AN: I'm back and on time! ***grins*** no evil game to stop me from writing this time! Anyway, thanks for all of you who reviewed! This is going great! Keep at it!
To Catlimere: Thank you! Your reviews make me flush. Didn't Xander, Willow and Giles bother you during the Angel season? They did so not understand! I almost made a hate-club, but then I remembered how much I love them! Thankx!
To Kalystia: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're liking it! Keep at it!
To A Watcher: As always, thank you for your continuing support. I hope this fic lives up to your expectations. I know that Willow wasn't being herself, but who knows how much she changed after her use of that really powerful magick? Don't worry, I promise to have her be more like the Witch we know and love today. :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Eight- JoiningsBuffy Summers absently ran her hand across the tombstones and thought about those who had 'Passed' as Sidney called it. She wondered which one of these people would raise from their graves to become the living dead.
Probably a lot of them, Buffy thought with a twist of her lips. Though the Bayville police kept it quiet, a lot of strange deaths have been happening. All of them involving some kind of neck wound. For Buffy that spelled vampires.
Buffy had always found graveyards odd. After all, why did they always seem to have creepy crypts that lead to under ground places? Couldn't they just bury people in the ground and be done with it?
Guess not, Buffy thought when she heard the noise. The Slayer turned and watched as a shadowy figure slinked across the ground, not noticing Buffy. The blonde young woman hoisted her scythe onto her shoulder and moved towards it.
Buffy carefully crept in time with the vampire. She wanted to find out what this creature of the night wanted before she killed it. If she could find out what they wanted she could eliminate it and get one with her life.
The vampire moved to one of the largest tombs in the Bayville Crematory. The door was made of a black stone and sealed tight, but the Slayer knew very well that that would not keep a vampire out. Like the Slayers, the living dead were gifted with supernatural strength. Proving Buffy to be right, the blood-sucking creature ripped the door off its hinges and threw it to the floor.
As the vampire disappeared into the darkness, Buffy followed. She was led down a long flight of stairs to a darkened room. A candle, lit by the vampire, burned in the corner and offered little light.
The vamp was threw things, rocks, vases, pottery, everywhere. Buffy could tell he was searching for something. What that was she didn't know… but then the vampire gave a triumphant growl and she saw something gleam gold in the dark light. Whatever the leech held, her Slayer instincts were telling she was not to allow to leave with that piece of metal. With that in mind, she stepped out from her hiding place on the stairs.
"You know," Buffy drawled, swinging her scythe around. It was nothing more then a red blur and the whooshing sounds soothed her, "I was thinking: how about we try this whole good-verse-evil thing at a different pace, hmm? How about you give up now and save us some time?"
The vampire wheeled around and, seeing the scythe, he growled angrily, "Slayer."
"Usually." Buffy answered as the vampire lunged. She could tell it was a new vampire from the way it smacked her against the wall. But then, there was only one of them and she had the scythe. Odds were in her favour.
Leaping into the air, Buffy swung her deadly weapon and then brought it down on the shoulder of the vampire. Luckily for the vampire he was fast or Buffy would've gotten him right through the skull.
As it was, the vampire howled in pain and dropped whatever he had come to get. Buffy grinned as the vamp lunged at her, enraged. Because the dead creature was so blinded, she easily dodged him and sent him rolling into the ground.
In his blind rage, the vampire just lunged, giving Buffy a perfect opportunity to bring her scythe down on his neck. The vamp, though dead, was still made of flesh and bone and Buffy winced as her scythe embedded itself in the leech's skin. Then that tearing noise filled her ears and the vampire turned in dust.
"See?" Buffy said calmly, "Should have just surrendered. Now look at my cloths. This dust will never come out."
Then Buffy bent down to retrieve the golden metal that vampire had fought her for. She inspected the flat surfaces, pondered over the symbols and recognized the German words.
"Am heiligen Tag führt es zu? Acht Wege vom Sonntag?" Buffy translated and even to her ears it sounded horrible. That was probably something Giles or Willow would have to look into.
She pocketed the metal and allowed her scythe to relax against her side. With a half smile on her face, she walked from the room. Score one for the Slayer.
But as Buffy left she didn't see the figure crouched in the corner of the crypt with a video camera in its hand. Once the figure was sure the Slayer had left, it stood and exited the room. It gave a laugh, enjoying the fact that he had some of the Slayer's best moves taped on his video camera.
Buffy arrived home ten minutes to midnight. Her hair was a mess and her cloths were torn. Adding to that was the weight of the medallion in her pocket. One the way home, Buffy had decided not to involve the Wicca in searching for the meanings on the amulet. She was already doing too much; Buffy didn't want to overwork her friend.
So, as Buffy walked in she made sure that no one was awake. She could hear Xander's snores from his room, Faith and Willow's breathing from the room they and Buffy shared. She heard Ori's heavy snoring as well as Sidney's soft gentle murmurs of sleep. Then she moved to the kitchen and picked up the phone.
And she called Giles.
Calling her former Watcher was the only reasonable answer she could think of. Giles had to know this crap so she had her best bet with him. If he didn't, then she'd have to bug Willow about it, but she'd make sure she'd checked all her other opinions first.
As the phone on the other line started to ring, she dragged the medallion out of her pocket to stare at it. Was it just her or was it glowing? Must be the lighting, she thought and threw the necklace on the table.
Finally the phone to the other side picked up. Buffy wasn't surprised when she got the answering machine. It was late over in California too and Buffy's Slayers were exhausted from their gruesome battle with the First.
"You've reached the answering machine of Rupert Giles. I am unable to take your call so please leave a message for me and I will get back to you as soon as possible. And if this is Buffy Summers, you better leave me a bloody phone number or I shall hunt you down." Came Giles's quaint English tone that had Buffy smirking.
"Hi Giles, it's me Buffy. I just called to tell you I think I got a clue. So 'ginkizes' and all that. Anyway, there's some weird writing on this medallion I found. I think it's German and since you're the wiz, I was wondering what this meant." Buffy said the German words, carefully trying her best to pronounce them, "And as far as my number, not going to give it to you. The last thing I need is that Andrew stalking me. Gotta go now," just for fun she decided to make him gasp, "Faith's trying to convince me to have a sex orgy with some guys she pick up at a bar. They're kinda hot; I think I might let myself be convinced. See ya."
Feeling a little better, Buffy hung up and smiled. She could just picture Giles now, turning his nose up at the idea then contemplating tracking her down and then deciding against it. Good fun all around.
Buffy yawned and moved away from the counter. She stuffed the medallion in her purse and walked to her room with Willow and Faith. She was exhausted and the thought of any bed was appeasing in the best way.
Half-asleep, Buffy dragged herself to her bed and feel into a deep, dead sleep.
Lance Alvers, after spending the night camping out in his jeep, finally managed to convince himself to come back to the hell-hole he called a home. The Bayville Boarding House, formally run by Mystique.
With annoyance and last night's anger burning in his veins he threw open the door. Inside the living room Fred, the blob boy, paged through a comic while Pietro, the boy with super speed, did laps around the room. Wanda, who had witch-like powers, and Toad, who had the abilities of a frog, were currently elsewhere tracking down Magneto. Also in the room were Magneto's former cronies, who still probably where. Gambit, a man with the ability to blow things up with his hands and cards, played poker with Colossus, a very tall man who could turn his exoskeleton into metal, and Pyro, a man with a unique tie to fire.
Only Pietro and Fred sparred him a glance as he walk in the room and for that Lance was glad. He didn't feel like being noticed right now. Over the past few weeks since the joining of the three new members the Brotherhood had learned to let each other do their own thing and not ask questions. It was better that way and people, namely fellow teammates, where less likely to get hurt.
Lance moved past everyone in the room and threw himself onto the couch. His whole body was sore and not just because he had spent the night sleeping in his jeep, thought that didn't help, but it was mostly because what he had said to Kitty. He hadn't meant a word of it and the baffled hurt in her eyes almost had him on his knees. He wanted to make everything okay between them, but it was better this way. He wasn't likely to get hurt like this… with them being enemies now. He needed to keep Kitty Pryde at a safe distance or risk losing his very guarded heart.
Like that hasn't already happened, something inside his head whispered, but Lance shook it off. He didn't want to think about Kitty or what she meant to him. It was too painful, too tedious and he was too tired. Maybe when everything around here settled down he'd think about her, consider what might have been. But for now his heart hurt too much, though he'd never admit it.
Fred looked over at the reluctant leader of the Brotherhood, for no matter what Lance said he would always be the leader, and saw the sadness in his eyes. He also knew Lance had been moping around the boarding house for days. Now, Fred wasn't your smartest person… hell, you wouldn't even call him average, but he could put two and two together and get four.
Well he put two and two together and got Kitty Pryde.
Smirking slightly, Fred said in an easy voice, "What's a matter? Kitty finally dump you?"
Lance snapped his head towards Fred and glared at the big man. The earth beneath the boarding house trembling as Lance began to lose hold on his anger.
"Back off." he said testily and the earth shook a little harder, "I'm not in the damn mood for your shit today, Freddy."
Pietro quickly rushed over to Lance's side and gripped his shoulder, "Whoa there big guy." he said.
"Dat may not be such a good idea, mon ami." Gambit, real name Remy LeBeau, said in his thick Deep South accent.
"The X-Men are watching our every move." Peter Rapsutin, better known as Colossus, said in his Russian voice.
Lance glared at them because he knew they were right. Pyro snickered and the "Avalanche" was reminded at how much he did not like the fire-powered young man.
Pietro opened his mouth to add something when suddenly there was a bang from the front door of the house. Every Brotherhood member stood up, Gambit had his card ready and burning, Pyro's fingers turned fiery red due to the fire container strapped to his back, Colossus had turned gun-metal, Fred stretched his muscle and Pietro moved to the front door. Lance stood calmly, not feeling like fighting, and followed his teammates to the door.
What they saw there surprised even Lance.
A pretty blonde haired woman stood inside the front of the house, her hands eloped in a golden fire, and a cocky grin was on her face. Behind her stood a woman with glossy dark locks who looked bored and annoyed, all the while staying very hot. She was leaning against the doorframe and was scanning the room with dark eyes.
"Who are you?" Colossus asked.
The blonde woman grinned and looked the Russian man over, "Getta load of this, Faith. The Soviet Union's secret weapon." Colossus glared at her.
Faith, the woman behind the blonde, lifted one shoulder and shrugged, saying she didn't care what the blonde woman had to say.
"Get on with it, Ori." she muttered.
"What do you want?" Pietro demanded.
The blonde shrugged and said, "Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe we should just kill them, Faith. It'd be easier."
Faith removed herself from the doorframe and said lazily, "Whatever. Either way works for me."
At that moment, Gambit threw his cards. The blonde, Ori, smirked and raised her golden fire fingers. The cards stopped in mid air burst into flames.
"Now, now." Ori chided, "We'll have none of that."
Colossus and Fred charged at the two woman, but yet again all Ori had to do was raise her other hand and they were pinned against the wall.
Pietro jolted into action. With lighting quick moves, he sped around the two girls. Grinning to himself, the silver-haired man forgot to watch Faith as she jerked her arm out. Pietro's chest crashed into it and he slumped to the ground, winded. Faith pressed her boot to his chest to hold him still. She whipped out a dagger and threw it at Pyro just as he was about to use his fire. The dagger caught his cuff and had pinned to the wall as well.
Lance stepped forward and looked at the two girls who had taken down the Brotherhood and Magneto's cronies. They were powerful to be sure.
"What do you want?" Lance asked the two women, speaking out his thoughts. He was calm and cool, but that was probably because, emotionally he was so drained.
Ori grinned and lowered her power, releasing those she held prisoner, "To join of course." She answered to which Faith nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow. So some of the X-Men and some of the Scoodies finally join a team together! All I have to say is: let the games begin! But the real question is will the Brotherhood let Faith and Ori join their team? If so, what chain of events will they set in place? How knows? Not you because you aren't writing it! Stay tuned for Chapter Nine- Newcomers where Faith and Ori's place in the Brotherhood is decided and the mysterious ghost-boy Jack and the unknown dead Slayer finally arrive in Bayville! What changes do they bring? Find out in the next chapter. Until then review!
"Drawing on my fine command of the language, I said nothing." -Robert Benchley
-Lizzy Rebel