Chapter 56: Bad Eggs Part 2

November 5, 1997 – Wednesday

Summers Home

Across town Dawn lay on her side in bed asleep, her egg was in its basket on the nightstand next to her. Suddenly the egg exploded and a slimy creature came out of it and darted straight at Dawn. The creature slithered under the blankets and made its way around to her back where it attached itself to her.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. Just then she heard some sort of clicking sound and looked over at her egg on the nightstand. Suddenly it exploded and Buffy jumped out of bed as a slimy creature burst out of its shell and leaped at her just as she ducked.

She watched as the creature skittered across the floor and under her bed. She moved to the shelf and grabbed a book and then kneeled next to the bed looking underneath it.

Suddenly the creature fell on her from above, hitting her neck and trying to scuttle down her back. She grabbed the creature with both hands and held it as it squirmed in her grip. She moved toward her vanity and opened a drawer pulling out a letter opener and then stabbed the creature, killing it.

Buffy quickly set down the creature and hurried out of her room and down the hall. She hurried knocked on Dawn's door. "Dawnie?"

"What, Buffy?" Dawn said as she opened the door.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked.

"Why shouldn't I be?" Dawn asked.

"Your egg," Buffy said. "Is it doing anything?"

"Doing what?" Dawn wondered.

"Break it. Right now. Smash it with something heavy," Buffy said.

"Buffy, what—"

"My egg just went postal on me. It hatched—some kind of crawly monster thing jumped on me—" Buffy said.

"Are you okay?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, but your egg—" Buffy asked, concern creeping into her voice.

"It's totally normal," Dawn answered. "I put it in the fridge."

Buffy sighed. "Okay ..."

"Maybe it was a trap," Dawn suggested. "Something the Gorches planted for you."

"Maybe ..." Buffy said. "Okay. I'm sorry to wake you. Love you. Get back to sleep."

"You sure?" Dawn asked.

Buffy nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Okay," Dawn said as she closed the door.

Buffy started back for her room when she heard her mother's door open behind her. "Buffy, what are you doing up?"

Buffy motioned for Joyce to follow and she led her mother into her bedroom. "This thing hatched from my egg. I was just checking to make sure Dawn's was okay."

Joyce looked at the creature. "It's not something I recognized. Take it to school in the morning. Maybe its something Paige or Rupert can identify."

"Good idea," Buffy agreed.

November 6, 1997 – Thursday

Sunnydale High School

At lunchtime Xander was snacking on a candy bar. He looked down at the off-brand chocolate coated treat as he chewed the unyielding caramel, "Mm, Cardboardy." The boy sat on the wall and finished the rest of the candy bar. "Still hungry." Xander opened his satchel and dug through it. He pulled his egg out. He regarded Xander Jr. for a moment.

Sighing Xander decided, "Sorry, Junior, but a man's gotta eat." He tapped the egg on the wall next to him and rolled it back and forth under his hand. Xander smiled and nodded at the girls when he noticed them heading his way. "Hey." He held up the egg, ready to take a bite. Xander looked back to the egg as he raised it to his face. A purplish-gray creature, dead from being boiled, was curled inside. A startled shout escaped him as he tossed the egg away.

Buffy and Dawn, who had been walking by, stopped. Buffy picked up the egg.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Moments later Xander, Buffy stood in the science lab waiting on Dawn, who had gone to get Paige, Willow and Giles. The thing Buffy killed laid on a dissection tray next to Xander's egg.

"Can I just say—" Xander shuddered. "Uh."

"I see your uh and raise You a gnyeh," said Buffy as Willow and Dawn walked through the door. "Where are Paige and Giles?"

"They said we should get started and they'd be by as soon as possible," answered Willow.

Xander held a small scalpel. "So. Okay," he said. "Get started, Buffy. Dissect it or something."

"Why us?" asked Buffy.

"You're the Slayer," answered Xander. "I almost ate one of these things. I've fulfilled my gross-out quota for the decade."

Willow took the scalpel and cut into the creature as blue goop squirted out.

"Do we have any idea what to look for?" he asked. "I mean, how are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?"

"Turn it over. Maybe we missed its I.D. bracelet," said Buffy.

"So now I guess we know what happened to Mr. Whitmore," Xander said.

"It's possible that Mr. Whitmore wasn't harmed. Maybe the offspring simply used him to return to the mother Bezoar," explained Dawn.

"Yeah. Maybe he—" he started before realizing what Dawn had said. "What?"

"What's a Bezo—" Buffy started but was unable to finish her question as Willow blindsided Xander with a lead pipe.

"Willow!" Buffy shouted. "What—" She turned just in time to see an expressionless Dawn bring a heavy microscope down on her head. She collapsed to the floor next to Xander.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Paige entered the library to find it empty. "Giles? Buffy?" she called out.

"Paige," Giles said as he emerged from his office.

"What did Buffy find out about the creature that Buffy killed?" Paige questioned.

"They have yet to inform me," Giles answered.

Paige nodded. "Well I will just…" she started and then she noticed the book on the counter. "Just in case?" she asked.

"Doesn't hurt," Giles admitted as they heard a door in the hallway slammed shut. "What was that?"

"Probably the janitor..." Paige said as she glanced toward the door. Behind her Giles pulled out a creature onto her back. She let out a scream as the creature scrambled down under her shirt.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy sat up, feeling her head where she was hit. She saw Xander lying beside her, touched his shoulder. "Xander?" she said as Xander began to come around. "Xander? Are you okay?"

"Man, the last time Cordy dragged me in here was a lot nicer..." answered Xander.

"What?" said Buffy.

"Uh, nothing," Xander answered. "Crazy Talk. Head trauma."

"Yeah," Buffy said as she felt her head. "I'm going to have a bump."

Xander sighed as felt his head. "I'm going to have a peninsula here. What the hell is going on? Willow and Dawn..."

Buffy rose to her feet. "Something to do with our hatchlings, I'm sure of that," she said. She tried the door and found it locked.

Xander sat up, moving slowly. "What are they, possessed?"

"I don't know," answered Buffy. "They sure wanted us out of the way."

"Why not kill us? Why drag us in here – oh," said Xander as he noticed two eggs sitting on a crate, one of which was jiggling, making a clicking sound. "Bad now."

Dawn noticed them too, she grabbed a heavy tool chest and slammed it down on top of them.

"You're scrambled," Xander said in an impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. "See, we make a great team. You kill, I pun." He stood up as Buffy moved back to the door before kicking it open.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Giles? Paige?" called Buffy as she and Xander hurried into the library.

"Giles! Paige!" called Xander before he turned to his best friend. "They must be out somewhere. What do we do?"

"We can't fight these things unless we know something about them," said Buffy.

"Dawn said something... a name...what was it?" asked Xander.

"A Bozo!" answered Buffy. "Not a bozo."

"Bezoar," corrected Xander.

"Yes!" Buffy exclaimed. "Great. Okay, so, we look it up."

"In what?" Xander asked.

"A book?" suggested Buffy as they walked over to the library counter. "Giles said he and Paige were going to try to find something." She looked at one of the books, which was open to a page with picture of the egg creature. "Okay, I'd say they found something."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

A line of students led up to the hole. One by one they stepped through and slowly made their way down the tunnel. At the end, they found a cavern twice as wide as it was tall with a deep pit on the far side. A path of crude plywood ramps made the uneven ground safe to traverse.

Strong and able-bodied students were given pickaxes, shovels and other digging equipment to excavate more of the floor. Less fit students were pulling eggs from the crevices, cleaning them and placing them in boxes. Mr. Whitmore and the night watchman stood sentry, ensuring each new entry was assigned a suitable task.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"A pre-prehistoric parasite..." Buffy read, "the mother hibernates underground, laying eggs. Offspring attach themselves to a host, taking control of their motor functions through neural clamping."

"Neural clamping? That sounds skippable," said Xander.

"So, our people are taking orders from the mama Bezoar. Which begs the question –" said Buffy.

Before she could get finish her question a scream of desperation rang out from the hall. "Somebody help me! Get this thing off me! Get this... Somebody help me! Help!"

Buffy and Xander ran into the hall. A short boy with dark hair – Jonathan Levinson – was struggling with a parasite. Still screaming the boy fell to the floor. The screaming stopped and Jonathan got back up.

"Are you okay?" Xander asked

"I'm fine. I slipped," was the emotionless reply. Jonathan turned and headed down the hall.

Buffy and Xander exchanged a look. They followed Jonathon through the school and down into the basement and into the boiler room. He headed straight for the hole in the wall. Buffy and Xander cautiously followed him through into the tunnel beyond.

The digging and egg gathering activity continued in the Bezoar den as Buffy and Xander peeked into the room.

"We can't let them spread those things around," said Buffy.

"I'm on it. Um, can you, uh, hold down the fort?" Xander asked Buffy with more confidence than he felt. "Better yet—can you kill the fort?"

"I'll try," admitted Buffy as she watched Xander follow Cordelia. She then looked around. "I'm going to need a weapon. I'm going to need a big weapon." She turned and headed back into the boiler room. She emerged from the tunnel and walked straight into the Gorches.

"Told you it wasn't over," said Lyle. He then realized that this wasn't the person he fought. "Ah, I assumed she was, but you must be the Slayer."

"She's so cute and little," said Tector as he looked at his brother. "Can we keep her?"

"Guys, this is not a great time," Buffy informed them.

"It's going to be," said Lyle as he and his brother rushed her.

Buffy parried their attacks and sent Tector flying backward. Lyle hurled himself at her and they both went flying into the hole and into the cave, rolling right into the midst of the zombie throng.

Lyle stood and looked around bewildered. "What the hell is this?"

Buffy found herself face to face with her girlfriend. "Paige?" she said surprised to see Paige there.

Willow looked up from her digging. "Kill them."

Dawn and Paige swung their pickaxes at Buffy - who blocked them.

"Paige? Dawnie?" said Buffy as she backed away from her girlfriend and her sister.

Lyle fended off the one people attacking him as he too backed away. He and Buffy ended up back to back, fending off the crowd. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Long story!" said Buffy. She pushed Dawn away as Lyle knocked someone out. In a moment of brief respite, she and Lyle turned to each other and started trading blows.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Xander followed Cordelia down the tunnel. "Cordelia!" he called.

Cordelia placed her eggs on the floor and turned to face him. He weaved out of the way as she threw a punch at him.

"Cordelia, I don't want to hurt you..." Xander said as he made for the eggs, "some of the time..."

Cordelia sent a glancing blow to Xander's head.

He doubled over in pain. "Ow! That's my bump!" he sent an uppercut and knocked her into unconsciousness. "Sorry..."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tector emerged from the hole, furious. "Where is that sorry-ass girl?" He stopped, looking at the tableau of digging and fighting. Buffy and Lyle had reached high ground, at the entrance of a caved-in tunnel, and the zombies were just eyeing them, focusing on containment.

Unbeknownst to Tector, Giles had come up beside him and hit him in the back of the head with the flat end of an axe. He went flying, landing on his belly with his face right over the hole. The Bezoar moving right below his face.

"What is that...?" he asked as an eye opened right below him.

A tentacle shot out and wrapped around his head. He was pulled into the hole before he had time to scream.

Buffy and Lyle stop their fight and watched as Tector was swallowed whole by the creature.

"Tector! TECTOR!" Lyle shouted as Tector finally managed a scream seconds before the scream was replaced by the sounds of something chomping. He turned on Buffy. "This is all your fault!"

"How?" Buffy asked.

Lyle grabbed Buffy and threw her down toward the hole. She landed hard just as a tentacle came up and wrapped around her feet. She looked down at her feet - then up at Paige, who swung the pickaxe down at her face!

Buffy rolled as the axe was buried in the ground next to her head. She grabbed hold of it - and the tentacle yanked her toward the hole. Buffy strained to hold onto the axe - but it was pulled free from the rock and both it and she fell into the hole.

Inside the creature Buffy slashed at the Bezoar, ripping its flesh with the axe. The monster's screams reverberated through the cavern as the digging activity came to a stop. The students and teachers gathered around the pit to watch and listen as the Bezoar eventually went silent.

The hosts collapsed to the floor, and the parasites fell from their backs.

Buffy orbed onto the ground beside the whole, covered in blue gunk and looked about as deadly pissed about that fact as she could be.

Lyle stared at Buffy all of three seconds before he ran away, calling out behind him, "Okay, it's over now..."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Yes, yes, uh, it was a, a gas leak, everyone. Uh, well, just, uh, get some air, and a... good night's rest, you know, uh, you'll be fine. These gas things... will happen," Giles stuttered through an explanation to the students milling about. He turned to Xander as the boy approached him, "W-w-what was it really?"

"Go with Gas leak. I'll fill you in later," Xander said as sirens blared in the distance. He turned and walked over to Dawn, Paige, Willow and Cordelia.

"Did I really hit you?" Willow asked looking at Xander.

"Knocked me out," answered Xander.

"Did I hit you?" Cordelia asked.

"Yes, everybody hit me," Xander answered.

"But I didn't," said Paige.

"From what Buffy said you tried to hit her," said Xander.

Buffy came out of the locker room. She smiled when she spotted the guys. She jogged over to them and threw her arms around Paige, not caring in the slightest if anyone saw. She pulled her fiancée to her and kissed her. "Glad you're okay," she said.

"So am I," said Paige. "And I'm sorry."

"It wasn't you," said Buffy.