Subject: [DarkSlash] Black Mercy Files: Fire, Eat My Soul (AU Buffy/Twin Peaks C/O) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 11:10:49 -0000 From: "sycoraxil " Summary: Before he joined the current AU Season Seven Scoobies, Douglas Mercer was a Watchers Institute field agent. About a year or so before he arrived in Sunnydale, he confronted a hellish conspiracy in a small town about five miles away from the Canadian border. In better days, it used to be a town of about fifty thousand people, but those "better days" are gone. If, in fact, they ever existed. You may have heard of this place. I believe it was called Twin Peaks. Disclaimer: Joss owns Rupert Giles and the other Buffy character who pops up in the course of this little C/0 series. Ditto David Lynch and the assorted Twin Peaks characters. However, time has passed here, and people have changed. John Constantine is a DC Vertigo comics character who keeps popping up in unexpected places, like this. Setting: Season 6, Buffy. Giles has left for the United Kingdom, but makes an unscheduled trip back before his official return and different fates in my "Not Seeing Red" AU and elsewhere. As for Twin Peaks, it's been over ten years. "All right, why the hell are we en route to this pissant little town in the middle of nowhere? Can't we farm it out to the FBI's X-Files lads and lasses? This is more their line than ours, Ripper." Doug Mercer pulled on a black t-shirt and zipped up a luggage case, in which were stored two grimoires, an assortment of durable battlefield weapons and a large book about the New Zealand All Blacks. Rupert Giles sighed as he turned to his younger friend, and motioned toward the computer: "Sorry, Doug. It's not a good situation, and it's been deteriorating for quite some time." "So why the fuck didn't the bloody Council let us know about it? Bloody typical Quentin bullshit if you ask me, mate." "Seriously, Twin Peaks is not exactly a place that one would go for one's holidays." Doug whistled at the information that scrolled up: "Holy shit, that's ugly. Incest, ritual abuse, domestic violence, financial corruption. But isn't all this Palmer stuff ancient history?" "No, Doug, it's not. I wish the enigma of Twin Peaks had ended with the events of Laura Palmer and Madeleine Ferguson's tragic deaths at Leland Palmer's hands all those years ago, but note if you will, this fellow." Doug frowned: "FBI. So, again, why the hell aren't the X-Files mob handling this one? You're telling me this Dale Cooper bloke and Spooky aren't old mates?" "I wish you wouldn't call Fox Mulder Spooky. I'm afraid the X-Files are having one of their periodic run-ins with the US federal government over jurisdictional issues, so Director Skinner called Lessa Norton and I volunteered my services. I was told to select a good wiccan to take with me, on the grounds that there are some disreputable characters doing the rounds up there." "How disreputable?" "John Constantine." "Okay, but Johnno's not so bad. Bit edgy like, but not all that bad once you get to know him and buy him a few lagers." "Ethan Rayne." "Oh Goddess, not that bastard. Why is he interested in this place, then? I know I'm going to regret asking, but..." "Well, Twin Peaks is alleged to host two entry portals to pocket universes. They're entitled the White Lodge and Black Lodge, and they are two polar opposite realms. I think you can see the risk that the Black Lodge would represent if it fell into the wrong hands..." "Old Ethan's, you mean." "Not so much of the old, callow youth. He's not that much older than I am." "Yeah, Ripper mate, but you're a silver fox, and... actually, it's a shame that bastard is a chaos mage, come to think of it." "So our mission is to stop Ethan Ratbag getting within range of the Black Lodge and eliminating it as a possible entry port for things that go bump in the night before they try to eat your head?" "You've been watching too many of those old Peter Jackson movies again, haven't you?" "Yeah, but it's basically the right idea, isn't it?" As they passed the dilapidated sign, Doug felt a razor-edged chill run down his spine, as if something were watching him, despite his best wards. He noted that the Twin Peaks population had been revised substantially downward, and far too rapidly than one would expect from natural causes. Giles nodded: "Yes, exactly. All I can assume is that the Black Lodge must be behind this situation." "That's not all. My wards have been lighting up like a Yule log on fire since we crossed its city limits. There's something fucked up in this place, and it's not just Johnno Constantine, you expect that from him. Nah, this is industrial strength. Anyway, our primary concerns?" "Dale Cooper himself. He is implicated in the death of a woman named Annie, but little information was available on the circumstances of her death, and...what is it?" Doug swallowed at the palpable presence of darkmagick: "Fuck, Ripper. It's like a bloody pall out there and it's coating the entire bloody town. Any other names?" "Thomas Hawk, Sheriff. Shelly Johnson, Restaurant Owner. James Hurley, Lawyer. Harry S. Truman, recluse, used to be Hawk's predecessor as sherriff. Cooper is our primary suspect, but these people appear to be linked to him in some mysterious way. The question is, what?" To Be Continued.-