Website: The Scribs: Home of the Insane Fanfiction Writer Cassima
"I did not!"
--Mulder, "Bad Blood", the X-Files
The day started as any other for the peaceful citizens of Japan.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I'M LAAAAAAAAAAATE!"
Just like I said: exactly the same.
"OOOOOOH, REI'S GONNA KILL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Usagi cried as she attempted to put on a shoe and sock at the same time. "Wait a minute... if she's already going to kill me... then I should just catch a few more z's and worry about it later." She smiled at her own reasoning. "Yeah... later..." Curling up in bed, she snoozed off again.
Buffy huffed and puffed along, Lun@ loping beside her. "Where're we going?" she asked her dog.
Lun@ wagged her gray tail happily. "We're just going to scope out the city today. Get a feel for the terrain. You realize that we're not going to be on equal location footing anymore, right? They've been here longer, and they're probably popping out vamps as fast as they can, so as to avoid population lows."
Buffy made a face. "You're right." Coming to a long flight of steps, she stopped. "Hey, what's this?"
Lun@ cocked her head. "I think it's a temple. Wanna check it out?"
"I'm game." They began to climb the steps. When the got to the top, they found a beautiful stone building.
"It's a temple, all right," Lun@ commented unnecessarily.
"I wonder if anyone's here?" Buffy murmured, looking around. "It's beautiful."
She heard a voice coming from inside one of the buildings. "USAGI!! YoU'Re lAtE!" A raven-haired girl with stormy brown eyes stormed out of the temple wearing a a white and red robe. "What were you THINK... Oh, hello," she chirped when she saw Buffy, blushing. "I... uh... thought you were my friend. Can I help you?"
Buffy suddenly realized that she didn't speak any Japanese. The girl looked at her strangely and repeated her question.
Lun@, having no problem with Japanese, realized then that Buffy did. Muttering something small, she cast a language spell on Buffy.
Rei looked around. "I sense magic," she murmured.
"Magic?" Buffy asked, looking around. "I don't see any magic."
"I feel a strange force here," Rei murmured, casting a wary eye upon Buffy.
"Uh... I better go," Buffy told the temple priestess.
"It's death magic!" Rei cried, standing up straight in her temple robes. Her long black hair swirled around her and her brown eyes flashed. "Don't move! You're a vampire! I know it!"
"Me? Um, actually--" Buffy took a few steps back. Lun@, growling, moved in front of her slayer to protect her.
"Akuryo Taisan!" Evil Spirit, Begone! she chanted, whipping out a charm and slamming it onto Buffy.
The slayer, stunned, fell backwards, hitting her head on the top step. She began to bleed.
Lunging forward, Lun@ clamped her teeth onto Rei's robes, missing her leg by a fraction of a second. Growling deep in her throat, she tried for flesh again. ThAt WAs A biG MiStaKe, MAgIc GIrL!
"You stupid mutt!" the priestess shrieked, swinging around, the dog coming with her, firmly attached to her robes by the teeth. "Let go! I'll kill you! This is my favorite robe!"
Her screaming brought her friends out of the shrine. "Rei, what's going on here?" the tallest one cried, her brown ponytail waving.
"Makoto, this dog's trying to kill me! It's not my fault! I was banishing evil... you're the source of that magic I felt, aren't you?" she accused the gray mutt, who barked in response before pouncing again.
Ami, craning her neck around the others, saw the figure on the ground and made for it. Lun@, letting go of Rei's robes momentarily, snapped a warning at the blue-haired girl. Don't be stupid.
Rei took this moment to whip out another charm. "Akuryo Taisan!" she chanted again, slamming it at the small dog in front of her. Lun@, now knowing what to expect with the stupid charms, snapped it up in her jaws and shredded it like a dog shreds trash. She attacked Rei again, this time latching on higher on the robe and not letting go.
Ami took this chance to examine the blonde laying in front of them. She had the charm still sticking doggedly to her head, but she was almost out of the trance. A thin stream of blood trickled from her head.
Buffy blinked. What's going on? Sitting up, she peeled the piece of paper off her head and threw it away. Cute. Then her attention was pulled to the girl in front of her. The one her guardian was attacking. The Shrine girl. "Lun@!" she barked. "Excuse me!"
The dog and Rei turned to look at Buffy. They both gave a little smile before Lun@ dropped the cloth and slid to the ground with a thump.
"Your dog is magical! She did magic!" Rei cried, pointing at the dog at her feet.
"I did not! Am not magical!" Lun@ shot back. Then she exchanged a glance with Buffy. "Oops. Well, goodbye!" She and her friend took off like a shot, giggling at themselves.
Ami looked back after them, pushing a strand of her short, bright blue hair back. "What was that all about?" she asked.
Rei ignored her, turning instead to the two gawkers, Makoto and Minako. "Mako! Minako! You idiots!! Why didn't you help me! A crazy dog attacks me, and all you do is STARE???"
"Rei, you attacked the dog's master, didn't you?" Minako accused.
"I... uh... well... there was magic..." Rei stuttered. Retrieving her cool, she cried, "But, that's not the point, is it, slush-for-brains? Damn it, sometimes you're worse than Usagi!" Turning in a huff, she stomped away.
The three remaining girls exchanged a glance. "Rei is acting very strange lately," Minako offered. "She loses her temper more often."
"Yeah," Makoto agreed, scratching her head. "Maybe she's been having visions again and not telling us."
They looked at Ami, who was staring back in the direction that the two strangers had darted off to. "Wait!" she cried after their retreating forms. "Come back!"
But they were gone.
"Ami?" Makoto asked tentatively, walking over to put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Ami reluctantly turned her head back to her friends. "I don't know," she replied absently. "She just seemed... so familiar..." She shook her head. "But, ah... what were we talking about?"
It wasn't often that the girl genius lost her train of thought. "Ami, are you sure you're okay?"
The shortest of the group turned her big blue eyes to the others. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be? I just... we should wait for Usagi. There are some decisions that need to be made about the programs I'm working on to help us with the upgrades we need to do as senshi. I've been experimenting on myself with different techniques, and I think that I could probably manage to give us a lot more power that can destroy vampires if I can find the key. Usagi has to help me choose what pathways to explore, though," she babbled. "It's her duty. She's the princess. We need to wait for her."
Minako and Makoto exchanged a glance. Everyone was acting so weird...
Buffy and Lun@ stopped their mad dash and collapsed against a wall, laughing their eyes out. "Did you see the look on her face when you talked?" Buffy gasped out. "It was priceless!!"
Lun@ snickered uncontrollably. "And the faces in the background? Of those two girls? I almost lost it right there!"
"LUNA!!" a voice interrupted them. "Get over here right now?"
Buffy exchanged a glance with her guardian. "You?"
"YES, YOU!" the blonde in front of them screeched. Her hair style, a bun on each side of her head with long, golden pigtails flowing out, seemed ready to pop.
Lun@ trotted up to her and sat. "Um... yeah?" she asked unbelievingly.
The girl's attention turned to her. "Did you just talk?"
"Uh... woof."
"Luna, come meet this talking dog!" she cried excitedly.
A black cat landed gracefully next to her, holding up her nose delicately. "I don't think she's a talking dog. There's no such thing."
"Lun@," Buffy hissed, "that cat's talking."
"No shit," Lun@ hissed back. She turned to the cat. "Are you a Lunar Guardian?"
Luna pulled the other to the side, away from the humans. "You did talk! I should say so! I am Luna from the planet Mau, Lunar guardian and protector of Sailor Moon."
"I am... um... Woof." Luna looked away nervously. A talking cat? What was next, a singing pig?
Buffy and the other blonde looked each other over. She looks like that ancient sketch Lun@ had us look up... it's the hairstyle... "So... nice cat. I noticed she has a bald spot."
"Yeah... uh, birth mark. Strange, isn't it," the other blonde replied just as casually.
Lun@ looked at them both. "Uh... woof."
"Hey, Lunes, what's up?" Buffy asked, as if talking to a stupid dog. "You having a discussion with the kitty?" She turned to the other girl across from her. "She's so cute. She thinks she can talk. My name's Buffy." She reached over to shake the other girl's hand.
"I'm Usagi!" the other chirped. "Well, I'm going to be late for a meeting if I don't go soon, so..." She made no move to leave.
"Lun@," the cat said quietly, "I've never met a dog guardian before. I didn't even know they existed. I was sure that all the Lunar guardians came from the planet Mau."
"I don't know... I just... I've never met another Lunar Guardian before... you'll have to excuse me... I just... I have to go..." She could feel the walls and general largeness of the highly commercial area begin to close around her, and she wanted out. Suddenly claustrophobic, she darted away at a 90 degree angle to the wall.
A 90 degree angle from the wall just happened to lead straight into the middle of the street, if one ducked under the guard rail correctly.
A horn honked.
Lun@ froze as she noticed the truck coming right for her.
The truck passed by quickly, Buffy's eyes wide.
A young man with black hair held the quivering pile of flesh tightly in his arms. "Hey, there, doggy. You almost became a puppy pancake." He looked down at her, making sure she was still alive. "You okay...?" He trailed off as their eyes met. A flash of lightning shot through them both as his blue eyes met her green. Suddenly, there was no one but those two as they stared at each other. A strong sense of deja vu came over them, and Lun@ opened her mouth to speak.
"Mamo!" Usagi cried, attaching herself to the guy, breaking the spell. "That's..."
"That's my dog!" Buffy cried, scooping her up. "Thank you! Lun@, what were you thinking?" She hugged her dog close to her chest.
"Lun@?" Mamoru asked, breathing a little hard. "You mean, your dog has the same name as..." he looked at Usagi, "your cat?"
"What a coincidence. Small world," Buffy determined. "Look, it was nice meeting you, Usagi. Maybe I'll see you again, but I have to go buy a leash for her. She's such a mutt sometimes! Bye!"
"Bye!" Usagi chirped, waving. "I hope she's okay!"
"She'll be fine!" Buffy called back. Pulling the shaking dog up, she looked at her tiny face. "What did you think you were doing?"
Lun@ blinked. "I don't know... I just ran. I had to get out of there... I couldn't answer the questions... it was too much... I'm sorry..."
"Hey, it's okay... you just scared me. Kid, what happened?"
"I just... I don't know. I just... freaked. Don't worry, though. It will not happen again."
Buffy began to walk back to the hotel, cradling Lun@ gently.
"And I'm not a kid, thank you very much."
Scully sat at her computer, doing research. Suddenly, a message appeared in her mailbox.
To: D_Scully@fbi.gov
From: hot_lips@highspeed.com
Subject: Hey, Gorgeous
>Well, hello, my dear Agent Scully. How are you getting along? Are you getting all the research you need? Let me know if I can do anything.
>--Frohike
Scully smiled slightly. It was definitely not a surprise to find that Mulder's informant still had a HUGE crush on her. It was also not a surprise that, when given an opportunity, Frohike could be VERY annoying.
Best not to present the opportunity, hum?
To: hot_lips@highspeed.com
From: D_Scully@fbi.gov
Subject: I'm fine
Frohike, I'm fine. I'm sitting here in the "cozy" Toyko Palace finishing my report. Don't you have some conspiracy to nose up or something?
She thought for a moment. Was that too cruel? Too... pointed?
Well, it was too late for second thoughts. She sent it.
Almost immediately, she got a reply back.
To: D_Scully@fbi.gov
From: hot_lips@highspeed.com
Subject: You're cruel
>You wound me with your words.
To: hot_lips@highspeed.com
From: D_Scully@fbi.gov
Subject: Re:You're cruel
>Goodbye, Frohike.
With that, she logged off, sighing.
Frohike was sweet, but a pain. Besides, she didn't need any more excitement in her life than she already had, with Mulder, the X-files, her cancer...
Oh, yeah. Her cancer.
She buried her hands in her thick, short red hair. I can't do it again, she thought to herself with a moan. I can't... it's too hard... I just want to live my life in peace... all right, maybe peace is too much to ask, but I just want to LIVE.
Standing up, she went into the bathroom...
A few minutes later, she flushed the toilet. It made a strange gurgling noise and stopped. She frowned, trying again. Pulling the lid off the back, she peered into the tank.
Yep, time to evacuate.
Feeling more than a little silly and panicked, she raced over and banged her fist on the adjoining door. "Mulder! Mulder, there's a bomb."
"Huh?" his answering voice rang out faintly.
"There's a bomb, Mulder. In my toilet. We have to evacuate the hotel."
He opened the door. "What's the punch line, Scully?"
She was back in the bathroom by then. "Twenty minutes, 31 seconds, 30, 29, 28, 27--"
He was at her side in an instant. "My god... Scully, did you realize there's a bomb in your toilet?"
She sent him a ferocious glare, the kind he lived to not receive.
"Sorry." He ran back into his room to grab his wallet and ID badge. "C'mon!"
Scully was already on the phone with the hotel security explaining the situation.
Lun@ stretched her arms back and yawned, staring into space above her. "If we don't go out patrolling soon," she called to the ceiling, "I'm going to fall asleep."
"Just a minute," Angel said a bit snarkily, running a hand through his hair. He shifted on the bed beside her. "Buffy's still talking to Giles about that piece of paper the priestess smacked on her."
"Don't get that tone with me, young man," Lun@ scolded gently. "And don't treat me like an idiot. I KNOW what she's doing. I sent her myself."
"Diab... it's been a long time since someone has called me 'young man'. I'm two hundred and--"
"Change," she dismissed. "Pennies. Mere pennies. Two hundred doesn't count you as old. My god, I'm over two thousand, and look at me! I'm in the prime of my life!" She turned to him. "Do I look old to you?"
He shifted onto his side and seriously searched her face. "Not really," he finally decided with a little smile. "You look just right."
"Thanks. Namesake--"
"Give it up, Diab."
"But you are, Ang. I mean, your parents named you after what I was. What I am. And, the fact that you looked at me with such cute little eyes."
"They were the same size then as they are now."
"But, they looked smaller." The conversation had taken on a teasing tone.
"Maybe you were just bigger."
"Yeah. Someone stuck me in the dryer."
"You must be made of cotton."
"That means I breathe." She huffed in and out a few times. "Works for me."
There was a pause. "What's it like to breathe again?" Angel finally asked, a tinge of sadness in his voice.
"Wonderful." She sighed, simply enjoying the feeling of air rushing out of her lungs. "I finally know what it's like to be both breathless and air sufficient." Then, in a tiny voice, "I wonder what my life was like."
"Diab, as long as you're sentient you're alive. Even if you're undead." He stroked her hair, an almost brotherly gesture.
"I guess you're right," she admitted. "Hey, would that make me undead, or un-undead?"
He chuckled. "Your guess is as good as--"
Buffy burst into the room. "You guys, we gotta get outta here!"
They looked at her in unison. "Finally ready to go kick some vampire butt?"
"There's a bomb!"
Buffy and Angel were a flurry of activity, gathering up all important-can't-save-the-world-without-it objects and practically flew out of there, Lun@ hovering and jabbering unhelpfully all the while. "A BOMB? Really? Wow! I've never actually seen a bomb go off before, I've just cleaned up the bodies afterwards... How close do you think they'll let us stand? Will we be able to watch? I don't care what they say, I'm watching. I'll be careful. What?"
"You're really psycho-doggie today, aren't you?" Buffy cried, her voice dry with sarcasm and wonder. She shoved a bunch of things into her Guardian's empty arms.
"Drop dead," Lun@ snapped cheekily, taking the steps two at a time and shoving all the small objects she was carrying into the pockets of her jeans.
They reached the ground level just in time to rush behind the police barriers. "Get everyone else out of there!" a policeman cried.
To Lun@'s dismay, they were shepherded to the back of the crowd. She pouted. "This view sucks."
Giles and the others rushed up to them. "Oh," he cried Britishly, "thank goodness you're alright. There was a bomb threat called in, and I had to leave... what are you carrying?"
"Just a few things that you couldn't live without, Giles. Hey, you can thank us later," Buffy told him, patting his shoulder with her free hand.
"Yes... well, luckily we moved the weapons and research books to the lab we'll be working at."
"It's really cool," Willow threw in. "They've got lotsa books 'n' stuff 'n' computers 'n'... stuff to play with."
"Willow," Calendar scolded gently, "witchcraft isn't a game."
"I know..."
Inside the building, the bomb expert stared at the bomb nervously. He had cut a wire, but determining which to cut next was the biggest decision of his life, and the seconds were quickly ticking by.
3... 2... 1...
He snipped a wire. Hopefully, that would do it.
A little flag popped up out of the bomb. The message on it read "Boom."
He stared for a moment. "Huh?"
And then, the world exploded around him.
The force of the blow was deafening, and Rei suddenly knew she was right to come out for a walk. Running up, she rounded the corner just in time to see the ruins of the Tokyo Palace burst out into flames.
A couple hundred people were milling about outside the building, looking lost without the security of the standing building. Her brown eyes were immediately pulled to the girl she had charmed earlier that day. She was standing next to an old guy, a couple teens, a young woman, and--hello!--a cute guy.
He's so dreamy...
The little punch bag-sized dog was no where to be seen.
Maybe he was in the building when it blew... Rei felt a small smile stretching across her face. She walked up to the group and offered her smile of apology.
"Hello, everyone! I see your hotel blew up. That must have been terrible."
There was an exchanging of confused glances between most of the group. The blonde girl's eyes hardened, though, and the dark-haired teenage girl was quick to jump to her feet and stand next to her friend. "Yes, it was," she replied in perfect, though suspicious, Japanese.
Suddenly, a thought seemed to occur to her. She turned around and Rei thought she heard the mumbling of a spell.
A shiver made its way up her spine. Yep, definitely magic. "Hey, what do you think you're DOING??" she yelled, reaching out for the girl.
The blonde stepped in her way. "What do you want?" Her voice was cold and hard. The Japanese was also perfect.
Rei heedlessly pushed the small teen out of her way to see to the even shorter one behind her. The spell was just finishing up when Rei grabbed her. "You shouldn't mess with magic you don't understand!" she hissed.
Lun@ blinked blankly. "I was practicing conjugating Latin verbs."
The way she said it, she was so damn convincing that Rei had to agree. She obviously has no idea what she's talking about... I was probably mistaken... Latin verbs...? Well, I guess it could be...
"Miss? Are you alright?" the small girl asked a bit anxiously.
"Oh... Heh, heh, heh!" Rei laughed a bit sheepishly. "Uh... sorry about that."
"That's quite alright," Lun@ responded with a touch of humor in her voice. "Allow me to introduce you to my friends. This is Buffy Summers--"
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" Rei cried, oblivious to the racket she was making.
"OH, so you've heard of her," the teenaged boy remarked.
"Yeah, but I don't usually tell everyone!" she hissed.
Lun@ snorted.
"How did you know that?" Buffy demanded. Please, I don't need another Angel, please, not another one...
"I had dreams..." Rei said, a far-off look in her eyes. "But, ah... I guess you guys'll be needing a place to stay, huh? You can stay at my temple, with me and my grandfather, I guess... We have a few spare rooms since Yuuichiru left..."
Giles and Jenny exchanged a glance. "Rupert, what do you think?" Jenny asked him.
"I think we can trust her," Buffy put in.
"Of course we can," Lun@ agreed.
"Oh, you're the one that hit Buffy with that spell earlier! Can you show me how to do that charm thing?" Willow asked Rei eagerly.
"What language am I speaking?" Xander moaned to anyone who would listen.
Angel simply looked on with silent laughter.
"I can't teach you the chant! You're not a priestess!" Rei protested.
"You weren't who I was asking!" Jenny informed Buffy.
"But, my opinion counts!" Buffy cried.
"Japanese, Xander," Lun@ murmured. "We are in Japan, you know. Tokyo."
"I don't believe I'm having this conversation," Ms. Calendar snapped.
"You and me both," Buffy agreed.
"Oh. Well, I'm going to be a witch!" Willow suggested. "Will that help?"
"I remember where we are!" Xander grumbled. "I'm not stupid."
"Your test scores beg to differ," Lun@ shot back.
"So I don't test well," Xander cried. "So what?"
What a group, Angel thought to himself, a smile gracing his usually sad features. We must look mighty strange.
Miss Calendar and Giles conferred for a moment amidst the clash of voices and finally reached the same conclusion Buffy had.
"If you will take us in, we would be delighted to stay in your temple," Giles told the overwhelmed priestess.
"Good." Rei looked around. This felt right. There's something missing, though... Scanning the area, she caught sight of a short red-head holding an intense conversation with a tall, dark and handsome man. In her usual manner, she marched right up to them and tapped one of them on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but I don't suppose you happen to be looking for a place to stay..."
The two exchanged a glance.
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