Work Text:
Non:
Twilight was here.
After several months since that stupid surprise party for Spike, Dru started saying to anyone that listened, “Twilight is coming, dearies, no more spells for anyone!!” Then she would cackle like a witch and twirl around like some lethal ballerina. No one understood what it meant except for me. This dimension was doomed unless magic could somehow be destroyed or exiled. Either way it was like all my birthdays occurred at once. Every demon who could suck or damper energy whether they were succubi or Regali, or a misunderstood Hell Goddess/pixie like me knew the prophecy of the Siphon. If Twilight failed then the Siphon would rise taking all the remaining magic power. I just knew the Siphon would be my human son Severin. Why else would Dru tell me about Twilight? It wasn’t because the crazy vamp was my only friend. I hope not.
Anyways, if Twilight succeeded, the horde of evil demons would overwhelm any good or reformed demons such as, hey, Mosaic! Humans wouldn’t stand a chance either. I could become free and help the hordes prevail. Byebye, Beck and Ann and Biv and Marv. Don’t let the dimensional door hit you in the ass, Betta George!
I grinned in my cell with a straight jacket on thinking of the goodies that would be mine in such a scheme. The guards took away my TV privileges at Ann’s request because I kept gloating over the scenes of disaster on the news. There were strange weather phenomenon blamed on global warming along with earthquakes but I knew that Twilight was starting. When the armies of demons went through the dimensional tear Buffy and Angel created with their torrid super-powered lovemaking, that staff at Mosaic kept me out of the main lounge altogether. I kept calling for more vicious demons to attack Mosaic so I could escape.
It was no fun being kept out of the action. Gunn’s prophecy about me not playing any role in the apocalypse was coming true. Oh well, their loss. So now I wait and wait to see which side would win or if the Siphon prophecy would begin instead. Do-gooders like the insufferable Beck and the nosy Splenden Beast were busy helping people at the disaster sites caused by Twilight while I sat grinning in my cell using my imagination. I wanted to escape so badly.
Suddenly, I felt it, like a pin prick it was but then a kind of loss hit my gut. The chains that kept my energy-draining power in check weakened. It was just ordinary metal now. Like most demons, I had enough strength to break through the ordinary restraints that were holding me back. I laughed and said, “The Siphon’s time it is, then.“ I don’t know which side or player did it but someone had banished magic.
I heard various Mosaic staff and guards running up and down corridors screaming, “CODE RED!” Without magic, some security barriers would fall and some dangerous patients might get out of their shackles… like me.
I reached towards the cell’s door. It opened and a surprised guard looked directly at me. I smiled and grabbed him sucking the living energy out of my first meal in quite some time. I sucked and sucked the life force until he was a dried-out husk. I dropped him and licked my lips. Oh the energy! I felt more like my old self and this was just the beginning.
I walked through the open door and snuck down the corridor. It didn’t take long to bump into more muscle-head goons. When the guards realized I was without my fetters they raised their stun guns like panicked rabbits. I struck like a cobra draining that oh-so delicious energy into me. The rest of them ran off when they saw the bodies drop. I was ready for the next part of my plan.
I headed to Dru’s cell which was unguarded because of the frightened scattering of the staff. I had to be quick for this situation wouldn’t last long. I smashed through the door with my newfound strength and slipped within the wreckage. The dark queen of vampires was waiting for me, and she spoke,
Dru:
“The Slayer beast has betrayed herself because my darker prince destroyed the Watcher dolly. The Seed is crushed causing her bad kitty to be trapped…”
“Yeah,” said my friend Non as she gestured to the cracked entrance. “The Slayer probably crushed the fabled Seed of Wonder. Good for us, now we can leave this dump.”
I clapped and giggled. “I must take Miss Edith and my other dollies.”
Non rolled her eyes and I wanted to snatch them. “Really, Dru? We don’t have time.”
“But I must take my dollies for they’ll be abandoned and stare at my parent’s corpses.” I saw my dead family surround my dolls and frowning at the neglect. I shivered and shook my head at my best friend Non. “Please, please I must have them I insist.”
Non was still frowning, so much my lost prince Spike was she. “Fine, but hurry up please. We got places to go and people to eat.”
I gathered up my satchels stuffing my toys into it saving Miss Edith for last. My nostrils flared as I scented all the blood spilled today in Mosaic. My teeth clicked as I growled and danced and swayed around my pixie friend as I carried my bags. “So much blood I could never be so empty.”
“Oh boy, Dru, you’re telling me,” said Non as she rubbed her belly, “but I’ve had my fill of this place. There is a whole wide world waiting with endless banquets of humans before us.”
My game face spurted over my defiled features with my eyeballs covered in yellow. “Yummy, oh my mummy Darla will be so proud of me watching from heaven, or is it hell? The carnage we will cause.”
Non grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the corridor. “Honey, we got to get out of this place so we can get to all that food. You remember what I told you about the Lorophage?”
I nodded happily. “Miss Edith says that all my pets die or leave me all alone. The stars are no longer clear on how to keep the living full of air. Will a Lorophage be my little pet forever and ever?”
Non grinned like a shark on land. “Oh yes, my sweet, and it’ll make that dark mind of yours clear as an unpolluted river. Oh, the mischief we will get into!”
As I dragged my satchels out the cell, I then dropped them and rubbed my skinny stomach. “Oh, sister dear, I want to have a bit to eat. All that my bad boy gave me was ashes.”
Her face clouded after I mentioned Spike. She seemed to decide something. “As for me, I could do with another meal something to leave the do-gooders to feel guilty about. Let’s be quick!”
After we gathered out things, we walked together through the oozing guts of the asylum we were trapped inside of. The walls were now paper thin- a living skin to wrap you in. A guard bumped into us. The stars had brought him for our meal so I could taste his fear. His hands shook as he raised his weapon but I batted it out of his hands like the bad kitty Twilight.
“Tear his throat out now,” yelled Non. I put my hands on my ears to get the noise away from me. My friend grabbed the food holding him squirming. I took my hands away and snarled. My fangs clasped his neck skin with throbbing pleasure. The blood flowed into my gullet a steady wine so sweet and full of nickels. He didn’t scream but just… gasped. The air flowed out of him and his lips moving like Betta George’s.
I felt strong again and dumped the dead flesh. I turned to Non who spoke,
Non:
“You’ve filled up, my dear. Time to scram or we are both dust!” I could feel my window to freedom was getting smaller and smaller. As soon as Beck, Ann, and the fish came back from their rescue mission we would be herded back to our cells. I didn’t intend to be there when that happened. My demonic skin tingled with feelings of potential. Oh, the opportunities! I could visit my son Severin or push that Gunn to the dark side again. I could punish my ex Noelle and that treacherous Spider. Everything possible could happen when you can get out of being trapped and stripped of your abilities.
We ran until we were in front of one of the few fire exits the clinic had. “This is where we part company, Dru,” I told my friend. “I like you but we have more hope to remain free if we separate.”
The game face melted off the vampire showing a tear-stained Dru. She started to howl saying some nonsense about the stars wanting us to stick together. I was annoyed yet a little touched that she wanted to remain by my side. Dru was my first friend and the bright spot in being imprisoned in this hellhole, or should it be heaven hole? Anyways, despite the crazy vamp’s touching loyalty I knew that I was right to go our own ways. They couldn’t capture both of us, could they?
“I know your secret name,” cried Dru, “the stars and Miss Edith told me.”
“Oh yeah right,” I said getting angry. “What is it?” I shouldn’t have done that for I knew she was a real Seer.
“Your owl is long gone, Pallas Athena, and so is your Hell-god father.”
My skin felt ripped off at the exposure of my deepest secret that no one except Spider, or Arachne as she was called then, knew. Not even Noelle guessed though my lover suspected I was older than I said I was.
“I had other names back then,” I whispered. “Fine names to curdle a half-breed’s blood. Anatha. Neith. They used to drape my body in testicles such as those from men and small boys, and later those of bulls. As the worship became more refined the less power I had so that I had to go in hiding or be destroyed like my fellow Gods were when Christianity arrived.”
I stopped and looked around. The alarms were still blaring around us and I heard the scuffles of fights in the distance. Yet, I knew that the conflicts would soon engulf us. Dru just stood there with her eyes wide open and the hint of tears still in them. She stares at nothing and her mouth moved but no voice came out. Mosaic and the events of Hell A. had given her snatches of sanity but not durable lucidity. I had to make a decision about her and fast!
In one tentative motion, my hand reached out and grabbed the half-breed’s hand. Dru closed her eyes and smiled. “Come, my friend let the stars lead us in our dances,” the vampire said.
Together, we rushed through the fire exit laughing adding another alarm to the cacophony of Mosaic sounds. We were finally free of the do-gooders. I won’t tell you what made us finally part or what she did with the Lorophage. That is a story told elsewhere as is my adventures with my son or my reunion with Noelle and Spider. I will always remember my time at Mosaic and the friendship that even a half-breed could offer to me. Ta, Ta, for now.