Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
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Chapter 5a:
Maputa
"So," Xander began, turning to look at Amy. "Where do we find this demon then?"
Amy quickly responded, "Shote didn't say. He gave us the name of his contact in town."
"How do we find him?" Roger added.
"This place got a Willy's or something Xan?" Faith added.
Both Amy and Roger looked at her, then at each other. "Willies?" Roger tried to make the question sound casual.
"Yeah, you know, a bar where the demons hang out."
Roger looked relieved.
Amy looked confused. "I know there was a demon bar in Sunnydale; but that was due to it residing on a Hellmouth."
"Nah... all major towns ought to have demon bar... Hellmouths aren't the only ones with 'em."
"Great." Roger muttered, thinking back to where Shote had taken him.
"The one in Cleveland was shit..." Faith continued, "None of the major bads ever went there. Or maybe there just weren't any major bads. Trust me Xan, you didn't miss out on anything when you skipped town."
"A demon bar without any demons?" Amy asked confused.
"There were demons in it... just the crap kind; vamps were like the worst thing in there."
"There are demons less pathetic than vampires?" Xander asked in disbelief.
"The ones in there were... well, to be honest... not anything we were interested in."
"Let me get this straight... you were in Cleveland, with lots of Slayers, and you didn't find the local demon bar interesting?"
"The demons in there... they didn't hunt... the only reason most of them were in there was due to being too conspicuous to go in regular bars... you know, Brachen and other human-tolerant species; or whatever Giles said about them."
Amy returned to the previous topic, "Shote didn't mention a demon bar. He said, we've got to find a guy called Samson Dabuen."
"Samson Dabuen..." Xander said, he looked thoughtful. "I've heard that name before."
"He should be at the local marketplace."
"So... let's go and haggle." Roger said cheerfully. He began striding off towards the local market.
Faith glanced at Amy and Xander, who both shrugged and followed him. "Shopping... great." She added sarcastically.
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An hour later.
Amy turned to look at the others, "This is the guy."
Faith responded, "You sure?"
"Yeah."
"So where's Cyke?"
"We didn't arrange to meet here... we've got to meet them by the north wall."
"Right... when?"
"Half an hour."
Faith looked bored, "So what we gonna do til then?"
'I hope she doesn't want to go in by ourselves.' "You wanna get a cold drink and wait for them?"
"Sure."
They began to walk out of the marketplace and headed towards a local cafe. Amy kept giving Faith casual glances. Unable to cope with the silence any further, Amy ventured, "So why do you call him Cyke?"
Faith gave her a quick look over, Amy felt more nervous than she had when she'd been told that she'd be partnered with Faith while they tried to locate Mr Dabuen. "You ever read comics as a kid?"
Amy was too shocked to control her reactions, "What?"
"Comics? Back when you were a kid, you ever read them?"
"Some yeah... I was a bit of a bookworm in my early teens... I'd read anything." Amy confessed.
Smiling Faith replied. "I was more of a tomboy. It was the only way I could hang out with the cool guys I liked, and it was the only way that they'd notice me. Least til I developed curves any way."
Amy returned the smile.
"So, anyways, you ever read the X-Men as a kid?"
"No... I was more into the dark avenger stuff. Read all the Batman comics... I think I was a sucker for the tortured soul."
"Very Buffy... Me, I was more of a 'related to the outcasts' sort of kid. X-Men was definitely my thing." Faith responded. "Anyways the X-Men had this character in it called Cyclops."
Amy chose two drinks from the fridge and joined the queue at the counter, Faith followed her.
"This is all about his eye?"
"Not all, no... but some of it."
"Excuse me?"
"Cyclops had, like all the X-Men, a mutant power. His was the ability to create powerful blasts from his eyes."
"I've seen something like that before."
Amy paid the assistant as she reached the front of the queue; and they both made their way to an empty set of seats.
"Some demon or some shit?"
"It was in a film I think..."
"Ahhh... Cyclops actually had two eyes, not one. He looked like he had one cos of the mask but..."
Amy interrupted, "I think the film was called the X-Men."
"Right. And you hadn't heard of the comic?"
"I wasn't watching it properly. Xander got bored and was watching the DVD on the laptop."
"Xander owns the film? Its back at the villa?" Amy nodded in response to both questions. "I know what I'm doing when we get back."
"You haven't really explained why you call him Cyclops."
"Did you see another character in it called Wolverine?"
"Maybe... was that the hunky looking one?"
"I doubt it... Wolvie's a midget... but it is Hollywood so..." Shaking her own head, "I'll tell you after I watch the film."
"The X-Men comic had these two characters in it, Cyclops and Wolverine. With me so far..?"
"Yep."
"Now I don't know about the film, but in the comic both of these characters were in love with the same woman; Jean Grey. She was a red head, with some freaky powers telekinesis, mind reading and similar shit."
Amy didn't know where Faith was going with this, it must have shown on her face as Faith suddenly changed topic.
"Now when I first went to Sunnydale; there was this girl, Willow."
"Yeah, I've read some of the watcher reports on her."
"Now at the time I arrived; Willow was beginning to learn magic, she had some levitation spells and other things going for her. Basically, mix the red hair with the levitation and she reminded me of Jean Grey. I even started calling her Red, like Jean was sometimes called in the comics."
"Now I didn't know this at the time. But later in the year we found out that both Xander and Oz both had feelings for Willow."
"Matching the comic book storyline." Amy noted.
"Correct."
"So until then, Xander could really have been either Cyclops or Wolverine. But throw in the incident with his eye and you get a definite answer."
"Not really. He was always Cyclops before that. He... ermm... well in the comic, Wolverine and Cyclops were two very different people. Cyclops was tall and controlled, acting like a professional soldier. Wolverine was shorter and more animal-like, reacting on instincts more than anything else. Well that also matched the little love triangle that was going on. Oz had been bitten by a werewolf and suffered from that... Xan had been possessed by a soldier on one Halloween."
"Of course, the Ethan Rayne incident."
"Yeah... didn't get all the details. But throw in their general builds, and their own hellmouth experiences; and the distinction as to 'who was who' was always there."
"So you used to call him Cyke then?"
"Oh no... that would have let them know I had been a closet comic book geek... I couldn't tell Xander that he woul..."
"I don't think Xander would have made fun of you for that."
"Xan..? No Xan wouldn't have taken the piss... he would have try to bond with me over it."
Amy laughed.
"Not funny. At that age, having a girl to talk about his interests with, scary thought." Faith said, performing a mock shudder with her shoulders.
"So now he lost his eye it's okay? You know he probably only thinks you're calling him that because of his eye?"
"It wasn't just his eye..." At Amy's look she added, "Well the eye does give me a good alibi. But I figure that both the eye and the earlier comic book love triangle guarantee the connection... Not quite sure how Cordy fit into that though..." she muttered quietly to herself.
"Anyway, this isn't baseball. Two strikes for the cause is good enough to me. Definitely enough to earn the nickname. If it was three strikes, then it's a certainty... tell you what if any further part of Xander's life turns out to resemble Cyclops's, then I'll tell Xander everything."
Amy finished her drink. Faith downed the rest of hers, and they made their way to meet the others.
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"We found him." That was the first thing that Amy said to him, when they all met up.
"Where?" was Xander's immediate reply.
"What did he say?" was Roger's.
"We decided not to see him without everyone there." This from Faith. 'Shouldn't be that surprised... prison did mature her as she said.' he thought to himself.
"Okay, so where is he?"
"He's over this way." Amy said, as she began leading them through the crowds.
'That was a bit abrupt. Hope she's not annoyed with me over pairing her with Faith. If she is, I'll need to explain it to her, as she's probably going to be paired that way in future. I needed to know she was safe and Faith is the best person to be paired with in any possible battle scenario.'
Xander hurried up to catch up with her.
"Hey Aims, you okay?"
"Yep."
"You sure? You seem kind of distant."
"I'm fine... really it's okay."
"You're not upset with me for pairing you with Faith, are you?"
"What? No... she's okay. Admittedly, she can be intimidating, but I think she's cool."
"That's good... that's great... I was jus..."
"Cyke, shhh... Here's the place."
'Cyke? Oh god, she's channelling Faith.' "This is the place?"
"Yep."
The others had managed to catch up with them.
Roger was the first to speak, "You didn't need to wait for us, Faith knew where you were going."
"This is where they were taking us."
"This?"
"Yep."
Faith interrupted before one of the patented Xander-rants began in full flow. "Will you two chill! So it's a little tacky. This is the contact Shote gave us."
Xander quickly turned to Amy, 'Maybe this is a wind-up they concocted. Maybe this is Amy's payback for giving her Faith as a babysitter.' Not seeing any trace of humour in Amy's eyes, he turned to see if there was any sign of games in Faith's.
Amy quickly stopped that delusion. "Nope. This is it."
They all maintained eye contact with one another. Roger with Amy. Xander with Faith.
Roger was the first to break. "It's a fortune teller's tent."
"It's a Ragbar!" Amy countered.
"That's just a local word for scam."
"It's not."
"It may as well be."
"Let's just go inside and see, shall we?" Amy said leading the way.
Faith immediately followed.
Roger and Xander reluctantly brought up the rear.
Xander couldn't see much but could hear as Amy introduced herself to Samson Dabuen. "Mr Dabuen. I am Amy Davis. These are my colleagues; Miss Faith Masterson, Mr Roger Craddle, and Mr Xander Harris."
A deep voice from the front replied "The pleasure is all mine my dear. Want your fortune read? I can also do palm readings, love matches and contacting the dead."
"Nothing like that today." Xander heard Amy reply, "Shote Adonale said you could help us."
"Ahhhh... so you are the three young people Shote mentioned." Turning to Faith, he quickly added. "Though I must say Mr Harris, Shote's description of you did you no justice."
Xander moved past Roger, "Har har, that's Faith. I'm Xander Ha... You!!!"
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End chapter 5a:
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A/N: Giving up on research, as mentioned in the disclaimer, I made up both the magician's name and the word Ragbar. Hope this doesn't annoy anyone.