Dark Destinies

Disclaimer: Most characters featured in this story are not of my creation. They belong to their respective creators, J.K. Rowling, Joss Whedon, and any and all parties related to Bloombury Publishing, Scholastic Inc., AOL/Time-Warner, Fox, and Mutant Enemy. Grrrr, arrgh.

Chapter 4

Rupert Giles stared at the marks on his exams, as if hoping that the numbers would switch themselves around somehow.

He'd failed.

His first year at Oxford, and he'd failed his exams.  He couldn't return home, not with these marks hanging over his head.  His parents were so proud when he got accepted, and he had promised his father that he'd work hard and take all the classes that he'd need as a Watcher.

But that was before he'd had the smallest taste of freedom.

When living under his parents' roof, he also lived under their influence.  He couldn't bear to see the hurt look on Mum's face whenever he came home with a note saying that he'd been fighting.  His Dad always gave him some ancient scroll to translate to keep him busy.

But now he was away from home, and their influence on him slipped away.  He shirked classes so he could hitchhike to London for the week.  There, he met more interesting people than he ever did before.

Most of all, there was Diedre Page.

Diedre worked as an airline hostess.  She traveled all over the world and visited exotic places, something Rupert found fascinating but Diedre found frightfully dull.  She said she only became one because her mother was one, but when Rupert said that he wanted to become a fighter pilot (the RAF scrapped him when his eyesight suddenly began to go bad), Diedre thought she had found a kindred spirit.

It didn't matter that the only air traveling Rupert really went on was by Floo Powder.  This was just a girl and easily impressed.  Girls liked dangerous men, Rupert discovered.  He never told Diedre his real name.  To her, and to everyone else he met in London, he was Ripper.

"Well, Ripper, looks like you'll be staying on in London permanently," he whispered to himself.  "They're not going to let you stay next term, not with these marks, so," he said, opening the closet of his small dorming room, "Ripper's got to move on."  He hummed softly to himself as he began to pack.

Diedre Page jumped when she heard the sudden knocking on the door of her tiny apartment.  Gathering her bathrobe aroud herself, she made her way to the front door.  She peeked through the hole.  "Ripper!" she exclaimed.  "Hang on a bit, must unlock these latches."

"Hello, Diedre," Ripper smiled as Diedre opened the door.  "Mind if I come in?"

"Of course not!  Come in, come in!" Diedre waved him inside.

"I missed you," Ripper said.

"Where were you?  You always disappear for a few days; no address, no phone," Diedre sounded upset.

"Hush, luv.  I'm here now, that's what counts.  I need a place to sleep for a few," Ripper said as he sprawled on the couch, dropping his backpack on the carpeted floor.

Erm, all right," Diedre said.  "You can have the couch, like always."

"Diedre, when will you realize that it's not the couch I want?" Ripper asked.

"What?"

"I don't want your couch.  I want your bed."

"But...where would I sleep?"

"Silly, silly girl," Ripper drawled softly.

Diedre blushed.  "But Ripper..."

"You needn't be frightened of me, Diedre.  I'm quite gentle," Ripper said.

"Hmmmm," Diedre murmurred.  "Yes, I've seen how gentle you are.  Shoving people out of the way, punching them to the ground if they have something you want, and always running before the Bobbies come."

Ripper stood up in front of Diedre.  "Oh, Diedre.  I assure you that I've never hurt a woman...deliberately." He tugged on the sash on Diedre's robe, then let her robe fall down around her ankles.  She just stood there in her underwear.  Ripper took her hands in his, but then he noticed something odd on her arm.  "What's this?  A tattoo?"

Diedre pulled her hands out of Ripper's reach and hurriedly put her robe back on again.  "I-it's nothing, Ripper."

"A tattoo isn't nothing!" Ripper growled.  "How dare you mark your body like this?"  He grabbed her arm, pulling up the sleeve of the robe so that he could see it.

"Ripper, you're hurting me," Diedre said.

"Who did this to you?" Ripper yelled.

"This bloke, I met him in Italy.  He's English, but he's been there for a long long time, he says."

Ripper let go of Diedre's arm.  "All right, so what does it mean?"

"It's Etruscan in origin."

"Yes, I bloody well know that, Diedre," Ripper said in clipped tones.  "I could tell you the derivation of hundreds of Etruscan symbols, but why the hell do you have a symbol from a dead civilization on your arm?"

"He told me not to tell anyone!"

"I'm not anyone!  I'm Ripper."

Diedre shook with fear.  Here in front of her was the Ripper she knew.  He seethed with rage, not just anger, but primal, animalistic rage.  She had no doubt as to why he took on that name.  "It's the Mark of Eyghon."

Ripper blinked as the Watcher in him rattled off facts in his head: Eyghon is a demon who possesses the bodies of the unconscious and the dead so that it would have a tangible form in this reality.  "Tell me more about this Eyghon," Ripper asked Diedre.

"Like I said, I met this young man in Italy.  Around our age.  Anyhow, he said he was a powerful sorcerer.  I said I didn't believe him.  I mean, he's barely nineteen and he claims to be able to contact the dark forces.  So he brings me to his flat, and he asks me if I want to feel the ultimate high."

"And you said yes."

"He made this mark on my forearm.  Then we dropped acid and had to sit in some marked circle while he conjured up the demon.  And when Eyghon possessed me, yes, I felt ultimate power.  Like I was standing high atop a mountain, and all these little humans were below me, vermin.  It didn't matter.  I was a demon.  I was a god!  I vaguely remember doing things, horrible things, but they're so far away, it's like I didn't really do them at all."

Ripper stared down at the tattoo on Diedre's arm again.  "Ultimate power?  The power of a demon?"

Diedre nodded silently.

"Tell me, d'you know if you could get in touch with this sorcerer again?"