Hellmouth Ascendant Trilogy Book 1 Dusk: Chapter 11 Accidents
by Deacon Rayne
Chapter Eleven
Accidents

Giles rubbed his eyes and thought,
“You know, it really may not be as bad as it seems,” he commented mildly.
Everyone gaped at him slack jawed.
“An entire regiment of medieval Jedi got their holy asses kicked by this thing who has had a couple of centuries to get stronger since then and you’re telling me it may not be as bad as it seems?!” Buffy asked thunderstruck, “Clarify, por favor,” Giles cleared his throat,
“Yes, well, but…but you see, that’s what I’m talking about. Dracula said that for the first time in its existence, the Hellmouth was vulnerable yes?” Dusk got it first,
“There was no way for the order to win, then,” Dusk breathed, “Because there was still some of it in its home plane where it couldn’t be harmed,” Giles nodded,
“Precisely. If the order still existed today, I imagine things would be very different,”
“Yeah, for starters, they wouldn’t have been turned into demon chow,” Faith put in snorting. Giles nodded hesitantly,
“Well yes, there is…there is that,” he went back to peering at the screen.
A knocking on the door interrupted their grim reverie.
“I’ll get it,” Giles said straightening immediately and almost dashing to the door, he opened it to encounter a bland-faced man in the familiar brown garb of U.P.S.
“Mr. Rupert Giles?” the deliveryman asked, bored. Giles nodded,
“Yes? Yes, I am he,” he frowned, “May I help you?” The delivery man thrusted a digital clipboard at him,
“Sign on the line please,” the deliveryman instructed him. Puzzled, Giles did so and handed the device back to him. The deliveryman shoved a large parcel into Giles arms,
“Have a nice day, sir,” he turned and left. Giles sighed,
“Pleasure was all mine,” he muttered under his breath, “Americans,” with a sigh of strained patience, he brought the package to a table, setting it down.
“And what do we have here?” Buffy inquired, a little color returning to her face as she walked over to inspect the new arrival. Giles shrugged,
“I have no idea,” he frowned. His tenure on the Hellmouth making him very cautious about opening things he didn’t know a lot about. Buffy leaned over to check its markings,
“It’s postmarked from England,” she informed him. Giles snapped his fingers,
“Of course the diaries!” he immediately set to work on the tape that sealed the box shut. After a few minutes of struggling, he sighed and turned to Buffy imploringly,
“Buffy would you mind?” Keeping her smile in check, Buffy punctured the tape with her fingernails and tore the cardboard box open. Smiling, she held her hand up inspecting the nails, blowing a stray piece of tape from one of her nails. Throwing a wry look, back she called out,
“See Alec? I TOLD you it wasn’t a cheap manicure,” Dusk looked up at her, frowning in puzzlement, before smiling and shaking his head, going back to reviewing the information on the screen with Willow. Giles began taking out several small leather bound sheaf of papers, some with what looked like official seals on them, others that looked to be personalized. He quickly separated them into two stacks,
“This stack,” he gestured to the stack of diaries that bore the official emblem, “are the collected watchers diaries, dating back as far as the tenth century, I’ll review these. You and Faith,” he gestured to a second, far larger stack of diaries, each one a different shape and size. Some bound in leather looking quite old, others, no older than the one Buffy wrote in, “review these. These are the diaries of the slayers that resided in North America and Europe, stretching back to that time,” he took a moment to give Buffy a stern look, “Do I even need to remind you that these are priceless and utterly irreplaceable and that damaging one is grounds for expulsion from the Watchers council?” Buffy smiled wryly,
“Don’t worry Giles, I haven’t forgotten that the punishment for damaging one of your books is a horrible screaming death,” Giles snorted slightly,
“Yes, if you’re fortunate,” he retorted dryly. Buffy chuckled and shook her head, very carefully picking up the first diary and flipping through it with exaggerated care.
“What about that lab equipment from the campus?” Dusk asked, looking up from the computer screen. Giles shook his head,
“Only partial success, I couldn’t bring it here. But I did manage to make a reservation for a little later on tonight,” he replied, reaching over to a shelf and taking down the jar containing the three parasites. They floated, nearly comatose in some sort of clear liquid, he brought the jar over to Dusk for him to examine. Dusk gingerly took the jar and peered into it,
“Charming. What’s this they’re floating in?” Dusk inquired. Giles cleared his throat,
“Alcohol. Apparently the parasites have some sort of allergic reaction to it, thus rendering them insensate,” Dusk nodded,
“Can’t hold their liquor, huh?” Giles smiled slightly at his sons’ ability to take a complex matter and boil it down to a five-second sound bite,
“More or less,” the elder Giles commented. The door to the shop swung open, heads turned as Anya bounded into the room, leading a very weary-looking Xander,
“Good morning everyone!” the normally cranky ex-demon exclaimed cheerfully. Generally confused greetings were returned. Dusk sneaked a peak at Xander, who was shambling along at a pace that would have made a paraplegic sloth seem frisky in comparison
“Xander, you look like you’ve been through war,” Dusk observed dryly, “All of them.” Xander groaned a little and collapsed boneless into a chair. Anya turned to regard Dusk,
“Xander and I had sex many times last night,” she informed him. She frowned in concentration, “I’m not sure how many times, I lost count after five,” she stated matter-of-factly. Dusk snickered as Buffy and Faith laughed aloud. Xander groaned,
“Please, not the ‘S’ word, all right?” Xander begged weakly, Dusk clapped his hands together laughing,
“Xander, you commando of love you!” he laughed as Buffy came over to wipe streaming tears of mirth from her eyes,
“Someone ate their Wheaties yesterday,” she turned to Dusk, “what is it about impending apocalypse that makes everyone so…?” she struggled for the right word.
“Desperately horny?” Faith supplied helpfully, Buffy shot her a look,
“I was going to say ‘distracted’ but thank you for that, Faith,” Faith flashed her a sardonic smile,
“Oh any time B’, I’m here for you sister,” Buffy narrowed her eyes,
“That’s so very comforting,” she retorted before turning back to Xander who looked like he was praying quietly for death.
“It’s a tension releaser,” Dusk commented dryly, “Although looking at Xander here, that might not be readily apparent,” chuckling he addressed the younger man,
“Well Xander if you’re feeling ‘up’ to it why don’t you go limp yourself over to the back room and slip into a nice restful coma?” he suggested wryly. Xander nodded weakly and shambled towards the back. Anya bounded next to him,
“I think I’ll go with you, Xander. I feel like a little…privacy,” she added with a naughty smile, Xanders’ eyes widened in an expression of indescribable terror. Buffy put a hand on Anyas’ shoulder,
“Now, now let’s let Xander have some rest. Remember if you break him, you can’t play with him anymore,” she advised giving Xander a sympathetic look that was laced with deep amusement. Anya sighed, disappointed before nodding,
“I suppose you’re right,” she turned her attention back to her boyfriend, who still looked like he may suffer a massive heart attack at any moment. Anya patted his arm,
“You go back and rest, and I’ll come wake you up in an hour,” she smiled and turned away, completely missing Xander's expression of dread, before slumping his shoulders and marching into the backroom, closing the door behind him morosely. Dusk turned to Anya, amazed,
“What did you DO to him?” he asked incredulously, Anya leaned over and whispered something into his ear. Dusks’ eyes widened in astonishment as he turned to regard the smaller woman with awe and a little fear,
“And he can still WALK?” he exclaimed. He turned his attention back to the closed door of the back room and shook his head in wonder,
“Hardy lad,” he commented, before chortling quietly and heading back to the computer.

A few hours later, Faith and Buffy were poring over the slayer diaries, Dusk and Giles, the watcher diaries and Anya and Willow were still reading the book on St Michael. Buffy sighed resignedly and tossed the slayer diary she was reading onto the table,
“Nothing, not a thing about the Hellmouth or how to fight it. All it talks about is a few vampires and why the Puritans were a bunch of creeps,” Faith looked up from the diary she was reading, which bore a tie-dye cover,
“You should read this one B, it’s from a Slayer during the seventies. Some pretty sordid details here including a tryst with some blond vampire at Woodstock,” she grinned and returned to the diary. Buffy snorted,
“Terrific, so far all these diaries have yielded are editorials and pornography,” she sighed disgustedly then her brain caught up with her,
(Blond vampire…no, it couldn’t be.) She thought. Dusk looked up from the watcher’s diary he was reading,
“Count your blessings sis,” he gestured to the book he held, “this Sir Reginald, goes on and on for pages about what kind of scones go best with what kind of tea,” he sighed and turned to his father, “Was the council always this…dry?” he asked. Giles shrugged,
“I happen to consider what scones go best with what tea very useful knowledge, thank you,” he retorted a little miffed. Faith snorted in derision,
“Yeah, and if we're gonna invite the Hellmouth over for a tea party, we’ll know what to serve it just before it devours the entire world,” Dusk and Willow snickered and even Buffy smiled at this. Anya looked up, a little perplexed,
“We’re serving it scones and tea? I want scones and tea,” she demanded. Buffy sighed and turned to her,
“Anya, it’s metaphorical scones and tea, not real scones and tea,” dejected Anya sat down, crossing her arms,
“I still want scones and tea,” she pouted. Dusk checked his watch,
“It’s just about sundown,“ he turned to look out at the darkening landscape, “which means-” suddenly there was a loud screech of tires from outside, followed by a crash and the sound of water rushing. Dusk leapt to his feet as everyone hurried to the door. He reached it first and jerking it open, took two steps out and stopped dead in his tracks.
There was Angel’s car; half up on the curb with a dented fender and a fire hydrant that had been knocked almost clean off its mountings spraying water like a geyser high into the air in a torrential downpour upon the two furious vampires in the car. Spike was behind the wheel and was engaged in a heated argument with the elder vampire seated beside him,
“My fault?! Listen, you great poof, if YOU hadn’t have jerked the wheel out of my hand to avoid hitting that dog, we wouldn’t BE in this bloody mess!” Spike roared at him. Angel snarled,
“Well if you hadn’t been going seventy-five in a twenty five mile an hour zone, you would have SEEN the dog BEFORE you were right on top of it,” Angel shot back. angrily. Spikes eyebrows rose to form a ‘v’ at his brow in shock before launching into another tirade,
“Do you know what this is?” he gestured to the tape deck, “This is Gary Oldmans’ cover of Sid Vicious’ ‘My Way’ it is NOT a soddin’ twenty-five a mile an hour tune, you flaming nancy-boy!” he retorted angrily. Angel just shook his head in frustration,
“That’s the last time I let you drive,” he growled as he opened the passenger side and slammed it shut as he and Spike both sloshed out of the car and came up to the stunned assemblage at the front door of the shop, soaking wet and glaring daggers at each other. Dusk did his best, but he felt a serious attack of hysterical laughter threatening to wash over him. Taking a deep breath, he regarded the dripping pair,
“So, how was your day?” he asked them politely. They snarled and shoved past him to enter the store. Dusk grinned and regarded the geyser coming out of the street, turning back to his father, he cocked an eyebrow,
“I’ll take care of this, Dad, if you could…” he gestured to Willow, who was still staring at the whole scene with wide-eyes and probably hadn’t heard a word he’d said. Giles instantly understood and taking Willow by the shoulders guided her back into the store. Dusk waited until she was gone before turning to the slayers who were barely controlling impulses to howl with glee,
“Girls? Give a guy a hand?” he asked them, they nodded, laughing quietly and doing their best to avoid getting soaked, carefully picked up the damaged fire hydrant and placed it back on its moorings. The geyser abruptly ceased as the slayers held the hydrant in place against the water pressure coming form below. Dusk knelt by the fire hydrant and extending a finger, conjured a long trail of shadow to slither from his digit and wrap itself firmly around the base of the fire hydrant. There was a slight groan of stressed metal as the tendril tightened around it. Dusk stepped back,
“Okay on three, let it go and jump back, just in case the bond doesn’t hold,” he warned them, “Ready?” they nodded, “Three!” he yelled. They jumped back in unison letting go of the fire hydrant. The bond held and Dusk released a sigh of relief before turning a sardonic grin to the two women,
“Well, if this hero business doesn’t pan out, I can always go into the civil services,” he wisecracked self-deprecatingly. The women chuckled and Faith shook her head,
“D, forget honest work. With your tricks, go into something more lucrative, like robbing Fort Knox or something,” Buffy sent her a disapproving look.
“Faith. Straight and narrow, remember?” she reprimanded the woman, sternly. Faith colored and looked down,
“Sorry, B, didn’t mean anything by it,” she mumbled, downcast, keeping her eyes to the ground. Buffy continued to glare at her, before something in her face changed. The hardness drained from her eyes and she slowly reached out a hand and placed it reassuringly on the younger slayers shoulder.
“I know you didn’t Faith,” she sighed, “Go inside and tell Giles we’re good to go here,” Faith looked up at her, and smiling gratefully, placed hand over Buffy’s and smiled crookedly,
“I’m on it,” she reassured her. Squeezing the other slayer’s hand she headed back into store. Buffy smiled slightly and turned back to Dusk, who was regarding her with deep admiration.
“What?” she asked a little embarrassed. Dusk came closer to her,
“I’m very proud of you, Buffy. That was done as well as anyone could ask,” Buffy felt a lump in her throat at the intensity of those words. She nodded,
“Yeah well, she STILL isn’t right about the Skipper and Gilligan,” she quipped, doing her best not to show just how much his words had touched her. Dusk smiled knowingly and clasped her hand in his,
“Yeah well, I always pictured Gilligan with Mary-Anne,” he replied smirking. Buffy eyes, widened in shock,
“Mary-ANNE? The professor's squeeze?” she exclaimed shocked, “you’re deranged,” she pronounced gravely. Dusk laughed and wrapped an arm around the slayers slim shoulders, kissing her head affectionately,
“Probably,” he conceded, “It does seem to run in this family,” he teased. She gasped, outraged and socked him in the stomach. He exhaled hard and rubbed his stomach as she divested herself of his arm and walked haughtily, back into the store, nose up in the air. Dusk chuckled,
“Spike has got his hands full, that’s for sure,” he commented laughingly, he rubbed his stomach and followed his sister.
Dusk entered the store to see Angel and Spike toweling their hair dry and both dressed in tweed suits, looking miserable. Dusk's hand flew to his mouth as he tried unsuccessfully to keep from laughing,
“Trying to make a fashion statement, guys?” he quipped. Buffy, who had a huge grin on her face answered,
“Their clothes were soaked, and this was all Giles had lying around,” she offered as an explanation. Giles turned,
“What’s wrong with these suits? This is authentic tweed, it’s the very epitome of understated grace,” he suddenly smiled, looking a little forlorn, “as I remember, it’s also handy for stopping crossbow bolts,” he whispered, before wiping something from his eye mumbling about the dry air causing his allergies to act up. Spike snorted,
“Yeah, it makes a statement all right, the statement being ‘I couldn’t get a date to save my life” Spike bit out, fingering the lapel of the tweed jacket with obvious disdain. Buffy chuckled and draped herself across his lap,
“Oh come on honey, it doesn’t look that bad,” his black eyes widened in disbelief,
“Well okay, it does,” she conceded, “but that’s okay, you’re not after dates,” she snuggled against him, “you’ve got me, remember?” She asked adorably. Despite his best efforts, Spike wasn’t quite able to keep a grin off his face,
“How could I forget?” he bemoaned quietly. Buffy smiled,
“Oh, shut up,” she admonished lightly, kissing him. Spike didn’t bother arguing as he held her in his arms. Angel turned away from the display, an expression of deeply buried pain flashing across his face. Dusk noticed it and sent the vampire a sympathetic look before he turned and looked up at Willow,
“Lover? We’re going to need your biology know-how at the campus lab,” he looked back at the jar on the table with the parasites, still floating comatose within, “I have no idea how to dissect the little buggers and I wouldn’t know what to look for if I did,” Willow get to her feet, a teasing smile on her lips,
“Ah men, give them something to pummel and they’re all speed ahead, but give them something requiring a little knowledge and they’re lost in the woods,” she grinned and picked up her bag. Dusk favored her with a condescending grin,
“Whatever you say, princess. Now that you’ve trashed my sex, will you come help?” Willow pretended to consider it before answering,
“I suppose, but you’re wrong though,” Dusk frowned, puzzled.
“Regarding?” he asked her. She grinned naughtily,
“Me trashing your sex. I was trashing your gender,” she continued to grin at him flirtatiously, “I’ve got no complaints about your sex,” she finished wickedly.
“See. that’s what I’m talking about!” Buffy suddenly cried out, “What IS it about the end of the world that gets everyone all hot and bothered?” she demanded.
“It’s a tension releaser, luv. Everyone knows that,” Spike replied, smugly. She turned to him, still lounging on his lap.
“Yeah I’ve heard that,” chuckling she turned back to Dusk, “You need anything in the way of muscle?” she asked. Dusk shook his head,
“Probably, but it’s all right, you and Spike stay here. Relax for a spell. I’ll bring Faith with me,” he looked at Faith, who nodded in agreement. He then turned to Anya who was busy playing solitaire on Willow’s now-vacated computer, and apparently not doing very well,
“Anya?” There was no response,
“Anya?” he asked again. Anya began muttering aloud,
“Red and black why does it have to be only red and black. I’ve got a six here and a five there, why-”
“ANYA!” the whole room yelled in unison, her head shot up,
“WHAT?!” she demanded. Dusk sighed,
“Are you prepared to contact D’Hoffryn tonight?” he asked her. She frowned,
“Oh, is that all?” she shrugged, “Sure, as soon as I get the necessary spell components. Giles pointed at a shelf,
“Everything you need should be there, Anya, do you have the glyph?” he asked her. Anya snorted derisively and reached into her pocket, holding it up for all to see. Giles nodded, “Well then, I suppose that’s all we need,” reaching out he collected the specimen jar as Dusk shrugged his duster on. They turned to go, when the door to the back room opened and a groggy, but much healthier looking Xander emerged. He rubbed his eyes, and noticing that Anya had her attention firmly fixed on the computer in front of her, sighed in palpable relief. Dusk grinned at him,
“Xander, feel like a little Bio 101?’ he asked him wryly. Xander stopped to consider, he could either go to that…or wait for Anya to get bored with the game and turn her attentions back to him.
“Come on, let’s go. Time’s a-wasting,” he declared, bounding up the stairs and out of the store, halfway to the Giles’ car already. Dusk chuckled and joined the rest of the group as they turned to go.
“Faith!” Buffy called out, Faith turned to her. Buffy got off Spikes’ lap and reached over to a wall, taking down a small axe. She tossed it to the other slayer, who caught it deftly. Faith frowned at her,
“What’s this for, B?” she asked.
“In case you run into something with a worse attitude than yours,” Buffy replied. Faith grinned,
“Worse attitude than mine? Not possible,” she responded cockily as she touched the axe to her forehead in a mock salute, “Thanks B,” Buffy waved it off.
“Forget it, just return it one piece,” Buffy replied before settling back against Spike. Faith nodded an affirmative and left, followed by Willow and Giles. Dusk, sending another look of pride at the Slayer, closed the door behind them.

“Well, it’s a parasite,” Willow declared, taking her eyes away from the microscope. She had one of the tiny creatures under a high-powered microscope and was studying it intently. She shook her head in bewilderment, “but it’s not like any I’ve ever seen before,” Giles frowned at her,
“How so?” he inquired. Willow sighed,
“Well,” she began, “for starters, it’s an endoparasite. It’s designed for living inside a host body and it comes equipped for the trip. Its developing cells are protected by a cyst wall like a tapeworm's is,”
They were in the campus laboratory, the lights shut off so that Willow wouldn’t have to deal with glare. Willow sat on a stool in front of a lab table, Dusk and Giles beside her and Xander and Faith sitting on desks behind them. Giles nodded,
“Protecting it from its host's immune system, interesting,” he observed. Willow nodded,
“It gets better, it’s got teeth. Normally, only ectoparasites, parasites that live outside the body, like leeches, come equipped with any sort of teeth or barbs,” she frowned and continued, “Now’s here’s where it gets really weird-,”
“We weren’t already at ‘really weird?’ ” Xander quipped sardonically; Willow shot him a patiently amused look before continuing,
“It’s a permanent parasite, which means that it’s meant to live out its life span within a host, but it also contains characteristics of a facultative parasite, which means it can survive just fine without one,” Giles frowned,
“How can that be?” he asked.
“It can’t” Willow replied simply, “This thing shouldn’t exist, period. But it does,”
“Leave it to the Hellmouth to repeal the laws of nature,” Dusk added dryly.
“It’s repealing more than that,” Willow put in, “this thing is shedding its surface cells and replacing them with polarized silicon,” Xander frowned,
“You mean like that stuff they put in....” he put his hands to his chest signifying breasts, Willow rolled her eyes,
“Not silicone gel, Xander, silicon, an organic polyurethane substance that’s very durable,” she frowned, “and also not supposed to exist in the natural world, at least not in a living organism.”
“Isn’t silicon supposed to be flame-resistant?” Dusk asked, Willow nodded and patted him on the head,
“You get a cookie, lover,” she smiled prettily at him, he smirked and gestured for her to continue, she nodded, “Yep, silicon is supposed to be flame resistant, but I’m examining the cells that haven’t been shed yet, and THEY contain high traces of methane, which is anything BUT flame-resistant,” she leaned forward and looked back into the microscope, “my guess is, is that this change was triggered by its exposure to air,” Faith frowned,
“So hang on, these things have skin made up of stuff that burns, because they live in peoples bodies and don’t need to worry about fire,” she furrowed her brow, “but when you take them out of people, they shed their skin and replace it with stuff that doesn’t burn?” Willow nodded,
“More or less,” Giles shook his head in amazement,
“That’s a remarkable defense system. That sort of biological reconfiguration is unheard of, especially at the rate that this seems to be capable of,” he turned to Willow, “Have you begun the internal probe,” Willow rose from the scope,
“Just about to start. Alec, can you hand me that scalpel there? That small one?” she pointed to a tray of instruments, without looking up from the microscope. Dusk selected the correct one and placed it handle-first into her outstretched hand,
“Thanks,” she replied. Gingerly, she moved the edge of the blade to the creature and began a small incision across the length of its body…and cried out suddenly as a tiny stream of black liquid, shot out of the wound and splashed against the scalpel. The creature, suddenly very much awake, shrieked and thrashed against the constraints of the microscope tray as Willow jumped back, dropping the now-smoking scalpel. Dusk pushed her behind him, as he eyed the microscope warily,
“Good lord, Willow, are you all right?” Giles asked. Willow swallowed and nodded,
“I’m all right, I didn’t get any on my hand,” she looked down at the scalpel on the floor now corroded and useless,” but I think I may want thicker gloves to continue this,” Dusk turned to face her,
“What’s going to keep that stuff from eating through the gloves?” he asked.
“Most lab gloves are made of an anti-corrosive latex. Unless this stuff is as powerful as molecular acid, and if that were the case, the entire microscope would be melted into slag,” she gestured and shook her head, “No, I’ll be okay,” she smiled reassuringly up at him and patted his face, “But it was very brave of you to protect me from the big bad leech,” Dusk snorted and kissed her hand,
“Hey, I’m always ready to protect you from things that I outweigh by several factors,” Willow chuckled and gingerly poked at the ruined scalpel with the toe of her sneaker before deeming it safe to pick up. The blade was pitted and charred, Xander whistled,
“Acid for blood, cool,” he smiled at Willow, “Hey Will, remember ‘Aliens’?” he asked her. Willow shuddered a little,
“Yeah, I was seven when you talked me into watching that, I had nightmares for a week,” she replied. Dusk chuckled and took the scalpel from her, tossing it into the garbage. Another tinny screech from the microscope brought them back to reality. He turned,
“Dad, could you…?” Giles already had a syringe fill of alcohol at the ready,
“Have one for the road,” Giles whispered as he inserted the needle into the creature and pushed the plunger down. The creature stopped thrashing and lay still. Giles gingerly removed the syringe, whose needle tip was now melted into slag. With a look of disgust, he placed the syringe into a medical waste disposal bin and turned back to the group, “It’s been rendered docile, though I don’t see how you’ll be able to continue the dissection, Willow, if its blood can eat through the metal scalpels,” Willow nodded as she pulled on another pair of latex gloves with an elastic snap,
“I wasn’t planning on using metal scalpels,” she replied, looking around the lab, before finding a tray with several instruments made of some sort of black plastic. Picking the tray of tools up, she brought it over to the table, “These are made of anti-corrosive plastic, sort of like the gloves. We used them once when we dissected a cow’s stomach. These proved pretty resistive to the cows digestive acids,” Xander made a face,
“You cut open a cow's stomach?” he blanched, “Wills, you need a hobby, STAT,” he informed her. She ignored him and placed a small black plastic Petri dish under the parasite, before taking scalpel in hand, and this time very slowly, drawing the tip of the blade across the length of the parasite. Taking a pair of tweezers, she gently peeled back the flaps of skin to study its workings,
“It’s an incomplete organism” she informed the group, “It can survive on its own, but its really just part of a larger organism.”
“Like the golobulan that spat these things at me in the first place?” Dusk asked, Willow nodded,
“I think so, but since I don’t have a sample of the golubulans' genetic tissue, I can’t be certain,” she frowned inhaling, “Anyone else smell that?” Dusk understand instantly,
“Methane,” he focused on the creature in the dish, “coming from it?” he gestured to the microscope. She nodded,
“It’s weird, it doesn’t have anything in the way of organs, just a lot of rotted tissue. It’s like it’s in a state of continuous decomposition,” she lifted her head from the eyepiece and made an adjustment to it, “let’s see what an examination at the cellular level reveals,” she leaned back into the eyepiece and whistled, “Whoa.” Dusk frowned,
“What is it?” he asked.
“Well at first glance it looks like your average animal cells. Mitochondria, nucleus, everything pretty much standard, but if you take a closer look,” she squinted her eyes, “there’s something that sort of resembles a collection of thylakoid membranes, which are supposed contain chlorophyll, the key component in the process of photosynthesis,” Faith spoke up,
“That thing plants do in order to eat?” Willow nodded,
“Yeah,” she agreed hesitantly, “except, I’m getting a good look at this chlorophyll and it does not look like the type that can utilize sunlight. This stuff seems more conducive towards a kind of chemosythesis. A variation of photosynthesis, no sunlight required,”
“Makes sense, if this thing has anything in common with the Hellmouth, sunlight’s probably a bad thing,” Dusk commented thoughtfully.
Willow stood up, taking her eyes away from the microscope “The whole thing just doesn’t add up,” Giles cleared his throat,
“So what we have here is a parasite, that either live in a body, or on it’s own, can shed its skin to match its environment, and has characteristics of both plant AND animal cells?” Willow nodded,
“And that’s also part of larger organism, and that seems to be in a perpetual state of decay,” Willow shook her head, “I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Dusk snorted,
“This isn’t exactly National Geographic material,” he commented wryly. Xander perked up,
“Hey, I’ve heard of something like it,” everyone turned to look at him, he colored a little,
“Well, in this movie, I saw last year, ‘The Faculty’, I think it was called, it had these parasites in it that could control human beings. But really all they were, were these things that were spat out of this really big monster,” he thought hard, “I’m not sure but I think one the guys in the movie, did this same thing we’re doing, and HE said it was an incomplete organism too,” Xander finished. Faith snorted,
“So what?” she retorted, “I keep getting told I look the kid from that ‘True Lies’ flick so movies really don’t count as reliable sources of info,” Xander shrugged,
“Hey, I’m just saying where I heard it from,” he replied defensively. Dusk held up a hand,
“How did the movie end Xander?” Dusk asked. Xander thought,
“The kid killed the big monsters and that caused all the little monsters that had taken over all the people to die,” he grinned, “and the school nerd got the hottie,” he added smiling. Faith scoffed wryly,
“Over-relate much?” Xander ignored her as Dusk pursed his lips in thought. Giles regarded him,
“Son, what are you getting at?” Dusk shook his head,
“I’m not sure, but if this is an incomplete organism, that we should find whatever spawned it, the golobulan or whatever and get rid of it, that should kill off anyone who’s had these things put in them,” Faith frowned,
“Yeah, but D, we haven’t run into anyone who’s had the bite put on them, so what difference does it make?” she commented. Dusk turned to his father,
“Dad you remember what Dracula said about what had happened to everything that had lived underground? What had happened to those that didn’t get away in time?” Giles nodded slowly,
“He said that had been made part of a larger whole, unwillingly,” he got it instantly and regarded his son with a mixture of paternal pride and astonishment, “You think this was what he was referring to? That they’d been somehow infected with these necro-parasites?” Dusk nodded slowly,
“That’d be my guess yeah,” he turned to Willow, “but there’s only one way to know for sure. Introduce one of the parasites to a living host” Willow didn’t like the look in his eye,
“Alec? What are you thinking?” she asked a little worried, he caught her worried look and smiled reassuringly,
“Relax, nothing overdramatic, but do we have any rats in here?” Willow frowned and nodded,
“Yes, but they’re the property of the school,” Dusk waved her protestations away,
“I’ll spring for some new ones, where are they?” Willow turned to the lab door,
“Down the hall about three doors to the left,” she answered and gestured. Dusk turned to Faith,
“Feel like a little B and E?” he asked her. She grinned,
“Always,” she replied as she hopped from her perch on the desk and followed Dusk out of the lab. They came back later, Faith bearing a cage, containing a large white rat.
“Here is our lucky contestant for ‘You bet your life’,” Faith piped in, setting the cage down next to the microscope. Xander frowned,
“Huh?” he asked, confused.
“This little guy is going to be taking a serious detour on the evolutionary ladder,” Dusk explained, Willow whimpered.
“You’re going to infect him with the parasites? That’s…that’s…” she sputtered.
“Necessary,” Dusk gently soothed her, “we need to know what we’re up against,”
“Yeah, but he’s so small and furry and he’s white,” she protested weakly. Dusk nodded,
“Okay, I see your point. Would you rather not be here?” Willow nodded emphatically. Dusk chuckled,
“Okay, why don’t you and Xander go raid the vending machine for Oreos and Doritos? Dad, Faith and I will take care of things here,” he suggested. Willow nodded,
“I’m not normally squeamish or anything, and if he was a frog I’d be all in favor of demonic infestation,” she gave Dusk an apologetic look, before gesturing to the rats in their cages, “But he’s FURRY!” she exclaimed, “I like furry things!” she offered piteously. Xander chuckled and threw an arm around her shoulders,
“This is a throwback from the Oz the teenage werewolf boyfriend days,” he quipped, Willow elbowed him,
“Just for that you can buy your own darn Oreos,” she retorted before giving Dusk a quick apologetic kiss, Dusk smiled, letting her know all was forgiven, she smiled back gratefully and headed out, Xander following close behind,
“Ah, come on Wills, I was joking! Wills!” he cried as he exited the room. Dusk shook his head chuckling, before returning to the business at hand,
“All right, shall we?” he asked. Giles cleared his throat,
“I suppose so,” he murmured. Unscrewing another specimen jar, he carefully removed one of the sedate parasites and placed it in the cage with the rat before screwing the cap back on tightly and setting the jar back on a table. The rat sniffed it curiously as the three of them hunched near the cage to watch intently. Faith turned,
“So how long is this gonna tak-“ With a screech, the parasite lashed out catching the rats throat with a vicious bite, sinking its teeth deep into it. Blood spurted out as the rat wailed, as the three of them jumped back,
“Jesus!” Faith cried out, “Holy…” she shook her head, Giles and Dusk regained their composure, and leaned forward, although a great deal further away that they had been originally, as the parasite gorged on the rats’ blood. With a gurgle, the rat collapsed and lay still,
“Cute little buggers aren’t they?” Dusk commented dryly. Giles mumbled something as they watched, the parasite began to burrow under the dead rats skin, and they watched the skin bulge sickeningly along the trachea and under the rats chin. Before it proceeded to slither back along the rats’ spine, fur and skin surging and rolling before settling at the base of its spine. For a moment, the rat was still. Faith swallowed through dry lips,
“Is that it?” she asked. Suddenly the rats eyes shot open and bulged nearly out of their sockets, no longer albino red, but a deep putrescent yellow-black utterly pupil-less, it screeched as its skin began to stretch and writhe,
“Not even close,” Dusk replied, watching the rats’ metamorphosis with sick horror. The rats fur molted and fell from its body as its face began to elongate to accommodate the rows of dripping needle teeth that had grown in through its gums, its paws thickened and widened as the skin, now mottled and festering with decay stretched tightly over the bones, which popped and groaned wetly. It snarled, a sound far too deep to be coming from its body and gripped the bars of the cage, its paws gaining extra digits to form something that nearly resembled hands, each finger ending in a wickedly curved claw. The rats body continued to swell and grow as it thrashed from side to side. It was now the size of a large beaver and quickly running out of room in the cage. The three people in the room, began to back away from the cage in unison,
“Uh, D? How’s about we pull the plug on the demonic Mickey Mouse over here?” Faith suggested sounding a little worried.
“Yeah that sounds like a good idea,” Dusk replied, “Dad, get the crossbow,” Giles turned to his son,
“Crossbow? What crossbow?” he demanded. Dusk jerked his head to gape at his father.
“You didn’t bring the crossbow? How could you not bring the crossbow? You always bring a crossbow,” he yelled.
“I don’t always bring a bloody crossbow!” Giles yelled back.
“Will you shut up about the stupid crossbow?!” Faith yelled at them.
“Look out!” Giles yelled pushing the others out of the way, as the creature reared and smashed clean through the front of the cage, careening over their heads, snapping at them with drooling jaws as it landed in the shadows of the lab, behind some specimen bottles and disappeared from sight.
“Where is it? Where’d it go?” Faith demanded. Dusk spun around and pointed at her,
“Get the lights!” he yelled, Faith nodded and slowly backed towards the wall with the light switches, her eyes sweeping back and forth scanning the darkness for the creature. Her back collided with something solid and she yelled and spun around, fists raised, Giles threw his hands up to shield himself,
“It’s me, it’s me!” he cried. Faith lowered her hands, relieved, offering him an apologetic smile
“Brings back memories, don’t it?” she asked him wryly, he snorted,
“The box of Gavrok all over again,” he replied dryly. He carefully moved past her, his eyes moving from floor to ceiling cautiously. Faith continued backing towards the wall, her fingers scraped against the light switches, condensation dripped from a water pipe along the ceiling dripped on her hand, making her fingers slippery as she spun around and flipped the light switches on, florescent lights flooded the room. Faith smiled tightly and turned to address the group,
“Well, that problem solv-“ she stopped as she examined her fingers. They weren’t smeared with condensation, but instead with a foul-smelling clear ichor. Looking up sharply, she got a glimpse of a large silhouette in one of the florescent lights. Without any warning, the rat-beast exploded through the light, showering them all with sparks and glass. Faith had no time to get out of the way as the rat-beast, now no smaller than three feet in diameter, dove at her, snarling with dripping claws and fangs.
“Faith!” Dusk cried, diving into a shadow and coming out next to her to push her out of the way, knocking her to the floor as the rat-creature sailed over her head to slam into Dusk, sending him sprawling to his back, the hissing creature atop him, biting and clawing. Dusk struggled to get a grip on the abominations head to keep it from tearing his throat out as it drooled viscous slime across his face. He nearly gagged at the stench coming from its mouth, the smell of rot was overpowering. The beast thrashed this way and that, trying to dig its claws into his skin, but Dusk kept writhing about on the floor, dodging it as it continued to hiss and snap at him.
“Get this bloody thing off of me!” he screamed still dodging its snapping jaws.
“Faith!” Giles cried out tossing her the axe from off the desk, she caught it and did a handspring to her feet. She took three quick strides, bringing her into striking distance with the snarling beast, which was obsessed with devouring Dusk. She raised the axe over her head,
“Hey Mickey!” she called out. The creature jerked its head to snarl at her, drooling slime. Then its soulless eyes widened as Faith brought the axe down hard across its neck, severing its head cleanly from its body, spraying Dusk with ichor. The head flew away from its body and splattered against the wall with a nauseating crunch. Rather than calming with the loss of its head, the beast frenzied, as vines dripping slime erupted from the severed neck. The vines writhed and cracked in the air. Faith, looking a little stunned, spun and delivered a punishing roundhouse kick to the creature, and with a tearing of fabric its claws were ripped from their purchase on Dusks jeans and duster, it flew from him to slam against the wall, falling to the floor on its back next to the remains of it's own severed head. It’s paws scrabbling madly in the air; it quickly righted itself and charged Dusk madly, whom was crab walking away from it as fast as he could. He turned around and dove for a grip upon a lab bench, his fingers stroking the metal valve of a gas jet. An idea struck him, snatching the jar containing the last parasite from the table; he turned and hurled it at the rapidly closing creature. The jar shattered against it, stunning it slightly. He twisted the gas valve all the way to the right and, with a grunt of exertion, leapt over the bench to come to stand behind the gas valve, which was already spewing invisible propane gas into the air.
Faith, seeing what he was getting at, dug into her pockets and extracted a small lighter. She caught his eye,
“Catch!” she yelled at him, sending the silver lighter across the room, Dusk lurched forward, picking his feet clean off the floor, balancing one hand on the desk, the other outstretched desperately to catch it. It landed solidly in his palm, and with a snap of his wrist, the lid opened, the wick flared to life. He brought his head around to target the writhing creature, which had shrugged off the blow and was coming full-speed at him, the vines sprouting from its neck writhing madly. With a vicious grin, he placed the lighter flame directly into the path of the spewing gas jet…and with a roar of combusting gas, a gout of flame erupted from the nozzle to engulf the creature. It screeched high and loud, standing up on its hind legs as its body continued to be assaulted by the make shift flamethrower.
“Alec!” a familiar voice cried out, Dusk craned his head to peer over the flaming creature in horror as he realized that Willow had dashed into the room, and directly into the path of the flaming creature's death throes. She screamed in terror and tried to back away from it, tripping over her feet and falling to the floor. The flaming monstrosity loomed over her, the stench of burning flesh and rot gagging her. She threw her arms up in a futile attempt to shield herself.
A black barbed spear tip, erupted from the things chest, sending bits of flaming debris to spill across Willow, who yelped and scooted away on her backside, swatting at the fiery debris. The spear tip unfolded, becoming a four-prong hook, and with a jerk, ripped the dying monster back into the lab, revealing Dusk, eyes swirling with darkness, one arm outstretched from which the harpoon emerged from, the other wrapped around the shadowy cord, dragging the creature away from his beloved. The creature fell onto it's back, as Dusk wrapped the tendril around his free arm, drawing the line tight, constraining the creature. He gestured to Faith, who brought the axe down again and again, chopping into it with slayers strength. Finally, with a gurgle, it lay still. Giles rushed over with a fire extinguisher and put out the flaming corpse. Dusk retracted the shadowy tentacle under his skin and rushed to Willow, sliding across the floor and gathering her up in a tight embrace kissing her head fiercely.
“Are you all right?” he asked fervently. She nodded and sniffled a little, looking into his face,
“I’m all right, just a little scorched,” then she brushed her hair out of her eyes and gasped, her face tight with fear, and with a start, Dusk realized that his eyes had not yet reverted back to normal. They were still pools of darkness. Hurriedly, he let the power drain out of him, causing the darkness to do likewise, but the damage was done.
“What are you?” she whispered, terrified, pulling away from his embrace.
“Human…mostly,” he sighed resignedly, “I was infused with demonic essence in utero. The essence of a darkness demon, I’ve had it all of my life,” he looked up at her imploringly, “Willow, I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid that if you knew, you’d count it against me. Especially with what happened with Oz and Tara,” he sighed and hung his head; “I didn’t want you to know because I didn’t want you to consider me less than human,” he looked away from her, “less than a man,”
“Who else knows?” she asked him quietly, he flinched at the tone in her voice, but accepted it stoically,
“My father, of course, and Buffy and Spike, they’ve seen me use my powers in combat, and Faith, who saw me use them to break into City Hall,” he answered.
“So, in other words everyone but me,” she retorted bitterly. He looked up,
“Everyone whose opinion I could shrug off” he bit out angrily, “everyone who could look at me like I was some kind of abomination, like that thing in there,” he gestured to the still smoking corpse, which was being cleaned up by Giles and Faith, “and that I would still be able to live with myself,” he looked up at her. She pursed her lips together,
“Alec. You deliberately hid this from me. It’s going to take some time for me to get over it,” Dusk sighed and hung his head, beaten. Giles opened his mouth to say something,
“Willow, I hardly think-” she silenced him with a glare. Faith tried,
“Yeah Red come on-” she too was silenced as Dusk hung his head. The uncomfortable silence dragged on.
“Okay, I’ve gotten over it,” Willow replied perkily. Dusk looked up just in time to be bowled over by Willow as she kissed his mouth hard. Dusk wrapped his arms around her as Giles and Faith exchanged looks of stunned disbelief. The kiss dragged on and on, something endless and beautiful, before the lovers parted. Willow giggled at the stunned disbelief on Dusk’s face. He found his voice,
“So you mean, you and I are cool?” he asked, not daring to believe it.
“We’re so very much more than cool. You did just save me from a horribly flamey death,” she replied, her voice warm and inviting. Dusk slapped a hand against his forehead and laughed, dropping his head back against the tile, in sheer amazement at this woman. Looking up, he noticed, upside-down, no less, Faith and Giles looking down at him, regarding him with deep amusement. Willow slowly got off him and helped him up off the tile floor.
“After all, I did date a werewolf,”
“Yeah, and a chick,” Faith put in, Willow looked up to regard her surprised,
“How did you-”
“Xander filled me in,” Faith explained. Willow frowned and growled in annoyance,
“I’m going to turn him into a newt, I love him, but I swear I’m going to,” she seethed. Dusk laughed and wrapped an arm around her,
“Do YOU feel like dealing with Anya afterwards?” Willow shook her head,
“Nuh-uh, not me. No way,” she replied vehemently. Faith chuckled before looking around,
“Uh guys? I hate to ruin this Taster's Choice moment. But shouldn’t we get going?” she asked. Dusk nodded,
“Yeah, let’s get gone,” he turned to his father who stood there with a puzzled expression on his face,
“You all set, Dad?” he asked. Giles frowned,
“ ‘Taster's Choice moment?' ” he asked querulously. Dusk stopped a moment,
“Yeah you see there were these commercials with this guy and, on second thought, forget it. I’ll explain it to you later,” clapping his fathers’ shoulder, he headed out the door with Faith and Willow. Willow reached out to grip his hand and give it a tight squeeze.
“I rather like Taster's Choice,” Giles was heard to comment as they exited the building.


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