Greatest Fear

Disclaimer : in PART 1

"I just called Mom, and you'll never guess what her greatest fear is." Clover looked around at everyone as she took her seat on the corner of the table. "It's that I'll die and come back as a... you guessed it, vampire."

Dustin Rogers turned with an open book on his hands and said, " That won't be a problem really, because the fears are only illusions that can only be seen by the person experiencing them. They are not real, but since your mother's greatest fear is you becoming a vampire, perhaps, for your safety, you should tell her to meet you here at my office. I think it would also be prudent for everyone here, and especially you Rai and Gavin since you are insisting on exposing yourself to Clover's world, to share their fears."

Rai leaned her head on one of her hands. "Well, mine's simple; closed spaces."

"If you start screaming ' the walls are closing it', then perhaps Clover here can knock you unconscious," Dustin replied absently reading.

Clover glanced over at him strangely. "Wonderful way to start a friendship," she muttered to Rai.

"What was that?" Dustin questioned. "Oh, well, never mind that. I suppose I'll go next, though mine's mostly straight forward and predictable."

"Afraid to loose your British humor?" Gavin questioned.

"Very droll Gavin," Dustin replied, " actually it's not having the correct answers for Clover during one of her trials."

"Thank you, thank you," Clover said with a mock bow, "I rank on someone's scale. Now what about you Gavin?"

Everyone turned expectantly towards him. "Rats okay. Happy. There's just something about those little furry faces and long tails that makes me want to jump on a counter and shriek like a woman in a bad cartoon," Gavin admitted. "Now that everyone knows my shame, what about our omnipotent Slayer here?"

Without a word, Clover slowly slipped out of her black leather jacket, hesitated at the right arm, then pulled the arm out. Everyone gave a little gasp as they saw the large scars that crisscrossed on her arm. "Fought a demon couple of years ago. It could make fire come out of its mouth. Burned me up real bad right here. Doctors said it was the worst case of third degree burns they'd ever seen. I killed it, but now I'm afraid of getting burned again."

"I'm sorry," Dustin stammered a little, " yes well, I suppose we should finish with our research."

"We'll help," Rai announced as she and Gavin jumped out of their chairs a little hastily not knowing what to say to Clover. They both started picking through books Dustin had stacked on the table.

Clover's thoughts were interrupted as a voice called out, "Hello, is anyone down there? Clover? You know, there really should be a railing here. In these heels it's really not working," Cordelia said as she walked the last few steps into Dustin's underground office. "This really is entirely too weird," she said shaking her head. "They rebuilt the school on the exact same spot as the old one before it blew up, and it looks the exact same too. You think they would be a little more creative this time around. This is new though," she added gesturing to the underground office. "Mr. Rogers," she finished with a nod and turned to Gavin and Rai.

"Welcome to his neighborhood," Gavin quipped. "Anyway, my name is Gavin and this is my cousin Rai. You must be Ms. Chase, Clover's mom."

"Nice to meet you," Cordeila said. Then a surprised look came over her features as she noticed her daughter without her jacket. "Clover honey, you're not wearing it. Well, these people must be trustworthy." She walked over to hug her daughter who winced as her mom's arms brushed her right one.

"Careful mom, still a little stiff," Clover said.

Her mom drew back, looked around the room, and noticed the books on the desk. "This is entirely part of my youth I did not want to relive," Cordelia muttered siting herself down and opening the first book she came to. "So, what are we researching today? Man-eating twenty story spiders? Invisible dragons? Simple, everyday vampires who want to rule the world?"

For the next few minutes, Clover and the group filled Cordelia in on the demon, and the room was quiet with the sound of turning pages.

"Ah, ha!" Dustin said from a corner of a bookcase as he came to the group at the table.

"One can just see the light bulb flashing on top of his head," Gavin said to no-one in particular.

"Perhaps you should spend less time watching television and more time on your grades," Dustin replied. "As I was saying, I've found more on our little friend here. Seems he can't stand light of any kind including sunlight, moonlight, candles, anything. So I guess it is safe to say that we pretty much have a weapon against it."

"So we go to the hardware store, invest in a little Energizer batteries, and it's pizza and late night movies over at my house," Clover said.

"It's not that simple," Dustin replied. "This demon, this Celdar, has killed the two Slayers before you actually. One in South America, the other in Australia. It used their greatest fears against them, and they failed. It will be after you now Clover, and when its influence spreads throughout the town, its energy will increase with every illusional fear."

"No problem," Clover answered. "My fear's been sent to Hell by me personally. So, if it's strong, all I've gotta do is shine a little light on the problem and defeat it."

"And if you get hurt? We'll be stuck here with our greatest fears and probably end up killing each other or ourselves. I lost your father Clover, I don't want to loose you too," Cordelia remarked.

"Don't worry Mom," Clover said, "I've been doing this for three years now, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Trust me, it will be simple."

"Ummm," Gavin started tapping Clover on the shoulder, " has anyone seen Rai?"

Everyone looked around noticing she was missing. A thud came from somewhere in the lower level. Racing down the stairs, Clover found her huddled in a tight ball with a frozen look of fear and taking sharp gasps of breath.

"She's hyperventilating," Dustin said coming up behind the Slayer who had grabbed Rai by the shoulders.

"Well somebody do something!" Gavin cried as Rai scrambled out of Clover's grasp and began clawing at the staircase to get by the others.

Clover came up behind the girl, muttered an apology, knocked her unconscious, then carried her body back downstairs and laid her down in one of the carpeted corners. "Well," she said looking at the others, " one down, three to go."

"That's comforting," Gavin replied.

"Clover, I just wanted to tell you that I give you permission to hit me, but try not to mess up my hair and get anything on my new outfit," Cordelia said sitting back down.

"Thanks Mom," Clover said while at the same time a very womanly like shriek was issued from Gavin who had jumped nimbly on top of the table. "Those pink little eyes, the swishing tails."

"Oh please, "Clover muttered.

"Stop asking," Dustin said suddenly.

"I didn't say anything," both mother and daughter said at the same time.

"I told you I don't know the answer!"

"AHHHH!" Gavin cried scrambling to the middle of the table.

Clover began advancing on her Watcher as her mother hit Gavin soundly on the back of the head with a book, and he slumped down.

"Please," Dustin was saying, "I'm not ready for this, I'm only twenty-five. I can't take this sort of pressure."

"Okay Dustin," Clover began, " let's take this one step at a time. Or not," she said quieting the noise with a backhanded slap. "Well, that takes care of that for a while at least," she said turning around to see her mom lunging forward with a stake in her hand. "Mom, I knew you didn't like my outfit, but come on." Clover dodged and managed to knock her mother out as well. "Sorry mom," she said heading toward the stairs up, " but I'll be back. Hopefully."

Clover ran through the streets of SunnyDale admist shouts and cringing people who, for their own safety, she knocked out, and vampires who wanted to take advantage of the chaos but instead saw the Slayer and the end of their un-dead lives.

"For crying out loud," Clover was almost screaming, " are there no hardware stores in this town? A Walmart?"

Finally, however, she noticed a small shop on the main street and rushed into the open door to see a man with his legs drawn up on his counter and an expression of terror. He turned at the sound of the door chime, and he looked at her in awe.

"Can't you see the water?" he questioned. "It's all around. How can you walk on it? Jesus?"

"No," she answered drily. "Now where are the batteries?"

The man pointed towards the center aisle, and as she rushed by, she hit him as well. "I can't believe this," she cried gathering up as many candles, batteries and flashlights as she could easily carry. "Now let me use my genius Slayer instincts here," she mused as she found herself back on the street. "Where would I hide my demon self if I couldn't even stand moonlight?"

A manhole came into view. "Let's see what's behind door number one." She pulled the cover off after setting down her items then climbing carefully down landing with a splash in the water and bracing the items once again to her chest. "Well, my boots are now ruined. Let me see, where is that lovely demon smell coming from?" Clover sniffed the air and decided that the smell was coming from behind her. She started walking that way careful not to drop the flashlights or batteries.

The Slayer heard a noise and shone a large flashlight at it. The demon, which was tall with a huge head, skinny body, and scaly skin came into view and let out a scream as it ran for cover. Clover listened carefully and pointed the light at it again.

The Celdar lunged for Clover and knocked her into the sewer water making her drop all the candles and flashlight. "You must be the Slayer," it hissed at her from somewhere to her right.

Clover jumped up and felt around for a flashlight. She found two big ones, picked them up, and hoped they still worked despite the water seeped into them. She shinned one in the direction of the voice. Again the Celdar ran for cover only this time she took the other flashlight and aimed it. Clover was getting tired of playing hide and seek with this demon. "Oaky, that's it. Let's get it on," she yelled as she pointed the other beam of light on it.

"Just remember you wanted it done," it hissed at her.

Suddenly a huge wall of fire between Clover and Celdar sprang into existence. Clover let out a scream and pressed herself toward the sewer wall dropping her flashlights. "It's not real," Clover told herself. "It won't hurt me." The Slayer took a deep breath and walked into the fire.

The Celdar's mouth hung open. She had done it! The Slayer had faced her greatest fear and still lived. Clover took out a long knife hidden in the folds of her pants and stabbed the demon in its heart. It fell to the ground, but just to make sure it was dead and because she was mad at it for making people suffer, she bent down and snapped its neck.

Very satisfied, Clover gathered up what was left of her tools and climbed back onto the surface streets. People seemed back to normal. Which was a good thing. Clover found her way back to the hardware and returned the items to the man who was waking up. "You just helped save the world," she told him as she walked out of the store.

Once Clover got back to the "Batcave", she found everyone just as they were starting to wake up. When Cordelia saw her daughter, she ran over and gave her a huge hug mindful of her arm.

"Sorry I had to knock you out," Clover told her mom.

"That's okay. Sorry I tried to stake you," Cordelia answered with a shrug.

Clover looked over to see Rai and Gavin coming over to her. To her surprise, they wrapped her in a hug bear hug.

"So, uh, Clover," Gavin said putting his left arm over her shoulders, " did I scream?"

The Slayer removed her friend's arm. "Yeah, you screamed like a girl. But you're still cute." Gavin developed a silly grin across his face.

"You did well Clover," Dustin told his Slayer with a small smile.

"Thanks," Clover said with a shrug. "Now, who's up for pizza and old teen thriller movies at my house?" She turned to her mom. "If it's okay with you mom."

Cordelia nodded her head yea. "I guess you are all going to relive my high school and college years of fighting vampires and demons."

"Oh joy," Gavin said sarcastically.

"Not really," Dustin confirmed, " with every century it gets worse.

"And that's good how?" Rai asked.

"It's not. That's why we have Slayers, " Dustin replied.

"That'd be me," Clover announced.

"You're the best," Cordelia said with a smile.

They all walked out of the cave, then walked to the Chase house. They spent hours watching movies and eating pizza, each one knowing that another new danger could arise. Each knowing Clover or any one of them could die at anytime.

But they all pushed it out of their minds, and watched the movies. They were safe. At least for a little while.

THE END

Oak's Diary