Chapter 3.
Xander knew in the bottom of his heart that whether killing Amy's mom worked or not, he would probably never be happy anywhere except in the air. After the initial stomach lurching of his first few minutes, he had rapidly grown to love the feel of air under his wings and the feeling of complete freedom they gave him. He wondered how much it would cost to get his pilot's license. Then he shook off such thoughts for later. Once he was human again. He wanted that, right? To see the sun again but never again to feel the wind beneath his wings. Now that he'd felt the real thing, that Bette Midler song was never going to be the same again. He shook his head again to clear the confusing thoughts.
Xander wasn't particularly thrilled with the plan Giles came up with, but he had to admit it probably had the best chance for success. Better than anything he could think of anyway. What annoyed him was that it left him out of the action. His only job was to ring the doorbell and then run away. Not that that wasn't dangerous this time, because it was. Like a very intense version of ding-dong-ditch, where both sides were trying to kill each other. With the witch distracted, Buffy and Giles would jump (rather easily) to the second story and sneak into Catherine's magical sanctuary and either kill her as she walked in or wait until she slept and kill her then.
Buffy was only mildly disappointed that she couldn't punch Catherine Madison in the face. Then again, she'd fought the witch once already and remembered being flung into the wall without being able to touch her. An ambush was just what the witchdoctor ordered in this case. Suddenly, the tune 'Witch Doctor' got stuck in her head. "Ooo eee, ooo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla, bing bang." she hummed quietly.
Giles smirked at her before making a shushing gesture.
Catherine Madison sat alone in a darkened living room, staring at a blank TV screen. Today had not been a good day. She had killed her only daughter for starters, an act that filled her with terrible regret. Not the killing her daughter part, the part where she could no longer use that younger body. She should have been more disciplined and exempted her daughter from the spell. Then it would have been possible to switch with her again. After that, this aging body could have been easily disposed of. Now she had no easy access to a younger body where she could seamlessly integrate into the person's life like she had her daughter's. She started to plan whose body she would steal next. It would have to be a girl who already showed some skill in gymnastics. Possessing Amy had at least proven that Amy hadn't been faking being uncoordinated. Even she hadn't been able to get that girl's body to move right. She started musing on which of the middle school girls she knew she whose life she would best be able to fit into. She was going slightly younger this time to give herself a chance to-
DING-DONG
The sound of the doorbell startled her from her reverie. She wondered who it could possibly be. Visitors in Sunnydale after dark were either nefarious or naïve. She rather hoped for nefarious. She needed someone to take her frustrations out on.
She opened the door to find... no one. She didn't stick her head out into the night as her wards didn't extend beyond the door frame, but she did look all around the open door frame, both down and up the street. Nothing. Then an alarm went off in her head. Literally.
After finding her sanctuary violated by the Buffy bitch and her friends, she put a new ward on her attic room. Nothing that would keep people out, that would be too noticeable to practitioners of the craft, but one that would warn her when someone broke in. Apparently, Buffy's little gang had had backup and knew that she was behind their deaths. A feral smile crept over her mouth. Time to spring the trap. Who knew, maybe she'd find a suitable body to inhabit this time?
The doorknob turned and Buffy readied her ax, the extra reach would be useful even if it wasn't as strong or sharp as her new talons. The door swung inward and Buffy swung her ax, just below head height, hoping to lop the witch's head off with a minimum of fuss. But she didn't connect with Catherine's neck. She didn't connect with Catherine at all. There was nothing there but air and the ax buried itself in a stud behind the drywall of the hallway. Buffy looked down the hall and saw the witch standing there in shock. She'd turned the knob with magic, so she'd been expecting the ambush, but she clearly hadn't been expecting gargoyles. Buffy's heart fell just a bit at that revelation. If she'd meant to turn them into gargoyles, then she shouldn't have been so surprised to see them. Buffy saw the witch start to perform some hand motions. "Get back!" she yelled to Giles as she dove back into the room just in time to avoid a fireball sailing through the doorway. Luckily, it hit the brick wall and didn't immediately start a house fire, though a few smaller fires were started around the room from the splash of the fireball on the bricks, which could easily get out of control if not handled quickly.
"Run!" Buffy ordered her watcher. This ambush was a bust and between the crazy witch and the fires she'd started, Buffy didn't want to hang around right now. She and then Giles bounded from the attic window and snapped their wings open. The momentum from pushing off the house gave them enough lift that they didn't drop very far by the time they flew out and away. Once they were out of sight of the Madison house they turned and double backed to the park where they originally landed; their designated meeting place.
They'd expected Xander to be waiting there, but he was nowhere to be found.
A few minutes later, they saw a very dejected looking gargoyle walking their way. His coloring hid the fact for a minute, but once he was close, it was clear that he was covered in blood.
"You guys are still gargoyles too, huh?"
"Xander, what happened?" Buffy asked, touching the blood-soaked gargoyle tenderly.
"I tore her head off. There was a lot of blood."
Buffy and Giles looked passed him to where a fire was growing very near the house they'd just left.
Xander had only seen Buffy in action a few times, but he knew that she was good. But he also knew that backup was better. Not that he was discounting Giles, but an attack from the rear was always good for surprising your enemy. Okay, so he learned that from watching the History channel at Willow's house and playing role playing games with Jesse, but it was true no matter where he learned it.
So after he rang the doorbell, he hid just as planned. But when he heard the door close, he ventured a peek and saw Catherine look straight up at the attic as soon as Buffy entered. It took only a half second to realize that she'd heard something and decide what he was going to do. The witch had thankfully left her front door unlocked when she'd went up the stairs. Xander followed her quietly. When he heard Buffy yell 'Get back', he charged. He was too late to stop the witch from sending her fireball, but he hit her just as the fireball exploded on the brickwork of the wall. He knocked her to her stomach where her head hit the floor hard enough to knock her out. He was then standing on her back, trying to figure out how to take off her head, he hadn't brought any tools. Then he looked down at his hands. Those were tools ready-made for killing. Hands that would never know a girl's touch because the witch underneath him had turned him into a monster.
Anger flared through his body as he drove his talons right through her spine. There was a lot more blood than he'd been expecting and a lot of it sprayed right in his face. And then since Giles had said 'beheading' and he was clearly still a gargoyle, he grabbed her head with both hands and pulled. He hadn't cut cleanly through her esophagus with the first blow therefore her esophagus pulled her lungs and her stomach up when he pulled the head off, but he cut those off as well until he was holding just her head and standing on her body. His shoulders slumped when he realized he was still a gargoyle.
He looked ahead (no pun intended) at the fire growing in Catherine's attic then looked down at his handiwork. He dropped the head back by her body and left it and the house for the fire to claim.
"Umm... that was well done, Xander," Giles praised lightly as they used a neighbor's garden hose to clean Xander off. He wasn't sure if he should praise such violence from anyone but his Slayer. But then again, she was no longer a Slayer and they had needed to kill the witch. More to the point, it was clear that Xander was having more than a few qualms about having killed a person and he didn't want to intrude. So he gave gentle support. Hopefully enough that he didn't feel bad about killing the witch that had effectively killed them, but not so much that he became a serial killer.
Xander lifted his wings so that they too could be sprayed off. He knew that the water hitting him was freezing cold, but he could barely feel it. He wondered if he just felt nothing because he was numb from killing Amy's mom or if it was a feature of gargoyles. He'd ask Giles later.
They flew back in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts.
It was all his fault, Giles groused. He'd been a fool to give up magic. There were good reasons for his departure from the craft, but look where it had gotten him. Not even a month into his assignment and not only did his charge die (not unheard of) but also himself and three innocent students. Perhaps this was why council raised Slayers were not allowed to have friends? So that said friends didn't go down with the Slayer when she perished? Perhaps he could have dissuaded them more strongly? Perhaps. Or perhaps they would have clung all the stronger. Who could say?
What he could say for certain was that having Amy-in-Catherine help him with the spell was a huge mistake on his own part. He should have had her tied up and unconscious before he ever started the spell. Preferably locked in a guillotine. Then again, hindsight was always 20/20. And hopefully there was a way to reverse this spell in all those books of his. Catherine's spell book was unfortunately lost to them now. He hadn't thought to grab it as he and Buffy escaped and Xander had left everything to burn.
He promised himself that he'd find a way to undo this spell and give the children a normal life again.
Xander fingered the silver pendent around his neck. It was all his fault. He'd prayed for the strength to fight the creatures of the night and he'd gotten it. In spades. He could still feel how easily he'd parted Catherine Madison's head from her shoulders. Perhaps it had been a mistake to pray to Saint Dymphna, the patron saint of the mentally disturbed, but that was the pendant his mother had given him. Actually, come to think of it, he wasn't even sure they were Catholic. They only went to the Catholic Church for Easter mass and they went to the Episcopal church for the midnight service on Christmas Eve.
He shook his head to clear the stray thoughts. It was still his fault for praying for strength. He would even have been willing to pay the price of never seeing the sun again if it meant helping Buffy with her Slaying. The trouble was that he'd never meant for his friends to get trapped in this curse with him.
It was all her fault, Buffy was near to tears even as she flew back to school. Somehow knowing you were the Slayer and someday you were going to die was easier than knowing you were a gargoyle and had trapped every person who had been nice to her in this nightmare as well. And what would her mother say? It had been easier not to think of what her mother would do when she died. She assumed there would be tears, but she wouldn't be alive to see them. But now, 'hey mom, I'm a monster' just didn't sound pleasant.
"Well?" Willow asked as the other three entered the library. Obviously they were still gargoyles. But was it because they couldn't find her or because the spell was permanent?
"She's dead," Buffy told Amy who burst into tears. Evil, murderous, bitch or not; she was still Amy's mother.
"How?" Amy managed to get out, chin wavering.
"Xander got her," Buffy gave credit. "But not before she started throwing around fireballs. She kinda burned down your house. Sorry... again."
Amy ran to Xander... And hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she whispered.
Xander was completely gobsmacked. Between the shock of having killed someone and the unexpected gratitude from the victim's crying daughter, his brain just couldn't handle it. "Uh, you're welcome." he said automatically as his arms went around her of their own accord.
"So, what do we do now?" Willow asked as she glared daggers at Amy's back for hugging Xander too long.
Giles reached up for his glasses to clean them and realized they were gone. Still, his vision was excellent, especially into the shadowy places. He realized that the lights were actually off in the library and despite that, everyone could see just fine. He wondered for a moment just how good his night vision might be now. Considering gargoyles had no need for daylight vision, it could be excellent, without the normal tradeoff that went with such things. But that could wait. "Well, the first thing we need to do is get some food," Giles decided. "It's going to be a long night. After that, we have to decide where we want to spend the day."
"Huh?" Buffy looked over.
"Ooh! Let me! I've been researching," Willow pleaded then went on at a nod from Giles. "Gargoyles hibernate during the day in stone form. Apparently it's just like sleep. They even dream, supposedly. But they need to do that in the sun. Somehow the sun's rays energize them during the day. It's where our super strength comes from."
"Super strength? Seems pretty normal to me." Buffy quipped, flexing her taloned hand in front of her face.
"Buffy, the rest of us were not able to leap 20 feet into the air this morning," Giles chided. "Please continue, Willow."
"That's pretty much it. We need someplace secure but still in the sunlight. We need the sun but we're vulnerable to attack during the day." Willow said.
"Which was why gargoyles historically guarded castles. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The humans guarded the gargoyles during the day and the gargoyles guarded by night," Giles explained.
"So, why did they stop guarding castles?" Buffy wondered.
Giles shrugged. "No one knows for sure. There are a few reports of humans turning on gargoyles, but those are few and far between. Certainly the advent of catapults, trebuchets, and cannons that could knock down castle walls and smash gargoyles from afar didn't help."
"We're going to need a human we can trust aren't we?" Buffy asked. Surprising herself with how quickly she was already thinking of humans as 'other'.
"Yes, that would probably be a good idea," Giles nodded. "But like I said, let's all return to my flat for a meal and we can decide from there. Amy, Willow, are you ready to try flying?"
Amy, who had eventually pulled herself from Xander, nodded stiffly as she wiped her eyes.
Willow let out a small 'meep' but it was either fly with the others or walk by herself at that point, she nodded too.
A/N: Not sure who owns "Witch Doctor" but it's not me. Tell me you aren't humming, "Ooo eee, ooo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla, bing bang" even now.
A/N2: Saint Dymphna really is the patron saint of the mentally disturbed. And in season 1, Xander does wear a small, silver pendant that looks a lot like a Catholic Saint's pendant. However, I've never seen a clear picture of it so I had to come up with the Saint on my own. Though I'm still curious. Can anyone tell me what his pendant is really of?