Friday Fanfic

Buffy the Dragon Slayer

(An obvious continuation of last week's story)

Chapter Fourteen-Gamma

As Messalina walked away from the fallen dragon and down the middle of the street, she noticed Buffy standing in her path. The rain was still falling and the Slayer's hair was obviously wet yet she stood there in front of Messalina nonetheless.

"Oh, my, Buffy,"said Messalina. "You really should go back inside before you catch your death. All this dampness can't be good for your lungs."

"Don't talk to me like that, Messalina," said Buffy, an angry look on her face. "I saw what you did to Faith."

"What I did?" asked Messalina. "Hey, I made her a hero. If I had done nothing, she might have killed you and earned herself quite a bad reputation but instead she ended up saving the whole village and dying a hero."

"She didn't choose to die a hero," said Buffy. "You pushed her into it. Just like you were going to push me into making a suicide attack on the big dragon just before Faith came along."

"What makes you say that?" asked Messalina.

"Oh, Messalina," said Buffy, "Please don't talk to me as if I were an idiot. Like I said before, I saw what you did to Faith."

"And what exactly did I do to Faith that was so bad?" asked Messalina. "Before I intervened, she was all set to kill you, Buffy. Hey, she even tried to kill me. Should I feel bad because I supposedly killed someone who would have been quite happy killing me? I mean, you were all prepared to kill her yourself. Why do you get to feel morally good while I have to feel morally bad?"

"Well, you did not defeat her in an honorable way," said Buffy.

Messalina snorted. "Faith wasn't interested in being honorable. So why should I play by rules that Faith was quite happy to ignore?"

"Well, then answer me this," said Buffy. "Why were you so nice to me this evening? Was it all a trick?"

"Hey, I allegedly killed someone who was trying to kill you," said Messalina. "Does that say 'trick' to you? Or would you rather I had done nothing?"

"So why were you so nice to me?" asked Buffy.

"Why do you keep asking me that question?" asked Messalina.

"Why won't you give me an honest answer?" asked Buffy.

"Do you consider yourself that unlikable, Buffy?" asked Messalina.

"Answer the question, Messalina," said Buffy. "Please."

"Okay," said Messalina. "I could say 'because you amused me' but that would only annoy you and besides, it's not quite true. The truth is... you confuse me. I thought I knew what Slayers were like before you came along. But after tonight... you confuse me."

"I confuse you?" asked Buffy.

"Pardon me," said Messalina. "Did I stutter? Yes, you confuse me, Buffy. I have every reason in the world to hate Slayers -- but you... you confuse me."

"Is that your way of saying that you like me?" asked Buffy.

At this point, Messalina looked at Buffy and smiled.

Then she giggled.

Then she began to laugh. A lot. Almost continuously.

After a few minutes of listening to Messalina laugh, Buffy realized that she was never going to get a proper answer to her question. Unless she considered the laughter itself to be a proper answer. So she turned around and walked off.

When Buffy got to the front door of the Violet Moon, she turned around and looked back at Messalina to see if anything has changed. But nothing was different. Messalina was still standing in the middle of the street. And of course, she was still laughing like crazy.

The end?