Date written: Sat 24 Oct 2009
Author: Starway Man
E-mail: theop at hotkey dot net dot au
Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, Fox, WB and UPN; I don't own 'em, and I never will. I also do not own any other characters from any television shows, movies, comics, videogames or literature that I might use. This work is meant merely for enjoyment, and no profit is being made off of it. Some of the text is from various TV episodes or movies or comics or videogames or literature, and so does not belong to me of course.
Rating: Overall R, with mostly PG-13 parts.
Symbols: " " denotes speech, ( italics ) specifies thoughts, and # # indicates phone voice.
Main characters: Xander, ensemble
Warnings: There is some violence, bad language, character death and mention of sexual situations in these stories.
Author Notes: A couple of years ago Night Hunter MGS (a.k.a. Matt) wrote an awesome series of stories called "31 Days of Xanderween" (http://www. fanfiction. net/s/3813208/1/31_Days_of_Xanderween), where he published one Halloween fic for each day of October. I was inspired enough to want to do my own version of the concept, and he has graciously allowed me to use his idea for this series of fanfic stories.
Author Notes 2: This story was the product of a conversation with Matt, who suggested doing a Halloween character that no one had ever done previously. I'd never heard of the man before, most likely because I'm not an American, but after looking up his entry on Wikipedia I asked myself, 'Why not? The guy deserves to be written about'. So, here 'tis. And thanks as always to all my loyal readers who send me reviews and feedback!
Acknowledgments: My thanks of course to Matt for allowing me to dabble with his original idea this way. Also, my deepest gratitude to all my beta readers – Francis Eugene, Greywizard, American Soldier and Nodakskip – for all their help in getting these stories finished on time!
Classification: Alternate Universe, Angst, Crossover, Romance, YAHF
Summary: Thirty-one versions of Halloween, Xander-style. Fic-a-day series.
Title:31 Days of Xanderween Part Deux
***
Story 24: Yankee Horse Soldier
Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California
October 30th, 1997
Principal Snyder was glaring at a female high school student, waiting for her to volunteer to be part of tomorrow night's extracurricular activity; namely, the Sunnydale High safety program for escorting little kids on their annual trick o' treating adventures. Snyder certainly had an interesting take on the whole 'volunteer' concept, one had to admit.
The so-called Scooby Gang walked past them and, regrettably, the balding middle-aged man saw the trio do it. So once he was done with his current helpless victim, he quickly corralled Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris and 'volunteered' them to be part of the program as well.
"Gosh, I'd love to sign up; but I recently developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and can tragically no longer hold a flashlight," Buffy said, trying desperately to think of a way out of this.
Unfortunately, Snyder wasn't interested. "The program starts at four; the children have to be back at six." He held up the clipboard and pen, and in the face of the adult's authority, Buffy reluctantly signed up.
"Oh, we have to be going, we're late for class," Willow said hurriedly, as she grabbed Xander by the arm to haul him away.
"Hold it right there," the principal barked. "You two haven't signed up yet."
"But Principal Snyder sir, aren't you always saying how I'm such a bad influence on everything and everyone around here? So why would you want to risk ending up with a lot of mini-me's after Halloween's over?" Xander asked, after coming up with what he thought was an effective emotional appeal to Snyder's prejudices against him.
"Hmm. For once you make a good point, Harris." Snyder suddenly smiled, which quickly caused chills within all three teens. "Wait, did I forget to mention that costumes are mandatory? That's why I think you and your friends should make it a theme night for Halloween tomorrow, and I STRONGLY suggest you get costumes representing good, wholesome traditional values – something straight from the pages of American history. Who knows, Harris, maybe it'll help you improve from your status as a rotten apple around here...even though personally, I doubt it."
Still smiling, Snyder turned away to look for some fresh meat, while Buffy, Xander and Willow visibly sagged in frustration and disappointment.
***
Ethan's Costume Shop, Sunnydale, California
Later that afternoon
Buffy, Willow and Xander entered the shop, still discussing what to do about their costume theme thing. "American history? What do I know about American history? I pride myself on sleeping through History class!" Xander said as the door swung closed.
"That's not really something you should be boasting about, Xander," Willow said to her romantic crush reprovingly.
"Why not? Yo, Buff, back me up here – is there anything more boring than history, apart from maybe listening to girls talk about lipstick? OW!!" Xander immediately said, as twin female hands slapped him upside the head. He then thought, ( Note to self: remember that the femmes do not like you disparaging makeup! )
"Well, I'm stumped on what we should get. I...ooh, look at that!" Buffy said excitedly, staring at an 18th century noblewoman dress near the corner.
"Forget it, Buffy – remember what Snyder said? American history AND a theme night. Not only does that dress fail to qualify for the first requirement, there is no way I'm gonna dress up like someone from the days when Captain Hairgel was alive!" Xander almost shuddered in loathing.
Buffy scowled at Harris for calling her undead boyfriend that. She knew that they didn't get along and probably never would, but she was determined to change that one day. An exercise in futility, perhaps, given Xander's crush on her, but then hope springs eternal in the hearts of female teenagers.
"All right, Xander, then what do you suggest?" the Chosen One asked archly.
"I got a set of army fatigues at home. We could dress up as American soldiers?" Xander offered.
"No way," Willow shook her head at once. "My dad hates the military, he'd freak even worse than if I said I was converting to Christianity!"
"All right, let's think this through. What's a popular theme for America? I mean, when we had the International Dance a few weeks back, what did the person representing the United States dress up as?" Buffy asked.
"Well, I dressed up as an Eskimo from Alaska," Willow said uncertainly.
"Right, and I dressed up as – oh, wait, I've got it!" Xander beamed, startling the rest of the customers for a moment. "I've still got my old Manco cowboy outfit at home, serape and all. So you two should dress up as gals from the old West as well, right? It's perfect!"
"Oh, I don't know Xander..." Willow said at once, looking uncomfortable with this idea.
"Come on, Will, it'll be fun! I mean, you could dress up as...as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman!" Xander said enthusiastically, since he knew how much of a fan Willow was of that TV show. "And Buffy, you could be...you could be..."
"Who, Xander? Like, how many blonde cowgirls do you know of?" Buffy asked sarcastically.
"Uh...Wrangler Jane!" Xander suddenly came up with something.
"Who?" Buffy and Willow asked at once.
"Jane Angelica Thrift, she was the lead female character on that old 1960's TV show, 'F Troop'? It was on syndication on Nick at Nite up until two years ago," Xander replied. Still seeing his girls look unconvinced, Xander decided to go for broke and added, "Buffy, trust me. Wrangler Jane was a kick-ass kind of girl, and she had a serious boyfriend in Captain Wilton Parmenter throughout the series-"
"Oh, wait, I remember that show now! Yeah, he was the guy that she wanted to marry, right from the start," Miss Rosenberg nodded. Personally, Willow had always thought there were some uncanny parallels in the situation between her and Xander, and Jane and Wilton. It was one of the reasons she'd liked watching the TV show, even if it had only lasted two seasons way back when.
"Okay, Wild West costumes it is. And Buffy, why don't you invite Angel to be part of our Halloween thing tomorrow? We were just talking about last night, when you found Cordelia hitting on him at the Bronze – so this would be the perfect way to get back at her! Captain Parmenter and Wrangler Jane were always meant to be!" Willow said excitedly.
"What? Oh, noooo, I don't think so," Xander said at once, shaking his head. "Seriously, Will – can you honestly see Mr. Tall, Dark and Broody dressing up in a U.S. Cavalry uniform? That guy might have actually witnessed it, back when the horse soldiers were fighting all the Chumash Indians around here!"
"I think Xander's right," Buffy mused. "But I mentioned something once about finding the local undead Ponderosa, and Angel actually laughed when I said that – huh, I guess he's more of a 'Bonanza' type of guy. That might be the better option to hit him with..."
Xander groaned to himself. Then he went up to the front counter to buy some fake cigars to go with his costume, as Buffy and Willow continued to chatter away, thinking up plans for how to best persuade Angel to be part of the Scooby shindig tomorrow night.
( And to think, the American soldier idea was actually mine to start off with. Oh, man, WHEN will I ever learn to keep my big mouth shut? )
***
Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California
October 31st, 1997
Cordelia Chase made her way outside the main school building, heading for cheerleader practice. She was not in a cheerful mood this morning, as her boyfriend Devon had flaked on her two nights in a row – so unless something fundamentally monumental happened by tonight, the brunette was thinking it was all over between them.
"Miss Chase! Miss Chase! Will you please stop for a moment?" the annoyed voice of Principal Snyder barked out, as he followed the young woman out the door. "I need to talk to you, right now."
"Yes, Principal Snyder? How can I help you today?" Cordelia turned around with a polite smile, even though she was privately thinking that Xander might have had a point with all his rants against the school commandant lately.
"We're still a bit short of volunteers for Halloween escort duty tonight. I know it's very short notice, but I need you to sign up," Snyder said simply, holding up the pen and clipboard.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Principal Snyder. But my parents and I already have plans for attending a private little soiree tonight, so I'm afraid I can't make it," Cordelia said in her most sugary voice. She left unsaid her plans to sneak away and join Devon and his band later on.
"Actually, I took the liberty of calling your parents to ask them for permission to excuse you from that Halloween party at the Mayor's residence, and they said yes," Snyder replied, getting a tingle of pleasure as he watched Cordelia's face fall. "Sign here, please. And before I forget, be sure to have a Halloween costume for the occasion."
"I already have a costume, Principal Snyder, it was part of the dress code for the party," Cordelia said evenly, not letting any of her frustration against this odious little man show.
"Well, good. What kind of costume is it, by the way?" he asked.
"It's a cat outfit."
"A cat?" Snyder asked suspiciously, before he asked to see it. Upon spying the skimpy leopard-skin unitard in Cordelia's schoolbag, the older man frowned in dislike. The school principal subsequently made a decision that would have profound implications for Cordelia's future.
"I'm afraid that costume isn't suitable for tonight's school activity, Miss Chase," he said, not at all unhappily. "I suggest you go find something else, something that's a bit more appropriate when in the presence of young children."
"I'd be glad to, Principal Snyder," Cordelia replied, trying to focus on the positives – namely the opportunity to go shopping, which was something she never got tired of. "If you'll just write a note excusing me from cheerleader practice and send it to Coach Carson, I'll go buy a new costume right now."
Grunting, Snyder nodded as he began to turn away. "Good, I'm glad that's settled. The program's from four 'til six, I'm sure you won't have any problems..." Then he paused, as if an idea had struck him. "Oh, wait, I just remembered – I told Harris, Summers, and Rosenberg to get American history costumes yesterday, for whoever or whatever they get dressed up as. So why don't you go find out exactly what they decided to wear? Buy yourself a similar outfit to theirs, and prevent any juvenile delinquency on their part tonight. You set an excellent example for this school, and those three could do with a bit of guidance on how to give a little something back to the community."
"Of course, Principal Snyder," Cordelia said respectfully, before she glared at the man's retreating back. ( Oooh, I'll get you for this one day, you lousy toad! Damn it, let's see. Which one of the Library Loser Crowd should I approach? Buffy? Willow? Forget it, one's a complete freak and the other's a total geek. And Xander may be a loser with a capital L, but at least he can verbally spar at my level. I wonder what he decided to dress up as, anyway? I'll bet it had something to do with comic books, the big nerd... )
***
1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California
Later that afternoon
The half-day of school was over, and Buffy and Willow were gathered at her house and putting on their costumes.
"So what happened with Xander, anyway? He said to me that he couldn't make it over here today, on account of he had to deal with Cordelia?" Buffy asked her best friend, who was currently in the bathroom.
"Yeah, he said that to me too. Apparently Cordy got dragged into the festivities for tonight by Snyder, and what's more – he told her that she had to be part of our little theme night thing. So Xander had to explain what we decided on, and somehow or other, she managed to shanghai him into being her pack mule this morning." Willow knew what the Chase girl was like in full shopping mode, and in her opinion, it might have been kinder just to feed Harris to a school of piranhas.
"Huh, then I wonder what costume she eventually decided on? Knowing Cordelia, it was probably one of those showgirl types from during the Gold Rush," Buffy snorted. "Okay, Will, I'm ready. How about you?"
"Yeah, I guess," the redhead replied, and as she walked out of the bathroom both Willow and Buffy appraised each other costume's carefully. Miss Summers looked beautiful but tomboy-ish in artificial buckskins and a cowboy hat, and Willow looked reserved but regal as Michaela Quinn in her long, flowing skirt, frilly shirt and jacket.
"You look great," both female teens said at the same time, before grinning at one another. "Come on, let's go. I wanna get this thing over with, so that Angel and I can have a little alone time afterwards," Buffy added.
"He's meeting you here after trick o' treating?" Willow asked, as they headed downstairs.
"No, actually, we decided against it. Angel didn't think it would be a good idea for my mom to catch us all snuggly that way," Buffy replied.
It had taken quite a bit of effort on the Slayer's part to persuade Angel to buy a costume and participate in tonight's Halloween festival, thanks to that custom all vampires had of staying indoors for the night. And in return, Angel had successfully vetoed Buffy's plans to introduce him to Joyce as her boyfriend. This had annoyed the Chosen One, but not too much as she knew it would happen eventually. Hopefully, as soon as her 17th birthday rolled around.
"As long as I get to spend quality time with my honey, though, who cares where we end up for the night?" Buffy asked her best friend cheerfully.
***
Somewhere on the streets of Sunnydale, California
Two hours later
Buffy should have known better than to say that by now; after all, she had been living in Sunnydale long enough to know that that really was just tempting fate.
Miss Summers was waiting for her group of children to rejoin her and Angel, who was actually wearing a U.S. Cavalry captain's uniform. The ensouled vampire had been tempted to dress up as Ben Cartwright from 'Bonanza', but after learning that Xander was doing the whole 'Man With No Name' costume thing Angel had decided it would be better to wear something else.
Even though neither Angel nor Xander knew it yet, that was rather ironic; because Xander's serape had been ruined by Cordelia spilling her drink all over it earlier that afternoon. So Harris had made the rich girl pay for a brand new costume from Partytown, a U.S. Cavalry outfit which Xander thought would be a match for Buffy's costume. Something which he hoped would finally make her see him as something more than just her Xander-shaped friend.
Granted, there was one slight hitch in that the Halloween outfit had a general's shoulder tabs instead of a captain's. But Xander figured that wouldn't matter too much. However, when Ethan Rayne's chaos spell took place a few moments later, that theory was instantly proven completely and utterly wrong.
The magic transformed its victims into the people they'd dressed up as. Throughout the entire town, everyone who had bought something from Ethan's Costume Shop was possessed by or changed into their costume. In the case of the humans, their consciousness was simply suppressed as the new personality took control and biologically speaking, nothing too much out of the ordinary happened.
In Angel's case, however, something far more exotic took place.
The fact was that soul or otherwise, he was a vampire; a dead body, a corpse, which was animated by the resident inner demon. As the chaos magic restored the body's human physiology and brought Angel back to life, his demon howled in agony and expired, unable to survive in such a physical shell.
The soul of the man once named Liam O'Reilly was still trapped within the mortal vessel, but Angelus was now dead and gone. Still, Captain Wilton Parmenter knew nothing about all that; he was just confused and disoriented as the cavalryman heard a female voice cry out, "Wilton! Wilton? Wilton, is that you?"
Parmenter turned around, and saw a blonde female dressed in his girlfriend's clothes. "Jane?"
The two TV characters looked in puzzlement at Buffy and Angel's bodies, respectively, before they noticed the complete bedlam erupting all around them. Clueless as to where they were or what was going on, the captain and the cowgirl tried to head for somewhere safe; and by curious coincidence they ran into Dr. Quinn, who was possessing Willow. Saving her life from two mini-demons who had been innocent children just a few moments previously, the trio subsequently took off on their adventure for the night.
Not far away, the possessed form of Xander Harris was staring at himself in disbelief after taking shelter under a tree. Thanks to the cigar in his mouth purchased from Ethan's shop, Major General John Buford was alive and well again tonight after perishing during the Civil War.
Buford, one of the unsung heroes of the Battle of Gettysburg, could feel no trace of the typhoid fever that had killed him in such a slow and agonizing way during 1863 – and neither could he feel any of the old war injuries that had plagued him for the last two years of his life. ( Where the devil am I? )
"Xander! Xander!" a young woman dressed as Annie Oakley came rushing up towards him, some...thing hot on her heels. "HELP!"
Buford wasn't a coward. In fact, after his death he had been described as a true gentleman, a soldier, a commander, and a patriot. That was why he quickly withdrew his falchion at once to defend a lady's life with his own.
The Kentucky-born military officer felt the old rush of battle pass through him again as he charged forward to deliver a number of blows against the demon trying to devour Cordelia Chase, action which quickly convinced the monster to go find easier prey elsewhere.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" Buford asked when there was nothing immediately threatening them, even though the chaos on the streets was still raging full-blast.
"Huh? Xander, what's wrong with you, why are you calling me that?" Cordelia had gone from terrified to annoyed in almost a heartbeat.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but are you talking to me?" the man looked confused. "My name's not Xander. It's John Buford, General John Buford, at your service."
Looking into his eyes, Cordelia instantly knew that it wasn't a joke. She had known Xander Harris all her life, just like Willow; thus she knew that this wasn't the boy she'd grown up with and loved to ridicule at every opportunity. "Oh, boy...uh, I'm Cordelia-"
"We need to find cover, Miss Cordelia," the army man interrupted firmly, taking in her cowgirl outfit. It was quite fortunate for her she hadn't worn the cat suit, actually, as Buford might have drawn the totally wrong conclusions and shot her on sight with his .44 calibre revolver. "Do you know where we are, or a safe haven for us to go?"
"Well, this is Sunnydale...and yeah, we should head for the school, but it's too far away – we'd never make it! Ahh!!" Cordelia ducked behind him as Buford withdrew his Colt six-shooter and shot at some approaching demons. "Come on!"
The mismatched duo ran away, looking for any place that might offer sanctuary. Unfortunately, there was none to be found and the Union general and his female companion were kept on the run for nearly two hours, before they finally made it to Sunnydale High. But even after they arrived, Giles wasn't able to help much – Cordelia didn't know what to tell him other than Xander and a lot of other people in town had turned into their costumes tonight, she knew nothing about Ethan's Costume Shop. As far as the Chase girl was concerned, Harris had bought his costume at the same place she did.
Thus Giles researched fruitlessly, with Cordelia his willing if baffled assistant, while Buford went back out into the night after arming himself with Rupert's supply of weapons. Even though the British man and the cheerleader had told him that the Civil War was long since over and that he was a mere phantom over 130 years into the future, that changed little in the cavalryman's mind – he was still a soldier for the United States Army, and it was his job to save and defend civilian lives if he could.
It was almost dawn when he ran into Captain Parmenter, Wrangler Jane and Dr. Quinn. "Front and centre, Captain! Who are you?" Buford demanded roughly after spotting the man's uniform.
"Uh, Captain Wilton Parmenter, sir!" the man possessing Angel's body tried to salute, before clumsily cutting his finger against the edge of his hat. "Ow! Uh, who are you sir?"
"General John Buford, Parmenter." The general glowered at the sight of the two women examining the captain to see if he had hurt himself again tonight. "What's your status?"
"General, we're pretty much out of ammo," Wrangler Jane replied, just like Buffy would have. "But luckily, the hostiles we've been encountering all night have thinned out a lot over the past hour or so-"
At that moment, without any warning at all, the spell ended after hours of mayhem and murder. Xander, Buffy, and Willow all regained control of their bodies at the same instant as their Halloween personas vanished, they were fine apart from having to deal with the memories.
But Angel's situation was different...
As said, the chaos magic had transformed his vampire body back into human form, empowering it for as long as the spell remained in place. But now that all the mystical energy animating it was gone, the body reverted to its natural state; that of a 244-year-old corpse. And in the absence of any demonic life-force, there was only one fate possible for Angel now.
Buffy screamed in horror as her boyfriend gasped, "Buffy..." before Angel collapsed to the ground, the flesh rotting away from his bones incredibly quickly, leaving only a decaying and brittle skeleton in a U.S. Cavalry uniform on the street.
"ANGEL! NOOOO!!!" Buffy shrieked over and over again, dropping to her knees beside the bleached bones. The tears began cascading down her cheeks from this sudden and horribly gruesome loss of her boyfriend.
***
Restfield Cemetery, Sunnydale, California
November 2nd, 1997
Everyone was gathered for the funeral; Buffy, Willow, Giles, Cordelia and even Xander was there, standing off to the side and performing Taps on a bugle he'd borrowed from the Music club. Oddly, despite his previous lack of musical talent Harris could perform a good rendition of "Butterfield's Lullaby" now; most likely because he could remember performing the original tune during the Civil War, after it had first been played during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862.
For some reason, it felt fitting to play that bugle call here and now as, in his last moments, Angel had been a comrade-in-arms thanks to the chaos spell.
Buffy, who was wearing dark mourning clothes, looked as if she hadn't stopped crying ever since dawn on Saturday. The Slayer was also feeling a terrible sense of guilt, correctly figuring that if she hadn't persuaded Angel to dress up in a Halloween costume he'd still be around right now.
"How did this happen?" Miss Summers wheezed to Giles through her tears. "I still don't get it, why did Angel have to die that way?"
"We can only guess, Buffy," Giles shrugged helplessly, trying to comfort the daughter of his heart. He suspected that the young woman would take a long time to recover from this particular loss, if she ever did. "But most likely the, the spell or whatever it was, it must have been responsible for what happened to him."
"It still freaks me out thinking about everything that happened on Friday night," Willow shook her head slowly. She knew that the memories of being Dr. Quinn would take a long time for her to come to grips with, especially that part of being a grown-up and a mother. "Who would do something like that, Giles?"
"I don't know," Rupert admitted – although that would change soon, once Ethan showed up at the library, on the run from the demon named Eyghon. "I only wish I did – whoever it was, they certainly have a lot to answer for. Hundreds of people were killed on Friday night, or so I've heard."
"Yeah, and the latest word is that the governor's office is sending a special taskforce to the Hellmouth, to investigate what happened. I just hope they don't get themselves eaten," Miss Rosenberg said, looking concerned. She didn't have to worry, though; the incoming military unit knew all about the things which went bump in the night, and soon enough, they would arrest Ethan for manslaughter and send him to his richly-deserved fate.
Just then, Xander came over to join the rest of the group. "Buffy, you were the one who knew him best. So I guess you should be the one to deliver the eulogy, right?"
"I can't, at least not right now," Buffy shook her head. "Giles?"
"I, uh, I wouldn't know what to say, Buffy," the Watcher said helplessly. He simply hadn't been that close to Angel, unfortunately.
"Me neither," Willow spoke up, her fear of public speaking working against her.
"Don't look at me, I didn't even know he was a vampire until yesterday," Cordelia shrugged.
Xander looked appalled when all eyes turned to him. "You people want ME to do it? Guys, come on, I'm the LAST person who should be doing this!"
"Please, Xander? For Buffy, I'm sure it'd mean a lot to her," Willow asked with her Resolve Face.
Xander sighed again and he put down the bugle. "All right, fine." Taking a few moments, he then began to speak.
"The first moment I saw Angel, I was instantly jealous of him," Xander said, to no one's surprise. "We were all in the Bronze, and he had just given Buffy his leather jacket, and I was all 'who the hell is that guy?' Then Willow said his name, and I said to her, 'He's buff! He's a very attractive man, how come THAT never came up?'"
Despite her heartbreak, Buffy actually giggled for a moment at the Xander-ism, as she recalled that incident nearly a year ago. The Slayer then listened to all the other things Xander had to say: describing Angel killing his sire, Darla, in order to save Buffy's life, his saving all her friends after Marcie Ross had almost gassed them to death, his helping Xander to save her life again after the Master had drowned her, his helping to save everyone before she'd smashed the Master's bones with that mallet, even Angel coming to the rescue when she and Cordelia had been about to be sacrificed to the reptilian demon known as Machida.
"Gotta admit – that guy accomplished a lot here in Sunnydale, over the past year or so," Xander said honestly. "For almost as long as I knew him Angel was a vampire, and truth is, I never actually liked him because of that. But in the end, he got his greatest wish – to be human again, despite the whole possession thing and even if it was just for one night. Angel helped keep the people I care about alive, and for that I'm grateful to have known the guy.
"So goodbye, pal; you'll be missed, I'm sure."
There was a moment's silence before Buffy and Willow thanked him, and then the group slowly began to break up, different people going their different ways.
Willow took Buffy back to Rupert's car, trying to comfort her grieving friend. Before he drove them home Giles briefly met up with the woman known as Jenny Calendar, who was already planning to quit her job at the high school and return to her family in Eastern Europe now that her role as a spy was over. Cordelia gave Xander a lift back to the school where he returned the bugle, and then she took him to the local stables where Harris made an inquiry about getting a part-time job. Thanks to his Halloween memories, he now knew a lot both about horses and human nature.
But all that was of no interest to the balance demon named Whistler.
Later that night, he was wondering how on earth his star protégé was going to be replaced in the grand scheme of things when he noticed two vampires, a male and a female, approach Angel's grave. The woman was crying and moaning about her lost 'Daddy', while the male – with a long black leather duster and peroxide-blond hair – was just waiting impatiently for her to finish expressing her heartfelt grief.
( Yeah, well, I guess you'll have to do, ) Whistler thought to himself, as he watched Spike escort Drusilla from the graveyard.
He figured that the weak female vampire would end up dust soon enough, and once that happened he could engineer some way for the British vamp to be given his soul back. Whistler didn't know how yet, exactly, but hopefully once it was done the PTBs would be able to maintain the balance they craved so much.
( It'll take a lot of fine-tuning, and Eulogy Boy will have to be transferred out of this hell-hole to prevent him from killing you at the first opportunity, ) Whistler thought to himself. ( But I'm pretty sure I can eventually turn you into the Powers' new Champion. If not, I guess I'll just have to find someone else... )
Mind made up, Whistler marched back to his car.
He had a lot of work to do, and not much time in which to do it.
***
Next: Story 25 - Aspect Of The Demon