RETURN to CHAOS

by CRAIG SHAW GARDNER

“I must satisfy my mistress.”

  Cordelia stopped breathing. She realized she had said that aloud. She barely recognized her own voice. Thank goodness it was almost time for school to begin, and everybody was too busy rushing to their homerooms to listen to what was coming out of her mouth.

  Where did that come from, anyway? “I must satisfy my mistress?” It sounded like the sort of thing that happened to Buffy Summers, not Cordelia Chase. Maybe she should ask Buffy. Or Giles. He seemed to know almost everything.

  Wait . . . Cordelia swallowed as a new thought blossomed deep in her brain. Maybe this was happening because she was too involved with them already. Maybe I’ve been hanging around Buffy too much. Maybe she had to get away from that whole crowd—then she’d be just fine. Well, not the whole crowd. She and Xander could think of other things to talk about.

  Cordelia shook her head. She and Buffy had been getting along pretty well lately. Now, though, even thinking of Buffy made her a little uneasy.

  This just got stranger and stranger. Oh no. There was the final bell. She’d be late!

  Right now, she was glad there was a little time before she’d be seeing Xander again.

  With Xander around, Buffy couldn’t be far behind. She almost shivered.

  Cordelia took a deep breath. Maybe, with a full day of classes, she could clear her head.

  At last, Oz thought, I can get back into the swing of things.

  For the last three nights, the nights of the full moon, he had to lock himself away in the cage at the library. But now that the full moon had passed, he could think about other things. His band was getting regular local gigs the other twenty-five days of the lunar cycle. They’d played at the Bronze now a half-dozen times, and would be playing at Sunnydale High for the Spring Formal. The only problem with that was, since he was in the band, he couldn’t really get to spend that much time with Willow, who was a pretty amazing girl. Besides being cute and sexy and smart, which was also sexy, Willow accepted him completely. And she had a bunch of friends who not only knew about his other life, but didn’t really seem to care. It was pretty keen to be able to share that kind of secret.

  Besides the werewolf bit, Oz guessed life was pretty great.

  He’d made it through another whole day of classes. Not, of course, that Oz paid much attention to that sort of thing, but since he was repeating his senior year, Oz did have to keep up some appearances. Now it was time for the all-important socializing.

  Willow wasn’t in the computer lab or student lounge, so he figured he’d find her in the library. He pushed through the swinging doors. Sure enough, she was staring at a computer screen.

  “Hi.” He nodded as she looked up at him.

  “Hi,” she said without much feeling.

  Something must be up. She hardly gave him any smile at all. That meant she was really worried.

  “So, what’s up?” he asked.

  That was her cue. She looked back up at him with a big frown. “It’s all so impossible.”

  Oz just nodded. Around Sunnydale, a lot of things were impossible. He guessed being a werewolf gave him a little extra perspective.

  “See,” Willow explained, “Giles and I had been working on this program all weekend. The prediction program?”

  Oz nodded. When he and Willow had finally gotten back together last night, it was all she wanted to talk about. Well, when they were talking.

  Willow just frowned back at the computer screen. He figured she was stuck in more ways than one.

  “So something went wrong?” he prompted.

  “It was too successful. Instead of warning Buffy about dangers, we came up with enough dangers for a hundred Buffys. We got tons and tons of possibilities. Killer clams. Vampire sharks.”

  “Uh-huh.” Oz urged her along.

  “Whales with feet,” she added.

  Oz was patient. He knew she’d get to the point sooner or later.

  “But that was this morning. Now, everything’s gone away.” She looked back at the screen like it was the end of the world.

  “You mean, like all those dangers aren’t there anymore?”

  Willow nodded. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Huh?” Oz had to get this straight. “Something went wrong with your program that was going wrong?”

  She smiled gratefully. “I couldn’t have expressed it better myself. I knew we were going together for a reason.”

  Well, Oz guessed he was glad somebody was happy. “Uh, Willow? I’m not exactly sure what I just said.”

  “Well, like I said, we were just getting too much data. Some of it might have been useful, but there was no way to tell. So, to try and figure out what was going on, I convinced Giles that we should upload one more day’s worth of data, see what kind of new possibilities it generated. But we’d separate the types of data—feed in the local news first, say, then the weather report, then my daily update on Buffy—”

  Oz was impressed. “You did all that?”

  “And a lot more. We had plenty of variables. Maybe that was our problem. Anyway, if I isolated each piece of data, I could study the effects of each on the whole program.”

  She was frowning again. Oz ended up smiling at her anyway. He loved it when Willow explained things.

  “Makes sense,” he agreed.

  “But everything went away!”

  “Everything?”

  “Just about. Right between the news and the weather. All those dangerous scenarios the computer was spitting out the day before—it was like they never existed.”

  “So now nothing’s going to happen in Sunnydale?”

  Willow shrugged. “Well, nothing that much out of the ordinary. The program’s telling me there’s still a couple of possibilities that have to do with vampires.”

  “Oh, well, what else is new? This is Sunnydale, after all.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And these vampire things are the sort of stuff Buffy can handle?”

  Willow nodded. “Any day of the week.”

  “So all your problems with the program went away.”

  Willow nodded again. “And all the problems in the program went away, too.”

  He thought about it for a moment before adding, “Isn217;t that a good thing?”

  “Well, it could be a good thing,” Willow admitted. “It certainly looks like a good thing.”

  He took a couple of steps closer to Willow. She seemed to be relaxing a bit.

  “Well, that’s good. I like good things.”

  She looked him straight in the eyes and smiled. “I like good things, too.”

  Were they talking about the computer program anymore?

  Willow shook her head. The moment was gone. “I just can’t stand not knowing. It’s not the program. It’s something else. I think something changed as a result of the data we fed it this morning.”

  “And this something—is it good, too?”

  Willow shrugged. “Maybe good. Maybe bad. To make all that stuff change, it would certainly have to be powerful.”

  “How powerful?”

  “To stop the possibility of all those horrible disasters? I’d say it would have to be end-of-the-world powerful.”

  Uh-oh, Oz thought. Now we’re getting down to it. Being around Buffy, they’d survived a couple of end-of-the-world things already. Survived, but it was nobody’s idea of a good time.

  “So,” he summarized. “Not having any problems could be a real problem.”

  Willow nodded. “I think I want to talk to Buffy.”

  Chapter 7

  BUFFY COULD SENSE IT IN THE AIR. IT WAS ALMOST spring, and the night was pleasantly cool. The streets were quiet. She hadn’t seen a soul in the last fifteen minutes of her patrol. Not a pedestrian, not a delivery van, not even a police car. Everything was perfect.

  She knew the vampires were out tonight.

  This sense was born in her, a part of her birthright. Even Giles, who had helped her find it in herself, couldn’t really explain where it came
from. But a Slayer was able to sense danger—especially supernatural danger—before it happened.

  After all, Buffy thought, who else is going to save the world?

  It began like a tingling in the back of her skull, causing her to snap to full alertness. They’re out there, the feeling said, preying on the innocent, looking for blood. They want to destroy everything good.

  There were certain nights, like tonight, when that feeling was very strong. Closer. Closer. And it was getting stronger with every passing minute.

  The scream came from just around the corner.

  Buffy ran toward the noise, sizing up the scene as soon as she saw it. She had run into the parking lot of one of those new condo complexes. The young woman—the one who screamed—was maybe college age. She had just gotten to her car when the vampires attacked. The car door hung open, the keys still in the lock. There were two vamps, one male, one female. They seemed to be playing with their victim, like cats might toy with a mouse, letting her get halfway back to her car before blocking her way, forcing her into a corner, then backing off, giving her the illusion that she might escape.

  “Hey, guys,” Buffy announced. “Game’s over.”

  Both vampires spun at the sound of Buffy’s voice.

  “Another one!” said the male half of the vampire tag team. “We’ll drink our fill tonight.”

  “Oh, Bernie!” his female counterpart replied. “You always could show a girl a good time.”

  Both of them smiled, showing their fangs.

  “Get away from here!” the college woman called to Buffy. She was breathing heavily, exhausted by the chase. “They’re monsters!”

  “Not for long,” Buffy replied. She had already pulled a wooden stake from her shoulder bag. Bernie? It didn’t seem like a really good name for a vampire. Not that he’d have to worry about it for long.

  “They said we’d never make it on our own,” Bernie crowed as he advanced on Buffy. “Said we needed a plan.”

  “Yeah, Bernie,” his female counterpart agreed. “Who needs a plan when there’s fresh blood everywhere?”

  They? Buffy thought. Who the heck are “they?”

  Not that she’d have a chance to ask. Bernie was already rushing toward her.

  “I got dibs on this one!” he called, looking back over his shoulder. “You take our—”

  He ran right into Buffy’s stake, disintegrating mid-sentence as she pulled the stake out. She had probably killed hundreds of vampires by now, but this was the first time she didn’t even have to move to do it.

  His partner got a little upset. “Bernie!” she squealed. “What did you do to Bernie?”

  “Don’t worry,” Buffy replied grimly. “You’ll be joining him shortly.” She waved the sharpened wood in her hand. “I’ll even use the same stake.” She strode toward the second bloodsucker.

  “Oh, no you won’t!” The female vamp took a step away. “ ‘We don’t need any of the others,’ Bernie says. ‘We go out on our own, we’ll get fresher pickings,’ Bernie says. ‘Why listen to them?’ Bernie says. I should have listened!”

  Buffy paused in her advance. “Who’s ‘them?’ ”

  The vampire frowned. “You’re that Slayer person, aren’t you? ‘It’s a big town,’ Bernie says. ‘What are our chances of running into the Slayer?’ Bernie says. Our chances were pretty darn good!”

  Buffy didn’t have much experience dealing with hysterical vampires. Any vampire was dangerous; an emotionally unpredictable one might be even more so. But if this shrieking vamp would keep on talking, she might let on to some bigger plans.

  “I don’t need to kill you right away,” Buffy said soothingly. “Why don’t we talk about it?”

  “ ‘Why don’t we talk about it,’ she says?” the female vamp mocked. “ ‘Hey, Gloria,’ Bernie says. ‘It’s you and me against the world,’ he says. ‘Sort of like Rebel Without a Cause,’ he says, ‘except James Dean is a vampire.’ ” She shook her head. “I was always a sucker for a nice set of fangs.”

  Gloria? Buffy thought. She guessed it wasn’t any worse than Bernie. Past Gloria she could see the young woman who’d been attacked was leaning heavily against the car.

  Buffy waved her stake. “Well, Gloria, why don’t we move out of the way and let this nice lady get back in her car.”

  “No way! We’re talking about my dinner, here!”

  Buffy took a casual step in Gloria’s direction. The vampire’s gaze focused on the stake.

  “Oh, OK, maybe I’m being a little hasty here. I always let Bernie do all the thinking. It’s tough. One minute you’re with a guy, the next he’s crumbled to dust.”

  Lost love, huh? Tell me about it. For an instant, Buffy actually felt a little sorry for this vampire. Not that it had anything to do with Buffy’s situation. Love, shmuv. She’d had enough of this.

  “No hard feelings.” She took another step toward Gloria. “You’re a vampire, I’m the Slayer; let’s get this over with.”

  Gloria took another couple of steps in reverse. “No way! ‘Let’s all do this together,’ they said. ‘They never gave us a chance before. Now’s our time.’ I should have listened. I’m going to go and listen now!” She turned and jogged quickly away, only pausing when she was a hundred yards down the street. She cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled:

  “When I come back, little miss Slayer, I won’t be alone!”

  The woman by the car moaned and slid to the ground.

  Buffy sighed. She could chase after the vampire, but their intended victim was still in pretty bad shape. Buffy turned her attention to the young woman. She looked basically intact—Bernie and Gloria had been too busy playing with her to do any serious biting or bloodsucking. The young woman was breathing heavily, her clothing torn. She had sunk to her knees during Buffy and Gloria’s conversation. She stared up at Buffy now like she was in shock.

  “Are you all right?” Buffy asked gently.

  The woman blinked. “Who are you? Who were they?”

  How could Buffy explain? “Think of them as muggers with really big teeth. Trust me. You don’t want to walk around this town by yourself after dark.” She offered the woman her hand. “Why don’t we get you into your car?”

  The woman nodded and allowed Buffy to help her up.

  “Do you think you’ll be okay to drive?”

  “As long as I’m driving away from here,” the woman agreed. She grabbed her keys from the car door and slid behind the wheel. “I go to State College. I live in a dorm less than a mile away from here.”

  Once she was in the car, Buffy thought she would be safe. After what had just happened to her, this woman wasn’t about to stop for any strangers. And there were always people around at a college.

  The woman looked up at her as she started the car. She opened her window a crack so they could talk.

  “You still didn’t tell me who you were.”

  Buffy grinned. “I’m somebody who knows how to handle muggers. Especially this kind.”

  The woman shook her head. “Maybe I should be taking those self-defense classes after all. I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “Just get home safely,” Buffy replied. “That’s what I plan to do.” She realized she was very tired. The woman offered her a ride home, but Buffy told her she just lived down the street.

  The woman beeped her horn and sped off into the night.

  Buffy was already thinking about other things. When Gloria had repeatedly mentioned “them,” it had reminded Buffy of so much that had gone before.

  Vampires didn’t simply show up in Sunnydale. They tended to come here in groups. They were attracted by the power of the Hellmouth. The very first big-league vampire that Buffy had to face, the Master, had actually been trapped in the caves around the Hellmouth and had had a plan to use the blood of many mortals to free himself. Of course, destroying the Slayer had also been part of the plan.

  Buffy had survived that one—barely. She had actually died for a moment, saved only by
Xander’s quick thinking and knowledge of CPR.

  Once the Master was gone, the next group of vampires moved in, led by a pair of punks named Spike and Drusilla. They were going to destroy the world just because they could. Only the interference of Angel after he lost his soul caused their plans to fail, upsetting the mix and causing the vamps to turn on each other. Poor Angel.

  Buffy swore she would never get close to a vampire again.

  She stopped and listened. There was nothing, at least not yet.

  There would be.

  Now that the other woman was gone, the tingling was back, the feeling that something was about to strike.

  “Slayer!”

  The call was faint at first, as if the voice were very far away. Maybe, Buffy thought, it came from the other side of the grave.

  “Slayer!” A second voice was added to the first, and then a third. “Slayer!”

  There were a number of vampires out there, somewhere in the shadows. Buffy guessed that Gloria had made good on her threat and had brought them back with her.

  “Slay—er. Slay—er. Slay—er.”

  It had gone from a call to a chant, a dozen voices all calling her name.

  “That’s my name!” she called back. “Don’t wear it out!” Well, it wasn’t very original, but hey, a girl had to say something. It was part of her Slayer style.

  Her shout brought some immediate results. She saw movement in the darkness. The vampires were coming out.

  “Slay—er! Slay—er! Slay—er!” The chant grew louder and louder, more voices joining with every repetition. How many vampires were out there?

  Gloria stepped out into the streetlight, followed by a half-dozen others.

  “ ‘Gloria,’ she says, ‘why don’t you move out of the way? Let the nice lady back into her car,’ she says. Nobody tells Gloria what to do!”

  “Slay—er.” The chant rose and fell. “Uh—Slay—er.” Now that Gloria had interrupted the chant’s rhythm, it had lost most of its energy. Which meant they could lose their focus. Buffy would have seen this as a good sign, if there hadn’t been so many vampires.

  Besides the six that had shown up right behind Gloria, she noticed another dozen or so emerging from the bushes at the edges of the parking lot. She glanced quickly over her shoulder and saw four or five more walk around the corner that brought her here.