2: School Days

"So swears Darkside!? Ha ha ha!" laughed Xander.

"Yep, then he limped off." giggled Buffy. She'd just finished recounting her story to Willow, Xander and Giles. The group were currently sitting in the school library. It was midday and the whole school was no its lunch break. Of course there was no one else in the library so no chance of getting overheard.

"Yes well, despite his...er...ineptitude. This Darkside did display some unknown powers. It may not be wise to underestimate him." said Giles, raining on the parade as usual.

"Oh, lighten up Giles. I beat the crap out of him. He's no threat." replied Buffy.

Somewhere in the distance the school bell started to ring, signalling the end of lunch time.

"Well, back to class then campers." said Willow. "I can't wait to tell Oz about what happened. 'So swears Darkside' Ha!"

Willow, Xander and Buffy walked out of the library leaving Giles alone to continue worrying about Buffy's new 'nemesis'. If any of them had bothered to look they would have notice Darkside himself standing just to the left of the library doors.

He watched as the trio walked away down the corridor towards their afternoon classes. "I'll give you 'inept' you posh, upper-class, tweed wearing-"

"Didn't you hear the bell!?" Darkside looked to his left to see who was speaking. It was a short and rather unpleasant looking little man that Darkside instantly recognised as Principle Snyder. "Class has started so unless you want to wind up in detention-Argh!"

Darkside grabbed Snyder by his collar, lifted him off the ground and head butted him. Snyder was knocked unconscious and Darkside let his body drop to the floor. "Always wanted to do that." He left Snyder where he lay and went off in search of his target.

She didn't take long to find.

"Harmony!"

The blond girl turned round "Yes" she gave Darkside a once-over and quickly decided that he was below her on the social pyramid and therefore not worth talking to. "And who are you?" she asked in an uncaring, rude tone.

"Oh, Doesn't matter. I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about you." said Darkside

"Whatever" said Harmony, turning to go.

"You're going to be famous you know." That caught Harmony's attention. "Oh yeah. You're going to make it big girl. I'm talking," he leaned in closer "your own talk show."

Harmony's eyes practically glowed with excitement. She hadn't even noticed that they were completely alone now.

"You're going to have a big impact on this worlds future. You're going to bring Vampires into the mainstream."

Darkside put his hand on Harmony's shoulder. She was about to say something like 'hands off', then there was a loud ssssshick sound.

Harmony looked down at the source of the noise. Her eyes bulged at the sight. There was a long, black sword sticking in her stomach. She followed the sword until it led her back to Darkside.

She looked up at him for a moment, then she fell back.

Darkside looked down at her body and the red pool expanding beneath it.

"Well" came Ansem's voice from behind him "did you find what you wanted?"

"Oh yes" Darkside looked away from Harmony's body and approached Ansem. "Harmony had a destiny in this world. A big one. And I ended it." He was smiling broadly as he explained the consequences of his actions. "I killed Harmony and because of that the whole future of this world changes. I can change this worlds future!"

"True. But take care. The more you change this worlds fate the less useful your fore-knowledge becomes" warned Ansem.

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." Darkside walked away.

"And what of the girl. Does her death not bother you?" asked Ansem

Darkside paused for a moment, taking one last look at Harmony's body. "No" Then he carried on.

"I'm writing how things go from now on. Buffy's little adventure." A dark portal opened in front of him.

"Just became a horror story."

The first that Buffy knew something was wrong was when she heard the scream. She wasn't the only one. The entire class heard it as well. Everyone sat stock still for a moment, then rushed out of the classroom before their teacher could say a word.

Buffy ran with the others wondering what could be happening. Vampire attack? No its daylight. Daemons? More likely. 'Maybe I'm getting worried or nothing' she thought to herself. 'Maybe it's just a high school thing. One of the Cordetts being forced to dissect a frog or something stupid.'

No such luck.

Buffy forced her way past the throng of people in front of her. At the front there was a group of teachers trying to hold the students back. Buffy looked past them and saw a body lying on the floor. It took her a moment to recognise it as having once been Harmony Kendel.

Buffy walked away. There was nothing she could do for Harmony now. Except find whatever killed her.

On her way, Cordilia bumped into her. She looked anyone for a moment until she realised it was Buffy. "Buffy. Oh finally. Do you have any idea what's going on. Everyone's running about and shouting. What happened, and have you seen Harmony, we were supposed to be in chem together."

"Cordi. Harmony's...she's..."

"She's what Buffy?" asked Cordilia, sounding as though she dreaded the answer.

"She's dead Cordi."

Half an hour later the scoobies were all assembled in the library. Cordilia hadn't stopped crying since Buffy had broken the news to her. She'd so far managed to use up three boxes of tissues on her own.

"...it's not like we were that close but she was always there you know. To compliment my hair or dress or just to make me look better by being around." moaned Cordilia through the tears.

"Any idea what did this Giles?" asked Xander.

"Not without examining the body, no. Buffy you saw the...er Harmony. Was there anything that stands out. Any ritual markings or bite marks?"

"No. Just a big hole."

"Hey guys" called Willow from over by the computer. "I'm into the Sunnydale Police database. They haven't done an autopsy yet but their thinking that Harmony was r-run through with a sword. A big sword."

"Daemons that use swords. That doesn't exactly narrow it down Willow." said Giles

"Hey, I'm just reading the report here. They'll put the rest up later. I'll check again in the morning."

"Ok so in the mean time. We still going to the bronze tonight?" asked Buffy. "It would be nice to not think about death and daemons for a while."

"I'm game" said Xander

"Ok" muttered Cordilia

Willow and Oz gave a nod indicating that they would be there to.

"I suppose I'll just have to put up with staying up all night researching 'daemons with swords'." complained Giles.

"Ok, see you all tonight" said Buffy

The group walked out leaving the library empty. Then Darkside moved out from behind a book shelf.

"The bronze, eh. If I'm right that means that we're about to have company."