GOTHICA DEE & JESSICA BEE COME TO SUNNYDALE

Chapter 4

"Okay," said Buffy Summers somewhat sinisterly to the two vampiric sisters, "start talking or…"

To make her point, no pun intended!, the Slayer held up her makeshift stake that had previously been the leg of a now-smashed antique table that Rupert Giles still seemed to grieve over.

"No need for such dramatics, Ms. Summers," said Gothica Dee drolly while smiling in such a fashion as to display those fangs again.

Which didn't exactly reassure an already anxiety-ridden Xander Harris or a squeamishly-holding-onto-her-feet-tucked-beneath-her Cordelia Chase…

…with even Willow Rosenberg, she of the Wiccan clan, and Rupert Giles, official Watcher in league with the blonde-haired Slayer, cringing just a little.

"We're a rare breed," finally explained Jessica Bee, her own extra sharp/long canines very visible. "Bitten by vampire. Dying only to rise again. Yet with a desire not to kill hapless Humans…"

"But, rather," chimed in Gothica Dee, "to become Slayers…not too different from you, Ms. Summers…Buffy. Save with you such was a birthright while, with us such was a conscious choice."

"Just because we have been," said Jessica Bee, pausing just long enough to weigh her words, then, "cursed…doesn't mean we don't wish to rid Sunnydale, and by way of eventual extension, the world, of the more evil vampires popping up. Especially now."

"Why 'now'?" asked Buffy somewhat sarcastically, still clinging to the table leg-cum-sharp stake just in case. "I've been holding the line in Sunnydale for…"

"She is coming soon," interjected Jessica Bee.

"'She'?" puzzled Xander as curiosity canceled out cowardliness.

"She is called many things," Gothica Dee further clarified. "But the name you shall eventually know her as is…Glorificus."

"Or," interjected Jessica Bee, "Glory for short. Which, judging from the general company you keep, Slayer, is no doubt what your group will call her."

"Hey," Xander said with mock machismo, "I think I resemble that remark."

"Not now, Xander," warningly growled Buffy as she continued facing the sisters. "So what is this 'Glory' and what does she have to do with the weirdness going on with…Time?"

"Glorificus, or Glory," began Gothica Dee in a lecture-like manner, "is a god from one of the hell dimensions. There were two other entities ruling it, but Glorificus…Glory…was the most powerful. She has unlimited supernatural powers, although, thus far, she has not deemed it necessary to do more than send emissaries of evil…in the form of demons and vampires…into your world."

Picking up the tale in an equally lecture-like manner, Jessica Bee said, "For some as yet unknown reason, Glory is attempting to attack your plane of existence, starting with Sunnydale and you, rather than bide her time as, originally, she was supposed to do."

"Up to now," chimed in Gothica Dee, "my sister and I, from a far different township than yours, have been 'happy' to dine on animal blood while killing our 'kind' in order to curtail Glory's influence via vampires and, occasionally, werewolves, common demons, and the like. But…"

It was now Jessica Bee's turn to continue the tale, "But with this sudden disruption in uniform Time, it has behooved us to track down the exact center of what we now know to be the deeds of Glorificus herself."

"Excuse me," Cordelia finally said, no longer holding her legs like someone fearing a rat-like infestation, her beautiful face screwed into an almost comical scowl, "'behooved'? Who says 'behooved'?"

Though he did so in an abashed fashion and without vocal confirmation, Giles lifted one hand in order to identify himself as someone who did or would use such an antiquated term.

Lucky for him, no one saw.

"So," Willow finally said while finding her voice and standing to walk around the table whereupon her still active, and still Googling, pink laptop sat, "you guys are here to help?"

Nodding, Gothica Dee quietly confirmed, "Yes. We are."

Suddenly, Giles alarm clock/radio, located in his bedroom, snapped on to loudly play the current Golden Oldies station's tune…

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight…oooo-wheeeee…"

"No!" exclaimed Jessica Bee as if being physically assaulted, grasping at her brown-haired head and stumbling about in such a fashion as to clumsily cause lamps and the like, also causing Giles to groan in regret, to crash to the floor. "Not that! Turn it off! Turn it off! Gyaahh!"

"Please, turn that song off!" Gothica Dee quickly pleaded on behalf of her still-screaming, head-clutching, stumbling sister even as the song, originally recorded in the late-Fifties by Pete Seeger, still alive at 88!, and The Weavers and re-recorded in the early-Sixties by The Tokens, continued via the bedroom-located clock/radio.

"…uh-Wimoweh, uh-Wimoweh, uh-Wimoweh…ahhhh-oooooo…"

"Stop it! Stop it! Gyiiii!" continued Jessica Bee in obvious agony, still stumbling about Gile's living room, knocking things over and breaking them, even as Giles rushed into said bedroom to silence said song. "Pleeeeeeaaaaaassssssseeeee!"

Finally, just as the "In the jungle, the mighty jungle" part started to repeat itself, Giles switched it off…

…but not before his living room became significantly trashed, causing him, upon returning, to groan much more loudly, "Oh, my poor, poor irreplaceables…"

"Let's say I believe you two," said Buffy using her makeshift stake as a gesturing device. "Just what can we do that you haven't to stop this…this Glory?"

As that straightforward question hung heavily over the expanded-by-two group gathered inside Rupert Giles' house, Glorificus herself slowly materialized in the suddenly frozen-in-time night directly across the street.

"Time to take out the opposition," sinisterly said the suddenly blonde-haired, shapely all-too-Human appearing hell-controlling god, "so that I can claim the rest…as my eternal slaves. And all without breaking a fingernail. Cool."

END OF CHAPTER 4