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Author's Chapter Notes:
next part of the story




'Perfect, absolutely fricking perfect!' she groaned inwardly when her car broke down approximately 0.86 miles from the Hellmouth. Slamming her trunk shut, she stomped out in the desert while lightning herself a cigarette until she bumped into a filthy old sign that read:





Welcome to Sunnydale, enjoy your stay, you'll probably never leave!





Oh, that's real uplifting! Nelligan thought for herself with thick sarcasm. And was that the most saddest message ever? No one in their right mind would willingly stay on the Hellmouth, right?



“Nelly?” a distant voice called to her as a cardoor slammed close behind her.




Ignoring it, Nelligan continued watching the stars as they twinkled down at her,




They say the Powers That Be interfere at the slightest threat when their heroes of purity are being put into jeopardy, so why the hell aren't they interfering?



The stars in the sky twinkled like diamonds in dark velvet as if responding her.



“Nell? Hello? Anyone operating in there? I'm talking to ya!” the whiny voice called behind her.



“Yes, I can hear you, Holly. All loud and clear and I really wish I didn't” Nelligan said with sarcasm, crushing the cigarette under the sole of her Doc Marten forcefully.



“I've been calling you since like forever. Anyways, there was this thing I had to ask you,” Holly said whipping her hair over her shoulder while shallowly studying her freshly manicured nails.



Nelligan blinked waiting for Holly to continue, Nelligan didn't really know why she hung out with Holly anyway. They'd just found each other in the midst of chaos after the defeat of the Master and stuck around ever since.



Drumming her nails on the hood Holly said “So I was thinking, when we get to the Hellmouth do I get to terrorize her, play around with her head and stuff before we actually put our plan into action?” she said cocking her head like a bird, eyes wide.





“Holly, you're a grown up. Ergo, you can think for yourself. Therefore, you do whatever you find satisfying, okay? Just stick to plan and don't interfere with my work, honey. And would you please get the hell off my car?” she added seizing Holly's hair and then yanking it with a stiff tug which left Holly whimpering and losing her balance.



“Ow, what the hell?" Holly exclaimed "That fucking hurt! Don't you ever touch my hair again! You know I hate when you do that, you dumb freak!”



Nelligan merely lifted an amused eyebrow while grinning “Ohh...that's not what you said last night” she said closing in on Holly while nuzzling her neck in an attempt to coax her into more…pleasant thoughts.



“Yeah, well, you were nice by then and now you're a bitch and hello, not really sticking to point here” she rolled her eyes “I'm fed up with it and I refuse to go to Sunnydale with you until you apologize to me”



“Oh, for the love of Satan, girl!” Nelligan said agitatedly, pushing off of her.



“I'm serious as a heart attack” she said narrowing her eyes.



“Yeah, whatever. Get the fuck off my car already” Nelligan said as she lit herself another cigarette, shaking her head. She had almost had it with this childish behavior.



“No,” Holly snorted for herself.



In a millisecond Nelligan had dropped her cigarette grabbed Holly's face. Speaking through gritted teeth Nelligan hissed “If you don't listen to me, girl, you'll face the consequences okay? You do NOT disobey me. Am I being clear?”



“I-I'm not afraid” Holly stammered.



“Fine. Have it your way then” she punched Holly clear across the face and the ugly face of a vampire emerged from the human façade. Snarling, Holly punched Nelligan right back, while keeping one hand on her stung cheek. Nelligan seized the moment, grabbed Holly by that very arm, tugged it up behind her back to the point of pulling it out of its socket, preventing her from moving and moved up real close.



“You gonna wish you never touched me!” Holly threatened, twisting and jerking in her grip.



“Tell me about it. I really do wish I never touched you in the first place, Holly. As a matter of fact I curse the very day you were turned” Nelligan replied menacingly, grabbing her by her throat and lifting her clear off the ground, squeezing her windpipe with an inhumanly strong grip. Holly barely sputtered, trashing her feet franticly in fleeting attempt in the air while Nelligan forced her mouth open and pressed the burning end of the cigarette into the roof of her mouth.



The effect was immediate, Holly cried out, struggled and clawed at Nelligan in desperate attempt to get away and fresh tears sprung to her eyes. Nelligan let Holly's body fall to the ground in a heap and stepped back, watching as smoke rose from her mouth. Holly spit while spitting out charred flesh and tears strained her cheeks.



“What part of 'get the hell off from my car' did ya miss?” Nelligan said, leaning over Holly's form, kicking some sand her way.



“I'm sorry, I'm sorry!” Holly cried, eyes wide.



“You know this isn't the first time I'm forced to put up with your shit and I'm figuring it wont be the last time either. You don't answer to discipline, Holly and I'm really sick of putting you into place because you can't seem to find it yourself”



Holly looked like she was going to bawl her eyes out which looked kinda sad in her vampire guise. “Please, I'm so sorry!” she trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks.



Nelligan casually shrugged in response, turning away from her “Yeah, whatever. I couldn't care any less”



“I said I'm sorry, alright?!” Holly cried as new tears rose up while she coughed up some more blood



“If y-you would just give me another chance I-I'd be good, I promise. I'd do whatever you would want me to”



“Love's a real bitch, honey, but you know what?” Nelligan said, slowly advancing on her “From my dark sinister heart I wont give you another chance”



With that said Nelligan determinately walked up and snapped Holly's head clear off and in the next moment only dust littered the ground in her place. Striding to her car, leather jacket whipping after her, she started to sing softly.



“The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind...”



Nelligan sang while wiping her hands clean, before opening her cardoor and slammed it shut. With a little force she got her Chrysler Windsor Deluxe working again and was speeding on the road only a few minutes later with dust flying up all around.







On the other side of town an ear piercing screech cut through the silence and Janice and Dawn shared mutual “eww” at the sound of blood curdling screams and an axe cutting through flesh and bone repeatedly.



“And that was totally gross” Dawn said for herself, grimacing at the zombie feasting on a woman on television screen.



Dawn glanced over at Janice while turning down the volume on the television with an emotionless face she'd come to master from her sister. “It's past eleven so Buffy will be home any minute. You should probably leave now or Buffy will probably chop your head off” she said, whipping her hair over her shoulder.





Since the whole 'Justin-is-a-vampire-oh-no-almost-got-killed' that was totally not her fault. He didn't actually scream dark sinister vampire. But Buffy almost grounded her for a lifetime and minimized her social life outside school to zero so she stayed home a Saturday night. It was depressing.





Moving to stand, Janice sighed “Yeah, umm, Dawn? About your sister?” she said, biting her lip slightly.



Uh-oh. This sure can't be good, Dawn gulped. “Yeah, what about her?” Pulling back in her grip her forehead wrinkled up in worry and preparing for the worst.



“Well, you know the whole school talks about her and I just wanna clear some out some rumors that she carries weapons with her everywhere and hangs around all these weird people. And that older guy she used to date, from what I've heard he wasn't even in college and he had this address which was actually at the mansion up at Crawford Street, you know? I mean, is that for real?” Janice said tucking her hair behind her ears.



'Couldn't she put them together?' Dawn thought furrowing her brow.




Janice clearly had no idea about what was going on in Sunnydale and like everyone else she had the classical Sunnydale Syndrome. People choose to ignore it altogether or if they had a few braincells left they either had some fanatical hypothesis about what was really going on or they read stupid vampire paranormal books - which the less the better, Dawn thought and she rolled her eyes. Anyway, it was kinda difficult to grasp the fact that vampires and demons walked among them and people dealt with it in different ways.





“You know that old guy she hangs around with, old stuffy English guy with the tweed?”



“You mean Giles” Dawn nodded knowingly.



“He's just a friend right?” Dawn just smiled secretively in response. “Otherwise it would be like majorly creepy, not that I've given it a thought or anything but - Dawn? Why aren't you answering my question?”



Dawn grinned in response and spread out on the sofa with the coffee-table as footrest just as the front door opened and Buffy strode with shoulders sagged and covered in nasty bruises and cuts.



"Hi, Dawnie, Hi Janice"



“Hey, ya missed the movie fest last night, want some leftover popcorn?” Dawn grinned to herself as she sat straight up in the sofa.



“No thanks, Dawnster. Xander brought some really stale sandwiches with him last night and I'm feeling kinda queasy. What did ya watch?”



“Um, there was this gore filled movie called 'Night of the Living Dead' and another called 'Dracula 69' …but it wasn't really about vampires at all...” she blushed, clearing her throat. “Anyway, did you have a rough fight or what? You've got some dirt right...there, all goody now” she said brushing away something at the cheek.



“That was blood and not mine” Buffy said deadpan.



“Eww!” Dawn said and wiped her fingers on her pants.



“Yep, welcome to the ever glamorous life of the Slayer” Buffy quipped gesturing to herself “Well, I'm gonna go rest for a while, I did some major ass kickage last night and I hope the evil takes some vacation for a while because I'm all fresh out. I'm gonna go for a rest and then I'm gonna make you some breakfast, 'kay?” she said, sighing before she sank down in the sofa with a sigh and sticking a popcorn in her mouth. “Eww, how much did ya salt these?” Buffy grimaced, immediately spitting it out.



“I stopped when Janice asked me if I was building a pyramid” Dawn grinning proudly for herself before exchanging a smile with Janice.





A few hours later warmth was heavy as the sun shone in through the Venetian blinds in the kitchen were soft music was playing on the radio.



Dawn leaned over her seemingly sleeping sister with a grin.



"Hey, Buffy!"



With a jump Buffy woke with a snore loudly looking anywhere but at Dawn almost toppling over her chair by the kitchen island.



“I've been calling you for like the last five minutes. Haven't you heard a single thing?” Dawn said distracting her by waving his hand over her face, checking for responses.



Buffy's crazy stare turned into a full sour glare as she settled back down again on her chair once again feeling the aches from her rather uncomfortable position. And how the hell did she end up here anyway? And fully dressed?



"Oh my god. I fell asleep making breakfast" she said squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment.



"Okay, well Xander and Anya's here and Willow is on her way. Some Scooby meeting thing"



Turning her head to where Dawn's eyes were, Xander stood by the kitchen island with his eyebrown raised.



“Buffster, It's already noon and you aren't awake yet, late night stakeout or what?” Xander asked with a cocked eyebrow, drumming his fingers on the table.



“Yeah. Something like that” she winced, blush spreading from her cheeks as she cleared her throat. "Hi, by the way"



Dawn poured herself a big glass of OJ while boasting about her newest crush to Anya who was seated across the kitchen island “Can you believe the major hotness of our school asked me out? Me out of everybody? We just clicked” Dawn said soulfully, temporarily closing her eyes, reminiscing in her memory. Dawn nodded and her eyes glittered. “And I really could feel vibe-yness”



"Last week it was that Giovanni Ribisi guy and now this guy. Kids these days" Buffy thought rolling her eyes.“Did you ever consider that he’d might have been eyeing other parts of your anatomy?”



“Hey!” Dawn and Xander said in unison.



“Well, all I'm just saying is that I spent several years in high school too ya know. I know what goes on in their heads”



“Then you'll also remember the fact that there was a new guy every single week. And we're not all the same, Buffy, so don't generalize” Xander said, obviously annoyed by her indifference and offhanded comment.



“Alexander Harris, you lusted after Buffy all those years so don't separate yourself from the bunch of them. ” Xander's visible blush was enough confirmation at Anya's words, his eyes sliding over to Buffy with a guilty look mouthing 'sorry'



“But Walter wouldn't do that, he isn't like the rest of them” Dawn objected, sticking her nose up and cocking her hip “He's special”



Walking into the livingroom followed by Dawn and Anya still discussing the hottie that was named Walter, Buffy turned on the television on the local news channel where a red-haired female reporter stood outside the old burnt down Sunnydale Highschool with police enforcement and fire department behind speaking hysterically into the microphone.





“Good Morning, this is SLN, Sunnydale's Local News Station and I'm Heather Stewart. Today's headlines are the two highschool girls that were brutally murdered outside the old Sunnydale High School's premise. The Police Department of Sunnydale are still looking for clues but have already stated that the two victims as the missing students Alison Smith and Kirsten Mendes-”





“Oh, my god!” Dawn said muffled, sandwich stuck half in her mouth and eyes round as saucers as recognition became apparent in her eyes. “I go to school with them!”



“Used to, you mean, since they are all dead now” Anya said, patting her shoulder awkwardly.



Uncrossing her arms, Buffy turned off the television and turned to face Dawn.“Dawn, I think have a serious sitch here. I think you should call Walt or whatever his name is and cancel. You're not going out dating. I can’t let you go anywhere out of my sight right now”



“No! I promised him!”



“Maybe you should warn him off the streets as well, seeing as he’s in the same danger as anyone else”



“Nuh-huh, I’m going on my date tonight, Buffy! You can't stop me!”



“If you don't call and cancel right now, I will. And that is final!” she said gripping Dawns frail arm. Anya exited the room and left the sisters alone to themselves.



“Don't embarrass me. You can’t ruin my social life, Buffy!” she said, easily breaking out of her sister's grip.



“Don't you get it?” Buffy gestured “I'm trying to save your boyfriend's life here as well”



“He is not my-!” Dawn closed her eyes and almost stomped her foot in a childish manner “I wont let you do this” she said adamantly.



“I don't care how you say it as long as you say it, Dawnie” Buffy said and then sighed. “Look, did you forget the whole drama with Justin already? You're grounded for life for that, so you're lucky you even get to see this new guy anyway”



“You're so unfair!” Dawn said, striding out of the living room, all but huffing.



“God, sometimes I just wanna strangle that kid” Buffy muttered for herself, shaking her head, turning to go after her when the front door opened and Willow skipped in all pretty and smiling.



"Woah, bouncy happy package of Willow, way to spice up my morning" Buffy grinned.



"Hi, Buff" she said and gave Buffy a real hug. "I woke up today and realized that I've been far to gloomy and debby downer so here I am, all bouncy and with bouncy-ness and I brought some doughnuts. Sweet things for a sweet girl" she concluded with a grin.



"Oh, thank you! Now gimme gimme! So what else brings you here?" Buffy said with her face stuffed with sweet sugary-ness.



"It's probably better if I show you" Willow said walking into the kitchen, putting down her computer.



"Hi, Wills" Xander smiled and took a bite of a doughnut and swung an arm around Anya's shoulders. They all gathered infront of the laptop when Willow started expaining "I checked the online papers on any common occurrences since last night's murders by Sunnydale High and when I hacked into the Police Department, the coroner's report turned out to be real interesting and here's the thing" Willow said pointed at the screen, “It seems like they were all found with similar wounds on their backs, like a sharp stick entered straight into them which supposedly sucked out their marrow-bone”



“Sounds like something we should definitely look into” Buffy nodded.



“Demons with a preference for marrow-bone?” hooking her short hair behind her ears, Willow typed away. “I'm on it”



“Do we have any books on demons who kill their victims by sucking the life essence through the marrow-bone?” Xander asked, leaning over the table.



“Well, I've scanned many books from the Magic Box into the laptop. Give me a few minutes to go through them, okay?” Willow countered.



Approximately four minutes later Willow broke her focus from the screen “Oh, here's something. I think I just found it” everyone gathered around the laptop as Willow read out loud.





“Through the ages many have fought and many have died fighting the walking dead called Greyarmers. They are one of the greatest protectors through the ages. They were only created only to protect and defend precious objects and obey their Master. They reappear from time to time when the object they're suppose to protect is taken or under threat...They supposedly kill their victims by entering a long sharp talon that enters the bone and sucks the marrow-bone out before they feast on their victims” Willow looked up from the scanned book on the screen “Sounds common, huh?"





“Walking dead, huh? Makes my skin twitch” Xander cringed and Anya patted his back comfortingly.



Willow continued reading “These Greyarmers were suppose to be watching a weapon called 'the Axe of the Red Ones'. But there is no further information about the weapon, except that it was last seen in a monastery in Wales during the 1700th century but haven't been spotted since”



“Could be a clue. I mean if they haven't been heard from, they should be out there looking for it, right?” Buffy said, “Maybe Alison and Kirsten somehow got in their way?”



“It would be very logical if 'the Axe of the Red Ones' is right here in Sunnydale. Everything evil does turn up here eventually” Anya said shrugging her shoulders and sharing a look with Xander.



“I'd say the school is the best spot to start looking for clues” Willow said. "Since the attacks occurred last night the crime scene should be fresh"



"Nothing but a little morbid fun to get my juices going!" Xander said and then cleared his throat "Pretend that I didn't say that"



“So not looking forward going back to school again” Buffy groaned leaning back in her chair. “If we find these Greyarmers we should find the mythological axe as well right? Another shiny weapon in my collection couldn't hurt as well. Hm, definitely worth going back to school for”



“Suppose so,” Willow said slamming her laptop closed. “Let's go then”









Chapter End Notes:
tbc



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