A Slayer's greatest weapon- Book One- BTVS

The Puppet Show- 3

Xander, Willow and I were watching Marc's 'magic' act again. Xander and Willow were laughing while I smirked at the whole mess. Giles came out from backstage with Cordelia following after him. After he managed to lose Cordelia, he wandered over to us where he met Buffy halfway up the aisle.

"Hello. You look a bit worse for, uh, oh..." He started, before a quiet Buffy took a seat behind us. "What exactly are you the worse for?"

"Where's Morgan?"

"Uh, right, I haven't seen him."

"Did he do something to you?"

"No, it was his... Sid, the dummy." We all turned to her confused. "Okay, everyone look at me like I'm in a bunny suit 'cause that's how stupid I feel saying this. I think Sid was in my room last night."

"With Morgan?"

"No. He was alone and alive."

"Did you see him?"

"Well, I saw something. I-It ran across my floor, under my bed and then it attacked me."

"Attacked you? How?"

"It was like it pounced on my face."

"Like a cat." suggested Xander.

"Yeah, exactly! But when I turned the lights on, it was already gone. I think it went out my window."

"Like a cat." I insisted.

"Yeah! No! It was Sid, the dummy."

"Or possibly the nightmare of somebody who had dummies on her mind."

"You did say they creep you out."

"Excuse me. Can I have a little support here, please? I'm not just some crazy person, I'm the Slayer."

"The dummy Slayer? There's nothing funny about that."

"Well, on the side of the 'Morgan's just crazy' theory there is... Well, Morgan." We watched as Morgan, with Sid still by his side, opened up his case.

"I'd like to see Morgan without his better half for a few minutes. Bet he could tell me something."

"Oh, if it's any consolation, I may have found a possible demon culprit. There's a reference in here to a brotherhood of seven demons who take, uh, the form of young humans. Every seven years, these demons need human organs. A-A brain and a heart to maintain their humanity. Otherwise they revert back to their original form, which is, uh, slightly less appealing." He handed me a book with an ugly looking demon on one of the pages.

"So Morgan could still be the guy, only demon Morgan instead of crazy Morgan."

"It's said that these demons are preternaturally strong, and Morgan is... Well, he seems to be getting weaker every day."

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"It was as a result of this that President Monroe put forth the eponymous, meaning 'names after oneself', Monroe Doctrine, which in one sense established the U.S. as a local peacekeeper." Mrs. Jackson, our history teacher, lectured. Buffy kept her eye on Morgan and Sid.

"Okay, who can tell me how Spain responded to this policy? Morgan? Morgan?"

"What?" Morgan asked as he looked away from Sid to the teacher.

"Morgan has other things on his mind." The class laughed as Mrs. Jackson stormed over to Morgan.

"Give me your puppet."

"I'll put him away." Morgan pleaded, but she took it over to her cupboard, locking it away.

"You'll get it back after school. Okay, then, in the first part of the 19th century..."

"I'm still watching you." 'Sid' called out from inside the cupboard.

"Morgan, that is enough!"

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Xander and I were in the library, playing with Sid while we waited for the others to arrive. Buffy finally arrived with the others and, upon noticing our new companion, immediately became concerned.

"Where did you get that?"

"I took it out of Mrs. Jackson's cupboard."

"I thought it was locked." Buffy said, still looking wary of the puppet.

"Yeah, like you've never broken a lock before." I shot back.

"Why does Xander have it then?" Willow asked.

"He wanted to play with it." I answered, rolling my eyes as Xander made the dummy smile at me. "I thought you said you wanted to be able to speak to Morgan alone."

"Morgan's alone and, uh, Sid's with me." Xander finished. He started doing an annoying voice as moved Sid's mouth. "Hi, Buffy. Hi, Willow. Would you like to hear some off-colour jokes."

"I really don't think you should be doing that."

"What? Come on. I'm not real."

"Xander, quit it!" Xander began banging the dummy's head onto the table.

"He's.. not... real! I think our demonstration proves that, uh, Sid... is wood." he finished by knocking his knuckles against Sid's head. "Now, why don't you go find Morgan and prove he's... Whatever he is."

"I imagine he's looking for his puppet."

"I'll go find Morgan. You watch the dummy."

"Bye-bye now. I'm completely inanimate." Buffy gave Xander another look before she left. "Redrum! Redrum!"

"What do we do with him?"

"Eh, I'll keep him company."

"Willow, Lucy, we have some hunting of our own to do."

"Once again I'm banished to the demon section of the card catalogue." Willow sighed as she caught up with Giles. I turned to Xander.

"Enjoy having a conversation with someone on your level of intelligence." I smiled.

"Enjoy having a conversation meh meh meh." Xander mocked, as I waved goodbye.

"Willow, you concentrate on re-animation theory. I'll peck about in organ harvesting. Unless, of course, you prefer..."

"That's okay. You can have the organs."

"Right. Um, Lucy..."

"Organs, please."

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"Look what I found in the section on toys and magic." Willow started, as she brought a book over to Giles and I. "On rare occasions, inanimate objects of human quality, such as dolls and mannequins, already mystically possessed of consciousness, have acted upon their desire to become human by harvesting organs."

"Emily's heart."

"Morgan's dummy."

"Buffy was right?!" I added, incredulously. We were interrupted by Xander yelling in fright. We rushed to the balcony to see what was wrong.

"What is it?"

"He's gone. Sid's gone." Xander explained from his position on the table.

"What? Oh!" We all started looking around the floor, anxiously, for Sid.

See? This is why you never leave an important job with Xander!