madimpossibledreamer

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Xander spots a dangerous artifact, and the Stone Mask begins to haunt his dreams.
Word Count: 1376
Rating: K
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

A/N: It's probably important to mention at this point that there are several different types of vampires that will be running around in this fic. The first is the 'normal' (at least, to the Watcher's Council) brand of Buffy vampires. There's a lot of emphasis on family lines and intrigue between different groups and Master Vampires holding power. (Some vampires just want money or to watch the world burn.) The recently vamped are pretty weak and fairly easy even for humans to stake, and they grow in power as they age (i.e. survive not staking). They're stronger than normal humans and faster, but other than that they usually have to train or learn magic or the like just like humans. They feed by sucking blood, and can pretend to be human usually, though when angered or otherwise wanting to go into combat have a 'Game Face' which appears much more feral than the human visage. They cannot enter homes uninvited and can be killed by decapitation, staking, sunlight, fire, and holy water.

In other words, the vast majority of them are the wimpier, easier to kill cousins of Jojo's vampires. Ancient vampires are far more likely to be tougher, but still provide more ways to kill them.

JJBA vampires usually feed by sticking their fingers into the bodies of their victims. Sunlight works, and fire weakens them, but good luck trying the other methods. Those who run into these vampires with either Hamon or Stands (which do more damage than just ordinary fighting, but you'd still need to have more endurance than the vampire in question to survive that) have an edge over the ordinary populace, but the fact that these vampires are still a lot tougher still remains.

The Turak-han introduced at the end of Buffy are probably related—like JJBA vampires, only fire and sunlight and massive damage really do anything to them, but they're more likely to kill you before you can kill them. Still, they have very little in human intelligence, more the sort of predator cunning, and as far as anyone's aware did not used to be human.

If anything else needs clarified, don't hesitate to ask!

CAST OF CHARACTERS APPEARING IN CHAPTER 1

Spike-A Buffy vampire with a soul who's joined up with the Watcher's Council. Like Angel, he is of the line of Aurelius, but doesn't trust magic. He likes to talk about how he's still the Big Bad, but he's practically adopted this group as family, and if you threaten them, he'll do his best to show you why he kept the nickname "the Bloody".

Glory-A Hell goddess the Scoobies fought.

The First-The First Evil. As an insubstantial ideal, the First could not physically affect the world, but could use agents and also take on the appearance of the dead to torment its enemies.

Angel-Also a Buffy style vampire. Nicknames: Deadboy, Peaches. He also doesn't tend to use magic, despite being of the line of Aurelius, but is more knowledgeable in such things than Spike. He tends to brood a lot, but if he's not currently evil or brooding too deeply, he's definitely useful in the good fight.

Spike's the first to notice that Xander has paused in his greetings, one eye fixed, staring, on someplace that isn't his friends. Looking for weakness was more than second nature, now, and he could see the almost unreasoning panic.

"Oi! You still with us, Harris?"

A shudder passes over the man's whole body, before he shakes his head and looks up. The strength and determination in that eye is fairly new, a side effect (one of the only helpful ones) from the loss of the other. "Okay, I'm not sure what this means, G-man, but that mask is seriously wigging me out. I'm getting some really, really bad vibes."

The Head Watcher has to stop midway through his sentence, and blinks, trying to figure out where the conversation had gone without him. Finally, he's on board, and glances over at one of the crates of artifacts they'd been sorting through. "The stone mask, you mean?"

A nod. "It's…I haven't been this wigged out since Glory. I mean, it's not First level, but still."

The witch looks startled. "Are you sure you aren't just tired, Xander?"

The eye that wasn't under the eyepatch narrowed. The poor bloke looked like he was about to keel over, which only made the look more murderous. "…I-it's just that no one else has noticed anything, a-and…"

Xander sighs, clearly not in the mood for this. "Seriously, if you don't listen to me, someone might get really hurt. Again. And I don't particularly want that to happen ever again. It feels…different. Ancient, but…new?" He starts heading off, ignoring the pouts from the girls who'd wanted to say hi. He pauses at the top of the steps. "Ask Deadboy."

"Why would I—" Giles begins.

Spike feels no qualms about interrupting him though. "Why Peaches?" He sneers at the name.

"I did some research. The line of Aurelius is supposed to be pretty big on magical power, right? It feels like a vampire artifact, so…You don't strike me as the expert on that, Spike, but Deadboy might know something. However useless." He yawns. "And I'm off to bed, or I'll just sleep here. I don’t particularly care which." He'd looked tired before he'd seen the mask; now if they kept him too long, he'd just fall over on the spot. Something was definitely going on, or Spike wasn't a master vampire. He decided to follow. If he was just being paranoid, well, wouldn't be the first time, but if this did turn out to be big, well, he wasn't going to let anyone catch him kipping.

There's a ship, an old ship. Steam.

And a man, a man holding up the holy grail, a face of rapture, except it's nothing so pretty, it's a jar, a jar with a face, and the glass explodes, one shard tearing past and scratching his face, and there's blood flying…

The blood falls, it's a head, a head with tentacles or something, and the eyes were open and that was a look, a face of evil…

It's moving now, fangs bared in a grin, and the tentacles rip at his neck, grasp him almost lovingly, why can't he move…

Somehow, he forces his hand to move, to rip those things out of him, no matter the blood spatter because in that instant, he knows he's dying, too much blood…

There's a knife in his hands, and he's trying to hold that head-thing away…

Explosions. He knows the sound of explosions. He's heard it often enough, started off a few himself…

And that pain. So much pain. He's been thrown around before, undergone horrific injuries, but this, this is something else…he claws at his neck, at the things invading him, stealing him, making room so they…it…he can move in…he can't breathe, and the pain…he can't even scream…

The first time he writes it off as a long trip with no sleep. The second, he wonders if perhaps his subconscious is trying to tell him something. The thing has red eyes and fangs, but that's true for more monsters than not and doesn't really tell him anything. The third? He sees the head, this time with an attached body and a smirk, put on the mask he'd seen, and he knows, now, that it's something to do with that mask.

Guns. He could have told them that was useless. Flamethrowers, grenade launchers, that sort of thing, sure, but guns just made vamps ornery. But no one was listening to him these days.

He fights the head—he'll never stop thinking of it as a head, kinda like the Shredder's in the new TMNT remake, even when it actually has a body attached—but he can never change anything. And it frustrates him, more than it really should. He should've known, something whispers, he should've known, nothing ever changes, but he beats that down with a yell.

"Bad dream?" Spike asks mildly, and Xander almost tumbles off the bed.

"What are you doing in here?!" he shouts, and probably would've stabbed the vampire, ally or no ally, if he'd had anything nearby.

Spike smirks, but Xander's gotten to know him pretty well, and he can see the worry that Spike's trying to hide behind the Big Bad persona. He's got a vampire worrying about him. That can't be good. "You've been dreaming ever since you saw that mask, or am I wrong? There's something you're not telling us. And I, for one, don't want to wait for everything to fall down before interrogating you for the truth. Secrets get people killed, ducks, which is why you're coming with me and we're going to see the man behind the curtain."

Ordinarily, he'd argue, because after a while he'd grown to enjoy the weird banter thing with Spike, but he nods, instead, pausing to grab the eyepatch off the bedside table. After dreams like that for however long he's been here, he's got a headache, and everything seems like too much work. Still, he can't help the thing that is possibly the most on his mind. "Would anyone even listen? No one's bothered to do anything so far."

"You've got me watching you when you sleep. You think that's a hobby of choice?"

Xander snorts, following quietly. He's tired enough, he's started to feel like he's sleepwalking, and wondering whether this is actually his life or all just some bizarre dream, which he suspects isn't really of the good.

Spike bursts through the doors, making the grand entrance, and Giles is on the phone, talking to one of the other Watchers gathering Slayers, probably. He looks annoyed at the intrusion, doubly because it's Spike. "I'm sorry, something's come up that I must take care of. Yes, I wish you all the best in this case, and will let you know if I become aware of anything else of consequence."

Xander's heard those words a hundred times. They're familiar, even a little soothing. How many times was that caused by someone or other barreling into the Head Watcher's office?

"Spike. …Xander. Is there something I can help you with?" The annoyance lessens slightly when he realizes that the vampire isn't alone. Xander, meanwhile, doesn't wait for an invitation to sit. He just does that and kind of drapes himself over the table next to him. Is it a bad sign that he's finding it a little comfy?

"Harris, here, has been dreaming about that cursed mask ever since he saw it, an' I for one don't want to wait for everything to go pear-shaped before wondering 'oh, yeah, someone here warned us about it'." It doesn't sound like Spike has joined him in sitting, but he's dozing off already and can't muster the energy to care.

"Xander, are you all right?" He doesn't even have to open the eye to know that Giles is cleaning his glasses. It's something, at least.

In order to avoid the worry, he tries to answer the question, but can only manage a mumble. Yeah, he's tired, but…

He can feel the fear thrill through him, which has him slightly annoyed at himself, and he tries to get up, but his body's not listening. The harder he tries, the quicker he fades, and the alarmed voices quickly fade.