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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
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"Figures," Xander said. "You can't track it down any further?" He hoped that Angel would say that he could do just that.
But Angel shook his head. "Its tracks lead all over the place."
"Vanessa? Amy? Any chance you've got a spell that could narrow it down? There's a lot of tricky territory to cover in here."
"Can't think of anything," Vanessa replied.
"Okay, then I guess we'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way," Xander said. "Buddy system, I'll search with Vanessa; Amy, you go with Angel. And be careful."
They had been poking gingerly around for several minutes when Xander heard something. Orienting on the sound, he decided that is was coming from the way that they had come in. Carefully readying the short spear he carried, he gestured for Vanessa to follow him and crept towards the sound.
There! It was just around the next corner. He burst around, letting out a short scream for surprise value, and waved his spear... in Buffy's face! She brought up her sword reflexively, and Xander screamed in surprise and jumped back.
"Hehe," Buffy laughed unsympathetically. "Next time, don't sneak up on me like that, ya little wuss."
"What are you doing here?" Xander said, his breathing only gradually returning to normal.
"Hunting the dragon," Darrell put in. Xander realized that the rest of Buffy's team was right behind her.
"Oh, yeah?" Vanessa countered.
"You followed us here, didn't you?" Xander asked challengingly. "You couldn't find the dragon yourself, so you watched us. Pathetic."
"Oh yeah?" Buffy countered. "How would you know? You didn't do any of the trailing for your team, I bet. What, did you let Angel do it all? Great reflection on you as a team leader, Xander." She laughed mockingly at him.
"Whatever," Xander shot back witheringly. "Anyways, we got here first, so stay out of our way!"
"And if I don't?" Buffy moved closer, threat evident with her every move and posture.
"Hey, not the point," Vanessa put in. "We're hunting a dragon here, not each other."
"Smart thing to say," Oz joked, "when your fearless leader's about to get his face smashed in."
"Shut your mouth, wereboy," Angel murmured, appearing as if from out of nowhere. "Or I'll shut it for you."
"You just give it a try, fangface," Oz retorted with equal anger.
With a soft whoosh, Jesse appeared out of thin air. "Hey, guys, what's... hey!" He looked around at the tableau that seemed only one step away from being a brawl. "Why don't we take a deep breath and count to twenty, okay?"
"Who asked you?" Buffy snarled, swinging her blade through Jesse's insubstantial form.
Jesse looked down at the sword, taken aback for a moment. "Okay. First, I'm gonna assume that there was no real harm meant right there." He chuckled, knowing that he couldn't really have done any more than Buffy had if she had meant to attack him. "Now, no-one asked me to interfere, but I'm a friend to some of you, and not involved in any of this, so mediating when it looks like there's a fight about to break out sems like a good idea."
"He's got a bit of a point," Cordelia asserted loftily. "I mean, why are we fighting with each other? Seeing who kills the dragon first was supposed to settle all this, wasn't it?"
All the hunters nodded. "Okay," Buffy admitted. "We all back off, we go back to looking for the dragon. Sound copacetic?"
"Yeah," Xander and Angel agreed.
Jesse shook his head. "Oh, my god. What is with them?" he muttered quietly to himself.
* * * *
"We got problems," Jesse announced without preamble as he popped in at Willow's room. "Both teams have traced the dragon to this burned-out warehouse, and they were nearly brawling amongst themselves when I got there."
"Oh, my goodness," Willow said. "This warehouse... down just south of the docks?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Spike's old headquarters," she muttered to herself. "Giles, you round up Kendra and go down there with Jesse to keep the peace. We need to stop them from hurting themselves before we can find a way to undo this."
"Hurting themselves?" Joyce echoed, not happily.
"It'll be okay, Mrs. S.," Willow assured her with a certainty she didn't feel.
"Okay," Giles said.
"Look at you takin' charge, huh Will?" Jesse said, smiling as he faded out with the ghost of the librarian.
"Hmm," one of the young witches, the quiet one, said out loud, startling Willow. Paula, her name was. "Of the dweomer marked by the green dragon eye..." she read musingly
"Okay," Willow agreed before she realized what Paula had said. "Huh? What does it say?"
"Huh?"
"Hurry!" Willow prodded her.
"Uh, okay. This subtle enchantment is apparently only possessed by Draconis vertis, the green dragon, whose name is derived from the coloration of both scales and eyes. Each casting of the spell afflicts two individuals with greedy or envious competition, focused on an aspect of the dragon itself, sublimating some competitive aspect of the subconscious attitudes of the victims. The magic is targeted using the dragon's eyes, each focusing on one victim and releasing the bewitching power in a manner that can be seen as a flash of light."
"This is it!" Willow said. "How do you get rid of it?"
"Uh, I'm not sure," Paula told her. "Um, ooh, that's no good. The purpose of this spell may seem strange, since it encourages its victims to hunt the dragon, but the hunters are all too likely to become the prey of the green drake, especially when the competitive drives of the spell degenerate into open hostility and combativeness, sometimes right in the dragon's lair itself."
"No! No good!" Willow cried out, agonized. "They can't let their guard down and get eaten by the dragon!!" She looked down at the page. "What's that?"
Paula looked where she indicated. "Known variations of the spell. Desire to kill the dragon springs from a wish to be seen as heroic and protective. Lust after the dragon's jewels is from a desire to be attractive and popular."
"Hmm," Willow thought, momentarily diverted. "What about the dragon's secret? Or the dragon's tear?"
"Dragon's secret - desire for magic knowledge. The dragon's tear... oh."
"What?"
"It's an aphrodisiac. Those who pursue it under the dragon's spell... are two who wish the love of the same person."
"Oh," Willow said, blushing. "None of this is helpful," she muttered. "How can the spell be lifted?"
"There's nothing here," Paula said, turning the page. "Oh, here we go. The effects of the spell may be attenuated by..."
"Just attenuated?" Willow said.
"That's what it says. What's attenuated?"
"To lessen the severity of," Willow quoted. "Just one of a few hundred words you'd better learn before your S.A.T's, young lady. Well, okay, how do we attentuate it?"
Paula returned to the book. "... Attenuated if the dragon is killed, by someone not already afflicted with the spell. The obsessive sublimation onto the dragon and irrational competition with the opposite number will pass, but the deeper drives underneath them will be permanently strengthened because of the exposure to the spell."
"So, they won't still be fixated on the dragon or each other, but Buffy and Xander will be more strongly driven to be heroes, and so on through the line," Willow concluded. "Better than nothing. I guess that means that I'll have to beat all eight of them to the death blow."
"What?" Joyce said. Willow didn't answer her, heading out of the room and down the stairs, and Buffy's mother followed.
* * * *
"Hey, this looks like it could be it!" Darrell called out. Quickly the hunters of both teams gathered close. A dark tunnel extended from the basement of the factory, the stone apparently clawed out. The clearance was about six and a half feet at the highest point, just high enough for a person to head in.
"Hey!" Vanessa protested as Darrell and Oz prepared to do just that. "This is our territory; we found this warehouse first."
"So? We found the tunnel first; that's what matters," Oz proclaimed.
"Look me in the eyes and say that, you little twerp," Angel snarled, reverting into his distorted vampire face, complete with fangs and, of course, yellow eyes. The three ghosts quickly scrambled to defuse the incipient brawl, the third to threaten since Giles and Kendra had arrived.
"Why be ya so determined to fight amongst yerselves?" Kendra asked, interposing herself immaterially between Angel and Oz. "What does it accomplish?"
"It'll get this little snot out of my face for good," Angel snarled.
"Willow!" Oz called out.
"Oh, what, do you think I'm gonna fall for the old 'look at that routine?' Angel snarled."
"Hi, Oz," Willow said, taking the steps down to the factory basement two at a time. "Can I borrow this, Xander?" she said, putting her hands on his spear, but Xander wouldn't let his weapon go.
Buffy's attention was fixed on another figure entering the basement. "Mom? What are you doing here?"
Willow turned on Joyce Summers too. "You followed me here, Mrs. S??"
"Why, yes, I..." As Joyce crossed the floor, a reptilian shape jumped out from behind the stairs, knocking both her and Willow to the ground.
Everything seemed to be moving slowly for Willow. The dragon's head was swinging around to orient on her and Mrs. Summers. Remember the spell! a voice screamed in her mind. If she and Joyce were hit by the dragon's enchantment, there would be no-one unaffected to kill the dragon and reverse the spell. Drawing on the acrobatic techniques Buffy had taught her, Willow tumbled away from the great beast. It was only after she was away that she realized that Joyce Summers was still under attack by the dragon; defenseless.
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