn't the effect he wanted right now. "Well, he isss a demon. Didn't think you liked 'em."
"Yeah well," she said. "The thing is, I don't happen to have anything against demons if they play nice and stick to society's rules. Like old Ned there has been doing. It's only when they decide to go around killing things and making a mess that I get a bit ticked off. Like you're doing, for example. "
"Sssso you're sssaying?"
Buffy narrowed her eyes. "Let go of the demon or I kick your butt."
Damn, damn, damn again. "I'm hungry."
"Not my problem."
Right, okay. Lay out the options. On the bright side, she didn't seem to have recognised him yet, what with all the... changes. Maybe if he just let 'old Ned' go she'd let him escape. On the other hand... he was hungry, and tired, and there was a huge, twisted, animal thing that was writhing inside him that said, protect your prey. Don't let her get away with this. Don't let her treat you like this. She doesn't know you now. You can win.
Because that was the thing, you see. He hadn't just taken bits of their powers when he'd eaten the demons. He'd taken part of their essence as well. And their essence wanted to rip this little girl apart.
He growled.
*************
Buffy stood perfectly still, eyes fixed on Ned's abductor. He... it... whatever, was a weird looking thing, even as demons went. Mostly human looking at first glance, but then there were not quite vampiric lumps on its face, weird fluttering fins extruding from its neck and eyes with pupils that were inhuman slits. Giles was going to have fun looking this one up.
It growled. Okay, never a good sign. She tensed and felt Spike doing the same behind her. Should have known better to try and do things peacefully. Never worked when you were a slayer. However, if they were going to fight...
"Clem?"
"Uh... yeah, Buffy?"
"Get out of here. Now. Check on the girls."
"Right you are."
She listened as Clem scuttled away, and her adversary, sensing a distraction, pounced.
*************
Some way away from the cemetery where a violent conflict was happening between the slayer, her vampire companion and a strange and mysterious entity, there was an alley. As alleys went, it was far from exciting, even considering that it was in Sunnydale and therefore did get traversed by demons every now and again. It wasn't near anywhere exciting, it didn't contain anything terribly fantastic, and no one tended to want to hang around it. In fact, the most exciting thing ever to happen to the alley was happening right now, and only actually lasted a few seconds.
A bright, jagged rift appeared in the air, three figures fell through it, and the rift quickly shut again. There was a few seconds of silence, and then one of the figures, the one with a strange blackish brown colour and silvery veins that covered every part of its skin, stood up. This particular figure walked on four legs, had a low to medium intelligence, was capable of travelling through time and space, and was, as any good demonologist could tell you, a very rare Hourwhether demon. Currently, it was also pretty pissed off.
It had been hijacked! Someone had called irresistibly, and when the Hourwhether had come near, it had found itself captured by some kind of magic and forced to take its captors to wherever this was. That... That was just intolerable. The Bastards! And now recharging would take a couple of days, and the Hourwhether was stuck somewhere that it didn't even want to be anyway! If it ever found out who did this, they were dead.
The 'medium' part of its intelligence chose this moment to helpfully butt in, and the demon turned around. There! There they were!
The two other figures were smooth, pink, and entirely human looking. They also appeared to be very, very unconscious. The Hourwhether started towards them, and then the medium part of its intelligence gave another poke. "Wait a second", it said. "These two have captured you and forced you to do their bidding. This would indicate that they are very powerful. Are you sure you want to go up against them?"
The Hourwhether frowned. "But," it argued, "They look all crumpled. Surely they can't do any harm to me now."
"Possibly." said the medium, and slightly more cowardly, part of its intelligence, "But maybe they're faking. Do you really want to risk it?"
The Hourwhether paused, shuffled its feet, and then sighed and wandered away to rest and recharge. It hadn't actually been harmed; why take the risk?
In actual fact, the demon could have quite cheerfully done whatever it wanted to the two figures. 'Riding along' with an Hourwhether is a dangerous and very traumatic experience for anyone who is not actually an Hourwhether, and they were going to be unconscious for a good few hours yet. All in all, it was a good thing for them that the demon was intelligent enough to be cautious, but not intelligent enough to actually read up on methods of transdimensional travel.
The alley was once again silent and relatively uninteresting. If, of course, you discounted the two time travellers lying at the back.
*************
"The tides that had once carried you away
They bring you back again today"
- Just The Way It Is, Baby: The Rembrandts
"...And Tilisee, the prophet of Quas, did stand up in front of the unbeliever, and he did say, "Be silent and humble! For Quas watches you even now!" And he did reply, "Oh my god, it hurts, it hurts!" for he had been run through with a five foot sword..."
"All right, that's it. I'm going to clock him one."
She reached out a hand and grabbed him before he managed to make it off the bench. "Spike, sit down . We've still got three more guys to give their talk. What do you think they're going to do if you go up and hammer their pal?"
"If he's always like this? Applaud, I reckon."
Clem nodded helpfully. "He's not exactly best buddies with anyone here. They probably wouldn't even care..."
"Clem! You're the guy who invited him, for heaven's sake."
"Yeah, well, you know, we all make mistakes..."
"Okay, we'll give him five more minutes. If he's still going then, I give you full permission to clock him. And I have to say..." She stopped abruptly and frowned.
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, pet?"
She'd gone tense, standing up from the bench and slowly scanning the nearby bushes.
Clem looked worried. "Buffy?"
The Slayer held up a hand. "Shh... I can... I can sense something. Someone... Something was watching us... From over there."
Spike cautiously turned to look. "Can't see nothing there now..."
And Clem frowned. "What happened to Ned?"
************
"Mmmmm! Mummmph!"
He slid back from the group as quickly and as quietly as he could, one hand locked around the struggling demon and another clamped over its mouth. The stupid thing was about a foot bigger than him, but the extra muscular strength he'd obtained from chomping down on a vampire soon after he'd acquired his interesting abilities was enough to keep it from escaping. It was wriggling around a lot though.
He stopped briefly in a handy cluster of bushes and concentrated on his hand. He'd only done this once or twice before, so it didn't really come naturally but...
Muscles flowed. There was a faint "snick" sound, and a two-inch poison tipped dart erupted from his left index finger and embedded itself into the flesh of the Colololo demon. It's eyes widened briefly and it struggled a little longer, but the battle was already lost. Unconsciousness came quickly.
He grinned to himself. That ought to keep the stupid thing quiet. And now he'd better get out of here with his catch and...
"Going somewhere?"
Dammit.
Carefully holding onto his prey, he shuffled around. Buffy Summers was standing four feet away from him, peering through the branches of his hiding place. Slightly behind her stood a compact looking guy with bleached white hair and an extremely floppy demon who was looking completely appalled.
"Ned! What did you do to Ned?!"
"Good question." She looked at him steadily. "So, how about you give me an answer? What did you do to Ned?"
Okay, don't panic. He had a hostage, after all. Talk to her...
His voice came out as a hiss. It had pretty much been like that ever since he'd swallowed the fire-breathing Draget two weeks ago and acquired glands that weren't designed to be in the same throat as vocal chords. "Ssssimple poisson. He'sss not dead. Jussst out. I want to eat him later, you sssee."
"I see. And you actually think I'm going to let you do that?"
He shrugged, blinked his lizard eyes (Tellicon demon, four weeks ago) and ruffled the small electrical dampening fins on his neck (Socat sprite, 2 months ago). He could still pass for human if he had sunglasses and people didn't look too hard and he had everything tucked away, but that wasn't the effect he wanted right now. "Well, he isss a demon. Didn't think you liked 'em."
"Yeah well," she said. "The thing is, I don't happen to have anything against demons if they play nice and stick to society's rules. Like old Ned there has been doing. It's only when they decide to go around killing things and making a mess that I get a bit ticked off. Like you're doing, for example. "
"Sssso you're sssaying?"
Buffy narrowed her eyes. "Let go of the demon or I kick your butt."
Damn, damn, damn again. "I'm hungry."
"Not my problem."
Right, okay. Lay out the options. On the bright side, she didn't seem to have recognised him yet, what with all the... changes. Maybe if he just let 'old Ned' go she'd let him escape. On the other hand... he was hungry, and tired, and there was a huge, twisted, animal thing that was writhing inside him that said, protect your prey. Don't let her get away with this. Don't let her treat you like this. She doesn't know you now. You can win.
Because that was the thing, you see. He hadn't just taken bits of their powers when he'd eaten the demons. He'd taken part of their essence as well. And their essence wanted to rip this little girl apart.
He growled.
*************
Buffy stood perfectly still, eyes fixed on Ned's abductor. He... it... whatever, was a weird looking thing, even as demons went. Mostly human looking at first glance, but then there were not quite vampiric lumps on its face, weird fluttering fins extruding from its neck and eyes with pupils that were inhuman slits. Giles was going to have fun looking this one up.
It growled. Okay, never a good sign. She tensed and felt Spike doing the same behind her. Should have known better to try and do things peacefully. Never worked when you were a slayer. However, if they were going to fight...
"Clem?"
"Uh... yeah, Buffy?"
"Get out of here. Now. Check on the girls."
"Right you are."
She listened as Clem scuttled away, and her adversary, sensing a distraction, pounced.
*************
Some way away from the cemetery where a violent conflict was happening between the slayer, her vampire companion and a strange and mysterious entity, there was an alley. As alleys went, it was far from exciting, even considering that it was in Sunnydale and therefore did get traversed by demons every now and again. It wasn't near anywhere exciting, it didn't contain anything terribly fantastic, and no one tended to want to hang around it. In fact, the most exciting thing ever to happen to the alley was happening right now, and only actually lasted a few seconds.
A bright, jagged rift appeared in the air, three figures fell through it, and the rift quickly shut again. There was a few seconds of silence, and then one of the figures, the one with a strange blackish brown colour and silvery veins that covered every part of its skin, stood up. This particular figure walked on four legs, had a low to medium intelligence, was capable of travelling through time and space, and was, as any good demonologist could tell you, a very rare Hourwhether demon. Currently, it was also pretty pissed off.
It had been hijacked! Someone had called irresistibly, and when the Hourwhether had come near, it had found itself captured by some kind of magic and forced to take its captors to wherever this was. That... That was just intolerable. The Bastards! And now recharging would take a couple of days, and the Hourwhether was stuck somewhere that it didn't even want to be anyway! If it ever found out who did this, they were dead.
The 'medium' part of its intelligence chose this moment to helpfully butt in, and the demon turned around. There! There they were!
The two other figures were smooth, pink, and entirely human looking. They also appeared to be very, very unconscious. The Hourwhether started towards them, and then the medium part of its intelligence gave another poke. "Wait a second", it said. "These two have captured you and forced you to do their bidding. This would indicate that they are very powerful. Are you sure you want to go up against them?"
The Hourwhether frowned. "But," it argued, "They look all crumpled. Surely they can't do any harm to me now."
"Possibly." said the medium, and slightly more cowardly, part of its intelligence, "But maybe they're faking. Do you really want to risk it?"
The Hourwhether paused, shuffled its feet, and then sighed and wandered away to rest and recharge. It hadn't actually been harmed; why take the risk?
In actual fact, the demon could have quite cheerfully done whatever it wanted to the two figures. 'Riding along' with an Hourwhether is a dangerous and very traumatic experience for anyone who is not actually an Hourwhether, and they were going to be unconscious for a good few hours yet. All in all, it was a good thing for them that the demon was intelligent enough to be cautious, but not intelligent enough to actually read up on methods of transdimensional travel.
The alley was once again silent and relatively uninteresting. If, of course, you discounted the two time travellers lying at the back.
*************
