YellowBrickRoad (2/?)

[the-huffster.livejournal.com]

Title: YellowBrickRoad
Author: the_huffster
Pairing: General, hints at Buffy/Giles
Rating: R for strong language and violence
Setting: Season 5 AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: On a camping trip, the Scoobies stumble upon a hidden hiking trail, named YellowBrickRoad, with a weird backstory to it. Once they trek down the trail, nothing is as it seems.

Note: Sorry for posting this at, basically, the last minute. But certain aspects of this fic are just proving to be difficult. Hopefully next week I'll have the rest of this written so I can post it. Anyways, enjoy!

"So this town that disappeared down this trail, were there any survivors at all?" Giles asked as he finished helping Xander set up their tent.

“There’s no definite answer but there were stories about a survivor.” The young man nodded and stood up from making sure the tent was secured to the ground. “Supposedly, the military found a man from the town and so they took him back with them and cleaned him up. After they gave him a day to settle, they tried asking him what happened to everyone.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing. They guy was nuts. Mumbling, repeating words, spazzing over things only he could see…the only thing that made sense out of his mouth was the words, ‘It took them’.”

The Watcher narrowed his eyes at the words, his senses automatically going on alert. Before he could ask anything else, Xander was off to help Buffy and Willow with their tent. He made a mental note to ask Buffy if she was sensing anything once he got the chance. He turned and walked towards the slope of the valley they had decided to camp near. At some point during their hike, they had left the woods and began walking through some sort of field with minor hills- which made no sense to Giles. The whole area should have been woods and nothing else, and yet there they were making camp in an area that was definitely not woods.

He stood there for a while longer until he heard his name called, turning around to head back to the others. The fire had already been built and all they were waiting for was for the sun to finally set. Giles sat down next to Buffy and took the offered trail mix, thanking her softly. The group spent the next half hour talking about this and that, biding their time until it was time to get the fire going. It took longer than it should have to start the fire because Xander had insisted on being the one to start the fire before Willow stepped in and gotten the job done in a matter of seconds.

“Stupid magic,” Xander grumbled as he glared at the fire he had failed to start.

“It’s okay, Xand. Fire just isn’t your thing,” Willow smiled as she patted his shoulder.

“Yeah, just like technology isn’t Giles’ thing.” Buffy added, shrugging her shoulders at the look her Watcher gave her. “Well, it isn’t.”

Giles just rolled his eyes threw a bag of marshmallows to Xander, saying something about making s’mores. When Giles had pulled out the chocolate, Buffy snatched them from him and placing them on the other side of her.

“Oi!” he looked over at the Slayer and narrowed his eyes.

“You are not in charge of the chocolate, Giles. It’ll be gone before we can even make any s’mores.” She explained as she handed him the graham crackers. “You get to be in charge of these bad boys.”

Giles glared at her before glaring down at the box of crackers. They spent the next several hours eating s’mores and telling tales, which shortly turned into seeing who could scare everyone the best. Surprisingly, the contest had gotten down to Giles and Xander- not that Giles really seemed to care. But the smack talk that the younger man would throw out in between each story fuelled the Watcher to keep going. Buffy and Willow munched on the graham crackers as they listened to the stories.

“And then…” Xander trailed off as he straightened up, looking around them slightly.

Willow looked at Xander, narrowing her eyes as he continued looking around. Buffy looked at Giles and tilted her head slightly at Xander’s sudden behavior. The three continued to watch him as he slowly stood up and began walking away from the fire.

“Hey, Xander.” Buffy called as she stood up, taking a step towards him. “Where are you going?”

“Xander!” Giles yelled when he didn’t answer Buffy.

Willow jumped to her feet and went after her friend, grabbing his arm when he showed no sign of responding to any of them. Giles squinted his eyes as he tried to see what Xander was doing, but he too far away from the fire to see anything. Buffy and Giles stood for several minutes as they waited for any sign that Willow needed help.

“Everything okay, Xand?” they heard Willow ask as she helped Xander back to the tents.

“Yeah.” He nodded absently as he continued to look around. “Hey, did anybody hear that?”

“Hear what?” Buffy asked.

“That music.”

“Music?” the Wicca asked, concern showing on her face as she looked at her best friend.

Xander just nodded as he sat back down, occasionally looking around. Giles kneeled next to the younger man and looked around with him. He hadn’t heard anything, but Xander seemed positive that there had been music.

“What did the music sound like, Xander?” he asked softly.

“I dunno. Kinda…swing band-ish?” he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at everyone. “It sounded like something from the thirties.”

There was a moment of silence before Buffy let out a small laugh. “Okay, Xand. I think you’re letting your stories get to you,”

“I’m being serious, Buffy. I heard music,” he looked up at her. “I don’t know how you guys didn’t hear it because it was loud.”

“There was no music, Xander.” Willow said softly.

He looked at the three of them before getting to his feet, running his fingers through his hair.

“I, um…I think I’m gonna go to bed.” He said softly as he walked to the tent he was sharing with Giles, climbing in without another word.

The three remaining Scoobies stared at the tent for a minute before turning back to face each other. No one said a word, instead alternating between staring at the fire and each other. There was no sound expect for the crackling of the wood and the occasional rustle of Xander moving in his sleeping bag.

“So you think Xander was just saying that to try and freak us out? ‘Cause, gotta say, it kinda worked.” Willow said after a while, her eyes trained on the fire.

“Probably,” Buffy shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. I think he just let his story about that disappearing town get to him. What do you think, Giles?”

“I’m not sure. Whatever it was, he seems to actually believe there was music playing somewhere.” He sighed before looking at Buffy. “Buffy, have you sensed anything at all today?”

“You mean like anything Hellmouth-y?” when the Watcher nodded, she shook her head. “No. But I’ll let you know if I do.”

He thanked her and they spent the next minutes making small conversation before deciding to go to bed. They had an early start in the morning and, even though none of them wanted to admit it, they were feeling uneasy after Xander’s episode. Within twenty minutes, the fire was out and everyone was doing their best to fall asleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He didn’t know what time it was, but the very loud sound of old timey music had woken Giles up. He covered his ears and noticed Xander doing the same, stumbling out of the tent. The Watcher followed him and saw Buffy and Willow falling out of their tent, their hands covering their ears as well.

As soon as he had gotten out of the tent, he collapsed to the ground under the weight of the music in his head. He closed his eyes and did his best to cover up his ears as best as he could, his teeth grinding together as his skull felt like it was being ripped in two. There was no telling how long the music lasted, but when it finally began to fade to nothing Giles wanted nothing more than to curl up and hide in a dark corner. His head was pounding and his vision just wouldn’t focus. Somewhere over the ringing in his ears, he heard Buffy call his name. He only lowered his hands when his Slayer knelt next to him.

“What happened?” she said rather loudly, no doubt her ears ringing just as loud as his were.

“I don’t know.” He shook his head as he sat up, closing his eyes as a wave of nausea washed over him.

He turned to look for Willow and Xander, his eyes noticing the way Xander was staring out at nothing as the redhead sat next to him while wiping blood from her nose. He was only aware of the small trickling sensation near his ear when Buffy said something about blood coming from his ear.

It was several minutes before the ringing finally died down, everyone having seemed to recover in that time. Willow’s nose bleed seemed to have stopped as suddenly as it had happened- the same with Giles’ bleeding ear- and Xander seemed to come out of the semi-catatonic state the music had sent him in.

“You believe me now?” the young man asked as he began taking down the tents with Buffy, neither one suffering from any effects from the music; something that Willow and Giles weren’t so lucky to escape.

All Giles could do was nod.