Sunnydale, January 2003
Richard Castle, Watcher
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon PIctures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: Help Rupert drive the potentials out to the desert, for a vison quest or so. It had sounded like a nice road trip.
Sunnydale, January 2003
Rick Castle would have thought that leaving the Hellmouth - even if only for a day or so - would make him feel relieved. Like a small vacation. Or some day off.
He should have been suspicious when everyone else begged off from helping Rupert driving the potentials out to the desert so they could meet the First Slayer in some binding ritual or vision quest, to strengthen their spirit and maybe themselves as well.
“Stop that noise, we’ve been listening to that shit for hours now! Switch to a channel that plays songs from this millennium!” Kennedy complained. She had already been mad at not getting to grope Willow for this trip.
“No! We’ve been listening to your garbage for hours, this is just where it’s getting good.” Rona, sitting up front, didn’t share the other potential’s taste in songs.
“Shut up you two, I am reading here!” Annabelle glared at both.
“I’ve to sit in the middle in the back, I get at least to pick the song!” Violet piped up.
“No you don’t!” Kennedy disagreed. Again.
“Not for the whole trip!” Annabelle chimed in.
“I don’t care, I am switching channels now!” Rona exclaimed.
“Hold her back!” Kennedy tried to grab the other’s arm.
“Leggo of my hair!” Rona whined, the seatbelt hindering her defense against Vi.
Watch it, I… ooof!” Annabelle just became collateral damage in the latest fight over the radio.
While Annabelle and Vi started to strangle each other, Rick grit his teeth, then channeled his best inner drill sergeant, or what he thought he’d be like, and bellowed at the four annoyances: “Would you girls stop acting like children? My eight year old daughter is more mature than all of you combined, and she has tantrums over her dinner!” Granted, that had been over all the salt and fat and sugar in Pizza, and right after she had read a health brochure, and had been worried about his and Martha’s health, but they didn’t need to know that as long as they shut up. Which they did.
He used the time to switch the channel to a country station. In hindsight, that had been a mistake as well. At least he could be certain that none of them were the First.
*****
“How did you survive the drive?” Rick asked while clapping Rupert on the back. No First here either.
“I am not sure I did. I am quite certain that they’d play Britney Spears in hell itself after this drive.” The British Watcher shuddered while their charges limbered up after the long drive.
Castle looked around the rather desolate desert while Rupert gave instructions to the girls to build a fire. If not for the lack of uniforms, it could be mistaken for a girl scout camp. Or a catholic school field trip. Right down to the complaining and bitching. Even outside the Hellmouth’s influence it was still destroying some of Rick’s fondest fantasies.
With the help of a bit of spare gas they got the fire going though, at which point Rupert broke out the incense and other drugs - not that Castle’s straight-laced colleague would ever call them that - and told the potentials to gather around the fire and get ready to meditate with their favorite weapons in their laps.
To the author’s surprise, it didn’t take long for the girls to enter a trance - one after the other their postures changed. He felt a shiver run down his spine when the last girl stared into the fire with glazed-over eyes, her breathing slowing down noticeably. ”That’s damn creepy.”
“You’ve never meditated, I take it?” Rupert laid out a quilt and sat down.
“I faked it a few times to impress a girl that was heavily into New Age. Does that count?” Rick asked while sitting down next to his colleague.
“I don’t think so,” Rupert answered, but he was grinning.
Mary would have scowled at him for not being serious enough. Well, she was the one stuck doing some ritual to find out more about the First, together with the rest of the scoobies! She was also not the one sitting in the desert staring at a fire and hoping this was as cold as it could get in California. “So… now we wait?”
“Now we wait.” The British Watcher pulled out a book from his bag and started to read.
Rick busied himself by checking his Ack Pack, and his other weapons. Twice. Then he sighed. Before he could say anything though, Rupert handed him a book.
“‘A treatise on the Hellmouth’? Seriously? You know none of those authors can write worth a damn!” Castle raised his eyebrows at Rupert, but the man kept reading his own book.
An hour later, Castle was ready to burn the book. That author couldn’t write to save his life! Or anyone else’s! He could almost feels his brain cells die from boredom. Only the knowledge of what Rupert would do to him should he burn what now was a substantive part of the Watcher’s library - until they got access to the microfilm copies, at least - kept him from acting on his urge.
“Did you hear that?” Rupert’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He had known the man was not as engrossed in his own book as he had appeared to be! “Someone’s coming!”
That made Castle tense up at once. Two men alone in the desert, with a bunch of drugged teenage girls and enough weapons to re-enact the Battle of Hastings, plus esoteric books… that wouldn’t paint a pretty picture for anyone taking a closer look. Hopefully it wasn’t a cop or a member of whatever passed as rangers in California. But when he saw over a dozen robed figures approaching them, he wished they were cops.
”I don’t suppose hooded robes are the new black in California?” Rick asked while he slipped his flamethrower on.
“While I am no expert on West Coast fashion, I do believe this is not the case.” Rupert got his sword out. “More are approaching from the other side.”
“That’s far enough!” Castle shouted. In a lower voice, he added “always wanted to say that!”
The first figure threw back its hood, revealing a human face with eyes stitched shut. Castle didn’t wait for Rupert to identify them and pulled the trigger. His first one-second burst caught the leading demon… thing, and the two next to him. They burned almost as well as vampires, but not quite as quickly, and shrieked inhumanly as they thrashed around on the ground.
“Dear Lord, Bringers!”
“Cover my back!” Castle fired another burst at the demons on his side, then ran towards Rupert, who was falling back from half a dozen, with more behind them, while readying a Molotov cocktail. Another two bursts from the Ack Pack incinerated most of them, and the cocktail took care of the surviving one, but Castle could see more demons coming at them - rushing them now. He sprayed fuel on the ground in a wide arc, then ignited it, forming a barrier of fire on that side, but in the meantime, the demons on the other side had gone around the burning ones, and were now charging at the fire - and at the still entranced potentials.
“Wake them up!” Castle shouted, firing desperately at the demons. He had five, now four ignition charges left, but he had used more fuel than usual for the barrier.
“It’s dangerous to wake them when they are in trance!” Rupert yelled back, slashing at one demon and cutting off its hand.
“Getting killed by demons is dangerous too!” Rick fired at the next demon, turning it into a flailing burning figure. When he next pulled the trigger, the ignition charge went off, but the fuel cut off after half a second. It was enough to drive the next one back, but they were still surrounded. “Do it!” he shouted, hitting the quick-release on the harness Xander had constructed and drawing his sword.
He met the next charge of the closest mutilated demon with his blade, barely managing to deflect the blow from it, then slashed its belly open when it lost its balance for a second. He still had to fall back when it kept coming at it even while its guts were sliding out of its belly.
“They’re not waking up!” Rupert shouted more bad news. Between the fire, the still burning gasoline on the ground, and the smoldering demons, Castle was sure there were at least half a dozen of the bringers left. Probably more. And they were stronger and faster than either him or Rupert! Tougher too.
He saw another one running towards the closest girl, and ran to intercept it. He succeeded - in a way. The demon stopped to attack him, and Castle couldn’t evade quickly enough. A blow to his stomach drove the air out of his lungs and threw him back and to the ground. He lost his sword in the fall, not that he felt like he’d be able to lift it. Coughing and panting, he managed to roll on his stomach, then started to get up when he saw the eviscerated demon walking towards him as well.
Rupert was busy fighting - or rather, getting beaten - by two more, there would be no help coming from him. Castle rolled to the side, grunting in pain, and managed to evade getting stomped into a thin paste by the demon behind him. He threw a handful of sand at its head, which it ignored. A rock bounced off its head, causing it stop its advance for a second, only to grin evilly.
Rick realized then he’d die here. Torn to pieces, or crushed and broken. He, Rupert, and all the potentials. Why hadn’t anyone thought of such an attack? Planned for it? Another three flamethrowers, or one Slayer, and the demons would have been dead.
Dead like he’d be in a second. The demon not dragging its guts over the sand grinned and closed in, raising its hands to smash them into Rick. He would have liked to make a last defiant remark, but he couldn’t think of a good one in the second he had left to live.
Then the demon’s head separated from its neck, and the body toppled over in a spray of blood. Vi stood behind it, sword in hand and still in trance. She wasn’t alone. All around Rick - and Rupert - the potentials were falling on the demons, slaughtering them with a ferocity Castle hadn’t seen before. They looked more than a little like demons themselves, especially in the flickering light of the burning fires.
Rick managed to get on his feet, and stumble over to Rupert, who was holding his arm but otherwise seemed to be OK. “Did you expect that?”
“I didn’t expect it, but it was a possibility,” his colleague answered, adjusting his glasses.
“What’s going on?” Castle winced when he saw Vi and Kennedy disarm a demon - literally.
“Possession. The First Slayer’s possessing them.” His British friend bit out.
“That’s a good thing, right?” Rick shuddered seeing Rona wear a grin more feral than human while she split a demon’s head.
He looked at Rupert, and the other man’s expression was answer enough.
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon PIctures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: Help Rupert drive the potentials out to the desert, for a vison quest or so. It had sounded like a nice road trip.
Sunnydale, January 2003
Rick Castle would have thought that leaving the Hellmouth - even if only for a day or so - would make him feel relieved. Like a small vacation. Or some day off.
He should have been suspicious when everyone else begged off from helping Rupert driving the potentials out to the desert so they could meet the First Slayer in some binding ritual or vision quest, to strengthen their spirit and maybe themselves as well.
“Stop that noise, we’ve been listening to that shit for hours now! Switch to a channel that plays songs from this millennium!” Kennedy complained. She had already been mad at not getting to grope Willow for this trip.
“No! We’ve been listening to your garbage for hours, this is just where it’s getting good.” Rona, sitting up front, didn’t share the other potential’s taste in songs.
“Shut up you two, I am reading here!” Annabelle glared at both.
“I’ve to sit in the middle in the back, I get at least to pick the song!” Violet piped up.
“No you don’t!” Kennedy disagreed. Again.
“Not for the whole trip!” Annabelle chimed in.
“I don’t care, I am switching channels now!” Rona exclaimed.
“Hold her back!” Kennedy tried to grab the other’s arm.
“Leggo of my hair!” Rona whined, the seatbelt hindering her defense against Vi.
Watch it, I… ooof!” Annabelle just became collateral damage in the latest fight over the radio.
While Annabelle and Vi started to strangle each other, Rick grit his teeth, then channeled his best inner drill sergeant, or what he thought he’d be like, and bellowed at the four annoyances: “Would you girls stop acting like children? My eight year old daughter is more mature than all of you combined, and she has tantrums over her dinner!” Granted, that had been over all the salt and fat and sugar in Pizza, and right after she had read a health brochure, and had been worried about his and Martha’s health, but they didn’t need to know that as long as they shut up. Which they did.
He used the time to switch the channel to a country station. In hindsight, that had been a mistake as well. At least he could be certain that none of them were the First.
*****
“How did you survive the drive?” Rick asked while clapping Rupert on the back. No First here either.
“I am not sure I did. I am quite certain that they’d play Britney Spears in hell itself after this drive.” The British Watcher shuddered while their charges limbered up after the long drive.
Castle looked around the rather desolate desert while Rupert gave instructions to the girls to build a fire. If not for the lack of uniforms, it could be mistaken for a girl scout camp. Or a catholic school field trip. Right down to the complaining and bitching. Even outside the Hellmouth’s influence it was still destroying some of Rick’s fondest fantasies.
With the help of a bit of spare gas they got the fire going though, at which point Rupert broke out the incense and other drugs - not that Castle’s straight-laced colleague would ever call them that - and told the potentials to gather around the fire and get ready to meditate with their favorite weapons in their laps.
To the author’s surprise, it didn’t take long for the girls to enter a trance - one after the other their postures changed. He felt a shiver run down his spine when the last girl stared into the fire with glazed-over eyes, her breathing slowing down noticeably. ”That’s damn creepy.”
“You’ve never meditated, I take it?” Rupert laid out a quilt and sat down.
“I faked it a few times to impress a girl that was heavily into New Age. Does that count?” Rick asked while sitting down next to his colleague.
“I don’t think so,” Rupert answered, but he was grinning.
Mary would have scowled at him for not being serious enough. Well, she was the one stuck doing some ritual to find out more about the First, together with the rest of the scoobies! She was also not the one sitting in the desert staring at a fire and hoping this was as cold as it could get in California. “So… now we wait?”
“Now we wait.” The British Watcher pulled out a book from his bag and started to read.
Rick busied himself by checking his Ack Pack, and his other weapons. Twice. Then he sighed. Before he could say anything though, Rupert handed him a book.
“‘A treatise on the Hellmouth’? Seriously? You know none of those authors can write worth a damn!” Castle raised his eyebrows at Rupert, but the man kept reading his own book.
An hour later, Castle was ready to burn the book. That author couldn’t write to save his life! Or anyone else’s! He could almost feels his brain cells die from boredom. Only the knowledge of what Rupert would do to him should he burn what now was a substantive part of the Watcher’s library - until they got access to the microfilm copies, at least - kept him from acting on his urge.
“Did you hear that?” Rupert’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He had known the man was not as engrossed in his own book as he had appeared to be! “Someone’s coming!”
That made Castle tense up at once. Two men alone in the desert, with a bunch of drugged teenage girls and enough weapons to re-enact the Battle of Hastings, plus esoteric books… that wouldn’t paint a pretty picture for anyone taking a closer look. Hopefully it wasn’t a cop or a member of whatever passed as rangers in California. But when he saw over a dozen robed figures approaching them, he wished they were cops.
”I don’t suppose hooded robes are the new black in California?” Rick asked while he slipped his flamethrower on.
“While I am no expert on West Coast fashion, I do believe this is not the case.” Rupert got his sword out. “More are approaching from the other side.”
“That’s far enough!” Castle shouted. In a lower voice, he added “always wanted to say that!”
The first figure threw back its hood, revealing a human face with eyes stitched shut. Castle didn’t wait for Rupert to identify them and pulled the trigger. His first one-second burst caught the leading demon… thing, and the two next to him. They burned almost as well as vampires, but not quite as quickly, and shrieked inhumanly as they thrashed around on the ground.
“Dear Lord, Bringers!”
“Cover my back!” Castle fired another burst at the demons on his side, then ran towards Rupert, who was falling back from half a dozen, with more behind them, while readying a Molotov cocktail. Another two bursts from the Ack Pack incinerated most of them, and the cocktail took care of the surviving one, but Castle could see more demons coming at them - rushing them now. He sprayed fuel on the ground in a wide arc, then ignited it, forming a barrier of fire on that side, but in the meantime, the demons on the other side had gone around the burning ones, and were now charging at the fire - and at the still entranced potentials.
“Wake them up!” Castle shouted, firing desperately at the demons. He had five, now four ignition charges left, but he had used more fuel than usual for the barrier.
“It’s dangerous to wake them when they are in trance!” Rupert yelled back, slashing at one demon and cutting off its hand.
“Getting killed by demons is dangerous too!” Rick fired at the next demon, turning it into a flailing burning figure. When he next pulled the trigger, the ignition charge went off, but the fuel cut off after half a second. It was enough to drive the next one back, but they were still surrounded. “Do it!” he shouted, hitting the quick-release on the harness Xander had constructed and drawing his sword.
He met the next charge of the closest mutilated demon with his blade, barely managing to deflect the blow from it, then slashed its belly open when it lost its balance for a second. He still had to fall back when it kept coming at it even while its guts were sliding out of its belly.
“They’re not waking up!” Rupert shouted more bad news. Between the fire, the still burning gasoline on the ground, and the smoldering demons, Castle was sure there were at least half a dozen of the bringers left. Probably more. And they were stronger and faster than either him or Rupert! Tougher too.
He saw another one running towards the closest girl, and ran to intercept it. He succeeded - in a way. The demon stopped to attack him, and Castle couldn’t evade quickly enough. A blow to his stomach drove the air out of his lungs and threw him back and to the ground. He lost his sword in the fall, not that he felt like he’d be able to lift it. Coughing and panting, he managed to roll on his stomach, then started to get up when he saw the eviscerated demon walking towards him as well.
Rupert was busy fighting - or rather, getting beaten - by two more, there would be no help coming from him. Castle rolled to the side, grunting in pain, and managed to evade getting stomped into a thin paste by the demon behind him. He threw a handful of sand at its head, which it ignored. A rock bounced off its head, causing it stop its advance for a second, only to grin evilly.
Rick realized then he’d die here. Torn to pieces, or crushed and broken. He, Rupert, and all the potentials. Why hadn’t anyone thought of such an attack? Planned for it? Another three flamethrowers, or one Slayer, and the demons would have been dead.
Dead like he’d be in a second. The demon not dragging its guts over the sand grinned and closed in, raising its hands to smash them into Rick. He would have liked to make a last defiant remark, but he couldn’t think of a good one in the second he had left to live.
Then the demon’s head separated from its neck, and the body toppled over in a spray of blood. Vi stood behind it, sword in hand and still in trance. She wasn’t alone. All around Rick - and Rupert - the potentials were falling on the demons, slaughtering them with a ferocity Castle hadn’t seen before. They looked more than a little like demons themselves, especially in the flickering light of the burning fires.
Rick managed to get on his feet, and stumble over to Rupert, who was holding his arm but otherwise seemed to be OK. “Did you expect that?”
“I didn’t expect it, but it was a possibility,” his colleague answered, adjusting his glasses.
“What’s going on?” Castle winced when he saw Vi and Kennedy disarm a demon - literally.
“Possession. The First Slayer’s possessing them.” His British friend bit out.
“That’s a good thing, right?” Rick shuddered seeing Rona wear a grin more feral than human while she split a demon’s head.
He looked at Rupert, and the other man’s expression was answer enough.