by John Martin » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:34 am
Title – A Demon’s Rage
Author – John Martin
Rating – R
Disclaimers and Warnings – See the Prologue
Feedback - Sure
Chapter Summary – Anya has answers.
Chapter 5
Anya was dreaming. It was a good dream for a change. Rupert Giles had returned to Sunnydale so that he could “give that detestable cad the thrashing of a lifetime”. Now he stood over Xander’s bloody and unconscious body proclaiming his love for Anya. Giles was about to kiss Anya when the ringing of the phone woke her.
‘Who would call at 8:14 on a Saturday morning?’ thought Anya as she answered the phone. It was Buffy. She wanted to know if Anya could be at the Magic Box at nine for a Scoobie meeting.
“Is Xander going to be there?”
“No,” answered Buffy. “I’ve haven’t seen him for a week, ever since…”
“Since he left me at the altar? Since he ripped my heart in two, and then stomped on the pieces?”
“Oh God, Anya, I’m sorry about that. But we really need your help with research.”
Anya thought for a moment. Doing research was another way to keep busy, to keep her mind off things. Keeping busy was the reason she had reopened the Magic Box after only three days. Thinking was bad. Every time she thought, she thought about Xander. Then she would start to cry, or to scream in anger. It had been a week, and Anya was sick of both crying and screaming.
“Ok. I’ll be there, but I’ll probably be late.”
“See you soon,” said Buffy. Anya hung up.
Maybe there was a way to fix this. Maybe she could just stop thinking about Xander. Then she wouldn’t get upset all the time.
A few minutes later, Anya was in a hot bubble bath. Now she could have a nice quiet bath without Xander complaining… (Don’t think about Xander.) Anyway, bubble baths were an inexpensive luxury item.
The only good thing about what had happened was that she now knew who her real friends were. For example, Dawn had called and said she was sorry. Why should Dawn be sorry? She wasn’t the one who… (Don’t think about it.)
Giles had called from England. Nothing showed true concern like the willingness to pay for overseas long distance.
Buffy was a surprise. Once Anya reopened the Magic Box, Buffy came by every day to make sure that Anya was all right. Anya and Buffy had never been that close, but Buffy still was being the same kind of friend she had always been.
Willow had called too. That conversation was awkward. Maybe Willow had really wanted to help. But Anya had cut the conversation short. She couldn’t forget that Willow was the childhood friend of… (Don’t think about that jerk.)
And of course, there was Tara. Anya didn’t know what she would have done without Tara’s help. On the night that was supposed to be her wedding night, Anya had refused to sleep in the same apartment that she had shared with… (Don’t think) that man. She had spent the night in Tara’s dorm room. Tara had slept on the floor, so that Anya could have the bed.
And the next day, after Anya had quickly found herself a new apartment, it was Tara who helped with the move. The two of them had got all of Anya’s clothes and things out of the old apartment. And if Tara suspected that the TV wasn’t really Anya’s, she had said nothing, just helped with the carrying. Every day since, Tara had called Anya, just to make sure that Anya was ok.
Now that she thought about it, Anya realized that Tara was her best friend. She was kind and gentle and loyal. If Anya didn’t enjoy men and their penises so much, then it would be Tara she would couple with. She would wine and dine and romance Tara, who would never break her heart like… (Stop thinking!)
No, that wouldn’t work. Even if Anya was willing to give up men, she would never get anything more than Tara’s friendship. Tara loved Willow. Tara would always love Willow. Tara would never be happy until she was back together with Willow.
In fact, here was another project to keep Anya’s mind busy. She would help Tara back to having orgasms with Willow. Then her best friend would be happy, the way Anya should have been with… (She couldn’t help but think about it!) that cowardly, lying, promise-breaking BASTARD!
It took a few minutes for Anya to calm down. Not thinking about Xander just wasn’t working. It was time for the obvious. What Xander needed was some vengeance.
That night, when D’Hoffryn made his offer, Tara had convinced Anya that becoming a Vengeance Demon again would be a mistake. Why? Because Vengeance Demons killed people, and killing people was wrong. The lives of mortals were short enough already. Anya had been a mortal long enough to understand that.
But vengeance didn’t require death. It didn’t even require supernatural powers. The characters on daytime soap operas didn’t need any.
Anya realized that she had four goals for the next week. One, don’t die. Two, inflict non-fatal revenge on Xander. Three, get Tara and Willow back together. Four, make as much money as possible.
It felt good to be a person with goals. Anya finished her bath and got dressed.
It was twenty minutes after ten when Anya arrived at the Magic Box. She opened the front door and strode inside. Xander wasn’t there. Buffy, Dawn, Tara, and Willow had several books spread out on the table.
“I’m here,” said Anya. “What are we researching?”
“Demon,” said Buffy. “With sharp claws and many pointy teeth. And yellow skin.”
“Lemon-yellow skin,” amended Willow.
“Was the demon angry?” asked Anya. “Did it turn into a person and back?”
“You know this demon?” asked Buffy.
“This one’s easy,” said Anya, as she found Goethe’s Unheimliche Tiere in the bookcase. She showed Buffy a picture from the book. “Is this what you saw?”
“Yes,” said Buffy.
“How come we didn’t look in that book?” asked Dawn.
“Because I’m the only one here who can read German,” answered Anya. “Buffy, the demon you saw was a Zornteufel. In English you would call it a Rage Demon. It’s very dangerous. You should chop its head off.”
Everyone froze. Tara started crying. Buffy, Dawn, and Willow stared at Anya. They had that look on their faces, the look that said ‘Anya, how can you be so tactless?’ Anya waited a moment for Xander to explain to her what she had said wrong. But Xander wasn’t there.
Tara was still crying. Anya stepped closer to her and asked “What did I say? What’s wrong?”
Tara’s answer was barely audible. “It’s me. I’m the Rage Demon. I’m the Zornteufel.”
Anya couldn’t believe her ears. “No. That’s impossible.” Anya gestured at the picture in the book. “Are you sure that you saw this?”
Buffy said “That’s exactly what I saw”.
“But Zornteufels get angry over the least little thing. If Tara was one, we’d all be dead by now.”
Tara cried harder. “No. I don’t want this. I don’t want to kill. I don’t. I don’t.”
Buffy and Dawn hugged Tara. Willow was only a step away from her. She hesitated for a moment, and then put her hand on Tara’s shoulder.
“I think I know what’s happening,” said Anya. “Tara is a defective demon.”
“Hey!” objected Willow. “Tara’s not a defective anything.”
“But it makes sense,” said Anya. “Only mortals with anger issues are supposed to become Zornteufels. When they change, they don’t even try to restrain themselves. But Tara is the least angry person I know. She’s been able to resist the anger. That why she isn’t trying to kill us now.”
“Tell me,” Tara said to Anya. “Tell me everything you know about Zornteufels.”
“Zornteufels are very strong and very hard to kill,” said Anya. “Hitting them, even with the strongest weapons, doesn’t hurt them very much. They are also resistant to magic.”
“Even Vengeance Demons don’t mess with Zornteufels. Whenever we saw one, we would just teleport away. Running away from them is a lot easier than fighting them. Safer too.”
Anya picked up her book. “Goethe says that there are three ways to kill a Zornteufel. The first way is decapitation. The second way is to poison it with cloves.”
“You mean cloves, like cloves of garlic?” interrupted Buffy.
“No, not those cloves,” said Anya.
“You mean the spice cloves, like mom used to put in oatmeal cookies?” asked Dawn.
“Yes, those cloves,” said Anya.
“You’ve got to watch your diet,” said Willow to Tara. “No shrimp and no cloves.”
“The third way to kill a Zornteufel,” continued Anya “is to trap it, so it can’t kill anything. A Zornteufel has to kill something every night or it dies.”
“So I can’t stay in a cage, like Oz did,” said Tara. “I have to keep killing vampires every night.”
“We have to keep killing vampires every night,” said Buffy. “The two of us, together.”
“Ok,” said Tara.
“So how does a person turn into a Rage Demon?” asked Buffy.
“Metternich changes them,” answered Anya.
“Metternich? Who’s he?” asked Dawn.
“Metternich is a demon lord, like D’Hoffryn,” said Anya. “He’s the master of all the Zornteufels.”
“So Tara’s being all demony is Messy Nick’s fault?” asked Buffy.
“Yes,” said Anya. “If a mortal gets angry, and Metternich sees it, he can change the mortal into a demon. Then he watches the new Zornteufel kill and destroy, and he laughs. He’s really a horrible being. D’Hoffryn is evil, but he’s charming, subtle, and polite. Metternich is just plain brutish evil.”
Anya thought about D’Hoffryn, and suddenly she knew. It was obvious. She knew why Tara had become a demon.
“This is all Xander’s fault!” she shouted.
“Anya," said Tara, “We’ve talked about this. You can’t blame Xander for everything.”
“I can’t blame Xander for floods in China, or wars in Africa, but this is his fault.”
Willow said, “But if it was Metternich who turned Tara into a demon, wouldn’t that make it Metternich’s fault?”
“Let me explain,” said Anya. “First, Xander left me at the altar. This made me heart-broken and vengeful. So D’Hoffryn showed up and asked me to be a Vengeance Demon again. Tara talked me out of it. This made D’Hoffryn angry.”
“But D’Hoffryn wasn’t angry,” said Tara. “When you refused his offer, he was very polite.”
Anya shook her head at Tara. “You don’t understand. D’Hoffryn is always polite. That way you never know what he’s really thinking.
“I think I know what happened next. D’Hoffryn must have gone to Tara’s home town and talked to her family. He must have heard their story, that nonsense about Tara being a demon. Then he set out to make it true.
“I think that D’Hoffryn went to his buddy Metternich and said ‘Could you please do me a favor?’ Then he arranged for Tara to get angry, so Metternich could change her.”
“Donny’s phone call,” murmured Tara.
“And it’s all Xander’s fault,” said Anya. “I can’t prove it, but this is exactly D’Hoffryn’s kind of vengeance. Tara spent years being afraid of becoming a demon. Now she is one. Sooner or later D’Hoffryn will show up in Sunnydale and gloat about his perfect revenge.”
“I think,” said Buffy, “that I need to meet this Messy Nick. I think he needs to be convinced that hurting my friends is a bad idea.”
Anya said to Buffy, “If you really want to fight Metternich, you can’t get angry. He’ll just turn you into a Zornteufel.”
“So how do I fight him?” asked Buffy.
“I don’t know. He’s really powerful and really mean. I heard a story that he once saw a husband and wife arguing. The wife was really angry, so Metternich transformed her. Within minutes her claws had ripped her husband into many small pieces. Then Metternich made the wife human again. When the wife saw what she had done, she committed suicide.”
“What did you say?” asked Willow.
“The wife killed herself,” answered Anya.
“No, before that,” said Willow.
“Metternich made the wife human again.”
Willow was excited. “Metternich can turn Zornteufels back into people!”
“This is what we’re going to do,” commanded Buffy. “We are going to research everything we can about Messy Nick and Zorn… Rage Demons. We are going to figure out a way to convince Messy Nick to turn Tara back.”
Last edited by
John Martin on Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
