March 1, 1998
“Think you can recover anything?” Buffy asked, as she peered over Willow’s shoulder, whose fingers were flying over the computer’s keyboard.
“A word here or there, but the problem is a word here or there is not going to restore Angel’s soul.” Willow never looked away from the computer screen, as she continued to tap away at the keyboard, trying to salvage any information from the yellow computer disk that they had recovered from a pile of burnt-up computer parts. Angelus had not left any stone unturned; someone, most likely one of his minions, had returned to Jenny’s classroom and made sure that all her records and computer files were destroyed.
“Toben worked on translating the ritual with Ms. Calendar. He could retrace their steps and recreate their work. So I say,” Spike paused, as he looked up at Buffy, “you and me, love, go over to his flat and bring him here, and if he doesn‘t want to come, then we use force.” The natural optimism of youth had lifted Spike from his depression, and also the fact, that the last thing he wanted was for people to say he was a broody prat like his Sire.
“We went to his place last night, and he wasn’t there,” Buffy pointed out. “He might not be there tonight either. Perhaps, Chax has already whisked him away to his demon dungeon, or whatever. Which, by-the-way, Giles. . . .” She turned and shouted toward the library’s office. “Have you found out anything about this Chax yet. Other than that he’s old.” The last part she muttered softly to her friends. “Seems like anyone, who is anyone in the demon world is old.”
“Survival of the fittest, pet.” Spike tilted back in his chair, and put his feet up on the table. “In the demon world the longer you survive, the higher up on the food chain you go.”
“So age is status with demons,” Xander mulled this over. “And exactly how old does a demon have to become to have respect from the others?”
Spike shrugged. “Don’t know if there’s an exact age, but it has to be more than a human lifespan, so maybe at least a century.”
“Okay.” Xander nodded. “And how old is your dad again?”
“He was turned in 1753, and he was somewhere in his twenties back then.”
“Holy crap!” Xander grabbed a pencil and did a couple of rough calculations on the front of his History book. “So that means he was born around the 1720’s. And I thought my parents were old. Well, he‘s about two and a half centuries, so I‘m guess that’s why he‘s not at the bottom of the food chain.”
“Angelus may not be as old as many.” Hearing their conversation. Giles approached the table, book in his hand. “But his deeds are notorious, even in the demon world, so he is indeed one of the respected.”
“Yeah, yeah.” A up-till-now-unusually-quiet Cordelia chimed in. “We all have heard about the infamous Scourge of Europe, who terrorized both human and demon alike in the 18th and 19th centuries, blah, blah.”
“She’s right, Giles.” Buffy found herself in the rare situation of having to agree with Cordelia. “We already know about Angelus; what we need now is information on Chax.”
“Like how to kill the bloody ponce.” Spike had removed his feet from the table, after Giles had frowned darkly at him. “We off him, and then Toben is free, free to help us recurse my father.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Giles sat, continuing to skim the book he was reading. “According to this text, Chax is very old.” Five sets of eyeballs rolled. “In fact, it’s very possible that this Chax is one of the original fallen angels.”
“Original?” Willow was so intrigued that she actually looked up from the computer. “You mean, he was a follower of thee Lucifer?”
“I’m not sure follower is the proper word.” Giles continued to stare down at the book, where he had finally found a few tidbits of information on the mysterious Chax. “Perhaps, accomplice is a better term.”
“Wow!” Xander was impressed. “So we’re talking beginning-of-time old. I guess he’s way up there on the demon food chain, which I know usually translates into hard to kill.”
“Perhaps impossible.” Giles removed his glasses, staring off into space, as he pondered.
“Never say impossible.” Buffy threw herself into a chair next to Willow. “We thought the Judge was impossible, but we got rid of him.”
“Yeah, the old git would probably fold if a Law Rocket Launcher was fired at him. So Xan. . . .” Spike threw the wrapper of his tootsie roll pop at Xander. “All you need to do is break into the army base again, and nick us some ammo because the launcher itself is still lying around here somewhere, right?”
All eyes turned to Giles, as he was the one, who had taken possession of the rocket launcher after the Judge had been blown to pieces.
“Yes, yes.” Giles slipped his glasses back into place. “It’s under my bed; the only place in my flat where it would fit.”
“Right then.” Everything was settled as far as Spike was concerned. “Operation Kill Chax is. . . .”
“Hello, hello, hello.” The Operation Kill Chax plan was interrupted by the entrance of Whistler, who strolled jauntily through the library doors. “I thought I’d find all of you hiding out here. Hey, kid,” he addressed Spike. “Where’s Angel? I went over to your apartment, and it looks like no one’s been living there for a while.”
“Almost two months,” Spike said sourly. “Because Penn and Drusilla found a way to uncurse my father, so now he’s holed up with them somewhere here in Sunnydale.”
“And causing quite a disturbance, I might add.” Giles twisted around to speak to Whistler. “He’s murdered. . . .”
Whistler let out a long shrill whistle, cutting Giles off. “Angel is now soulless! Holy cats!”
“So would you happen to know the translation of the transliteration annals for the ritual of the undead? My-my friend had successfully translated them, and then was murdered for her efforts.” Giles said this quickly (before Whistler could interrupt again) and with bitterness.
“Our one hope is that Ms. Calendar worked with Mr. Toben, and if we can find him and. . . .”
“Toben?” Now Whistler cut Spike off. “I know Toben isn’t an uncommon name, but you aren’t talking about a Christian Toben, are you?”
The gang exchanged looks.
“Ye-ah,” Spike drawled out. “Stepped in for Mrs. Meier after the holidays, who, unfortunately met an untimely death. Another casualty of the curse of the hellmouth.”
“You do know that Christian Toben has a price on his head? He escaped from his owner, and said owner is not too happy. The reward for his return is a pretty penny.”
“Said owner has found Toben. Showed up here in Sunnydale Friday. What we need to know is. . . .”
“Chax is here?” It was now Buffy’s turn to be interrupted by Whistler. “In Sunnydale?” The demon’s voice had rose a few octaves.
Again the gang exchanged looks. They heard the fear in Whistler’s voice.
“Yes, and we want to know,” Buffy started, but stopped, as Whistler did an about-face and began to trot out of the library.
“The wanker is leaving,” Spike said with disbelief as they watched the demon’s trot turn into a sprint. “What can you tell us about this Chax?” he yelled at Whistler’s back, hoping for some nugget of information before the demon totally disappeared.
“He’s old,” Whistler called back, as he pushed his way through the library’s swinging doors.
Spike let out a snort of contempt, as they watched Whistler’s sprint turn into a all out run. “The poof probably owes this Chax money.”
Contemplating her acquaintance with the demonr, Buffy couldn’t help but ask, “has he been any help to us ever?”
**
March 2, 1998
“I can’t believe how unlucky I am,” Xander grumbled, as he plopped down into the chair next to Buffy in the student lounge. “I know we were all hoping for Toben to show up today, but when he didn’t, I figured the consolation prize was that there wouldn’t be a quiz today. Well, the joke’s on me because there was a quiz, and the quiz was more like an exam. I mean, whoever heard of a three page quiz? The standard length for a quiz is no longer than one page. Don’t you agree?” he asked, hoping for some commiseration from Buffy.
“Yeah, and I loved the immolation-o-gram at the end,” Buffy said moodily, as she stared at the toe of her right foot, which was swing nervously up and down. A vampire had showed up in History class, just as the period was about to end. Pulling off its protective covering, it burst into flames right in front of twenty-five astonished students and one substitute teacher. Its message was directed at Spike: “You will come to him, or he will come to you.”
“Yeah, and that was unlucky too; the vamp couldn’t have come at the beginning of the period, and at least, save us from the test until tomorrow? Well, it does look like Toben has been taken away by Chax, which leaves us where as far as the translation of the undead thingy?”
“Back at square one.” Buffy sighed. “And if Angelus gets to Spike before we can recurse him, then. . . .”
“Then you may be in a position where you’ll have to dust one of your best friends.”
**
March, 10, 1998
Elbows resting on the library table, heads resting on the palms of their hands, Buffy and Spike stared glumly around the room. They were no closer to resouling Angel than they had been more than a week ago. Spike was still camping out on Giles’ couch. Angel’s campaign to reclaim him seemed to be waning, which should have a positive, but instead had him worried and fearful. What if his father was losing interest in him?
“Think your mum would let me sleep in your basement? I think she’s got a soft spot for me.”
“She feels bad for you,” Buffy agreed. “But I don’t know if she feels bad enough to allow a boy, who’s a close friend of her daughter sleep under the same roof.”
“Even if I swear that my intentions are purely honorable?” Spike said this with a shark’s grin, making Buffy’s head snap up. Did Spike have some sexual interest in her? And if he did, how did she feel about it?
“If you swore that your intentions were honorable, that would only arouse her suspicions that we were scheming something. Adults are so mistrusting.”
“Bloody hell,” Spike muttered under his breath. “If that ponce, Whistler wouldn’t have ran out of here like a bat out of hell, I could have talked him into renting a flat for me. I could have moved the stuff out of my Sire’s place, giving me much nicer accommodations than I have now.”
“Would Whistler have paid for an apartment for you?” Buffy asked in surprise. Although she knew that the demon was not a bad guy, as far as demons go, but she didn’t see him with a huge generous streak either.
“I have money. My dad opened several accounts in different banks for me. Just in case, well, in case, something like this happened.”
“Why don’t you have Giles rent a place for you then?”
“I asked him, but he’s concerned that it wouldn’t be safe. But hell, if he cast his anti-demon, anti-vampire protection spells, it would be okay, don’t you think? But Mr. I-Live-To-Worry says I‘m too young to be on my own. I’ll be seventeen this year, should go to court and become legally emancipated.”
“He’s concerned, like I am. We know that Angelus would like nothing better to turn you, and then, then. . . .” Buffy couldn’t continue. The thought of Spike becoming her immortal enemy was something she didn’t want to contemplate.
“It’s okay, pet.” Spike sensed Buffy’s distress. “I’ll stay with Mr. Librarian, even though his choice of television programs leaves much to be desired. Bloody uncursed Sire! Forgets the promise he made to my mum that I would be allowed to finish high school and uni, if I decided to attend, and only then would I make a decision to, to, well, you know.”
“He made that promise to your mom?” Buffy couldn’t help but ask. Spike rarely spoke of his mother, or of the events leading up to him being placed in Angel’s custody.
“Ye-ah, right before she died.”
“Oh.” A few moments of awkwardness, as Buffy struggled for the right words. “Um, sorry about that.” Another pregnant pause, as discomfiture battled with curiosity. “Do you miss your mom?”
“No.” Spike’s answer had Buffy blinking in surprise. “The woman was a wack-job, until the very end, when she realized that the Council and religion wasn’t going to change who I was. They tried to beat it out of me, you know.”
“Beat what out of you?”
“My demon half.”
“But that’s, that’s. . . .” Buffy was outraged.
“Crazy, unfair, ridiculous,” Spike finished her thought. “It is, but those Council people in England, nutters all of them.”
“Really? That’s weird, since Giles is okay, as far as people his age go.”
“Exception to the rule, pet, cause I’m telling you. . . .” Spike used his finger to draw imaginary circles by his head.
“Well, that’s scary.” Buffy pulled a face. “Since technically I’m an employee of theirs.”
Resting their heads on their hands again, the pair stared at each for a minute.
“Hope they stay on the other side of the ocean then,” Buffy finally mumbled out.
“Right, love,” Spike could only agree.
**
March, 12, 1998
“No, no, no! The mouth's a lot bigger, and downward, like this.” Xander turned the corners of his mouth down to illustrate to Cordy, who was trying to sketch the monster he had just seen in the cafeteria. “With more teeth!”
“I'm doing the best I can,” Cordelia spat out, which had Willow, Buffy, and Spike exchanging smirks.
Taking off his glasses, Giles looked over from the library counter to glance over at Cordy’s drawing. “Is that what you saw?”
Picking up the sketchpad, Xander examined it carefully. “Y. . .yeah! I think so.” He considered the sketch again. “Pretty much.”
“Are you sure?” Giles enunciated slowly.
“Well, it was dark!” Xander hedged. “And the thing went through the window so quick, and I was a little, little shocked when I saw it, and. . . .”
“He ran like a girl,” Spike said in a loud whisper to Buffy and Willow, who along with Cordelia couldn’t stop the grins.
“Hey!” Xander narrowed his eyes at Spike. “If you saw this thing, you'd run like a girl, too.”
“Not me!” Spike objected. “I’m part demon, and it’s physically impossible for anyone with demon blood to run like a girl.”
“Hardy har, har.” Xander tossed the sketchpad back on the table, as he threw Cordelia an accusing glare, since she was stifling back the giggles along with Buffy and Willow.
Reaching over to pull the drawing to him, Spike took a long look at it. “Bugger looks like the creature from the black lagoon. Guess we need to research how to kill this creature, or watch the movie and see how they did it.”
“This is not funny!” Xander protested. “There are people dying,” he paused, as he remembered that the only people who have died so far were Dodd and Cameron, members of the swim team. “Granted, the people who died won’t exactly be highly missed, but. . . .”
“What do you mean by that?” Cordelia broke-in. “They were the two best swimmers on the swim team. Now we're never going to win the state championship. I think I've lost all will to cheerlead.”
“Okay, anyone here who feels Cordy’s pain.” Xander exchanged killer glares with Cordelia. “Raise your hand.”
Opening her mouth, Cordy was just about to fire back a cutting remark, when the library doors swung open, and Christian Toben walked in.
“Oh, the gang’s all here,” he said with smile. “Who are you saving the world from this week?”
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” Spike jumped up, voice filled with accusation. “We lost the translation for the transliteration annals for the ritual of the undead, and we. . . .”
“Lost the translation!” Toben was stunned. He had assumed that when he had left Sunnydale, that the ritual had been completed, restoring Angel’s soul. “I just presumed that you found the disk, and. . . .”
“We did find the disk.” Willow held up the yellow floppy disk, which was now mostly soot black. “I managed to retrieve bits and pieces of the translation, but it wasn’t enough. Perhaps now that you’re here, you can fill in the blanks.”
“But, I, didn’t memorize the translation, just scanned it once.” Toben made eye contact with Giles, and along with a slight nod of the head, he made his salutation, as he found a seat next to Willow, who quickly pulled out a couple sheets a paper.
“Here’s what I could salvage, but it isn’t much.” She plopped the papers in front of Toben.
“Tell me you know the parts that are missing,” Spike said as he sat back down, his heart heavy. He already knew the answer by the look on Toben’s face.
“I-I, no. When it finally was translated, I skimmed it briefly, but then Angel and his minions showed up, and. . .damn!” Toben ran a hand through his hair, thinking hard.
“Where have you been by-the-way?” Buffy asked with curiosity. “And how did you escape from Chax?”
“Las Vegas,” Toben answered automatically. “And I didn’t escape; he was with me.”
“That’s just bloody great. You and your fuck buddy were cavorting around Las Vegas, while we’ve had to contend with my soulless Sire, his childer, his minions, and, and. . . .” Spike threw Cordelia’s sketch at Toben. “The creature from the black lagoon.”
“What?” Toben stared at the picture with confusion.
“Spike!” Buffy was appalled at her friend’s manners. “This. . . .” She snatched the drawing away. “Is the creature of the week, which we just found out about. Happen to know what it is?”
“It looks like some kind of primeval sea creature.” Toben craned his neck to take one more look. “But I wouldn’t know what kind exactly. I can take the sketch back to Chax, and try and wheedle some information out of him. You know, I took him to Vegas as an enticement to stay here in this world for a bit because I would like to continue being a help,” he said as he now looked directly at Spike. “But Chax is a moody fellow, never sure if he’s going to be agreeable or not.”
There was an uncomfortable pause, as everyone in the room realized that Toben had problems of his own.
“Did it work?” Willow asked breaking the silence.
“For now. Chax was quite taken with Vegas, so. . .Jenny!” A thought suddenly struck Toben. “She, she wrote a special software program that translated the ritual. If we can access that program, I can repeat the steps she and I took, and retranslate the ritual.”
“We-ll,” Willow considered. “I’d have to go through her hard drive, which was beaten-up and burned, but I could see what’s left to salvage.”
“If you can find any part of it, I think that you and I can make it work.” Toben flashed a smile at Willow and then at Spike. “And in the meantime, I’ll take this picture. . . .” He ripped Cordelia’s drawing off the sketchpad. “And show it to Chax. See if he’ll give me any kind of useful information.”
“Right then.” Spike nodded at Toben in agreement, realizing that his earlier anger at the man had been unjustified. “And you know, if this Chax chap gives you any trouble, just let me and Buffy take a shot at him.”
“Don’t even consider it,” Toben said, as he stood up. “Not only is Chax very old and very powerful, he had plenty of backers, who would avenge his death. And I don’t just mean demons either.”
And with that last cryptic remark, the former angel gave the group a wave and turned to leave.
“Well, I feel better now that Toben is back.” Xander leaned back folded his hands behind his head. “Looks like he might just make everything alri. .hey.” He suddenly remembered their last history quiz. “Are you coming back to teaching?” he called out. “Because I think that last history test should be a do-over.”
****
Due to sinus surgery in January, pneumonia in February, bronchitis in March and April, I have not been very active in fandom lately, neither writing nor reading. And unfortunately, I have a minor surgery tomorrow, out-of-town guests this month and next, and a road trip the end of the this month, so my participation for the next couple of months will still be very little to none at all. Hopefully, I will have some new stories by this summer to post.