Subject: [DarkSlash] Black Mercy Files 4: Fire, Eat My Soul (Buffy/Twin Peaks C/O) Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 22:27:22 -0000 From: "sycoraxil " Summary: Rupert Giles and Doug Mercer are in a small forest-belted town five miles away from the Canadian border. It is festering with secrets from its haunted past and shadowed present, and why has long- lost FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper been appearing? Disclaimer: Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne belong to Joss and UPN. The Twin Peaks characters are creations of one David Lynch. John Constantine is putting in a guest appearance from the Hellblazer series (DC Vertigo). Doug Mercer is my own original character. Setting: It's a year before the events of my "Not Seeing Red" AU, when Warren Meers murdered Xander Harris and Giles while he was trying to kill Buffy. Oh, and ten years after the last televised episode of Twin Peaks. In the northern border town, things have deteriorated even more. "Ehygon's hairy bollocks!!" Constantine laughed when Doug told them the story about the sexmagick. Doug had wondered how long that little trick would take to kick in, but once it did, Rayne had obligingly babbled away the reason for his presence in the troubled community in the throes of sex to his listening, but detached partner. Rayne was aware that Doug had used him to get information and a cheap fuck, and was unnerved at the younger man's level of duplicity. Giles loved the situation, and burst into helpless laughter whenever he thought about it, although he was one to talk, given a certain past youthful indiscretion that involved his former old friend that no-one need know about. However, it was now a bright blue morning, with the odour of pine from the forest trees round about, as Doug and Constantine sauntered over to the library. Doug noted the boarded-up businesses and nodded: "It's a dying town." "Yeah, literally. This place is pitch black, Dougie. I just don't get any future for it. All I get is a firestorm that blocks everything else out." "I spent some time looking through the newspapers for the stories behind this place. It's not pleasant reading. No wonder James Hurley has that haunted look in his eyes. His demented aunt, Nadine, shot and killed Edward Hurley, his uncle. Donna Heyward and her family were killed in a car accident. Ghostwood, a property development, was destroyed in a blaze that might have been lit by former Sheriff Harry S. Truman, as revenge for Josie, the woman whom he loved. So were its principal proponents, the mayor, and several town councillors. Shelley Johnson's husband, Leo, died in an apparent shotgun suicide, but her lover, Bobby Briggs, went insane after something happened to him in the woods." "Gawds. And Ripper reckons that Sunnydale place is dark??" "'Course it bloody well is, Johnno. It's got a fucking great Hellmouth parked beneath what used to be its high school, and..." Doug stopped walking and clutched his stomach, as Constantine spun around: "What...?" "Uhhh. Nope. I just did a tally of Sunnydale's death toll and the one that's attached to this place. Mate, this shouldn't be happening. You only ever get this level of darkness near a Hellmouth, so..." "...So that is correct. Mr. Mercer is right, there are two mystical portals pertinent to this place. One is the White Lodge, the other is known as the Black. One contains the keys to an afterlife of light, while the other serves as a gateway to and from realms of unimaginable evil." Sheriff Thomas Hawk said to the three assembled mages. This made sense to Doug, given the fact that he was a New Zealand-born wiccan and understood the need for respect and dialogue with powerful Indigenous Magicks: "So, what you're saying, is that this could be warded through appropriate shamanic magick, Sheriff?" Hawk looked away: "Ten years or so ago, Mr.Mercer, another man asked me that question, sitting there in that very chair, so I'll tell you what the shaman told me. Only the pure of heart and conscience can enter the Black Lodge and hope to come back unchanged. Dale Cooper..." Then Hawk's voice broke, and Doug said softly: "Dale Cooper would have appreciated the fact that you're grieving for his loss as a good man who stood up for the light. And as a friend, Tom." Hawk looked up: "Mr. Mercer, there's something else out there, in the woods, where no- one goes anymore. It wears Dale's face, but it isn't him. It's some kind of doppelganger." Giles blinked, suddenly aware of a connection back to his erstwhile Californian home, and he didn't like what it boded: "Does this mean that it's a pathway to an alternate world or a hell dimension, Mr. Hawk?" Hawk considered this: "Perhaps both, Mr. Giles. Perhaps the Dale Cooper doppelganger is a creature from a hellblasted world and came here to wreak havoc on our own. Perhaps it is a demon who has my friend's body." Suddenly, Constantine was startled into consciousness as he turned to run from the room, as Doug caught the inklings as well: "Shelley Johnson's restaurant. We've got five minutes left!" Doug and Giles joined him as they ran away, at a pace, toward the threat that they both detected. Shelley Johnson was cowering from the demonic form that had invaded her restaurant and was hitting her, threatening her, torturing her, had ripped her clothes and was going to oh God oh God oh God No! He's dead! He can't be doing this to me! But the satanic visage was that of Leo, her perished husband. And then, abruptly, his demonic laughter was cut short as the battered door flew open and the obscenity opened his toothed mouth at the intruder. "Get the fuck away from her, you filthy womanhating piece of aggro shit!!" Doug yelled, as raw power flowed from his hands and threw Leo's demonic simulacra through the remains of her window. Shelley was sobbing, and clung to Giles as Doug threw himself out the vandalised window and kicked the demon violently in its midriff. As it fell, Doug blasted it once more with a bolt of unfiltered combat telekinesis, and Constantine whistled at what he was doing to the intruder: "Whoa. Remind me never to get on young Dougie's dark side, Ripper." "Let's just say it touched a raw nerve for him." Giles looked away as Shelley suddenly blinked at what he'd just said. She watched as Doug summoned a powerful warding and exorcism spell and the demon was carried, kicking and screaming, back to the hell dimension that it had been vomited from. Shelley went over to Doug and threw herself around him, as she sobbed: "Oh Christ, Doug, he...he was going to... Y-you've been there, yourself, haven't you? Something like Leo happened to you in the past, and you help people who went through similar pain." "Are you okay, Shelley? Because I made fucking sure that that woman- battering piece of drunken abusive hellfire never gets out of the burning fires where he is now. He'll never be able to come back to do that to you again, without me getting in the way, and punishing him for what he put you through." "You are such a kind, decent man, Doug." "And you rebuilt your life after what Leo did to you, Shelley. You picked up the pieces and you've made something of your life. You're a stronger woman than you think." "So why do I have to be alone, Doug?" "Because sometimes, Shelley, that's the road you have to tread." Well I'm standing by the river But the water doesn't flow It boils with every poison you can think of And I'm underneath the streetlight But the light of joy I know Scared beyond belief way down in the shadows And the perverted fear of violence Chokes the smile on every face And common sense is ringing out the bell This ain't no technological breakdown Oh no, this is the road to hell And all the roads jam up with credit And there's nothing you can do It's all just pieces of paper flying away from you Oh look out world, take a good look What comes down here You must learn this lesson fast and learn it well This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway Oh no, this is the road Said this is the road This is the road to hell Chris Rea "The Road to Hell" The Road to Hell (C), 1989