By Earl
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Joss Whedon does!
"Well, we have been having some difficulties in locating our missing Demon," Giles announced to Buffy, who was slouched grumpily in one of the chairs in the Sunnydale Library. The table was filled with Giles' favorite books on demonology and Willow was dozing in the midst of the musty tomes. "I'm sorry your trip her was in vain - I realize 9:00 is a bit early for you to be up on a Saturday...
"Especially after being up 'til two fighting all things dark and dangerous; making the world safe for librarians," Buffy suggested.
"Y-yes, quite right. Unfortunately..."
"Xander..." murmured Willow. Then suddenly she awakened and looked up; it took her a moment to realize where she was and regain her composure. "Oh. Hi Buffy, Giles. Where'd everyone go?"
"Xander and Cordelia left around one; Cordelia's curfew. Oz is... well I suppose he's sleeping somewhere nearby," Giles said. "You drifted off a few hours before dawn..."
"So," Buffy cut in impatiently, "You were saying something about Amy's demon..."
"I-I was saying that we have not, as of yet, discovered much, or, indeed, anything on this 'Pythagorax'. I asked Amy to meet us here in the hopes that she could, perhaps, shed some light on the matter. Demons do not, as a rule, maintain such a-a 'low profile', as they say, once they escape from a would-be binder."
"I found a spell that might help us locate him."
Buffy Giles and Willow each jumped at the sound and turned to see Amy walking quietly towards them. Her voice had almost recovered, but still had a faint rasp to it.
"It locates sources of mystical energy. Although it's a relatively simple ritual, I haven't tried it yet. It should point to nearest source of power," Amy continued, "Sorry I'm late."
"We could use triangulation to find him," giggled Willow. Giles smiled and emitted an uncharacteristic chuckle as Buffy and Amy stared at them blankly.
"I'm going home. Let me know if you need any slayage," said Buffy "otherwise, I have a nice dream to get back to - although, apparently not as nice as certain people..."
Willow blushed. "I'll go look for Oz," Willow said guiltily, then scurried off to the stacks. Giles shot Buffy a disapproving glance.
"What! I'm not a morning person."
Later that evening, the researching had drawn to close and degenerated into a pizza party. Xander and Cordelia, Willow and Oz, Buffy, Giles and Amy sat around the rapidly diminishing remains of 2 extra-large pizzas. Giles set down a half-eaten piece and announced the day's results to non-researchers of the team. "We had some difficulties using Amy's spell. The Hellmouth is such a powerful convergence of mystical energies that the spell, almost invariably, pointed towards it. We tried the incantation from several different vantage points outside of town..."
"We went on a field trip," translated Willow.
"...and the results were typically the same," Giles continued, "However, we did, at one point, discover a second source, some 30 miles to the west."
"I found a USGS map..." began Willow.
"Usguss?" Xander interrupted.
"United States Geological Survey. Topological maps, showing the mountains and hills and stuff," Willow responded. She wiped her hands on a napkin, then took out some maps she had downloaded off of the internet. "It shows an old ghost town by some gold mines - abandoned back in the 1800's. The boxes with x's in them are mineshafts, the lines are the contours - showing the elevation - and the y's are tunnel mines. "
"So I'd like you to - to investigate the site," Giles said to Buffy, "Tomorrow morning you could head out to the mines, get an early start, say 7:00? Xander and Cordelia could accompany you."
"Werewolf night tomorrow for Oz," Willow said apologetically, "I want to make sure I'm here."
"Why do I have to go," whined Cordelia.
'You got the car," Xander said, between mouthfuls of pizza. "We should do this research thing every night. This is way better than my mom's cooking."
"I am not getting up at 7:00," Buffy announced.
"Cordelia," Giles said, "Buffy is the slayer; until we know more about Pythagorax, you and Xander should keep out of harm's way. You would be there merely to provide moral support and relay any messages we might have."
"You've been promoted from chauffeur to personal secretary and errand-girl, Cordy. Are you gonna waste those crusts?"
"I'm thinking 9-ish or 10," mused Buffy. "Definitely more like 10."
"How about 11?" Xander suggested to Cordelia as he helped dispose of her leftovers. "We could have a picnic while we wait for Buffy."
"My mom's caterer make a great skinless, roast chicken. Thirty miles. If we leave at 11:30 we can get there about lunchtime. Buffy should be finished doing her recon girl routine around the time we finish eating. We might even make it back in time to hit the mall."
"So while I hunt demons, you two will be... I don't even want to think about what you'll be doing."
"We'll save you the leftovers," Xander offered magnanimously.
"A-are you sure you can't leave a little earlier..." Giles started.
"No," Buffy stated flatly.
"Absolutely not," Cordelia agreed.
"I need my beauty sleep," Xander confessed. "You gonna finish that pizza, Giles?"
"Well," Giles sighed, "I guess it will give us some time to unearth more information on our demon."
"Or the ghost town. Or why it's ghosted," Willow chimed in.
It was one o'clock before the trio rolled into the ghost town of Cardano. They had left Sunnydale at noon and the rough dirt roads had made travelling slow. A flat tire along the way had done little to improve the spirits of Xander, Buffy and Cordelia and the petty bickering of the first half of the trip had turned into stony silence by the end. Twice Willow had called from the library with information from old newspapers and journals. An eccentric mine-owner, Jerome Cardano, had founded the town in 1872. He had twenty men working for him full-time, in spite of consistently finding nothing. Jerome's miners made up the town's sole source of income - other businesses existing only so long as Jerome continued to pay his men. Then, in 1875, the Tartaglia mine struck gold - gold of an unprecedented purity that required little refining. Coincidentally, many of Jerome's men disappeared. Jerome accused them of skipping town with gold stolen from his mine. The news got out quickly, and miners flocked from all parts to Cardano to stake their own claims and try their luck. None of them were successful and the town gradually faded back into obscurity. The Tartaglia mine continued to operate with fewer and fewer miners producing more and more gold. Then, with Jerome's sudden death in 1878 under questionable circumstances, the town just shut down.
Buffy had stalked off toward the mines, Willow's maps in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Xander tried to appeal to Cordelia with a few jokes, but she was in a decidedly petulant mood - and nobody did petulance like Cordelia. Eventually, he stopped trying and took up brooding, "It works for Angel and Owen, it should work for me," he muttered to himself. The ringing of Cordelia's car phone interrupted Xander's reverie. He glanced at Cordelia - she wasn't even acknowledging the sound, let alone attempting to answer the phone. Xander moved to the car, opened the driver's side door, picking up the phone on the sixth ring. "Sunnydale Funeral Home," he announced, "Group discounts and family plans available!"
"Uh...Ummm..."
"Hey, Will! Got some more news for us on the lifestyles of the sick and dangerous?"
"Oh, Xander!" Willow exclaimed with obvious relief, "I thought I had dialed... Oh, yeah we found more info. Weird stuff - devil cults and murder!"
Cordelia opened the passenger side door and sat down. Taking the phone from Xander, she placed it in its cradle between the two seats, hitting the conference call button. "For talking while driving," she explained to Xander when he looked at her quizzically, in a tone that suggested he was an imbecile.
"What?" asked Willow, "Cordy? Is that you? You sound funny..."
"You're on speaker-phone, Willow. Try to keep it short. You have no idea how much these calls cost me."
"You mean cost your dad," Xander corrected her; cheerfully ignoring the baleful glare it had earned him.
"O.K.," continued Willow, "There were no newspapers from Cardano after 1878, but there was a mention of what happened in the 'Sunnydale-y', actually a weekly rather than a daily -- an old Newspaper that went out of business in 1932..."
"Is there a point, little miss monologue?" demanded Cordelia.
"Sorry. Did I catch you guys at a bad time? Nothing evil is..."
"You interrupted Cordelia's sulkathon, nothing serious. Buffy's in the mine."
"Oh... Oh! You have to get her out! In 1878, there's a report from the Sunnydale paper about what happened in Cardano. Some of the miners got together to lynch Jerome. They broke into his house and dragged him outside and hung him -- and the miners who worked for him. They found devil-worshipping stuff in his house and burned it down. A few days later, someone came to Sunnydale and reported that everyone in the town had been killed! He had left town after the - the incident, and when he returned, there was nobody left! Some police - or sheriff's people, I guess, you know, a posse - went to investigate but they didn't find anything so they just buried the bodies and left."
"But that was over a hundred years ago! Whatever did it should be just as dead as this town!" Xander protested.
"Just because something's dead, doesn't mean it can't hurt you," Willow reminded him. "Besides, other people disappeared in later years. More miners moved in to - to stake their claims from 1878 'til 1903. Over twenty of them in all and none of them were ever heard from again. As recently as 1997, a group of hikers vanished in the area. Giles thinks that whatever was out there is still out there - and if they can make a town of about a hundred people disappear, they can make one slayer disappear."
"O.K!" Xander exclaimed, " We'll get her!" He hung up the phone. "C'mon Cordy, we've got to help Buffy!"
" 'Help Buffy.' Gee - where have I heard that before? So much for our picnic." She folded her arms across her chest.
"The food! I nearly forgot about it! I haven't eaten anything since breakfast - do you think we have time for a quick snack before we rescue Buffy?"
"Eat before saving your precious Buffy? Where are your priorities?"
"Right - man! What a dilemma! Can't we do both?"
"I don't think we even have another flashlight. I'm not going down there in the dark - and as soon as we run into any bats, I'm out!" Cordelia paused, then began again, "My father makes me carry an emergency kit in my trunk - I told him, why bother? If I get into trouble I'll just call! But it may have something we can use."
Xander and Cordelia entered the mine; Xander carried the picnic basket in one hand and munched on a piece of chicken he carried in the other. Cordelia followed him, carrying a flare - there hadn't been a flashlight. They stopped as they came to a branch in the tunnel.
"Left or right, Cordy?" asked Xander. "My instincts say right - I can't believe how good this chicken is! I will marry your mother's caterer!"
"We better go left then. And my mother's caterer is a 73-year old Romanian woman who has more facial hair than Oz during a full moon."
"Does she have a great-grand-daughter?"
"How are we going to keep from getting lost? A trail of breadcrumbs?"
"No! That would be sacrilege! Have you tasted these biscuits? Buttery-flaky goodness! Besides, in every fairy-tale I've ever read an evil goose sneaks up behind and devours the trail. I suggest he leave a trail of discarded chicken bones." Xander tossed a well-gnawed drumstick to the ground for emphasis.
Cordelia looked thoughtfully for a moment, then opened her purse and took out a stick of lipstick. She marked an arrow on the wall, pointing right. "Let's go then, Instinct-Boy."
At first, Xander didn't move - he stood there, his mouth slightly agape. Then he asked, "Did I just witness genius? Who are you and what have you done with Cordelia?"
"It wasn't my color," Cordelia responded nonchalantly, a slight smile playing about her lips. "Let's find our Slayer."
Xander and Cordelia continued through the tunnels, sometimes backtracking as they hit dead-ends. The tension that had built up on the trip out melted away, replaced by an esprit de corps brought on by shared adversity. The rough-hewn tunnels gave way to natural caves - walls left smooth by mineral deposits from water seepage. The tunnels became more confusing, then suddenly gave way to an immense cavern which the sputtering flare did little to illuminate. Xander sucked the last of the meat from a chicken wing he was carrying, then discarded it. He wiped his hands on his pants, then took out a second flare and lit it from Cordelia's. Together, they walked into the cave.
"Buffy!" shouted Xander. "Cordy, do you suppose this has anything to do with the mystic energy place Giles was talking about?"
"Xander!" Cordelia hissed, "Xander - look! Something moved!"
"Hey, do you think maybe we should be heading back?" Xander whispered back.
"I distinctly remember Giles saying something about not getting involved."
"Or waiting in the car for Buffy to report back," Xander agreed.
Cordelia and Xander began backing slowly towards the entrance when a group of naked, pale humanoids burst out the darkness from all sides. The flares were knocked aside and the two of them were quickly subdued and hoisted unceremoniously into the air. They were carried a short distance before being cast down into a pit.
"Cordy? Are you Okay?"
"I think my foot's broken. I'm at the bottom of a pit in total darkness and we're probably going to die here, but otherwise I-I..." she broke off and began sobbing.
"Hey, things could be worse," Xander said as soothingly as he could manage this close to hysteria. "Buffy's still out there and at least they didn't take away our basket - we can still have that picnic." He reached out and stroked her hair. "I think we still have two flares left." He pulled out a lighter and lit one of the remaining flares. The bottom of the pit was littered with bones, to a depth greater than Xander could determine. The top of the pit was at least twice his height.
"That's much better," said Cordelia as she struggled to regain her composure, "Now we have the additional comfort of knowing we are sitting on a pile of human bones." She looked suspiciously at Xander. "Why do you have a lighter? You don't smoke."
"I carry one just in case I run into a beautiful young woman with a cigarette in search of someone to light it." He opened the picnic basket and handed a piece of chicken to Cordelia. "Eat something. It'll take your mind off... it's really good chicken."
"I told her skinless - you just can't find good help these days," Cordelia retorted, in a voice halfway between a sob and a laugh.
"I'll take care of that for you," Xander said in his best knight-errant voice. He removed the skin in one swift motion and deposited it in his mouth. "It's the best part."
"Do you really think Buffy's all right?"
It was half an hour later when Buffy poked her head over the edge of the pit. "Hi guys! Thought Giles told you to wait outside. I saw your light - my flashlight went dead - oh, I don't know how long ago. You two look rather cozy for two people trapped in an abandoned mine in the bottom of a pit. And surrounded by naked, evil cave-dwellers," Cordelia was curled up next to Xander with a drink in her hand; Xander had just popped a biscuit in his mouth and was unable to speak.
"Buffy!" exclaimed Cordelia, "I'm sooo happy to see you. Please please please say you have rope."
Xander managed to swallow, "Hey Buff, am I glad to see you! Giles sent us in to tell you that there be monsters in these here hills," he drawled.
"That's my watcher, mister timing." She leaned over the pit, "See if you can grab hold of my hand." Xander disengaged himself from Cordelia and jumped up. Buffy caught his hand and began to pull him up, but he slipped free. "Gross, Xander! What was on you hand - or do I not want to know..."
"Chicken grease. We saved you a piece, if you're hungry..."
Buffy swung one of her legs over the edge of the pit. "You have no idea how hungry I am. And thirsty. If you've got a Diet Coke in that basket, I'll name my first child after you."
Xander tossed up a piece of chicken and followed it up with a can of diet soda. "Sorry Buffy. It's diet but it's some weird ginseng beverage that only Cordelia drinks."
"I'll live."
"I think Cordy broke her foot."
"Can you move your toes? 'cause if you can, it's not broken - trust me, I know broken bones."
"I can move them, but it hurts."
"I'll look for something to pull you out with. Can I borrow your light?" Buffy said. "This is really good chicken!" A dark shape moved behind her. Before Xander or Cordelia had a chance to shout a warning it had attacked. Buffy had somehow anticipated the attack and leaped the 10-foot distance to the other side of the pit, spilling not much more than a drop of her soda. The creature wasn't so fortunate; its momentum carried it into the pit and its skull cracked up against the opposite side before it slid down to land beside a horrified Cordelia and startled Xander. Buffy set down the drink and momentarily disappeared from view. The sound of bludgeoning and inhuman shrieks followed. Buffy returned to the edge, dragging a creature behind her. She finished eating amidst Cordelia's complaints that the creature was still breathing. "Hoist Cordy up and I'll pull her out," Buffy said.
Xander nervously did as he was told; one eye watching the creature. Cordelia balanced herself on her uninjured leg and grasped Buffy's arms. "He's moving!" Xander warned. Buffy gave a final tug and dragged Cordelia to the relative safety of the cavern.
Buffy lowered her unconscious creature into the pit. "Grab hold of it, Xander, and I'll pull you out."
On the trip out of the caverns, Buffy told them how she had gotten lost after a disorienting first fight with the creatures. She had come to the big cavern and found an altar, littered with odd, gold objects; a few of which she had pocketed. If Giles had no use for them, perhaps her mother could sell them as art. Once her light had gone out, she had been continually beset with attacks - unsure about whether or not to kill them, she had dropped them into some of the deeper pits.
The ride back was filled with cheerful camaraderie; with music blaring, they pulled into the school parking lot an hour before sundown. Xander and Buffy supported their wounded compatriot between them and marched into the library like conquering heroes, where they regaled the others with their deeds of valor. Amy offered a healing poultice to Cordelia, who accepted it, after initial reluctance. Oz was locked up for the evening, with an early moonrise. Willow watched the interaction between Xander and Cordelia wistfully; she had never seen the two of them chatting so comfortably together.
"Ghouls. Yes, definitely ghouls," Giles was saying. "This Jerome Cardano must have discovered their existence - perhaps from the oral traditions of the indigenous people, or though occult means - and hired men to tunnel down to them. The gold he 'mined' was probably exchanged for humans; initially, his own men, but word of the gold got out - well, a-a boom town, like Cardano, would have been ideal for their purposes. New people would have been arriving and leaving on a daily basis; very few people would have noticed a few missing itinerant miners."
"So it's okay to slay them?" Buffy asked.
"Absolutely. I-In fact, we should organize a group to go in and destroy them and render their shrine, whatever it's for, inoperative. A purification ritual of some sort... sprinkling of holy water..."
"We should go on picnics more often," Cordelia said softly to Xander. "But maybe someplace a little quieter..."
"We think we found some information on Pythagorax," Willow interrupted. "We think..."
"Tomorrow, perhaps, Willow," Giles said gently, "I think everyone has had enough excitement for one day."