CH.32

Three days later, Ryan woke up to see a familiar ceiling. Watching the fan go round and round for a few moments until he tried to move. When he did, he was reminded of the pain he felt when he blew up the side of the mountain he was on, long ago.

Every part of his body felt like he was dancing in an iron maiden for a week with nothing to bathe in but salt and lemons. By the time he was sitting up in bed, he felt like he'd just finished the ritual all over again.

Gasping for air and trying not to blackout he stood. He took one step before he crashed into the floor unconscious. Several hours later, he woke up to Willow singing and cleaning his body.

When she caught his movement she came closer and sat down on the bed. Willow whispered." Hey sweety, how are you doing? Do you need me to get you something? Tara would be here, but she had class right now. I skipped mine when I heard you got out of bed."

Ryan whispered." Yarrow, Goldenrod, Calendula, ginger, and aloe. As much as possible. And lots of water."

Willow took a note, kissed him and raced off. Half an hour later she came back with what looked like the entire town's supply of the plants he asked for. Several of their friends helped. When she came over to ask him what was next, she gave him a drink of water.

He began telling them as best he could in a hoarse voice." Boil water and fill the bathtub with it, then put me in while it's still boiling. Dump as much of the plants in, as fast as you can and then back away when you see the water start to turn murky. We'll need a new bathtub afterward."

They followed his institutions to the letter, after twenty minutes they carried him to the tub and lowered him in. After that Buffy and faith tipped several barrels of herbs into the bathtub. Oddly enough, in didn't seem to get full.

When they were almost out, the water turned a black murky color. They all stood back and watched the show. The water solidified into a black tar-like substance then grew into a very solid looking obsidian color.

Several minutes later, the was a suction like force coming from the tub. Buffy and Faith's danger senses went off the charts when both Tara and Willow told them to get out of the bathroom and ran. As soon as Faith cleared the doorway the tub shattered into bits like shrapnel and flew out like a grenade went off.

Standing now where the broken tub used to be, was a fully healed, though magically weak, and covered in black goo, Ryan. Walking out he froze the pipe end where water was coming out and headed for the upstairs shower, he passed everyone trying not to touch them.

On his way passed you told them. "Collect what you can of the sludge and bottle it but don't touch it."

Hitting the shower for all it could take, he cleaned himself for an hour and a half before he was sure he was clean. When he came back downstairs clean and dressed he saw the counters covered in glass jars full of black goo.

Ignoring that he walked over to where Willow and Tara sat and sat between them while everyone watched. Sighing he told them. " If you're here because you're curious to know what I asked the demon your out of luck until everyone's here. If you want to know what the goop does, same answer. But if your just curious as to my health. I'm fine now. It will be a week or so before I can leave the house but otherwise I'm just dandy. Any question or do you all feel like getting wasted and celebrating surviving death in the truest sense."

Willow and Tara had already got the answers to their questions from his head while he was getting them, so it left Buffy, Faith, Xander and Riley with a few unknowns but they were already told to wait. Faith stood up and headed for the fridge." Fuck it, it's party time!" Half the group went to help get everything ready.

He sent his senses out, into the house for any missing goo. When he found it he sent mystical soul fire and burned it into oblivion. After a careful sweep of everyone and thing he expanded his search to the yard and local houses. After a few close calls he was positive all of it was destroyed.

With that in mind he had Buffy and Faith bring up several empty chests from the basement and store all the bottles in it. Having a few beers they started playing music and dancing.

Oz and Bay came down when they heard this. Seeing hungry wolves he lit the back porch grill and started frying them up.

Lyndsey showed up not long after that, he grabbed a beer and steak and sat down next to Faith. Jenny and Giles showed up half an hour later, bringing Joyce and Dawn. When everyone was fed and watered so to speak they sat down in the living room for a Q&A session.

Ryan spoke first." My questions are a little more easily answered so I'll go first. What the hell happened up here while we were down there? I can still see the battle scars all over the furniture and house."

Lyndsey answered for everyone here because he was in the middle of it. In his south Texas accent he told him." Pack of werewolves showed up demanding those two to come out. At first I just told them to piss off but when your basic wards started failing, I told everyone to get up stairs and started fighting. They were pretty easy to just knock out until one of the last one standing decided to be a sore loser and lob a belt of grenades at my face while I was distracted beating his friends unconscious, I absorbs most of the impact and blast but it dazed me long enough for one of them to stab me I the throat with a sword. Then the big son of a bitch hits me in the head with a war hammer. Who the hell carries a war hammer nowadays anyway? If it wasn't for whoever started slinging spells behind me, they would've gotten past. Thanks for that by the way, it gave me enough time to pull the sword out and heal. After that I was in a foul mood so sent the entire pack to Quar'toth. They can rot in hell there for all I care, coughing up pieces of the freaken sword."

Jenny smiles." Well the next question can be answered with a simple me! I saw it was going bad so I started throwing curses and hexes. They would have been permanent because of the time factor, but it slowed for long enough."

Joyce spoke now." So whose bright idea was it to bring my daughters to a war zone anyway? Any what were you doing naked in a basement with my daughter?"

Ryan heard this an looked ashamed. " First off, I don't know why Dawn was here to start with, but the second question ties into everyone else's, so I'll have to ask you to wait and hear it out."

Joyce looked confused and angry and she had every right to be but now isn't the time for pointing fingers. Giles told them." I think it best you tell us everything from start to finish so that Joyce can have piece of mind and I can understand your thought process."

Ryan sighed." My story is long and I don't have the energy to tell it all myself. Willow and Tara will fill in the details, they have full access to my mind and memories, if he want Lyndsey could help. So here it goes. In the beginning this world was a paradise..."

Willow told them. " When his twin brother went to kill him he became confused...."

Tara picked up." He heard a rumor someone was doing a sacrificial ritual and ran to..."

Lyndsey continued for them." When the old ones were kicked out the last one spoke his true name, hoping to call him down on humans in the last bid of vengeance and..."

Back to Ryan." I came back to this plain to visit the spot the last vampire that spoke my true name died and I ran into one of the most beautiful and enchanting women I'd ever seen in my very long life, she changed my life..."

Willow again."His original apprentice used his newest one, Lyndsey, here to draw his power away from him and used demons to..."

Tara continued." When Willow used a spell to wish away her pain, she used the memory crystal to draw in the extra power connecting him to the spell long enough to..."

Lyndsey went on." After the spell, they did last year to defeat the big nasty cyborg demon named Adam, he recognized apart of the demon in Buffy that took a trip in there..."

Ryan continued." And that's when we used a ritual to contact your daughters not so friendly darker half. As for why we were naked, it was a requirement we had to follow or it would either kill us or not show. As for the war going on, that was a plan that nearly backfired but I believe Lyndsey pulled it off beautifully given the circumstances. If you want more details on that ask Oz. "

Giles looked up from righting all of that down and inquired." So the questions you asked death?"

Ryan smirked and told him in his people's language. When he stopped the looked at him as if he were half-mad, then Giles clarified." In English, please?"

Chuckling Ryan told them." That's the rub, I'm physically unable to tell you them thanks to the ritual. You would have had to been there and remembered it and been able to translate-"

Willow picked up." Or been inside his head at the next moment he asked the questions. Lucky for you we were, and while he really can't tell you, we can."

Tara went next."So the first question was, we're you the being that drove his brother insane and it said 'Yes and No'. So he asked.' who was involved.' and it said.' the first evil and I.' Then he asked.' why did it and the first evil work together to destroy his people.' and it said.' I needed a host to fight the coming battles with twilight and the first evil wanted one of his people as a host.' then he asked.' was my people's destruction necessary to find a host to battle Twilight' and it said.'Yes.' then he asked. what did the first evil gain if not a body?' and it said.' it gained a body it cannot form, it needs a certain amount of evil in the work to take it's true shape now."

Feeling exhausted now Tara looked at the clock and grabbed Willow and Ryan and headed to bed. Giles asked." Where are you taking them? There's clearly more to discuss."

Tara looked back at the group and told them. "Bed, we all have classes tomorrow and it's already late. You can stay and talk all you want but we need sleep and Ryan blew himself up this morning so goodnight and there's only one room available guest room available so flip for it or sleep on the couch."

With that, she dragged the tired forms of Willow and Ryan, into her room to sleep. Or so they thought. As soon as the door closed she changed her attitude real quick. She attacked their bodies with the ferocity of a sex starved nympho. They didn't even make it to the bed. Before moans got to loud she tossed up a barrier of her own and continued.

They hadn't stopped even into the early morning. Their alarms went off while Tara was coming down from her most recent orgasm and started riding Ryan's face like he was a race horse, Willow was bouncing at a fast pace fog her own.

Around one both passed out on top of him. He himself was out cold. They woke up around eight that night Xander banging on their door.

When they slid robes on and met him his first words were." Jesus Wills, what were you doing? Having an orgy in there? Wait! That's not as important. Anyway I'm me and there's this other me that's not me and he's taking over my life!"

Hearing this Willow gave him the stink eye and pointed to Ryan while she dragged Tara to the shower. Seeing what Willow men the turned to Ryan and pleaded." You gotta help me theirs this guy thing and he looks like me and acts like me but it's not me!"

Ryan looked into his mind real quick then walked up to him and tapped him on the head. Xander fell unconscious on the floor and he went into the bathroom to join them in the shower.

An hour later all three of them walked out to find Xander still napping."He had his mind and body split into by a magical dousing rod of some sort. If one dies they both die. Make a call to Buffy and Giles and they can sort out the demon as for the spell, get the other Xander over here and one of us can break it easily. Their natural state is together so it shouldn't difficult once their next to each other. He'll be out for another couple hours tops."

With that he went downstairs saying." Oh and tell Buffy I'll pay a kings ransom for the rod."

After cooking a four course meal of salads, mash potatoes, ribs, coleslaw, and green-been casserole. All three of them sat down to eat. By the time the Wolves came down to eat all that was left on the table was single rib. Seeing this they both pouted. Ryan laughed and pointed to the oven saying." Look beyond what you see."

They both went to the oven and opened it up to see a whole roasted pig apple and all. They tore into it with hunger not seen since the trio started eating half an hour ago. When they were done eating, Xander and Anya came in with pizzas and a story about how Buffy killed a demon with a rod.

Ryan walked over to Xander, took the Pizzas and tapped him on the head. He set the food down then went upstairs, ignoring Anya's name calling and opened the door to show her a second Xander, who happened to be waking up.

Helping him to his feet he explained what was wrong and how to fix it. After his explanation, Anya insisted she be allowed to keep them for a couple days. Ryan didn't particularly care so he shrugged and pointed to Willow saying. "Convince her and I'll allow it."

Seeing the future headache she scowled and told her. " They don't leave the house and no sex in the living areas."

Seeing the easy win Anya got confident that she was about have the night of her life. That is until both Xander's refused. Looking angry for being denied her prize she stomped on both their feet then grabbed them by the ear an hauled them into the bedroom. Not wanting to here it, Willow put up a barrier while saying." I think we need a place of our own. Or at the very least, soundproof walls."

Ryan nodded." Walls for now, another house when I can leave this one. Damn rituals and their damn rules."

Buffy showed up later that night with the rod in tow." Someone said you'd pay a kings ransom for this!"

Ryan asked her. "Yes, what's your price?"

Buffy thought for a bit. " Dawn sitting for the for a month."

Ryan laughed." Deal, I'd have done it for a year for this trinket."

Buffy smiles." A year it is then."

Ryan looked at her for a second, then right before her eyes he split in two. Buffy looked shocked." I haven't even given you the rod yet and you can do that? Why do you want it then?"

Ryan smirked and took the rod." The rod isn't for me, I wanted Willow and Tara to experience the full pleasure of someone with my powers and not be like me. When the doppelgängers fuse back together they remember everything each other felt all at once and if it was sex the instant orgasm stacks. Now do you get it? This is my new sex stick for Willow and Tara, when their feeling adventurous."

Buffy was drooling over the possibilities and reached for it. He tapped her with it and she zapped into two, falling on her ass. Girly Buffy was still drooling at the possibilities and Slayer Buffy jumped at him.

He ignored her until she landed with her legs around his waste. She was gyrating like she wanted to sex and she didn't care if he was willing or even moving. Shaking his head he tapped her forehead and she fell to the floor. He looked at Willow and Tara with a grin.

Then dragged slayer Buffy next to girl Buffy and broke the spell. She fell unconscious, so he picked her up and unceremoniously dropped her on the other couch.

Willow told him." Not tonight but soon. I haven't been to school in a couple days and tomorrow I do need to go or get left behind."

Sighing in understanding, he made a temporary clone of himself and dragged them both to bed.

The next few weeks were as strange as anything as Ryan could imagine.