A couple days later, after classes had let out for the day, the four gathered in the library, as had become their habit.
"Buffy, that vampire you ran into at the Mall, I believe I've found a reference to him in the Watchers Chronicles. Lyle Gorch, he along with his brother Hector massacred a Mexican village in the late 1800's."
"Friendly little demons." Buffy said sarcastically.
"That was before they became vampires."
"Oh."
"That about sums it up." Alexander agreed. "Every society has people that go bad. Ours unfortunately, was no exception."
Giles became aware that they were holding something.
"Why do you have eggs?"
Corda reached for the one Alexander was holding. "It's a simple attempt to teach parenting responsibility. We're to monitor them and note regular feeding, naps, changes etc. Learning to care for the young of any species is a priority of every species. Alexander and I will be caring for this one and the girls each have their own. Willow is partnering with a boy named Michael. He dresses oddly, but seems friendly. Cordelia's memories say he is goth."
"What about me? Did Mr. Whitmore notice I was late?" Buffy asked.
"To be late, you have to actually show up. And since there is an odd number of females in the class, you don't have a partner." Alexander told her.
"I'm a single parent?!"
"Yes, my only concern is when do we tell him or her, they're part alien?" Alexander mused.
"When we finally have an actual child, we will be up front and honest about it, when we decide they are ready to understand." Corda replied, much to Willow's annoyance.
"My egg is Jewish." She announced.
"Then teach it that dreidal sang, Xander always liked it. Along with your holiday tradition of watching Charlie Brown's Christmas."
"Giles, Corda and I have finished stripping the robot and will be constructing a crude pulse pistol and long range scanner. We believe there are enough parts for both. Once we've completed them, which will take a few weeks, we'll be ready to test them."
"What does a pulse pistol do?" Buffy asked.
"It sends an intense burst of heat and light energy at an object. In the case of blood daemona, it will incinerate them, from a distance. Fighting up close and personal is unnecessary. And just because natural objects, tied to the energy of the world, what you call Magic, can penetrate the blood daemona's psychic protections, doesn't mean you should limit yourself to just using a piece of wood to fight them. Humans have many methods that work much better."
"Like what?" Buffy asked. "Besides swords."
"Black powder, which was invented 2000 years ago, is particularly effective. Ammunition coated in phosphorus, invented a century ago, large caliber bullets, a multitude of smaller caliber bullets, both methods can destroy enough of the body to break the protections and reduce it to dust. A shotgun loaded with wood chips. Those are just a few of the ways humans fight blood daemona." Alexander answered.
"How do you know that?" Willow asked.
"Xander read about it in the Watchers Chronicles and tested some of the methods himself. He found them most effective. But again, he couldn't get anyone to listen to him about it."
"Because if stuff like that works, then why don't Watchers teach Slayers to fight using them?"
"They would probably tell you, it's tradition. But mostly because they never bothered to find out for themselves. They just assume that how they choose to do it, is the best way to do it." Corda informed her.
"Giles, is that true? The Watchers never bothered to find out?"
"It may well be, I don't recall ever hearing of the Watchers experimenting with any sort of guns."
"That's not a good thing. Humans are innovators, it's how we came to dominate. Learning moves us forward. Standing still causes roots to grow." Corda observed. "Well, we should get going, we need to put in some work tonight."
"Agreed, let me know if anything happens." Giles dismissed them.
Later, after working on their pulse pistol for a time, Alexander and Corda retired to sleep. Sometime after he'd gone to sleep on the floor, Alexander got up to use the rest room and when he returned he saw something that horrified him. A long, flexible arm, with what looked like a sucker on the end was attached to Corda's face. It terminated at the egg. He grabbed the lamp from the beside table and smashed it down on the egg, purple blood splashed out and the sound woke Corda, who realized something was on her face. She reached up and pulled off.
"What is that?!" She demanded to know.
Alexander was heading for his scanner. "I don't know, but I intend to find out." After scanning it, he said. "It's not listed in the scanners memory banks. We need to alert the others, all the eggs may have them."
It turned out Buffy already knew as she'd been attacked herself and killed it. She told them Willow said hers wasn't doing anything. Giles agreed to meet them at the library to research it.
After a few hours of research, Giles found a reference.
"It matches the description of a Bezoar, a prehistoric parasite. The mother Bezoar, maintains a psychic link with her offering. The offspring attach themselves to a host via neural clamping and take control of it."
"Prehistoric? Then our ancestors likely encountered it and may well have tried to eliminate it." Alexander said. "That even one has managed to survive in to the modern era is disturbing. But if there's references to it in your Chronicles, then more then one must have been found over the years."
"Yes, there are a couple of references in the Chronicles." Giles said.
"So where do we find the mother?" Corda asked.
"The mother prefers to be underground, where it is safe." Willow said.
Giles did a double take and said. "Willow, how do you know that?" Just as Willow slammed her book into Buffy's face.
"She's being controlled!" Alexander yelled, as Corda slammed her own book down on Willow's head, stunning her. Alexander grabbed her and shoved her into the book cage. "Okay, how do we undo this?" He asked.
"We kill the mother Bezoar, that kills the link and the offspring." Giles replied.
"I don't think they're actually offspring in that case. It wouldn't make any sense for the babies to die with the mother. Most likely they're parts of herself she can detach and still control." Corda speculated.
"If the mother prefers to be underground, that might mean the basement. It would explain how the eggs got here. If it attached one of these parts to a teacher, say Mr. Whitmore, himself, it would explain why he gave them to the class." Alexander said.
"Then we need to check out the basement, it's as a good place to start looking anyway." Corda agreed.
They did find a huge ugly pink creature in the basement and people digging it out. Apparently, it had managed to gain control of a number of people. Buffy killed it and Giles told everyone there had been a gas leak and everyone went home.
"And they just accept that explanation." Alexander said. "Why?"
"We believe it's because of the presence of the Hellmouth." Giles told him.
"That's not a side affect of the tears or the energy that leaks from them, that our people ever noticed. Which suggests something else is causing it."
"A question for another day. It has been a long night and you all still have classes. We can try to figure it out later."
They agreed and headed to their classes.