Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 378

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Buffy deals with some of the things they found in Rush's lab.
Word Count: 1307
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Warning: more body horror

        It’s nerve-wracking and honestly a little more fiddly than Buffy is used to for her to destroy the eye. Their new Ripple abilities aren’t generally useful for directly destroying the eye, because it’s like all the others. It just turns to stone. That being said, they’re indirectly useful. It forces the eye to stop what it’s doing, mostly trying to murder her, but it also doesn’t heal it which would probably make this entire thing impossible. So she can do a little damage as the other Slayers try to hold it at bay and try to make sure it doesn’t try to burrow into her eye with dangling blood vessels and nerves, and the second they start losing control of the situation, it’s back to stone for the nasty little pest. Once they’ve pull it away from anything too delicate, they get to start to try again. It gets a whole lot easier once she manages to sever the problem bits and it’s just the eye, but that’s a good deal more resilient than any human eye has a right to be, too. 
        Eventually, though, it’s done. And then she can think about the fact that it now looks like a deflated goopy bloody mess and how it’d been kind of soft and squishy with a firm center, which is wild and more than a little vomit inducing, because how the hell does it still have what she assumes is the normal feel of an eye when it’s been modified somehow by Pillar Man...magic or science or whatever the hell Rush did to even do this? Normal eyes are not this resilient, using Xander as a case in point, and yet it still felt like it shouldn’t be able to do the things it was doing. And also eww, that had been in her friend’s body at one point and was ripped out or cut out or….
        Okay, it’s been a while since she’s actually been grossed out to the point of actually throwing up. A little queasy, sure, but she’d thought she’d seen it all, nothing to see here, folks. She glances back up to see Xander clutching at his eye in the magical projection, but, uh, at least he’s not on the floor (like her) so that’s probably a good thing?
        “Xander?” Not exactly the triumphant victory she’d wanted.
        “I’m a-okay,” he grits out, sounding absolutely nothing like okay, except he summons Pretender just to give a thumbs-up, the complete dork. And then, apparently, to talk for him, as Josie rushes up to support him. Willow’s looking a bit squeamish—or maybe that’s just upset—herself. “I can see again and I might be about to cry, but also, that might hurt given the splitting migraine I just got. It’s like the months after I first lost the other one. I think my brain’s readjusting to vision again or something? I forget what the doctors said. Mostly ‘cause I was zonked out on painkillers at the time.”
        It’s honestly good—like, really good—that he’s not denying having so-called non-manly emotions anymore. That being said, she’s still a little embarrassed about losing her lunch. “Sorry,” she manages, and he just waves that off too, via Pretender.
        “I’ve pretty much gotten used to the lack of the eye and that whole mess,” he gestures vaguely at his face, wincing as he does, “...but I gotta deal with it every morning in the mirror. I don’t expect you to be used to it.”
        Which is sweet and noble and completely misguided. “Xander, if you’re going to be taking on a few of my Slayer duties now that you’ve got a Stand, the least I can do is deal with your nasty transformed eyeball and not be a complete jerk about an injury you got helping me out.”
        “You weren’t a complete jerk,” he protests, but based on his tone of voice he’s definitely crying at this point. Good tears. “Maybe so we can both regain our dignity you could tell us more about anything else you found in there?” He’s joking a little, but he’s going to immediately sober up when she tells him. She needs to, though. No keeping this a secret.
        “Yeah, he’s a Pillar Man for sure. And he’s got this underground lab. At least one other beachfront property with nearly nothing in it. It could be just that, but my money’s on him having a lot of these, all around the world, that he just picks up and discards when he needs them.” Pretender nods solemnly, which is either Xander trying to play it cool or actually his Stand—his Stand does seem like it’s got a more serious personality than Xander does. Jotaro nods too, but she actually expects that.
        “He has been rather busy, Dr. Kujo,” Giorno mentions from behind them. Evidently he had finished his discussions but hadn’t found the need to announce that fact. “He used an infusion of vampire blood combined with the power of Gold Experience Requiem to use another as constantly traveling surveillance, and the same technique later to try to use Johan’s sight against us. This is certainly where he experimented with techniques to attack Wolfram & Hart. He also was rather interested in the power of the Stand Arrows and questioned Diavolo about them several times. It seems he has discovered the same truth as Polnareff, that the secret behind Stands is a virus, though he has as yet been unable to culture it. Of note is the fact that the Arrow is missing, though he had certainly kept it here with some time.”
        “So he’s probably keeping it on him, like you,” Jotaro guesses bluntly.
        “Presumably,” Giorno agrees, eyes serious.
        “He managed to grow something, though. There were these big barrels of this algae stuff out at the entrance. Giorno called it a...die-atom?” Buffy tries, and as usual her messing up the name does get an amused if slightly exasperated look. 
        True to his classy act, though, Giorno doesn’t call her on it, just holds out a graceful, expectant hand, as if there’s no question his next request will be followed despite it not being phrased as a demand. “Yes. I know it’s not your specialty, Dr. Kujo, but he did take notes. He called the species Montezuma grey, with which I am not familiar, but perhaps we can narrow it down a little based on a sketch. I would attach import to much of what he does, but in this case I don’t feel he would cultivate quite so much if it if he didn’t have a plan for its use. Antonio, the relevant notebook, if you would?”
        Antonio grumbles but goes through his backpack with Buffy’s help. Quick motion draws Buffy’s eyes briefly before it becomes clear it’s just a few monkeys panicking.
        Except when she glances back, Giorno has navigated to the page he wanted to show, and Jotaro looks—
        Well, he’s not visibly panicking, but he’s pale, shoving a hand into his pockets abruptly. “Did you disturb them in any way? What color was the water?”
        “Green. We took a quick look and then closed the lid again,” Buffy answers. Why the questions matter can come later, with how urgent it seems.
        One of the monkeys tugs at Giorno’s sleeve, pointing at Antonio’s flashlight and chattering, then back the way they came. “I believe it is likely this is no longer the case,” Giorno states.
        “Run.” Not even spending the time on ‘get out of there’. Jotaro might be a man of few words, but even from him that’s urgent.
        Buffy shoves the notebook back into Antonio’s backpack and zips it up. “We’re gone,” she confirms, and then they’re running back the way they came, Daniela grabbing the backpack without hesitation when Antonio nearly leaves it in his panic.