Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Six

God of Mopey Gits

A/N Can't wait for Slayers to come out tomorrow, maybe it will help me with something idk. Anyway, I am trying to finish the season but I'm back at uni so things are coming a little slower than usual.

*Flashback* Las Vegas, the world without shrimp - November 2001

Drusilla felt it like a bomb was going off inside her chest. She was strolling through an alley and had to grip the crumbling bricks to stop herself from falling over. She clutched her cold dead heart and knew she was gone. Even though she'd fled, even though she was so far away, she could feel her presence leaving the world. The next minute she was standing in front of her. "Grandmother?" Dru whispered, her voice vibrating at a frequency close to what dogs could hear. Like she was screaming.

But Darla's spirit was so scattered it couldn't reply. Instead she looked like she was running from something, running towards Drusilla. Had she run into someone different, someone with a soul, someone like Angel, she could've become good, could've taken the gift the Powers gave her and changed for the better. But she ran towards someone she knew would protect her. Someone she loved. Angel would take care of their son, but he didn't love her. Drusilla needed her. Inside a vampire though, her spirit turned into a dark entity, a poison on Drusilla's thoughts. Dru turned her into someone she'd always wanted, someone to rely on. A mother figure.

Drusilla looked up at the dark sky, any stars she might've been able to see were blocked by tall buildings and clouds. She was lost with a new person inside her. At the beginning nothing was clear. What were they going to do now their were together? She had to hide herself away, for the pain of losing Darla was still fresh, the new entwining of their energies was knocking Drusilla's already swaying conscience. She found somewhere abandoned, somewhere out of reach, and hid.

Darla kept making herself known, Dru could hear her voice in her head. Telling her to do things, because she had no physical presence of her own. At least Drusilla truly believed it was Darla's presence inside her. But we have no way of knowing whether or not it was just her own insanity manifesting itself in schizophrenia. Maybe she was hallucinating, maybe she was just hearing a voice, maybe the voice was really hers.

New Sunnydale, the world without shrimp - November 2007

Xander sat in his office, a pen twiddling between his fingers. After a month of working at city hall and only signing off the building work on the edge of town he found himself often sitting like this. Not sure what to do. But he was enjoying it nonetheless. This being-in-charge thing was pretty good, but it was a responsibility and Jack was only four months old, there was suddenly a lot Xander had to be dealing with.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," he said, swinging forward on his chair and sitting up, folding his arms on the desk in front of him and trying to act professionally. Part of him still didn't believe he was up to this job.

It was his assistant, Marjorie. "I have a Mrs Bright here to see you Mayor Harris," she said leading a strange woman into the room and then closing the door again. The woman took hobbled steps towards the desk before finding a seat. Xander had never seen anyone like her before, she had a carved walking stick, close to one of Buffy's stakes but much more ornate. And a walking stick, obviously. Her head was covered in a red sort of shawl and her face was mostly obscured but Xander could see whisps of white hair escaping from it like smoke. The creases around her eyes told Xander she was old, but there was something else, something in her eyes. A little flash of white.

Xander sat up in his chair and tried not to stare at her, "how can I help you?"

The woman sat down in the chair opposite him and glared at him, almost through him. Her eyes wouldn't settle, they just kept flashing away in their sunken sockets. "I..." She started, having to clear her throat several times, it was obvious she hadn't spoken for a very long time. But why? "I want you." She paused, her words staccato, stuck one after the other. "To help. You have to help."

Xander leaned forward, concerned now. "What is it you need help with? Describe it to me if you can." He said, getting out of his seat and kneeling beside the ancient woman, years of demon research had taught him to get a drawing or a description in some capacity so they could work out what they facing. The old lady grabbed his hands and clutched him tightly and stared right at him this time. "You have to help." Xander got the impression this woman didn't speak much English. Then she lifted the hem of her skirt and revealed the thin skin of her calf, which looked perfectly normal from where he was standing. But the woman relented, gently she reached down and stroked a small patch of skin. Xander had no idea what he was looking at, but then he got his answer as the skin flicked open. There was an eye, blinking and writhing within the skin of this woman's leg. It caught sight of him and stared, blinking rapidly and watering a little. A single tear collected and fell down the woman's leg, then suddenly more and more tears sprung free and began raining onto the floor. There was a mildly alarming wet patch soiling the carpet. Marjorie will be thrilled to have to call the cleaners about this, Xander was just thinking as the door flung open.

Expecting to see Marjorie herself who had perhaps overheard him thinking, (he wasn't entirely sure she was exactly human, and being able to read his mind would explain a few things.) He was taken aback when a completely different woman came running into his office and knelt down beside the old lady. She spoke in a language Xander didn't recognise, and it took a few minutes for her to even realise Xander was in the room at all. "Sorry," she said, "it's my mom she doesn't know what she's doing, I'm sorry to bother you, sir." She started helping her mom out of the seat and towards the door.

Xander stared for a second, bemused and confused about what was happening, then he said, "wait a minute. I think I can help her. And you're not bothering me, it's my job to make sure all the people of this town are safe and well." The woman smiled but still hesitated, unsure of what to do next. "Please, take a seat. Are there anymore details about this, I have a bit of a expertise with the mystical, if I must say so myself." He was proud of that one. He thought he sounded like a proper mayor, a man of the people, he could see it now.

Anya looked squarely at the eye on the woman's leg and then back up at Xander. "What on Earth is this?" They were all standing around in the Magic Box, he shrugged and pointed back at the woman. Anya turned to the woman in question and stared into her flashing eyes. "What kind of demon are you?" She said with a sigh, Xander made a 'what?' expression with his eyes but managed to hide his reaction from the two women.

"We're Sortio demons," the woman's daughter said, looking down at her mom again.

"Ahh I see, or actually you see." Anya laughed, pointing at the eye and trying to get Xander to understand the joke, but he just stared back very confused. "They are demons of fate, they have a third eye. Mrs-"

"Bright," the daughter added.

"Mrs Bright's just happens to be on her leg."

"Ohh, I see. So what's the problem?" Xander butted in, coming to stand beside Anya as she took a second look at the eye. It opened and began weeping again in full force.

"It's the crying, honey. A third eye isn't supposed to cry like that." Anya said to Xander, sitting down behind the counter, "I'm sorry, I don't think there's anything I can do for you." She continued, and Xander looked disappointed. "It's the energy in the air. Xander I told you about this. Magic and demon energy is going haywire, because of the Day of the Dead festival." The women looked back at her confused. They were from a peaceful race of demons, they kept themselves to themselves. They didn't know of the darkness, the creeping 'festival' that amped up the magic. "I'm sorry, but it will be over soon, I think." Xander escorted the women out of the shop and then walked back to his wife.

"I'm worried." She said once he was in front of her. "It's getting worse, the closer to the full moon. This period of magical turmoil, it's not a big bad. It's not something planning to get us. But there's uncontrollable power suddenly available that's not going to come again for another hundred years. I'm a little worried about Jenny, this availability of such strong magicks might set her off. I need to call Giles. But also Willow, she came pretty close herself to some really dark stuff. I know it was a long time ago, but that doesn't just go away. Magic is addictive, a force that draws people and demons in. I remember being pretty under its thrall myself. The power of The Wish is a potent one. Buffy knows but I'm just so worried something's going to happen. Someone only has to have an idea and they'll find themselves doing it. Until the full moon passes, no one is safe Xander. You might want to warn someone down at the town hall. And I'm going to start keeping Jack in here with me, I don't trust that daycare woman." Anya warned, frowning and then remembering she had to pick Jack up, she made her excuses and left Xander monitoring the shop even though he was supposed to be working.

*Flashback* Las Vegas, the world without shrimp - 2003

Drusilla was sat upright, presenting herself as a 'proper woman.' A woman in her day would've been respected. She wore her best dress and her hair was newly curled. She looked somewhat alive. She felt pretty for the first time in half a century, her mind was encouraging her, Darla's voice creeping along the edge of her consciousness. Then she saw her. A woman dressed in purple robes, her hair long and flowing around her waist and Drusilla bit her lip. She smell the magic coming off her in waves. She tried to restrain herself but she couldn't help leaning into her instant attraction and laying her palms flat on the table.

Their meeting place was in a bar deep in the casino territory of Vegas. And this meeting had been long in the planning. "Good evening," Drusilla said, trying to act aloof but the witch could see right through her. She had a way with vampires, an alluring power over them. Something that made them want her like she was hot, thick plasma. She could see Drusilla squirming in front of her, she wondered what the vampire wanted. She had been so elusive in her letters.

"I must keep this meeting brief..."

It was hours later than she found out what Drusilla wanted. Deep in the throes of selfish love making, thrust against the sheets of the sorceress herself. Dru giggled like a little girl. Then she whispered the things she needed for the spell. The sorceress agreed and the two never spoke again. They used each other for their own ends. Something Dru was sure Darla would've approved of, even if it meant getting her leg over a witch.