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:
Addition to the normal song marker. ( ) brackets at the end indicate where the song is playing from the marker onwards. They also indicate fading etc.
Sorry, Goat Boy, but most of your songs were the wrong genre. Well, the ones I recognised. I'm not really up with most modern songs and bands.
If anyone is moderately interested in the music, I've included the albums and band names in the song markers so that you can track copies down on your own.
Some language in this part.
* * *
"Welcome in the pain
It's a glorious hour
Say hello to the hate
Tap into the Power."
-Suicidal Tendencies, "Tap Into The Power"
* * *
Xander handed Jesse the stylus. It resembled a pencil, but without a core of lead. He then pulled his shirt off, showing a smooth, unblemished back with a chain going around his neck. His front was out of Jesse's view.
"Okay, now just as it's sketched on the paper," he said. "You can't make any mistake with this."
Jesse closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Are you sure about this, man? I mean, your design is like nothing I've ever seen."
"Do it."
Jesse started carefully drawing the stylus along Xander's back, a harsh black smoke rising from where the tip touched Xander's flesh. The teenager took his shirt, putting it in between his teeth.
Ten minutes later, Jesse took a step back to inspect his work. A design was sketched over Xander's right shoulderblade. A large X was there, the lines of the X composed of numerous small characters. Jesse's hand hurt from the small movements.
"Break, man."
"Sure thing," Xander said. His face was covered with slick sweat.
"How do you not scream out or anything?," Jesse said. "I know that Oemac's Wand hurts like hell."
Xander smiled weakly. "This has to be done, so I can't scream."
Jesse gave his friend a hard look. "You're not telling me something. You've got the Deadening on that chain, don't you?"
"Busted."
"Bigtime," Jesse said. "You know that has a price."
"Everything has a price," Xander said. "Get on with it."
Jesse sighed, and picked up the stylus. There were still large gaps in between the arms of the X to fill in. Eventually, the marking would have a large four sided diamond perimeter, filled with the design inside with the X reaching to the midpoint of each side of the diamond. Tendrils extended from the design, reaching up towards Xander's neck, either arm, and a larger tendril downwards towards the rest of his body. They would not be completed in this session.
Except for a single tendril reaching down his right arm to his index finger.
Smoke curled out from beneath Xander's door, mingling with the smell of old paper and ink.
* * *
>
>
Giles winced as the moderately bad song finished, only for a worse one to start. He looked at Willow and Buffy.
"And people really listen to this stuff?," he asked with tones of disbelief. The Watcher could barely make himself heard.
"They're not human!," Buffy shouted back. Her Slayerly lungs made her heard easily.
A few leatherclad bikers near her grinned at the small group at this comment. The bikers were a good indicator of the tone of the Bronze for tonight. It was almost impossible to name a specific group as composing the majority of the crowd -- all sorts of people were there. Bikers, students, workers. The only common theme was the lack of yellow or irridescent colours.
"Where is Xander?!," Willow screamed. "Him and Jesse should be here!"
"There they are!," Buffy yelled, pointing across the Bronze.
Jesse had black jeans on, with a black Tshirt saying "All Hail Cthulhu!" on it. A black bag was slung on his back. Besides him, Xander had on blue jeans with a flat black Tshirt. Xander's shirt had the right sleeve and part of the back cut off, to show the design burnt onto his skin.
The two teenagers made their way to the Watcher, Slayer and the Hacker. The Bronze, packed, was easier to get through than when it was moderately filled with high schoolers. Occasionally, a person noticed Xander's right shoulderblade and flinched out of their way.
"About bloody time!," Giles shouted at the two. "The Rite is starting!"
"We had to do something," Xander said. Somehow, he made himself heard talking normally.
"What? I thought you needed to get your Tarbaby thingy?," Buffy asked.
Xander turned around. Jesse pointed at the design wordlessly.
"Good Lord," Giles said. "You must be joking."
"Nope," Xander said. Jesse produced the glass cube out of his bag. The light from the energies of ten vampires slain using the enscribed stakes shone dully in the darkened club.
"You're a fool, Xander," Giles reproached him.
"I'm twice the fool it takes to do this," Xander grinned. "Jesse, press the top facet of the cube against the center of the Rune."
Giles grabbed Jesse's arm. "No! We don't know what--"
"Giles. We need the energy to start the Rune. It's like starting a car," Jesse explained.
Buffy and Willow were looking rather lost. (To be honest, Buffy was hoping for a few vampires so she would have something she understood.)
"What is this song about?," Willow shouted at Buffy.
The slayer listened to the song for awhile, her keen hearing managing to discern what the lyrics actually were. A faint look of disgust crossed her face.
"You *really* don't want to know," she yelled at Willow.
"Yes I do!"
"Some kind of seduction, I think."
Giles released Jesse's hand. "If this goes wrong, it's your head."
Jesse applied the design on the glass cube to the center of the Tarbaby Rune etched on Xander's back. The cube flared as the energy was sucked into the Rune, refining the design from smoky lines into black inlaid metal.
Giles drew in a sharp breath as he observed the change. Lines of power made themselves obvious now. Purple strips of brilliance, like neon signage, flashed across the steel construction of the Bronze.
* * *
>
>
* * *
Willow and Buffy had wandered off, looking for something to do. Buffy looked at the DJ stationed up on the stage.
He was thin and tall, with black hair and blue eyes. His mouth had a strip of duct tape over it, his face contortioning at odd times. The turntables and mixer were on a heavy wooden table, the amplifiers for the large speakers underneath. To each side of the table were immense horn speakers, stacks of smaller and more normal speakers to the outer side.
"What's the taped mouth for?," Buffy asked Willow. She hated being new to town.
"That's Carl," Willow said, as if that explained everything.
"Carl?"
"School madman," Willow expanded. "He knows stuff. You know those really bad Lovecraft knockoffs where the main character goes mad?"
"Yeah?," Buffy said, although she had never read or heard of Lovecraft.
"He's like that. Stole a book off Xander that Xander hadn't checked yet."
Buffy made a mental note to never hassle Giles' spiritual successor.
Willow winced at the lyrics. "I think I liked it better when I couldn't really understand the song."
The Slayer rolled her eyes. "I still say I could take him."
* * *
>
>
* * *
Jesse looked around. "Okay, I can understand the demony looking people from the first song and the Rite. I can understand the people with large swords and axes from the second song and the Rite. But where on *earth* did the vampirey people come from? I mean, they don't look like our vamps."
Giles pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Remarkable, an entirely new breed. I can only conjecture t-that people, um, change into what they *perceive* rather than the original intentions of the artist."
Xander rolled his eyes. "The people *suiciding* are from the current song. Giles, Jesse, go and touch the stakes to them. The Magic Hoover Rune should work on them. But *DON'T* scratch them."
"Why didn't we use these in the first place?," Giles asked, looking at the enscribed stake with new respect.
"Too dangerous," Jesse immediately said. "And too many people."
"Get going!," Xander snapped. He could see at least one biker with a switchblade and suicidal tendencies.
They got.
Xander reached for the closest track of purple power, touching it with the line of black metal reaching from the design to his index finger. The line flared, as the purple energy darkened from purple to a deep blue-black, being absorbed by the design.
* * *
"Stop!," Willow yelled at Buffy.
The diminuitive Slayer was not stopped. So about ten students and bikers mobbed her when it was starting to look like she was about to attack Carl.
"They don't like people stopping the music," Willow belatedly explained as Buffy took a black eye. Sure, she was stronger, but her opposition was somewhat used to fighting together.
* * *
>
>
* * *
Xander stepped away from the purple line of power. The power stretched from it's predefined route, disrupting the Final Rite. It was entrapped by the Tarbaby Rune, unable to move away.
He smirked.
The lines across the Bronze started to fade as Xander continued to absorb the power that was enabling the Final Rite. The other spellcaster put more power into the Rite; more for Xander to absorb.
He followed the lines with his eyes, tracing them back to the side of the stage. A simple weave of lighter purple lines, separate from the Rite, hid the caster from normal vision. Xander absorbed the weave in seconds. The caster was a middle-aged woman. He recognised her from a visit to one of Willow's friends; Amy from high schools Mum.
Xander reached out to her. The woman cringed back.
"Don't touch me!," she yelled. The woman was almost inaudible over the immense speakers just in front of them.
"Stop the Rite," Xander said. "Or I absorb you, too."
"I... if I do that, I won't...," the woman looked torn between stopping, and the penalty for stopping.
Xander sighed, and applied his right hand's index finger to her forehead for a fraction of a moment. He absorbed enough magic to knock her unconscious, then kicked the spell components into disarray.
* * *
Carl put a Slayer record on the second turntable, fading down Funeral. He was getting bored of that sound. Time for a change.
* * *
>
>
* * *
Giles slumped back as they stopped the last of the suiciders. It was just as well Xander managed to stop the Rite before *this* song got going. The other songs had only hinted at the Nosferatu; this one was damn blatant about it.
Now, for the damage control.
"Bloody lovely," he snarled. Jesse gave him a startled look.
* * *
Post-Fic Comments:
Well, that must be the longest part I've done for Esoteric for awhile. Sure was fun to write! It'll be interesting to see what you lot think about it.