“Buffy. You missed lunch,” Joyce called out as Buffy walked into the house. She realised it was later than she thought, only about an hour until the sun went down so she didn’t have much time to check out things at the shop. “Your friend was just here, I didn’t know when you were coming home...”
“My friend?” Buffy frowned, as far as she knew all of her friends had just left Willow’s house.
“She asked if I knew where you were.”
“Which way did she go?” Buffy asked.
Joyce shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, Buffy, she left so fast.” As she walked out of the room Kirrel leapt onto a counter, circling something. Buffy frowned, it was a photo of her and her Mom that usually hung in the lounge room. She frowned and returned it to its rightful position before heading out the door. A friend I don’t know, a demon in the Magic Box? Somehow everything not adding up, added up to something, but Buffy wasn’t quite sure what.
..............................
“Hey, look at the goth!” A bunch of teenage boys called out, making rude gestures and spitting on the ground around them in a vain attempt to look tough.
The ‘gothic’ in question merely raised a pencil thin eyebrow, well shaped lips pursing in annoyance. “How uncouth.” She stated, walking with a regal air past the unkempt youths and down the street. She considered the possibilities, the reasons for her sudden appearance in this strange world. The unusual clothing adorning the inhabitants, as well as the large number of machina scattered throughout this place led her very quickly to a definite conclusion. She veered off from her path, deciding to take the apparently more scenic path through a park. Small, stone buildings and stone tablets were neatly lined up throughout this place along with carvings of winged people and large, intricate crosses. She liked this place, it had a great deal more charm than the rest of Buffy’s world, a strange peace fell over the park like a shroud and some small, strange animals as well as some more common ones roamed freely.
.............................
Floating in the air, directly above the hellmouth a car-sized, round gateway shimmered with a supernatural light. It was almost like a circle of water, hanging in midair; a wind appeared to drive ripples across its surface while small, glowing shapes seemed to float out of it. Several more glowing shapes followed, they floated, for a moment, above the unconscious form of a man lying in the burnt ruins of what was once a beautiful library. Each of these glowing objects then floated away, making room for more as they drifted through the reflective barrier overhead.
.............................
Buffy shook her head, she would start with the Magic Box, if Anya hadn’t driven the demon away with her constant talking then Buffy could, at least get a look at him, maybe he knew something?
As she approached the shop the door opened and she could hear Anya’s almost desperate cries. “But, don’t you want to buy something? We have excellent toad’s eyes; we also have a wide range of...”
“Buy nothing.” A deep, rumbling voice answered.
Buffy shook her head, unable to believe her ears, that voice... As recognition hit her the ‘demon’ in question walked out of the Magic Box. He was over six foot tall, covered from head to tufted tail in luxurious, blue fur. His face resembled that of a lion while silver hair fell down to his shoulders a section of it gathered into a small ponytail at the back of his head. His large paws were tipped with very long, purplish claws. He wore a blue piece of material around his stomach over which two straps crossed with a large round buckle holding them together. Around his waist he wore something like a loincloth which covered his front and back and attached to this almost skirt like device, hanging in front, from his waist down was a green piece of material, woven with beautifully coloured patterns. Over the top of the entire skirt was a bright red rope which wrapped once around his waist, tying up at the front, the ends of the rope hanging down over the top of the green material.
Buffy blinked several times, while staring transfixed at the sight before her. The spell was broken when he turned his great, golden eyes on her and his face which always seemed stern melted quickly into a look of relief and joy.
“Lady Buffy.” He said, his voice which although sounding gruff, contained an almost disbelieving note.
“Kimahri!” She shouted, racing over to the giant, blue creature and wrapping her arms around his stomach. “I missed you, how did you get here?”
From inside the doorway Anya cleared her throat as on the street several people stared wide eyed, while others- those who had come to accept the regular unnatural occurrences in Sunnydale- waved it off as unimportant.
“Kimahri, you should come back inside.” Buffy motioned to the people.
As they walked inside the shop Anya stepped past them while calling out to the people on the street, “Come in, buy things.”
Buffy sat on a chair at the table as Kimahri sat on the table itself. “Okay, how did you get here? How are the others? Are they here too? Where are they?” She asked.
“Hmmm.” Kimahri rumbled deep in his throat, he slowly shook his head. “Lady Buffy still asks too many things.”
Buffy blushed. “I’m sorry, okay, one at a time... how did you get here?”
“Kimahri not know, light flash bright, Kimahri here.” He paused for a moment, frowning as Anya walked back into the shop looking disappointed. “Woman strange.”
Buffy raised an eyebrow as Anya settled herself at the table as well. “This is Anya, she’s my... friend.” Buffy said. “She owns this shop.”
Anya beamed brightly. “Hello, are you sure I can’t interest you in anything? We even have some catnip..?”
Kimahri turned his head away, looking back at Buffy quickly dismissing Anya in his more urgent need. “Kimahri not know where Yuna is. Kimahri worried.”
Buffy chewed on her bottom lip as she thought over what her large Spiran friend had just told her. “It’s okay, I’ll help you find her- if she’s here,” she assured him. She was so preoccupied with the latest turn of events that she did not even notice that Kirrel had disappeared.
.........................
Xander angrily kicked at a stone, missing and scuffing his shoe on the bitumen. She was ignoring him? He shook his head. Why? He sighed and continued walking randomly down the street; almost without realising it he managed to find himself within a few blocks of Buffy’s house. He shrugged mentally, seeing as he was so close he may as well go see what she was doing.
He looked up, trying to get his bearings and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He saw her legs first, long, flawless and golden, wearing a pair of boots which came to about mid-thigh length. His eyes scanned up, she was wearing a tiny skirt in a semi-stretchy material that clung to her curves, from under the hipster skirt the top of her bikini emerged, the string following the shape of her hips enticingly. She had a flat, well tanned stomach, as his eyes continued their upward path he noted that the top of her bikini was comprised of two small triangles of material, held together with a string that went around her neck and another which tied up between the two triangles, the loops of the bow-like knot hanging down almost to her belly button. He unconsciously licked his suddenly very-dry lips as he dragged his eyes away from her cleavage to continue his examination. She wore a long, black coat over all this which looked incredible on her, although Xander had a nagging feeling he had seen it somewhere before. His mind, however, couldn’t quite think of where as he was having too much trouble trying to think over the loud sirens in his head screaming ‘legs’ ‘bikini’ ‘boobs’ ‘girl’ and other such random phrases conjured up at the sight of the girl standing in front of him.
He had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn’t noticed that she had walked up to him and was now staring at him expectantly. It was at this point where his eyes finally moved above her nicely shaped collar bones and he finally looked her in the face. Her face was almost Asian in shape while her skin was fairly light, although nicely tanned all over. Her hair was a light, ash blonde and fell free down to just below her shoulders, two small sections at the side of her head had been caught up into plaits and had been tucked neatly behind her ears. A long, jagged fringe fell over the left hand side of her face, her eyes were a deep green and there appeared to be something odd about them but those damn sirens just kept on going and Xander couldn’t quite figure out what...
“What?” He said.
She looked impatient. “I said, you’re a friend of Buffy, I saw you in the picture, at her house. So you must know where she is. Take me to her.”
“Uh...” Xander understood the basic gist of what she was saying.
“You’re a big dope.” the girl pointed out, calmly, leaning back slightly as if it was catching.
“No.” Xander argued. “I can Buffy.”
She rubbed her nose thoughtfully, as though trying to decide exactly how much of a ‘big dope’ he really was.
“I mean, Buffy, I can take you to her, she is...” Xander absolutely had to find Buffy for this girl. He thought about the places Buffy was most likely to be. The sirens definitely weren’t helping… The Magic Box! “She’s at the shop.” Xander announced. “I’ll take you there.”
She nodded, assuming a dramatic stance. “Right!” She said firmly.
.......................................
Giles cleaned his glasses furiously as they talked. He shook his head, the half smile that had been on his face all day began to reinforce itself. Kris and Faith were talking excitedly about what they were going to do tonight. Although he felt compelled by his position as their watcher to warn these girls to a certain amount of caution, Giles could barely contain his enthusiasm as he thought to himself that is was the most incredible thing he had ever heard. He put the glasses back on just as he heard an almost desperate knocking on his door. He opened his door and to his great surprise Joyce—of all people—came rushing through, almost falling into his arms in her haste.
He realised with a great deal of concern that she was bleeding, a gash ran down her left arm and there were what appeared to be tooth marks on her leg.
She panted for breath. “Demons, there was a demon in my house, it attacked me so I tried to come here but there were more of them on the streets.” She cast her eyes frantically around the room before settling them once more on her daughter’s watcher, “Giles, I’m so worried... Buffy....”
Giles did his best to console her. “I am sure Buffy can take excellent care of herself. As he said this, his eyes caught on a strange shimmering object as it floated past his feet and into the lounge room where it proceeded to sprout into a small clump of vile smelling toadstools.
Kris frowned and looked over Faith’s shoulder, Faith turned following the other girl’s stare to see a strange mushroom-like thing in the middle of the floor. It would have been amusing to see stuff growing in Giles’ house, but as she watched the weird mushrooms opened mouths full of pointy teeth and began to exhale a gas into the room.
Joyce watched, horrified as the two girls scampered out of the lounge room and raced towards the door.
“We have to get out of here!” Faith exclaimed. “Now!”
“Faith!?” Joyce asked outraged at the sight of the slayer who had almost caused Buffy’s death.
“I... I do believe you are correct.” Giles agreed as he raced to the hall cupboard and began pulling out several weapons. He handed the girls a sword and a crossbow each, keeping a double edged axe for himself and handing a long pike to Joyce who paused to admire the engraving along the top.
“We’ll head to the Magic Box.” Giles informed them. “We will be able to arm ourselves more appropriately and there is also a high chance that Buffy herself is there already.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, he opened the door and they raced out onto the street and turned towards the Magic Box.
.............................
“Krreeupp.” Kirrel announced, racing through the graveyard. At a point very near to Spike’s mausoleum the black mage fought hard to hold off several fiends. Fortunately they were weak and, after being impaled several times with large shards of conjured ice they fell, pyreflies rising from them, as they returned to the Farplane in an exquisite display of colour and light. Now that it was safe Kirrel ran over to where she stood. He leapt onto her bare shoulder, claws scrabbling for a grip; she gently plucked him from her shoulder and held him in her hands as she studied the small furry creature.
“You belong to Buffy.” She announced finally, placing him on the ground and watching as he raced to one of the nearby, stone buildings and leapt through the window. Seconds later the door opened and a familiar face looked out.
“Sir Spike.” Lulu bowed.
Spike’s eyes widened at the unexpected sight. “How the bloody hell..?” He began but she quickly cut him off.
“Are you aware that there are several fiends close by?” She asked.
Spike frowned; she couldn’t actually mean real fiends... His line of thought was cut short as a strange creature, unmistakably a fiend, charged towards them. “Bloody hell!” Spike announced, reaching one arm out into the sunlight to pull the black mage inside his crypt before slamming the heavy door in the snarling creature’s face. He kicked some mess out of the way and grabbed a piece of material to wrap around his arm before leading Lulu through the trapdoor, and out into the sewers.
....................
“You big wussy!” The girl announced demeaningly. “It’s only a fiend.” She pulled two objects from the large, yellow pouch slung around her waist. A second later she jumped forward, hacking and slashing at the creature until it fell to the ground. Xander stared in wide eyed awe at the unusual girl as she reached down and offered him a hand, complete with fighting claws. “Come on, lazybones. We need to get to Buffy.”
The sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon, casting an eerie red glow on the street. The strange boy scrabbled to his feet in an ungainly manner.
“This way.” He announced.
.................
“Okay, Willow, I’ll meet you there as soon as I can, can you and Tara make a dash for the school?” Buffy was on the phone to her friend while Kimahri stood anxiously by the doorway staring out into the strange world he had found himself in as if he could conjure up his charge by will alone. “Okay, bye.” Buffy hung up, opening her mouth to speak to the worried guardian as the door flew open.
“Mom!” Buffy raced over to her mother as Giles and the two slayers followed her into the shop. “What happened?”
“It’s nothing, honey. Just a scratch.”
“That is not just a scratch. Giles?”
Giles looked up at her.
“Do we still have the first aid kit?”
“In the training room, yes.” He affirmed.
“Good, take my mother and fix her arm. Faith, Kris, we need to make a dash for
the school, Kimahri’s coming too.” She gestured toward the giant standing near
the door.
Kris looked in awe at Kimahri. Faith frowned slightly. “A demon cat?” She said, sceptically.
Kimahri stared briefly at the newcomer and shook his head at her quickly dismissing her enquiry and returning to stare out the door. “Lulu.” He stated, turning back to face the shop’s interior.
“Lulu?” Buffy asked.
As she said this the door to the storeroom opened and Lulu walked out with all the grace and dignity of a princess.
“Spike!” Buffy said, flinging her arms around his neck.
“I’m here, pet.” Spike held her for a moment. “We’ve got bloody fiends.” He said, finally pulling back.
“Something’s going on.” Buffy said.
“The Hellmouth’s surprise of the month?” Faith suggested.
“Maybe.” Buffy nodded, accepting the likelihood of the suggestion.
“Okay, the guardians and the slayers are going to the school.” She announced. “Anya, you, Giles and my mother stay here and guard the shop.”
Anya nodded in quick agreement, whatever was happening could well endanger not only the shop and its contents but the money as well and she felt far better knowing it wouldn’t be left unguarded.
“Lulu, Kimahri, have either of you seen any of the others?” She asked hopefully. When they replied that they hadn’t she continued. “Okay, have you seen anyone who could have been Spiran?”
Lulu smiled slightly. “I have not, although you yourself appear to be dressed decently.”
Buffy grinned, her smile fading. “Alright, Spike, it’s nearly dark so you can come too.” She pulled a long bag from under the counter, pulling the scythe from it. “Ready?”
The others nodded as the door burst open once more; they all raised various weapons and turned to face an astounded Xander and jubilant Rikku.
“Rikku!” Buffy lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the girl’s neck. Rikku fought not to burst into tears as she delightedly hugged Buffy back.
“Is that my coat?”
......................................
Yuna stirred, her eyelids fluttering open and she looked around at her surroundings. She was lying in some sort of construction site, planks of wood and fresh earth were scattered everywhere, the sky overhead was fairly dark and she could hear sounds, like screaming, in the distance.
“You alright?” A voice asked.
She looked up. “Wakka...” She pulled herself to her feet, looking around. “Where... where are we.”
“I dunno, I fell asleep, and woke up here. It’s not normal, ya?”
“I think, I don’t think this is Spira.” Yuna frowned.
“Well, wherever we are, we’d better go find out.” Wakka said.
............................
“Buffy, honey, are you sure it’s safe?” Joyce asked.
“No, Mom, I’m not, but I’ve got these guys coming with me, I’ll be fine.” Buffy frowned. “When’s dad bringing Dawn back?” He had picked her up earlier, when Buffy was at Willow’s house. It was a father, daughter bonding thing.
“He said the whole weekend.” Joyce said.
“Good.” Buffy nodded. “We should have everything under control by then.”
“Buffy!” A voice came through the door. “Let me in.”
Buffy’s eyes went wide... no way!
“We should let him in.” Giles said.
“But... I don’t want to.” Buffy said. What’s he doing here?
“I can understand why you don’t want him in here...” Giles began.
“So when she gets pissed off at one of us she’ll ignore us during an apocalypse?” Xander asked heatedly.
“Talking of ignoring people...” Anya began.
“There are sometimes times in life when you have to put up with people.” Xander said.
Buffy stared blankly at him. “I put up with you.”
“He could die out there.” Anya observed indifferently.
“I... “
“We don’t have time for this.” Lulu said smoothly. “Buffy, we must go.”
Buffy nodded gratefully, flinging open the door she rushed past the startled form of Riley as they raced towards the school. The slayers and guardians easily destroyed the fiends that blocked their path.
Buffy stopped outside the school and looked up.
“That’s new.” Faith commented.
“Why didn’t my school have one of them?” Kris complained.
“The Farplane?” Buffy spoke in hushed amazement.
“That explains the creepy crawlies.” Spike nodded.
“Is that your friend?” Lulu asked, pointing to where Tara and Willow stood outside of the main building, each shooting small balls of energy at a fiend.
They raced over; Lulu calmly summoned a fireball as they went, disintegrating the creature.
Willow stared wide eyed at the strangely clad and obviously tremendously powerful woman.
“Let’s get inside.” Buffy said.
The group stepped into the dimly lit building, with only the faint glow from the pyreflies that floated throughout the scorched halls to light their way.
“It’s right above the Hellmouth.” Buffy hissed.
“You think there’ll be a big bad, pet?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know, we’ll find out when we get there, I guess.” Buffy answered.
“Let’s go!” Rikku said exuberantly, dancing on the spot.
tbc