Those Christmas Bells
By Zaru
Summary: The Flame Series. It's Christmastime. Snow falling, fireplaces running and dead children? What will the group encounter as they try to uncover the mystery?
Disclaimer: Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon. TMNT belongs to Nickelodeon. I do, however, own Zaru and other characters not associated with the Buffy or TMNT universes. XD
A/n: My reason for an M rating: I put an M rating on this story because there will be some pretty gory violence happening near the end of this short story. And no, there won't be any 'naughty' scenes with the turtles lol. In any case, there is also going to be some bad words, too. You have been told. Thanks. J
Chapter 4
The problem with the club had been solved rather easily, Zaru unwilling to file charges against a teenage runaway who was only looking for a warm place to rest around the building. Instead, the police took the teenage male to a local homeless shelter where he would be given food and a bed to sleep in for the night. Now, the crew was inside of Club Kunoichi ready to continue their conversation before they were interrupted by the phone call from the police.
Zaru stood behind the bar, opening bottles of beer for her friends. They had left Dawn in the lair with Master Splinter who was regaling her with stories about old Japan. As the last beer was opened, she threw the opener on the bar and chugged half her own beer down and letting out a heavy sigh that had been wanting to escape for awhile now.
The blonde slayer looked over at her friend worriedly. The situation with a possible demon strutting around the city dressed as Santa Claus seriously disturbed them. And it was Zaru who most likely would love to have the opportunity of getting rid of him once and for all. Buffy held a tight grip on her beer, barely touching it whereas Raphael and Michelangelo were drowning themselves in theirs.
"Okay." Willow finally said after taking a sip. "How long do you think Shan Xiang will take to get back to you?"
Zaru shrugged. "Judging on his own knowledge of youkai, well, I honestly cannot say. Maybe a few hours, give or take."
"So there's a chance he'll return a call to you this evening then?" Asked Leonardo.
At the demon slayer's nod, Raphael stated, "So, if there's a possibility, and I mean IF, that this fucker is a demon Claus, how the hell do you think we're going to catch the bastard? Cause I for one have no ideas at this time."
Silence followed the group as everybody was seemingly thinking of a way to catch him in the act. The clock ticked as seconds, then minutes passed by, the group of eight drinking beer lost in thoguth. It was then Willow spoke once more.
"I think we should also look into other possibilities aside from the Santa demon." The witch pursed her lips staring at Buffy.
Buffy bit her lower lip, head nodding slowly. "Yeah. We should consider other options, but the way everything's happened, is there a chance it could be human?"
The club owner swallowed the rest of her beer before depositing the bottle in the glass recycling can behind her.
"No. I mean, how the hell would a human get up on the roof of these homes? He'd have to a ladder or something to do the trick and I think it would be damn obvious to neighbors about a weirdo walking down the street with an extension ladder of some sort."
"They could use climbing tools." Donatello suggested. "Something small and portable, easily hidden."
Faith nodded. "Easily, yeah. But there were people around walking the streets. Someone would have seen something."
"But they did hear something, Faith." Michelangelo said. "Sleigh bells."
Zaru snorted. "I'm telling ya, if this all fits to this demon, I really wanna see flying reindeer. Then I will have seen everything."
Somehow that conversation led into stories of Christmases long ago that were either funny or sad. Plenty more beers had been drunk and it got to around midnight when they decided to head back to the lair. The girls would stay overnight not wanting to trudge back through and take Dawn home at such an hour. Especially when it had become especially cold.
The return to the lair was eventful. The turtles hopped roofs as the girls stuck to walking; all four of them bundled tightly. Faith was ready to hail a cab just to remain warm when Buffy spread her arms, halting the group, boots crunching lightly in the hard snow.
"Buffy, what's-"
"Shhhh!" She sounded as her face turned to the white flaky sky. It was several seconds before she finally asked, "Are you hearing this?" The slayer asked in a whisper.
Her fellow slayers and witch looked up into the sky with her, ears straining to hear whatever she was hearing.
Faith's nose scrunched up getting a waft of the dumpster close by. "God, that thing stinks!"
"Faith, be quiet!" Willow scolded her, gently pushing Buffy's arm down and moving forward, quietly as possible. "I hear something."
The demon slayer also stepped forward, the aura of a demonic presence faint, but nearby. "I feel something." She said as she fled into the dark alley.
"Zaru!" Buffy called having no choice but to follow their friend. "Come on!"
She ran, faster than any human, trying to catch up to the presence she detected only mere moments before. The slayer just had to get there as quickly as possible, otherwise it would be gone and she would feel awful about letting it get away from her so easily. Zaru wasn't about to let that happen though. Noticing the presence of the others behind her, she picked up the pace, hurdling over garbage cans and stray animals running through the darkness of the alley until she reached the other side.
The green-haired female stopped when people were walking by, looking at her surroundings to catch a sense of the demon near. But all the slayer could hear was the sound of sleigh bells in the distance.
The group caught up to her pretty easily, slowing to a jog until standing next to her.
"Zaru, what's wrong?" Buffy asked, setting a gloved hand on her friend's shoulder.
She was breathing heavily, wisps of smoke coming from her mouth. "Another child is dead." Was all she said before turning back into the alley, head lowering in shame that she could not find her possible demon. Buffy, Faith and Willow all looked at one another sadly, before also resuming their walk back into the alley behind the retreating figure.
When they got to the middle of the alley, the turtles jumped down from the fire escape they were on and saw the look of sorrow on their human friend. Raphael walked over to his girlfriend, his large green hands moving to cup her face to make her look at him.
"What's the matter?" He asked gently.
She stuttered while inhaling. "It was too late." Zaru said. "I felt the presence of a demon but when I got to the end of the alley, it was gone and I heard the bells."
"Oh, baby." The turtle pulled his girl into his embrace, holding her tightly against him. "I'm sorry."
"We might want to keep an eye on the news tonight." Donatello suggested. "And I'll check the police files in the morning to see if anything did happen."
They went through the manhole in that same alley, not caring about the long walk back to the lair in murky, disgusting water. They trudged through, water splashing all around them as they made many turns before finally coming to the door of the lair. Faith pulled down the pipe, the doors opening and them making their way inside.
Making their way down the stairs, Michelangelo was ready to say something when he saw Splinter, but was hushed by the wizened rat and pointed to upstairs.
"Dawn is asleep. She did not know when you would return, so I made sure she was comfortable for the night."
Buffy smiled small and thanked him. "That sounds like a good idea. Perhaps we should all get some rest." Glancing over at Zaru, she said, "All of us."
Zaru nodded. "Yeah, I know. Sleep does sound really good right now."
"Come on, babe. We'll head up to my room." Raphael said, grabbing her hand and leading her toward the stairs. "Goodnight, everyone." He said, waving as they retreated to his private area for the night.
The rest of the group did the same, the night's events startling each of them.
The alarm clock next to Raphael's bed on the nightstand was going on 4:34 A.M. when the familiar ring tone of Zaru's cell phone pulled the turtle out of a much needed rest. He groaned as he reached out an arm, hand searching for the noise that lulled him awake. When he felt the vibration, he gripped it and pulled it to his face, eyes opening to focus on the name of the caller I.D. It said 'Unknown'. His blue eyes turned to see Zaru still asleep, and not wanting to wake her, answered the phone on his own.
"Whoever the fuck this is that is calling at 4 in the fucking morning better have a damn good reason." He rumbled into the receiver.
"My apologies. I forget the time difference is great between us." Said an accented voice.
Raphael sighed heavily. "Who the hell is this?"
"My name is Shan Xiang. Zaru called me earlier and I am just returning her call. It is very important that I speak with her."
"Shan Xiang?" The name was trying to register in his still sleep-addled brain. "Oh yeah. She was the one who called you earlier about Demon Claus."
"Yes. That would be me. May I speak to her please? It is urgent." He sounded rather worried.
He nodded into the phone. "Yeah, yeah. Hold on a sec." Gently, he shook his female awake, the cell phone in his hand. "Hey, babe, wake up."
Zaru groaned and turned over to face him, eyes still closed. "What is it, Raph? I'm so tired right now." She mumbled sleepily.
He smiled small. "I know, babe, but it's that Shan Xiang guy on the cell for ya. He says it's urgent."
"Urgent?" She asked, eyes finally opening, hand rubbing the Sandman's sand away. "Great." Zaru murmured as she grabbed the phone from the turtle. "Yeah, Xiang?"
"Zaru, listen to me, I have all the information about that demon you wanted."
"Great. But can you call in about five or six hours? I'm just so exhausted right now."
"No, Zaru. You must listen! If you want to get rid of this demon, you better do it right away."
The demon slayer narrowed her eyes, sitting up in the bed. "What the hell are you talking about, Xiang?"
"The 'Demon Claus' as your friend calls him, is very dangerous." There was a pause and the flipping of pages. "The demon taking on the form of this Santa is called Wuye-emo."
"Wuye-emo? What the hell does that mean?"
"It means 'Demon of Midnight or simply Midnight Demon. He was an ancient demon that fed on the hearts of humans for hundreds of years. It was during the time of the initiation taijiya known as Sennet back in the early 1100s, along with the help of an omniyoji named Abe no Konnei, that Wuye-emo was banished and sealed in a stone coffin, buried in the Forbidden Temple of LiYun Shi."
Zaru nodded. "Okay. If the asshole was buried, how'd he get out?"
"A young potential taijiya was training at the Forbidden Temple with her Mentor. Though she was told to stay away from inside, curiosity got the best of her and, well, she let him free breaking the wards and everything."
"What happened to her after she freed him?"
"He killed her. Ate her heart and everything. But because of the size of her body, Wuye-emo pulled all of her organs out just to get the heart. Apparently the image appealed to him and he continued eating children's hearts and disemboweling them."
Zaru felt like she was going to throw up. This was something she really did not want to hear. "Xiang, does any of the information say how to kill this thing?"
There was a moment of static before he answered. "No. I'm afraid not. It seems the only way to stop this demon is to seal it away again."
"Great." She muttered.
Xiang growled on the other line. "Zaru, I'm sorry. But this was all I could find."
She cleared her throat. "Fine. But how do you expect me to seal it away, Xiang? I'm not an omniyoji or some kind of Chinese warlock."
"You have a friend who is a witch, do you not?"
"Well, yeah, but she can't cast a spell in ancient Japanese or Chinese! Are you nuts?" She said a little loudly, jolting Raphael fully awake.
"Babe, what's wrong now?"
"Zaru, please, give her a chance. You never know. After all, with the extensive research and background we have on Rosenberg-san, I'm sure she can pull it off just as well as an omniyouji."
The young woman rubbed her forehead and sighed. "But how are we going to find this thing, Xiang? I mean, we can only track it by the sleigh bell sound and that sound means a child might be dead."
There was a long pause on the other end. "Zaru, a simple tracking spell should do the trick. The only thing is you will need something of this demon's to use."
"I don't have anything of it. I mean, except for some fiber samples from what it was wearing. But the police have it. I can't exactly stroll into the station and ask them for it."
"A picture will suffice. If you have LiYun Shi's scroll book, you'll find a picture right in there."
"That is one thing I definitely do not have from all the things I had sent here from Japan."
A laugh came from the other line. "Do not worry. I will just have to email you the picture and information then. I'll even send you the spell and translation so you can work on it with Rosenberg-san."
A small smile appeared on her face. "That's the best news I've heard since the murders, Xiang. Thank you."
"Anything for you, Zaru. In the meantime, why don't you work on getting some rest. You will need it to go against Wuye-emo."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll get plenty of rest. Don't you worry, Xiang. Me and my friends will be ready for whatever comes against us. You can count on that."
Raphael watched Zaru end the phone call, then begin typing on the screen to somebody as a text.
"Is everything all right, Zaru?"
She nodded as she continued. "Yeah, sweetie. Everything's gonna be just fine."
TBC…
A/n2: I hope you enjoyed this short chapter. There will be another chapter after this, probably the last one for this story, but either way, I will finish this one. It's fun. XD
Zaru