Usual disclaimers...

They're not mine, alas. I grovel at the feet of those who did create them. I'm just borrowing them, and promise to treat them with utmost respect.

Rated PG-13 for violence and mild swearing.

Chosen Ones' Anonymous

Part VI

They all stood and stared as the supposedly dead creature twitched again. The severed end of the neck started to bulge and bubble. They looked on in repulsed horror as two of the bulges grew and elongated. Suddenly, with a splattering of blood and scales, a head burst out of each bubble. The heads were smaller, but otherwise twins to the one that still lay on the ground.

"Er, Buffy," said Oz. "Plan?"

"I don't know," she yelled. "Keep cutting off heads until it runs out? Willow, you take care of Giles, drag him out of here, something, while we..."

"No, that would be a bad idea." They all turned to the university woman sitting on the bench. The woman was staring at the creature, but with more interest than horror.

"Uh, why? We're short on time here," said Buffy, one eye still on the monster.

"I think it's a Hydra," she stated. Buffy blinked at her. "A creature from Greek mythology. Every time you cut off a head, two heads will replace it."

"So, we kill it how?" demanded Cordelia.

The woman went on, "According to legend, Hercules killed it by chopping off each head and then immediately cauterizing the wound."

"Caught-a-who?" asked Buffy

"Burning the wound shut before it can generate another head," said Oz.

"OK, plan B. I distract it, you guys look for something to turn into a torch." She ran towards the creature, which had restarted its assault on the beach. Oz grabbed up his sword and ran after her. Cordelia sighed and picked up her crossbow and fitted another bolt. Willow was kneeling by Giles, checking his pulse.

"I guess I'm in charge of torches," said Gary to no one in particular. He looked around in the gathering gloom. What could be made into a torch? His eyes lighted on a small, dense stand of evergreen shrubs. Yes, he thought. Dead pine burns like crazy, this could work. He sprinted towards the bushes. He scanned the ground as he approached the evergreens. Darn, no dead branches. He dove into the stand, thinking that the grounds keepers wouldn't bother to clean up all the dead fall. His foot caught on a branch, and he went sprawling into an opening in the middle of the stand.

Oddly enough, Gary wasn't alone. A young man was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the tiny clearing. Black and red candles were arranged in a pattern before the man. To Gary's disgust, there were also some dismembered rabbits. The man was muttering to himself, seemingly oblivious of Gary or the fighting going on near the lake front. Gary lurched to his feet.

"Hey buddy, you need to get out of here," said Gary. The young man finally looked up at Gary. His eyes were glowing black.

"I do not need to go anywhere," he said in an offhand tone of voice that made Gary's skin crawl. "It is mine. It does what I want." Gary knew he was going to regret asking, but he couldn't stop himself.

"And what do you want?"

"To kill them all," he said.

Gary took a step forward. He didn't notice the elaborate pattern of sand and chalk on the ground. The young man screamed, "No!" as Gary's foot came down on the design, breaking the circle surrounding the man.

"You idiot!" The man jumped to his feet. "Do you know what you've done?" He launched himself at Gary's throat. They both went crashing through the branches onto the lawn. "You've ruined it! You've ruined it!" he screeched as he flailed out at Gary. Gary could barely avoid the enraged blows. All of the sudden the man's screams of rage turned into a horrible, high-pitched keen of pain. At the same time, the creature behind Gary howled. The man's hands grabbed at his face. He rolled away from Gary and huddled, fetal position on the lawn, screaming.

Gary turned away from his opponent. The creature was thrashing its heads about. "What happened?" he yelled.

Cordelia yelled back, "Arrow to the eye. I rock!" She returned her attention to reloading her crossbow. Oz and Buffy were still harassing the monster. The university woman was kneeling besides Giles. Gary looked back at the strange man. He was still huddled on the ground, and, apparently harmless, at least for the moment. Gary dove back into the stand of evergreens. In a few moments he gathered several large dead branches. He ran back to the bench. "Does anyone have matches, a lighter, something?" he cried. The woman reached into her jacket pockets, muttering something about "I left Cleveland to get away from this sort of thing," and dumped out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Hmm, never thought I'd be happy that I can't kick the habit," she said as she handed the lighter to Gary.

"Thanks, Miss.." Gary stopped. He didn't even know her name.

"Olmos. Victoria Olmos." She reached into her other pocket and came up with a wad of tissues. "Here, this should help start the fire."

Willow came over, her hands clutching old newspapers and greasy food wrappers fished out of a garbage can. She and Gary wrapped the odd assortment of papers around the branches as best as they could, fastening it together badly with old tape, also from the garbage can. Gary grabbed up the lighter and torch and started running toward Buffy.

"Hey, are you ready?"

"Past ready," yelled Buffy. Gary could see Buffy now had the grappling hook in one hand. She eyed the monster.

"When I yell 'now', light the torch and throw it to me. Then get out of the way. Got that?"

"Yeah." Gary watched in fascination as she danced around the maddened beast's thrashing heads. One of the heads dipped down. Buffy twirled the rope with the hook, and let it fly. It wrapped itself several times around the neck holding up the injured head. She swung up the rope and landed on the thing's back, behind and between the necks. Hanging onto the rope with one hand, her sword arm slashed down twice. Both heads hit the ground with a wet thud. The monster's body collapsed.

"Now!" she yelled, as she buried her sword in one neck.

Gary lit the torches and threw them at her. She grabbed them, one in each hand, and thrust them into the bleeding stumps. A keening cry came from behind Gary. Buffy ignored it; she was focused on making sure she burned the stumps completely.

Gary did turn toward the gurgling noise behind him. He could see the strange man thrashing about on the ground, clutching his throat. He arched once, horribly, and then slumped, a still form on the grass. Gary ran up to him and felt for a pulse. Nothing. CPR, he should try CPR. He started jerking the man's jacket back.

"It won't do any good." It was Giles' voice, weak, but certain. Ms. Olmos was supporting him in a sitting position. "I saw the last minute of that. He was tied to the creature, wasn't he?"

Gary looked at him blankly. "Tied to it? Huh?"

"Oh yeah, bad mojo here," came Willow's voice. Her head popped out of the evergreen stand. "Ritual circle, dead bunnies, the whole deal." Gary looked from Willow back to Giles.

"He summoned the creature," explained Giles. "Why, I don't know."

End Part VI

Author's question: Does Gary know CPR? Did it ever come up in the show?

And for crying out loud, when is "Early Edition" going to be released on DVD? Inquiring minds...

And now for the toughest thing of all - writing the wrap up in which all will be explained. Final chapter coming soon!