Title: Shades of Vengeance (1)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Not for kids. Harsh language, violence, death, and mention of torture.

Spoilers: Up to just before Faith, Hope, and Trick.

Disclaimer: Some of the characters depicted herein belong to that idiot Joss. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: Sometimes, evil is all too human.

Author's Note: Had to do this. Saw the Punisher movie, and this plot bunny started gnawing at my ankle like Monty Python's vorpal bunny.


You know the old cliche "it began with a girl"?

In this case, it began with two. Three if you count her.

It started a while back, but I didn't really enter the picture until she came to Sunnydale. She was looking for someone.

She found them.


"Mother? Oh, God..." Cordelia swallowed hard and backed away from her mother's corpse.

She'd been strangled.

"Well, well, well, daddy's little girl, huh?"

Cordy spun and found herself flying across the room from a vicious right hook. Shaking her head clear, she scrambled away from her attacker. The intruder was a teenager, probably no older than Cordy herself. She had shoulder-length dark hair and almost-black eyes that she would have sworn were demonic.

"What do you want?" Cordy demanded. "If it's money, I'm sure we can..."

"'Money'?" came the derisive snort. "Hmph. Spoiled little brat," she said in a sing-song voice. She leaned closer and whispered, "You don't even know how dear old daddy makes all that money, do you? Didn't you ever wonder? Death is a booming business. I think I'll show you how he killed me."

The intruder grabbed Cordy and hauled her to her feet. Cordy struggled, but to no avail. She was strong.

"Daddy's still upstairs, you know. Bedroom's got a nice view of the outside, did you know that? I think the bathroom sink will do nicely."

Smash!

The girl wiped the holy water from her eyes and snorted, "And just what was that supposed to accomplish?"


I was supposed to meet Cordy at the Bronze. She was two hours late, and I was starting to worry. She told me never to go to her house -- and honestly, I'm usually not inclined to go there anyway -- but I was worried. She could've been kidnapped. Killed. Eaten, even.

Weird things happened in Sunnydale.

I got there just in time.


I took my time with him. No one was going to trespass on Stately Chase Manor, after all. At least, that's what I'd thought.

It's amazing how much blood there is in the human body.

Of course, I saved the best for last. Maybe it's for the better. I got the effect I wanted, and the girl even got to live.


"You won't live long," Frankie said. She thought she should feel something. After all, she'd just tortured the man who killed her entire family -- killed her -- and left him bleeding to death. "But you'll live long enough to see your daughter die."

With that, she turned and snapped the rope she'd used to restrain Chase's daughter. She left the gag in and hauled the girl to the master bathroom, still in full view of her father. She'd already filled the sink beforehand -- planning ahead was always important -- and shoved her face into the water.

The girl struggled, but Frankie held her in place. It seemed fitting, after all, that Donald Chase should watch his daughter die the same way Frankie's entire family had.

After a moment, the struggles died, and after a few more moments to make sure the girl died with them, Frankie let the girl fall to the floor. She looked over at Chase.

Donald Chase's struggles had faded halfway into the cutting, but a new series of feeble attempts to free himself had started when Frankie started drowning his daughter. It wasn't enough, and now, the man just sat there, bleeding, defeated.

Broken.

Perfect.

She watched, savoring the moment as his eyes began to glaze over. Once final shudder wracked his body... and then, he stilled.

"CORDY!"


The girl's boyfriend was a regular hero, the sort that would last maybe five minutes on the streets back home. Or so I'd thought.

He's full of surprises, that one.

I bailed. Donald Chase had suffered and died, and that's all that mattered to me.

Well, not quite all.


Cordy, as you might have guessed, was girl number one. I managed to get her breathing again and called 911. Aside from seeing the car as it drove off, I didn't know who did this, and Cordy was in no condition to tell me, so I called Giles and gave him the 411 to scramble in case it was a demon.

And heck, even if it wasn't, it wasn't like Sunnydale PD's homicide department could find its own ass with a compass and flashlight.

As for girl number two... well...


I had one more stop to make in Sunnydale. Chase didn't kill my family all by himself, after all. He had help.

Lowlife scum for a high-class assassin.

He wasn't worth the time I put into Chase, so when I saw him standing on the porch with what was probably his wife and daughter, I took the shot. Unloaded a full Uzi clip and kept on driving.

I still had business back home.


I didn't hear about it until I got to the hospital, riding the ambulance with Cordy. Willow and Giles met me there, and that's when I found out.

Someone had given my house a drive-by. Mom and Dad were both killed... and Buffy was in critical condition.

Thank God for Slayer healing. According to Giles, it was probably the only reason she'd even lasted long enough for the ambulance to get there.


Author's Postscript:

Okay, it's short, but this really fits best, I think.