Fic: Written Upon The Sands Of Time 7/8 Dune/Buffy
Written Upon the Sands of Time. By: Lopaka Tanu Fandom: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer/Dune. Pairing: Xander/Angel, mentions of Paul/Duncan - Paul/Otheym. Rating: Adult Slash. Archive: Yes, just tell me. Warnings: Violence, Language, Character Death, Sexual Content. Disclaimer: I do not own either Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or Dune. Summary: After Halloween, Xander feels like he is losing his mind. When deaths of mysterious origins happen, will he remember what is so familiar about them in time to save those close to him? Xander couldn't remember how long he had been going or where when next he came around in his own mind. For so long he had been simply caught up in the sensation of moving that all else had ceased to exist. At first he wasn't quite sure what it had been that dragged him from his innersense. Slowly he realized he was on his back staring up at the sun with some sort of blob moving over him.
He frowned trying to clear his eyes to make out what it was. The blob resolved itself in to a person. It was then that sound returned to him and he heard sirens. His mind rebooting to the last conscious thoughts focused on the part that it was probably the police. Someone had allerted them to his presence.
Rolling to his feet, Xander shook the dirt and various plant matter from his cloak. He adjusted his cloak and shoved the person away from him. He wasn't about to let anyone restrain him so the cops could haul him away for saving their sorry lives. Glaring at the woman as she tried to grab him again, he screached at her.
Xander jumped on top of her car, crushing the hood under him before using it to launch himself on a near by roof. From there he ran down main street over the buildings towards the factory block at the end of the street. As he jumped for another roof, he shook his head in anger. The people in Sunnydale were too dumb to realize what was going on around them, but when it came to some concerned citizens doing a little something illegal to save them they were ready to turn on them.
It wasn't fair.
Buffy had died a hero and all they could do was tarnish her name as a criminal. They planned on doing the same to him if they could catch him. It was then Xander realized he had been running, but there was no clear destination for him. What was he going to do now that the whole town thought he was a criminal terrorist?
Coming to a stop, Xander held himself up on the final ledge before the warehouse district. Just what was the point of running? There was no place he could go that he would want to with the cops after him. Lowering himself to his knees, Xander glared around him at the world. "What a shitty place."
"While it is far from Caladan, it isn't exactly Ghedi Prime either." Turning so he could sit on the ledge next to Xander, the figure place a hand on top of the boy's head. His gloved fingers slipped under the hood to run through dark hair.
Xander turned in to the touch, wrapping his arms around the waist of his mentor. "Duncan."
"Yes, young Paul?" The feel of the strong arms around his body made the man hesistate in answering. His body yearned to take the young man in his arms, to place a kiss on the skin at the base of his throat, yet he resisted. This was neither the time or place to share a private moment with his charge. "What of this place?"
Xander was too far caught up in the strong, familiar scent of his mentor to answer the question with any conscious effort. Time seemed to slow down again. Winds picked up and blew back his hood. Closing his eyes against the breeze, Xander breathed heavily from suppressed emotions. After the breeze had passed, Xander opened them again to see the world around them had changed.
He was still holding his combat instructor about the waist as he sat on a ledge, but they were no longer in that awful place. About them were the castle walls of his home on Caladan. Familiar Atreides banners adorned the great halls, illuminated under suspensor lights. They sat upon a window ledge in the great room before the Duke's private chambers.
Pressing his face in the green uniform of Duncan, Xander sighed with relief. "It was all just a bad dream."
"I am afraid not." Finally giving in to the urge, Duncan forced Xander to release him. He pulled the boy up so they were face to face. "You can not live in a dream world, Paul."
"I can't take it there, it isn't home to me." A stubborn streak made Xander flare his nostrils and try to step away from his mentor. The strong fingers upon his back made him stay.
"Close your eyes." He shushed the boy with a finger over his lips. "Just do it." When Xander complied, he leaned across the short space seperating them and pressed his lips against Xanders. The warmth of Xander's relieved exhale blew through their lips opening them further in invitation. Taking advantage of them, Duncan wrapped his arms firmly around Xander's waist.
Xander let the older man have control of the kiss. The pleasure of knowing he could let go made him light headed. Eventually, he was forced to break the kiss when a muscle twinged in his neck from prolonged use. Smiling against the other's lips, Xander opened his eyes. The sight of brown eyes zapped all thought but outrage.
He was about to go for his knife when the memory of those brown eyes came to mind. "Deadboy!" Glancing about him, Xander noted the stars had come out and the sun gone down. "Where are we?"
Shuddering, Angel backed away from Xander. "I'm not sure." He was too lost to think about what had been happening. It just felt off, all of it.
"This is just great." It hurt to look at the other man, he wasn't what Xander wanted, but his body still literally shook with need. He found himself reaching out to touch Angel. Forcing his arm down, Xander swallowed hard. "Uh... I think we had better find out and how we got here."
"Good idea." Pulling his coat back up from his arms and rebuttoning his shirt, Angel glared at Xander. His skin still tingled from the warm touches of the boy's hands. Angel licked his lips, then frowned. "Are you hurt?"
"Now that you mention it." Xander's hand went to the area above his his nipple and massaged it. Feeling bare skin, he glanced down in shock and found his shirt hanging open and the cloak bunched up at his feet. "What did you do to me, Deadboy?" Upon opening his shirt, his head shot up and he glared at Angel. "You bit my nipple!"
Angel backed up a step, raising his hand to ward off Xander. "That's not true, I would remember doing that!"
"There are fang marks around my nipple! There isn't any other vampires around that have been kissing me, it had to be you." Opening his shirt, he displayed the offended flesh to the vampire. "You bit me! I am not a chew toy!"
"I know I didn't, you know how I know? Well, I'll tell you. I'm not flat on my back, that's how I know." Seeing Xander's reaction change from one of outrage to something Angel wasn't ready to go in to at the moment, Angel pointed at his own mouth. "Last time I bit you I was paralyzed for three hours. Your blood is some how toxic to me. So see, see! I'm not... not with you... I would never give you a love bite!"
"Love bite?" Smirking, Xander crossed his arms until he hit the sore nipple then unfolded them. With nothing else to do, he started to redress himself. "You bit me. Admit it, you were caught up in the throws of passion and bit me."
"I was not!" Angel's voice squeaked, causing him to grow angry. It wasn't a truth, he wasn't feeling weak, in fact the only thing he felt was the need to throttle the annoying boy. "What the hell is going on here, Xander? The last thing I remember is looking forward to a sun rise then nothing."
That made the humor slip from Xander's face. "Still trying to kill yourself?"
"No." Making a face, Angel turned his back on the kid. What the hell was wrong with him, he was acting just like one of these children. Sighing, he hung his head. "I just wanted to see the sun rise, to know that it still could. Lying there, I had plenty of time to think. Inside I was hoping that the poison wouldn't wear off in time, that I would be stuck there til the sun came up. When it started to fade, pain took the place of the numbness. Finally, I hurt, it shook me, made me realize that I was still here. A while after that I could move again and didn't want to die there anymore."
"So you just, what, waited for he sun?" Xander took the few steps between him and Angel, but held back from touching the taller man. "Is that it, you wanted to see the sun start to come up?"
"Yeah, that's it. I wanted to see the sun start to come up because it could. Humans take it forgranted, that they'll see it happen. I just wanted to be one of those people for a change. To know that something that is supposed to happen will." Gazing off in to the distance, Angel could make out the lights of Sunnydale's streets. Despite the dangers involved, people still continued on with their boring, normal lives. "Normal." It was both a wish and a curse.
"Haven't you heard, Normal is on the endangered species list." Feeling the timing was right, Xander came up behind Angel and wrapped his arms around the vampire's chest. Laying his head on Angel's shoulder, Xander tilted it to rest against his neck. "We're all we have left."
"What?" Angel found himself rubbing against the warmth of Xander's body.
"The others are gone or leaving." Xander spoke in a dazed tone, his mind wandering. "Willow's parents are making arrangements to send their daughter to her aunt's in New York. Giles and Jenny are going to England at the end of the month. With Buffy gone, there is no reason for her mother to remain here, she'll be going soon too. They're all gone now." Even as he spoke, Xander could see it in his mind. He saw each of them branching off from his future and going their own ways.
"What do you see for me, Xander? What is going to happen to me?" Feeling Xander's arms slide down his body, Angel swallowed. "Focus, Xander, what is going to happen to me?"
"You'll be fine." He could see it too. There were battles ahead for Angel, chances were he would survive them and continue to fight. Xander could see the lines of futures drawn, in some of them Angel was joined by people, in others he joined with the vampire. In yet another group of possible futures, Angel simply drifted from Sunnydale and vanished in to the night forever. "Wanna fuck?"
"What?" Angel pulled out of Xander's arms and faced the dazed looking young man.
"I said do you want to fight?" Still with a far off look, he reached up and cupped Angel's face. "You should really fight, Angel. If you simply give up, you disappear."
Seeing the distance grow in the boy's gaze, Angel felt a spike of concern for him. "Xander, what are you talking about?"
"Fight, you have to fight. It's the only..." The words became to difficult to say and Xander let his mind drift. He was losing control again. Staring at Angel's face, he fought to focus his eye upon the vampire. It was taking all his effort, but it was working. "Your future is clear if you make certain choices. You will survive only if you continue to fight. Give up this one battle and the war is lost to you forever." Wrapping his free hand around Angel's neck, he pulled the man to him. "You must find something worth holding on to, something worth fighting for. I can't... I..." Then his concentration slipped and Xander was no longer standing on Earth.
Glancing about him, Xander saw the dunes for miles behind him. Ahead, in the direction he had been traveling lay the rock formations of the Sietch. Housed inside this place was the Stunted Maker. That is what he sought, that which he would become himself.
(0000000000)
Entering the library, Angel glanced around at the stacks of books. The site didn't surprise so much as disappoint him. Shrugging in his jacket, he looked for Giles. When he spotted the Watcher placing books in one of the myriad of boxes, he moved towards him. "So he was correct."
"Ahhhh!" Giles jumped back from his box, dropping the books in the box. Seeing who it was, he reached let the cross around his neck drop. "Angel, you are still here? When you failed to show at Buffy's wake this morning, I thought you gone."
"I'm not sure where I was or what I was doing. Kinda hard to explain." Shrugging, Angel looked for a something to distract himself. "Xander says you are leaving for England. You and this Ms. Calendar woman?"
"Oh? I wasn't aware she had spoken of it to him." Adjusting his glasses, Giles bent over to retrieve his books. Standing up again, he frowned. "That's not right, Jenny only came to the decision tonight. How did Xander know... The Spice, of course." Giles turned around and headed for the book desk. "Where is Xander, it is of the utmost importance that I speak with him right away."
"He's gone."
"Excuse me?" Pausing, Giles let his hand drop to his side.
"I said, he's gone. Xander isn't here anymore." Reaching in to his coat, Angel pulled out a well worn book. Tossing it to Giles, he put his hand back in to his pocket. "I did a little research of my own in the sixties and seventies. Things that were used to expand the mind, if you get my meaning."
After catching the book and staring at it, Giles opened the worn out cover to see the title. "Dune?"
"Yeah, pretty straight forward stuff if you can overlook the posturing and endless discriptive babble." Coming to stand beside the open box, Angel glanced down at the contents. "The book was part of the group reading requirements passed out by our Demon Guru. He was full of shit, but the book was fun to read when wasted on reefer."
"Demon Guru?" Giles was still stunned by the fact the vampire had a copy of the book he had spent countless fruitless hours searching every book store within two hundred miles for.
"Yeah, we were looking for enlightment, atonement, freedom of minds and souls. The usual stuff for demons who want to be good. Turns out he was just another drug dealer looking to score some easy money by turning us seekers of enlightenment in to addicts. Didn't work, but the buzz we got from eating him kept us high for a month. After that I swore never to touch the stuff again. Good thing, too, shortly after that LSD hit the scene. A few of the group took some and lets just say that wasn't exactly the summer of love."
Giles cleared his throat. "Is there a point to this?"
"Oh, yeah, there was." Facing Giles, Angel took on a serious expression. "Xander's dead."
"Explain yourself, now!" Feeling his anger grow, Giles reached for his cross.
"Doesn't matter what you or anyone does, Xander is gone in his own mind and he's not coming back. There are moments he is Xander, but for the most part that isn't Xander walking around out there. It's someone, something else, and pretty soon, that's all there will be left." Pointing at the book, Angel nodded his head. "The answer is in there."
"What should I do?"
"Hope that whatever he eventually becomes isn't even half as scary as what Paul became."
Standing back in the stacks, Willow shook her head in denial. It couldn't have been true. Xander wasn't gone, she was going to prove it. Slipping out quietly back through the side entrance, she hoped she could still predict him enough to find him before something happened.
(0000000000)
Standing in the raftors of the Bronze, Willow gazed down upon the crowd, searching for Xander. Not seeing the framilar brown hair, she sighed in frustration. She had tried all their usual childhood haunts, school yards, and even his house. After ten minutes of apologizing for not coming by sooner to Xander's mother, she had finally freed herself long enough to run here.
Off towards the couch, Cordelia and her Cordettes sat surrounded by boys and hangers on. Bitterness rose up in Willow, it should have been her, Buffy and Xander there, not that stuck up tramp. Catching her own thoughts, Willow'e eyes went wide. Those weren't her thoughts, she wasn't a bad person. It was just the stress of the situation.
Losing Buffy, not being able to find Xander, her parent's secret negotiations with New York relatives she had heard over the extension in the kitchen, all combined to make it hard to be her usual cheerful, sunny self. Lowering her head, Willow sniffed. "Where are you when I need you?"
Willow looked up again to continue scanning the crowd. There was a pretty decent size one tonight, which was shocking considering that it was only three days since the Slayer died. She suspected the reason most of these kids were still alive were because Buffy and Xander had finished off the major bad guys of the vampire community last week. Another boute of bitterness made her wish a vampire attack would happen right now, even if just to shut their revelry up.
The smell of Cinnamon on the wind blowing through the vents behind her made Willow turn slowly to search the upper deck of the Bronze. Her eyes were drawn to a figure in a green cloak. Slowly, a pair of glowing blue eyes opened to stare at her and Willow felt her heart stop. Taking a step back she pressed against the arm rail.
It took her a moment to remember this was Xander. When she did she started out across the deck towards him. Half way there, she blinked and he disappeared. She frantically searched for him, spining left and right to locate him. The moment he appeared in front of her, she screamed and jumped back.
Xander's hand shot out, fingers covering her mouth. Shaking his head slowly from side to side, he smiled at her.
Willow reached up to grab his hand but it was withdrawn before she could touch him. "Xander? Oh, Xander, it's you!"
Cocking his head, Xander blinked at her. He stepped in closer to her, face unreadable.
"Xander, where have you been? I have been searching all over for you, it is horrible! Buffy is gone and my parents are sending me to my aunt's and Giles is heading back to England! What is happening, Xander? What..." She was silenced by him stepping closer to her again. Eyes wide, she stepped back from him.
Xander raised one gloved hand. Stripping it, he wiggled the fingers. He caressed her cheek with the fingers and closed his eyes.
Staring in shock at her best friend, Willow froze on the spot. Inside, she could feel the extreme heat of his touch, but was only distantly aware that it wasn't natural. Something unknown, almost alien tugged at the corners of her mind, making it hard to focus. She tried to think of what was happening, but memories of the past three days began to replay in her mind.
She was forced to relive the devestating moments, from discovering Buffy broken in the pile of metal at the water tower, to the hospital where she was almost arrested. The hours of waiting for any information on her friend were crushed under the grief and relief she felt when Buffy finally died. Days of sulking in her room til this morning's funeral. The last thing she remembered before coming to herself again in the club was the sight of Buffy's corpse in the large black coffen.
Rubbing tears from her eyes, Willow bit her lip. "Xander, please stop. I don't want this." When she opened her eyes, she was standing alone on the upper deck. The club was dark and the people gone. "Xander? Hello? Anyone?"
"What do you want, Willow?"
Spinning around, Willow traced the sound of the voice that sounded similar to Xander's only completely emotionless. "Where are you, Xander?"
"What do you want?"
"I want my best friend!" Not being able to find him, she made for the stairs. She continued to strain the limits of her sight in the dark building in hopes of seeing him. "What is going on, Xander?"
"I am remembering."
"Remembering what?" Willow thought she caught sight of movement off to her right, but when she looked, there was no one there.
"There are things in this Universe, Willow. Things so vast it would rip the sanity from your mind if you could comprehend them. You are so tiny, insignificant in the face of such beings."
A strong wave of fear clenched in her gut. Stopping, she just stared ahead. "Is that what happened to you? Did one of them attack you?"
Laughter filled the Bronze.
Willow didn't like that laugh. There was something about this entire situation that felt surreal. Reaching in her jacket, she pulled out a cross. "What is so funny, Xander?"
"You're asking the wrong questions." His voice echoed in the Bronze, going deeper with each word. "Perhaps it would help if I gave you a clue, Willow."
She was about to ask what kind of clue when the world in front of her exploded in to a desert. Rising from the sand was a great scaley worm that screamed at her. Its sound shook the ground beneath her feet and caused her to shriek in fear. The next moment she was back in the darkened club. "Xander? You're scaring me. Please stop."
Stepping out from behind a pillar on the other side of the room, Xander shook his head. "Give up?"
"Please."
He blurred for a moment then appeared directly in front of her. His eyes glowing blue in the lack of light, he grinned at her. Xander opened his mouth wide. The roar that came out shook the entire foundation of the building and tossed her off her feet.
As Willow came crashing down, she blinked in pain. Bright lights and shadows filled her vision. Slowly, they formed in to shapes and she could make out people standing over her. It took her a moment to realize she was on the second level of the Bronze, laying back. Several people were kneeling around her looking startled.
Sitting up, Willow pushed their hands off her. She tried looking around for Xander, but her muscles weakened and she fell back again. Only a pair of strong arms prevented her from hitting the floor. It didn't matter anyways, Xander was gone again.
She tried placing together what she knew with the images Xander had shown her. That had definitely been a sand worm, and Xander had sounded exactly like it when he screamed at her. It didn't make sense, what did they have to do with each other?
"Shai-Hulud leaves nothing in his wake. His passing will cleanse the world."
The whispered words sent a chill down Willow's spine. Suddenly, the strong arms holding her up disappeared and she was once again falling to the floor. This time she made it with a thump and a feeling of dread.
(0000000000)
Putting down the book, Giles rubbed at his head. He had been reading the book for the past three hours, understanding less with each word. Looking up at the pacing Angel, he sighed. "What is the meaning of all this? What exactly is Paul becoming?"
"The one who can be many places at once." Not looking up from the book he was flipping through, Angel turned to bodily face Giles. "In the novel, Humans were advanced enough to tap in to the genetic memory of their ancestors, share these memories with others with the same power. These Humans were women, thus in the book there was a limit to their power. Typical male attitude of the time, not very believable. Anyways, what Paul could do was see the future as well as know the past and the present. He was omniprescient, knows all, sees all."
"The destinction of a god." That clinched it for Giles. This was definitely not a good thing. His mind started filling out all he knew about such abilities. "That would be more than a normal person could tolerate, it would destroy the most resiliant of minds."
"Exactly. It was speculated by our group that Paul ended up going insane like most Humans who come in to great power. Either that, or he was the rare exception and simply ceased to be Human all together." There was another option, but Angel wasn't about to tell Giles that. It was the most dangerous scenario for Xander's transformation, and the least likely one meant to be comforting.
"Then what do you suggest we do about this?" There was nothing worse to Giles than feeling helpless. It was the worst thing in his life as a Watcher. He has stood by helpless as Buffy went out each night, he was helpless when she died, he was helpless to spare the children the pain of life. The entire situation only served to strengthen his resolve to return to London.
Angel closed the book. "Nothing."
"Excuse me?" He couldn't believe what he heard.
"Nothing. Xander is another casualty in the war."
"Then why did you bring this here? Why tell me all this?" Storming to stand in front of the vampire, Giles glared at him.
"You had the right to know." Shrugging, Angel put the book back in Giles' box. With a final look, he turned for the door. "Keep the book."
Giles nodded absently. As he ruminated on what Angel had said, his jaw clenched. A special hatred welled up inside of him for a former colleague. He was going to hunt that bastard down and extract every last price from his skin.
(0000000000)
Outside the library, Angel shrugged deeper in his jacket. It wasn't his problem now. He had done what was needed, what became of the boy now was out of his hands. That was taken from his mind by the slamming of a car through his legs. Collapsing on the hood, he gasped for unneeded breath and glanced up through the windshield to see who had hit him.
Peering through the blackened glass, Drusilla blinked at Angel.
"Oh hell." Lowering himself on the hood, Angel tried to force his body off the car. His efforts were invain as his lower half refused to respond. "What next?"
"My poor, sweet Angel, I'll mend your broken wings."
Angel found himself being dragged by his broken legs off the hood of the car. His head slammed down on the bumper before bouncing on the concrete. "Dru!"
Glancing over her shoulder, Drusilla smiled at Angel. She kept dragging him around the car towards the open door. "Yes, my sweet?"
"Let me go, now!" He tried to grab on to something, but he was wrenched off the ground and tossed in to the back seat. Angel landed on another body with a grunt. As the door closed, he sighed. This was just great.
"Hey, watch where you land, bloody poof!" Unable to move from the neck down, Spike was forced to remain under Angel's large bulk.
"Oh god, what have I done to deserve this?"
Drusilla closed the driver's side door and put the car in gear. Smiling, she looked up in to the rearview mirror at her boys. Such a wonderful feeling to have her family back together again.
(0000000000)
Standing on the cliff over looking the ocean, Xander knew what had happened to Angel and snickered. It was fitting. He knew it wouldn't take long for Angel to get his body healed, but in the mean time he would be in Drusilla's tender mercies. The image of Angel in a sun bonnet and booties made him double over in laughter.
Slowly, the ocean's continuous pull eventually pulled him from his humor. There was a purpose to his being here. He had known it would eventually come to this. Before he got it over with, he wanted to take in the world one last time. His lungs filled with the heady scent of the ocean breeze and he nearly choked. As it was, he began to weeze.
"Too much beauty is a dangerous thing." The dark skinned young woman climbed the last few feet to the cliff top and stopped beside Xander. "I've seen this place in my dreams, yet they could do no justice for its majesty."
"You are early." Reaching inside his cloak, Xander rest his hand upon the inner pocket. "You can't stop me, if that is what you hoped."
"It wasn't my intention. You got to do what you came to do, I am merely here to watch over you while it's done." Reaching out, she grasped the stone face and leaned back against it. Using her hand to steady herself, Kendra slid down to sit upon a large rock. "Whenever you're ready, go on ahead."
Nodding his agreement, Xander forced himself through the sudden welling of fear. It took him a moment to lift the pocket's clother latch and reach inside with shaking fingers to pull out the jar inside. Staring at the blue liquid inside, he swallowed. "Right. Let's go."
When all he did was stand there staring at the jar, Kendra tapped her hand against her thigh. "You going to stand there all day, young sir?"
"No. I guess not." With a smirk, he uncapped the jar. "Here goes nothing." He put the jar to his lips without spilling a drop. Exhaling slowly, he tipped his head back and downed the entire jar in a single swallow. The effect was immeadiet.
Liquid fire shot through his throat and Xander dropped the jar. He tried screaming, but found his muscles paralized. Xander sank to the ground, eyes burning from poison stinging its way through his body. Slowly, he fell back against the ground and the world burst in to vivid splashes of color.
All around him swirls of color raged out of control, memories of pasts he could barely comprehend filled his mind. Knowledge of ancient beings long dead came flooding through him along with the memories of their existance. Places he had never visited now seemed to have been his home all his life, unknown people became the most intimate of friends.
He was a smith in a village. He was a priest praying over the masses. He was an arch evenger, protecting his charges with an unholy fire. He was the last of a race of soul warriors bent on taking their revenge out of those who had hunted them to extinction. He was the savior to all, instruement of evolution, tool of nature.
Paul opened his eyes. Choking on the poisonous water of life that had been poured down his throat a second time, he forced his mind and body to change it. He knew how to alter the molecular structure so that it would no longer contain the toxic properties which made it so dangerous. He could do it.
Turning on his side, he spit up the excess water upon the sand. The sickening strong scent of Cinnamon filled his entire being and he knew it had happened. He had changed the Water, he was the one, the true one. As the kind young woman pat his back, Paul clasped her hand in his own. "Thank you."
"What little comfort I can give, I will. Your existance is far from easy from this point on." Rubbing a hand through his sweat soked hair, she glanced up at the rising sun behind them. "Today you will rest, recoup your strength. Tonight you face the great beast."
"Shai-Hulud." Tugging at her hand, Paul held it over his chest. "The worm is called Shai-Hulud."
"Shhh, rest boy. Until tonight, the beast, Shai-Hulud, whatever he prefers to be called, can wait. You must give this body a chance to recover from your rising, Paul Atreides." Clenching his hand in her own, she pulled the hand from his hair to caress his cheek. "Very soon, Paul."
Closing his eyes, Paul nodded gratefully to her. He needed sleep, time to recover. On the edge of his mind he could see the tasks before him and it made him feel weary deep in his bones. But that would have to wait.
Standing off to the side on a higher cliff rise, Whistler watched Paul with regret. "Too soon a sacrifice, kid. Just your luck."
(0000000000)
Willow staggered in the door of her parent's house, closing the door with as strong a toss as she could muster. She didn't care that her parents would hear it, so weary was she. It had taken the last of her strength to get home without running in to anyone who might want to hurt her. At this point in time, though, the couldn't have cared less.
Life had gone steadily down hill for the past two weeks. Now that Xander was pushing her away, there was nothing left to hold on to here. He had been the last vestage of life in SunnyDale that had made it bareable. Lowering herself back against the door, she put a hand to her stinging face. She wasn't going to cry for them anymore, or so she thought.
The noise of the door closing had alerted her mother, who had been sitting in the living room waiting for Willow to get home. Sheila came around the front room to stand in the door way to the entrance hall. Hands on hips, she was about to lay in to her daughter about her activities, but the sight of Willow made her gasp. "Willow?"
"I want to go to New York with Aunt Sylvie." Her voice a monotone, Willow refused to look up at her mother. What was the point? Sheila was just going to send her away anyways.
"I was hoping you'd say that. Your father is worried about you." Crossing her arms, Sheila leaned in to the doorway. Her actions unconsciously mirrored her daughters. "He waited up as long as he could, but he has work today. For that matter, so do I."
"I don't care. You got what you wanted, now leave me alone." Sliding up the door, Willow adjusted her clothes to be comfortable again. It worked better than she had hoped, her mother wasn't even talking to her now. Walking towards the stairs, she passed by her mother without looking up. If she wanted her daughter sent away like an unwanted burden, then she had given up her right to be treated like her mother in Willow's opinion.
Sheila continued to watch her daughter pass by. This she had been expecting, the parent help pamplets at the parent-teen crises center had said so. Still, it hurt that her normally so cheerful and friendly daughter lashed out at her. When Willow's foot steps had disappeared in the early morning quiet of the house, Sheila turned back for the living room and walked away.
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Joyce glanced about the house, looking for something she might have missed. The place was immaculate from all her cleaning. Several pictures that had caused too many bad memories were removed from the walls leaving the place bare. Ornaments she had been aquiring because they fit in well with the house were being sold in the gallery. All in all the house was pretty much empty.
Making her way down the steps, she glanced over at her empty living room. If she tried hard enough, she could still see Buffy on the couch watching TV tossing pop corn at Xander or giggling at Willow. The memory made her smile. It was one of the many they had made while living here.
She was going to miss SunnyDale.
Sighing, Joyce adjusted the hat pinned in place over a scarf. She had read in her art books about the tribes of the world's mourning customs. After removing images of the dead, they would alter their appearance to show what they felt in the inside. She had been drunk and took a pair of sheers to her hair. Now that she was sober, she felt pretty silly, thus the hat, but she felt a little better despite it.
She took the last few steps and came to stop at the door. A final glance in to the dining room revealed nothing missed. Bending down, she opened the doors, picked up her suit cases and walked out. She heard Illinois was pretty this time of year.
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On the edge of town, sheriff's deputies continued to sift through the remains of a large camp site. There wasn't much left of the camp site itself, but there were bits and pieces scattered about. Deputy Swanson was examining a large piece of propein tank that appeared to have exploded. Right now the general consenus was that the tanks had exploded and destroyed the bulk of the camp.
He would have been fine with that if the blasted thing had explosion marks. Instead, this seemed to have been... chewed. However, the teeth marks were unlike anything he had ever seen before. Another thing that had been disturbing was the size of the teeth marks on things. Not from SunnyDale, he felt he was the only one to take the threat of something large like this serious.
His one time at mentioning something that wasn't quite normal had earned him a stern warning and a visit with the shrink. He wasn't looking forward to a repeat performance.
Aother thing that bothered him was the fact that so much of the sand around him seemed to have been disturbed. He could handle if there were tracks or blast patterns, it was just that, the sheer size of the area effected was beyond his colleague's imaginations. It was like the sand had exploded from beneath them all, sending pieces of the camp in all directions for over two miles.
Nothing he knew, except a mine, could cause that big of a disimination of debris. Then again, the there were no scorch marks, so that was out of the question. It made no sense.
Swanson felt a termor in the Earth and paused. It could be a aftershock to the Earth quake they had experienced yesterday in this area. That was another option, a pocket of gas had exploded from beneath the ground. It would explain the lack of scorching and where the people went. The gas would have turned the sand in to liquid and anything above it would have sunk.
It was a grisly death, that was for sure. But that wouldn't explain the bite marks in the propein tank.
The quake grew in size, causing him to worry. Another buble of gas might be rising. Feeling it best to get out of there while the area was still so unstable, he stood up. His actions were just in time to see the sand fifty feet from where three deputies had been walking towards the sheriff with a large piece of car shell exploded up in to the sky.
Swanson watched in horror as something black shot out of the earth, screeching an unearthly wail. Its groan was so deep it caused his bones to ache in sympathetic vibration. On it went higher, causing the ground beneath him to shake and him to fall. So big that it blocked out the sky as far as the eye could see.
"Mother of god!" Covering his eyes, he scrambled to get back from it. When the creature stopped rising, it bent down toward the Earth, crashing faster than he could move. His shriek of wild fear was the last thing he ever did as the maul of the great worm swallowed him whole.