Episode Thirteen:
Malignancy
Malignancy
Disclaimer: Oz isn't mine, although everybody else is, and the universe in which they all live also belongs to people other than me. I'm writing for my own amusement, and make no profit from it.
Feedback: Yes please, I welcome constructive comments.
Previously in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Tales from the Monico:
Oz: "I know what it's like to have power you can't control. I mean, every time I start to wolf out, I touch something?deep, dark. It's not fun."
Willow: "So Tibet was your favorite?"
Oz: "Well, it's where I stayed the longest. This warlock in Romania sent me to the monks there to learn some meditation techniques. Very intense. All about keeping your inner cool."
Willow: "Good, 'cause you were such a spaz before." (Smiles.) "So that's it? You keep your cool, and no more wolfie?"
Oz: "No, there's more. I take some herbs and stuff. Some chanting. A couple charms."
(He shows some beads on a string wrapped around his hand.)
Willow: "It's incredible. You've been all around the world. You've had this?complete mind-body transformation."
Oz: "I don't change. Not any more. I can hold it in?. Except in very extreme circumstances."
Oz: "The wolf isn't the biggest part of me."
Elli: "It is a part of you though. It's an important part of what makes you you."
Elli: "Oz, this is who I am."
Oz: "Lady Eleris of Alvrestyn."
Elli: "Eleris Talvalin, once of Alvrestyn. Dispossessed, landless, outlaw and exile. And also a soldier in a very bloody war?I came here to do a job, and that job was to not allow the Firststone to fall into enemy hands. No matter what it takes."
Emma: "If these kinds of freaky things are going to keep on happening, and Piers next door has proved that he's fallible ? well, I don't want to get caught out again. I want to be as prepared as possible. And that means learning as much as possible in advance. So, I'm reading up."
Charlie: "I thought you thought the research was boring?"
Emma: "I did. Still do. But it's something I want to do, so I'm doing it anyway."
Charlie: "Have I ever told you about my brother, Edward? He died when he was sixteen, just after his birthday. He was killed. By?our mum."
Oz: "She turned him?"
(Charlie nods, tearfully.)
(Oz is confronted by vampire Ed, and throws Holy Water in his face to aid his escape. The vampire yells in pain and outrage as his flesh sizzles and burns.)
Charlie: "He isn't going to love you, after you wrecked his face like that."
Ed: "I thought I should mention that I worked it out, after our last little encounter. What you really are. And, no offence, but I prefer human blood. Tastes better; you know what I mean? So, I shouldn't worry too much if I were you, I won't be trying to bite you again." (Chuckles) "No. I'll just kill you instead."
Anouk: "You have a vampire stalking you."
Oz: "Not just me."
Anouk: "And you didn't think to tell me this before now?"
Oz: "Well?he wasn't around before now."
Anouk (with a big sigh): "Just when I thought I knew you."
Oz: "You don't know everything about me."
Anouk: "But I want to. I want you to talk to me, Oz."
Elli: "Oz, can I ask you something? Why didn't you go back to your monks in Tibet after the big bust up in Sunnydale?"
Oz: "I don't know. I guess?I kinda thought they'd already taught me all they could?. And I got tired of chasing shadows. Time to face reality."
(Confronted with the unexpected realisation of Willow's new relationship with Tara, Oz wolfs out and is captured by the Initiative.)
(Concussed and captured by Staunton and his goons, Oz wolfs out again.)
(Struck by Cain's drugged dart, Oz just barely makes it to the safety of a locked basement before he again wolfs out.)
(Fighting off a vampire at full moon, Oz just barely manages to hold the wolf-transformation in.)
(Sitting on his bed, Oz writes to Master Sheng in Tibet.)
Anouk: "You will tell me, won't you? If it's bad? I don't want to open the paper tomorrow and find your name attached to a grisly murder headline."
*****
Prologue:
*****
Prologue:
*****
"And that?connection that you had," said Gil McKenzie, seemingly apropos of nothing. "With old Piers Mainwaring and all that?business." There was a vaguely disdainful note in his voice on that last word, scorning to even give a name to 'that business'. Of course, it made sense that he wouldn't like to remember what had happened, given his own part in bringing it all about. A man like him wouldn't appreciate being reminded of that. "You don't still make a habit of getting involved in, uh?things like that these days, do you?"
Dinner with a girlfriend's parents: always a tricky thing to get through. Especially when it was the first time, formally speaking. Meeting informally, no matter how many times, was never even remotely the same thing.
And that was an awkward question to answer, Oz ruefully reflected. Because, as grateful as Gil was about the whole saving his daughter's life thing, no way would an account of the various vampiric, demonic or otherwise just plain supernatural scrapes Oz tended to find himself in on a regular basis go over well. He'd be even less thrilled to hear about his daughter having fought hand-to-hand with a bunch of vampires that one time, judging by the way Anouk was scrutinising her plate and avoiding eye contact with either of them. So, he told himself, when in doubt, be vague.
"Haven't really seen that much of Mr Mainwaring since Christmas," he carefully replied, and it was completely true.
Gil nodded, and appeared to accept that vagueness as proof of Oz's not still being up to his neck in dangerous supernatural affairs, without any outright lies having actually been told, which was good. Lying to a girlfriend's parent was also not something likely to go over all that well if they found you out. But fortunately, and despite his history, Gil came complete with a healthy dose of denial that came close to Sunnydale levels at times. He'd swallowed whole even the lamest excuses Oz had come up with to explain away post-fight-for-life injuries on the occasions when misfortune had caused them to run into one another while those injuries were visible. He seemed prepared to believe almost anything simply because he wasn't prepared to know the truth. And ? that kinda worked for Oz.
Gil then changed the subject, waxing nostalgic about the early days of setting up his business while studiously avoiding all mention of his dabblings in the field of black magic and demonic assistance, and Oz got the distinct impression that something more than just sitting there nodding intelligently at appropriate moments was expected of him.
Dinner with parents was complicated. That was why he'd been putting off this encounter for as long as possible.
"So," Gil concluded at length. "Remind me, young man ? what was it you said you intend to do with your life when you graduate??"
*****
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