Buffy pulled herself through her bedroom window. She'd made sure the taxi had dropped her off around the corner so that her mom wouldn't see her arriving at such a late hour. She'd bid farewell to Santana and Blaine and held an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she slipped off her shoes and kicked them under her bed. Her head was so full today and she was ready to collapse.
She was bewildered by Blaine Anderson. Truly and deeply bewildered. And not because he and his parents were avid fans of demonology or because Blaine knew she was a slayer. She was more so bewildered because when people or things were dabbling in dark stuff like this, it normally meant that they were ominous or even dangerous. Blaine? He was just curious. Interested. Excited. In some way, it reminded her of Tina, who had believed in vampires her whole life. But Tina had never endangered herself by studying these beings. At least, not before she met Buffy.
Blaine trekked his way to the Lima cemetery every other weekend just to get a glimpse of the wonders of the Hellmouth. A normal person would have avoided those happenings. Yet Blaine was so chipper and matter-of-fact about it. He'd been so friendly to Buffy and Santana, even acting eager to show them his research. He was like a little kid with a bedroom full of new toys. When he'd walked Buffy and Santana to the door, he'd even asked Buffy if he could tag along on one of her patrols. For science.
"We'll see about that," Buffy had replied. After all, she rarely let her own boyfriend, Sam Evans, tag along. But she supposed that was different. Sam hero-worshipped Buffy. She was a superhero to him. To Blaine, she was a subject. An anomaly. An anthropological study.
Even more, Buffy's head was reeling with the new information about the circumstances of Kurt's mother's life and death. Did Burt Hummel know the truth about his wife? If he did, he was definitely keeping it a secret from his son. Kurt turned a pale shade of green at the very mention of vampires - more so than any of the other glee clubbers, even Finn or Mercedes. Buffy had to wonder about Kurt's mom. She had never given much thought to the past slayers and now she was curious. How could one raise a child and be a vampire slayer? Was it possible? Well, Buffy thought, Kurt's mom is dead. So that was her answer.
Buffy fell against her bed, her clothes still on. She sighed heavily and threw her arm over her eyes, trying to figure out what to do, when she heard a strange, muffled clicking noise. She looked up, and around her bedroom. Leaning forward, she noticed her egg rocking slightly on her nightstand - the white oval that her Biology teacher had issued her, that she and Sam adopted and agreed to name Mary Jane. Buffy leaned into the egg and was surprised that the clicking was coming from inside.
She listened intently, until there was silence. Mary Jane had stopped clicking, and she had stopped rocking. Buffy stared at it, intrigued, until the egg shell cracked open like a miniature explosion. Buffy reeled backward as something strange and slimy and altogether horrible leapt from the broken shell and at her face.
Buffy ducked, not really getting to see what the slimy creature was, and it skittered across the floor. Buffy spun around to just see whatever it was duck around the bed. Buffy held her breath and crept backwards toward her bookshelf, never taking her eye off of the bed. She reached behind her and picked up a hardback copy of 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants' and held it up, ready to squash the creature underneath it.
Buffy stepped forward with the book held out in one arm, and kneeled down at the foot of her bed. She grabbed a handful of her duvet that spilled over the side of her mattress and lifted it up on a sudden sweeping motion. She squinted at the bottom of her bed to see nothing but dust bunnies. She stood up, spooked, and slowly panned around her bedroom, staring at every corner, waiting for the creature to appear. Suddenly, she felt a thump on her shoulder and realized that the creature had fallen from the ceiling. Buffy gasped at the strange, slime-covered being on her shoulder, attempting to scuttle down the back of her shirt.
Buffy dropped her book and flung the creature off of her. It looked like a strange, rat-sized demonic mixture of a spider and a scorpion. Buffy gripped her stake out from under her sleeve. She whipped her weapon at it so fast, the creature was pinned between the wooden stake and the wall it had scuttled up. It's leg twitched before it's body finally went stiff and motionless. Buffy grimaced as she pulled her stake out of the creature's horrid body and it fell to the floor, dark blue blood seeping from it.
"Yuck," Buffy frowned, and took her cellphone out of her pocket and searching her contacts for the number she needed, "Come on, pick up."
"Hello?" Tina's voice came on the other line.
"Tina, are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Your egg. Is it doing anything?"
"Doing what?"
"Break it. Now. Smash it with something heavy."
"Buffy, what-"
"My egg just went postal on me. It hatched. Some kind of crawly egg monster thing jumped on me."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, but your egg-"
"It's totally normal. I put it in the fridge."
"Oh..."
"Maybe it was a trap. Maybe the assassins of Taraka are back."
Buffy sighed. "...Maybe. Okay, I'll talk about it tomorrow. Goodnight."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Bye."
Buffy hung up her cellphone and set it in the nightstand, cleaning up the broken egg shell, as well as the creature, wrapped in an old t-shirt.
"Buffy, who are you talking to at this-"
Buffy spun around to see her mother coming through her bedroom door in a floral nightgown, her hair mussed at one side.
"Why are you dressed? Where exactly do you think you're going at one o'clock in the morning?"
Buffy gaped. Her mother had that furious look on her face. The one that was really sick of this goddamn rebel act. The one that wasn't going to bother consulting the parenting guides.
"Nowhere-"
"Who was that on the phone?"
"Tina. I just... I called her because she wasn't feeling well and I was worried."
"You're going to have to do better than that, young lady."
"I... had a bad dream-"
"No, you're about to have a bad dream. One where you get grounded for the rest of your life."
Buffy sat through the lecture before her mom finally gave up and went to bed. This grounding was the worst she would endure since moving to Lima. Her mother would drop her off and pick her up from school every day for two weeks. Two weeks. How was Buffy supposed to do anything - patrol, socialize, be a Cheerio - with her mom breathing down her neck 24/7?
Buffy sighed and sat on her bed, taking her cellphone out one more time and dialing a new number.
"Hello?" came Blaine's voice on the other line, in a hushed tone.
"Blaine?" Buffy whispered, "You're really quiet."
"Yeah, I don't want my room-mate to wake up."
"Oh. Right. Well, I don't want to wake up my mom, so-"
"Right. What is it? Is there something weird going on I should know about? Do you need my help?"
Buffy rolled her eyes and grinned slightly at Blaine's enthusiasm, that could only be described as Berry-like. "Maybe. What was that you said about Kurt's dream? About the eggs?"
"Oh. He said he crushed them in his hand and they smelled bad and, uh... tentacles came out, or something. That was it, I think. Why?"
Buffy chewed her bottom lip before replying. "It might not have been a dream. It might have been a vision."
xxx
Blaine waited at the southernmost hall of Dalton Academy for Boys, outside the large classroom where Madame Klein taught French. Kurt would arrive soon for first period, wanting to talk to Blaine about... whatever it was he wanted to talk about. Sometimes it would be the exciting shows he watches on HBO, who wore what at whatever award ceremonies, his family and his stepbrother and his friends back at McKinley High. Truthfully, Blaine found it all as enthralling as a book about paranormal water creatures.
Which meant very, very enthralling, indeed.
He didn't know why, but to Blaine, Kurt was the single most interesting kid on Ohio, and it wasn't because his mother was a slayer. He just glowed with some sort of inner light that made Blaine want to be with him every hour of every day. Blaine didn't know how to take it when Buffy said that Kurt liked him last night. Blaine didn't know anything about romance. He knew how to make friends and be a good performer and how to deduct how old a Fyarl demon was based on the number of tusks around it's mouth, but he did not know how to ask a person out. Never mind tell a person the truth about their dead mother.
Kurt was walking forward, with his rhinoceros brooch pinned to his tightly fitted Dalton blazer. Blaine self-consciously patted his thickly gelled hair and smiled warmly as Kurt approached.
"Good morning," said Kurt, holding his arms tight to his side, his satchel slung around his shoulder.
"Did you sleep well?" Blaine asked, and immediately regretted asking. What a stupid ice breaker, he thought, Do you want to sound like a creepy stalker?
"Uh huh," Kurt smiled, his lips thin and pink.
"Listen, I need to talk to you," said Blaine, lowering his voice and gently tugging Kurt's sleeve.
As their classmates walked into French class, Blaine led Kurt away, nearer to the now empty sweeping staircase.
"What is it?" asked Kurt, his ever-changing blue eyes boring into Blaine.
"I don't know how to say this," Blaine sighed, "But there are things I know. Things that you wouldn't expect me to know."
Kurt blinked. "Blaine, what are you talking about?"
"I know about vampires. And the Hellmouth. And I know that Buffy is a slayer and that Santana is a vampire with a soul."
Kurt breathed in deep and stared at Blaine for a moment. "...Oh. I... can't say I'm too surprised. I mean... it's a lot to process right now, I guess."
"I know. But now that we both know, we can be more honest with each other."
Kurt nodded and then wrinkled his brow. "How do you know I know?"
"Buffy, I... I was studying Buffy in the graveyard. She found me and we... talked."
"She forced you to talk?"
"Well, she's forceful like that."
Kurt smirked. "I can't believe this. All this time and... You study the Hellmouth?"
"We can talk about that later. Listen, right now, there is some stuff you need to know."
Kurt knitted his eyebrows, concerned. "Okay."
"We need to help Buffy with something, so I need you to be focused on just that, so right now, I can't tell you what I need to tell you. Because you won't be focused, if I do. You'll be too shocked..."
Kurt frowned, and surprised Blaine by taking the boy's hand in his. "Blaine, just tell me."
Blaine sighed and shrugged away from Kurt's touch. "I can't. Not right now. But I will later. I promise. Okay?"
"Okay," Kurt nodded, "Why do we need to help Buffy?"
"Because, those dreams you've been having? We think they're coming true."
Kurt opened his mouth in shock, and then closed it again. "But... Wait, what? They're dreams, they can't-"
"Buffy and I think they're premonitions. Buffy thinks something weird is going on with the eggs they're using for a Biology assignment."
Kurt shook his head. "That's just a coincidence. Why would you think I'd be having premonitions?"
Blaine looked guiltily up at Kurt with deep brown eyes. "I can't tell you right now."
Kurt sighed, irritated. "Fine... We'll go to McKinley. I'll drive."
xxx
"Hello, friends," Rachel chirped formally as she strode into the choir room, her egg cradled in her hand.
Tina, Mike and Sam looked up from their seats, and Buffy nodded to her friend as she leaned against Brad's piano.
"Hey, Rachel," Buffy sighed, wearily.
"So why have you gathered us all here?" asked Rachel, smoothing down her tartan skirt and taking a seat beside Tina.
"I wanted to ask you about your egg," said Buffy.
Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Cosette?" Rachel held up her egg and Buffy saw that it was covered in Sharpie, giving it the appearance of wearing a frilly pink tutu and green eyes with big eyelashes.
"Uh, yeah. Cosette."
"Well, she's been great. I've been giving her round the clock care and have even settled a custody agreement with Quinn for the duration of our assignment," Rachel smiled smugly.
"Right, but I mean... has it been acting weird?"
"Acting weird?" Rachel wrinkled her nose, "It hasn't been acting anything, Buffy. It's an egg. It doesn't have the capacity to emote."
"Something came out of Buffy's egg," Tina informed her.
"Like a slimy spidery creature thing," said Buffy, "It attacked me."
"Everyone else's seems to normal, though," said Mike, "We think Buffy's was a trap."
"Good," said Rachel, "I mean, not good that your egg monster attacked you, but I've put a lot of effort into raising Cosette with good values and don't want her to erupt and birth a slime demon."
The scoobies looked up as Quinn Fabray entered the choir room, her blond ponytail high.
"Look who I found," she announced, and led Kurt and Blaine into the room, the boys looking dapper in their Dalton Academy uniforms.
"Kurt!" Rachel beamed, "What are you doing here?"
"You tell me," Kurt said, and looked over at Buffy, "What's going on? I skipped French to be here."
"Did Blaine tell you what's going on?" asked Buffy.
"Partly," answered Blaine, giving Buffy a meaningful look.
"Oh... Okay," said Buffy, "Well, Kurt, we think your dream might have been more than just a dream."
"Right. A premonition," Kurt said flatly, "Again, why would you think that?"
Buffy sighed. "I'm sure Blaine will tell you later."
"Uh huh," nodded Kurt, "Well, how am I supposed to help?"
"Maybe you can recall something from your dream."
"I told Blaine everything I know."
"And I told you everything he told me," said Blaine.
"What's going with the eggs?" asked Kurt.
"Yeah, what's going on with the eggs?" asked Quinn, folding her arms.
"I think there's something in them. Something came out of mine last night and attacked me," explained Buffy.
"In all of the eggs?" asked Quinn, her mouth hanging open.
"Just Buffy's," Rachel said defensively, "I've been looking after Cosette all night and there's nothing wrong with her."
Quinn turned to Rachel and held her hand out. "Let me see the egg."
Rachel looked up at the blond cheerleader and struggled to reply. "W-What are you gonna do to her?"
"See if there's something inside her."
"Quinn, no! We'll lose our grade!"
"We can replace it with another egg! Come on!"
Rachel pouted and reluctantly handed over the egg. Quinn turned it over in her hand and grinned at the drawing.
"This is nice, Rachel."
Rachel looked up and smiled sadly. "Thank you. I know that my brown eyes are a dominant trait, but I decided to give her your green eyes instead."
Quinn looked curiously at Rachel for a moment, before quickly turning away, avoiding the girl's eyes. Quinn gripped the egg tightly and her hand glowed for just a moment. She then took it between both of her hands and started rolling it back and forth.
"What did you do to it?" asked Sam.
"I hard-boiled it," said Quinn, and flakes of crisp white shell started to crack off as she rolled the egg between her hands.
Soon, most of the shell had fallen away and the others gasped to see a horrible, hard-boiled creature, stiff and dead inside. One bloodshot eye set in the deformed creature looked up at Quinn, and she dropped it in disgust.
"Cosette!" cried Rachel, horrified.
"What is it?!" asked Quinn.
Buffy stared down at the creature, and picked it up. "We should take it to the science lab."
"Do you really think this thing calls for dissection, Buffy?" asked Tina, as everyone stood over the horrifying egg creature.
"Of course," Buffy replied, "A day without an autopsy is like a day without sunshine."
xxx
"Buffy? Hello?"
Joyce walked tentatively into the choir room. She smiled as she gave the grand piano and the glee club trophies from the 90s a once over. She'd been so happy when Buffy had joined glee club and every time she got to watch her daughter perform at state competitions. It was so unlike Buffy to show this kind of school spirit. Joyce had thought glee club would mark the change in Buffy's attitude, but perhaps she'd been wrong. What was it that was making her daughter act out like this? As far as Joyce knew, Buffy's friends were good influences. Tina was polite and intelligent, and while Rachel could be a little showy, she was mainly delightful and ambitious. Joyce hoped they would rub off on her daughter.
"Hello?"
Joyce whirled around to see Will Schuester standing in the doorway. Another person Joyce was glad her daughter had in her life.
"Mr. Schuester, hello. I was looking for Buffy. She was supposed to wait for me here."
Mr. Schuester furrowed his brow with a frown. "She was absent today. I've been meaning to talk to her about the Spanish assignments."
Joyce groaned. "This is the last straw."
"I'm sure she didn't mean to-"
"She never means to, but she manages to, anyway. Do you have children, Mr. Schuester?"
"No, I don't. I mean, sometimes I feel like I do. Working here."
"They can be such a... I don't want to say burden but-... Actually, I do want to say burden. They are just so irresponsible!"
Will wrinkled his brow at the floor. "So... Buffy told you she'd be here?"
Joyce paused. "Yes... Is something wrong?"
Mr. Schuester shook his head, still looking troubled. "I'm sure it's nothing."
Both of their sets of eyes snapped to the doorway as they heard a bang coming from the hallway, like a door slamming shut.
"What was that?" asked Mr. Schuester.
Joyce moved forward and stuck her head out of the archway. "Probably a janitor..."
Suddenly, Joyce felt something moist scramble onto her neck and she screamed as it bit a hole into her skin.
xxx
Buffy leaned over a granite counter in the Biology lab, as Tina set both of the horrible creatures on a large silver tray, one of them the dead, full grown, slightly squashed bug from the day before and one of them the strange, hard-boiled, deformed creature that was once Cosette, Quinn and Rachel's egg-child.
Buffy looked away from the bugs to see Rachel, whimpering at the disgusting monsters, burying her head into Quinn's shoulder. Quinn's eyes were fixed on the ceiling and her face was a bright shade of pink. Kurt and Blaine were standing very close together, though carefully not touching, and looking on at the creatures with absolute disgust. Sam, Mike and Tina just stared at the bugs with little emotion on their faces.
"Ew," Kurt shook his head.
"I'll see your 'ew' and raise you a 'gross'," Buffy frowned, "Where's Will? I know he'd hate to miss this..."
"I haven't seen him," Rachel shook her head.
"Well, we should get started," said Quinn, looking away from the ceiling and fixing her gaze on the creatures, "Buffy, dissect it."
"Me?!" cried Buffy, "Why me?"
"You're the slayer," Quinn rolled her eyes.
"I slayed! My job here is done."
Buffy picked the scalpel up off of the counter and held it out for Quinn to take.
"Ew, no," Quinn wrinkled her nose at the scalpel, "I was holding one of those things. My disgusted quota is done for the day."
Tina leaned over and snatched the scalpel out of Buffy's hand. She expertly made a precise incision into the bug that Quinn had boiled alive, and blue-ish blood oozed out of it in thick gushes. The others winced.
"Ew," Rachel frowned, her face still half hidden behind Quinn's shoulder, "What exactly are we looking for?"
"How do we find out what these things are?" asked Kurt.
"Whatever they are, they're dangerous. I was almost attacked," said Buffy.
"Maybe they don't mean to harm us," said Tina, "Maybe they want to use us to return to the mother Bezoar."
"Yeah, maybe... Wait, what?" asked Blaine.
"What's a Bezo-" Kurt started to ask before Will appeared behind them, and knocked his and Blaine's heads together, knocking out the unsuspecting boys.
"Will!" Buffy gasped, before Tina blindsided her with a lead pipe.
Quinn whipped around, her instincts kicking in as she raised one slightly glowing hand up to Tina and held the other arm out in front of Rachel, ushering her behind.
"Stay back!" Quinn warned, her eyes darting between Tina and Will. It was futile, though, as Mike and Sam closed in, as well, the four sets of eyes as blank as zombies.
The girls were knocked out with the same hard, metal microscope.
xxx
Buffy sat up in the dark. She winced at the painful aching in her head and she opened her eyes, wide, struggling to make anything out of the figures she could just barely see in the darkness. She tentatively felt around beside her and clutched onto a slender shoulder. At her touch, the owner of the shoulder gave a small whimper.
"Rachel?" Buffy croaked.
"B-Buffy?"
"Rachel?" said another velvet-y voice that was definitely Quinn Fabray's.
"What's going on?" Rachel asked in the darkness.
Suddenly, the small janitor's closet was illuminated as Blaine switched on the dusty, orange light bulb, his Dalton jacket askew and his gelled hair a little mess up. Kurt was blinking in the corner, slumped against the wall. Buffy stood up in the cramped closet.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked, her gaze flitting between Kurt and Blaine.
"Ugh, I'm gonna have a bump," said Blaine, clutching the side of his head that had been knocked into Kurt's.
"I'm gonna have a peninsula," moaned Kurt, "What the Hell is going on? Tina and Mike and Sam..."
"And Will," said Buffy, "Something to do with our hatchlings. I'm sure of that."
"Are they possessed?" asked Rachel.
"They definitely wanted us out of the way," said Quinn, grimacing as she stood up, and lended a helping hand to Rachel.
"Why not kill us?" asked Kurt, "Why drag us in here and-... Oh."
The scoobies looked in the direction of his gaze at the row of wooden shelves installed in the wall. Five eggs were sitting on one of the shelves. One of them jiggled and clicked. Buffy quickly grabbed a tool box and smashed all five of them under it, green and blue mush squishing out from underneath.
"Scrambled eggs," Buffy said coolly.
"There's never a time when you can resist making a pun," said Kurt.
Buffy spun around and kicked the door open. The five of them cautiously walked out of the closet and looked into the dark school hallway. Night had fallen while they'd been unconscious and the high school was ominously silent.
"What do we do?" asked Rachel.
"We can't fight these things until we know what they are," said Buffy.
"Tina said something," Quinn reminded them, "A name."
"Yeah, a bozo. No, not a bozo," Buffy mumbled.
"A Bezoar," said Blaine.
The other four looked at him. "What's a Bezoar?" asked Buffy.
"A demonic parasite," said Blaine, "Like, pre-prehistoric. I thought they were extinct."
"How do you know this?" Quinn wrinkled her nose.
"Long story," said Buffy.
"My parents are demonologists," Blaine explained.
"Not that long," Buffy shrugged.
"Go on," Rachel nodded to Blaine.
"Well, the mother hibernates underground and lays eggs. The offspring attaches itself to a host and controls their motor functions. The hosts then takes orders from the mother Bezoar."
The scoobies blinked at the gelled prep. "Tina is gonna love you," said Buffy, while Kurt just stared at his classmate with a perplexed expression.
"Okay, so if the hosts are taking orders from the mom, that begs the question, what does Mom want?" Quinn asked no-one in particular.
The scoobies fall silent as they heard a girl's scream in the distance. They rushed through the hallways to find the source of the screams, as someone called, "Get it off me!"
Their sneakers screeched to a stop as they found Piper Saberhagen picking herself up off the staircase. She was suddenly calm, her expression blank.
"Piper? Are you okay?" asked Buffy, staring at Piper's blond haircut and newly granted Cheerios uniform.
"Yeah. I slipped," she said, and walked away with an artificial smile.
Buffy glanced at the others once Piper was out of earshot.
"I think that's mommy calling," she said, and the scoobies moved forward to follow Piper at a hopefully discreet distance.
They watched curiously as Piper unknowingly led them to the high school's musty smelling boiler room. A hole had been dug up into the ground and they watched as Piper disappeared into it.
"Do we want to go in there?" Quinn grimaced.
"We really don't," Buffy replied.
One by one, the scoobies lowered themselves into the hole and found themselves in a dimly lit, vast underground cave, the sound of clinking and digging not too far away. As they slowly trekked through the dirt tunnels, they found dozens of their bleary-eyed classmates and teachers - including Mr. Schuester - mindlessly hitting a wall of brown rock with pickaxes.
"What are they digging up?" asked Kurt.
One of the possessed workers carried away a wide chunk of broken rock, widening the small hole the diggers had made. The scoobies quirked their faces in horror as they peered at a slimy, breathing expanse of a monster beyond the half-crumbled wall.
"Oh, boy," Buffy said under her breath.
Blaine nudged her and nodded his head to a blank-faced Tina, who was carrying away a crate of Bezoar eggs to another tunnel.
"We can't let them spread those things," said Buffy.
"I'll go," said Quinn.
"I'm coming with you," said Rachel, balling her hands into fists at her side.
"Rachel, don't-"
"There's no point in arguing with her," Buffy shook her head, "Quinn, Rachel, go. Me and the boys'll hold down the fort. Or kill it."
Quinn gave Rachel a look that was somehow both soft and astringent, and the two girls walked away. Buffy watched them go before taking another look at the dozens of workers hammering at the wall. She suddenly caught a glimpse of frizy blond hair.
"Mom?!" Buffy gasped.
Her mother turned around, a blank look on her face. She stepped forward a few paces and swung the axe hard at Buffy's head. Buffy quickly caught the shaft of the pickaxe and wrenched it away from her mother.
"Kill them," ordered a possessed Mr. Schuester, and the a number of the hosts turned around to attack.
xxx
Quinn tried to quieten her breathing as she followed Tina down a side tunnel. She hoped the rattling sound of the crate full of eggs would be louder than the sound of her heart thudding against her chest. Her forte for fire would do her no good here. These weren't just monsters or reanimated corpses; these were her classmates. Quinn supposed she could try honing some telekinesis to knock the hosts out of her way if they tried to attack her, but she'd been a little lacking in that realm of witchcraft for a while. She wished in that moment that Jesse didn't concentrate so hard on studying lunar cycles and astrology, and would get to the good stuff.
And she was hyper-aware of Rachel walking next to her just then. Trying to be discrete, Quinn side-eyed Rachel, glancing over her tightly fitted argyle sweater and matching knee socks. Suddenly, the tip of her shoe snagged on a small rock protruding from the dirt floor and Quinn fell face-first to the ground, sprawled out on it, with her palms and her knees scuffed. She winced and looked up. Tina had turned around, now aware of their presence.
Rachel quickly pulled Quinn up off of the ground as Tina left her crate of eggs. Expressionless, Tina swung a hard punch that Quinn ducked from.
"Tina," said Quinn, raising her hands, "I don't want to hurt you."
Tina swung again and hit Quinn over the head, and Quinn clutched the throbbing bump that was already there from being hit with a metal microscope. "Ow!"
Before Quinn knew it, Rachel had swung an immediate and impressive uppercut that threw Tina into unconsciousness.
"Oh my God," Rachel grimaced, clutching her hand, "I don't think I've ever punched anyone before! Oh my God, it hurts!"
Quinn smiled slightly through the searing pain in her head, reached out, and held Rachel's hand.
xxx
Buffy, Blaine and Kurt had somehow managed to pull pickaxes away from hosts who'd tried to attack them, but it wasn't slowing them down. The three scoobies were using their axes as shields, trying to stave off the blood-thirsty hosts. While a handful of them were attacking, the rest of them put their energy into ripping down the wall that separated them from their mother. Buffy knew the worst had come when she felt tentacles wrap around her ankles.
"Oh, no," she frowned. The mother was out.
The tentacle yanked at her ankle and Buffy was dragged to the ground. One of the tentacles swung a pickaxe at her face, but it landed with a thud into the ground next to her head. Blaine came into Buffy's line of vision, looking frantic with his hair frizzing just slightly in all the heat and madness. He pulled the pickaxe out of the ground and looked determinedly at Buffy.
"I'll take care of this," he said, and disappeared.
"Wait, what?" Buffy asked, trying to sit up.
Blaine ran through the hosts with his pickaxe and threw himself against the mother Bezoar. Buffy gasped as she swore she saw him get swallowed up.
"Blaine!" Kurt screamed.
There was silence for a moment as something writhed around under the thick, slimy flesh of the Bezoar. Everyone - hosts included - looked up at the mother as they heard a grunt of effort coming from inside it. Suddenly, a metal point ripped through the thick flesh and a scream that no human could ever make wailed through the underground cavern. Buffy and Kurt watched in both horror and fascination as Blaine ripped through the monster's skin from the inside, his hair and school uniform covered in gelatinous blue blood.
Buffy watched a baby Bezoar shrivel, die and fall off of Sam's back in the distance. Her boyfriend looked at the creature before meeting her gaze very briefly and fainting onto the floor. Almost everyone else did the same. Blaine stepped forward through the crowd of unconscious students and teachers. Covered in blue gunk, he innocently looked at Buffy and Kurt.
"I took care of it."
xxx
"Yeah, it was a gas leak. Just get some air. You'll be fine."
Mr. Schuester ushered everyone out of the school. People were still standing around in the parking lot, disoriented and talking to each other about the strange predicament they all found themselves in. He caught Buffy by the shoulder when she walked past.
"What really happened?" he asked her in a hushed tone.
"We'll fill you in later," she said, before walking slowly away to find her mother.
Quinn had been holding Rachel's hand the whole time and was barely noticing it anymore, as if it were just another attachment of her body.
"How are you getting home?" she asked, looking out at the horde of confused, mumbling classmates.
"My dads are picking me up," she said, smiling at Quinn, "I called them with the gas leak story."
"Oh. Well, Santana says she's on her way in Sofia's car. We try not to worry her. Between a witch and vampire, we end up in a lot of trouble."
Rachel awkwardly chewed her bottom lip at the mention of Santana. "You guys are really like sisters, huh?"
Quinn looked curiously at Rachel. "Well... Yeah. I mean, I don't condone everything she does, if that's-"
"No, it doesn't matter-"
"I just don't want you think I don't care about you."
Rachel blinked and smiled sweetly. "Thanks."
Quinn blushed and pulled her hand away from Rachel's. "Yeah, well, see you at glee club."
She stalked away, her shoulders tense, and bumped straight into Santana.
"Quinn! What happened?!" the vampire asked, shivering in a black peacoat.
"Oh, hey..." Quinn greeted her, slightly flustered, "Um, Bezoar happened."
"What?" Santana wrinkled her nose.
"Some sort of slime monster."
"I assume it's dead, right? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Slime and tentacles is just a regular school day by now, so whatever."
"Oh. Okay, well, you just look... I don't know, freaked."
"I'm fine! God! Let's go!" Quinn blushed redder.
Santana widened her eyes with mild amusement. "Right... Well, you go wait in the car. I want to check up on somebody."
Quinn rolled her pale green eyes. "Tell Brittany I said hi."
Santana pursed her lips and frowned as Quinn walked away. She partly felt a twinge of guilt because it hadn't been Brittany she'd wanted to check up on. She spotted Brittany across the parking lot, talking to Artie, and Artie's dad who was probably going to give her a ride home. Santana shook her head and walked in the opposite direction, looking for a different head of blond hair.
She spotted Buffy talking to her taller, frizzier mother, who seemed to be laying into her about something or other. Santana sighed, thinking about how hard it must be for a slayer to both save the world in secret and make her mom proud. As Santana walked forward, she caught the eye of both women.
"Uh, hi," Santana said, somehow suddenly self-conscious with Buffy's mom looking at her, "Sorry. Can I talk to Buffy for a second?"
Mrs. Summers glanced sternly at Santana for a moment. "Santana, right?" she asked.
Santana nodded, surprised Buffy's mom remembered her from their very brief introduction over a year ago.
Mrs. Summers frowned at her daughter. "Make it quick," she said, and walked back to her mini-van.
Buffy gave Santana a half-smile. "What are you doing here?"
"Picking up Quinn. She's awfully moody today."
"Yeah, well, she got hit in the head a couple times. I'm surprised she's not concussed."
"Boy, do you look grounded."
"I was already grounded," Buffy grumbled, "Now I'm confined to my bedroom. I can only come out for school and to use the bathroom. Food will be brought to me. Not even good food."
"Guess that's what you get for saving the town from imminent destruction. Kinda makes you wish your mom knew the truth, huh?"
"My mom is so never going to know the truth," Buffy shook her head.
"Your friends know."
"She is not my friend. She's my mom. She'd flip."
Santana smirked. "I get that."
"So, what's up?" Buffy asked, cutely biting her bottom lip and putting her hands on the hips of her Cheerios uniform.
"Nothing," Santana shrugged, "Um, I mean, I guess I wanted to say thanks. For talking to me about Brittany."
"Oh," Buffy exclaimed with surprise, "Well, that... was nothing."
"I feel better since I talked to you, though. I mean, Brittany has been my best friend since I was eight years old, so it was hard to step out of my own head and see that that needed to end."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. It's hard because... she was like the last thing that tied me to my old life. I mean, everything is different now. I have a mom who loves me and a little sister - because Quinn is my little sister, okay? And now I don't have Cheerios and I don't have Brittany and I'm a vampire and it was just hard to see that letting go of the old me might not be a bad thing."
Buffy grinned. "I'm glad I could help you see that."
"Yeah, well... Thanks. And congratulations on slaying your slimy, tentacle monster."
Buffy shrugged. "It was a group effort. And I didn't exactly slay it. Blaine did."
"Blaine?" Santana raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. It was actually pretty freakin' awesome."
Across the parking lot, Blaine attempted to wipe blue goo off of his face with a handkerchief Kurt had given him.
"This is pointless," he said, still covered in slime.
Kurt knitted his eyebrows sympathetically. "It doesn't look too different from a slushie facial, actually."
"A what?"
"Nothing."
Blaine held the handkerchief out to Kurt. "Thanks."
"You can keep it," he grimaced, slightly backing away, "It's past curfew. Dalton probably called our parents by now. What are you gonna tell your dad?"
Blaine smirked proudly. "I'm gonna tell him I killed a Bezoar! He'll be so jealous!"
Kurt just raised his brow, mystified. "Well," he smirked, "I think I might have to lie to mine."
"Right," Blaine nodded.
"So... What was the big thing you needed to tell me?"
Blaine's face fell. "Oh..."
"Come on. What's the big secret, Anderson?" Kurt smiled.
Blaine looked down at his shuffling feet. "Listen, Kurt... I didn't know if I was the one who should tell you, but you have to know, so..."
Kurt looked imploringly at Blaine. "What?"
"God, I don't know how to get this out. I... I know something about your mother that you may not know."
Kurt looked more than surprised. "My mother?" he asked, his voice a little wobbly.
Blaine nodded. "I think... I mean, sources have led me to believe... Kurt, I think your mother was... um-"
"Blaine, what?!"
"A slayer."
Kurt's mouth dropped open. "I don't... No, she- How do you even-"
"I research this stuff. My parents are demonologists but I'm the only one in my family who believes in slayers. So I researched. There is Buffy. Before her was a woman from Indonesia, I believe. Then your mother. Then a woman from Detroit, I think. Everything before that gets murky-"
"Blaine, stop it. My mother was never a slayer. That's absolutely ridiculous, okay? She watched re-runs of the Love Boat and wore lavender perfume. She couldn't have been a slayer. She wasn't anything like Buffy-"
"Yeah, but you didn't really know her, Kurt," Blaine said, and then immediately wished he hadn't, "I'm sorry, Kurt. Really. We think it's why you could be having premonitions but I mean, I could be totally wrong-"
"But you don't think you are. You don't think you're wrong."
Blaine looked apologetic. "I don't think I am."
He reached out to put a hand on Kurt's shoulder but Kurt raised his arms and backed away. "I'm gonna take the bus back to my house," he said, his face getting red, "I want to stay in Lima tonight."
"Kurt, wait," said Blaine, but he was saying it to no-one, because Kurt was already sprinting away.