Music makes me whole

[Azazel]

-he looked around at the remaining occupants of the bar with a shadow of a smile gracing his lips as you speak,not seeming to pay all that much attention to you,then,when you're finished and leaping across the bar to get your own drink,since he poured drain cleaner in the one he got for you right in plain sight,he turns and watches you,leaning against the bar as he does,and chuckles then says...-

You know the arrogance of youth never ceases to amaze me...so sure of their own invulnerability...so deluded.You truely believe you're one of the original Slayers.I was here when the first one was made and I know,without a doubt,she was ten times the slayer you are Faith.She hit the ground running and slew as many vampires and demons in her first year than you have in the,how many has it been now,ten years since you were called?

-he laughs-

Not to mention your rather rocky start,tsk tsk on letting your watcher get killed and being weak minded enough to fall for the Mayors petty little plans,yet you still consider yourself the equal of the best Slayer ever?Buffy has put down Gods and even shut down the first evil.What have you done?

-here he pauses and lets his words sink in before continuing-

As for my name,well,that's hardly important but,if you insist on knowing,you may call me...bob.-smirking at you-I'm akin to the first evil that you ASSISTED in stopping but not quite the same...we're both incorporeal but the first hasn't quite figured out how to inhabit mortals and have it's way with them.That's,for the most part,the only difference.So,you see,you can't win.Use all of your supposed strength and beat this mans body until it can no longer sustain me and I'll simply find another and come right back at you.I have millions of possibilities and,sooner or later,I'll wear you down and either kill you or drive you insane.-he shrugs-It doesn't matter to me which as long as you're out of the Slaying business and I,of course,have fun.Wow all that talking made me thirsty...

-smirking at you he picks up the drink he'd poured for you and drinks it down then slams the tumbler on the hardwood top of the bar then watches you as his stomach makes a gurgling sound then he doubles over and holds it while a whiteish colored foam pours out of his mouth then he drops to the floor and convulses for a few moments before becoming deathly still...nothing else seems to happen but,when you look around,you see another patron of the bar,next to the door,wave and wink at you then walk out-

[Faith Lehane]

I took a hefty pull off the whiskey. This guy was a bit much. Or girl. Whatever the hell it was, I was trying like hell not to let it get under my skin. A whole hell of a lot of these bad dudes liked to boost about how bad ass they are, taunt you and shit. But when it came down to it, they were like everything else. Killable. I could ignore a lot of his bull, let it just roll of my back. I was just so sick of hearing it.

I shrugged, smirking a little. "Arrogant, sure. But I'm not so stupid as to think that I'm invincible. Being in a coma will do that do a person. Still, ain't so easy to kill, either." God this guy was an ass. "I'm still standing ain't I?" I wanted to gut him. Back in the day, I would have gutted him. My new name was restraint. Yeah, sure.

"You know, you talk way too much. Knew a few other dudes like that. Think you mentioned them. The Mayor, The First. Yeah, both big, bad, evils. Both out of the picture for a while too." Everyone, or everything, seemed to know sooo much about Slayers. And they never knew it all, they couldn't. Because they weren't Slayers. They'd never be Slayers. As for me and Blondie? We were chosen, called, and we'll still be standing in the end. We'd done it before. Hell, B'd died a couple times, or else I wouldn't be here.

"Ah, fuck." He downed the drink he'd poured for me, the one I was too smart to drink, and sure as shit, the man was being poisoned. I looked around, seeing only 2 people left sitting in the bar, huddled over a couple beers in the corner. Dead, or as good as, bartender behind the bar, and another guy headed out. He turned and winked at me as he left. "Damn it!" I pulled out my cell & called Buffy. It rang a couple times before she got to it. "Yo, B. Heads up chick, we got a new nasty. I'm down at that karaoke joint. Get here asap and I'll buy you a drink and give you the low down. Well, looks like drinks are on the house, the bartender's dead. Gotta ring the authorities and all that, so you might wanna jet." I flipped my phone shut and slipped it back into my pocket. "Not the night I had planned." I picked up the bottle of whiskey on the bar and took another swig.

[Buffy Summers]

The house was empty, which was a miracle. The day had been uneventful, and half the night had followed the same tune, which was a Godsend. I stood in the bathroom, in my terrycloth robe. The tub was filling up with hot water. I added lavendar bubble bath. The aroma quickly filled the room. I closed my eyes and inhaled the fragrance. It was so quiet and relaxing. I took off my robe and eased myself into the steaming, bubbly water. My facial mask began to tingle, working the grime and stress out of my pores. With my blonde hair piled on top of my head, I nestled myself further into the water. The rolled up towel fit berfectly at the arch of my neck. I closed my eyes and placed the cucumber slices over my eyes. Lets face it, slayers needed as much help keeping the puffy eyes down as possible. I inhaled deeply once more, and sighed. This is the life.

The At&t ring tone began to play. I froze as it chimed at me once more.This is the life... of a slayer. I pulled myself into a sitting position and let the cucumber slices fall off my face and into the bubbly water.

I pulled my cell out of my robe pocket. The screen showed 'Faith Calling...' I flipped the phone open and spoke.

"This better be good.."

"Yo, B. Heads up chick, we got a new nasty. I'm down at that karaoke joint. Get her asap and I'll buy you a drink and give you the low down. Oh yeah, the bartender's dead. Gotta ring the authorities and all that, so you might wanna jet."

"New Nasty..." I paused and let her finish speaking. "Alright, I'm on my way."

I stood up and unplugged the drain. "Dead guy trumps bubble bath all day." I put my robe back on and headed to my room. I quickly threw on some jean and a black tank top. I pulled on my new boots and pulled onmy white polyester no collar jacket as I left my house. The good news was, it was only a five minute walk, 2 minutes if I ran.

I stopped runing when I got around the corner of the building. The paramedics were pulling up, lights a-flashing. I stopped for a moment, catching my breath. I watch as the two EMTs got out of the ambulance. I recognized one of them. He had been at my house, when I had called about mom. I closed my eyes and mentally shook the thoughts away. It still hurt to remember that day. I walked into the club.

I stopped just inside the door and looked around. There was no big bad in sight, unless one of the two drunks had gotten disorderly. The two EMTs bent down behind the bar, obviously getting to work on the bartender. Faith sat at the bar, bottle of whiskey in hand. I strode up to Faith. The pile of messy curls mostly still atop my head. Some had falled out of place during the run, they now bounced behind my head as I walked.

"So, were you talking demon-demon or inner demons?" I glanced at the bottle and then at Faith.

[Faith Lehane]

As much as I dreaded calling the 5-0 in, it was the right thing to do. I could make an anonymous call anyway. Still, I didn't like the idea of sticking around too long while the fuzz did their work. I had more important things to do, like catch B up to speed so we could go take this thing out.

I sighed, staring at my cell. What's that they say about liquid courage? Oh yeah, it's courage, in liquid form. I took another pull from the bottle and dialed 911. No one else in here was going to do it.

I reported an accident, since I couldn't prove that something had possessed the man and poisoned him, I could pass this off as a horrible mishap. I hoped. Dispatch told me there were officers in route and to hang tight. "I'm not going anywhere, lady." I shut my phone, cutting her off.

Sirens blared as the fire department, ambulance, and police arrived. "Holy shit, where are these guys when you've got demons and vampires running around?" Well, I guess if they were coming after me, that was the only other time they'd ever been....timely.

But, Blondie had wicked timing too, showing up after the boys in blue were looking over the crime scene. I'd just finished telling some rookie that there was a bunch of us in here, a normal night at the bar, when the barkeep took a tumble. They didn't need much else, as the other two drunks gave them the same scoop.

I spun the bottle of whiskey on the bar as B came walking up. "Nice to see you too Blondie. Have a drink." I passed her the bottle. "This isn't a cry on your shoulder girl fest. This is something new." I stood and waved Buff over to a corner, away from the boys in blue doing their civic duty. "Whatever it is, it possesses people. The damn thing body hopped through half the people in here. Including the body he, she, it left in. Cocky son of a bitch too." I grabbed the bottle back from B and took another swallow.

"I was just kicking back, you know. Nice night out at the bar, actually got my rock on and did a karaoke song. Anyway, so it all starts with this vamp, right? He come barreling in here like Hell's on his heels, screaming for help. So, you know, I do my thing, he's dust, and I'm just waiting on these dudes that are chasing him or whatever. Then everyone just starts acting weird. Singing 'Time is on My Side'. One person, then the next, then the next. Only no one sang at the same time. Long story short, as this thing was jumping from body to body, and talking a whole list of shit, it ended up in the barkeep. I tried making conversation over a drink or two, and good on me for not drinking what he poured me. The schmuck got owned. Whatever possessed him, made him drink a drain cleaner mickey." I took another swig off the bottle of Jack. "So that's the deal. Now we get the Scoobs into research mode while you and I do some foot work, yeah? Isn't that the normal drill?" I smirked. This thing didn't know what it was messing with. B and I, we made a damn good team. When we weren't trying to kill each other.

[Buffy Summers]

I spun the bottle of whiskey on the bar as B came walking up. I passed her the bottle. I stood and waved Buff over to a corner, away from the boys in blue doing their civic duty. I grabbed the bottle back from B and took another swallow.

"Nice to see you too Blondie. Have a drink."

I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked an eyebrow at her. She knew I didn’t drink, well, often anyway. “A world of no.”
"This isn't a cry on your shoulder girl fest. This is something new."
I followed Faith away from the police officers. I’m sure if they’d overheard the conversation we were about to have they would have locked us away. I had a sudden flash back of that mental institute I had been in. The doctors there said I was crazy and that Sunnydale didn’t exist, they’d tried to make me kill my friends. No thank you, I won’t be traveling to crazy town anytime soon.
"Whatever it is, it possesses people. The damn thing body hopped through half the people in here. Including the body he, she, it left in. Cocky son of a bitch too."

Body hopping demon? Faith was right, this is new. I smirked at her. “They’re always cocky.” I paused to think for a minute. “Did it say what it was, call itself a name? We can probably get the gang working on research for it. And what about what it wanted?”
I narrowed my eyes. “How do I know you’re not it? Tell me something only Faith and I would know…”


((OOC, I realize the Demon knows the persons thoughts while it is inside said person, but Buffy and Faith don’t know that. Hell of a way to manipulate us too ))

[The First Evil]

A being who shared qualities with The First Evil was at work on none other than The Slayer. Both of them in fact. And there was no way The First wasn't going to seize this opportunity to cause as much damage as possible to the ones who'd caused It more trouble than they were worth combined.

The First took a general, demonic form as It appeared before the body Azazel currently inhabited. It was unseen by all but the eyes Azazel peered through. "I see you've been toying with my favorite degenerates. By all means, keep it up. I applaud you." The First clapped it's incorporeal clawed hands together. "But let's up the ante, shall we?"

A small golden disc appeared in The First's grip. A quick flip, and the coin left It's fingers, manifested itself into physical tangibility, and flew toward the hands Azazel now commanded. "That little beauty will allow you to do what you previously could not. Whoever possesses that coin, whatever supernatural being they are, say, a Slayer perhaps, will be powerless to your abilities. Oh yes, if they hold the coin, their form can become yours. Why don't you give it a try on one of the Slayers. They'll be coming for you soon anyway. And now you'll have another surprise for them."

The demonic being that served as an appearance for The First gave a slight bow. "I'll be watching Azazel. Happy hunting." With a wink, the demonic form as well as The First disappeared. But It was watching, for this would prove to be an entertaining event.

[Azazel]

-He'd been standing across the street amongst the inevitable crowd whenever something exciting happened and the authorities were summoned and he watched guardedly as the brunette and blond slayers conversed and tried to decide what to do about him,a secretive smile on his hosts lips,laughing inwardly when the blonde became suspicious,at least judging from her facial expression,that the brunette was who she said she was and regretted that he couldn't inhabit one of their bodies and really,literally,get under thier skin-

-and that very opportunity became possible-

when the demonic form of the First appeared before him he didn't react as almost any other being in the world would have,even those who deem themselves "the Big Bad",and calmly took it all in stride as the First spoke of a trinket that'd allow me to do just what I'd hoped for moments ago and take over one that,being supernatural,have a level of immunity to my abilities.I quickly shoot my hand out and catch the glowing item given to me but say or do nothing else to give myself away,with two slayers so nearby,to tip my hand and allow it to be known that I had this body.-

-No.-

-Not yet.Taking the now solid trinket the First gave to me I duck under the yellow tape marking the karioke club as a crime scene and approach the two Slayers,one of the police officers yelling for me to stop and running my direction,and close within three feet of Buffy and Faith then catching them by surprise as they both turn their heads toward me,having made my choice of which one I wanted to control,and toss the coin to Buffy counting on the natural reaction of catching something thrown at oneself and her catlike reflexes to react before she can register the danger poised and ready to leave my current host and travel the short distance to the slayer the moment it makes contact with her skin-

[Faith Lehane]

I wasn't at all surprised that B declined the Jack. She wasn't much for the booze, though I really think it'd loosen her up more. Girl was wound up tighter than a harp string 97% of the time. Of course, I was comparing that to me on a good day.

"Yeah, cocky and stupid. Only this one seemed a bit smarter than your average baddie. No name, only some jibe about being similar to The First. Which, by the way, sucks something royally. I'm pretty damn sure one of the things they have in common, aside from being wicked evil, is that they don't have corporeal forms." Which, again, sucked. I didn't like things I couldn't hit.

I took another heavy pull on the bottle before digging a smoke out of the pack in my pocket and lighting it up. I blew the smoke away from B. Look at me, being all considerate and shit. "No clue what it wanted. Other than to give me shit about being second rate. I don't need a reminder about all my damn failures. Been there, lived that. Old news." I took another drag. "Just another evil, non-corporeal bastard talking shit it can't back up." Sure, I had a wicked jones to beat the crap out of every person it took over, simply to shut it up for a second or two. Just didn't feel like another stint in the pokey.

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, B? Alright, where should I start? That I came to SunnyD to avoid Kakistos after he mutilated my Watcher in front of me? That I killed one of the Mayor's main dudes on patrol and was a felon from that point on? A straight murderer? That I boned Xander? That I took a trip to the dark side, we had a couple epic fights, including one where you and Angel totally played me, and the time you gutted me with my own knife, putting me into a coma? What about the time we got popped while lifting some weapons from that sporting store, then busted out of the cop car before being locked up like a couple jail birds. Not that I didn't get my 'go to jail' card all on my own. Or how about the time you dropped in Angel's pad in LA while I was working out some issues with his help? Let's see... Your mom had great taste in lipstick. Harlot was a killer color." Another drag, another swig of whiskey. "That I switched our bodies with a nifty little trinket the Mayor left for me and boned your boyfriend while I was in your bod? Do you really want me to go on? Or are you convinced yet?"

[Buffy Summers]

A new un- corporeal evil that’s targeting slayers. We should seriously put that in the drafting sheets. ”I want you! Benefits include a new un-corporeal creature that you can’t possibly fight every week!” Faith took another swig of the bottle and then lit a cigarette. I took the bottle from her and placed it on the table. I gave her a look that said, you need to be sober for this.

As she listed every encounter we had ever had together I smiled. “You’ve got one hell of a track record.” I was sure it was her. I knew it was her before she even started spouting off all the awful things she had done. Her sleeping with Riley still rubbed me the wrong way. “Nifty trinket alright…” I frowned. She unwittingly did that to me all the time. I know she wanted to change, and that she had been trying to make up for it for some time now. She just had poor judgment most of the time. She didn’t realize that something was offensive until the other person was already pissed, then it still took a while before she understood what she did wrong. But, she figured it out.

The thoughts came straight through without processing. "Ok, call Giles, he'll need to let everyone know, I can't believe he knows how to mass text all the watcher." I laughed. He still couldn't get the hang of computers, but tiny numbered buttons on a phone he could manage. Maybe he lied to us and had one of the girls do it for him. That was probably it.

"Once we find out what it is we'll have Will try to bring up a spiritual magical jar to keep this thing in."

The shouts from one of the officers caught my attention. Someone was walking up to us, the officer was chasing after him. My slayer sense started to tingle, trying to warn me that something bad was about to happen. My reflexes did keep the same speed. Something was tossed to me, and I caught it. It was cold, hard. A shiny new coin. Then. Sha-zam

Power failure. I wasn't behind the wheel anymore. I could still feel my body breathing, so i knew I wasn't dead... I was alone either.

What the hell just happened?