Call of the Void
May. 12th, 2026 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMrs. Paddock in Buffy terms probably counts as a type of vengeance demon that answers to other demons and not humans making wishes.
This one might definitely become a series, but that’ll be later down the line.
Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/X-Files (The Truth is Out There {Stranger than Fiction})
Summary: Mulder and Scully try to follow up the lead Scully found.
Word Count: 1239
Rating: Teen
“No, Giles was there. Apparently Buffy was also affected. Upon ‘learning of Angel’s true nature’, she fled and had to be coaxed back by Giles.” She’s definitely biting her tongue on this one, desperate to say something skeptical, but she’d seen the same thing he did when they were rescued.
“So, is he going to swing around to investigate Ethan’s, or is that on us?” She actually had fetched Willow’s laptop and had managed to log in, it looks like, though she’s probably carefully not thinking about how she’d known the password. Researching the business and owner, it looks like. She’d even taken some notes in a fresh notebook, and he absent-mindedly chews on one of the pens she’d used as he flips through them idly.
“He said to stay put.” Scully’s trying to minimize the annoyance, but it still filters through, and it’s. It’s nice, that someone else for the most part doesn’t just tell him to leave well enough alone, that none of this is their problem.
“He’s not bald enough to be Skinner’s twin,” Mulder jokes, even as he processes that. “What do you want to do here, Scully?”
“I think…” She pauses, not fully wanting to voice it, but he just waits, supportive and calm, and that’s enough to get her to continue. “I think he knows this Ethan. He didn’t know that he was here or was behind it, and I don’t think he’s even an accomplice, but he feels responsible for all this somehow. And I think that conflict of interest might jeopardize his ability to bring an end to all this.”
“You want to go back out there. I’m impressed,” Mulder deduces.
Scully’s voice rises with anger and fear. “You shouldn’t be. I don’t want to face any of that again, Mulder. I’m afraid. But I need to know, I need to understand.”
“I don’t know if it’ll help, but...I had a glance at Giles’ books.” Just a glance; he hadn’t been given the time to really go through them, and he’s pretty sure Giles would’ve stopped him anyway. “If all of that was any indication, Arthur C. Clarke was onto something. There’s no point in categorizing demons if it doesn’t actually help. If anything, it’s just following on from chemistry’s traditions in alchemy; it is possible to apply the scientific process to studying the decidedly unscientific.”
It helps a little. Scully’s smiling a little. “Comforting as that is, Mulder, that doesn’t help us now. I didn’t major in demonology and while I know some of our colleagues would beg to differ, I know you didn’t, either.”
“I have read a lot about it, but...no, I’m not strictly speaking an expert. That being said, getting to Giles’ wasn’t actually too bad. We should stick to a similar pattern—move quick and keep our heads down.” She nods, picking the stake back up from the table. He picks up the metal bar again and joins her.
If it wasn’t so dangerous outside, it’d be more interesting. Actual superheroes are slugging it out with demons and horror movie monsters and he knows as a little boy this kind of thing would have been his dream crossover movie. That’s before he’d grown up enough to realize how dangerous it would be, and he’s seen enough death for a lifetime. If anything, though, it’s quieter now. Not quite T.K.O. for the town, but enough fights have come to their natural conclusion that it’s easier to slip through. More dangerous, too; anything that made it through has to be the toughest ones, but he’s trying not to think about that too hard as they slip through on their way to the shop, leaving their flashlights off so as not to get spotted. They’d make for a good blinding flash to give themselves a chance to run, but not much else.
And then Scully breaks the silence.
“You’ll have to speak up a little, Scully; I didn’t catch that.” His ears are straining, trying to be as prepared as possible for any ambush, but even then she’s spoken too quietly for him to make out what she’d said.
She turns to him, equally quizzical and alarmed. “Mulder, I didn’t say anything.”
That’s...weird and concerning. “Someone said my name, and I don’t know who else here would know that…” he begins, before he hears it again.
“Fox Mulder,” comes a creepy voice from the alleyway. He only has time to glance toward it, contemplate using the flashlight to at least get a quick look, before the mocking laughter comes. What feels like an invisible hand grabs him by the necktie and starts pulling him into the dark, even as Scully screams his name and tries desperately to grab his hand, even as his shoes scrabble uselessly against the concrete. He’s gasping in air, but he still can, because it’s not actually trying to strangle him properly. Not yet. “You were warned not to look into the abyss, or the abyss would see you, and know you, and can act against you. Fox Mulder is too good for warning labels. Fox Mulder, the scared little boy in the dark. Fox Mulder, who can save neither his sister nor the woman he loves. The void calls.”
It’s as the invisible thing pulls up on his tie and he can’t actually get any air anymore, lungs starting to burn, that he realizes he recognizes the voice, or at least, who it’s mimicking. It’s whatever demon the Calusari had warned him about; it’s still using Charlie’s voice to mock. He can see the silhouette lurking at the end of the alley, but it’s too dark to make out details.
Scully’s behind him, at first trying to wedge the stake through his tie to give him a little breathing room and then trying desperately to untie it. He actually hears a glass bottle shatter before she’s back trying to cut through the tie using the broken bottle. The demon’s shaking him a little like a doll, cackling, clearly enjoying how the sudden, jerky movements have her accidentally cutting his skin, too, blood starting to drip down the back of his neck. It’s working slightly; he does feel some of the cloth give way, and it’s a good thing that it’s not as quality a tie as his normal choices. He will never not admire her determination and resourcefulness and the fact that she doesn’t want to give up on him, but at the same time as soon as it’s done with him it’ll turn its attention to her. He wants to tell her to run, to leave him, or maybe point out the shape the demon’s possessing this time, but his eyesight’s starting to go dark at the edges and what few breaths she’s managed to give him aren’t enough for him to manage any words.
He thinks he’s imagining the hiss, a hallucination from an oxygen deprived mind, but then the mocking laughter turns to screaming and he falls to his knees, coughing. He only catches a glimpse of the scales in the moonlight before Scully’s pulling him to her in relief, fingers running through the back of his hair, and he just leans into it, concentrates on his breathing, as the screams die down. They’re still in that position in the alley when the spell breaks.
This one might definitely become a series, but that’ll be later down the line.
Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/X-Files (The Truth is Out There {Stranger than Fiction})
Summary: Mulder and Scully try to follow up the lead Scully found.
Word Count: 1239
Rating: Teen
Mulder doesn’t take long, but from Scully’s frustrated expression she hadn’t been too successful. “Nobody home?”
“No, Giles was there. Apparently Buffy was also affected. Upon ‘learning of Angel’s true nature’, she fled and had to be coaxed back by Giles.” She’s definitely biting her tongue on this one, desperate to say something skeptical, but she’d seen the same thing he did when they were rescued.
“So, is he going to swing around to investigate Ethan’s, or is that on us?” She actually had fetched Willow’s laptop and had managed to log in, it looks like, though she’s probably carefully not thinking about how she’d known the password. Researching the business and owner, it looks like. She’d even taken some notes in a fresh notebook, and he absent-mindedly chews on one of the pens she’d used as he flips through them idly.
“He said to stay put.” Scully’s trying to minimize the annoyance, but it still filters through, and it’s. It’s nice, that someone else for the most part doesn’t just tell him to leave well enough alone, that none of this is their problem.
“He’s not bald enough to be Skinner’s twin,” Mulder jokes, even as he processes that. “What do you want to do here, Scully?”
“I think…” She pauses, not fully wanting to voice it, but he just waits, supportive and calm, and that’s enough to get her to continue. “I think he knows this Ethan. He didn’t know that he was here or was behind it, and I don’t think he’s even an accomplice, but he feels responsible for all this somehow. And I think that conflict of interest might jeopardize his ability to bring an end to all this.”
“You want to go back out there. I’m impressed,” Mulder deduces.
Scully’s voice rises with anger and fear. “You shouldn’t be. I don’t want to face any of that again, Mulder. I’m afraid. But I need to know, I need to understand.”
“I don’t know if it’ll help, but...I had a glance at Giles’ books.” Just a glance; he hadn’t been given the time to really go through them, and he’s pretty sure Giles would’ve stopped him anyway. “If all of that was any indication, Arthur C. Clarke was onto something. There’s no point in categorizing demons if it doesn’t actually help. If anything, it’s just following on from chemistry’s traditions in alchemy; it is possible to apply the scientific process to studying the decidedly unscientific.”
It helps a little. Scully’s smiling a little. “Comforting as that is, Mulder, that doesn’t help us now. I didn’t major in demonology and while I know some of our colleagues would beg to differ, I know you didn’t, either.”
“I have read a lot about it, but...no, I’m not strictly speaking an expert. That being said, getting to Giles’ wasn’t actually too bad. We should stick to a similar pattern—move quick and keep our heads down.” She nods, picking the stake back up from the table. He picks up the metal bar again and joins her.
If it wasn’t so dangerous outside, it’d be more interesting. Actual superheroes are slugging it out with demons and horror movie monsters and he knows as a little boy this kind of thing would have been his dream crossover movie. That’s before he’d grown up enough to realize how dangerous it would be, and he’s seen enough death for a lifetime. If anything, though, it’s quieter now. Not quite T.K.O. for the town, but enough fights have come to their natural conclusion that it’s easier to slip through. More dangerous, too; anything that made it through has to be the toughest ones, but he’s trying not to think about that too hard as they slip through on their way to the shop, leaving their flashlights off so as not to get spotted. They’d make for a good blinding flash to give themselves a chance to run, but not much else.
And then Scully breaks the silence.
“You’ll have to speak up a little, Scully; I didn’t catch that.” His ears are straining, trying to be as prepared as possible for any ambush, but even then she’s spoken too quietly for him to make out what she’d said.
She turns to him, equally quizzical and alarmed. “Mulder, I didn’t say anything.”
That’s...weird and concerning. “Someone said my name, and I don’t know who else here would know that…” he begins, before he hears it again.
“Fox Mulder,” comes a creepy voice from the alleyway. He only has time to glance toward it, contemplate using the flashlight to at least get a quick look, before the mocking laughter comes. What feels like an invisible hand grabs him by the necktie and starts pulling him into the dark, even as Scully screams his name and tries desperately to grab his hand, even as his shoes scrabble uselessly against the concrete. He’s gasping in air, but he still can, because it’s not actually trying to strangle him properly. Not yet. “You were warned not to look into the abyss, or the abyss would see you, and know you, and can act against you. Fox Mulder is too good for warning labels. Fox Mulder, the scared little boy in the dark. Fox Mulder, who can save neither his sister nor the woman he loves. The void calls.”
It’s as the invisible thing pulls up on his tie and he can’t actually get any air anymore, lungs starting to burn, that he realizes he recognizes the voice, or at least, who it’s mimicking. It’s whatever demon the Calusari had warned him about; it’s still using Charlie’s voice to mock. He can see the silhouette lurking at the end of the alley, but it’s too dark to make out details.
Scully’s behind him, at first trying to wedge the stake through his tie to give him a little breathing room and then trying desperately to untie it. He actually hears a glass bottle shatter before she’s back trying to cut through the tie using the broken bottle. The demon’s shaking him a little like a doll, cackling, clearly enjoying how the sudden, jerky movements have her accidentally cutting his skin, too, blood starting to drip down the back of his neck. It’s working slightly; he does feel some of the cloth give way, and it’s a good thing that it’s not as quality a tie as his normal choices. He will never not admire her determination and resourcefulness and the fact that she doesn’t want to give up on him, but at the same time as soon as it’s done with him it’ll turn its attention to her. He wants to tell her to run, to leave him, or maybe point out the shape the demon’s possessing this time, but his eyesight’s starting to go dark at the edges and what few breaths she’s managed to give him aren’t enough for him to manage any words.
He thinks he’s imagining the hiss, a hallucination from an oxygen deprived mind, but then the mocking laughter turns to screaming and he falls to his knees, coughing. He only catches a glimpse of the scales in the moonlight before Scully’s pulling him to her in relief, fingers running through the back of his hair, and he just leans into it, concentrates on his breathing, as the screams die down. They’re still in that position in the alley when the spell breaks.
