STORY TITLE: The Circle of Scooby
PART: 04 of ?
AUTHOR: Red Jacobson ( )
DISTRIBUTION: , Archive of Our Own, Twisting the Hellmouth
DISCLAIMER: None of the Characters You Recognize belong to me, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel Characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy (Grrr! Argh!), and the Boondock characters belong to the Estate of Robert A Heinlein and his publishers.
SUMMARY: The activation of the world's slayers has caused massive destruction throughout the multi-verse, and the Circle of Ouroborus is determined to prevent that happening and recruit three natives of the critical timeline to save the multi-verse!
FEEDBACK: Of course! It Makes Me Write Faster
RELATIONSHIPS: Xander/Cordelia/Tara
RATING: PG-13 (I rated it too high at first, there's nothing worse than what you would see on network television in prime time)
WORD COUNT: 4,762
SPOILERS: A Crossover with RAH's Lazarus Long Books. I'm afraid that, while I'm going to do my best to explain things, at least a passing familiarity with Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset would help you understand who these characters are. None, but if you don't know how the Buffy the Vampire Slayer story goes by now, why are you reading this story?
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPARTMENT: I'm borrowing a bit of Cordy's childhood background from my buddy IronBear's stories, specifically Rio Blanco on the Mouth of Hell, and the Hell-er-nator Stories. If you want some amazing Xander/Cordelia stories, do yourself a favor and check him out!
AUTHORS NOTES: I'm going to try something unusual for this story, no lemons. Frankly, they've gotten to be a bore to write, and I imagine they've become boring to read as well. Hope this goes well.
A QUICK NOTE ON ANONYMOUS REVIEWS: It doesn't do either of us any good if you ask me questions about the story, but don't sign in so I can reply. The guest who left an unsigned review for the first chapter asked some fairly interesting questions about the story that I would have enjoyed discussing with him or her, but as it is, there's no way that can happen. So please, if you have questions or concerns about the direction the story is going, please do us both a favor and sign in so I can respond to you. Thanks!
SPECIAL THANKS TO PAX HUMANA: For Beta and Typo-busting services.
Sunnydale High School
Five Seconds after the Previous Scene
Chaos, absolute chaos surrounded them but, fortunately, they were prepared and immediately went into action. As soon as the children started changing, they used flashing colored lights to distract them, the two of them clipped the electronic collar to their costumes and herded them behind the invisible fence they had set up earlier. It had taken him until nearly eleven o'clock last night to adapt the collar technology to be put into a button shape. He had used Jake's ideas to manufacture nearly 100 of the buttons, so they could put as many kids as possible out of danger.
He had explained his plan on the way back from lunch, and Cordy had purchased the fence right after school. It was simple enough to pair the buttons with the fence so they couldn't leave the area. Cordy had added her own twist, a music player that had soothing music, to calm the monsters down and get them to sleep.
Once the children were safe, he gave his wife a kiss and a quick squeeze before taking off to find Willow and Buffy. Willow was the easy one, she was running around in ghost form, and found him as he was heading in her direction.
She seemed surprised that he recognized her, but he just grinned, "Typical Xander luck, Wills, I'm Xander Harris, but not the same one you saw in the library earlier. I've got several years of experience behind me, and I've lived through this before. What you need to do is get to the library, and tell Giles that the chaos is being caused by his old friend Ethan Rayne, he's the one who opened Ethan's Costume Shop, where all of us got at least part of our costumes. Can you tell Giles that? Because I've got to go rescue Buffy and get her home. And boy am I going to tease her about being Lady Useless the next time I see her!"
Willow looked scandalized at first at the idea of teasing Buffy, but then she grinned, "It is a change, her having to be rescued, isn't it? And sure, I'll go see Giles, you get our hero home safe, okay?"
"No problem, Wills, but we are all going to need to talk tomorrow, I'm going to write down what I remember before going to sleep in case the memories fade. There's a whole world of badness just waiting to crash on us, and unfortunately, one of the worst, if I can't prevent it, is Angel losing his soul and unleashing Angelus. The body count from that mess was close to 200 before we stopped it, and some of those were friends of ours."
If a ghost could go pale, Willow would have managed it but instead she just swallowed thickly and nodded, before turning toward the school. Hopefully, that will get her off the whole 'so romantic' attitude when it came to Buffy and Angel. He really didn't want to have to deal with Jenny's death again or losing Kendra to Drusilla's claws.
Once Willow was out of sight, he hurried toward where Buffy should be about now and was looking forward to belting Larry again. Sure, the guy became close to a friend after he came out of the closet but right now, he was just a typical asshole jock.
A few minutes later, he heard the sounds of a struggle coming from an alley ahead of him and Xander quickened his stride until he could see what was going on. Yep, it was Pirate Larry pinning Lady Useless against the wall and pulling up her dress.
Xander didn't waste any time, gliding up behind Larry and grabbing him by the shoulder. The football player was off-balance already from trying to hold Buffy down, so it was easy to whirl him around and slam him against the brick wall. A quick shot to the belly and an uppercut to the nose left Larry whimpering on the ground and Xander nodded, "Yep! Still satisfying," before turning to Buffy and saying softly, "Lady Elizabeth, I'm here to escort you to a place of safety until you return home. Will you let me escort you?"
She looked up at him trustingly, before nodding, "Thank you, Sir Knight, my father will reward you greatly for your service this night. But I'm confused, this is very different from my home, and I have no knowledge of how I arrived here. Do you know?"
He nodded, having prepared an answer she would understand and accept. "Aye, Lady Elizabeth, I do, a demon-cursed magician worked his foul arts on a village many years from our time, to summon our souls to possess the bodies of innocents. I don't yet know why he did this but when does one find sense in the actions of wizards? I know more of what is going on because the young man this body belongs to was partially protected from the effects of the spell and is able to communicate with me. He is the one who convinced several of his allies to seek the magician out to end the madness, while myself and some other local allies seek out innocents in danger to provide succor for them. Now, we do need to get moving, my host knows your host, and where she lives. I will guide you there."
She looked at him thoughtfully, before nodding and taking his arm as they walked. She was mostly quiet as they walked toward Revello Drive, and she found a key to the door on a chain around her neck. Unlocking the door, Xander froze because there were sounds of a struggle coming from the kitchen. Bringing her into the house, he closed the door and gestured for Lady Elizabeth to wait by the door. Her eyes had gone wide at the sound of the fight but nodded.
Opening the holster on his hip, Xander pulled out the water pistol, with the expanded reservoir of Holy Water, and moved quietly toward the doorway to the kitchen. As he saw what was going on, he almost breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized Angel fighting another vampire. Raising the water pistol, he aimed it at the other vampire's face and fired, making the vamp scream as the water burned his face like acid. Angel looked up in surprise, but just nodded when he saw Xander's face. Xander pulled a stake from his belt and handed it to Angel, and the screaming vamp was a dust pile.
Angel was handing the stake back when he froze, staring at him, and Xander nodded, "Yeah, I'm not the Xander Harris you know, an idiot chaos mage cast a spell and turned everybody into their costumes. By a streak of typical Harris luck, I dressed in my uncle's fatigues and created my own dog tags. I just bought a toy gun at the idiot's shop, and I ended up being possessed by Xander Harris from several years in the future. I've already lived the next several years, and I've got something very important to tell you and you are going to hate me for it." Angel looked worried suddenly, and Xander continued,
"When the Kalderash cursed that soul into you, they left a way to end it in the curse itself. If you ever experience a moment of true happiness, the curse breaks and the soul goes off to it's final reward. In the original timeline, the curse broke after you had sex with Buffy because it made you feel human again. The death count was close to 200 before Angelus was stopped. I won't let that happen again, I lost too many friends because Buffy couldn't see beyond the face of the man she thought she loved, to realize that Angel was gone, never to return."
Angel staggered back, leaning against the counter as he closed his eyes and shook his head, "No, no! I can't let that happen, not again! Got to get out of here, avoid temptation."
Xander moved closer and put his hand on the shaken vampire's shoulder, "Look, you know about what can happen now, so you can avoid it. But I also know where the Kalderash who is assigned to watch you is, and I'll try to convince them to get the details on the curse, so we can remove the ability to break it, and, I'll explain things to Buffy and Giles if it's too uncomfortable for you. Okay?"
Angel looked at him, his eyes wide in wonder, "Why are you being so helpful? Harris hates me and wants to fuck Buffy."
Xander grinned, "Well, I'm still not overly fond of you, really dude, you were born in 1727 and had your drink with Darla in 1753, when you were 26, so either you are 9 years older if you just count the years you were alive, or you 254 years older and either way, that's really sick! And even if we just count the 99 years you've been cursed with your soul, then you are only 82 years older than her. I've heard of 'robbing the cradle' but isn't that a bit much?
"And leaving all that aside, you really haven't been all that helpful to us, just showing up to spew cryptic bits of information and disappearing again, when you could have been helping with research, I'm sure you can still read and speak Gaelic, can't you? And you know Latin from growing up in the Church, so why aren't you helping us out by translating some of Giles' texts?"
Angel was looking almost embarrassed as he opened his mouth to say something, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted when there was a shriek from the living room, followed by the opening chords to 'A Hard Day's Night' but at a volume, you'd need to be at Shea Stadium to hear normally.
Rushing toward the noise, Xander wanted to laugh at the way Lady Elizabeth was cowering in the corner of the room, as far from the stereo as she could get, with her hands clapped over her ears. He kept his laughter from showing as he lowered the volume down to almost zero and walked over to her. "It's alright, Lady Elizabeth, the noise is harmless to you, but it's much better enjoyed at a lower volume. What seems to have happened is you brushed up against a device the people in these times use to listen to music."
Holding out his hand, he pulled her to her feet and led her to where Angel was standing, although she glared at the stereo set, so he used his free hand to turn off the music. When they reached Angel, Xander said,
"Lady Elizabeth, this is Sir Angel, one of the allies I told you about. He is also friendly with the person whose body you are borrowing. He was here to check on her safety and encountered an intruder. That was the sounds of combat we heard earlier. I helped Sir Angel remove the intruder and took the time to explain that your host was affected by the spell and he has agreed to watch over you until you are returned to your home. I must seek out others who need my assistance." Bowing to her, and damn wasn't he going to have fun teasing the Buffster about this tomorrow, he said, "It's been an honor and a privilege to meet you, Lady Elizabeth, and I wish you safe travels."
He slipped away before she could react, although he heard something he'd never expected to hear, Angel almost choking on his laughter, but he could find out what that was about tomorrow, there were a couple of Sid and Nancy wannabes who had a date with several gallons of Holy Water, and he was going to make sure they got there!
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Elsewhere
"Shit! This ain't good, not good at all! How the hell did those meddling bastards get one of their agents into town without us noticing? And he knows way too much for it to be accidental. Rat Boy wasn't supposed to know about the get out of jail card on the curse, this is way above my pay grade, gotta tell the bosses!"
The Balance Demon known by some on Earth as Whistler concentrated and vanished from his location in front of the scrying pool, where he had just watched the human he had always dismissed give the Champion knowledge that he wasn't ever to receive.
The uproar this caused among the lower dimensions hadn't been seen since Orpheus had traveled to the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, only to falter at the last moment. This caused hundreds of souls to change hands to pay off the wagers on the young Godling's success or failure.
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Spike and Drusilla's Lair
457 Crawford Street
Sunnydale, CA
After the Previous Scene
Drusilla froze in mid-dance, her eyes staring at something only she could see, until she was able to move again and started talking. "No, no, Bad Kitten! You shouldn't be playing with other people's toys. Have to be punished, you do, and not just by missing out on tea and cakes. Oh, no, you are far too naughty for such a simple punishment. No, you play with other people's toys, then we will play with your pretty pretties, it will be so much fun, all the screams and yummy blood!"
She stepped into the main room and gave the orders, sending one of her better minions to locate Spike and bring him back to the lair, he was being hunted by unforeseen danger. Sending several minions to get the Kitten's soldier girl and bring her back unharmed, she made her way out of the house, the stars guiding her to the pretty little witch. Oh yes, Kitten would be suitably punished when he discovered their bodies, naughty Kitten. Maybe she would teach him, before turning him, that it's not only kittens that have claws.
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Mt Olympus
Temple of Apollo
Time Immaterial
It had been an entertaining interlude, observing the young mortal that his counterpart Janus had found so intriguing, but it quickly ceased being entertaining when he idly wondered how the adversary would react. Sitting up quickly, he cursed at those damned demons tainting his gift and generated a prophetic dream to warn the witch.
Summoning his son, Orpheus, Apollo gave the God of Dreams his instructions and watched as he faded away. Looking closer at the sleeping witch, he saw her connection to the Earth Mother and sent a message to her domain, if the demons were interfering with one of her followers, she would want to be informed.
Having done what he was able, within the limits of his authority, Apollo sat back and focused his attention on one of the modern bards. Relaxing as the sweet sounds of the music drifted to his ears, he was pleased with the young woman's use of his gift and left a portion of his awareness on the bard as he looked over the rest of his areas of responsibility.
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Ramada Inn
Sunnydale
Earlier
Tara woke with a start, the dream so vivid and urgent, she scrambled out of bed and checked the peephole in the door. There was no one there, and she gave a sigh of relief. Double checking that the door was locked, she also turned the deadbolt and hooked the chain across the opening. It wasn't the best, but it would do for the next couple of minutes before she could fix the problem. Picking up her phone, she hit the speed dial and held it to her ear. To her relief, her wife picked up on the first ring.
"Cordy, I just got a dream vision. Somehow, the bastards found out and sent a vision to Dru. She's sent a group of minions to capture you and she's coming to get me personally. I'm going to set up as much of a threshold on the room as I can, but, I really don't think I'd want to spend the night here."
"Of course not, who the hell would. Honestly, girl, if you'd let me know before you checked in, I would have gotten you a much better hotel than the Ramada. Hell, the Boondock Rent-a-Bed is still better than that. But seriously, as soon as Doofus gets back from hunting Spike, we'll drop off the kids and pick you up. Even if we don't spend the night playing, we'll all sleep better being together. Oops, I need to go, about a half dozen fashion victims are heading my way. I'll call you back."
Tara closed the phone and slipped it into the pocket of her shorts and picked up her pouch of different herbs. Offering the opening prayer to Gaea to approve of her efforts, she combined the herbs she needed and set them in the small brazier before lighting them on fire. Once the smoke was drifting around the room, she moved from the door to the windows and chanted the second part of the prayer, and smiled to see the green glow surrounding all the entryways. Completing the third circle of the room, she knelt in front of the brazier and breathed in the smoke as she offered the third and final part of the prayer to her Goddess, and smiled when the rest of the offered herbs burned up instantly, and the smoke disappeared, not even leaving a smell behind.
With the room protected, Tara started going through the rest of the supplies to see what she could use to defend herself. The cross she wore was only slightly helpful since she had no faith in the Christian icons and the Goddess didn't have anything considered a holy icon. There were some spells she could cast with the ingredients she had available, that could disable the demon, but they took time to cast and couldn't be prepared in advance, so not the best choice when facing a vampire on your own.
"It looks like it's the old standby for tonight but tomorrow I'm hitting the magic shop and stocking up on different herbs until we can send all the damned things to hell." Opening another section of her bag, she pulled out the thick woolen scarf and four stakes carved from the Ash tree. Her mother had brought the stakes with her when they took her from the school and kept them hidden until she showed them to Tara, and taught her how to use them and take care of them.
Picking up the scarf, she took the small jar of Holy Water that her mother had taken the last time she'd been healthy enough to attend church. Pouring it over the scarf, she smiled slightly remembering how Mama had explained that, unlike the icons, the Holy Water worked whether you believed in it or not. She had speculated that it was because the water was originally part of Gaea's world and not something formed like the crosses and other icons. It didn't matter to Tara because it worked just fine in hurting the demons.
Wrapping the wet scarf around her neck, she picked up the stakes and set them on the bed beside her. Pulling the phone out of her pocket, she looked at it, willing it to ring, but it sat silent, taunting her. "Come on, Cordy, let me know you're alright, don't keep me waiting!"
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Wilkins Blvd near Crawford Street
Fifteen Minutes prior
There were times, like now, that Xander would have loved to have access to a flame thrower. He'd been tracking Spike ever since he left Buffy's house and caught up with him near Ethan's shop. Xander had pulled his taser and was moving closer when the sound of screeching tires distracted him and he saw Giles climbing out of his little car. Turning back to Spike, he swore because the bastard had vanished again.
Keeping the taser ready, he started heading toward Crawford Street, hoping to catch up with the Bloody Awful Poet. Xander almost had him but he couldn't get close enough before something interrupted him, again! Xander cursed silently but he wasn't going to let a Fyarl Demon make a meal out of a group of kids. It took him longer than he would have wanted to kill the thing but at least the kids got away during the fight.
And now, he was finally getting close to his target when he felt the wave of magic wash over him again, and he heard kids screaming in terror. Swearing to get Spike the next time, he put the taser away and started running toward the kids, he had to get them to safety before anything else.
Fortunately, the kids calmed down immediately when he approached them, he looked like a grown-up to them, and so they followed him when he told them he'd get them back to the school.
It took nearly 20 minutes to get back to the high school because now that the kids weren't scared, they wanted to explore someplace they hadn't seen before. But at least Xander had help as some of the other high school students found them and helped keep everything together. He smiled when his group reached the spot where he and Cordy had secured their kids and there was no sign of the kids or Cordy. 'She must have taken them back to the school already, I'll catch up with her there.'
But when he got to the high school, the kids were there, but no sign of Cordy. Trying to hide his concern, he approached one of the older kids in the group. "Hey, did you see where the Soldier Lady that was with us went to? I need to talk to her."
The boy shook his head, "Sorry, it was just as we were waking up and I saw a bunch of men approach her, but she argued with them, and turned and ran in the direction of the water tower, making them chase her. I hope she got away, because the men started looking like scary monsters, and they frightened the little kids. We figured out how to get out of the place we were in and hurried back to the school."
Xander felt his blood run cold but he managed to thank the kid before he turned and started running, swearing he would burn every demon in this town if she was hurt!
But before he could even get ten feet, he heard the voice he would always hate calling him. "Harris! Just where do you think you are going? You haven't been dismissed and where is Miss Chase?"
Forcing himself to at least try to be polite, Xander turned and softly said, "Principal Snyder, I was just informed that Cordelia had been accosted by a group of 'gang members on PCP', and I'm going to find her and help her, however I can. All of our children are accounted for but if you know anything about these 'gang members' you know that Cordelia is in deadly peril. May I please be excused?" He put a bit of his true self into his voice and Snyder stared at him for a second, before something changed.
The man nodded and said, in a softer voice. "After you rescue Cordelia, I want the two of you to speak to the Librarian. You can do it tomorrow, it's getting late. But ask Mister Giles for any information he has in his records about a girl named Heather MacLeod, and the group she had helping her. They called themselves the Misfits, and not the Scooby Gang, but I think you'll both find it interesting."
TCOS & TCOS & TCOS
Ramada Inn
Tara's Room
Same Time
Tara was nearly frantic with worry about Cordy, it had been over half an hour and Cordy wouldn't have that much problem dealing with six vamps in that time. And there was no answer when she called her cell phone. And now, she could hear a woman's voice singing coming down the corridor toward her room and she knew in her heart that it was Drusilla. Standing, she picked up the stakes and put two of them in the belt on her shorts, and held one in each hand. Taking a deep breath, she did her best to calm and center herself, before moving to the wall next to the door hinges.
Hours later, or maybe just a minute, there was a sharp knock on the door, and she heard Drusilla's voice, "Open up, witchy girl, Dru needs to speak to you about your naughty kitten. Don't keep me waiting, Dru is already quite cross with all three of you, don't make her get angry."
Tara said nothing, trying not to breathe, but then Dru's voice came through the door. "I'm sorry, pretty little witch, but you've gone and made Dru rather angry because of your naughtiness. So I have to take sterner measures."
A second later, there was a heavy blow on the door, and it shook in the frame, bending inward, and being pulled off the hinges.
The next blow knocked the door out of the frame entirely, sending it flying across the room, and Dru stood in the doorway, her eyes yellow and fangs showing, her claws gleaming as the vampire reached for her.
End Chapter Four
You know, I wonder why I bother outlining my chapters. The only part of my outline that made it to the story is part of the first scene, up until Xander decked Larry. Everything else was the characters taking over the story. Granted, the story they're telling is a lot more exciting than the one I had plotted but it does make my life interesting as I try to keep up. See you soon with the next chapter.