MaRS ch 7

A vampire shivered in the Californian night. Teeth clattering with wide pinprick eyes as they limped into an alleyway.

Alone and desperate for a meal they salivated at the sight of a tiny blonde. She was walking towards them as if she didn't have a care in the world. She had come around the corner the same instant as the vampire and made herself an inviting target. Too inviting of a target. Any other time that would have been a red flag, a great big warning waving in front of their face.

Now it was something they ignored as they lunged forward. Their face twisting into an ugly mix of yellow eyes and gnarled fangs. Then they were gone.

One moment they were a deadly predator pouncing upon their prey, the next they were ash in the wind.

"Huh, Giles was right." Buffy mused, brushing some errant ash from her turtleneck. "The vampires are really out and about tonight."

It was honestly like shooting fish in a barrel with how many she had run into. She couldn't even turn a corner without sniffing one out, not that they were making it hard. What with their stumbling and general stank, never mind their usual horrid fashion sense.

She had to have staked twenty vampires in as many minutes. She wasn't even bothering to stow her stake anymore. It seemed that as soon as she did another one would show up and she would have to take it out again. It was getting annoying.

Buffy had to wonder if it was that bad everywhere or if Sunnydale was just the unluckiest city in the world.

Still, it passed the time and distracted her with a dose of normalcy. Well, her version of it at least. And nothing said a return to a normal teenage lifestyle like some smoochies. All she needed was her tall, dark, and handsome boyfriend to make some headway on that.

A completely justifiable reason to go off route, Giles would forgive her. Eventually.

It wasn't like changing up her patrol would really change anything. Vampires were still dying by the truckload and she'd get a nice little reward for all her hard work. Honestly, it was a win-win for everyone.

It certainly put a pep in Buffy's step

A pep that would die a quick and unceremonious death as a shiver crawled up her spine. Something was watching her, something wrong. Unnatural and stomach turning. She spun around to find a shadowed figure staring right at her.

"Buffy." The figure said and for all of a second, she felt relief wash over her. She had that heart fluttering thought of "Oh, it's Angel". And for those few heartbeats she knew everything was going to be alright.

Then her stomach dropped, twisted, and lurched. She didn't puke but it was a near thing.

He was wrong, utterly and completely wrong. She looked into those deep brown eyes, so sad and soulful, and saw something lurking. Something dark and horrid. Something she didn't hesitate to call and label evil.

"Buffy?" He asked, stepping closer and sending her stomach into another tumble. "Are you okay?"

"I-" She started, bile bubbling at the back of her throat. She took a step back, eyeing him while there was still space.

He looked off, tired. And nothing the usual broody "I've looked into the abyss" way but actually tired. Like he woke up from the world's worst night of sleep. His shoulders were slumped, his steps lacking his usual smooth stride, and there were even bags under his eyes. Kinda. They were doing a weird skin sag thing.

The point was that he looked rough.

Enough so that, despite the goosebumps running up her arms, she found herself worried. "Are YOU okay?" She asked, the words spilling out despite every misgiving.

"Better than most I think." He wiped at his forehead as if there was sweat. "I was actually on my way to see you, and Giles. Something is going on with all the vampires in town. Mostly the fledglings but even the older ones are feeling it."

"Uh-huh."

"I think it has something to do with last night, things got weird." He was almost next to her and she had to fight off a wave of revulsion. A rancid hiccup rolled up from her gut, sneaking up on her in the most unpleasant of ways

Angel gave her a confused puppy dog of a look that in any other circumstance would have been adorable. Not then. Not when she felt, not when she felt… a lot like Maya did actually.

Like she was looking at something angry and vile and hateful, then having it glare back at her. Like the searing heat of a sizzling coal barely contained by a soap bubble. What was that? What was she feeling? Why was she feeling it?

"Buffy? Is something wrong?" He asked, his hand raised as if to take hers.

She dodged it, feigning that she was brushing back her hair. "Yeah, sorry, I'm fine." A lot happened last night and I'm still processing."

"Care to fill me in?"

"Sure, if you don't mind walking and talking. Got to finish up my patrol, y'know?"

He smiled at her that she did her best to return.

They walked the graveyard at an almost leisurely pace as she filled him in. She couldn't blame him when he didn't believe a word she said.

"A spaceship? Really?"

"Yep." She popped the o, trying to sound as peppy as possible. "Willow and Xander are still up there playing ship-sitter while we figure out what to do next "

"Wow." That's all he could say, his eyes lost in the stars above him.

It made it easy for her to guide them across the graveyard and back into her proper route. Avoiding all their usual quiet spots and looping her back home for her mid patrol break. A perfect excuse to break away and call Giles because something wasn't just right with Angel.

He was supposed to make her feel warm and fuzzy, not sick and pukey.

Still, she pretended everything was fine. Playing at being tired and out of sorts to avoid their usual romance. A shame because she really needed a good dose of it but there was no helping it.

Angel didn't even notice the change until the familiar red door was in sight. "Oh, that was fast."

"Yeah, I wasn't planning on staying out too late tonight." She lied, "I'm still pretty wiped from, y'know, everything. Wanted to keep things light and not overdo things."

"Of course." He said, smiling. "I understand. Call me if you need anything."

He leaned in for a kiss, she gave him her forehead. Fooling him into a long hug that was heatedly accepted. One he reluctantly released as she backed away.

"I'll see you soon." He promised, hands trailing along her shoulders as he moved away. She waved as he faded into the shadow and night.

Once she was sure he was gone, once she could no longer feel that ill hidden ball of hate, she let out a long breath

"Definitely need to call Giles." She muttered, walking the last few steps to her home and only just noticing a familiar red car parked haphazardly out front. She didn't even need to see the iconic 'Queen C' license plate to know whose it was. "What is she doing here?"

Her question was quickly answered as she opened the door and that call to Giles became all the more urgent.

-0-0-0-0-0-

There was something about working with his hands that Xander always enjoyed. Putting pieces together and shaping things to how they should be. Getting his hands deep into something and making it work. That sort of thing always appealed to him, he'd even go so far as to say he had a talent for it.

With all that said and out in the open he was comfortable admitting that he never dreamed he'd touch a spaceship, much less help repair one. He always figured he'd tap out at repairing some fancy sports car that had no choice but to pull into whatever dingy garage he ended up working at. Yet there he was, elbows deep in a starship that would make the Millennium Falcon jealous.

Not that he had half a clue what he was doing. But that was what the super advanced AI was for.

"Now I put the cartridge within the cleared slot to complete the circuit," DECA said, guiding him step by step with what he knew to be dumbed down instructions. Which was very helpful and appreciated.

"Okay, done. Now what?"

"Once the analogy switch is flipped this section will be complete."

So he did just that. Lights flickered then smoothed out as a whirling hum took over the room. He could practically hear a sigh of relief come from the red eyes security camera.

"Thank you, Xander. The Healing Matrix can now begin in this section."

Looking out a nearby window he could make out blankets of black energy settling over a grid of green. He had seen this a few times before. He'd watch time and time again how the black-on-green energy would fade away at the edges and shrink down. Leaving only pristine blue metal remained.

"Cool." He said in double meaning. "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Not at this moment." The AI answered, "Though, I would recommend taking a break while you can. We are likely to be busy very soon."

Xander grimaced at the suggestion but knew she was right. Earth was calling, literally.

Ever since they parked the Megaship on the dark side of the Moon they had been getting pinged by Earth. DECA had responded each time with a prepackaged message of "We come in peace and mean no harm". Something Xander felt was redundant after last night's battle. But that wasn't enough for the governments of Earth aa

They broadcasted their questions and demanded answers on every possible frequency. Insistent that fighting for them and an automated message weren't good enough. They wanted to talk to a person, and if no one was going to pick up the phone then they'd have someone knock on the Megaship's door.

"How long do we got?"

"Approximately, 5 hours and 39 minutes given the craft's current pace and our current position."

That didn't seem all that long in the scheme of things but it still felt like an agonizingly slow pace. Not that he wanted that fighter to get any closer.

Those things were trigger happy! They had shot Vader's Tie Fighter to hell and back as soon as they got the chance!

Now, Xander understood why they did it, he really did. They had lost four of their friends to that ship. So turning it into a fireball made sense. But Xander saw something else when saw that fireball

"I wonder who he was."

Someone else from Sunnydale for sure. Someone else who got caught up in the weirdness of the spell. Someone who was now dead because they wore the wrong costume.

And since when could anything from Earth dream of destroying a Tie Fighter? Or damaging a Star Destroyer?

Xander wasn't all the into Star wars, outside the movies, but he knew enough to know that nukes meant diddly against Empire ships.

Yet chunks of sci-fi metal vanished under Earth's barrage and the planet's starfighters could keep up with Vader of all people! What type of secret government crap was that?

So with all that added up Xander thought it was very reasonable not to want that fighter anywhere near them. Not that he had any real say in the matter, nor did the pilot seem to care.

But that was the government for you. There wasn't much else they could do besides wait and hope the repairs were done before they arrived.

Until then he'd take DECA's advice and take a nice long break. He even knew how to spend it, he just needed to make a quick stop first.

Making his way up an elevator and down the grey halls of the Megaship Xander strolled into the ship's rec room. It honestly reminded him of a school cafeteria back on Earth, if he ignored a few select things. There were benched tables, color coded lockers, and even a map of the solar system. All very familiar things that helped sell the illusion. All he had to do to complete said illusion was ignore the minute ways the planets moved along the map. Or how the far wall was dominated by color coded jump tubes.

But no school or cafeteria on Earth, that he knew of, had Synthetrons. Microwave like machines that could synthesize any food you could imagine. If you knew the buttons to press. He was still working on the code for Twinkies but he had strawberry milkshakes down pat.

Andros made them all the time for Ashley. And now Xander was making them for Willow.

That thought, that foreign sense of deja vu, left him frozen in the hallway with two milkshakes in hand. It has been happening a lot.

The more he explored, the more he got to know the books and crannies of that amazing ship, the more something niggled and wiggled in his brain. A something that made him think he had been there before, lived there before.

But he hadn't. And, technically, neither had Andros. The ship wasn't the original Megaship but the Megaship MK2, an update to the Ranger's old home. But that was close enough.

Every other corner Xander explored seemed to squeeze some sort of memory out of whatever bits of Andros that were left in his noggin. And they felt so natural too, as if they were his own.

If it weren't for how wrong the faces were he'd have thought them real. And they couldn't be real because Power Rangers weren't real, right?

As with every other time, Xander pushed those memories aside with a shake of the head and moved in. It was, as far as he was concerned, just another weird thing to add to the pile. They'd sort it out later.

Swinging into the flight deck he found Willow right where he expected her to be. Nose deep at the console screen, completely oblivious to the world around her. She didn't even notice him come in.

He'd be remiss in his best friend duties if he didn't take advantage

The "Eep" she let out as the chilled milkshake cup met her neck echoed down the halls. It also earned him a harder than usual slap to the arm.

"Xander! Stop doing that!"

"Only when you stop making it funny." He said, placing one of the cups next to her. "Soooo, whatcha up to?"

The little pout on her face melted away allowing for the full force of a good Willow-babble to flow. "Everything on this ship is amazing! I can barely wrap my head around it but DECA has been a great teacher, kinda redundant to say after calling the ship amazing since she's, y'know, basically the ship but she is!"

He smiled and sipped at his milkshake as the familiar ramble washed over him. A bit of normalcy mixed in with the extraordinary of their day.

"-owing me how to work the communication stuff. It's really complex but I'm starting to get it. I think. I can pick up, like, every radio station on Earth! I want to see how far I can push that." On and on she went, talking about trying to intercept signals from the Mars rovers. Who knows how long she could and would have gone on if their wrist hadn't started to chime.

Deet-Deet Deet-Deet Deet-Deet

Willow's brow scrunched in momentary confusion but Xander instinctively knew the sound.

Quickly raising his wrist to his face he answered. "Xander, go."

"We need you guys down here, now."

"Buffy? What's up?"

"We're having a bit of… a disaster down here. I don't know if you can hear it." He couldn't, the only sound coming from his communicator was her voice. "But Cordelia is having a meltdown. Giles wanted us all tested, like now."

"Halloween stuff?"

"Halloween stuff."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Giles played with the warm silver band around his wrist, tracing the onyx gemstone as he pondered. And he has a lot to ponder.

For now, for the sake of a shaking young woman, he focuses his thoughts on the now. Ignoring every personal implication as best he could.

Someone said something to him. He completely missed it. "Hmm?

"Did you think of something?" Jenny asked, dark eyes twinkling as if on the cusp of a joke at his expense. But her smile died as quickly as it arrived. Their usual banter falling flat in the face of circumstance.

"Not outside what we've already planned, no." Part of that was true at least. He could think of no better course of action. Any more scans or scries would only create similar results. Unless they were to try a deeper dive but that would take time they simply did not have.

Not with a panicking teen in the other room and Joyce Summers breathing down their necks.

The woman has been spending the better part of the night glaring at him and hovering near her phone. She had not taken her eyes off him since he arrived. Refusing to let him out of her sight or leave him alone with either her daughter or Cordelia Chase.

If Jenny had not been there to defuse things, with some very liberal help from Buffy, he doubted they would have gotten anything down. There was little stopping her from calling the police and all their talk of magic was doing very little for the woman's patience or attitude.

He had heard the muttered question of "cult" far too much that night.

"Alright," Buffy said, coming in from the other room, her voice cutting through the tension. "Willow and Xander are on their way. They should be here any second. Literally."

"Excellent. Their presence should make this easier."

"Make what easier?" Joyce demanded, her voice snipping and mocking. "Another magic ritual that will solve all their problems?"

"Mom…"

"What Buffy? He is talking nonsense, utter garbage. He's -" Here she paused, an outraged finger raised as her nostrils flared but all the same she hesitated. Her eyes flickered between Buffy and himself as she fought to find the right words. When she found them she whirled on Giles. "You are taking advantage of her! Feeding her this, this, bullshit! About magic, and rituals, and destiny. None of that is real! You found a vulnerable little girl and started to shovel this garbage at her. Reinforcing her delusions and pulling her into God knows what!"

Giles found himself on his back foot as the enraged mother stabbed his chest again and again with a well manicured finger. His ears ringing from her rising voice.

No amount of Watcher training prepared him to deal with an irate parent. Well, how to deal with one and keep a cordial relationship.

"I, that is to say." He floundered as he tried to fall back onto something, anything, that could help him defuse the situation.

What he found was far from helpful, just the nightmares of a fictional man dreading a similar situation. But Doctor Oliver never had to deal with the enraged parents of one of his Rangers. Not ones that weren't corrupted dinosaur men at least

Luckily he did not need to rely on those ill advised experiences and training.

"Mrs. Summers." Jenny started, reaching for the woman's offending arm.

Joyce ripped it back.

"Don't, touch, me."

Jenny raised both her hands, speaking softly as she tried to placate the woman yet again. "Okay, no touching, understood. But please understand that this is very real. Magic IS real. You saw Cordelia's hand."

Joyce stole a glance back towards her living room, back towards the tear-stained and impatient young woman. Towards the perfectly normal hands cradling something in a tight grip. Hands that had been golden when they slammed at her door.

"I don't know what you did to that poor girl but I know I don't want you in my home!"

"Mom, please." Buffy reached for her mother, gently gripping her arm. "It's not like that. Please listen."

Giles noted how tears glistened unshed in his Slayer's eyes and how her mother could barely meet them.

"This is, this is crazy Buffy. You have to see that. Please tell me you see that."

Buffy's words were swallowed by the sound of a golden fist smashing through what had been a rather nice coffee table.

"Can my life not be about your freaky drama for once?" Cordelia asked, ignoring the splinters that now littered her dress. "Cause I have enough of my own right now without you dragging me into yours."

In the silence that followed, in that beat of time where Joyce Summers stared at the remains of her table, Buffy gathered herself. Giles could see it, how she built up strength and reinforced her figurative walls.

"Mom, I know this is a lot to take in, like, it's a lot. This isn't how I wanted you to find out but this is all real. What they are saying is real, what I told you was real." She looked deep into her mother's eyes, implying far more than just that moment. "And, because of that, I know where Cordelia is coming from right now, what she's feeling. How alone and lost. And if I can help her feel a little less alone then I'll do that. We'll do that."

The sound of thunder punctuated her words, filling the room with flashes of Red and Blue. Out of a faux habit, Giles has looked away in time. Shielding his eyes enough to see Xander and Willow forming from the light to stand behind their friend.

They wore strange outfits that niggled at Giles's implanted memories. They were almost militaristic in design, with shiny black boots paired with a uniform gray pants and jacket. The only difference between the two's clothes were the colors of their undershirts. Red for Xander and Blue for Willow.

The pair smiled as the light faded, Willow's face in particular was alight with excitement. Then they looked around, at the smashed table, at Joyce's shocked face.

"Uh, did we come at a bad time?"

"Just in time, in fact," Giles said, gathering strength from his Slayer's display. "We are nearly ready for the ritual and only need a few last minute touches. If there are no more objections we can start near immediately."

He looked towards the Summers women as he said this, into each of their eyes. From the shell shocked to the steely. The latter gave him a nod while the former struggled to collect herself.

"Wait, so, Buffy's mom knows now?"

"I think she just found out."

"Ooooh."

Ignoring the new arrivals Giles took a chalk slate from Jenny, double checking their etchings as the woman prepped new incense to burn. Adjustments would need to be made to the runes and glyphs but nothing too laberous. With a few swipes of a rag and a careful hand a new string of symbols emerges. One that would account for their increased number.

A red haired head peeled around his shoulder. "What's that?"

"It's, ah, a portable ritual tablet." He explained. "One of Jenny's, that is, Ms. Calendar's new age ideas. A rather good one, I think, for cases such as these."

However, he was almost certain that many cultures had used similar methods throughout history. It made for a rather enjoyable debate but it never hurt to credit a beautiful woman in front of their students.

"We have been using them as a sort of, ah, dosing rod. A god was involved last night and we are trying to uncover which one. We haven't had much luck so far but, hopefully, with all five of us here, as affected individuals, we can narrow it down some by effectively amplifying the spell."

"Cool." Said the girl in Blue, her eyes completely engrossed. "How does it work?"

"Well-"

Jenny interrupted them before he could get a word in. "While I'm sure Rupert would love to give you a long and stuffy lecture on things we do need to set up. C'mon, I'll give you the cliff notes."

Like a duckling Willow followed, ever eager to absorb a new lesson. Giles would have laughed if not for their situation.

"Ah, Buffy, stand here please. Xander? Here. Willow, over there please." He instructed, arranging the teens in such a way that Cordelia and he would complete the points of a star.

With the pentagram complete Jenny slid the various slates and lit their incense. The rest was up to him.

And the whims of an unknown god.

Before that worry could settle he started to chant. The long dead prose of a Latin variant rolled from his tongue. The vibrations swayed the incense smoke as if to guide them to the center of their formation.

Which was far more than they had achieved with their previous attempts.

Then the incense flames blazed as magic pulled the smoke from their wicks. It pooled in a gray mass between them, kneading itself into shape as a baker would dough.

At that point in the ritual a symbol or a likeness of the god should have appeared. A vestige of the god invoked that lingered in the magic that has changed them all. When they had tried the ritual before with various combinations of Buffy, Cordelia, and himself they had ended up with, well, just smoke.

Now the smoke screamed.

Lips formed only to scream, tongues wagging as words failed the deity. Sets of teeth gnashed as they fought to speak. Pictures fell and glass shattered as the walls shook around them. Even the expensive incense sputtered out as the faces screamed.

Faces.

Two faces.

Through squinted eyes and clamped ears he could make that out. He could make out no finer details, not with how the smoke was rapidly dissipating and leaving through hastily thrown open windows.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Buffy asked, waving the errant smoke out of her face

"Not quite but yes." He said with his ears still ringing, so he may have spoken a little louder than intended. "We were hoping for some impression left behind last night's magic or a sign of the god invoked. And I'd say we got it, if a bit on the dramatic side."

"Did you get what you needed to fix me? Cordelia demanded, interrupting them with the possibility she cared about

He wishes he had better news for herm

"Ah, not quite." He said, repeating himself as he explained. "We have at least gained the god's attention and a clue to their identity. It is not an answer or a solution but it is a good step for both."

"Then what good is it!" She yelled, hands thrown up into the air. "I let you do all that weird mumbo jumbo to me and this is all you can tell me? This is all I get?"

She scoffed.

"I don't want a "good first step" I want to be fixed! I want to be normal!"

Buffy reached out, placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "It's not always that easy Cordelia."

"What do you know?" She asked, slapping the offending hand away. "You Think you know everything but you don't. I can tell you one thing you can be sure of."

She slammed something into Buffy's chest.

"I'm done. Like, done done. Don't come near me unless you find a way to fix me."

As she stood out the house Buffy looked down to the device that Cordelia shoved at her. It was smooth and back with three blocky letters written across its face. SPD

"Her Morpher?" Buffy wondered as Willow summed up the situation.

"Well, that was dramatic."

An:

Aka the chapter where Cordelia turned in her fun and badge.

Anyway, those first two sections have been done for months but the third was a pain and a half for me to get out. While it's done I'm still not happy with it nor am I happy with how long it took to get out. I really need to get more disciplined and better at time management.

Sidenote- shout out to all my working parents who still find hobby time. You guys are machines.