April 2000

Writer: Ben Church

Continuity Note: This episode takes place during "The Freshman" in season four of Buffy

William stepped out of the cab and walked around to the trunk, to get his bags.

"You sure you don't need any help with those?" the cabby asked.

"Aye," he answered, as he gathered them up. "My penance for packing so much is to carry it all."

The cabby shrugged and minded his own business.

Loaded down with two normal sized duffel bags, one over sized one, and a frame backpack, William staggered towards campus.

"Bleedin' pride." he muttered. "No I couldn't have just accepted some help could I. No I had t-"

Someone yanked violently on the back of his pack, sending him reeling backwards.

He swore in Gaelic as he fell hard. Then he swore again as a bus passed by on the road he was about to cross. If he'd stepped onto the road, he would have been hit for sure. He'd looked but; "They drive on the right. They drive on the right." he reminded himself.

"Y' alright?" his unseen benefactor asked. He couldn't quite place the accent, it sounded like a mix between Australian and American.

Christina looked down at the young man she'd pulled from an almost certain death. It wouldn't do to let someone die before they could even start their college career.

"I'll be fine once me pride heals." the boy muttered, and then tried to rise. Unfortunately with the weight of his bags, he wasn't succeeding.

Christina smiled. "Are y' too proud to let a girl help you up?"

"Normally I'd say no," he said. "But I have to be honest with ye, It's not often I have a beautiful girl leanin' over me like this, so I'd like to enjoy it while it lasts."

"Good lord!" Mikiah heard behind him. He turned, to find his room mate looking in awe at his room. "I've never seen so many weapons in one place before!" the boy, DJ, said.

"That's okay," Mikiah said. "We're even. I've never seen so much Muppets stuff in one place before." He was referring to his room mate's obsession with the muppets, and the decorations in DJ's room.

Mikiah had just arrived at the off campus apartment that morning, and was finally getting done with his unpacking. And a good thing too, he wanted to get to campus to finish with his registration.

Peter banged his head on the steering wheel of his car once more. "Just, freaking, GO!" he shouted to the driver ahead of him who was taking his sweet time crossing the intersection.

Peter had driven cross country from Jersey, and had tried to quit smoking three times during the trip. He was on number four, and he had just about decided that it was a lost cause.

In an unobtrusive area of the campus, a portal opened. Several bags flew through, landing in a heap a short distance away. Then, out stepped a tall, pale, heavyset boy in a black leather trenchcoat, and abaseball cap on which was inscribed Pure Evil in red letters.Casey Jones hefted his bags, and looked at the map that had been issued to all new students. And with the map in hand, and a set destination, he quickly got lost and had to ask for directions several times.

Not all evil can be seen.
Not all demons can be fought hand to hand.
Some things have to be felt.
Every evil can be defeated.
The S-Men

TV Movie - Episode 0:
"There's No Business Like Show Business"

"So this is your room?" Christina asked, carrying the two small duffels, and following behind William. "Kind of small."

"Are ye kidding?" William asked. "This is almost bigger than me entire house back home."

"Back home being Ireland or Scotland?"

"Yes."

Christina looked around at the room. Apparently he had it to himself for now. "I've always wondered," she said, her Australian accent picking up again. "Do y' really drink Guinness all the time in Ireland?"

"Some do." he admitted, dropping his large bags onto the bed on the left of the room. "Me, I've always believed that we exported it because it was so horrible, and we didn't want it." He took the smaller bags from her. "What about Australians and Fosters?"

"Pretty much the same." she told him. Then she smirked. "All right Irishman, now it's your turn to help me with my bags."

"Bloody hell, I knew there was going to be catch."

Peter sighed with relief as he set his last bag down on his bed. He had made it, and now he could finally smoke in peace. He smiled blissfully as nicotine induced calm filled him. The worst was over.

"I built that castle," a thick, but fake Scottish accent shouted from the hallway. "But to they remember that? Nae! But you sleep with one goat!"

Peter turned, as the door to his room burst open, and a tall, pale boy enter flamboyantly. "Lucy I'm home!"

Peter normally would have been perturbed by such obnoxiousness. Fortunately he'd just gotten a fix.

"You don't mind if I smoke do you?" was all he said.

Casey regarded his room mate. He was shorter than Casey, but most were. He wore wire rim glasses, and was very big. Not in a muscle bound way, and not even in a fat way. Just big. Casey didn't think he'd want to be on the wrong side of this boy's ire.

"No go ahead." he said calmly. He judged his smoking friend to have a limited tolerance for silliness. But that was just his first impression.

Mikiah parked his car in one of the few spaces left over, and looked at the campus. He was reminded of why he'd come here. He'd grown up in Alaska, a town not unlike that portrayed in Northern Exposure. He'd wanted to introduce himself to city life slowly, and he believed that Sunnydale was just the place to do it.

He locked his car and strode away. If one looked at the back of his car, they would see an interesting hodgepodge of bumper stickers.

DARE! To keep the CIA off drugs.
Discourage inbreeding, ban country music.
Racism is a social disease.

"Bleedin' Christ!" William exclaimed. "How many movies do you have?" He managed to heft the box full of video tapes, but it wasn't easy.

"Just these two boxes full." Christina told him. "The rest are going to be mailed to me when I get settled in."

William nodded, and with great effort, carried the box up the stairs to her room. He noticed it didn't take her quite as much effort to carry her box. His own father was going to mail him his books when he was ready for them as well.

"How did you come to live in Australia?" he asked. She claimed not to actually have been born in Australia.

"I'll tell you if you promise to tell me why you jumped around from Ireland to Scotland."
William hesitated, the mention of his moving bringing back painful memories. But maybe it would do him some good to talk about it.

"All right." he said. They set the boxes down, and she began to unpack them, as he sat down on one of the beds. He noticed with a smile that the vast majority of the movies were horror. There were many Mel Gibson and Vampire movies as well.

He also noticed how good she looked in her black T-shirt and pants. The darkness of her clothes matched the color of her short hair perfectly. He was surprised. He'd been at the school less than a day and he already had a crush.

"I was born in New Orleans." she told him. "Not the French Quarter, though I did spend a lot of time there. Anyway, I had a mate who was from Australia, and she spent a year living with me and my parents. We got real close, and so at the end of the year, I moved to Australia. I've got dual citizenship."

As she spoke, William got up and began helping her unpack. She told him of her Wiccan beliefs, her desire for a tattoo, how she'd been a cheerleader in High School, which made him laugh. She told him how her parents divorced and how she started to look at the family that she'd lived with in Australia, as her own family. Then she told him about the tumor she'd had, and the steel plate she now had in her skull. She also told him that she was descended from Vlad the Impaler. The only thing she left out of her tale was the secret she'd kept from almost everyone. The secret she was certain would only alienate him.

By the time she'd finished talking, they'd finished with her room, and they went back to his room to unpack.

There, he told her the story of his own life. How his mother was one of the last Native Irish in Ireland, and his father a purebred Scottish Highlander. His parents had married in a ship midway between the two countries, and they'd lived in Ireland, 20 kilometers north of Belfast. He told her how he'd always suspected that his mother's family was involved in the IRA. Then he told her about how when he was fifteen, his mother had died of cancer. How he and his father had moved to Scotland, but every summer he returned to Ireland to stay with his old friend there.

He showed her the sword his mother had left him, an old family heirloom, an Irish Celtic sword, with the name Morrigan inscribed on the blade. He told her how his mother had taught him how to use it. He also sheepishly admitted to knowing how to play the bagpipes, and less sheepishly to playing the tin whistle of Irish origin. He even told her about his fear of the dark.

The only thing he left out of his narrative was the secret he kept from nearly everyone. The secret he was sure would only alienate her.

Peter laughed as Casey stuck his nose up at the food he'd just bought at the commissary. "I cannot eat zis!" the pale boy said in a stereotypically French accent. "Eet eez disgusting!"

Peter had learned fairly early on that while Casey didn't know how far one should and shouldn't carry a joke, it was worth it for the initial burst of silliness. The boy certainly loved to hear himself talk. They carried their "food" to an empty table and sat, continuing their conversation.

Peter tried again to drag the details of Casey's background out of the boy, but with no luck. He didn't even know where he was from for god's sake. He could tell from the boy's aura however, that he was deliberately hiding his past.

"Excuse me," a voice from behind them said.

Casey jumped, he hadn't heard anyone approach. He turned, and found a tall, looming boy with long black hair standing there with a tray of vegetables and salad.

"Can I sit here?" the boy asked.

Mikiah waited for a reaction. He' obviously taken these two by surprise. He'd gotten so good at making himself un-noticed, that he sometimes did it unconsciously. There were no empty tables, and he decided it would be best to start his college career by trying to meet people.

"Sure man," Peter said, answering the new arrival. "Have a seat."

"So do you have your schedule worked out?" Christina asked as they approached the commissary. Something flashed by in her peripheral vision, but she ignored it. Unless she saw them directly, she was usually able to block out the things she saw. Although it was harder here, there was something about the town that seemed to attract, or maybe create, the things that she saw. It had been a few years before she'd realized that not everyone could see what she saw. But she'd learned early on that a lot of the things she saw were, not things people would want to know about. A lot of them were bad. In fact sometimes she would go so far as to call them, evil.

She realized that William had answered her, and was waiting for her response.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "What did you say?"

"I said yes." he repeated. "How about you?" He tried to ignore the buzzing right next to his ear. He knew it wasn't a fly, but he didn't need to deal with it right now.

"I can't wait to start classes tomorrow." he said sarcastically.

"Oh I'm sure it won't be too bad."

Casey looked up, sensing something interesting in the air. He caught sight of a boy and a girl entering, both dressed in black. He couldn't place exactly what it was about them but, somehow they seemed, different. But the girl was the one who really got his attention. She was beautiful. Exotic. She had an almost gypsy like quality to her.

Mikiah and Peter ceased their conversation and followed his gaze.

"Hachi machi!" Peter exclaimed under his breath, imitating Jay Sherman.

Mikiah searched for the words that perfectly expressed the girl that his two new friends were admiring. "Yeah she's pretty." he said.

Casey looked at him in astonishment. Pretty? That was all he could say?

Peter on the other hand realized that from such an understated young man as Mikiah, that was quite a compliment.

William's eyebrows shot up when he saw the group at the table looking at them. He had no doubt that they were more looking at Christina than at him, but one in particular caught his eye. "Well I'll be damned." he thought. "Who'd have thunk it?"

"Mind if we join you?" Christina asked the assembled freshmen.

There was a chorus of no's, and the two sat.

It did not take long to learn everyone's name, and that they were all acting majors.

"You guys auditioning for Pippin tonight?" Mikiah asked.

Everyone was.

There was a moment of silence as everyone ate their lunch. Soon, Casey started an improvised monologue about the origins of the squeegee that set everyone laughing heartily.

Mikiah noted that Casey's laugh suited his attire perfectly. He found it strange that such an evil laugh would actually be someone's real laugh. Peter's laugh sounded almost like he was crying. William seemed to just stop breathing when he laughed really hard.

A while later, William was in the library looking for the last of his textbooks. "Like I'm really going to read any of them." he thought. Every year it was the same. He swore to himself he would actually read everything he had to read. But every year he found himself not doing so. Still, never hurt to try.

In one of the isles, he found himself face to face with Casey. he was hoping to run into him away from prying eyes.

"Hey Casey."

"Hey William. What's up."

"Not much, just wondering what a Pooka was doing studying acting."

Casey looked at him sharply and laughed nervously. "Heh, why that's ludicrous William." he said.

"Oh please. 'Casey Jones'? Like anyone would believe that was a real name. What's ye'r name really?"

"Oh yeah, nice try. I tell you that and you can do all sorts of- I mean, what do you mean? That is my real name."

William smiled. "Got ye. Don't worry about me, ye'r secret is safe with me. I'm just curious."

Casey studied him. "How DID you know what I am?"

"I have the Sight." he explained. "And I've met a few Pookas. Never heard of one wanting to be an actor though."

Casey nodded in understanding. He'd heard of people like this, mortals who had somehow been born with the ability to see past the illusion. They were rare, and it was considered fortuitous for a Fae to meet one. Sighted people were special in a way that neither mortal, nor Fae understood.

"Is it really so strange?" Casey asked him. "Acting isn't all that far a cry from playing pranks on people."

"What's your interested in this plane though?" William pressed. "Aren't there actors in Avalon?"

"Oh sure but, well I've heard about earth all the time from Fae that have been there. I was curious. It sounded like an adventure."

"Sounds reasonable. Now, the name-"

"I'm not going to-"

"No no, that's not what I meant. Casey Jones sounds too fake. But I think I know a way around it."

Not long afterwards, William, and Kenneth C. Jones left the library. "Kenneth C., K.C. Casey." Casey thought. "I like it."

He started off towards his room, then stopped. "Oh!" he shouted at the retreating back of his new friend. "William! When are auditions tonight?"

"Half seven!" came the answer.

"Cool!" He had gotten halfway to his room when he realized that he wasn't completely sure what Half Seven meant. He hoped it meant seven thirty.

Peter looked askance at Christina as they strolled the campus. As soon as Christina had learned he had a car, she'd become his best friend. Now they were headed to the mall, to get some last touches for her room. There was fear in her aura. A deep, long seated fear. But hope as well. The rest of her aura had seemed normal, for a freshman starting college, excitement and nervousness. He imagined his own aura looked like a zebra. With stripes of fear going through it, especially about the upcoming auditions.

He let his thoughts trail to the others. Mikiah's aura had revealed a very old soul, as did Christina's actually. There was wisdom and patience in Mikiah's aura. And control.

Casey's of course showed that he was hiding something. Something big. But he also believed that Casey was good at heart.

The really unusual one was William. Most people's auras surrounded the person. But William's was gathered in. Concentrated in his chest, as if it were hiding. It was black with fear, but good intentions. It was shaped like a key hole. Peter wondered what was so strange about William to give him such an unusual aura.

"Oh my God!" Christina shouted, bringing him out of his reverie.

"What?" he said, looking around in alarm. Then he saw Mikiah getting into a small red car.

"I have TWO friends with cars!" Christina said joyfully. "Yes!"

Christina found herself alone in her room for the first time. Her room mate had gone out for something or other. She felt at a loss as to what to do to pass the time until auditions. She thought about calling William, but remembered that he'd gone to the practice rooms to rehearse his song. Mikiah's room mate DJ had agreed to accompany him on piano.

Suddenly, the lamp on her desk flipped on all by itself. She turned quickly, and just caught something darting into hiding. Hiding as only a spirit can. "I see you." she said. "I can do that." The thing didn't come out of hiding, but she could sense it was embarrassed by it's greeting. For that, she realized, was what the turning on of the lamp had been.

"Great Googly Moogly." she muttered. "My dorm room is haunted."

The door opened, and her room mate entered. She was a petite blond girl who had the look of a pixie to her. "Hey Christina." she said. "You ready for auditions?"

"Sure, why not." Christina said. She searched her mind for her room mate's name. Wendy, that was it. The name suited her perfectly. She looked like she could easily have been the Wendy from Peter Pan. Though now that Christina thought about it, she seemed more like Tinkerbell.

William cleared his throat and made a mental note to pick up some lemon drops before the audition, to rid himself of the phlegm.

He was glad that audition songs were not restricted to just those from musicals. The only musical he knew of that would work with his accent was Brigadoon. And he didn't know anything from that show.

"Ready?" DJ asked.

"Aye." he acknowledged, and DJ began to play. He waited until the short intro was over and then; "Well I've been the wild rover, for many a year! And I've spent all me money on whiskey and beer..."

Peter looked from his simple white button down shirt and slacks, to Casey's fancy three piece suit. "Bastard," he said insincerely. "You're gonna make me look bad."

Casey declined to comment, which took an enormous effort of will.

William stopped his rehearsal as a loud voice managed to drown him out from the next room.

"I though these rooms were supposed t' be soundproofed." he said.

"They are." DJ agreed.

"Lord please don't let him be auditioning." he prayed. "I don't need that kind of competition."

"I will not throw up." Wendy muttered to herself as she and Christina walked to the theater. "I will not throw up."

"Nervous?" Christina smirked.

"Of course not, whatever gave you that idea?"

Mikiah sat in his parked car, composing himself. Outside, he saw several seniors getting out of their own cars, and head into the building. Then he saw something else, that made him forget all about the audition.

William sat back down, disgusted with himself. He'd been completely off tempo with the accompanist, and when he'd tried to get back in tune with it, he'd only made it worse.

Christina patted his hand in sympathy.

"Don't worry about it." a voice behind him said. He turned and found a lanky boy with short, sandy brown hair sitting behind him. "It's the accompanyists' job to stay in time with you. Not the other way around."

"Which is why I only made it worse by trying to fix it." William whispered. "If I'd stayed constant, they would have caught up."

The boy shrugged. "No sense worrying about it now. My name's Chris by the way."

"William." they shook hands. Then they both focussed back up on stage.

"My name is Tom Brown," the boy on stage said. "And I'll be singing sixteen measures of This is the Moment from Jekyll and Hyde."

William sighed. The song that had drowned him out earlier.

"There you see?" Casey whispered to him. "How is Casey Jones any less believable than Tom Brown?"

They were taking a short break between the singing audition and the dance audition.

"You're dreaming." Pete said. "The Empire would not be able to conquer the federation."

"Oh please!" the boy he was arguing with, Scott Ross, disagreed. "The Death Star would just stroll right up to Earth and blow it away!"

"The technology in Star Trek is far superior." Tom interjected. They could just beam onto the Death Star and take it over, or beam photon torpedoes into the core."

"Let's be fair." Chris said. "The Federation has the technology, but the Empire has more of it. That makes them about even. But Boba Fett and Darth Vader could kick any Star Trek character's ass. And Chewie too. With the possible exception of Worf."

They all nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Darth and Boba Fett would kick everyone's ass."

An upper classman named Fitz stood nearby. No had thought he was listening until he spoke up.

"Q and the Borg would have a field day with the Empire." he said simply, and went back into the audition room.

Peter was the first one out of the theater. He'd needed a cigarette for hours. And after the stress of auditioning, he needed some relief. Christina was right after him, bumming a smoke. William and Casey left at a more leisurely pace.

"Wasn't Mikiah going to audition?" Casey asked. "I didn't see him in there."

"Maybe he had car trouble." Peter suggested. "Or maybe he just got cold feet."

"I don't know," William said. "He didn't strike me as the kind of guy to chicken out of an audition."

"Or," Christina said. "Maybe he got into a fight."

The others looked at her. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I can see him over there." she pointed. "Fighting...himself?"

Sure enough, on the edge of a grove of trees, Mikiah was locked in a heated martial arts battle with an exact copy of himself.

The group of freshmen looked at each other for a moment.

"Doppelganger." Christina, Casey and William said simultaneously.

At the same time Peter said; "The hell?"

Without another word, they rushed to their friend's aid.

Mikiah found himself quite at a loss as to what to do to end the fight. The thing that had taken his form was in every way his equal. And it seemed that the stalemate was destined to last for a while.

"Here we come to save the day!"

Both Mikiah's looked towards the source of the sound in surprise. Mikiah smiled. His friends were coming. They would help him.

"It's a Doppelganger!" his double shouted. "Help me take care of it!"

Mikiah swore silently.

William and Christina didn't know what to do. They're gifts to see the unseen were not able to penetrate the illusion created by the creature. William decided that it must not be Fae, or he would at least have an inkling of which was which.

Christina looked from one Mikiah to the next, knowing deciding that it must not be an other worldly spirit, or she would at least have an inkling of which was which.

Casey swore, knowing that no manner of magics could penetrate a doppelganger's illusion. Because in truth, it was not an illusion.

"That one's the fake." Peter said quickly and decisively, pointing to the one on the right.

Everyone, including the two Mikiah's looked at him in surprise.

"His aura is pure black." he explained.

Suddenly, the Doppelganger bolted.

"We can't let it escape!" Casey said. "If it becomes someone else we might never find it again!"

"So?" Peter asked. "Good riddance."

"You don't understand Pete." Christina said. "Anyone the Doppelganger copies, it has to kill."

"And it doesn't stop with that." William explained. "It gets bored with that life quickly and becomes someone else."

"And while we're here filling the audience in," Casey said. "It's getting away!" He changed into the form of a wolf, without regard for who saw him, and took off after the fleeing Demonic Fae.

Everyone looked after Casey in shocked silence except for William, who took off after him. After a moment, the others followed.

"Casey!" William shouted after the wolf. "Does cold iron work against Doppelgangers?"

The answer sounded like a bark to the others, but to William it was a clear as English.

"Only ENCHANTED iron?" he said, dismayed. "Oh great!" He pulled a small iron letter opener from his pocket. "All I have is this. But it's not enchanted!"

Christina didn't know how William already knew about Casey's unusual power, or how he could understand Casey in that form. But she did know that explanations could wait.

She grabbed his arm, to stop him. Passing her hand over the letter opener, she muttered a short spell. "Now it's enchanted." She smiled.

"Unfortunately," Pete panted, stopping for breath. He was a smoker and not used to running. "The Doppelganger is getting away."

"No he's not." Mikiah said. He drew back his fist and struck in the direction of his double. And as if he'd been standing right behind him, the blow knocked the fleeing form off it's feet. Buying Casey just enough time to catch it.

The other arrived soon after, and William put an end to the creature's "life".

"So Casey's a Pooka?" Christina asked William, as they walked back to the dorms together.

"Uh huh."

"And you can see Faeries."

"Aye."

Christina shook her head. "This is gonna be an interesting year."

"No kidding. I didn't know you could do spells like that."

"There's something else I didn't tell you either." She said. "I was afraid you'd think it was weird, but now that I know what you can do..."

"What is it?"

She grinned, realizing how silly this was about to sound. "I see dead people!" she whispered, imitating the boy in Sixth Sense.

"How'd you do that?" Pete asked Mikiah. They were leaning against Pete's car in the parking lot.

"I learned how to harness my Chi." Mikiah said simply. "I didn't actually think it would be that useful here."

"What else can you do?"

"Ever hear of Death Touch?"

Casey sat on the Sunnydale University sign, brooding. His secret was out, and he wasn't so sure he liked that. One thing he was sure of though, was that he and his new friends seemed to make a pretty good team.

Next Time in an all new S-Men: It's been six months since the five friends have met, and a lot has changed. Picking up soon after "Something Blue," don't miss:
FINAL CURTAIN

Did you like this episode? E-Mail Ben and let him know!

Return to 5 by 5 FanFiction