Part One: Things Born of Fire - Chapter 7
Dec. 13th, 2006 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurey09
Title: We Can Run Away Now They’re All Dead and Gone.
Author: Aurey09
Fandom: BtVS
Part One: Things Born of Fire.
Chapter: 7/10
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, not me.
A/N: thanks to ![[info]](https://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
noandwhere for the beta.
“Urhh, what’s that smell?” Dawn stepped back from the door that lead to the motel-clerks office. Dawn might not have guessed what the smell was but Willow knew instantly. It was what she smelt when she burnt what was left of Warren. She was pretty sure if she lived long enough, even at her most senile she’d remember it. She’d be the only one in the nursing home who could claim to have flayed and flambéed a guy.
“A body, nobody said anything about a body!” Dawn said. Willow squeezed her arm, she felt responsible for Dawn when Buffy wasn’t around.
“It’s us, how could you not expect there to be a body somewhere down the line?”
Giles was looking over the remains of Gina, the rude clerk who‘d given them all their room keys. Giles had switched the feeling part of himself off, the part that had encountered the woman. Andrew was moving around the room intent on clue gathering. He’d been watching a lot of CSI lately.
Willow’s foot nudges the edge of a book, it was the one she’d seen Gina reading. It was now a charred wreck like she was. Willow picked it up, it still felt warm. “Guess it was a steamy read after all.”
“It could have been human combustion.” Giles looked towards Willow. Buffy wasn’t there so it made Willow second in command she guessed - she hated that.
“Hmmm what do we have here?” Giles said as he pried a letter opener from the skeletonised hand, holding it to the light like a newly found treasure.
“Looks like a letter opener, new-fangled thing all the kids are using them.” Dawn said.
Giles sighed, giving Dawn a disappointed look. The two of them had been getting on lately, Dawn becoming more vital in researching but she was still trying to be Xander’s protégée at flippant comment making.
“There appears to be some kind of substance on it,” It was some kind of liquid swirled with colour, like the spills left on the roads by leaky gasoline tanks. “It’s all sticky.” Giles grumbled and tried in vain to remove it.
There was some more of it over on the wall where Andrew was looking.
“I wonder what it is.”
“It’s demons blood, an Ukobach demon.” Andrew said, shaking his finger rapidly, in a futile attempt to dislodge it. They all looked at him with surprise, Andrew had actual knowledge. “When I was twelve my uncle summoned one - his store was going under and he needed it burning down for the insurance money. They tend to pretty much burn whatever is put in front of them: homework, my brother's Deep Space Nine novels--.”
“Giles, why’s Andrew explainy guy – that’s you rightful place.” Xander didn’t seem to approve of this shift.
“I’m not familiar with the species.” Giles admitted to Andrew.
“Who cares that you haven’t been formally introduced,” Xander said, Giles was a little taken aback by Xander’s harsh tone.
“I merely haven’t come across one before.”
“Not in all the books you’ve been through. You just looked at all the semi-nude engravings didn’tcha?”
“No, I believe that was you.”
“She must have been strong, stabbing a Ukobach would be like trying to cut open the Thing.” Giles seemed lost with the explanation but Willow understood the situation even better than Andrew did. No normal person could slice through the demon’s thick hide.
“She was a Slayer.” Willow said, eyes still on the charred corpse. It was what the facts and her gut pointed towards. The demon felt like it was her fault. Magic - there was always consequences and maybe this demon was it.
++++
Andrew arranged a protective circle in the middle of the motel floor. That was the end to Giles' cleaning deposit but it was for the greater good. Giles was trying to be patient with him, he was finally being useful; it was a challenge.
“Now you're sure that this is the spell to track the demon?” Giles asked Andrew.
“Does Teal'c know about the Goa‘uld?”
“You’re like a child.”
“Giles.” Willow called from the open door.
“You’ve saved my life.” He smiled someone else to talk to whom he shared some kind of common language with.
“I saved one life, I don‘t think that cancels out the one I just caused.” Giles couldn’t bear to see her like this. She’d lost a lot of confidence in herself last year and had been slowly getting it back ever since.
She sat down on one of the beds. “I can’t help thinking this demon is connected. This is the biggest spell I’ve ever done, it took more magic than bringing Buffy back and that made a demon.”
“You could have but we still did the right thing.”
“So why do I feel all jumped out of the frying-pan and into the fire?”
++++
Dawn was standing with Willow and Xander in the motel parking lot. Giles was calling the cops and Andrew was finishing setting up a locator spell to find the Ukobach demon.
Dawn and Xander were keeping out of the way. She figured they thought she couldn’t handle seeing that girl, but it had only been her stomach that almost couldn’t handle it. She’d seen bodies before, of people she loved and as horrifying as the sight of that woman had been - it could never touch the anguish of having seen Tara bloodied on her bedroom floor, or her mother in the morgue, or her sister lying dead at the foot of a tower.
Kennedy and some of the girls walked back over. They’d been off looking for Faith and the demon. They’d found no more than what Dawn had just standing there.
"We need to get Buffy." Xander said. He stopped when nobody followed and a Mexican wave of glances passed between them. “Fine, you waste your time searching for Faith and doing spells, but I’m waking Buffy.”
“Xander.” He turned to look at Willow in case she had changed her mind. “We can’t always run to Buffy.”
“She want us to come to her with something like this.” Dawn wasn’t liking this, she wasn’t sure who she was supposed to be agreeing with.
"She seemed all slayed out to me." Kennedy said. It wasn’t the best thing to get between Xander on something like this, on all things Buffy he was very clear. And he’d not been fighting all these years against evil, he’d been fighting because of Buffy. “She's been the slayer - what ten years?”
“More like eight. And you punched the clock, like twelve hours ago.”
"I'm not saying it to be mean. But maybe she doesn't see things all so clear - come on you saw what she was like with Spike."
"Willow's not exactly pristine either. And as far as I know Spike never almost destroyed the world."
"Hey! I went all good and glowy." Willow protested.
"You're the example."
"You were big with the mutiny too or did you happily forget that. You all agreed you didn't trust her judgement."
"Kennedy." Willow said which was enough to stop her. "I think it's best if I talk to Xander."
They walked away, but the distance wasn't enough to calm him.
"I know you're trying to help but Buffy doesn‘t need this, not right now."
"She's right Xander." Dawn said and he nodded his head.
“Maybe I don’t need this either.”
++++
It was Faith’s lucky night, she’d found a cemetery teeming with vampires. She wasn't wrong about them not venturing far away from the Hellmouth. Though the ones she faced now seemed new, they probably hadn’t heard about Slayers or at least not her. They seemed arrogant, which made the whole opportunity of destroying them all the more appealing. The ring leader a cheap blonde, dogly in life and even more so in death was the first to attack. She hit Faith in the gut and Faith used to momentum to roll herself on the floor; a cat playing a mouse.
The stake in her pocket snapped under her weight, the vamp picked up on it, thinking she’d made a spinal cord go snap.
When she got closure Faith kicked her in the jaw. “Now that’s what a snapping bone sounds like.” Faith was having fun and only just warming up.
Blondie tried to rush her. “You already got your chance.” The don’t-mess-with-me-wisdom Faith was trying to impart was lost at the end of a stake.
She eyed the other vampires, but she’d been too good of a teacher. They took off into some woods, a place full of pre-made stakes. It was too easy. These vampire were nothing, not with what she’d clashed with today. But a fight was a fight and she wasn‘t about to let them off the hook. She wondered through the trees - so maybe this was more their playfield than hers because she couldn’t find them.
Smoke was coming from somewhere, vamps wouldn’t have stopped for a quick cigarette break - there was too much of it and then there was the screaming. Something else was out here. It was confirmed by a strange growling noise as the screams died.
She knew she should go back, get Buffy and some of the others but it could do a lot of damage before then but Faith could do a lot of damage herself. She could handle it, she'd survived so far without any backup.
A flicker of light caught the corner of her eyes; it had found her first.
She turned around and it was crouched. It was smarter than she’d taken it for and as if reading her mind it’s mangled jaws turned up at the ends.
“I‘ll tear that smile right off--”
It barrelled into her with its full weight and something went crack in her chest, it was a different sound when it was your own bones. She wheezed a tried breath, the air that she managed to get into her lungs was hot. She wasn’t going to get to finish her insult. That was why Buffy talks fast, get the quip out as soon as possible - or at least before a demon knocks you down.
She lay on the ground trying to get away. It looked at her for a few seconds more before it’s interest waned and it stalk away, burning up anything that got in its way.
So that’s what it feels like to be the mouse?
++++
Next Chapter
Previous Chapter
“A body, nobody said anything about a body!” Dawn said. Willow squeezed her arm, she felt responsible for Dawn when Buffy wasn’t around.
“It’s us, how could you not expect there to be a body somewhere down the line?”
Giles was looking over the remains of Gina, the rude clerk who‘d given them all their room keys. Giles had switched the feeling part of himself off, the part that had encountered the woman. Andrew was moving around the room intent on clue gathering. He’d been watching a lot of CSI lately.
Willow’s foot nudges the edge of a book, it was the one she’d seen Gina reading. It was now a charred wreck like she was. Willow picked it up, it still felt warm. “Guess it was a steamy read after all.”
“It could have been human combustion.” Giles looked towards Willow. Buffy wasn’t there so it made Willow second in command she guessed - she hated that.
“Hmmm what do we have here?” Giles said as he pried a letter opener from the skeletonised hand, holding it to the light like a newly found treasure.
“Looks like a letter opener, new-fangled thing all the kids are using them.” Dawn said.
Giles sighed, giving Dawn a disappointed look. The two of them had been getting on lately, Dawn becoming more vital in researching but she was still trying to be Xander’s protégée at flippant comment making.
“There appears to be some kind of substance on it,” It was some kind of liquid swirled with colour, like the spills left on the roads by leaky gasoline tanks. “It’s all sticky.” Giles grumbled and tried in vain to remove it.
There was some more of it over on the wall where Andrew was looking.
“I wonder what it is.”
“It’s demons blood, an Ukobach demon.” Andrew said, shaking his finger rapidly, in a futile attempt to dislodge it. They all looked at him with surprise, Andrew had actual knowledge. “When I was twelve my uncle summoned one - his store was going under and he needed it burning down for the insurance money. They tend to pretty much burn whatever is put in front of them: homework, my brother's Deep Space Nine novels--.”
“Giles, why’s Andrew explainy guy – that’s you rightful place.” Xander didn’t seem to approve of this shift.
“I’m not familiar with the species.” Giles admitted to Andrew.
“Who cares that you haven’t been formally introduced,” Xander said, Giles was a little taken aback by Xander’s harsh tone.
“I merely haven’t come across one before.”
“Not in all the books you’ve been through. You just looked at all the semi-nude engravings didn’tcha?”
“No, I believe that was you.”
“She must have been strong, stabbing a Ukobach would be like trying to cut open the Thing.” Giles seemed lost with the explanation but Willow understood the situation even better than Andrew did. No normal person could slice through the demon’s thick hide.
“She was a Slayer.” Willow said, eyes still on the charred corpse. It was what the facts and her gut pointed towards. The demon felt like it was her fault. Magic - there was always consequences and maybe this demon was it.
++++
Andrew arranged a protective circle in the middle of the motel floor. That was the end to Giles' cleaning deposit but it was for the greater good. Giles was trying to be patient with him, he was finally being useful; it was a challenge.
“Now you're sure that this is the spell to track the demon?” Giles asked Andrew.
“Does Teal'c know about the Goa‘uld?”
“You’re like a child.”
“Giles.” Willow called from the open door.
“You’ve saved my life.” He smiled someone else to talk to whom he shared some kind of common language with.
“I saved one life, I don‘t think that cancels out the one I just caused.” Giles couldn’t bear to see her like this. She’d lost a lot of confidence in herself last year and had been slowly getting it back ever since.
She sat down on one of the beds. “I can’t help thinking this demon is connected. This is the biggest spell I’ve ever done, it took more magic than bringing Buffy back and that made a demon.”
“You could have but we still did the right thing.”
“So why do I feel all jumped out of the frying-pan and into the fire?”
++++
Dawn was standing with Willow and Xander in the motel parking lot. Giles was calling the cops and Andrew was finishing setting up a locator spell to find the Ukobach demon.
Dawn and Xander were keeping out of the way. She figured they thought she couldn’t handle seeing that girl, but it had only been her stomach that almost couldn’t handle it. She’d seen bodies before, of people she loved and as horrifying as the sight of that woman had been - it could never touch the anguish of having seen Tara bloodied on her bedroom floor, or her mother in the morgue, or her sister lying dead at the foot of a tower.
Kennedy and some of the girls walked back over. They’d been off looking for Faith and the demon. They’d found no more than what Dawn had just standing there.
"We need to get Buffy." Xander said. He stopped when nobody followed and a Mexican wave of glances passed between them. “Fine, you waste your time searching for Faith and doing spells, but I’m waking Buffy.”
“Xander.” He turned to look at Willow in case she had changed her mind. “We can’t always run to Buffy.”
“She want us to come to her with something like this.” Dawn wasn’t liking this, she wasn’t sure who she was supposed to be agreeing with.
"She seemed all slayed out to me." Kennedy said. It wasn’t the best thing to get between Xander on something like this, on all things Buffy he was very clear. And he’d not been fighting all these years against evil, he’d been fighting because of Buffy. “She's been the slayer - what ten years?”
“More like eight. And you punched the clock, like twelve hours ago.”
"I'm not saying it to be mean. But maybe she doesn't see things all so clear - come on you saw what she was like with Spike."
"Willow's not exactly pristine either. And as far as I know Spike never almost destroyed the world."
"Hey! I went all good and glowy." Willow protested.
"You're the example."
"You were big with the mutiny too or did you happily forget that. You all agreed you didn't trust her judgement."
"Kennedy." Willow said which was enough to stop her. "I think it's best if I talk to Xander."
They walked away, but the distance wasn't enough to calm him.
"I know you're trying to help but Buffy doesn‘t need this, not right now."
"She's right Xander." Dawn said and he nodded his head.
“Maybe I don’t need this either.”
++++
It was Faith’s lucky night, she’d found a cemetery teeming with vampires. She wasn't wrong about them not venturing far away from the Hellmouth. Though the ones she faced now seemed new, they probably hadn’t heard about Slayers or at least not her. They seemed arrogant, which made the whole opportunity of destroying them all the more appealing. The ring leader a cheap blonde, dogly in life and even more so in death was the first to attack. She hit Faith in the gut and Faith used to momentum to roll herself on the floor; a cat playing a mouse.
The stake in her pocket snapped under her weight, the vamp picked up on it, thinking she’d made a spinal cord go snap.
When she got closure Faith kicked her in the jaw. “Now that’s what a snapping bone sounds like.” Faith was having fun and only just warming up.
Blondie tried to rush her. “You already got your chance.” The don’t-mess-with-me-wisdom Faith was trying to impart was lost at the end of a stake.
She eyed the other vampires, but she’d been too good of a teacher. They took off into some woods, a place full of pre-made stakes. It was too easy. These vampire were nothing, not with what she’d clashed with today. But a fight was a fight and she wasn‘t about to let them off the hook. She wondered through the trees - so maybe this was more their playfield than hers because she couldn’t find them.
Smoke was coming from somewhere, vamps wouldn’t have stopped for a quick cigarette break - there was too much of it and then there was the screaming. Something else was out here. It was confirmed by a strange growling noise as the screams died.
She knew she should go back, get Buffy and some of the others but it could do a lot of damage before then but Faith could do a lot of damage herself. She could handle it, she'd survived so far without any backup.
A flicker of light caught the corner of her eyes; it had found her first.
She turned around and it was crouched. It was smarter than she’d taken it for and as if reading her mind it’s mangled jaws turned up at the ends.
“I‘ll tear that smile right off--”
It barrelled into her with its full weight and something went crack in her chest, it was a different sound when it was your own bones. She wheezed a tried breath, the air that she managed to get into her lungs was hot. She wasn’t going to get to finish her insult. That was why Buffy talks fast, get the quip out as soon as possible - or at least before a demon knocks you down.
She lay on the ground trying to get away. It looked at her for a few seconds more before it’s interest waned and it stalk away, burning up anything that got in its way.
So that’s what it feels like to be the mouse?
++++
Next Chapter
Previous Chapter
