DW/BtVS: The Building Blocks of Good and Evil (15/20)
Title: The Building Blocks of Good and Evil
By: PatriciaTepes (AKA Patricia de Lioncourt @ fanfiction.net; PatriciaLouise @ TTH)
Chapter Title: For Your Life
Links to Other Chapters: ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN FOURTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN EIGHTEEN NINETEEN TWENTY
Fandom: Darkwing Duck/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:I do not own Darkwing Duck or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any of their related characters. Darkwing Duck belongs to Disney, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon. Also, I don't own the images used in the art. All is done for fun, not profit.
Author's Note: Okay, so the title of this chapter is a little bit vague, but it sort of lends to what happens. Sort of. Kind of. Maybe.
Chapter Fifteen- For Your Life
As soon as the Ratcatcher was heard zooming away down the street, Buffy sighed. She plopped down in the middle of the living room and pulled a rather overlarge book into her lap. Morgana smiled down at her, a spell book in her lap as well.
"They'll save Gosalyn. And we'll find your sister, Buffy. Don't worry. Being the hero is what my Dark is good at," she said.
"Yeah, everything will be fine," Willow's voice put in.
"Another book, Will," Spike said.
"Nothing in that last one, I gather?" Buffy sighed.
All hands in both dimensions were busying themselves trying to find a way to summon the demon that Spike had fought for his soul. And having his name was doing nothing to help, as most of the other books that referenced him did not know it. But the man he had seen that had revealed the existence of this demon to him had had a spell he had used to bring the demon to the designated meeting place, and that was what the current crack team was trying to find.
Spike sighed as he continued to flip through his new book, the noise trickling through the connection between dimensions. "I know this bloody spell exists."
"We don't doubt it," Willow sing-songed.
"So, are we bringing this demon, once we find this spell, right here? To Morgana's manor?" Buffy asked.
"I thought that that was, indeed, the plan," Spike murmured.
Buffy grinned, looking up at Morgana. "You don't mind if we summon a demon into your living room, do you?"
Morgana laughed, shrugging. "Honestly, Buffy, it wouldn't be any different than holding a family reunion here."
Buffy laughed. "Well, now that we officially have your permission… all we need is this friggin' spell."
"Bloody hell, I found it!" Spike exclaimed.
Buffy's eyes were wide as she glanced up at the ceiling. "You did? Hang on, let me get a piece of paper or something."
She rose to her feet, whirling back and forth in place, in her search for a pen and paper. Morgana sighed and flipped to the very back of her spell book. With a snap of her fingers, an inked, black feather quill appeared in her hand. She placed the tip to the page and glanced upward.
"Okay. Recite the spell… but be careful. We don't want to summon him before we're ready for him."
"It's all right. There a few items, it looks like, that you need for this one. Four newts' eyes, 1 frog's liver, 1 and a quarter goat's tongue, and a hemlock plant," Willow read as Morgana wrote it all down.
"Do we have all of that?" Buffy said, her nose curled up.
"Oh yes. In fact, I just bought a fresh supply of frogs' livers the other day," Morgana nodded. Then, looking back up at the ceiling, she added, "Got it. Read me the spell."
Spike was careful, keeping his voice monotone-just to ere on the side of caution-as he spoke the ancient Latin from his book. Morgana nodded along as she jotted it all down, never once having to refill the ink in her quill. Finally, Spike sighed.
"That's all of it," he said.
"Uh… spell's… up," Willow's voice cut in, going in and out like a bad cellphone connection.
"Willow? Spike? What's going on?" Buffy asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Getting… hard… maintain… spell. Draining. Will… find… Dawn," Willow's voice said once more.
"Careful!" Spike interjected. "Demon… tricky fellow… Careful, Buffy."
"Guys?" Buffy called. "Guys, are you still with us?"
Neither Morgana nor Buffy said anything for a long moment. They got no reply. With a sigh, Buffy turned to the duck-witch.
"Please tell me that we got all the spell," she groaned.
"Yes. It's all here."
Buffy nodded, crossing her arms low across her chest. "Then let's get this party started."
#
Negaduck and NegaBuffy were preoccupied, to say the least. Some of the… finer ingredients to the spell they were about to perform were a little difficult to harvest. In fact, as the Fearsome Four slinked their way into the room in which stood the holding cell for the two girls, the NegaGang had no trouble blocking the view, moving into a line in front of the door once Quackerjack jingled his way through. Negaduck, a little busy trying to chop the legs off a slippery, very much alive toad, had not even noticed the strange move. And neither had NegaBuffy, who was having trouble herself peeling the four cloves of garlic necessary.
Gosalyn looked up as the Fearsome Four stepped up to the glass, before three of them stepped back once again so that Quackerjack, holding a toy block in his right hand, could step closer.
"One side, kiddies," he whispered, waving them to the left.
Gosalyn and Dawn did not need to be told twice as they hugged as closely as they could to the left side of the cylinder. Out of the middle of the circle in the upper case letter P shot a red laser, focused, and Quackerjack moved it in a very large oval against the glass, making it as large as he was tall. Bushroot stepped forth then as the laser shut off, catching the glass as it began to fall, leaving the oval as nothing but a giant hole.
"You're… letting us go?" Dawn said in hushed tones as she ducked under and through the hole. Gosalyn followed right after.
"And we're going with you, back to our dimension," Bushroot nodded.
"Why?" Gosalyn asked, arms crossed. "Why should we trust you?"
"Because we don't want to die, and we thought we'd show Negaduck, once and for all, that we're not to be underestimated," Megavolt said.
"Act now, while supplies last!" Liquidator said, pointing towards the backs of the NegaGang, where it sounded like Negaduck had finally noticed that his minions were acting suspiciously.
"Back door. T-t-this way!" Bush said, pointing the way.
The six of them bolted, making as little noise as possible as they exited out of The Tower and into the dilapidated, doppelganger streets of the Negaverse's St. Canard. Dawn immediately had a coughing fit as soon as she took her first breath of the city's "fresh" air. The smog and fumes were so thick that she felt dizzy and disorientated. Gosalyn, who seemed to be suffering but handling hers a bit better, grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her onward.
"We have to keep going!" she said as a loud growl/scream erupted from the top of The Tower.
"The metal factory on the east side of the city! Hurry!" Bushroot said, placing a hand on each of the girls' shoulders and gently pushing them forward.
The group continued the run through the city, not a citizen in sight to block their path-or to help hide them in a crowd. It was a race against time as they all knew that if anyone knew this city, it was Negaduck. After all, he ruled this world with an iron fist. But they pressed on, zigzagging as much as possible until, finally, they found themselves at the door of the fully operational metal factory. The Fearsome Four, with the help of Dawn and Gosalyn, threw their entire weight into the gigantic doors of the factory building, finally managing to slide them open just enough for them to slip inside.
"There!" Quackerjack said, pointing. "That janitor's closet!"
Dawn and Gosalyn narrowed their eyes, searching for the room in question. Finally, their eyes found it, just across from them along the farthest wall.
"Let's go!" Dawn shouted as, finally, the sounds of Negaduck's motorcycle caught up with them.
The group fled for the door inside, hearing the heavy factory doors being shoved open behind them as soon as they had cleared half the factory.
"I do so love the taste of adrenaline in the blood," NegaBuffy called, her voice echoing over the few running machines and around the factory.
"Keep moving!" Gosalyn urged as Negaduck revved his chainsaw.
The six of them ran right up to the door of the janitor's closet and stopped… just as it opened up before them.
#
Moments earlier…
The swirling colors of red, yellow, purple, blue, green, and any other color imaginable made Mindy feel just the tiniest bit nauseous. She turned around, one hand tightly gripping the wooden door.
"I found it, Darkwing!" she shouted.
In all honestly, she had not envisioned the tear being housed behind a janitor's closet. When she had opened the door, she had expected buckets, mops, and cleaning solution. The tear she had actually expected was a literal tear in some wall or something. To have a door open up to a portal between two dimensions was rather unnerving.
Darkwing moved up beside the young slayer, pulling out his gas gun.
"Yeah, that's it. Ready?" he said, turning to the girl.
Mindy's face was pale. "Does it hurt?"
Darkwing's brow lifted. "You fight vampires and demons, and this scares you?"
She shook her head. "No. No. It just… doesn't look inviting. But ready or not… let's go."
Darkwing nodded as Mindy took a deep breath and tossed herself into the doorway. Darkwing followed right after. The two whirled and twirled until, finally, they felt themselves being sucked into another doorway. For a minute, everything was black. But, once everything was clear, they found themselves in a much better version of the metal factory they had left, with Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot, Liquidator, Gosalyn, and another girl that looked as if she might have come from Buffy's world staring down at them. Mindy was the first to recover, jumping to her feet and pulling Darkwing up as well. As soon as the Masked Mallard cleared his head, he looked down.
"Gosalyn?" he asked.
"Darkwing!" she shouted, running and tossing her arms about his waist.
Darkwing hugged her, pulling her behind him as he saw that Negaduck and NegaBuffy, along with the Negaverse counterparts of Herb, Binkie, Honker, and Launchpad, were bearing down upon the group. He turned his attention to four that had been standing with Dawn and Gosalyn.
"Nice to see you guys again. Care to lend us a hand?" he asked.
The four exchanged a glance, before turning back to the Flapping Terror.
"What the heck are you talking about, Dipwing? We're out of here!" Megavolt said, as he and the other three rushed around the heroes.
Darkwing blinked, looking down at Gosalyn. "Those weren't the Friendly Four?"
"Friendly Four? What? No, Dad, they were the Fearsome Four!" Gosalyn said as the four threw themselves into the portal, Liquidator pulling the janitor's door closed behind him.
"Those dweebs have been locked up, doing hard labor for a long time, Darkwing," Negaduck said as he and his gang approached the new arrivals.
"But I don't think we'll give you that luxury, will we, Negaduck?" NegaBuffy grinned, picking her teeth lightly with her thumb nail.
"There's no way that Darkwing's going to let you guys take me and Dawn!" Gosalyn said.
"Dawn?" Darkwing muttered, looking to the girl, who nodded.
Mindy reached forward and pulled Dawn beside of her, giving her a look that seemed to say, "Stay behind me."
The NegaGang, Negaduck, and NegaBuffy collectively chuckled. Negaduck lifted his chainsaw, revving it once for good measure.
"As far as I see it, sweetums, your little group is vastly outnumbered," Negaduck growled.
"I've defeated you before while facing worst odds, Negsy," Darkwing said, leveling his gas gun. "Let's get dangerous."
"Eat chainsaw, do-gooder!"
But as the good guys and the bad guys moved forward to rush one another, Dawn suddenly cried out. All eyes turned to the girl as she clutched her stomach, a green light emanating from her as she fell to her knees.
#
Buffy sat in the middle of a circle of white pillar candles, a small cauldron that reeked to high heaven set in front of her. Morgana had been kind enough to stew the ingredients for her. After all, she may be the slayer, but even her stomach had limits on what it could handle. Now, Morgana stood just beyond the barrier of candles.
"I'll be ready, Buffy, just in case something goes wrong," she said.
Buffy's eyes narrowed as she glanced up at her. "What might go wrong?"
"Oh, no, no, it's nothing. A very, extremely minor chance. It's just that anytime magic is done by someone who has very little magical experience… there's always a chance."
"So nice for everyone to tell me that," Buffy grumbled.
Regardless, she lifted the paper and began to read, raising and lowering her voice like Morgana had shown her moments earlier. She repeated the set of Latin phrases over and over, making sure to say them each time just like the time before. Finally, a gust of cold wind encircled the room, extinguishing the candles. In the blink of an eye, there was no one, and then, in a flash of bright green light, there he was.
The demon stood just inside the barrier, dressed in a brown robe, hiding his face in an attached hood. His arms were crossed, one rested atop the other, across his chest. Buffy stood, tense, and ready for a fight. But when the demon sighed, he did nothing but speak.
"Why have I been summoned?" he asked.
His voice was low, and it sounded like it came from a deep, hollow cave, despite being right in the middle of Macawber Manor. Buffy stood stock still, her face solemn.
"I want access to NegaBuffy's soul. I want it restored," she said.
The demon seemed intrigued by this, and at first did not say anything. Finally, he nodded.
"Understand, I can only give you what you truly want."
Buffy crossed her arms, eyes narrowed. "Uh… yeah. Well, I just told you what I wanted."
"Are you sure that that's it?"
"Pretty damn sure."
"There will be three trials, each more grueling than the last. In the end, your reward will be what you truly want. Do you understand and accept these terms?"
Buffy glanced around the rather thick demon to see that Morgana stood there, eyes wide with a hand rested over her beak. She looked very worried for the slayer. But Buffy only turned back to the demon.
"I accept."
"Very well."
And the world went black.
End Notes: Okay, first a note about this demon. When I first wrote that final scene-and any other mention of this demon previously-I had no idea what his name was. In fact, I was pretty sure that he didn't have a name. Being that it was NaNoWriMo, and that I'm very susceptible to procrastination, I refused to take the time to go double check myself. A little while ago, I decided that, for canon's sake, I better go look. Well, folks, I was wrong. So, if you wonder why the name isn't mentioned that much it simply means that I like the way a line reads as is instead of editing it to make them use the name.