Well, here's something new, while I work on something old. . . .
Title: Insight
Author: KrisBo5 (Kris, please, we’re all friends here)
Email address: KrisBo5@aol.com
Feedb Again, please, I’d love it.
Distribution: This, like Darkness Falls, is the narrative form of a spec script I had written for BVS, which is registered with the WGAw, so please don’t publish it or reproduce it in any way, shape, or form. If for some reason you’d like to, just ask first. It’s the polite thing to do.
Spoilers: Hmm, I’d say definitely up to Season 6. Past “Hell’s Bells” but not up to “Entropy.” Yeah, somewhere around the middle of those, but I’m taking liberties.
Rating: This covers the story in its entirety: PG-13 to NC–17. This includes sex, some mild violence, language.
Pairing: Willow and Tara, of course. Buffy and the others are here as well.
Disclaimer: Hey, I didn’t create these characters, those kudos belong to Joss and crew. I’m just borrowing them for the story I did write.
Summary: The Scoobies have gotten back together, just not “back together.” Tara’s got some kind of “power.” Buffy’s “gone missing.” And, then there are those pesky demons. . . .
Note: Unlike DF, this is a little lighter, a little more comedic, a little less verbose. Really, a straight translation from script-to-narrative format. Hopefully I’ll be able to post this faster(then I can spend the extra time working on DF). Without further ado, here it is. . .
Insight, Part One: TeaserNight had landed in Sunnydale, just as it always did: dark and demony.
In the woods just on the outskirts of town, Buffy and the rest of the ‘recently reformed and restructured’ Scoobies greeted the Sunnydale night, just as they always did: Mortal Kombat.
Buffy, Mr. Pointy at her ready, turned to face a set of vampire twins. Each wore a Sunnydale Junior College baseball uniform and carried a wooden bat. Buffy couldn’t help herself: she made a disgusted face and shook her head in disbelief at the vision before her.
The first vamp leered at Buffy as he sidestepped to his left, trying to flank her. “Slayer, this is gonna be fun.”
The second vamp echoed his brother’s sentiments as he moved in the opposite direction around the Slayer. “Super fun.”
Buffy rolled her eyes as they spoke, tired and bored with the now-familiar speech. “Dead. . .and yet, still geeks,” she whispered to herself.
On the other side of the small grove, Willow, Tara and Dawn had successfully cornered a female vampire against a tree; the she-vamp, like her twin comrades, was athletically-clothed, although her uniform was of a basketball nature. Tara and Dawn held a net between them, while Willow grasped tightly to a stake. The vamp sneered at all three and hissed loudly.
Tara looked at Dawn quickly. “Uh. . . .”
Dawn looked at Tara. “Um. . . .”
Both Tara and Dawn looked at Willow then, but she was looking at them, an expression of ‘well, what are you waiting for?’ on her face.
All three looked at the vamp again.
But not one of them moved an inch.
Across from them, Xander had successfully managed to piggy-back his basketball uniformed vamp, his arms securely around its throat, choking hard.
Wrapped tightly around one of its legs, Anya rose up-and-down, up-and-down with each desperate step the vamp took in its efforts to escape. Bouncing one time too many, Anya raised her eyes to stare at Xander’s contorted face. “What are you doing? Kill it already!” she yelled, landing hard again on the ground.
“I am!” Xander yelled back, squeezing his arms tighter around the vamp’s throat.
Back in the Slayer’s corner, Buffy ducked as Twin #1’s bat narrowly missed her head. She quickly jumped up and landed a solid side kick to his back, knocking him forward onto his knees. Twin #2 began swinging his own bat at Buffy, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, in uncontrollably wide arcs.
Buffy jumped backwards out of the club’s reach, calling the play-by-play between each swing and miss. “Strike one. . . strike two. . . strike—”
“Three,” Twin #1 said, suddenly grabbing her from behind, wrapping his bat around her midsection and pinning her arms to her sides.
“You idiot, it doesn’t breathe!” Anya yelled, then was promptly kicked from the vamp’s leg. She landed hard on the ground and rolled into some nearby brush.
Xander turned towards the Vengeance Demon, just in time to see her fly several feet and crash-land on the ground. He scrunched up his face as his blood began to boil. Releasing one arm, he began to punch the vamp in the side of its head, yelling at it between each strike. “Don’t. . . ever. . . kick. . . my. . . girlfriend. . . ever. . . ever. . . ever. . . .” With the last ‘ever,’ the vamp finally collapsed to its knees, Xander still astride.
Without warning, the she-vamp lunged at Tara and Dawn. Instinctively, and more as a protective gesture than an attack maneuver, they threw the net away from them, watching it sail over the vamp’s head and cascade down its body. Willow moved in immediately, raising the stake in her hand to bring home the final blow. But the she-vamp, ever the graceful athlete— even in life-after-death— side-stepped away and pushed Willow.
“Willow!” Tara yelled without thinking, a moment before the redhead crashed into both her and Dawn. All three fell to the ground in a painful heap. Seeing her chance at escape, the she-vamp deftly removed the net and tossed it over the pile-o-Scoobs, then ran off into the woods.
Bucking like a wild Bronco, Xander flipped over the vamp’s head and landed flat on his back, the breath knocked out of him. Before he could make a move, the vamp jumped on him, circling the carpenter’s throat with his hands, smiling at his own chance to do some choking.
POOF!
Suddenly the vamp disappeared in a cloud of dust.
“
Ex-girlfriend,” Anya corrected from where she stood above Xander, her clothes dirty and disheveled, leaves and twigs sprouting from her hair, stake held in one hand.
Twin #2 pointed to an imaginary fence, ala Babe Ruth, and charged Buffy. Without hesitation, the Slayer grabbed the bat which held her captive and stepped towards oncoming Twin #2. Using her momentum, she bent forward and flipped Twin #1 over her back; too late to stop his progress, Twin #2 clubbed Twin #1 full-on his head. Twin #2 froze, completely horrified.
“Oops,” Buffy said, “I guess he’s out.” Buffy grabbed Twin #1’s bat and swung, landing solidly against Twin #2’s shoulder; using the blow, Twin #2 spun a full 360 and hit Buffy in the side with his own bat. The Slayer fell into a tree, dropping her bat as she grabbed onto her side, trying to catch the breath that had been belted out of her.
Twin #2 charged again, swinging towards her head; Buffy ducked, and was greeted with the reverberating THUD of a wooden bat striking the tree directly above her head. Twin #2 opened his mouth to scream, but Buffy grabbed the bat with one arm and brought her other elbow down on its middle, breaking it in two. Jumping up, she side-kicked Twin #2 in the chest; still holding half of his bat, he pitched backwards, arms waving frantically as he tried to regain his balance.
The Slayer front-kicked him again, knocking him to the ground on his back. Buffy charged, Mr. Pointy coming down in a well-trained arc; Twin #2 turned onto his side, spun his body, and threw his legs out, catching Buffy behind her knees and knocking her onto her back beside him.
Twin #2 jumped up to his knees, raised his broken bat in both hands, and brought it down sharply. Without any other choice, Buffy dropped Mr. Pointy and her half of the bat and grabbed his bat, just inches from her face.
“I’m gonna kill you,” Twin #2 growled.
Buffy pulled her legs up towards his head; she wrapped them around his throat and locked her ankles together in a perfect scissor-hold. Then she sat upright, flipping the vamp onto his back once again. Using her Slayer speed, she quickly staked him with the splintery end of his own bat.
DUST!
Standing up, Buffy looked around with self-satisfaction. “Cool. . . double-play.” She turned and moved towards the others, smiling to herself as she watched Willow, Tara, and Dawn struggle to free themselves from the net. “You guys okay?”
“That kinda sucked,” Dawn announced.
Tara pulled the net loose and stood. “I-I. . . it wasn’t that bad.” Dawn gave the blonde a withering look. “Well, I-I mean, sure, she got away. . . and we, um, sorta got captured by our own net. . . but, um, no one got hurt.”
Willow finally extricated herself from the net. “Hurt here.” All eyes riveted to the redhead, who lifted her arm to reveal a two-inch gash on her elbow. Blood poured from the wound, raining unabated onto the ground beside her.
Oh, Goddess, Willow. . . . Tara dropped down quickly beside Willow, but she did not move to touch her. “Are y-you okay?”
Willow’s eyes moved over her ex’s face, the blonde’s concern dulling the sharp pain radiating from her injury.
Uh. . . . “I’m fine,” she said, “but still, you know. . . ow.”
Tara tried to smile.
Oh, Willow. . . . She and Buffy both reached out then and helped the redhead stand.
After several seconds, Willow looked down to where Tara’s hand held her wrist.
Tarahand.Tara looked down to where she still held Willow’s wrist.
Willowskin. Realizing what she was thinking, the blonde quickly snatched her hand back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Uh. . . sorry,” she said in a low voice.
Willow wanted to smile, wanted to say it was okay, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t okay that Tara didn’t want to touch her. That now, even after all of this time— month upon month— Tara could still barely speak to her. It was Heaven having Tara just near her, even for the briefest of moments, and she was grateful for it; but to have her pull away from her like she was some kind of evil thing, it broke the redhead’s heart.
She hates me. . . God how she hates me. “It’s alri— I mean, thanks.”
Buffy stopped brushing her pants off and watched the pained exchange between the two women; she felt her own heart break a bit. There was nothing more the Slayer wished for than for her family and friends to be happy again; and Willow and Tara, being both, well, she wished it for them most of all. She wanted to see them back together, not just because Willow had stopped using magic, not just because Tara had managed to take what had happened between them and become stronger. No, she wanted them back together because, in her heart of hearts, she knew that was where they belonged: together.
Always.
Forever.
They were just too scared, or stubborn, or. . . stupid to realize it themselves. “You sure you’re okay?” Buffy asked.
Willow glanced at her elbow. “I’m fine. Little peroxide, big Band-Aid. . . bigger swig of Scotch, I’ll be good as new.” She tried to move her arm and grimaced. “Should we go after her?”
“She’s gone by now,” Buffy said, picking up the net and stuffing it unceremoniously into a napsack.
“Next time,” Dawn said as she stood and brushed her pants off, “I get the stake. I mean, how hard is it to—eew! That’s nasty!” Dawn stared at Willow’s elbow, a look of disgust on her face.
Buffy nodded her head in silent agreement. “I think you need stitches, Will.”
“And Scotch?” the redhead asked, holding her arm close to her body, a playful smile on her lips.
“Um. . .” Buffy said, taking her best friend’s other arm and walking her away from the others.
Tara watched after them for a moment, then retrieved the stake and handed it over to Dawn. “Here you go, Dawnie.”
Dawn smirked. “Yeah, thanks.” They started to follow the others. “That hissing thing?”
“Yeah?”
“It freaks me out.”
Tara smiled and hooked her arm through Dawn’s. She leaned in close and whispered, “Me, too.” Dawn smiled.
Buffy stopped suddenly and ran her hands through her hair.
“What?” Willow asked, a curious expression on her face.
“I lost my clip,” the Slayer responded, bending at the waist and letting her eyes roam over the ground around her.
Willow used her free arm to cradle her injured one as she, too, let her eyes scour the ground. “The brown one?”
“No,” Buffy said, her voice a tad petulant. “The silver— you know, the one with the blue inlaid—”
“Look, it just slipped out, okay?” Xander said loudly, as he and Anya approached the others. “It didn’t mean anything.”
Anya, still looking a little worse for wear, yanked a stray twig from her hair and looked at him. “Nothing ever does with you, Harris,” the Vengeance Demon snapped, “nothing ever does.”
Buffy’s eyes roamed over Anya quickly, then she whispered to Willow, “Am I that ragged out?”
Willow turned to look at her best friend’s hair: ‘Ode to a Rat’s Nest.’
Take the Fifth. . . . The redhead pursed her lips tightly and shook her head, looking away quickly before she folded.
Anya turned to look at the rest of them. “Well, gee, wasn’t this so much fun.”
Dawn opened her mouth to say something, but Tara nudged the teen. The blonde looked Anya up and down. “Are you okay, Anya?”
“Just. . . swell.” She glanced at Xander for the briefest of moments. “Let’s do this again sometime real soon, okay?” And with that, she snapped her fingers and vaporized into thin air.
“That is
so not fair,” Dawn grumbled, knowing Anya had teleported herself to her apartment instantly, while they had to walk back home.
“What was all that about?” Buffy asked, trying in vain to smooth her hair into submission.
Xander shrugged as he shoved a stake into his inner jacket pocket. “Heat of the moment thing. Said she was my gir—” He stopped and glanced at all of them. “Nothing.”
Buffy looked at Xander for a long second. Another pair of friends hurting too much. She knew that they, too, still loved one another, but they posed a different kind of problem. With Anya all vengeancey now, the chances of Xander and her getting back together were a lot slimmer; but, with Anya back helping the Scoobies— in between vengeance gigs, of course— it was still possible. This was the Hellmouth after all. . . anything was possible. “Well. . . we should get Will looked at,” she finally said.
“Then Scotch?” the redhead asked.
Tara smiled.
Just like my Wil— just like Willow, never let anything go.Buffy took Willow’s arm again and started them off out of the woods towards the hospital. “Again with the alcohol. What’s up with that?”
“It dulls the pain,” she said, grimacing again as a sharp stab moved up her arm. The Slayer cast her eyes on her best friend, giving her an ‘uh, yeah, and how would you know?’ look. “It always works in the movies,” Willow said, as if that was proof enough.
“Yeah, so do flying saucers and dinosaurs,” Dawn offered from behind them.
Tara rewarded the teen’s sarcastic remark with another jab to the ribs. “Dawn.”
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Be nice.”
Dawn dropped her head in shame. “Sorry.”
This time, Tara squeezed the teen’s arm tight against her and smiled brightly. “Just like that.” Dawn looked at her and her whole face lit up.
With Xander pulling up the rear, they moved together out of the grove, zigzagging between bushes and trees back towards town.
“It’s dark now, but, um, we can come back tomorrow and look for your clip, Buffy,” Tara offered.
“You and Will and Dawn have class, don’t you?”
“Well. . . yeah.”
“And, Xander, you’ve got work?”
“Yup, bright and early,” he said.
“So, I’m thinking, translation-wise,
I can come back tomorrow and look for it.” Tara shrugged and smiled impishly. “Uh-huh,” Buffy said, throwing an ‘I got ya’ smile over her shoulder at the blonde.
“So the Scotch is completely out then?” Willow asked, trying one last time.
“Booze hound,” Buffy answered, and everyone laughed.
***
Behind them, four female demons emerged from the edges of the grove. From the looks of them, they appeared ten, twenty-five, forty, and sixty in age. Each was dressed in old, musty, raggy clothes. Their hair was dark black and dirty, unkempt in crazy braids. Their skin was a pale whitish-gray, mottled with greenish discoloration, much of it peeling away from the bone. And their eyes. . . complete orbs of blackness.
They each walked from their respective corners towards the center of the grove. Facing one another, they remained silent for several seconds. Then, Demon-25 bent over and picked something up; holding her arm out so the others could see, she opened her hand.
Buffy’s clip.
The demons glanced in the direction the Scoobies just left, and then back to one another. Demon-25 opened her mouth, revealing blackness to rival her eyes; speaking in an ancient, dead language, she said, “Breigh.”
Prey.End of Teaser
TBC
Kris
“Frell that!”