Summary: Certain books have found their way to Sunnydale, pre-Buffy.
Disclaimer: I dun' own nuttin'!
Feedback, it makes me write faster. (You know you want to do the feedback thing.)
Pre-Fic Comments:
Jesse doesn't have much of a personality beyond a teenage lech in the canon. So I'm gonna have to wing his characterisation.
* * *
Xander looked around the Bronze. He'd just arrived; later than what he had agreed with with Jesse, true. Buffy, the new girl, was rushing out past him. Oh, there was Jesse. Willow didn't seem to be there at all. Perhaps she was studying at home?
He moved over to Jesse, who was talking to a blonde girl.
"Hey, Darla, this is my best friend Xander. Xander, this is Darla," Jesse said, obviously on a slight sugar high from too much Coca Cola.
"Hi," Xander said as he rummaged through his backpack he'd brought with him. He drew out a stake and a black glove. "Hey, Jess, can I talk to you in private for a moment?"
"You mind at all, Darla?," Jesse asked the girl. She was looking nervously at the stake.
"No, go ahead," she said. "I'll wait a few seconds."
Xander pulled Jesse off to the side, and gave him the stake and glove. The stake was one of his enscribed ones, and the glove had a completely different design drawn on it in white ink.
"Jess, this stake kills vampires. You know they're real; the Slayer's Handbook and Cultes des Goules mentions 'em. This stake, you only need to stab them with it," Xander explained as his friend took the tools.
"Sure," Jesse said. He looked them over. "Oh, cool. Magic Hoover runes. What's the glove for?"
"To make sure the stake doesn't hoover *you*," Xander grinned. "It's also got some protection in it."
Jesse nodded, pulling the glove onto his right hand. He put the stake in his jacket pocket.
The two of them moved back to Darla, who appeared annoyed with Jesse now.
"Welcome back," she said.
"You know, I haven't met you before," Xander said. "Have you got family here?"
Jesse, eager to appear knowledgeable, answered. "Yeah!"
A friend of Darla, without the world-weary look, wandered over.
"Darla, these two annoying you?," the girl asked. She put a slight stress on 'annoying.'
"Nope," Darla replied. "This is Xander and Jesse. Xander, Jesse, this is Liz."
"Hi," the two boys said.
Darla made a snap decision. These two looked like they might know something, with that stake. They were weak enough that she could take them down easily, before they became trouble.
"Liz, I was just going to suggest to Jesse that we... go to my place," Darla said, hoping that Liz would pick up the hint.
She did. "How very cool," Liz grinned. "Xander, want to make this a double date?"
Xander agreed. Something about the two seemed off to his senses, and he wanted to find out what.
Outside, the air was cool and crisp. Jesse turned to Darla, having not picked up the 'off' vibes.
"So, where's---AAA!"
His segue was due to Darla and Liz suddenly shifting their face into vampire mode. The once-pretty girls now had ridged, yellow-eyed faces that only a mother (or Sire) could love.
Xander had read about these creatures, and seen them from far off, but this was the first time he'd seen one up close, and about to eat him. He got his stake out in his gloved hand.
"Oooh, nice stake," Liz mocked.
Xander stabbed at her with it, but the vampire moved off to the side a bit so he didn't stake her in the heart. Darla grinned at this. Jesse was still in shock a bit.
"Yeah, very nice stake," Xander smirked, waiting for something.
Liz the vampire suddenly dried up to nothing, a tall Liz-shaped tower of dust. The stake was now glowing slightly, lines of light etching the rune at the base.
Jesse cheered, "Go Magic Hoover Rune!"
Darla, not stupid, ran for it. She couldn't resist throwing something over her shoulder, "You'll die for the Master!"
Buffy came up behind them.
"Have you seen Willow?"
"Wow, you're leaving early," Jesse said, trying to strike up a conversation with her. "Wanna go to my place?"
"Not tonight, no," Xander said, somewhat more in control of his hormones.
"She left with a guy," Buffy said, looking around a bit more.
"We're talking about Willow, right?," Xander asked. "Scorin' at the Bronze, work it girl..."
"No, I need to find her," Buffy cut in. "Where would he take her?"
"Why? Oh, hey, I hope he ain't a vampire, 'cause then you might have to Slay him," Xander said.
Jesse grinned at Xander. "Hey, she's a Slayer, right? Because the vampires are here?"
"Was there a... a school bulletin?," Buffy asked, taken aback. "Was it in the newspaper? Does everyone in town know I'm a Slayer?"
"No, Xander said. "I only know because--"
"Well, whatever, it doesn't matter, just tell me, where would Willow go?"
"You're serious!," Xander said. "Here, take this stake. Make sure you're wearing this while you use it. If you stake a vamp with it, it won't matter where you stake it. Oh, and bring it back after tonight."
Buffy looked at the dust-statue of Liz. It had somehow escaped her attention before now.
"Eeeeew," she said. After she kicked it, it drifted into a small pile of dust. "If we don't find Willow, there'll be one more dead body in the morning!"
* * *
Xander, Willow and Jesse were in a tight circle, surrounded by vampires. They had rescued Willow at a crypt in the Eternal Rest cemetary, where a vampire had started a fight with Buffy. The Slayer had told them to run, so they did. Xander figured that the Slayer would catch up with them later.
"Okay, Will, here's a stake. Wear the glove while using it. Bring it back afterwards," Xander said, handing Willow the stake and glove.
"What's this for?," Willow asked.
"Um, can we talk later?," Jesse asked nervously.
The five vampires lunged at the three teenagers. Willow screamed as the two boys started trying to stake the ugly undead.
Xander staked one in the chest, but was knocked to the ground by another. He groaned, trying to get up.
Jesse staked one in the eye, using his elite 'dancing' skillz to spaz out of the way of the other one trying to hit him.
Willow continued to scream, but managed to scratch the remaining vampire in the arm. It seemed that a scratch was enough, as the vampire transformed into a statue of dust.
The three mortals stopped to breathe hard, as the two remaining vampires looked puzzled.
"Jed, whut happened to Fred, Bob and Burk?," one asked.
"I dunno, Tam. I say we split!"
* * *
Back at the high school library, Buffy was not surprised at all to see Giles there. The other three got there soon after. The four teenagers sat down on the lower level of the library, managing to lounge in the chairs.
Giles (with many added words from Xander and Jesse) explained how the world had started with many demons, which humanity had driven off.
"Okay," Willow said. "Xander, Jesse, you two haven't been doing anything stupid, have you?"
Jesse looked offended at this. Xander just looked nervous.
"Nope, wasn't our fault," Xander said. "Say, can I have those stakes back now?"
"What are they?," Giles said, grabbing Buffy's stake before Xander received it. "Most unusual. Xander, what is this rune?"
"Magic Hoover Rune!," Jesse said, grinning.
"It's a synthesis of several runes into my own system," Xander explained. "I've been working out a common basis for--"
"Basically, it kills vamps good," Buffy cut in, not wanting to sit around for a long explanation. Willow gave her a grateful smile.
Xander got the glass cube out, placing it on the table. He stopped Giles from trying to pick it up.
"Jeez, mine!," he snapped.
"A storage device?," Giles asked.
"Yeah," Xander said absently as he started placing the stake's runes against the cube's design on the top facet, the glow in the stake transferring to the cube. The slight glow in the glass grew as Xander transferred the energies absorbed from the four vampires into the cube.
"How ingenious," Giles said. "How exactly does your system work? You've never mentioned it to me."
"Well, basically," Xander started, "it's a synthesis of the common elements in--"
"Yadda yadda yadda," Buffy cut him off. "I'm going home to bed. Willow?"
"Me too," Willow said. "It's waaaay past my bed time."
* * *
Post-Fic comments:
Well, I hope I've cleared up some speculation for some of you :)