FIC: Vampires, Demons and Torchwood, Oh my! (2/?)
Name: Vampires, Demons and Torchwood, Oh my!
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Spike/Buffy, Willow/Tosh, Xander/Anya, Martha, Owen, Faith, other characters may follow later…
Summary: Sequel to Magic and Mayhem at the Rift. The Scoobie gang, now fully integrated into the Torchwood group and settled in to their new lives, discover there’s more coming through the rift than the odd demon and alien. This story is set post Exit Wounds, so there are minor spoilers. However, I have major problems with Exit Wounds and, as such, only some of the storyline happened (same goes for Reset which, although it happened, did not end like it did in the series in my head. Dead Man Walking and A Day in the Death DID NOT HAPPEN. I’m in my happy place now ...). Episodes like Adrift, Something Borrowed and Out of the Rain did happen, though (Like I said before: happy place) and may be referred to or even flash-backed to from time to time.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer … I do however own the cracked story idea - and proud of it, thankyouverymuch! I don’t own the title of this story either, however, that was thought up by the wonderful ickle18(I say wonderful because anyone who can come up with this title must be), the daughter of missthingsplace. THANK YOU!
Hey hey, another chapter. This one started off teeth-pullingly difficult, but then it became much easier to write. For that reason, the start is pretty lousy in my opinion, but I hope the rest is okay. :)
Previous chapters: Ch.1
Chapter 2: School
Saturday 19th July
11:37
“Tosh and I disposed of that demon last night,” Willow said, idly spinning a pencil around in midair, sat at the conference table with Buffy. “It was trying to attach its head back onto its own body.”
“Ew,” Buffy replied, catching the pencil midair and snapping it in half.
“Yeah.” Willow levitated a second pencil out of the nearby mug without conscious thought. Buffy glowered darkly and tried to ignore the hovering pencil. “We burnt it ... that’s the only way to deal with a Mok’dah demon.” Buffy looked surprised that Willow knew this. “I used to research with Giles all the time ... after a while the most common books became ingrained in my memory.”
Buffy nodded. “Go Will!” she said, with a smile. “What would we do without you?”
Willow pulled a face. “See ... that’s the thing. I was wondering the same thing. Anya and I are the only ones that know this stuff. Anya knows it because she lived and breathed the demon world for millennia ... she knows more than me. If something was to happen to her, or me, you’d be sunk. You never bothered to open a book.”
Buffy whimpered. “But ... but ... books are good. I like books. I’ll start reading books. You point ‘em out and I’ll slay ‘em!”
The redhead shook her head in disbelief. “Buffy ... you don't slay books, you read them. And, last time I checked, no books fell through the rift with us ...” Willow sighed. “Tosh and I think you need a database.”
“You and Tosh are... you and Tosh now, huh?”
Willow smiled fondly. “Yep,” she replied. “I’m so happy, Buffy ... she’s as powerful a witch as me, if not more so, and we just click ... it’s a match made in heaven.”
“I’m happy for you, Will,” Buffy lied. She still wasn’t happy with her friend doing magic again, but had learned to live with it, even though it worried her silly. “So this database ...”
Willow clicked her fingers and her laptop appeared on the conference table. Lifting the lid, she clicked a few buttons before bringing up a complex spreadsheet. Buffy blinked at it, blankly. “You put the demon’s name here, details here, how to kill it here, and any notes here” - she pointed at different areas as she spoke - “Anya and I will add the demons we know about, as well as some illustrations, and you can add the ones you know about.”
Buffy looked up at Willow. “That’s a really good idea,” she said, with a smile. “I’ll add the few demons I know once you and Anya are done with it.” Willow raised a sceptical eyebrow. “I will, honest!” She put her hand on her heart. “I won’t skip it like I did half my classes.” She grinned.
Willow rolled her eyes and iconized the window. “Has Xander started talking to you again yet?”
Buffy’s grin fell off her face. “No,” she said, sadly. “He’s still punishing me for my relationship with Spike.”
Reaching out to place her hand on top of her friend’s, Willow gave Buffy a comforting smile. “This is Xander we’re talking about ... he’d stand by your side if the Earth was about to explode - and he has! - he’ll come around.”
“Have we ever had an Earth going boom apocalypse?” Buffy asked. “I don't remember.”
Willow pondered for a moment. “We had a vampires-everywhere apocalypse, an Earth-sucked-into-hell apocalypse ... twice ... um ...”
“Okay, Will,” Buffy said, holding up her hand. “I don't want to recount all our apocalypses.” She paused. “Not many people can say that...”
“What?”
“‘All our apocalypses’,” Buffy stated. “We’re probably the only ones who have stopped more than one apocalypse.” She snorted. “And I don't even have bragging rights ... no one would ever believe me.”
Willow patted her hand. “There, there,” she said. Buffy glowered at her before they both started laughing.
“Oh Will,” Buffy said, leaning back in her chair. “How did we end up here?” She gestured at the hub around them. “Dodging bullets and aliens in ... Cardiff,” she spluttered the word. “Cardiff ... I mean, who has a rift in time and space in Cardiff?”
“The Welsh,” Willow answered promptly.
Buffy chuckled, and then sobered. “Do you ever think about her?”
Willow looked up. “Tara? All the time. But she’s ... she’s in another universe ... and I have Tosh. And although I’ll always love Tara ... I love Tosh.”
Eyes widening, Buffy said, “You love her?”
Willow nodded. “What about you? Do you ... ever ... think about ...”
“Who?”
“Dawn ... Riley ... Angel ... Giles ...”
“All the time.” Buffy smiled, softly, picking up her cup of coffee, a taste she had acquired thanks to Ianto. “But Dawn ... she’s fine, I’m sure of it. Wherever she is, she’s on the right side of the rift...”
“The American side.”
Buffy snorted into her coffee. “I was thinking of the side not being flooded with demons from all times and places.”
“Oh.”
“I often wonder about Angel and Giles, too ... they both must wonder where I am.” She smiled wanly. “God, what wouldn’t I do to speak to them again?” She paused. “I don't really think about Riley, though. I got over him ... death does that to a girl.” She smirked, but Willow just looked sad. “I have Spike and I lo-” She broke off, swallowing. “I care about him a lot.”
Nodding understandingly, Willow asked, “What about Angel?”
“Angel left me,” Buffy snapped. “He’s past tense although ... although I’ll always love him.” She ran a hand through her blonde hair. “I wish I didn’t. I really do.” She sighed and leaned back her seat, then she smirked. “I have to say though ... his face would be priceless if he knew I was...”
“Banging Spike?”
“I wasn’t going to be so crude, but yeah; that I’m banging Spike.”
Willow was about to reply when the conference room door opened and Tosh walked in, sporting a tray of coffee. “Ianto sent me with these ... Is this a bad time? I can leave the coffee and go...” she said, softly, feeling slightly out of place.
“No, it’s fine, Tosh,” Buffy said, with a smile. “Come and join us. I was just saying to Willow how good an idea the database is.”
Tosh walked around the table, placing the tray down at the end between herself, Willow and Buffy, a smile on her face. “So you’re going to fill it in?”
“After Willow and Anya have put the demons they know of in there. I was never one to ... you know ... the research ... books and ... me ... we don't really ... mesh,” Buffy said, “so, me, I don't really know many demons and ...” She was stumbling over words, trying to find a plausible excuse for not adding stuff to the database. It wasn’t that she was opposed to the idea, more that it was too much like homework, something she had thought she’d escaped long ago. She was about to find another excuse when Jack burst in.
“We’ve got trouble!” he exclaimed. “Grab your kit, Buffy, Willow, Tosh, you’re with me!”
12:37
As Buffy, Willow, Tosh, Owen, Jack, Ianto, Xander and Faith clambered out of the minivan, a replacement for the SUV, which had become increasingly lacking in required size since they had expanded the team, Buffy was complaining.
“Why do all these demons attack on Friday nights and Saturday mornings? Don't they have weekends?” she griped. Each member of the team stood by the minivan as Jack locked it, frozen to the spot, looking at the sight they’d been called to. Buffy was the first to comment. “Oh ... my ... God.”
The group murmured in agreement. The sight before them was of where a public library used to be. Now, however, it had been replaced by the Sunnydale High School. “Holy mother of Zeus,” Xander spluttered. Not only was the school there, but the area around it was covered in snow.
“Okay ... Sunnydale high school and ... snow ...” Buffy moaned. “Will, is it me or are those kids looking shocked and confused dressed like they belong in the nineteen-eighties?”
Willow nodded, mutely, terrified of the presence of their high school, just like Xander and Buffy. Faith was staring at it, open mouthed, while the Cardiff natives were eying up their colleagues reactions. Jack was the first to ask, “What’s so terrible about a high school?”
Buffy, Willow and Xander turned to glare at Jack. “We went to this high school.”
“So it’s just a loathing of old memories?” Ianto asked.
“Oh, it’s much more than that,” Xander said.
“Sunnydale high school is built on the Hellmouth. Right under the library, in fact,” Willow said. “It wasn’t a very nice place to grow up.”
“Do you think the hellmouth came too?” Xander asked Willow, quietly.
“If I can get in the library, I can cast a spell to detect the hellmouth,” Willow told the group. “What are we going to do about them?” She gestured at the group of teenagers and teachers collected out on the front.
“I have ... no idea,” Jack admitted. “We can deal with a few people who have fallen through time but a whole school?” He paused, raising an eyebrow at the building. “Why are there so many people there, anyway, on a Saturday?”
Ianto looked at Jack like he was stupid. “They’re dressed for the nineteen-eighties, I doubt somehow that they came through the same day as they arrived.”
“Oh,” Jack breathed. “That makes sense.” He sighed. “I say we ... RetCon them. Offer them sugary tea for the shock dosed with RetCon ... they’ll fit in this world after a while.” He pulled a face. “There’s a hundred that I can see outside the school ... we can’t look after them all.”
Buffy nodded her agreement. “I suggest we talk to the principal first, though, see if anything odd has been happening recently, check the place for demons and then for the hellmouth.”
Willow put a hand on her arm. “If the hellmouth is here ... won’t it be the nineteen-eighties version?”
“Your point?”
“With ... the Master in it?”
“The Master?” Ianto and Jack yelped at the same time.
“Old vampire guy ... sired Spike’s sire’s ... sire’s ... sire,” Buffy explained, quickly. “Evil bastard, killed me once ...”
“You two really do have something in common,” Ianto whispered in Jack’s ear. “You can both recount your deaths.”
Jack shot Ianto a grin, pecked him chastely on the cheek, then turned to the group. “Alright,” he said. “Buffy, Tosh, Willow, Ianto, you check out this mouth thing ... Owen, Xander, Faith ... help me prevent these people from having hysterics.”
As the group split in two, Buffy’s group heading for the building, Jack’s group heading for the people, Ianto couldn’t help thinking just how insane the world had become in a few short months.
13:12
“What do you mean you can’t get a clear reading?” Buffy demanded, pacing back and forth in the library. They had stormed the small room in force, throwing the librarian, and the few students with the audacity to be reading, out on their ears, waving their guns around for persuasion when one student argued. “There’s either a hellmouth down there or their isn’t!”
Tosh and Willow were sat, Indian-style, facing each other in the middle of the floor, their hands joined, eyes closed, deep in concentration, a Wiccan symbol painted on the tile beneath them. The library was very different in appearance to how it had looked before it had been blown up, but it was still the same size, and shape, with the book cage, the librarian’s office and the stairs. It gave Buffy the creeps to be here again. “I just can’t tell,” Willow moaned. “There’s something here ... but it’s like it’s shielded, or just a remnant or...”
“I think it’s out of phase with this world,” Tosh commented, her eyes flying open. “Like it’s half here ... and half in your world.” She was reaching out with her mind, something Willow had never been able to do. The two witches had learned, over time, that although they were both highly skilled in magicks, Willow was better at some things and Tosh at others. “I can see your world.”
Her eyes glazed over, turning black and she released Willow’s hand, her head snapping backwards. “Tosh, baby, are you okay?” Willow demanded, scrabbling into a kneeling position and placing her hands either side of her lover’s face. “Speak to me!”
“Toshiko!” Ianto exclaimed, avoiding stepping into the circle, as he had been instructed, but desperate to get to his friend. “What’s happened to her?”
“I don't know!” Willow sobbed. “I felt this ... power ... surge through her, as though she was being touched by a powerful force beyond ... anything, I’ve ever felt before.”
“The First?” Buffy asked, with concern.
“It didn’t feel evil,” Willow said, still trying to rouse Tosh from her reverie. “It just felt powerful.”
“What’s the First?” Ianto asked, wanting the distraction.
“The First Evil,” Buffy responded.
“So ... a bad guy?”
Buffy shook her head. “The First isn’t just bad ... it is evil. It has no physical form ... it was here before the word evil was even thought of.” She sighed. “It tried to hurt Angel once ... I stopped it.”
Suddenly, Tosh jerked and her mouth opened. “I can see your world,” she said, again. “The world where demons and vampires walk the Earth among the humans, just a part of the surroundings. Accepted.”
“Tosh, baby, sweetheart,” Willow chanted, trying to touch her, but being repelled by some invisible force. “Come back to me, Tosh ...”
“I see ... everything,” Tosh breathed. “The days and the nights, the sun and the moon.” Her eyes impossibly widened more. “I see what has been and what is to come.” She raised a hand, waving it through the air. A circle appeared above her and an image formed inside it, viewable from all angles. Intrigued, Willow stood up and stepped backwards to stand between Ianto and Buffy, who were also enthralled by the glowing ring.
“The Slayer,” Tosh said, and the image swam, changing to a young redheaded girl fighting vampires. “Called when Faith was pulled across space and time.” Buffy smiled, ever so slightly, glad that although she and Faith were here, her world still had a Slayer. “Tara.” The picture changed again, this time showing Tara, older somehow, sitting in her dorm room doing homework, a figure asleep in the bed behind her.
“She seems happy,” Buffy said, quietly, to Willow, who nodded, tearing up.
The picture changed, showing Angel, mid-battle and Tosh announced, “Angel.” Buffy couldn’t help but smile at the image of Angel. He seemed to be doing okay. “Dawn and Giles.” Again, the picture changed, this time to Dawn, who was living with Giles in England. Buffy wondered how he had wrangled that. She seemed happy. “You don't need to worry about them,” Tosh said, after a moment. “They are fine.” Tosh’s eyes became her usual colour again and she slumped forwards. Willow caught her, swiftly, before her head could hit the ground.
“How?” she asked.
Tosh smiled. “I connected ... with the rift and the hellmouth ... the combined power ... I could see everything ... everywhere ...” Her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out, but not before she said, “I wanted you to know they were safe.”
Buffy and Ianto looked worriedly at Tosh’s unconscious form. “Is she okay?” Ianto asked.
“I don't know, she absorbed a lot of energy ...” Willow started, but she was interrupted by a strange noise filling the air. “What is that?” she asked.
Ianto went to the window, just in time to see Jack running across the grass. “Oh no you don't,” Ianto snarled, “you’re not running off again!” It took him only a second to throw open the window and climb through, ignoring Buffy’s shout of “Ianto! What is it, what’s wrong?” as he flew across the grass after his lover.
13:19
Six minutes before.
Jack grimaced as he watched the pupils start to pass out from the RetCon. “I feel awful doing this,” he told his group, sadly. “We should look after them ... but there are so many.”
“It’s a pity we can’t send them back,” Xander said. “Along with ourselves.”
Jack shrugged. “Not in my power, I’m sorry; you know that as well as I do.”
Xander nodded. “This world is so screwed up,” he commented, leaning against a nearby tree. “Spike and Buffy ... gay guys everywhere” - he looked sheepish - “no offence, I don't have anything against you and Ianto ... it’s just so ... open.” Jack smirked. “You don't have that in my world. My world is simple and clean.”
Jack snorted, something Ianto would have reprimanded him for. “With a stinking great hellmouth under your high school.”
“Hey, I didn’t say it was without its flaws...” Xander argued. “But, the hellmouth and demons ... that was what gave my world charm.”
“We have aliens.”
“Oh, the joys: aliens.”
Jack shrugged, watching Faith and Owen doling RetCon out across the grass. “It gives our world class.”
Xander smirked. “I still miss mine.”
“Never doubted it.”
The two of them fell into companionable silence, until they saw a flash through the window of the library. “What was that?” Xander asked, concerned.
“Probably the spell Toshiko and Willow are casting,” Jack commented. “Nothing to be worried about.”
“The library is on a hellmouth,” Xander snapped. “Everything should be worried about and over. For all we know, the year this school came from ... the hellmouth was about to be opened and thwarted by the Slayer at the time! Without her and her knowledge, the whole world might be about to go ‘kablooee!’”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure it’s nothing ...” He stopped when he heard a strange, but familiar noise fill the air. “You hear that?” he asked Xander.
Xander nodded. “Yeah,” he replied. “What is it?”
“An old friend.” Jack looked towards the library to see a blue police box appearing in the distance. With a whoop and a grin, he started running off down the grass towards the TARDIS.
“What’s going on?” Owen asked, walking up to Xander. Xander pointed at the box. “Oh, no, not again!” Owen roared, legging it across the grass after Jack. After a moment, Xander and Faith followed, not sure what they were running after, but running all the same. They met up with an enraged Ianto half way, just in time to see Jack whip out his key and disappear inside the box.
When they got there a moment later, the four of them wrenched open the door and burst inside.
“...I saw the energy and thought ‘What’s Jack been doing with the rift this time?’, and decided this was the best place to find out what on Earth was happening in Cardiff...Hello! Jack, are you turning my TARDIS into a circus?” The Doctor and Jack turned from the TARDIS console to face the four, gaping, intruders. The Doctor was grinning, despite his circus comment.
Ianto, snapping out of his ‘it’s bigger on the inside’ reverie, deciding to gape more a bit later, glared at Jack, who had the good grace to look guilty. “I can explain...” he said, with a grimace.
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