Fic: Shanshu 32 - Big Rico's Pizzeria

[dragonyphoenix]

Title: Big Rico's Pizzeria
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 462 - Magnum Opus
Rating: PG
Summary: Another chapter for Shanshu
Word Count: AO3 says it's 1377; fanfic.net lists it ast 1381; Open Office (which I know is wrong) as 1432
Note: The end is in sight. I've been plotting out my future scenes. Two to three more months unless I start adding scenes.

“Let me get this straight.” Buffy had taken the centermost of the three leather chairs in Andrew's office. After listening to Angel whine all the way from Rome, she wasn't about to be stuck on the couch with him except that wasn't a problem. Even after the shades had been drawn down, Angel wouldn't enter the office. Fine, if he wanted to brood by the door, he could just do that. “Not only is Spike missing, but Willow has been grabbed by somebody, Xander just got out of jail, and Andrew has vanished.”

“Kidnapped,” Xander said from the couch which he'd commandeered all to his own by sprawling, legs out, along its whole length. “Dawn said he'd been kidnapped.”

“Oh, yeah, and my sister has been up and poofed from Wellesley campus, where she should have been safe and sound, to the Sunnydale crater by some guy we think is working for Glory? And I'm supposed to just sit here?”

“Hey, the Slayers found her all safe and sound. Apparently it wasn't a Glory thing at all.”

“That's supposed to make me feel better?”

“Uh, well, maybe not.”

“If we could get back to business.”

“How is my sister being chased by a hellgod not business?” You can't kill Wesley; he's almost a father.

“Current business. Dawn is a sound girl. If she says this has nothing to do with Glory, I believe her.”

“Sure, make me look like the hysterical one.”

Catalina, head Slayer on campus, was glancing between them all as if she couldn't believe this was the way Council business was run. She should know better. She worked with Andrew after all. “Our hackers haven't found anything on William Platt before the 22^nd of May, 2003. He was found outside the Sunnydale crater by ER services and actually moved in with one of the ER crew who found him, which is where he met Millay Adler, cousin to the guy William moved in with. Mogan Teasdale seems to have met William through a poetry club.”

“Poetry club?”

“Yeah, Wes,” Xander said. “Poetry club. Something wrong with that?”

“It just doesn't fit … I mean, this is Spike we're talking about.”

Buffy stared at Xander. “You're not wigging that Spike's into poetry?”

“Hey, I've been to the Sunflower. I was prepared.”

“Spike was a poet before he was Turned,” Angel added from the doorway. “Could we got on with this?”

Catalina glanced around the room, apparently looking for more comments, before she went on. “There's nothing to link any of these people – Charlie Adler who took William in, Millay Adler his cousin, or Morgan Teasdale – to the demonic community.”

“Nothing that you've found,” Wesley said.

Catalina shot him a sour look but didn't object to Wesley's input. “They've set up a meeting in supposedly neutral territory, Big Rico's Pizza shop, but Shaba came up with a link between the pizzeria and a local community of R'cathkus demons.”

“Say what demons?”

“R'cathkus,” Wesley said. “A relatively harmless breed.”

“In a mostly harmless kind of what way?” Xander asked.

“They're more pacifistic than humans even. R'cathkus won't attack except to defend themselves. The Council has ignored them for centuries.”

“Except that they're in the middle of this mess.”

“There is that,” Wesley agreed.

“Right. So I'm coming to this meeting.”

Wesley actually winced.

“What?”

Xander sat up on the couch. “Let's just say you aren't known for your diplomacy.”

You can't punch Xander through the wall. You'll just be making his point. “And I'm fine with that but I'm not sitting here doing nothing while you're meeting with the demons that keep stealing our people.” At least Xander was smart enough not to suggest she help Wesley research those artifacts of his.

“What about me? It's not like I can go out in the sun.”

Angel, just get over it. “You can help Wesley with his research,” Buffy snapped.

Leaving the big idiot behind was a blessed relief even if she did get stuck in the back of the van. At least it gave her a chance to chat with Catalina's Slayer squad. “Andrew really has you playing Twister as a training exercise?”

They were there before she could translate the outbreak of babble into a coherent response. Not there as in at the pizza place there, but there as in where they were letting the Slayers off so they could set-up around the building. Once the Slayers were in-place, they went in and, hey, it really was a pizza place. One of the crew looked at them oddly when Xander asked for Big Rico. “We're expected,” Buffy added.

“In the back.”

There was a party room behind the main dining area, a separate space for birthdays or whatnot. By the door stood one man, Rico presumably, and two women. At the far end of the table, Andrew was scarfing down a pizza. “Hey, Catalina, I think I found us a new supplier. This is like the Magnus Opus of pizza. You have to try some. Rico, could you get her a slice, ham and pineapple, that's her poison. Did you see his logo? No one makes a slice like Big Rico. No one. And it's true! This is amazing.”

“Andrew.”

He grinned up at her. “Hey Buffy.” Then he seemed to figure it out. “Oh, yeah, that kidnapping thing.”

Rico hadn't left to get that slice. At least he seemed to know what was up. In fact, Buffy stared for a moment. “You one of those cat gut demons?”

“R'cathkus,” Catalina corrected. “I can feel it too.”

“Demons? What the hell are you talking about?” That from one of the two women. The other also looked confused.

“You didn't fill them in?”

“I didn't know you'd be Slayers.” The guy's voice was sort of gravely but it could pass for human.

“Andrew didn't let it leak?” That wasn't nice … but, yeah, Xander had a point.

“Look,” one of the women, sort of a geeky hacker looking chick, interrupted. “I don't know what you're on about. What do you know about Will vanishing?”

“Buffy, Catalina, this is Millay. Millay, these are Buffy and Catalina. I don't know the other two but I'm guessing he's Rico,” Xander said.

“Oh, oh,” Andrew came around the table. “This is Mona. We saved her from vampires the other night and she'd never knew they existed before that but then she, uh, kidnapped me but she brought me here, well her and Mr. Rico, and now we've got this excellent new pizza supplier, um, if they aren't evil that is.”

“How do we know we can trust you?” Millay asked.

“They're okay.”

“Look, Rico, just because the twerp likes your pizza …”

“It's not that.” He obviously didn't want to explain about demons and Slayers. “You've got my word. They're the good guys.”

Both Millay and Mona seemed a bit taken back at that. Apparently Rico's word was a big deal. But, if those two didn't know about demons, they weren't going to be much help finding Spike. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“They're giving me back.” Andrew was practically bouncing up and down. Then he paused and glanced at Rico. “You are giving me back, right?”

At Rico's nod, Buffy said, “Yeah, but that's just because you're …” annoying “Andrew, er- ish.”

“Hey.” Andrew frowned at her. “I think.”

“Millay just wants her friend back,” Rico said. “You must have checked her out by now.”

“Well, yeah,” Buffy conceded. “So, what do you know?”

“What do you know?” Millay countered.

Xander fielded that one. “Uh, Spike's, I mean Will, he's missing.”

“That's it?”

Bringing up demons so wasn't going to move this forward. “That's it. You?”

“I left him with Ash. His tracker shut down and he's gone. So is Ash.”

“Tracker?” Catalina asked. “GPS signal? Was it jammed? Maybe I could help you filter out the noise.”

Millay shook her head. “I'm around it. If it was signaling, I'd have found it.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

Which is when Dawn burst into the room. “Buffy, he said I could find Spike but that we'd have to open the Hellmouth for more power so I could scan a bunch of dimensions but I wouldn't even know what to look for.”

“Huh?”

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

It looks like nobody knows anything and Willow and William are pretty much on their own, poor things.

Opening the Hellmouth? That has "bad idea" written all over it.


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. All the Turok-Han were killed when Spike, or the amulet he wore, went ballistic, right? Right?

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Millay and Teasdale and a poetry club? *Winks* I see what you did there... ;)

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Opening the Hellmouth... What I great idea, though everybody.
So, you are ready to wrap it in ~8-12 chapters? Hmm... =)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I counted out about 13 scenes last night but some of them will probably be combined.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Millay, sure, but I had to look up Teasdale. I used it because a guy I used to know had it as a middle name. Lovely that it's also a poet's name.

I just read Sara Teasdale's At Midnight. What a delightful poem. Thank you for pointing that out!

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

Accidentally on purpose! :)

I'm a pretty big fan of Sara Teasdale's poetry. It's lyrical, accessible, and so angst-y. (In RL she was courted by two men, married one of them, and possibly lived to regret it, because the other was really her true love. I think her writing shows.)

Glad to know you liked her "At Midnight"!