Mausoleum within Sunnydale Memorial Cemetery, January 17th 1998
By luck or skill or whatever you wanted to call it, the Chosen Two had found the book that could be used to open the Hellmouth in Kendra's Slayer dreams. Unfortunately...they weren't the only ones to stumble across it that night.
Buffy kicked a deformed-looking demon in the face, as it went flying away. Kendra punched another demon, and it likewise went flying into a wall of the tomb. "Buffy, dis cannot be a coincidence!" the Caribbean Slayer told her mystical sibling in between punches.
"You mean us finding that book, and the bad guys showing up straightaway? Yeah, already figured that out," the petite blonde replied, before having to focus on her latest opponent. "By the way, what's with you and Xander?"
"I don't know what ya mean," Kendra replied, trying to concentrate on the conversation in between punches.
"Well, are you still having naughty Slayer thoughts about him? Trying to butter him up with Twinkies and Ho-Ho's? Wanting to – ouch!" Buffy yelped, as her latest opponent got in a lucky punch.
"Ya need ta concentrate more on killin' and less on gossip, right now!" Kendra told her sternly. { And no, I think it's pretty obvious Xander doesn't feel that way about me – he only has eyes for that Cordelia girl, however much he wants to deny it! }
While the Chosen Two fought the demons in that tomb, Count Orlok returned to the store named "Magicks Through The Ages" with one of Ethan's chaos-spelled Halloween costumes. By a stroke of good fortune, he had stumbled across the red devil outfit that one of the children which the Willow-bot had escorted that night. It was enough to put the former Billy Fordham in a good mood; he knew that rummaging through people's trash would pay off one of these days!
He walked inside the magic store. The warlock recognised him and said, "Oh, it's you! Have you had any luck in getting a human soul to trade for services to be rendered?"
"No, and I'm pretty sure you already know that," Count Orlok shrugged. "I did, however, finally manage to find a chaos-spelled Halloween costume instead." The Count walked over to the counter, setting down the costume in front of the proprietor of the store. "Well?"
The warlock looked over the costume for a full minute. "I do sense some chaos magic there. Not much, but still. Okay, what the heck, a deal's a deal - I'll fix your gem for you in exchange for this!"
Count Orlok smiles to himself. "Excellent." He took out the lockbox from within his cloak and set it down next the costume. "Is now a good time?"
"Do you see any other customers in here, right at the moment?" Indeed, the store was currently deserted (other than the two of them) as the warlock picked up the costume and then put it underneath the counter. "Let's fix that gem, shall we?" The warlock worked his magic as the lockbox opened up and Gem pieces flew into the air.
"Hmm," the warlock grunted as the Gem pieces glowed brightly, and the mystical artifact started to put itself back together. "This could take a while..." the shop owner then muttered, he hadn't been expecting the gem to have quite so many mystical qualities.
"Take your time, but make sure the job's done right. Otherwise, we're going to have a problem," Count Orlok said with a definite hint of menace in his voice.
Elsewhere at that moment, Angel entered Willy's bar. "Willy."
"Hello, Angel. I hope you're not here make another ruckus," Willy didn't pause in wiping his bar counter, as the snitch said that to the ensouled vampire.
"Wasn't planning on it, Willy. Got any information where Spike and Drusilla are concerned, especially regarding the Judge's body parts?" Angel demanded roughly.
"No. And I'm telling ya, I still can't believe they're out to rebuild that thing. Thought those two were smarter than that, wanting to bring about Armageddon and all! Still, vampires. Whatcha gonna do?" Willy replied with a heavy sigh. "By the way, you still owe me for last time – and no more putting it off, pal, I got expenses to cover. You got the money?"
Angel nodded and tossed a number of dead presidents down onto the counter. Willy took the cash and nodded, "Nice doing business with you. So, anything else you wanna know?"
"What can you tell me about this Count Orlok character I heard about?" Angel abruptly asked.
"Oh, the vampire that looks like a Nosferatu from the days of the old black and white silent films? Yeah, that guy showed up here once, I think it was after Halloween sometime. Didn't stay long, pretty sure he didn't like the ambience of the place. Again, whatcha gonna do? Anyway, I heard some of Spike's vamps talking about him, apparently he'd holed up in their lair -"
"That old mansion on Crawford Street," Angel interrupted, recalling his previous trip there.
"Yeah, rumor has it. Anyway, that's all I know," Willy told the vampire, holding out his hand for more cash.
"Has this so-called Count showed up anywhere else?" Angel asked, ignoring that.
"Nope, not that I know of. All I know is he's rooming with Spike and Drusilla at that old mansion." Willy frowned as Angel tossed him a twenty dollar bill and then left the bar. "Undead cheapskate..."
Back at the cemetery, Buffy and Kendra escaped the mausoleum with the book and their lives. They blocked the tomb's doorway so the demons couldn't get out along the way. "We should report back ta Mistah Giles," the Jamaican Slayer opined once the job was done.
"Yeah, he'll probably want to know that we *finally* got our hands on the book," Buffy nodded, glad to have gotten away from the battle without serious injury. "He's probably gonna start drooling over it, actually, once he reads what's in it." With that, the two girls left the cemetery and headed back towards the school.
Earlier that evening, Xander and Cordelia had been making out in the back seat of her car in a secluded spot not far from Lovers' Lane. The windows were all fogged up, as Cordelia slid down onto her back and dragged Xander on top of her.
"What are we do-?" Xander managed to say, after briefly unlocking his lips from hers.
"Xander, shut up!" Cordelia ordered him in no uncertain terms, spreading her legs apart as her new boyfriend's body settled into position. "I mean, do you even want to be here?"
"As the bulge in my pants will most definitely attest, heck yes!" Xander told her, before another heavy make-out session took place. When they came up for air again, he added, "It's just kinda weird, is all. We go from wanting to kill each other to wanting to kiss each other, just like that?"
"Yeah, so?" It was obvious Cordelia didn't want to talk right now.
"Well, I just -" Xander's voice was cut off by Cordelia's lips attaching themselves to his yet again, and all the blood drained ever further south from his head towards his groin...
A bit later on, he and Cordelia met up with Willow and Oz (well, the robot spies impersonating them, but whatever) at the Bronze. There was no *chance* of the cheerleader being willing to go all the way on a first date with him, and in order to remove the temptation to go further than he should (truth was, he wasn't ready for that sort of intimacy any more than his girlfriend was), they had decided to head for the teen club tonight.
In a massive leap of faith, though, Cordelia had decided to let herself be seen in public with her boyfriend – and the rumors and gossip that Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase were now an item began to spread like wildfire!
But then a demon appeared inside the club, looking for the Slayers. The demon worked for the Mayor, Richard Wilkins; a man who had plans of his own, and didn't want the Slayers to get in the way of them. Unfortunately, the minion wasn't too smart and had misinterpreted his employer's desire for non-interference as taking care of the problem in a *permanent* way.
"Where are the Slayers?" the demon yelled to the crowd, proving the old saying true – good help was impossible to find nowadays. A number of humans and vampires winced at the social faux pas, unable to believe this creature had just barged in and said that.
"What the hell is that?!" the Willow-bot demanded with a look of horror on its face, as it saw the demon rip a civilian in two.
"I dunno, but keep back – I'll take care of this," Xander said to his friends, as the screaming started and someone yelled for the management to call the police.
"Are you nuts, Doofus?" Cordelia said scathingly, looking annoyed. Xander was briefly hurt by that, until he realized that his girlfriend was scared and concerned and using the annoyance as a mask to hide her true feelings. "You got lucky when you punched Spike way back when, remember?" she said to him.
Xander shrugged. "Okay, fine. You got a point, this is kinda public – and too many of our classmates are here." Still, if someone didn't stop the demon soon, he'd have to do something – it was killing people, after all!
"Someone call Buffy and Kendra," said the Oz-bot. And once outside they did so, the Scoobies managed to help most of the Bronze patrons escape – which *majorly* annoyed the demon, as no one was left to tell it where Buffy and Kendra were...
Elsewhere, the warlock finally finished fixing the Gem of Amara, sweat pouting down his forehead. The green gem stopped glowing, and then fell and landed on the counter. "Whew! That's done. And that's no ordinary gem, is it? I could *feel* the ancient dark magicks being restored, during the job!"
"True," the former Billy Fordham shrugged, grabbing the Gem. "I trust you'll keep your mouth shut about that?"
"No problem. And take my advice; put that thing in a safe place," the warlock suggested, getting a towel from underneath the counter to wipe his forehead.
"What have you in mind?" Count Orlok asked, still clutching the gem tightly.
"Hide it in your heart, it should be safe there," the warlock told him. "I mean vampire, right? Ain't no one that can get it there without killing you!"
The count thought to himself, { Yes, he's right. It's the one *sure* way of possessing the Gem so that it can't be taken away from me! }
"So be it." The vampire thanked the warlock for the suggestion, and decided to accept the offer to insert it into his heart.
To build customer good will, the warlock cut open the undead flesh with the precision of a surgeon, peeling it back until the rotted, unbeating heart was visible. He then jabbed the gem right into Count Orlok's heart!
"AGGHHHHHH!" Count Orlok screamed in pain, before the Gem of Amara healed him as the vampire's body glowed briefly with light. "That hurt!"
"Well, you know the old saying; no pain, no gain. Have a good evening, it's been a pleasure doing business with you!" the storeowner said with a small smirk.
Count Orlok was tempted to kill him, but eventually decided against it as he didn't want to draw attention to himself from the supernatural community. He just left, having already decided to maintain a low profile and not let the whole world know he had gotten the Gem back in working order. He was *smarter* than the ordinary small minds like Spike or Drusilla, after all!
Over at the Mayor's office, Richard Wilkins sat in his chair talking to some henchmen. { I'll have to move my plan up a notch, in order for my Ascension to get into gear for next year, } he thought evilly. { Oh well, never mind; what's an omelet without a few broken eggs? }
Elsewhere, Jareth chuckled over the Mayor's lame plans. "Good luck with all your convoluted plots, Richard." He had a spy among the Mayor's henchmen, and thus kept himself informed about what the politician was up to. He wanted to make sure that Richard Wilkins didn't get in the way of his own plans, after all.
Westworld facility, summer of 1999
Jareth was still busy making an android to lead his army of doom, when he started chuckling. Ethan noticed and said politely, "May I ask what's so amusing, Jareth?"
The demon stopped chuckling and shook his head. "Just thinking about the past – do you remember Richard Wilkins?"
"How could I forget? That cursed candy and all," Ethan shook his head in distaste. That was *not* one of his most cherished memories.
"Exactly. The Mayor was a fool, even before his Ascension and that Hundred Days debacle."
"How so, Jareth?"
"You weren't there any longer, by that point. But just before the Slayer's seventeenth birthday, one of the Mayor's demons decided to deal with the Slayers itself. I had to make it as weak as a little human child so that the Slayers could kill it…"
Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, January 17th 1998
Count Orlok arrived at the mansion, not seeing any of the minions anywhere. { They must all be off feeding or something, } he thought to himself. { Well, never mind. Not like I care! }
He walked to what used to be the main ballroom, picking up a book off a table and sitting on an armchair by the fireplace. By candlelight, he started reading the book – much in the same way Angel would have done, in a different future timeline.
But that possible future had vanished long ago, thanks to Xander's choice of a different Halloween costume – and a demon which had kidnapped the real Willow and Oz, back when the Scooby Gang was just the name for a group of cartoon characters.
And it wasn't like Cordelia would have complained if she'd known about the fate she'd have otherwise had, either; after all, falling in love with Angel of all people would have resulted in her needless, horrible death after spending a year in a lousy coma, of all things!
Just like Xander falling in love with a former vengeance demon would have been a tragedy in the making, a love cursed from the start and resulting in nothing but pain and an empty eye socket...