Not Everything on the Telly is Fake
By Ellf
Chapter Three: Aftermath
Xander placed Buffy on the couch in Giles's living room and removed her hat and scarf, hanging them over a chair. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened out there after the spell had broken; Buffy's body had released some sort of golden-orange energy, and then her injuries had miraculously healed. Given who Buffy had dressed as, Xander could have a bit of a guess as to what had happened to his friend, but the method at which it had happened was completely different than it had happened on the show. When the Doctor regenerated on the show, they used some sort of cross-fading effect, fading out one actor for another. Here, the energy that came out of her did enough damage that it managed to kill several vampires that had been remaining after Ace's Nitro-9 went off.
Given that his gun had returned to the cheap toy that it had been when he purchased it, Xander was fairly certain that all of Willow's gear had returned to what it was before the spell was cast as well. Still, Buffy clutched something in her right hand that from what he knew should not still exist. The sonic had made it through Buffy's regeneration, albeit with some structural damage; its casing had pieces missing exposing the alien internal circuitry and the attachment at the tip of it looked to be barely hanging on by a few wires. Looking at the sonic drew his attention to the rest of Buffy's body. In the light, he could see the full extent of her changes. Buffy's hair no longer resembled that of a bottle blonde rather it resembled something more of golden honey. The hair had red streaks that extended from her roots but stopped just short of the tips of her hair. She'd grown a couple inches, but Buffy remained below five and a half feet tall, barely. Looking at her face, he found that while he could still recognize his friend there, some subtle changes had taken place. Her lips seemed a bit fuller, cheekbones were higher, and her nose seemed to fit her more. It was almost as if her face had become a more idealized version of her original one. More Buffy than she was before. Once again, Xander was reminded of his past crush on her.
The front door of the apartment opened, and in walked Giles and Willow. He couldn't hear any annoying screeching, so Cordelia must have gone home. Giles quickly ran over to the couch and checked Buffy's pulse.
"She's alive, Giles." Xander said firmly. "Couldn't tell you how as this time it wasn't me."
"Yeah, Giles, she managed to take out about eight vampires with whatever energy had happened there." Willow explained. "She seems fine, just knocked out..."
"It must be some after-effects of the spell. It may have acted to preserve her life." Giles frowned and then turned toward Xander and Willow. "How are you two? Anything lingering?"
Xander answered, "I remember the full UNIT training camp, can put together a decent pot of tea, and I'm pretty sure I can disassemble and reassemble an M4 in less than a minute."
"Willow?" Giles asked, nonplussed.
Willow smiled. "I know the formula for Nitro-9 explosive and I have ideas on how I can improve upon it for use on vampires and demons here."
Giles's face seemed to lose a little bit of color before he headed to his liquor cabinet. He took a bottle of scotch out and poured himself a glass. "Willow, dear girl, if you work with such an explosive, please make sure the timing mechanism works properly."
"Yeah... Wills... ten seconds my ass..." Buffy's voice sounded a little groggy and perhaps just a tad British as she sat up on the couch. "What happened?"
"Buffy!" Three voices cried out at once in relief. Xander then continued. "Spike managed to get ahold of the Doctor and started to drain him... but then you..."
"Regenerated... Crap. Right. Well, voice sounds right. Sort of." Buffy held up her hands to her face. "Two hands, good. Nails unpainted, I'll have to fix that. Teeth..." She ran her tongue over her mouth. "I can live with them." She patted herself down. "Well, definitely still female, suppose that's a good thing. Wouldn't want to surprise Mom. " She stood up and looked down at herself. "New arms, legs... I can walk..."
She got in a basic stance. "Still the Slayer, right. Giles, guys, mirror... I need a mirror quick."
Giles seemed to break out of his stupor at watching Buffy do... whatever it is she was doing... and gestured toward the bathroom. Buffy ran in quickly and shut the door.
"Whoa, would you look at that!" The door locked itself. "Err! I mean, sorry! Don't come in yet!"
The water ran in the bathroom for about three minutes before Buffy made a reappearance. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail. "Sorry guys, it's just that this is sort of almost all new to me. I should be myself properly tomorrow. Though I'm a bit taller and I've got all this pent up energy right now. Guess I shouldn't feel all giddy, but I am a bit different but the same-y-ish." Buffy trailed off.
"You look fine, my dear." Giles started. "And given the ordeal you went through, anyone would be a little different."
"Yes, that's true, but I won't be like the beginning of the year. I'm no longer depresso-Buffy. I'm now all cheerful Buffy! See! Full of cheer! That's me!" Buffy smiled at the others.
Xander leaned in to comment to Willow. "And now that... that scares me."
"I heard that!" Buffy mock-growled. "So Giles, why did we all turn into our costumes anyway?"
"A sorcerer cast a spell." Giles began to explain what had happened, but he left out any connection between himself and Ethan Rayne. Buffy seemed to listen intently, though she made a bit of a face whenever the word spell or magic came into use, and she idly played with the remains of the sonic screwdriver in her right hand.
School. The one word that many teenagers dread like the mouth of Hell was about to open and swallow them whole. In fact, many teenagers would tell you that they preferred the latter rather than the slow lingering torture that going to class every day was. Buffy Summers was a bit different than that, even before Halloween. Before becoming the Slayer, she enjoyed school. It wasn't so much about the classes as much as it was the social aspects. Buffy was the Queen Bee at Hemery High School up until Lothos came and drained the fun out of that. That started the downward spiral of her relationship with school, but even so, she preferred going to Sunnydale High rather than being stuck at home with nothing to do.
She loved her mother, really, but she could only stand being in the room with her ignorance of certain matters for a certain amount of time before she felt like screaming something that would land her back in the Asylum. She dreaded the day that her mother would find out the truth for real. Mothers never reacted well when their children were in danger. She should know, she'd met enough of them in her travels. Or rather the Doctor did. Stupid Halloween memories.
Still, School was a chance to escape, and a chance to learn about the newest threat to the world, and whatnot, but it had never been this boring before. She'd breezed through the French exam like it was English, aced the History pop quiz, and had written five pages on the mathematics exam going into the n-th dimensional theory on why x happened to be equal to 6. She was right, of course, and though her teachers had tried to stop her, she'd headed out of the room. Normally she wasn't this bored, and oftentimes she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing in the classroom, using that time to catch up on sleep she'd missed during patrolling the night before. Of course, now Buffy hadn't slept once since Halloween, and it was two days later.
She walked through the hallway, intending on heading for the library when her way was blocked by an unwelcome presence.
"Miss Summers... Just the delinquent whom I was hoping to find. " Principal Snyder sneered at her and she cocked her eyebrow. "I've been hearing interesting stories about you today, and it seems like I may finally be able to get my wish. Cheating is a very nasty mark against you. It could lead to detention, suspension, and my personal favorite... Expulsion."
"Oh?" Buffy said carefully. "Good thing I don't cheat then."
"Then how do you explain your latest test scores?" Snyder seemed to ground out.
"Study and intuitive understanding. Perhaps I'm a bit more clever than you might have thought, Principal Snyder." Buffy started, and before Snyder began to speak again, she cut him off. "French has always been my weak suit so I studied hard for the upcoming test this weekend. I've always been interested in history, why do you think I'm in the library all the time? As for the math, my father is an architect, and I've picked up a lot of math tricks from him and his friends. And before you comment on my hair, I've checked the dress code, and there's nothing in it about changing the color a bit. If you still think I cheated, prove it."
Snyder turned red and sputtered. "I'll find something on you yet, Summers."
"If you think you can. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some more studying to do. Principal Snyder." She pushed past the older man and headed toward the library. Once she was out of his hearing range, she shook her head. "Idiot."
As Buffy entered the library, she noted the familiar presence of her watcher reading some book or another. She couldn't get a good angle on it from here, and it looked like it was using a variation on cuneiform which was always a pain to read. Of course, it was nothing like reading Gallifreyan, but there were always things that were trouble when dealing with cuneiform. Buffy headed toward the main study table and placed her bag down.
"So Giles, what's the what?" She smirked when she saw Giles jump a bit at her question.
"What?" So eloquent. You'd think that Giles would be used to her and the others interrupting his reading by now.
"The book, the research, Giles. What are you looking into?" She couldn't help but be curious.
"Well, given the events of Halloween, I felt I should do a bit of research into the particular spell that Ethan had used to change you all into your costumes, to see if there should be any lingering effects. However, I've only found vague references in some of my books, and they referenced this volume which apparently is written only in pre-Babylonian cuneiform. " Giles didn't sound all that worried. If Buffy wasn't fooling herself, he sounded...
"Easy there, Giles. I'm sure it's fine. Or should I leave you two alone and go find Xander and Willow?" She smirked.
Giles huffed and turned toward his slayer. "Are you okay, Buffy? The ending of the spell was a bit more traumatic for you."
"No big. I got a nifty new hair style out of the deal, and you've died once, you don't really feel that bad when it happens a second time." Buffy reassured the man. "I'm still me, I'm not going to go all Psycho-Slayer like before."
"Yes, well..." Giles took off his glasses and began to clean them. It had to have been a sign of nervousness. "How was patrol?"
"Quiet, almost disturbingly so. There haven't been any new fledges that I've been able to find the past few nights, and even the demons have been quiet. Spike's been in hiding and I still haven't found him."
"Are you sure he didn't get caught up in the..." Giles trailed off.
"I'm certain. He ran away before the regeneration happened. I was aware enough to sense that." Buffy shrugged. "If it's quiet again like this, it might end up being more like a normal town... Less hellmouthy. That's a good thing."
"Yes, but we should be prepared for anything. Experience tells us that the Hellmouth likes to throw a wrench into things. However, as long as nothing happens, I see no reason patrol should interfere with your homework."
Buffy groaned. "Kiss of death, Giles. You know this by now."
Xander spoke up as he walked in. "Ah come on, Buff. What's the worst that can happen?"
Buffy glared at him as she stalked off, and rubbed her head a bit. Willow slapped the boy upside the head.
"What'd I say?" Xander sounded confused.
The Bronze thrummed with life that night as the Scoobies took their regular seats. A new band, Dingoes Ate My Baby took the stage and played a mixture of covers of some alternative rock songs in addition to their own. It made a nice background for the conversation, and the environment certainly was soothing to Buffy after being in the school all day. It took nearly all of her concentration to blot out the feeling of the Hellmouth so she could focus on her classes. Of course, they were far too easy, but she still felt that she should have some good showings for it. Even if half of what she put down for the history exam were things she knew historians had gotten wrong. After all, nobody would record Zygons being at this place, nor would they record a Dalek incursion. Such things were fictional. Still, she knew some of the motivations that were listed for various things definitely weren't correct.
"...true, Buff?" Xander looked to her.
"I'm sorry, what?" Buffy looked to her friend.
"You told off Snyder today, or so the rumors say." Xander smirked. "Wish I'd been there to see it."
"It was no big. He accused me of cheating, and I basically told him to prove it. The man's a Napoleonic power monger. Of course, I never really understood that phrase." Buffy's accent shifted slightly toward the end of the statement.
"Huh?" Xander
"Using Napoleon like that. He was a nice enough man, brilliant too. He was a great general, and he was taller than me. Well, I was about the same height as him, but he was taller than I am now. I'd take you two to meet him, but that requires something I don't have here, sadly." Buffy shrugged.
Willow blinked. "Uh, Buffy... is that a Doctor memory?"
Buffy blinked and considered. She knew she'd never met Napoleon Bonaparte, yet she could probably name his favorite tea, his four best mates, and what he liked to do as a morning routine. Best friends. Not best mates. "Uh... maybe? They come and go pretty easily for me. But I still feel mostly the same... I'm still me."
Willow nodded. "Well, you're our friend regardless. Even if you have the Professor's memories."
Buffy smirked. "Looks like I'm not the only one with memories, Miss McShane-Rosenberg. "
Willow playfully swung at Buffy who ducked immediately. These two were great friends. That's why she needed to protect them. Buffy scanned the crowd. New band nights often meant at least one or two vampires in the audience. Idly she thought about a vampire she wasn't sure she wanted to see for certain. Angel would sense the changes in her almost immediately. She also wasn't sure how she'd react to his presence.
Ah. There we go. There was a man probably in his early twenties wearing what looked like a... was that a zoot suit? Who wore a zoot suit to a club when it wasn't forties night? And then she really looked at him. The man was a negative space on her senses, a null area psychically, definitely a vampire. Well, to be precise, he wasn't completely null, but compared to the active psychic auras near him, he weighed on them. And it looked like he was leading the girl he was dancing with outside.
"Well guys, duty calls..." She nodded toward the guy. "Shouldn't take long."
"Want us to come with?" Xander asked.
"Nah, this guy's alone. I'll handle him." Buffy smiled and stood to follow the so-called couple outside.
Outside the Bronze, the vampire led his prey into an alleyway. Funny how there seemed to be a lot of those here in Sunnydale. She prattled on about this and that, but his focus was entirely on her jugular. She really did have a pretty neck. It almost was a pity that he was going to mar such a thing with his teeth. Still, maybe he would turn her.
He looked up and down the brunette. Then again, maybe not. "Shhh... We're almost where I told you we'd go."
"Oh?" The girl raised her eyebrow and replied in a sultry voice. "Then why are we stopped?"
"I think I want a bit of a taste..." The vampire grinned as his face morphed, causing his victim to scream. God, he loved that. Fear just made them taste so much better.
"You know, you should do something about that scaring people thing. Maybe invest in a mirror so you can try to not scare your date. Oh wait. No reflection. Too bad." Another female voice with the slightest hint of an English accent echoed down the alleyway. He turned away from his victim to get a look.
He didn't really get much a chance to look as the first impression of her he got was a fist to his face, knocking him away from his victim. He blearily looked up at the blonde as she turned toward his victim. "Bit of advice. Run!"
The woman didn't need to be told twice as she dashed out of the alleyway. The vampire flared his nostrils while in game face and growled at the interloper. She took away his dinner. But there was something about her. She smelled... better. More appetizing. He wasn't entirely sure what it was... but he knew he needed to kill her. It wasn't like she was the Slayer, after all.
"You know, I've often wondered how people even decide to come with vampires like you. I mean your clothes are severely out of date, though on a man it's not that bad to wear a suit like that. I mean, I'd wear a suit like that if I were a man. Probably would add a bowtie though. It'd look good on me. Of course, everything does. You, though... you were easy to spot in the crowd. You stuck out like a sore thumb. " The woman walked over to a crate and snapped off a piece of wood. While she did that, he dashed at her.
She punched him across the jaw, and he countered with a low sweep. She jumped that and thrust at him with the wood. He dodged so it didn't even penetrate and continued the exchange of blows. He had to have been older than her, probably. She was certainly alive, if the two heartbeats he heard from her were any indication, but he still wasn't sure what kind of demon she was.
"I'm going to drain you dry." There, proper intimidation tactics had been employed. Maybe that'd get her to let up enough for him to get an advantage.
She headbutt him in the face in response. "Seriously, do all vampires have the same scriptwriter? Blah blah, blood. Drain you dry. Whatever. You're not original, and you're not scary."
He felt something puncture his chest. "You know, if you had been original, I might have given you the chance to try and change your ways. Buut... I don't think I'd be able to trust you enough."
The vampire crumbled to dust and Buffy shook her head. Poor person. At least they were able to rest in peace now that their body had joined them in death. She picked her head up and turned toward the alleyway's entrance. Another vampire stood there, but this one was far more familiar to her.
His name came to her lips with a smile. "Angel." And then it hit her. Her other senses... her new ones... could sense the wrongness of him, but they could also sense the presence of the soul. Something wasn't quite right about how it was there. She assumed it was probably the curse. It gave Angel his soul, his conscience back. She didn't realize just how bad it was psychically. "Oh God Angel, I'm sorry..."
"Buffy?" Angel sounded confused. "What do you have to be sorry about?"
"I didn't..." Buffy shook her head and came toward Angel. "I didn't realize just what the curse did until now." She hugged the vampire who returned her embrace. Bits of her were screaming at the wrongness of this, but this was something that was strictly her. This wasn't the Doctor butting in, this was Buffy being Buffy. Still. The curse. Curses had ways of getting broken. It wouldn't be fair to herself or to Angel if it happened.
Angel then cocked his head and looked hard down at her. "Who are you and what have you done to Buffy?"
Buffy backed off. "I am Buffy, Angel... I'm just a little different. A little more."
"You've got two hearts." Angel stated.
"And two kidneys, and two hands, and two eyes... Right... Remember Halloween?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, the kids got turned into their costumes and I wasn't able to find any of you to try and help. So I ended up just trying to keep the carnage down." Angel said.
"Well, I dressed up in a costume that night." Buffy said. "I dressed as The Doctor."
"Doctor who?" Angel asked, apparently genuine.
"Just the Doctor. He's a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey on a show called Doctor Who." Buffy explained. Apparently Angel didn't watch much television. "He has two hearts and a way of cheating death known as regeneration. Apparently I kept a few things of his from Halloween. "
Angel narrowed his eyes. "I see. I'm going to need to think about this a bit. Sorry." The vampire turned and walked away. Buffy couldn't find it in herself to go after him.
Buffy scowled slightly as she entered the Bronze. She couldn't really blame Angel for how he had reacted. She was different, as much as she wanted to try to deny it to herself. She was more than just the Slayer now. She had the body and mind of a Gallifreyan. She wasn't even human anymore. That might have been an issue. Still, despite Angel's objections, she was going to at least try and enjoy tonight. She was young. She was still Buffy. She'd let herself live in her delusions for a bit more. Pretend to be human.
As Buffy approached the table, Xander noticed her first. "Hey Buffy, welcome back. Why the face? It's long."
Willow looked and frowned. "Are you okay? The vampire didn't..."
"No, he's dust, and the girl's fine. It doesn't matter, no big. I'm just not really feeling the Bronze anymore tonight. I think I'll go patrol." Buffy said with a sigh.
Xander and Willow started to pack up their things. Xander spoke up. "Hold up, we'll come with you."
Buffy smiled. "You don't have to."
"But we want to, Buffy." Willow put on her coat. "Now let's go get some weapons and mount up."
Buffy nodded. The pair really were good friends to her. She wanted to show them the universe, time and space. Unfortunately she had no TARDIS, and she was stuck here on the Hellmouth. Traveling with them would be so much fun, she knew it would. So she and her friends went to get armed for the night.
Despite the fact that there had been little vampire action the past few nights, the Scoobies still took their patrol through multiple cemeteries before ending up in Sunnydale Restfield Cemetery. Willow had chosen to be armed with a spiked club, Xander had his axe. Both had holy water flasks and wooden stakes on their belts. Buffy, for her part carried a pair of stakes, and in her pocket she had something else she'd been working on. It wasn't complete just yet, as she still needed to get a couple parts for it, but if it were needed, it would work for a short while before the fuse coupling she had in it would blow out.
The three of them didn't talk much this patrol, moving more like a cohesive unit as they combed the cemetery for any hostile demonic life. Thus far the night had turned up nothing. Nothing other than that one vampire at the Bronze anyway. Buffy knew something had to be up.
"It's kinda eerie, y'know?" Xander spoke up.
"What is?" Willow asked.
"The quiet. Usually by this time, there's at least four or five vampires out fighting, and that's on a normal quiet night." Xander said. "Not to mention the demons. We haven't seen a single-"
Xander was cut off by a roar from the other side of the cemetery. Buffy immediately took off in a run toward it. Xander and Willow weren't that far behind. Anything that made a roar like that was probably a human killer, but that didn't exactly sound like it was roaring to intimidate. No, to Buffy's trained ears, it sounded like it was roaring out of fear. Buffy dashed through the graveyard, jumping gravestones and dodging mausoleums before she came upon the source of the roar.
The demon was at least eight feet tall, its teeth razor-sharp. It had blood-red eyes, scaled skin thick enough to give the impression of armor. A set of dorsal scales ran down its back to the tip of its two foot tail, and a pair of horns adorned its head along the central region. It had hooked claws that gave off the delightful stench of rotting flesh. The demon was definitely something Buffy would probably have had to kill.
However, it was already lying on the ground when Buffy got there. Unmoving, unbreathing, unblinking it stared at the sky. Buffy moved forward and poked at it with her foot. Yep. The demon was already dead.
Buffy bent down to take a closer look at the corpse. There weren't any visible wounds on it. No sign of struggle, and the flesh on the claws was at least a few days old. She'd probably have had to kill it, but that didn't mean that it should have died this way. Demons didn't tend to get heart attacks before she managed to kill it. Plus there was that taste in the air.
"Way to go Buffy!" Xander encouraged.
"Yeah, you took it down already!" Willow started. "Didn't you?"
Buffy ignored her friends as she continued to examine the body. "It's dead, but it was when I got here. Something this size wouldn't be scared of much..." Three piles of dust sat near the demon. Vampire ash? No. What she was thinking could not have happened.
"What's going on, Buffy?" Xander asked.
It just couldn't be. It was impossible, but the evidence didn't lie. There was a single burn mark about the size of a quarter on a scale on the demon's chest. Combined with the taste of ionized particles in the air...
Buffy stood and looked to her friends. "The demon wasn't just killed. It was exterminated."
Chapter End.
Author's notes: Well, this was a fun chapter, wasn't it? Thanks to my idea helpers, Light02 and Stratagemini, and thanks to the SpaceBattles forums for reading this first. Also, say hello to the beginning of the first arc.