Through the Swirling Vortex Chapter 2: There's a WHAT in the school?, a buffy: the vampire slayer fanfic

Heeyy~ I know I havent updated this in months, but to be fair this is more of a 'when I feel it' story over an actual project. I won't abandon it, but it may be months between updates. But at least I'm coming back with a long, and original chapter!

That's another thing. I'll be sprinkling original storylines and chapters throughout the seasons. This is the first one, so please let me know what you think about it and about the characters interactions with Dee! I'm pretty happy with the chapter so hopefully you guys like it as well!

Thank you to everyone that's reviewed, favorited, and followed! It's motivated me so much to get this next chapter out!

There is a certain type of person that hangs out in graveyards. You know, the dark hair, heavy eyeliner, always listening to music that makes a neurotypical person say they're depressed.

Then there's Buffy. And trailing after Buffy was Dee.

Hair pulled up, black yoga pants and navy sports halter on Dee. All because the only time to talk to Buffy she had was during the girl's patrol.

"Anyway, like I said, getting slammed through the wall kinda fucked with me so I asked Giles to teach me to fight." Dee was explaining as the two of them walked between the headstones. "And he agreed, but the only time he can do it is while you train. So I wanted to ask if you care if I join you guys? Just for a bit! I don't wanna be like G.I Jane or something, but I do want to be able to throw a punch and maybe hold someone off for a minute."

Buffy looked over at her with a smile. "Yeah! I think that would be fun. No one ever really wants to join in with the whole training bit. Apparently physical stuff is a bit too much for Willow and Xander."

Dee laughed at the image of Xander and Willow, sweat headbands on, doing aerobics in the library. "God, I can hear Xander's complaints now."

Both girls continued walking, now making a schedule for Dee to work with Buffy in training. Dee figured once or twice a week would be good. So Tuesdays and Thursdays, both of which were lighter days for Buffy training wise, worked best. That way she wasn't taking up actual valuable training days.

Buffy's patrol was almost done when Dee, quite literally, tripped over an emerging vampire. Spitting a curse, she caught herself before being brained by a headstone while Buffy engaged the now topside vampire.

Dee watched the two exchange blows before Buffy glanced at Dee standing at the ready in case she needed to help. Buffy grabbed the vampire in a headlock and yelled over. "Dee, come here! He's an easy one so we're starting your lessons now."

Eyes wide, she slowly made her way over to Buffy and the struggling, cursing vampire. "Lessons? I thought we weren't starting next week?" She asked, eyeing the flailing legs cautiously.

"No time like the present."

"So…I just punch?"

Buffy nodded, tightening her hold.

Dee took a deep breath and pulled her fist back before lurching forward. Her fit landed on his jaw with a crunch.

"OW!" She screamed, grabbing her hand that was now throbbing. "Why the fuck did it hurt so much?"

Buffy laughed before quickly staking the vamp and walking over to the still cursing girl. "You've never punched anyone in your life have you?"

"Not with my bare hands, no. Give me a crowbar or bat and I'm golden." She pouted. Dee had thought she'd do a bit better than almost breaking her hand the first time she tried to punch something. Like in books or shows, the weaker characters give punching someone a shot and turns out it's not that hard. Except this was hard. And painful.

"We'll just have to work on your technique. Now come on, I promised Giles I'd walk you back before heading home."

Dee frowned as she walked to her locker. Normally in the morning Jeff, a big basketball player, had his whole basketball posse around him meaning she had to elbow her way through to get her stuff. Today there was no one around. Shutting her locker, she looked around. There across the hall was one of Jeff's buddies. Rushing through the cluster of students, she grabbed the guy's elbow.

"Hey, where's Jeff?" She asked. "I normally gotta fight my way to my locker but today no one was around."

Jock Buddy looked down at her cluelessly. "Not here, I guess. He missed morning practice. Coach was pissed." He suddenly smirked. "Why? You wanting to confess?"

Disgust filled her face at the idea. Jeff was a rude, dumb, brute of a guy that had no empathy for the people around him."No. Just thought it was weird."

"Well, if you're not interested in-"

"Anyway! Gotta go, bye!"

Dee sped away before the dude could even attempt to finish that sentence.

Her classes passed quickly and before she knew it her, Willow, and Buffy were sitting at lunch; Buffy updating them on the Angel side. It really just consisted of her now having wet dreams about Angel. Apparently he'd started showing up almost every night on her patrols except for when someone was with her. He even popped up last night after Buffy had dropped Dee off at her house. Kind of stalker-ish if Dee was being honest, but she wasn't about to say that to the crush riddled slayer.

"Oh, did you hear that Jeff, you know, the star basketball player, douche extraordinaire, was missing at practice this morning?" Dee said as she bit into a fry. "It was so nice not having to play human bumper cars to get to my locker this morning."

Willow blinked at her. "Really? I don't think Jeff's missed a practice since, like, middle school when he moved here. I think he was born with a basketball in his hands so it's sacrilegious to miss practice."

Buffy poked at her school meatloaf, trying to figure out if it would kill her to eat it before glancing up at Dee. "Why do we care if some guy misses practice? Do you think it's suspicious?"

"No…well, I don't know. I just got a weird feeling not seeing him there. Like something was fucking with the force, you know?" Dee shrugged. "Probably nothing."

Before either girl could reply, Xander came barreling over, frantic look on his face. "Guys, some cheerleader just found Jeff the Jock's body squished under the bleachers in the gym." He announced to the table. "Like squished, squished. Apparently whoever killed him pushed the bleachers back into the wall with his body under it. Dude was paste. They could only tell it was him by his student ID."

The three girls' eyes all went wide. Somehow they should have expected death to be the reason he was missing. This was Sunnydale, but still to be smooshed was brutal even for this town.

"Well, Dee, looks like your force sensing is pretty good." Willow muttered as they stood up to put their trays away. It was unspoken between the four of them that they needed to get into the gym and look over the scene. No way was such a brutal death right on a Hellmouth anything but some demon or monster. Disappearance? Or missed school? That could be chalked up to illness or something else. But brutal, squishing death? Hellmouth.

The closer they got to the gym the more officials started popping up. Finally surrounding the gym were three policemen and Snyder. They all winced. The policemen would be annoying enough to get by but Snyder?

Dee smacked her hand against Xander's side, ignoring his glower she nodded over to Synder and the police. "Distract them." She whispered.

"What? How?"

"I don't know. Do something stupid. It shouldn't be that hard for you."

Xander stared at her open mouthed before she got tired of waiting for him to respond and just pushed him out of their hiding spot and into their sights. He gritted his teeth before giving the four of them smiles and started talking. All of them turned their backs to the side that had an open door. Perfect.

The three girls left over muffled their laughter as they snuck around their backs and into the gym.

"That was evil, Dee." Willow giggled looking over at the shorter girl. "Snyder is going to eat him alive."

"Yeah, but funny."

"Oh my god." Buffy gagged. "This is…this is brutal."

Sharing a glance, they hurried over to Buffy and immediately wished they didn't.

There under the bleachers was blood mushed into all crevices, hair and what she assumed was skin or muscle or some meaty part of the human body hanging on random sharp bits of the metal bars. If this was the aftermath Dee morbidly wondered if there was even a body left to bury or if Jeff was all smooshed and in pieces. Would they even be able to autopsy a pile of human goop?

Willow turned away from the carnage, hand over her mouth, and gagged. Quickly the redhead raced over to the trashcan and lost the lunch she had just eaten. Not that either of them could blame her. The scene under the bleacher was something straight out of a slasher film but in real life. Even Dee, who blood and gore had never really bothered, had to take a deep breath to keep her own lunch down.

"Let's go. This…mess isn't going to tell us anything." Dee whispered, grabbing Willow's hand as she passed her. Buffy took up the rear, glancing back behind then in time to see an opossum dart out the outside door going to the football field. One more disgusting thing to add to the list of things wrong with this school.

The three of them slipped passed the group, Xander now going on about how his mother was trying to get ahold of the police because she thinks the crazy neighbor that lived across from them was poisoning the school water, and Dee gave the tall boy a 'you're good to book it' thumbs up before they bolted towards the library.

Giles was stacking some books when they walked in and he smiled as he noticed the three of them. "Ah, good. I-I was hoping you'd stop by. I'm sure you've heard of the dreadful-"

"Save it, Giles. We've already checked the scene out." Buffy cut him off.

Before anyone could say anything though, Xander came storming in. "Dee, you're a horrible, horrible person. I'm traumatized now. With Snyder trauma."

"Trust me, Snyder trauma is better than whatever we just saw." Dee muttered as the four teenagers took a seat at the middle table. Xander, sensing that maybe the gym had been a bad idea, actually kept quiet for once.

Giles, at the genuine disgust and sadness that was wracking the girls, hurried over. "Tell me everything."

"It was…horrible. Just horrible, Giles." Willow said. "Whatever they pulled from the bleachers couldn't have been recognizable as a human anymore. It was like an explosion of blood and gore and grossness had happened and we were seeing the aftermath."

Fidgeting with his glasses, Giles frowned. "I-I'm, um, I'm sorry you had to see that, all of you. But I have to, um, ask; what about the condition of the body? Had they already carted it away when you got in there?"

"I don't think there was a full body to cart away." Buffy corrected. "Sure the main part had already been taken but when we say an explosion of blood and gore, we mean an actual explosion."

"Like someone had taken a human body and squeezed it like a balloon until it popped, but instead of air it was blood and guts." Dee said.

Xander gagged. "I'm gonna have nightmares, genuine nightmares, about being popped. Thanks for the wonderful imagery, guys."

"Try seeing it."

Giles grimaced at the imagery himself. "There's not many demons that cause…implosions…I'll go see if I can find any books. We don't want this to happen to anyone else."

Dee bit her lip, not believing that a demon had made Jeff go 'pop'. Not that she thought demons wouldn't nor couldn't, but under the bleachers? No that screamed mechanical popping, not preternatural. It was also the perfect cover up if you didn't want people to find out how he actually died from. After all, if you're nothing but mush then there isn't much even a genius medical examiner can find about what killed a person. Giles at this point was back and the other teenagers had each grabbed a book to start research even if they only had a few minutes before they needed to get back to class after lunch.

Dee had not. Instead she stood up before starting towards the door.

"Dee? Where are you going?" Buffy asked as everyone eyed her leaving the room.

"I have an idea…" Dee turned to Giles and Willow. "How much security is on the local medical examiner's office?"

Frowning at the, to her, random question, Willow nonetheless answered. "Not much, people don't really try to steal or break into morgues or anywhere dead people are…Why?"

"I'll explain when I get back. No reason to muddy the waters with theories that don't pan out." She shrugged. "Giles, can you cover for me with my classes? I don't think I'll be making the rest of them."

"C-cover?" Giles blinked before nodding. "Yes. I suppose I can."

Dee waved behind herself in thanks before leaving. The last thing she heard was Xander. "That was weird, right? Like more than normal for her."

Luckily it was still lunchtime so a student walking around the halls wasn't odd or question worthy, even when she went to leave campus, Dee kept her strides confident, as if leaving the grounds during school time was perfectly normal. People underestimated how much confidence led others to believe you knew what you were doing.

Stopping at the bus station, she swiped her bus pass and took a seat. Once again, memorizing a map of Sunnydale was coming in handy since she didn't need to even ask someone where the medical examiner's office was. If she had to ask, that was giving herself a witness if for some reason she got caught. People remember more if you talk to them. Instead, now she was just some random girl, young but maybe college age, taking a bus ride downtown to some place unknown.

Pushing the 'next stop' button, she repressed a grin. Breaking and entering, stealing, deceiving? It was all rather exciting…even if somewhat immoral. At least it was for a good cause. Giving a casual goodbye to the driver, Dee hopped off the bus and made her way to the police station. Apparently Sunnydale was too cheap to build the medical examiner their own building and instead shoved them down into the basement.

Walking into the building, she made her way to the elevator, not stopping to talk to anyone. The place was hectic due to the more than normal brutal killing. While Sunnydale was used to deaths and murder, the absolute gore of this one had people flummoxed. A boon for Dee's mission but rather unfortunate for Jeff and his family.

Hitting the basement button, Dee repressed a curse when a young officer jumped in with her. "Which floor?" She asked instead.

"Two, please." He glanced down at her with a flirty smile. "I don't think I've seen you around. I'm Officer Hansen."

It was just her luck that some cop decided to flirt with her when, not only was she a firm believer in ACAB, but she was on a damn mission to get information. "Oh, I have an internship interview down in the medical examiner's office." Be nice, Carrington. Don't give him more reason to remember you.

"Internship? You go to UC Sunnydale?" He smirked. "Picked a hell of a day to do your interview. They got a messy one down there today. Apparently some kid got smashed to hell in some bleachers."

Before she could hear anything else though, the elevator doors opened up to the basement corridor. With a wave, Dee left Officer Hansen to go wherever he was needed. Hopefully her theft would go unnoticed for long enough he wouldn't connect her to it. As the elevator closed she snuck her way into one of the closets, grabbed a lab coat, and ripped off the nametag as she pulled it on.

As she walked into the receptionist area, she resisted glaring. There on the door into the back was a scanner. Meaning you needed a badge to get back there. Biting her lip, she eyed the receptionist. She looked kind, probably really helpful, talkative.

And gullible.

Now with a rather fast gait, she walked right up to the receptionist. "Hi, I'm so sorry. I'm a new intern and it totally left my badge and purse and really everything in the lockers in the back when I went to change clothes." She put on her best valley girl accent, making sure to emulate Buffy at her girliest. The slayer was smart and strong but definitely hit the valley girl accent during her worst rants about boys or shopping. "You know with the mess that was that kid brought in I didn't want any stray blood on my new top! Completely idiotic of me, right? I don't suppose you could let me in? Pretty please?"

The receptionist, Kristi, her name tag said, laughed as she stood up to walk over to the door. Sliding her own badge she held the door open. "I completely understand. I saw the body, or what was supposed to pass as it, and had to go heave up my lunch. Here, just don't tell the doc I did this, kay?"

"You're a lifesaver! Thank you so much!"

And she was in. Gotta love the 90s and their lack of major security. Doing a quick sweep of the area, she quickly made her way to a door labeled 'examiner'. Peering in through the frosted glass, she didn't see any big shadows so the doctor was probably out. Hopefully. It was lunchtime after all.

Inside was a rather boring office. Nothing on the walls, not even the doctor's degrees or family pictures. On both sides of the desk were metal filing cabinets and then the stereotypical dinosaur computer right on the desk. Frowning, Dee went to the desk. This was an open case, so she doubted the file would already be in the cabinets.

How right she was. There on the desk was a file with Jeff's name on it. Opening it she grimaced at the pictures. They must have an in office picture printer to get these developed so quickly. With a quick skim of the papers, she easily decided to just take the whole folder with her back to the library. Scanning the room to make sure there wasn't anything to give away she was in here besides the missing folder, she crept from the office.

Stopping by the exact lockers she had assumed was back here, she made sure to grab a purse from one of them, emptying as she did, before wiping the locker with her sleeve to cover up any fingerprints she would have left. Into the purse the file went.

Making sure to wave and thank the receptionist, Dee slunk out of the office, making sure to take the stairs this time, and out of the police station.

It wasn't until she was a block away that she took a deep breath to calm her now completely frazzled nerves. Stealing from an official was new even for her, but if it saved people's lives she'd do it again. Also, it was kinda exciting.

Unlike before, Dee decided to walk back to the school. If she rode the bus she'd end up showing up right in the middle of classes, so instead the curly haired girl stopped to grab an ice cream, and wandered for a bit until she was certain Snyder wouldn't find her wandering school grounds suspicious. She even stopped to feed a little raccoon that had followed her a couple of blocks the last bit of her ice cream cone.

Lucky for her, her last class was her free period for today, whereas the rest of the scooby gang, their words not hers, had the normal history class this last period. Glancing around, Dee snuck back on property and walked to the library.

"Giles? You in?"

Giles' head popped out from his office, relief on his face. "Dee, thank goodness, we were a bit worried. What in god's name were you doing? And where did you get that purse…and lab coat?"

Dee let out a surprise laugh as she realized she'd inadvertently stolen a lab coat along with everything else. "All part of my disguise. Also," Reaching into the purse, she pulled out the slightly crumpled folder. "Got the coroner's report for Jeff."

"Whatever for?" Giles came over, putting his glasses on as he did, before looking over her to glance at the folder. "It's pretty obvious how the poor boy was killed."

"Because I had a hunch and wanted to follow it." Dee said, going over to the table and starting to spread out the folder. It wasn't very full. Just 10 pictures of different part of the body and then about 7 front and back pages of observation from the initial autopsy. "I don't think that Jeff's implosion was because of some demon."

"Oh good lord." Giles breathed at the sight of the carnage, sympathy running through him. No person, let alone a teenager, should end up in that bad of shape. He cleared his throat and stared at Dee. "You believe a human did this?"

Dee held up her finger as she finally found the correct paper she was looking for. Organs. If you were going to kill someone before smushing them it was probably to cover up some other obvious cause of death. But the organs would hopefully show any out of place damage.

While the body is in such shape that I could never hope to put it together in a way that would be acceptable for the family, I can make sure all his parts are there for his poor mother and father to bury. Except they are not.

Kidney

Both Lungs

Pancreas

Stomach

Spleen

Brain

Small Intestine

Gallbladder

Bladder

Large Intestine

Urethra

Testicals

Adrenal Glands

Thymus

Appendix

All those are organs I found in young Jeff's body. Notice that I was missing two vital organs on that list.

The Heart

And the Liver.

For some unforeseen reason those two organs I could not even find traces of in the mess that is Jeff. At first I believed it to be like the intestines, broken and in pieces, but after going through the parts of the body with a new eye, I am to believe the two are missing. I will inform the detectives first thing in the morning when they come for the report. I am just happy that means the boy was dead before end up in this state.

Dee grinned. She was right. That means whatever they were looking for needed the heart and liver, two of the most nutritious parts of any animal. And whatever it was had the intelligence to cover up that he needed those.

"The heart and the liver, Giles. Is there any creature or demon that needs those parts to live or to eat or something?" She asked.

"Pardon?"

Instead of explaining she circled the part that she'd just read and thrust it into the librarian's face. She watched as he furrowed his brow before he came to the same conclusion she had.

"The-um-the monster needs the heart and liver for whatever and, and had the wherewithal to do something so human as to cover the death up." Giles was astonished at the information. There weren't many beings that would even want to cover their murders up. Kills were like currency to demons and creatures, they weren't covered up. "I-I'm going to go grab some books. We'll start with ones that use only the heart and liver then narrow it down to what demon or creature would be intelligent and aware enough to cover it up."

Dee watched as Giles bumbled to the back, excitement at a new preternatural mystery making him a Giles version of giddy. She was just clearing up the folder's documents when the rest of the team came bounding in, talking about something that was said in their history class.

"Dee!" Willow called at the sight of their friend as they hurried over to her. "Where did you go? We were worried."

"Well, they were worried. I was chill and figured you could take care of yourself." Xander said.

Buffy snorted. "Please, you asked like every 30 minutes what we thought she was doing."

Before Dee could even explain what she'd been up to, Giles came out of the books, his own stack tall enough it was covering his whole upper body. "If someone could help me please?"

The four of them hurried over, each grabbing a couple before placing them down on the table.

"Thank you. Now Dee found out that the creature, or demon, or monster, whichever it is, didn't actually cause that poor kid to implode. That was the bleachers' work. No, whatever killed Jeff was going for his organs; specifically the heart and liver." Giles explained to them, gesturing to the heaps of books he'd pulled out. "What we need is to narrow down our list of suspects to beings that are of moderate to high intelligence. That will give us a much more concise idea of what we are looking for."

The three kids looked at her impressed. It was only Dee's second go with this stuff and she was already breaking cases wide open. "That's awesome! How'd you figure it out?" Buffy asked her as she sat down with her books.

"Weird hunch. The crime scene felt more human than non-human to me, so it got me thinking 'why would a non human make the scene like this?'" She said, grin on her face at the praise. "Then I figured it was because they were covering up what they really wanted. Hence the need to break into the M.E's office in the police station."

"Wait, you broke into the police station?" Xander was suddenly reworking what exactly he thought of the curly haired girl. "We knew you were Little Miss Crime, but stealing from the police? What are we going to do with you, huh?"

Dee was already reading at this point, determined to figure this out, but took the time to shoot a smirk at Xander. "Xan, I've been arrested for straight up defying police instruction and have genuinely launched tear gas back at officers before. What makes you think stealing from them is out of the question?"

She could still remember the shock all of them had gotten when she'd told them about the protest and riots and everything that would happen in the future. It had taken her literally pulling up a video someone had taken of her at a protest kicking a can of still active tear gas for them to accept. Even then Willow still forgot sometimes. Dee didn't blame her, she didn't particularly look like someone that would go a few rounds with an officer.

Dee even had Willow make her doctor's appointment for her when the school required a physical for her to enroll.

That didn't really lean credence to the 'fuck the police' image that she talked about.

Xander dropped the subject after that. He knew she was right, stealing wasn't that big a thing to her. Not from the police. Seeing that no one else was going to question her anymore, Dee pulled her headphones from her bag and got to reading.

About an hour later, she was pulled from the book by a tap on the shoulder. Giddy at the idea of finally having a creature to go with the murder, she smiled before it dropped. Xander was going on a snack run. Not letting her know they'd found anything. But at least she would get some chocolate out of it.

Other than that small interruption, the five of them spent the afternoon reading, complaining about how long this was taking, and more reading. Only Dee and Giles were still at it by the time sunset came around. Buffy had run off to get ready for patrol, Xander was conked out, drooling. And Willow had switched over to homework an hour ago.

Sighing, Dee slammed her book closed, jolting Xander awake. "I'm up! I'm up! What'd we find?"

"How are there so many beings that eat organs but none that eat just the heart and liver? And the ones that do eat them are considered stupid or mindless?" Dee groaned instead. "We're never going to-"

"I think I found it!" Giles cried. "It's a rough translation from Indonesian to English but listen. The leak or leyak is a spirit that shapeshifts into humans, animals, or objects and will cause mishap, illness, or death. The leyak must gain energy by consuming the heart and liver, the more nutritious the better, every time they transform. While not often, leyak have been known to consume humans due to the human body holding more nutrients in their body. One human heart and liver can sustain three transformations while a particularly large animal can only sustain one."

Xander groaned once Giles was done reading, exasperation and annoyance in every sound. "The monster could be anyone or anything and killing a human gives it a stat upgrade. Perfect."

Dee considered the passage. The leyak didn't normally go for humans, so why was this one? Also did it already live in Sunnydale or had it specifically move here? Also did it have it's own form or was it always copying one? "It's a spirit, right? Does that mean it's tied to something? Like a haunting? And does it have a set for for when it's not, you know, transformed?"

"Its own form? Yes, look here." Giles muttered, head still bent over the books, but he held out the initial one with the passage in it. There on the pages was a creature that didn't really strike fear. If anything it interested her to know that this shape was able to morph into any and all shapes possible. The leyak had, what was depicted, as red and white striped skin with the facial features that reminded Dee of an Eastern dragon if it were to stand on a rather human shaped body. It had wild white hair and pure black eyes. As in no white, just black holes for eyes. "I believe spirit is just its classification. It's closer to an apparition or lower demon in that it has a physical form."

Homework put away at the excitement of finally having a name and kind of face to the creature, Willow leaned forward. "But what's it doing in Sunnydale?" She asked. "I feel like we'd know if other people had died missing a heart or liver."

"Maybe not…" Dee said as she bit her lip. "What if they covered up other deaths like they did this one?"

Willow jumped up and hurried over to the computer as she replied. "If it was as brutal of a cover up as this, then it would have been reported on and logged already, unlike Jeff's autopsy."

"Red, as much as I want to find out more about this leyak…Don't you think we should reconvene tomorrow?" Dee suggested, suppressing a yawn. Sleep deprivation was something she was used to, not something she liked. "It's going on 10pm and I still have homework to do before school tomorrow."

Dee saw Xander nod enthusiastically at the idea of going home. Which was a bit hypocritical considering he was the only one out of them that had actually gotten a nap in.

Willow slumped but she could see what Dee said made sense. They did have school in the morning and, if Jeff's death had given the leyak three transformations, it's unlikely they'd kill again so soon. "But I can research at home, right?"

"To your heart's content."

When Dee's alarm went off the next morning, it took everything in her to not just throw it at the wall. Her and Giles had only gotten home at around 11:30 last night since they had to put the books back and lock up and all other nightly things that librarians did that Dee never wanted to know. Then, unlike Giles who could just go to sleep, Dee spent the next hour or two finishing up her homework she'd put off to help with research. Hence the crankiness first thing in the morning.

Less than six hours of sleep doesn't do anyone good. Even Buffy, who's body is made to deal with sleeplessness, says six hours is prime sleep hours for her.

So Dee, who had gotten about four and a half, decided it was perfectly sane and reasonable to cover up her tiredness with cute clothes and makeup. So she put on some form fitting jeans, a flowy white blouse, and a cute cropped bright red fitted vest. Finishing the look with some red pumps, she parted and French braided it down both sides of her head.

She may not feel perfect, but at least she looked it.

Trudging down the stairs, Dee, after saying hello to Giles, made a beeline for the cabinet to grab the Italian espresso maker. It was a high caffeine day for her. Making the equivalent of five shots, she poured it over two packets of hot chocolate and some of the oat milk she'd made earlier that week. Despite being in the past, there was no way she'd be giving up oat milk. Neither in her coffee or anywhere else. Cow milk destroyed her stomach and after living years without dealing with dairy milk she wasn't about to start again just because she was in the 90s. Ice cream and cheese notwithstanding.

Admittedly the gang had roasted the hell out of her for her lactose intolerance, but she'd take that over being bloated and gassy.

Considering the cranky morning she was having, Giles was kind enough to not hurry her along when she was still sipping her coffee at 7am. He wasn't kind enough to not hurry her along 5 minutes later. Hence why Dee was walking into the library still cradling her giant travel mug of coffee to her chest.

Willow, Buffy, and Xander were already sitting, talking at the table. Willow had a stack of papers in front of her that she'd obviously printed off the night before. Waving the two of them over, she spread the papers out in front of her and Buffy, who was sitting next to her. "So I did a bit of research-"

"A bit, Will? I dread to think what your 'a lot' looks like. We'd have to cut down a forest just for the paper." Xander commented at the sight of all of her papers, grinning at Dee when she snorted. The amount of papers in front of them was a bit excessive. All together it would be enough to fill a book.

Willow shot the two of them a frown before deciding it didn't matter. "I went back centuries. There's been a string of overly brutal deaths, and when I say brutal I mean I saw a couple of pictures and now I never want to see another horror movie as long as I live, brutal. It's every 30 years on the dot, starting the end of August to the middle of September. 3 deaths a week. That's 12 people every time. The first report I could find was a newspaper back in the 1500s."

Dee scurried over from her place next to the counter to look over the pages, Giles not far behind. Snatching the oldest report up, she grinned at him smugly at the disgruntled look he sent her as she started reading. "Humphrey Daniels was a beloved 18 year old man who was tragically lost in what we suspect was an unforeseen landslide. He leaves behind his fiance, a Margarette Kimpler, and his parents, a Mr. and Mrs. Daniels. The family says they will have his reception following an investigation by the local officials. It shall be a closed casket due to the unfortunate mangling of his body from the fallen rocks."

"What made you think this was the first one, Willow? Yes, I'm sure the landslide did Mr. Daniels no favors in his afterlife, but there is no record of a missing heart and liver." Giles questioned skimming the paper that Dee had handed over as soon as she was done reading it to them.

Willow pointed to the other pages on the table. "The other 11 deaths of equally mangling events. All following within weeks of Humphrey's. This was the first group of 12 deaths around this time that I was able to find."

Buffy leaned forward, picking up her own set of papers, these included pictures which she wrinkled her nose at the sight of literal organs strewn about. "Okay, so we know when it started. But how do we find this Leeyah? It changes shape, right?"

"Leyak, and yes, i-it can be anything or anyone." Giles said. "But once you find it, it does die like any other mortal being. Th-these killings are an oddity in that not only are leyaks normally a, um, a peaceful race of monsters these days, bar causing mischief and the occasional natural disaster, but they have a lifespan not dissimilar to a human's."

"These killings have been happening for centuries, though. Are you saying there's a family of leyaks killing humans every generation, 30 years on the dot?" Buffy asked, appalled. What kind of family tradition was killing, eating, then covering up the murder of 12 people? The book had said leyaks normally live within society since they can imitate anyone. They would have gone to the same store as these people, had conversations, worked out together at the gym…then they just choose 12 of those people to power themselves up with. Each time Buffy thought she was done being surprised by how evil and uncaring monsters were they one upped themselves.

"How nice. 'Come around kids! Let's see how much we can get this squishy human to scream as we cut out vital parts of their body!'" Xander snarked, imitating a sort of soccer mom voice, just as disgusted at the idea of this being a family pastime as the rest of them. "Great bonding experience. 10 out of 10 ew's."

Willow furrowed her brow as she looked at the calendar. If yesterday was the first death…then tomorrow would be the next one. "We have to find these….these icky monsters. Today."

Buffy raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Dee's eyes widened as she caught onto what Willow was getting at. Fear and dread settling into her bones. "If we don't find it or them by tomorrow…then someone else will die. They strike three times a week. If you look at the dates in the newspapers it's always Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tomorrow is Wednesday."

"How do we find them?" Buffy demanded looking at Giles. They were all determined not to mess this up. If one of them could find and trap this thing or things then Buffy could do her slaying. Maybe they could even figure out why they had started this centuries ago. "I'm not letting another person die to this thing."

"T-there isn't many ways to detect a, um, a leyak. Shapeshifters in general are a rather difficult subspecies to find." Giles explained, glasses in hand before he put them back on. "But there are reports that most shapeshifters have tapetum lucidum. And according to a couple of accounts leyaks' reflections 'will always show true'."

"They have a tapeworm? And it's big enough to see? Gross!"

Dee deadpanned over at Xander. "He means their eyes are reflective. Like a cat's."

Xander chuckled, embarrassed. "I knew that. I was just testing you guys."

"Riiight"

Buffy stood up as the bell for class rang. "Alright, guys. Each week they chose a new hunting ground in the news reports. They've obviously chosen the school this time. So we each keep an eye out on reflections and eyeballs. If you find them, note what they are, then come find me."

Willow saluted the blonde. "Aye, aye, Sir Buffy!"

Grinning at her friends, each willing to help even if they knew these creatures were perfectly willing to kill, Buffy warned. "Be careful. I'm serious. They don't seem dangerous but they can change into anything. A bear, a wolf, a bomb, anything. Don't piss them off by being brave."

Waving goodbye to Giles and promising to check in at lunch to keep him updated, Dee locked arms with Buffy and Willow as they walked out of the library. "Buff, you worry too much. The only one out of us that has a fragile enough ego to actually go after the creature is Xander."

"Hey! My ego isn't fragile!"

Dee and Buffy rolled their eyes at their friend. "Yes, it is."

Dee's first class that day was without the other three, being Ancient History, and she was halfway through the class when, out of the corner of her eye, down the hallway walked what she swore was a…a kangaroo?

Head whipping around so fast she felt her neck pop, she attempted, from her seat, to look out the classroom door window.

"Ms. Carrington, is there something more important than the Sumerian writing systems?" Mrs. Dye asked from the front of the class, arms crossed.

"Nope," Dee smiled, charmingly at her middle aged teacher. "But I do really have to go to the bathroom. Is that okay, Mrs. D?" Ah, lying to teachers, Dee's favorite school pastime.

Mrs. Dye narrowed her eyes, looking her student up and down but didn't find anything to suggest she wasn't being truthful. Not seeing a reason to say no, she let her go.

Grabbing the bathroom pass, Dee walked out of the classroom before bolting towards where she saw the kangaroo go. Turning the corner, she frowned at the empty hallway. How fast did a kangaroo move?

Probably fast, she thought. They seemed like speedy animals with their monstrous leg strength. Walking further in hopes of finding something that told her the way it went, she paused as a student absentmindedly turned the corner into her hallway. Absentminded in a way you would be if you saw something shocking.

Like a kangaroo hopping the halls.

"Hey!" She called, hurrying up to the guy that had stopped walking at her call. As she got closer, she paused for just a moment as she recognized the guy. It was Cute Bronze Guy. Shaking her head, she decided finding the leyak(s) were more important than flirting. Right now at least. "Sorry to bug you, especially with a weird question like this, but I don't suppose you've seen a kangaroo, have you?"

Cute Bronze Guy blinked. "Oddly enough, yes."

"Really? Great! Which way?"

He thumbed back the way he came. "Back towards the locker room."

"You're a dear!" She spun around and hurried towards where he said.

"The men's lockers." He called out to her back.

Waving her hand in the air, she glanced behind her. "It's fine! I'll close my eyes."

Just as she was turning the corner she heard 'What an odd girl.' causing her to grin. He wouldn't be forgetting her anytime soon. And maybe next time she saw him, now that she knew he went to her school, she could actually take the time to flirt.

Slowing down the closer to the locker room she got, Dee tiptoed towards the door. Pausing, she realized maybe she should have a weapon to at least defend herself in case the leyak saw her before she could verify it was actually a leyak and not a genuine kangaroo loose in the school.

She wouldn't put it past Sunnydale for that to actually happen.

Looking around the hallways, she grabbed a random mop some janitor had left, snapping off the head, she brandished her new "spear" as she grabbed the doorknob. Ripping the door open, she screamed as she was suddenly face to bare chest with someone.

Xander yelped, ducking as Dee swung the mop handle where his head had been. "Dee! It's me!"

"What are you doing in the men's locker room?" She demanded, slapping his chest for scaring her.

"What am I…?" Xander muttered. "What are you doing in the men's locker room?"

"...chasing a kangaroo…" She whispered, suddenly aware of how insane she sounded. "I think it's one of the leyak we're looking for."

Xander gaped at her for a moment before a crash came from further in the locker room. "I thought I was the only one in here…" He said, glancing behind himself before the two friends locked eyes and slowly, without speaking, crept further into the room. Dee left the mop handle at the door. She was too likely to smack something and spook whatever or whoever was inside.

As they neared the crash sound, they slowed down until they got to the noise. Dee motioned for Xander to peak around the corner. Xander shook his head 'no' emphasizing it with a large X made with his arms.

Rolling her eyes before mouthing the word 'baby!' at him, Dee tiptoed in front and leaned around the corner. There, looking through some lockers, in front of a row of sinks was the kangaroo she'd seen earlier. Quickly glancing behind the kangaroo to the mirrors, she stifled a gasp at its reflection.

Exactly like the picture, the leyak was red and white, but more of a blood red instead of circus red. It's fur, because it had fur not plain skin like the thought, looked coarse and not unlike it was made out of tiny tiny porcupine quills instead of hair. She couldn't see the face but if it kept to the theme, it would have an eastern dragon face with giant fangs and fleshy whisker-like appendages.

Kangaroo confirmed as a leyak, Dee started creeping backwards just as Xander let out what had to be the loudest sneeze she'd ever heard.

Sound echoing through the otherwise pretty silent room like a gunshot, all three of them froze before they leyak whipped its kangaroo head over towards the two. Eyes connecting with the kangaroo, Dee froze until she was suddenly and violently jerked backwards as Xander started running towards the exit, weaving between rows of lockers. The whole time dragging her with him. "Come on!"

"For fuck's sake, Xander! You couldn't hold the sneeze in?" Dee huffed as they ran. From behind there were crashes and metal crunching as lockers were unable to stand up to the leg strength of a kangaroo.

"Hold it?" Xander sputtered as they neared the door. "You don't keep a sneeze in! That's dangerous. What if my eyes popped out?"

Dee stopped to grab the mop handle as they passed the door, ignoring Xander impatiently gesturing at her actions. Slamming the locker room door shut, she wedged the handle under the doorknob, possibly giving them some time to get away.

That done, she turned and ran with Xander down the hall. They had just gotten to the corner when there was a giant crash of wood and stone. Looking back, they gaped as dust settled and there standing like some avenging god, was the kangaroo…holding a baseball bat.

"Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?!" Dee yelled. This was ridiculous. She was being chased by a shapeshifting murderous monster that was currently a kangaroo holding a damn baseball bat. It was something out of some bad B level action movie.

"Dee!"

"I know! I'm running. Go to the library. Maybe we can lock it in that back cage thing where people return books."

"Whatever, sure, now run!" Xander waited for Dee to pass him before taking off himself. She was shorter by a fair margin so if he went ahead she'd never catch up.

As luck would have it, the two of them didn't run into any students or teachers in the hallway with Xander yelling out turns and shortcuts for Dee to take. She was still learning the ins and outs of the school versus Xander's two years of traversing it. Occasionally one of them would glance back but there right on their trail, getting closer and closer the more they ran, was the rampaging kangaroo. It would randomly take potshot swings with the bat whenever it got even partially close.

Finally, like the first light on a horrible night, the doors of the library came into their view. With one last burst of speed, the two of them burst through the doors, shocking Giles who was upstairs putting books away.

"What in god's name-"

"Evil kangaroo chasing. Trap in cage." Xander panted, neither stopping as they made their way inside the cage to entice the leyak into it. It was just as they made their way into it that the kangaroo/leyak slammed through the same double doors. It looked around the ground floor before zeroing in on Dee and Xander. Both of them grimaced but stood their ground inside the cage.

"Xan, when it gets in here, you go left around it and I'll go right. Try to keep out of reach of the bat and make a break for the cage door." Dee whispered.

Giles, who before this had stood dumbfounded at the series of events, snuck down the stairs as the kangaroo hurried its way inside the cage.

Once inside, the way too intelligent kangaroo immediately swung. Aiming for the bigger of the two teenagers, but luckily Xander had a lot of practice dodging both monster and bullies, so as Dee swerved around the other side of it, Xander ducked. Bat swishing above his head, they both threaded their way out the door.

Giles had made his way down and was waiting at the door for just this moment. As soon as they passed the threshold, he slammed it shut. The automatic lock clicked in place just as the kangaroo slammed against it, wooden bat finally shattering against the metal cage, flinging small wooden chips through the tiny holes.

If you've never seen a furious kangaroo, count yourself lucky. Dee was terrified. More terrified than she probably would have been if a monster had been chasing them. With a monster, people expect horror and fear. Who expects death by kangaroo? They're animals everyone wants to meet as a kid.

Now anytime she went to the zoo she was going to have to pass on them unless she wanted PTSD flashbacks.

Giles motioned them away from the cage, hoping the distance would give the leyak time to calm down. Maybe if they got it to change to a human shape they could converse with it, see why they were doing this. "How did you find it?" Giles asked once they both got their breath back.

"Dee was the one that followed it into the men's locker room. I just happened to be in there." Xander said, looking down at Dee for her input.

Dee shrugged. It wasn't like she went out of her way to find it. She just happened to look out the window at the right time. "They passed by my class…I followed them after asking a guy if he'd seen a kangaroo."

"You actually asked another student if they'd seen a kangaroo? Do you want to be labeled as 'crazy girl'?"

Giles shot Xander a 'really?' look before focusing on Dee. "Why was it chasing you then? Did you attack it?"

"No," Dee pursed her lips at a suddenly sheepish Xander. "Someone sneezed as we were spying on them. They saw us and considering they're currently a kangaroo, anyone with half a brain would realize something wasn't right."

"And leyaks have more than half a brain." Giles sighed before giving Xander a disappointed look. "Go put a shirt on please."

Xander looked down before grimacing. He'd been running through the school shirtless. A literal nightmare for him. At least he had gym shorts on.

Dee ignored the two of them, instead staring at the cage. For whatever reason the leyak was still a kangaroo. She had expected it to change into something smaller to maybe escape or into something that could talk. Walking closer to try and study the monster, she jumped as it slammed itself against the door again. "Why haven't you transformed?" She asked.

Obviously unable to answer, all the leyak did was use its legs to thump against the door again. It rattled dangerously but held true. Giles had apparently had it installed by the Watchers Council to specifically hold monsters once he'd determined he was on a Hellmouth.

"Dee, I don't think you should talk to the murderous kangaroo monster." Xander said.

Not paying attention to Xander's comment, Dee kept talking to herself…or the leyak. She didn't know which at this point. "Why haven't they transformed? We know they have a heart and a liver from a human. That should have given them three transformations. I doubt they've used all of them in only a day."

Giles walked over to stand next to her. "You're absolutely right."

Biting her lip, Dee focused on her thoughts over the muttering of Giles and Xander's occasional comment. That was until he mentioned this being a leyak family tradition. Head snapping over to Xander, she grinned. "That's it! Xan, you're amazing!"

"Of course I am…why am I amazing?"

"We've been assuming that 30 years ago this leyak's parent was the one that killed 12 people and ate the organs, right? What if it wasn't the parent eating the organs?" She suggested.

Giles' eyes widened. "Exactly! …Wait, what?"

Dee sighed. "I mean starting back with Humphrey Daniels, for some reason, the parent/s of the leyak would feed their child 12 people's hearts and livers. Then that child grows up and they do the same. So on and so forth. Until now."

Giles stared at her before rushing off to his office. "Hold just a moment!"

Xander and Dee stared after Giles while the leyak got strangely silent, not that they noticed, until the doors of the library, once again, crashed open. In ran Buffy and Willow, clearly having just gotten out of class.

"You guys found one?" Buffy asked, jogging over to them with Willow. "Everyone's talking about seeing a kangaroo of all things in the hall. Good job on getting it caged. Let me find a sword or something and I'll end-"

"No! We think there's a child and possibly another adult leyak with them. If you kill them right now we'll never find out." Dee stepped in front of the cage, arms out as if to shield the creature within.

Willow frowned. "You think there's a child leyak?"

Giles chose then to step out, nose buried in a book like normal. "The Kimpler Family is an example of such a leyak clan that has integrated into human society, showing that more intelligent monsters, or creatures depending on your classification, can indeed choose not to follow evil. Though it is said by many that the clan has been cursed with some curse or another after the daughter's fiance killed a witch's son. All we, the Watchers, know is that after the daughter had given birth to a child suspected to be her now deceased fiance's all except for her and the child, perished one after another likely at the hands of that curse. The daughter and child have vanished."

"Kimpler! Like Margarete Kimpler!" Willow exclaimed. "Maybe that's why Humphrey Daniels was the first kill? Was he the one to kill the witch's son?"

Buffy raised her eyebrow. "Getting your fiance and her family cursed would be a good motive to kill and eat your ex's heart and liver…at least for a monster."

Dee turned to the silent and still leyak. "Is that it? Do you have to kill to appease the curse or something?"

The leyak nodded, eyes dropping to the ground. They had no reason to fight these humans. They already knew their secret.

"Does that mean we can't kill it?" Xander asked. "Because I really think we should. It tried to baseball bat us to death, Dee. Don't you remember that? It happened like 15 minutes ago."

"I believe we should, um, should get some information out of the leyak." Giles said.

Willow nodded. "Maybe we can break the curse? They wouldn't kill if the curse was broken, yeah?" She asked, turning to the leyak who shrugged as it nodded. Rather weird sight…a shrugging kangaroo.

Buffy grimaced. "Wil, I don't know about that. They've already killed at least one kid, not counting the 12 they would have killed when they were young."

"But it's okay to give Angel a pass on his kills?" Dee rolled her eyes.

"That's different."

Giles raised his hand stopping the argument before it began. The two girls had bickered about stuff before, neither Buffy nor Dee willing to back down on their opinions. "It's irrelevant. I do not even know it I could break the curse."

Before anything else could be said, Snyder walked in, frowning at the cage. "Now why does my librarian have four students standing around a caged kangaroo?"

All of them jumped and spun around at the voice. "Um, uh, Principal Snyder, sir, see it's rather-" Giles started stuttering before Dee raised her hand as her eyes narrowed at Snyder. Something didn't feel right. Snyder walked around with his chest puffed out and stick up his ass. The epitome of little man syndrome. The Snyder in front of them seemed relaxed, like he was playing a trick on them. Kind of like a snotty kid.

"Hey, Snyder, what do you think of my hair?" Dee asked, easy going smile on her face. If he was really Snyder he'd immediately get on her ass, not only for what she called him, but about being friendly with the man.

"It's curly?"

Dee made eye contact with Buffy and as she did, Dee minutely shook her head. There was no way that was Snyder. Buffy, agreeing, launched herself at the faux principal, clocking him right in the jaw.

Leyak Snyder dropped like a sack of potatoes the same time the leyak/kangaroo let out a loud grunt, slamming against the door again.

"Owwie! Why'd you hit me?" Leyak Snyder cried.

"Owwie?" Xander stared at Leyak Snyder on the ground, cradling his already bruising face. "What are you, seven? What grown man says 'owwie'?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "That's not Snyder, Xander. I thought that was obvious by my punch."

"I just thought you finally got tired of his voice. God knows the rest of us have wanted to punch him." Xander shrugged.

Dee broke off from the group, crouching down in front of the crying Leyak Snyder, she smiled. "I'm guessing you're the kid, huh? How old are you?"

Leyak Snyder sniffled and shook his head. "Mama said not to talk to strangers…especially the slayer, slayer's friends, and Watcher." Dee blinked. Mom, so the leyak in the cage identified as female. She'd been wondering but thought it rude to just ask…not like the leyak could even answer transformed into a kangaroo.

"What if we promise not to hurt you or your-" Willow glanced back at the pacing kangaroo leyak. "Your mom? Would you talk to us then?"

"Willow," Buffy hissed. "You can't promise that." Dee wasn't surprised Buffy wouldn't promise this. But to be fair to the blonde, Dee wouldn't have either. Sure, she wanted to save the two, they didn't seem evil or murderous, but they, specifically the mom, had killed Jeff and brutalized his corpse in a way that made him unrecognizable. That took either a complete lack of empathy or some serious compartmentalization.

"That's a kid, Buffy! Sure, a monster kid, but still a kid."

"Key word, Willow, monster." Buffy shot back.

Giles, sensing an incoming argument, quickly stepped between the two girls. "How about we let the younger leyak into the caged area with their mother while we, um, try and figure out what to do?"

"Sounds like a good plan." Xander chirped, glancing between the others. "Don't you think its a good idea, guys? A group decision?"

Dee nodded from her crouched position. Standing up, she, ignoring the weirdness, held her hand out to the sniffling Snyder. "Come on…Snyder? Sorry, I don't know your name. I'll bring you over to your mom while we talk. This way she can stop freaking out and you'll be safe with her."

As safe as a monster can be in a room with the Vampire Slayer, at least. Dee side eyed Buffy. Her fingers were rapidly tapping the handle of some long knife she'd pulled out, eyes flitting from one leyak to the other in record speed. Even took a step closer to her when the kid put their hand in her own. The blonde's instincts had to be going wild.

From a scientific standpoint it was rather interesting that a young leyak would cause her to react in such a way but Angel, the literally physical embodiment of her mortal enemy, didn't. She was comfortable enough with him to spend hours in his company. Shaking away the thoughts for another time, Dee led leyak Snyder, who had stopped crying at this point, over to the cage. Stopping in from of it, she leveled a look at the near frothing kangaroo. "If I open the cage to let your child in, you have to promise not to attack. If you do, Buffy will end you."

"Happily!"

"And I doubt either of us want your kid to see you get killed."

Kangaroo surveyed the room; Three teenagers that, if Dee were honest, didn't look like much, a librarian watcher that's strength laid in books, and the real threat of them all, a knife twirling Vampire Slayer. The blonde has made her way over with the rest of the group to sit at the center table. Unlike the other's uncertain look, Buffy was glowering at the monster, daring them to try something.

Kangaroo nodded and hopped away front he door. Pulling her keys out of her pocket, she found the one with the sparkly green cover. Giles had given each of them a key to the cage as a 'just in case' and since she had so many new keys already, she'd taken to color coding them. Sparkly green was for monster cage. Sparkly pink was for home, sparkly blue for a PO box, and finally, sparkly purple, while not in current use, was going to be for whenever she finally got a car.

Opening the door, Dee quickly shuffled the leyak Snyder into the cage, shutting it behind them. As she turned away, she paused. "Hey, Kid, you never did tell us your name."

"O-oh, it's Simon." He answered, voice muffled as their mom had pulled them into a tight hug, smashing their face into her muscular chest.

"Good name. My brother's name was Simon." Dee muttered, heart clenching in pain. Despite the words not being for anyone but herself the monster's heard anyway. Back at the table, she sat down to the oppressive air of Buffy wanting to do one things and the other's wanting to do another. Each person handling the disagreement and unfortunate choice in different ways.

Buffy was all for killing them and getting it over with, though Dee wondered if that was more Slayer instincts more than her own thoughts. Willow was sitting, frowning at everyone and everything while Xander just looked apprehensive and uncomfortable. Giles would occasionally make eye contact with one of them waiting for someone to start the conversations. Subtly rolling her eyes, Dee figured she might as well be the one. "I think we should try and break the curse. Clearly they have the capacity for ethics and morals. Killing them would be counterproductive."

"How? It would stop the killings, right? If we kill them then no more 30 year death cycle." Buffy countered.

Dee frowned. That wasn't wrong, but the idea of killing something of human level intelligence that obviously was being forced into killing people gave her a bad taste in her mouth. Not even including the fact they were locked in a cage and defenseless; at that point it's just straight murder. "And nothing about the situation makes you feel gross? Like if we kill them then we're no better than normal murderers?"

"Of course I don't like the situation," Buffy started, "But they're still killing people. And making a mess of it too. Who squishes someone with bleachers? It's up to me to make sure they stop."

Xander spoke up then. "Buffy has a point. We all saw the same crime scene, even if some were just in photos. The aftermath was…gnarly."

"Even Giles' book said that leyaks were normally passive monsters in this day and age, though!" Willow said, leaning forward. "And it;s not like they were killing people before the curse activated. So if we break it, doesn't that mean they'll go back to not killings?"

Buffy frowned, unconvinced. "They've gotten a taste of human, now. Who's to say they don't want more?"

Giles cleared his throat, bringing four sets of eyes to him. "As I said before, uh, breaking the curse will be difficult…that's not even mentioning that, per Watcher protocol, we technically aren't supposed to leave them alive."

Dee rolled her eyes. "Are you really going to make us kill them if we can save them though? Like be real, Giles. You aren't that cruel."

"No…no I suppose not. But we will need the leyaks help to break the curse." He squinted down at the book in his head. "I'll need to know what caused the curse in the first place. It'll give me an idea on the wording for the curse breaking spell."

"So lets ask them," Willow stood up and started stomping over to the pair that had taken to watching the back and forth from the cage door. Dee quickly grabbed her wrist, stopping her before she even got close. "Dee, you're supposed to be on my side."

"Girlypop, I am," Dee bobbed her head side to side–ignoring the weird looks they shot her at the future slang– and contemplated the pair. Truthfully she sympathized with the leyaks. It's not like the mom could just condemn her child to death, but she'd also been right beside Xander running for their lives from one of them. They had to be careful about how they approached them considering the claws Xander and her ahd glimpsed could easily shred metal. "But how about we ask the questions from here instead of right up in their business? We, more specifically Buffy, already make them nervous. Let's not make it worse."

Willow bit her lip, eyebrows furrowed, but ultimately sat back down. Once she was back, the four teenagers looked to Giles. Said englishman was flipping through one of the books, trying to find something to help the pair. The silence stretched on, finally permeating his brain causing him to look up, startles. "Oh! You want me to ask them."

"Well, duh, Giles. You'd know more than we would about breaking a curse." Buffy rolled her eyes, smirking at the others.

Giles cleared his throat, eyes floating from them to the leyaks before adjusting his glasses. "Yes, well, Buffy, you may be right. I suppose…there are a couple of ideas I've been thinking about, but, um, I'll need Dee to help with translating."

"Consider it done."

As Dee did as she was asked, she made sure to keep an eye and ear on the rest of the room. After Giles slid her the spellbook, he'd started handing out tasks. Buffy's whole job was to be Ms. Muscle and keep an eye on the leyaks, because as much as they wished the pair didn't want to harm them, no one in the room was going to risk life and limb on a wish. Willow had headed out to one of the local metaphysical shops to get herbs and other items that were standard in a curse breaking spell. Any specialty items Giles said he more than likely had in the hidden library storage. And Xander got the wonderful job of being Giles' scribe for his conversation with the leyaks. Xander's shorthand was the best out of all of theirs, Dee's being non-existent having grown up on texting and typing, so he was general tasked with record keeping if they needed it to be fast.

Not even half an hour into translating, Dee was already biting the end of her pencil. The standard latin wasn't really a challenge, but, further in, she could see where Giles started struggling. Archaic Latin translations were very regional heavy. Estimate the time period or region incorrectly and the whole translation would be off.

This one was written in such a specific way, Dee was ready to pluck her brain out. It was obvious whoever wrote this did so as an afterthought. It wasn't meant to last as long as it had nor be used to teach some untrained team of teenagers how to take on a generational curse placed on a family of shapeshifters. Most of the pages were written in what amounted to regional slang terms. And the only reason she knew even a quarter of them was because of a random semester in middle school. She'd fallen down a rabbit hole when trying to learn obscure niche latin insults to get around teachers' 'no cursing' rule.

The rest of the pages she was having to piece together like some language 3D puzzle. A really difficult 3D puzzle that you only have half a picture for but the end result still needed to include the completed picture that you'd never seen.

Sometimes later Willow had gotten back, sitting the paper bag down quietly on the table and join Buffy in watching Giles attempt to coax minute details about a multi-century long curse from what amounted to an elementary school student. It really amounted to Simon translating for their Kangaroo shaped mother who would yip and bark. Those seemed to be the extent of noises she could make in that form. Somehow–Dee suspected latent psychic abilities–the two leyaks could communicate between each other, but not to the humans in the room.

Dee set her pencil down, unhappy look on her face. "I'm not sure how accurate the translation is, but I think I got it near enough we can do the spell. Hopefully."

Giles, who by now had finished the interrogation of the leyaks, perked up from his place across from her. He'd taken to carving the sigils they needed for protection into some palos santos wood. Normally a closed practice, the wood was needed as they suspected the original caster had used it in the casting.

Walking over, Giles tweaked his glasses, reading over her translations. "This is amazing, Dee, truly. I could translate most of the well known words and grammar but all the regional stuff stumped me. You really do have a gift with languages."

Cheeks heating up at the praise, Dee grinned. "Thank you, hopefully I did a good enough job it works."

Xander meandered over from his reclining on the bench, snatching the paper from Giles' hand, scanning it himself as if he knew what he was looking at. "Seems to make sense to me. Dee's a genius, so we shouldn't worry."

Giles pursed his lips and, only a level below a yank, pulled the paper back to himself. "Thank you for your input, Xander." He shot Xander a minor glare before clearing his throat. "I've talked to they leyaks, as much as possible. It was a bit difficult since Simon isn't that old, but Akai, the mother, has read the family journals and had Simon explain what she remembered to us."

The story that followed was about as sad and unfortunate as Dee expected it to be. Apparently Margaret Kimpler, originally named Ayu Budi but forced to accept a "christian name", had been, grossly enough, bought in Indonesia by the Daniels family. Originally it was for a maid, a time passed the son, Humphrey Daniels fell in love with the woman. Seeing a way out of her unwanted and forced servitude, Kimpler agreed to marry the smitten man, despite the arrogance and other unsavory characteristics.

Ignoring the disgust Margaret felt for her soon to be husband, she was determined to go through with the marriage as it was give her freedom she'd never get anywhere else. But what she didn't know until later, years after his death and her subsequential curse, Humphrey had had an affair with a local girl, Kimberly Klouse. It was kept quiet as many had accused the girl of witchcraft. A not untrue accusation, as she was a witch. A powerful one at that. This affair had resulted in a child, a small boy, that Humphrey refused to accept as his since the thought of being associated with anything they deemed unnatural repulsed him. So much so, when Margaret agreed to his proposal, he'd sent a man to get the small Klouse family to move away, wanting to scrub the 'taint' from his reputation.

Like many in that time, the man that was sent was deeply prejudice against anything against his own view and, seeing the opportunity, took the job he had been sent on a bit too seriously. This resulted in the death of the young boy. The man had gotten caught and quickly pointed fingers at Humphrey but, considering the Daniels' family wealth and reputation, no one would believe him. No one but Kimberly Klouse. Akai had explained to Giles' that Margaret wrote that Kimberly Klouse had started harassing the family at this time. Starting with small letters and public shouting, but quickly escalated to leaving, what the hidden leyak recognized, as hex bags on the windows and doorstops. Apparently Margaret even believed the witch to be burying the bags in the yard in the dead of night.

That was the extent of it until one day, when Margaret had snuck out to feed on a passing carnivore, Kimberly had glimpsed her true form, making the grieving mother believe Margaret had planned the death. For what reason Margaret never learned. She hypothisied maybe Kimberly believed it was for food, or because any future children wouldn't have competition for inheritance, no one ever found out. These delusions had sat until the idea for the curse formed.

In one cruel moment, after months of planning, Kimberly had let loose a rabbit dog into he path of Margaret and Humphrey's wagon that was carrying them and their newborn son, causing the horsed pulling it to be frightened and knock a wheel off it's axel. This gave Kimberly the perfect opportunity to curse Margaret with, not one curse like they'd believed, but two. One was the generational curse making it so any child born to someone of Margaret's blood would die by the age of nine. Since Kimberly's son couldn't live past that age then neither should any of Margaret's. The second curse was specific to Margaret. She was inflicted with a hunger curse, so that, ebem when she does not want nor need to feed, she will never feel full; always lusting after the flesh of whatever being was in front of her. It was that curse that caused her to eat and cover up the murder of Humphrey Daniels.

It was that curse that allowed Margaret to stumble across the cure to the generational curse. After Margaret fed and fed, sharing with her newborn child, she, quite literally, felt the curse release her son from its clutches after the twelve deaths. This patterned continued until Jeff's death in the gym.

Dee felt her stomach clench in disgust as a loud silence filled the library. Each of them took the tragedy in that had befell Margaret Kimpler and the rest of her descendants. She sighed. Nihilism had made her assume the story would go like that. No curse that affected generations could be caused by a happy go lucky story. But thinking and knowing was two different things. She shot the cage a sympathetic look as Willow sniffled, wiping her eyes to clear the slight tears she had.

Buffy leaned forward with a tired sigh. "Those poor people. Margaret never had a chance."

"Neither did that Daniels dude." Xander said. "He didn't even know his fiance and son were monsters."

"I don't particularly feel bad for a dude who's family bought people like they were property." Dee deadpanned. Xander pointed at her as if to say 'point made'.

Buffy pushed her chair away from the table, standing up. "This totally sucks, but they're still killing people. If we don't or can't break this curse, I'll still have to kill them."

"Buffy!" Willow cried, aghast.

Dee and Xander both shook their heads. "She's right, Will. We all agree how unfair it is but we can't exactly let them kill and eat eleven more people because they have a sad story."

"But they're people, sure shapeshifting monster people, but they didn't want to kill people. They didn't have a choice. You'd really kill them?"

"If I have to, to keep people safe? Yes, I don't want to but if we can't break the curse? Then I won't have a choice, Willow!" Buffy stated.

Willow looked around the room, eyes pleading but seeing that none of them were on her side, frowned before stalking off towards the herbs and other things that needed grinding down for the spell.

Awkward silence befell the rest of them as they looked at one another. All of them agreed that they couldn't just let Akai keep killing people, and anyone with a brain knew that she wasn't going to just stop and condemn her child to a slow and painful death. It wasn't as if they were gleeful about possibly killing them. But if the curse couldn't be broken? It would be their only option.

This was the very definition of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Dee ran a her fingers through her hair, trying and failing to settle her anxiety the arguments had sent skyrocketing. "Giles, we should go over the translations for the spell. I want to make sure I got it right."

"R-right, yes." Giles cleared his throat. "While we're doing that, Buffy can you help Willow with getting the herbs and the rest ready and in the correct placement? The star anise and clear quartz need to be grinded down quite finely. Your strength would be a boon there."

Buffy nodded, glancing apprehensively at Willow's stiff shoulder before straightening up and walking over. Whispers filled the air around the two, too quiet for the rest of them to hear.

"Xander, can you scrub the cauldron? Use the ritual soap I left on my desk. If there is any cross contamination, any at all, this spell will automatically fail."

Xander grinned, giving Giles a thumbs up. "You can count on me. No crossing spell streams on my watch."

Dee gave him a disgusted look before turning to Giles. Grabbing the paper her translations was on, they started going over the whole thing. From tenses to grammatical pauses to even alternate translations she had nixed for her final choice, they went over it all. A separate pair of eyes was always better, especially since they'd found a rather prominent mistake.

Instead of 'west facing sun' she'd translated the words to 'East facing moon', while not a huge difference in time, it would give the spell with the wrong energy. The moon was for casting and imbuing energy, the sun was good for purifying and burning away. If they had done the spell at night, she doubted it would work. Dee didn't even want to think about the mistake of translating the wrong crystal they needed. It was embarrassing.

On and on they went, until finally, all they needed to do was actually cast the spell. Xander went around opening all the blinds, letting in the west facing sunlight that they needed. Dee had gathered the specialty ingredients; the carved sigils in the palos santos, blood from both child and parent leyak–that hadn't been fun explaining to the on edge mama–and a giant chunk of moon charged Tiger's Eye. And by giant, Dee meant giant. The crystal Giles had sent her to the back room to grab was nearing the size of her torso. As pathetic as it was, she had to enlist Buffy's help to carry it in, cursing her lack of upper body strength as she did.

Willow stood next to Giles ready to hand him the things he needed in the order they would need them. Xander completed the triangle of people they required to conduct the spell. According to her translations, the spell needed to be done by three complete humans. That knocked Buffy out and since Dee had come from a different universe, they didn't want to rick her not counting either. So instead the two girls were stationed nexxt to the cage, one of them ready to stab things, the other hoping they wouldn't have to.

The three people in middle locked hands, Giles english accent flowing through the roughly translated words. After every pause at the end of a stanza, he would unlock hands with Willow to toss a pinch of the grinded down mixture.

Everything passed as if in slow motion, each word taking double the time. Each movement at a snails pace. Them, before the sun had sunken below the horizon, Giles finished with a harsh yell as the cauldron they were surrounding seemed to glow a warm yellow color, as if a miniature sun had formed inside. There was a pause before said sun had zoomed up out of the iron, floating in the air above it.

Besides Giles, everyone's eyes widened as they watched the spell barrel its way to Simon, passing harmlessly through Akai who had thrown herself in front of her child. The second the light slammed into the Snyder shaped child, they thumped as they hit the floorm skin bubbling as if they were molting, eyes glowing that same warm yellow.

Despite their body looking like their blood was at a rolling boil, Simon was still and silent. Akai's kangaroo arms were stuttering in the air above their body, not knowing if she should touch them or not.

"Are they supposed to look like they're about to bubble out of their skin and explode?" Xander asked, taking a step back away from the cage.

"Are they in pain?" Willow worried.

Dee and Buffy locked eyes, nodded, minds on the same track. Within seconds, Buffy had unlocked the cage door; ignoring Giles' yells not to. Akai had taken to making a whining, coughing bark, trying to communicate her distress but unable to voice it in a way they could understand. But as Dee met her eyes, she knew.

Help them.

She dropped to her knees, scooping Simon's head, still shaped as Snyder, and softly placed it on her lap. Dee let out a slight hiss at the heat radiating from them, especially around their eyes, where the glow was. Ignoring that for now, her own eyes flitting around the caged area until they landed on a hand towel. Stretching up, she snatched it before laying it over their glowing eyes, hoping that the darkness would temper the heat. As she did so, the bubbling under the skin slowed from the 'rolling boil' to a slight simmer. There was still a glow making it's way through the cloth but nothing like the headlights they'd initially had.

"Giles, is he supposed to be cooking from the inside out or is that just a funky little quirk?" Dee asked once she felt like Simon wasn't on the verge of being cooked alive. Buffy relaxed from her tight stance at her words. She'd been ready to jump at Akai if the mother had made a move towards Dee, but, to Buffy's surprise, the mother had let Dee take over.

Giles' eyebrows furrowed in thought. "I-I can only guess. Perhaps the spell is trying to burn the curse away. That's why it mentioned sunlight so heavily."

Buffy tapped her foot, uncomfortable look on her face at she gazed at the head in Dee's lap. Monster of not, Willow was right. That was a kid. And they were burning up, literally. Because of them. "They're in pain?"

"I don't believe so, no. The spell appeared to knock them unconscious before starting the burn…the best we can hope is to let it run its course. Either they die…or the curse breaks." Giles grabbed the spell again, reading over the words and ingredients, searching for some type of clue on how long the burning would last or if there would be any indication of the curse breaking.

Willow stared wide eyed at Giles' admission. "Did you know that was a risk? That the spell would either break the curse or kill them?"

"I knew it was a possibility, yes." Giles sighed. "Willow, you must understand. This isn't just any regular curse. It's, well. The curse has been there for generations. Its woven into their very DNA at this point and since Akai's mother, obviously, already did the counter for her own curse, that meant the spell would focus on Simon, as their curse is still very much active in them."

Xander walked over to Willow, sliding an arm around her in an effort to comfort her. "Will, come on, we knew it was a do or die situation even before we knew the spell may kill him. At least this way, it's not our decision at the end of the day."

"That's not better, Xander!" Willow threw his arm off her and stomped over to the cage, worry in her eyes as she looked down at Simon. By this point their skin had cooled down from 'touching may give you third degrees burn' to 'holy shit this fever is probably melting their brain', Neither was good, but one was clearly better than the other in Dee's opinions. "I'm sorry, Akai, that this is all we could do."

Akai shook her head, eyes staying on her child's. A soft coughing bark sounded from her, some sort of platitude about not blaming herself. That was just a guess on Dee's part, though. "Willow, would it help if you took my spot down here? You can keep an eye on them?"

She nodded, sitting down before skootching close so they could move Simon without jostling them too much. Dee stood up, wincing at the crack her knees gave–there was a reason she didn't do sports–before leaving the cage to go sit at the table and wait with Xander and Giles. Pausing next to Buffy she asked her if she was coming along.

Buffy motioned her head to Willow. "No, I'll stay here just in case something happens."

Dee understood what wasn't being said. Buffy would stay there in case Simon died and Akai attacked out of grief. "Ah, gotcha."

Minutes then hours passed, the moon now high in the sky yet none of them moved much, only the occasional whispered conversation between Xander and Dee. Xander wasn't good with heavy silences, too much like his home after a fight. So instead of putting her headphones on and passing the time with a books, Dee took to entertaining him so he didn't do something stupid. Buffy had moved from standing to sitting against the cage, opposit to Akai. Giles had migrated into his office to do whatever watchers did during a cases downtime.

They'd even made a food run, Dee making sure her and Xander had grabbed enough food that even Buffy's slayer appetite would be satiated. Willow had stayed in the exact position, though she'd went from sitting on her feet to criss cross. As Dee threw the last of the boxes and wrappers away, Willow let out a little gasp, dragging everyone's attention to her. "They're moving!"

Buffy jumped up along with Akai, both turning to the body in her lap as the rest hurried over. The seven, including Akai, of them collectively held their breath, waiting to see what would happen. Simon was still in the form of Snyder though now they looked like they were covered in a bad Halloween mask. Skin floppy and sagging everywhere from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet. The only movement was a couple of twitches and slight wiggles as if waking from a nightmare. Until…

"Mama?" They whimpered, voice much higher pitched than Snyder's normal voice. Simon's natural voice must be leaking into the disguise.

Akai let out a high pitched whine, relief so palpable it shone through even on a kangaroo's face. Her relief was felt throughout the room, as they all breathed a sigh, tension bleeding out of them. If Simon had woken up and lived through the burning then the curse was broken.

Dee's and shook. They wouldn't have to kill them.

She watched as Willow pulled the towel off allowing Simon to look around again. Just like the voice, Simon's natural eyes, black filled sclera with only a pinprick of white for a pupil, shone through. "Did…did it work?"

Buffy grinned, her own relief obvious. "It totally did! Looks like you and your mom get to go home happy and curse free!"

"You-You're not going to kill us them? Isn't that what slayers are supposed to do? Kill monsters?" Simon whispered.

Her face fell, before a well done, but fake smile appeared. "Only if you're bad monsters. I don't think you or your mom are bad monsters unless you have to be, so I don't have to kill you."

"GoOoOod~" The word drawn out as Simon yawned. "Can I go back to sleep, please?"

They all chuckled, not that it was particularly funny, but after the tense afternoon they'd had, any sort of humor was felt ten times more.

Dee was half dead on her feet as her and Buffy walked into school together. By the time everything had been sorted out, Giving Akai a warning about not killing–Buffy–cleaning the library–Xander and Willow– and putting all the occult stuff back in the little nooks and crannies it was originally hidden in–Giles and Dee–none of them had gotten more than two or three hours of sleep.

Not that you could tell looking at Buffy, but even a glance at Dee showed she was halfway to killing someone, even herself, if just one thing went wrong.

Her hair was held back in a crocheted bandana, only her bangs framing her face. She was wearing some baggy jeans, rips across the knees, a light tan cropped t-shirt and an oversized brown plaid shirt. She'd paired the outfit with a pair of dark sunglasses to hide the bags her makeup couldn't and her Docs. In her hand was a giant thermos filled to the brim with espresso, caramel, and oat milk; her attempt at keeping herself awake during school.

"Have I mentioned I hate you?" Dee grouched. "You can get three hours of sleep and be all peppy and not a dark circle in sight. Whereas I get three hours and look like someone scraped my cooling carcass of the road.

Buffy laughed as Willow and Xander, both sporting their own roadkill looks, trudged up to them. "You don't look like roadkill, Dee. Xander may, but you look pretty, just a bit tired."

"I don't even have the energy to be offended at that." Xander whined, dodging people as they walked to their first class. "My mom and dad woke me up fighting not even two hours after I fell asleep. I'm never making through today."

"I'll trade you," Willow groaned. "My mom tried to talk to me about 'sharing the burden of puberty' with her. She thinks my sleeplessness is caused by some sort of sex nightmares."

"Red, your mom is so fucking weird."

"Try living with her."

The four of them sat down, all but Buffy thumping their heads onto the desk, begging for sleep. Despite the tiredness, the mental exhaustion, and all around weirdness of her new life; Dee was…happy. Her friends were amazing, flawed but only in the best of ways. She still missed her family–that would never go away–but the thought of them didn't feel like she was being ripped in half. She was starting to scab over.

Dee would be okay.

"Oh, by the way, I talked to Cute Bronze Guy…actually he was the one that I asked about seeing Akai."

Willow and Buffy's heads snapped towards her. "Tell us everything."

Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think~