STORY TITLE: The Circle of Scooby
PART: 10 of ?
AUTHOR: Red Jacobson ( )
DISTRIBUTION: , Archive of Our Own, Twisting the Hellmouth
DISCLAIMER: None of the Characters You Recognize belong to me, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel Characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy (Grrr! Argh!), and the Boondock characters belong to the Estate of Robert A Heinlein and his publishers.
SUMMARY: The activation of the world's slayers has caused massive destruction throughout the multiverse, and the Circle of Ouroborus is determined to prevent that from happening and recruit three natives of the critical timeline to save the multiverse!
FEEDBACK: Of course! It Makes Me Write Faster
RELATIONSHIPS: Xander/Cordelia/Tara
RATING: PG-13
WORD COUNT: 4,029
SPOILERS: A Crossover with RAH's Lazarus Long Books. I'm afraid that, while I'm going to do my best to explain things, at least a passing familiarity with Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset would help you understand who these characters are. None, but if you don't know how the Buffy the Vampire Slayer story goes by now, why are you reading this story?
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPARTMENT: I'm borrowing a bit of Cordy's childhood background from my buddy IronBear's stories, specifically Rio Blanco on the Mouth of Hell, and the Hell-er-nator Stories. If you want some amazing Xander/Cordelia stories, do yourself a favor and check him out!
AUTHORS NOTES: I'm going to try something unusual for this story, no lemons. Frankly, they've gotten to be a bore to write, and I imagine they've become boring to read as well. Hope this goes well.
A QUICK NOTE ON ANONYMOUS REVIEWS: It doesn't do either of us any good if you ask me questions about the story, but don't sign in so I can reply. The guest who left an unsigned review for the first chapter asked some fairly interesting questions about the story that I would have enjoyed discussing with him or her, but as it is, there's no way that can happen. So please, if you have questions or concerns about the direction the story is going, please do us both a favor and sign in so I can respond to you. Thanks!
SPECIAL THANKS TO PAX HUMANA: For Beta and Typo-busting services.
Boondock
Time Immaterial
Immediately after Prior Scene
Instead, Xander just said, "So was it those of you who were least hungover that went to steal the Watcher's library? Because he wouldn't have any use for it, would he?"
Tony smirked, "Actually, it was Rom and Paul, because Chuck was providing a place to store them, and Jess and I, well, we were remembering Heather in our own way in the pool house, and the others knew better than to disturb us." His smirk faded and the smile turned almost sad, "Actually, when we timed it a month or so later, we figured out that we started your sister that night, making the name Heather even more appropriate, damn it!"
Xander grimaced as he realized what his dad was saying. The two of them had a tacit agreement not to ask about each other's sex lives, although his wives and his mom didn't seem to have the same problem. But at least all of them could talk about his sister without breaking into tears now, thanks to Mama Maureen and Tamara and their teams.
Before he could say anything, Lazarus spoke up, "Okay, it's almost time for dinner, we can meet again tomorrow to finish the story and start making plans."
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
The Next Afternoon
There were several more people around the room this time, with Zeb, Jake, Commander Rico, and Colonel Campbell there as well as Xander started speaking. "Okay, we basically told you what happened with the Mayor and Graduation Ceremony in our time but what got you and the others suspicious of the man?"
It was Jessica that answered, grinning, "Believe it or not, it was a homework assignment. It was in early '76 when former Governor Reagan was challenging President Ford for the nomination and our history teacher wanted us to research and write a paper about other times that a President was challenged from within his party for the nomination. I remember choosing to write about 1968 when McCarthy came so close to beating President Johnson in New Hampshire that Johnson pulled out of the race. But when all of us were talking about the assignment that afternoon, the TV was on and they were showing all these ads for Reagan against Ford, and Ford against Reagan, and Jerry Brown against Carter, and so on. I was just shaking my head at all of them when I realized I'd never even seen a single Yard Sign for Mayor Wilkins or remembered anybody running against him.
"When I said something, none of the others could remember anything either and, when we went to the library, we got to look at the microfiche of the last several years of the Sunnydale Press. We told them it was for a school assignment, and we did look up the 1968 election and the one with Teddy Roosevelt against Taft, but we also checked and there was no listing, going back to the founding of Sunnydale, of any elections at all for Mayor. That's when we started noticing things like there was never any listing for the death of the first Mayor Wilkins, or births for Wilkins the second, or the third."
Tony added, "All of us started looking into different things that didn't seem to make sense in town, just odd things, like the lack of uproar at the number of mysterious deaths. PCP wasn't a thing at the time, so there were lots of police reports of rampaging motorcycle gangs but I never saw a single gang. None of the others did, either. Well, I'm sure you get the idea."
Xander grimaced, "Sunnydale Syndrome strikes again." He looked around the table, catching everyone's eyes, and said, "I'm thinking that Mayor Wilkins should be recalled as soon as possible, there's no need to wait until he's ready to ascend. We can probably use the confusion to move against Maggie Walsh and the Initiative Project before Adam gets off the drawing boards."
There were several nods around the table, and Tony said, "So what's your plan? Find yourself a Lee Harvey Oswald? I mean, there are a few more members of the Manson family around if you want to have a crazed assassin. Hell, you've already got the precedent of Squeaky Fromme taking shots at Ford."
Xander shook his head, "I'm not sure yet, we need to find out what kind of mystical protections he has, plus the normal stuff about his routine et cetera. I want to make sure we can take him out without hurting any innocents if at all possible."
"We'll talk to Rom and the others, Chuck and Paul are in and out of City Hall enough that it wouldn't seem unusual, and Wilkins thinks that he has Rom in his pocket. The mystic side though, the only practitioner I knew of was Catherine Madison, and from what you said, she went dark, probably Rack's doing, and is supposed to be dead?" Jessica asked, looking at them.
Xander nodded, "If not dead, then close enough. She cast something at Buffy and it was reflected back. Last I saw was Catherine being sucked into a statue. That's something that we should probably check on when we get back."
They continued making plans for a few more hours until it was time for dinner.
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Willie's Alibi Room
Saturday, November 1st, 1997
2:30 pm
Angel climbed up through the sewer entrance to Willie's backroom, expecting it to be quiet at this time of day because he just wanted to pick up a bottle of whiskey, the good stuff this time, and do what he told the librarian, he intended to get blind drunk and try to forget this day.
But when he stepped into the bar itself, the place was packed with vampires and several different types of demons. He froze, ready to beat a quick retreat if needed because he knew that he wasn't popular with the other vampires, but they didn't even seem to notice him, they were all talking among themselves and shuddering.
Before he could get close enough to make out what they were saying, a hand landed on his shoulder, "Don't bother, they won't even pay any attention to you. Everybody is buzzing about how Drusilla was destroyed last night."
Turning to Willie in shock, the human nodded, "Did you hear about the explosion when the car hit the gas tanks? Word is that something or somebody had hurt Drusilla bad enough that she was running in the streets and screaming, didn't even notice the car coming up on her, but she was hit and the driver lost control, killed all four in the car, and Drusilla was ashes. They're all in here because Spike lost his mind, swearing vengeance on a couple of the Slayer's friends. You might want to give them a warning because you know how vicious Spike can be."
Angel nodded, still dazed, before turning back to the sewers, he could get drunk later, he had to warn them first.
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
1630 Revello Drive
Saturday, November 1st, 1997
3:15 pm
Buffy had just gotten the door open and turned to take the overnight bag from Willow when the phone started ringing. Pushing the door further open, she grabbed the bag and set it inside the door, and hurried to get the phone. Glancing at the Caller ID, it wasn't a number she recognized, but picked it up, "Hello?
"Hey Angel, what's going on?
"Did Giles tell you to say that? Because I'm not sure if I'm in the mood to believe him, right now.
"Really? Is that what happened to cause the crash last night?
"Yeah, Spike wouldn't be happy about that, at all! But I'm not exactly in favor of happy vampires, so I'd say it's a good thing.
"Oh! Okay, yeah, that's different. I'll try and call his parents' house, to see if they know where I can get him. He's more likely to listen to me or Willow and I need to talk to him anyway about things that our visitor had to say this afternoon.
"Okay, thanks for the info Angel, I'll see you later."
Hanging up the phone, she turned and saw Willow watching her curiously. "That was Angel, he told me that Giles swore he wasn't going to do that thing on my birthday but I'm still not trusting Giles right now. And we need to tell Xander and the others that Drusilla got dusted last night, and Spike is out for revenge. Angel actually seemed worried about Spike but I don't know why; he's just a vamp and we've dusted plenty of those."
Willow bit her lip nervously, before saying "Let's try and call his parents' house. If they don't know how to reach him, then, well, don't tell anybody but I kinda hacked into the phone company and got Cordelia's cell phone number. I did it a couple of months ago, when she was being even more of a you know what than she normally was, and I was going to set her up to get prank calls and other stuff."
It took Buffy a few seconds to translate the last part of what Willow said since it was all in one breath, but when she understood it, she grinned, "You're full of secrets, aren't you, Will? Hacking the phone company, what's next? Changing her grades on the school data-base?"
Buffy was joking about that but didn't like the sudden light in her friend's eyes. She really didn't know what caused the problems between Willow and Cordelia, other than it had been going on for years, but she needed to make sure Will didn't cross a line with her hacking. There was a difference between pranking someone, even a mean prank, and affecting somebody's grades.
Buffy added quickly, "Yeah, let's call his parents' house first. And I think you and I need to have a talk about limits in hacking, Will, because, while I'm no expert, it seems like some of the things you do could get you put behind bars and I'm not crazy about visiting anybody in jail, okay?"
Willow looked mutinous, briefly, before giving Buffy the phone number and Buffy picked up the phone and dialed.
The phone was answered on the second ring but, to her relief, it was Xander that answered.
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Harris Residence
5 Minutes Later
Xander turned to his wives after hanging up the phone and said, "Got a bit of bad news for you, Tar, you won't be able to give Dru her bath, after all."
Tara didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to get on with it. Grinning, he said, "After Cordy's super soaker attack last night, she ran out into the street and was hit by a car driven by Jack O'Toole, making Jack lose control and end up hitting the gas pump. So Dru is ashes that were hosed into the nearest gutter by now."
Tara shrugged, "As long as she's dust, I'll live with the disappointment. But it's a shame that innocents were killed at the same time."
Xander shook his head, "Sorry, Tara, I should have said but there were no innocents hurt. O'Toole and his gang were thugs and potential mass murderers. If I hadn't been there to stop them during our Senior Year, they were going to set off a bomb in the basement of the High School on the same night that a group of demons were trying to open the Hellmouth. If the idiots had been successful, the Hellmouth would have been blasted wide open and demons from who knows how many dimensions would be able to break through and it would have been game over for the human race. So, no, I'm not going to shed a tear at Jack and his buddies being Koreshed."
"Unfortunately, that means that Spike is going to try and be even more of a pain in the ass than he normally would so we need to make sure we take precautions when we are out at night." Turning to his parents, "Do you think that you consider this place home enough to count for a threshold to keep the vamps out?"
The two of them looked at each other and nodded but Tony said "If Tara can help us with the Threshold Spell you used at the hotel, that would be great, just in case our feelings aren't strong enough yet."
Tara smiled, "That won't be a problem and do you still want me to cast the alcohol aversion on the two of you?"
"Let's wait a day or so on that, since we've all dealt with what happened to Heather, the need to drink doesn't seem to be as pressing. Hopefully, that won't change. It would be nice to keep a job for more than a month at a time." Tony said with a wry smile on his face.
"Actually, Tony, we got an email from Chuck, he's going to be back on Thursday and will set up a secure spot for us to meet and also see about finding a real job for you. And this time they won't let you be too stubborn to turn down the help! And Cordy, he says that he will be explaining everything at the meeting, so hold off on cursing him up one side and down the other, okay?"
His senior wife shrugged, "After what you've already told us, plus what we discovered on our own, that won't be a problem. Especially if my mother wasn't a part of things, and none of the ex-wives would have handled things well enough to be told. It would be like us trying to convince Harmony about what's really going on out there without her seeing a vamp dusting in front of her. Don't get me wrong, she's nice enough, and not as dumb as she acts, but if it doesn't fit her view of the world, it doesn't exist. Doesn't mean that I like the idea of her ending up dying at Graduation, though."
Tony said, "I don't like the idea of anybody dying at Graduation, and we can talk about that when we can all get together but, considering what you told us, can the Librarian be trusted to choose Buffy over the Watchers?"
Cordelia said, "Actually, from what he wrote on the top page, I think he can be. From what I remember, he was torn up about having to do it before and that future vacuum bag filler Travers fired him, anyway. I'm not going to miss him, at all."
She paused, thinking about something. "You know, it was Spike that put out the contract with the Order of Taraka the last time, to capture Angel if I remember right. What do you want to bet he wants to use them against the three of us? And if Dru got a vision, how many details did she leave for Spike? He knows about the two of us but does he know anything about Tara other than the fact that she is with us and is a witch?"
Xander shrugged, "Hard to tell, unless Apollo sends another dream, which I wouldn't count on. Where are you going with this, Cor?"
"I'm not sure yet, just the beginnings of an idea tickling my brain. As soon as I shake it loose, we can talk about it."
Tara had been watching them intently and suddenly got a look of realization, "Oh! As far as you know, does the Order always send three assassins? Or was the last time just Spike going for overkill?"
Jess said, "From what I saw in the records in Chuck's basement, they always go in teams of three, that's why they have the reputation of never failing to fulfill a contract." Her eyes widened and she smiled slightly. "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, I really like the way you think!"
He, Cordy and Tony were all wearing the same look of confusion on their faces, when Cordy started grinning. "Oh, yeah, that would surprise the hell out of him, wouldn't it? But it would depend on us taking out the assassins before they move so he has no idea who they are..."
The longer they talked, the more that the plan was fleshed out and before long, he and Tony were wearing grins to match their wives'. There was a lot that could go wrong, and they were counting on the same three being sent again, but it was something that they never would have thought of before so, hopefully, it would keep them in the dark until the time to strike.
He felt like he had to throw some cold water on the excitement, "This plan has a lot to recommend it, but what if he decides he wants the personal touch and not use the Order?"
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Elsewhere
About the same time
He looked up from his computer spreadsheet, wondering what had distracted him from the Gods cursed inventory. Listening carefully, he picked out the sound of a blade hitting a post and shook his head. She had been getting more anxious for weeks now, wanting to get back to her friends from before. He had tried to explain why it was a bad idea but she was even more stubborn than he was and refused to listen.
Standing, he grabbed his blade and scabbard and made his way up the stairs to the makeshift dojo that the two of them and a few of the others had built a few years ago when the restlessness got to her and there was a lull in her usual prey. He had to admit that a break from tracking the different antiques he'd purchased in the last month would be welcome and he quickened his walk up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs, he paused to watch her as he usually did. She was poetry in motion, the blade a part of her body, unlike he or most of the others who used the blade as a tool. He wasn't going to complain about her style, it had kept her alive when plenty of friends of his that were even older had fallen. She was still alive, a laughing demon most of the time, even when facing things that would give Torquemada nightmares. But lately, things had changed, and if she had any connection to Cassandra he'd have thought that the girl had a touch of the Sight to her.
He watched as she danced with her blade, the thick boards of the target nothing but chunks of wood scattered across the floor. He could already see that the chunks were cut in the right size to be carved and sanded so she could use them again when she went on the hunt but then, that was just like her. She never let anything go to waste if she could avoid it.
She looked up when he stepped onto the floor and lowered her blade. Grabbing a bottle of water, she drank deeply before moving to the bench and sitting down, checking her blade for any flaws or damage, no matter how slight. It was a habit he drilled into her from the first morning after she woke up and she has been one of his better pupils over the years.
"Feeling better, lass?" He asked softly, knowing that she could continue caring for her blade automatically and might be ready to talk.
She shook her head, "No, I'm not, I don't know if it's one of the dreams, or just personal experience with the bastard, but I can't help feeling that he's going to be moving sooner than expected and my friends are going to need my help."
He grimaced, moving to sit next to her, "We've been over this, you know why going back is a bad idea. Even if they don't see you, how will you handle seeing them again, seeing how much they've changed? Knowing that they will change every day and you remain the same. Please, for the sake of your own sanity, put the idea away, nothing good will come of it, plenty of us who have tried have told you what happened. Why do you think you'll be different?"
She glared at him, before taking off her headband and wiping her face with a towel.
"Don't you think I know all that, Cousin? But if you think I'm going to let them go into danger with that bastard and not be watching their backs, you can stuff that up your Scottish ass! All of us fought and bled, and came close to dying for each other, and I'll strip down and give Horton a blowjob in the middle of Saint Patrick's before I'll turn my back on my friends again. I did what you told me back then, even though I was dying to tell them the truth, but I'm not going to let you talk me out of it this time."
He nodded, "You're still just as stubborn as you were the first time I saw you, and I knew that this was coming. So, if you are going to do this, let's do it sensible. There are a few likely types who would enjoy a good brawl not far away from your friends. Let me contact them and see if we can provide backup to you and your gang of misfits, okay?"
End Chapter Ten
Okay, once again the damn characters have taken over the story. In the initial idea, that last scene didn't exist, but I've learned to stop trying to fight it. So, to quote Bette Davis in 'All About Eve', "Buckle your seat belts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride."
Thanks for reading
ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER: The concept of Highlander Immortals and all associated characters are property of Rysher Entertainment.