Chapter Text
"Out of Mind, Out of Sight"
Based on the Episode Written by Joss Whedon, Ashley Gable, and Thomas A. Swyden
The following story is copyright © 2021 by Mark Moore.
At Sunnydale High School, Cordelia, Harmony, and boy named Mitch Fargo were walking down a hall. Cordelia had her arms around Mitch.
Cordelia smiled. "I just love springtime. Me and bright spring fashions!"
Mitch smiled. "Spring training."
Cordelia grinned. "Me at the end-of-school dance."
Harmony grinned. "The end of school."
"Definitely. My favorite time of year." Cordelia giggled. "I am, of course, having my dress specially made. Off the rack gives me hives."
"Lemme guess: blue, like your eyes!" Mitch laughed.
Cordelia forced a laugh. "My eyes are hazel, Helen Keller."
Harmony smiled. "You two will look so fine together in the May Queen photo."
"Well, I haven't been elected May Queen yet."
They reached the library doors. Suddenly, Buffy came barging out. She bumped into Mitch and dropped her bag, spilling out its contents: a couple stakes, a couple crosses, a mace, and other stuff.
"Uhhh! Behold, the weirdness!" Cordelia exclaimed.
Buffy looked up. "Sorry!" She gathered up her stuff and put them back in her bag.
Cordelia, Harmony, and Mitch continued down the hall.
"Okay, this is me." Mitch kissed Cordelia on the lips. "See ya."
"See ya."
Mitch went into a classroom. Cordelia and Harmony continued walking.
Harmony looked at Cordelia. "I'm kinda surprised that you're going with Mitch."
Cordelia looked at Harmony. "Why?"
"Well, I thought you'd be going with Angel."
Cordelia sighed. "Angel and I are, well, I don't know what we are. I brought it up to him recently, and he suggested I find a human date. I was like 'Have you seen the assholes that I go to school with?'"
Harmony laughed. "Good point. And he still declined?"
"Yeah. I can't figure out what his deal is. Does he want to be with me or not?" Cordelia sighed again. "It's so frustrating."
Later, in English class, they were discussing The Merchant of Venice.
"'If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?'" Ms. Miller looked at the class. "Okay. So talk to me, people. How does what Shylock says here about being a Jew relate to our discussion about the anger of the outcast in society?"
"Well, how about color me totally self-involved?" Cordelia replied.
"Care to elaborate?" Ms. Miller asked her.
"Yeah. With Shylock, it's whine, whine, whine, like the whole world is about him. He acts like it's justice, him getting a pound of Antonio's flesh. It's not justice; it's yicky."
"But has Shylock suffered? What's his place in Venice society?" Ms. Miller asked.
Tara raised her hand. "Well, everyone looked down on him."
Cordelia looked at her. "That is such a Twinkie defense. Shylock should get over himself. People who think their problems are so huge craze me. Like this time I sort of ran over this girl on her bike. It was the most traumatizing event of my life, and she's trying to make it about her leg! Like my pain meant nothing."
"Well, Cordelia's raised an interesting point here."
The bell rang.
"Which we'll pursue at a later time."
The students got up to leave.
Cordelia walked up to Ms. Miller's desk. "Ms. Miller?"
"Good observations today, Cordelia. It's always exciting to know someone's actually done the reading."
"Thanks. Um, I wanna talk to you about my final paper. I'm really unfocused. I have all these thoughts, and I'm pretty sure they all contradict each other."
"Well, I have your outline here, but why don't you stop by tomorrow after school? We'll go over it then."
"That'd be great! Thanks a lot." Cordelia started to leave.
"You're welcome. I'll see you then."
"Okay! Bye!" Cordelia went into the hall and saw Harmony. "Harmony!"
Harmony smiled. "Hi!"
"They called and said the dress is ready. It's so great!" Cordelia exclaimed, excited. "Mitch is gonna die!"
Later, Cordelia was handing out chocolates in the hallway while campaigning for May Queen. "Now, remember who to vote for for May Queen! As in me!"
"Thanks." A boy took the offered chocolate and walked away.
Cordelia saw Harmony and walked over to her. "Hi! Isn't this the bomb? I'm such the campaign strategist."
Harmony took one chocolate and saw the "C" on the wrapper. "'C'. For Cordelia?"
"No, 'C' for Wilma, little brain! Of course, 'C' for Cordelia! This way, people will associate me with something sweet!" Cordelia absently continued to the next student. "Here's a chocolate..." She saw it was Buffy and pulled her hand back. "Oh. I don't think you need to put on any extra weight." She left.
"Well, I-I don't even like chocolates." Buffy turned and walked to her locker. "Okay, that was the lamest comeback of our times."
Tara arrived and kissed Buffy on the lips. "So...what's Cordelia up to?"
Buffy worked the combination. "Bribery. She's desperate to be May Queen."
"Oh. Uh, Cordelia just has a history of trying too hard." Tara shook her head. "I don't understand why anyone would wanna be May Queen, anyway."
Buffy opened her locker. "I was May Queen."
"You were?" Tara asked, surprised.
"At my old school." Buffy switched out books, closed her locker, and turned back to face Tara. "Well, we didn't call it 'May Queen', but we had the coronation and the dance and all that stuff. It was nice."
Tara still didn't get the appeal, but she didn't say anything.
Suddenly, a boy came running down the hall. "Guys! C'mon!"
Buffy looked up.
"Mitch got whaled on! I think he's dead!"
Buffy and Tara looked at each other and then followed the boy.
Principal Snyder was standing in front of the door to the gym, talking to the students. "Dead? Of course not. What are you, ghouls?"
They all turned to look when the paramedics opened the doors to the gym and wheeled Mitch out.
"There are no dead students here. This week. Clear back, make room, all of you."
Buffy grabbed the gurney and stopped it. "Mitch, what happened?"
"I don't know. I-I heard something. I tried to grab a-a bat...that hit me."
"What hit you?" Buffy asked him.
"The bat! By itself; the thing was floating; it knocked me out."
The paramedics wheeled him away.
Buffy looked at Tara. "I'd better check out the scene." She started toward the locker room.
"Where do you think you're going?" Snyder asked her.
Buffy stopped and faced him. "Um, Mitch wanted me to get his comb. He - He likes his comb."
"I don't think Mitch needs his comb right now. I think Mitch needs medical attention. And you need to stay away from the crime scene. Always sticking your nose in."
"Sue?" Tara asked loudly, looking at the closest student. "What did you say? Mitch was gonna sue the school?"
Snyder looked at Tara. "Sue? Who?"
Buffy mouthed "Thank you" to Tara and quickly went into the locker room.
Tara was a bit nervous. "Well, his dad is the most powerful lawyer in Sunnydale."
"Hold on. What have you heard?" Snyder asked her.
"His dad, the lawyer. You haven't heard of him? Other lawyers call him 'The Beast'."
The locker room was deserted. Buffy walked quietly and looked around. She saw the bat on the floor and went over to it. She nudged it with her foot, and it just rolled away. She went into the nearest row of lockers, where four of the locker doors were damaged and wide open. She looked into one of the lockers and noticed a large letter on the door next to it. She closed all of the lockers and saw the word "look" painted in red.
Buffy told Tara what she had found later in the cafeteria during lunch.
"'Look'? That's all it said?" Tara asked. "Look at what? Look at Mitch?"
"Maybe. All I know is it's a message."
Giles came over to them. "Ah, here you are."
Buffy glanced at him and then looked back at Tara. "And monsters don't usually send messages. It's pretty much crush, kill, destroy. This was different."
"I'd have to say you're right."
Buffy grinned. "I love it when he says that!" She looked at Giles. "Any theories?"
Giles sat down at their table. "Uh, I'm, uh, it's a bit of a puzzle, really. Um, I've never actually heard of anyone attacked by a lone baseball bat before. Assuming the bat itself is not possessed, uh, there are a few possibilities that bear investigating. Uh, someone with telekinesis, uh, the power to move objects at will, uh, uh, an invisible creature, um, or possibly a poltergeist."
"A ghost?" Tara asked.
"Yes, and a very angry one."
Buffy stuck a fry in her mouth. "Yeah, I'd say. The locker room was a real scene."
Tara felt upset. "If it's a ghost, then we're talking about a dead kid."
Buffy was somber. "I guess so. You know, why don't you compile a list of dead or missing kids? It's probably a good place to start."
Tara nodded. "Okay."
Giles nodded. "And, uh, I'll research all the possibilities, ghosts included."
"What are you gonna do?" Tara asked Buffy.
"Gonna find out what I can about Mitch. This attack wasn't random. Gonna ask around, talk to his friends."
Later, Harmony found Cordelia at the drinking fountain on the balcony.
Harmony smiled. "Hi!"
Cordelia stopped drinking and looked at her friend. "Oh, hi."
"Cordelia, you weren't in fifth period."
"I went to the hospital."
"Oh, Mitch. How is he? Will he be okay?"
"Well, the doctor says he'll be fine. They're gonna send him home tomorrow. But...you should've seen him lying there. All black and blue? How's he gonna look in our Spring Fling pictures? How am I ever gonna be able to show them to anyone?" Cordelia asked.
"Well, they can do wonderful things with airbrushes these days."
"You think?" Cordelia asked her.
Cordelia and Harmony walked along the balcony toward the stairs.
"I just hope they can prop him up long enough to take the picture."
"Cordelia, can I talk to you?"
Cordelia looked and saw Buffy standing in the doorway. "Oh, great."
"Uff!" Harmony felt something push her backward, and she tumbled down the stairs.
Buffy, Cordelia, and others ran down after her. Principal Snyder saw it happen, too.
"Harmony!" Cordelia yelled.
Buffy and Cordelia crouched down next to Harmony.
"Oh, for heaven's sakes! Clear back, everyone! Give her some air!" Snyder looked at a student. "You! School nurse, now!"
The student nodded and ran off.
"Ow! Fuck! Oh, my ankle!" Harmony cried. "I think it's broken."
"What happened?" Buffy asked her.
Snyder looked at Buffy. "Hey! Who's the principal here?" He looked at Harmony. "What happened?"
"She fell!" Cordelia told him. "She - She - We were standing at the top of the stairs, and she just fell! All by herself!"
"No! I was pushed!" Harmony corrected.
Buffy got up when she heard laughter and footsteps going up the stairs. She followed the sounds up the stairs. Snyder bent down and touched Harmony's ankle.
"Ow!" Harmony cried in pain.
"Don't sue."
Buffy reached the top of the stairs and still heard the laughter. She saw a door close and followed whoever it was inside.
"Is anybody here?" Buffy called.
She felt something bump her and heard footsteps going into the band room. She looked around, confused.
"Hey! Who's here?" Buffy asked.
She went into the band room and heard activity somewhere.
"Okay, I know someone's here. Look, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna talk to you." Buffy looked around for a while and finally left.
After school, students were leaving for the day. Buffy, Tara, and Giles were standing outside the main entrance.
"Giles, have you ever touched a ghost?" Buffy asked.
"Uh, no. From what I've heard, uh, having a-a ghost pass through you is a singular experience. It's a - It's a rather, uh, cold, amorphous feeling. It makes your hair stand on end."
"You see, that's my problem. I touched the thing, but it didn't go through me. It bumped into me. And it wasn't cold."
"So...we're talking about what, an invisible person?" Tara asked.
Buffy looked at her. "A girl. She laughed."
Giles pondered that. "A girl on campus with the ability to become invisible. It must be a fairly heady experience...having that ability."
"How'd she get it? Is she a witch?" Tara asked. "'Cause we can fight a witch."
Giles thought about it. "Hmm. Greek myths speak of cloaks of invisibility, but they're usually for the gods."
Buffy looked at him. "This girl's sorta petty for a god."
"She's got a grudge. But why Harmony?" Tara asked.
"Harmony and Mitch. The common denominator is...Cordelia!" Buffy realized.
"So what now?" Tara asked her.
"First thing tomorrow, why don't you pull up that missing kids list?" Buffy suggested.
"Got it." Tara kissed Buffy on the lips. "I'll see ya then."
Buffy smiled. "Bye."
Giles looked at Buffy. "So...I'll look into ways that you can de-cloak an invisible someone. What about you?"
"I think Cordelia's gonna be workin' on her May Queen dress tonight. Maybe there'll be some action. Guess I'm gonna start the hunt."
"How, exactly, do you propose to hunt someone you can't see?" Giles asked her.
Buffy gave Giles an inquisitive look.
That night, Buffy and Giles walked back into the school.
Giles looked at Buffy. "You may have to work on listening to people."
"Very funny."
"I thought so."
Buffy heard activity to her left. She found the room where Cordelia and her friends were getting her dress ready. They fussed over the dress. Buffy heard the conversation and laughter coming from the room.
"Should I wear my hair up? Do you think I should wear it up?" Cordelia asked her friends.
Buffy peeked through the door to watch.
"How does the, um, hem go?" Cordelia asked. "Is it - Is it long enough, or..."
Buffy smiled.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Cordelia asked.
Buffy looked down and remembered her own experience as May Queen. As she turned to go, she heard a flute playing. She began to follow the sound.
In the library, Giles went up the stairs and stopped when he heard the music. The music stopped, and he continued into the stacks. He heard a squeaking and stopped again.
"Who's there?" Giles asked.
After a moment, he took a few steps to a glass-enclosed bookcase and saw his reflection - and Angel next to him. He turned away, startled, and saw Angel standing there.
"Don't worry. I'm not here to eat."
"Cordelia told me you don't feed from humans anymore."
"Not for a long while."
"Is that why you're here? To see her?"
"I can't. It's, uh..." Angel paused. "It's too hard for me to be around her."
"What can I, uh..." Giles paused. "What can I do for you?"
"I know you've been researching the Master."
"Yes, the vampire king. I've tried to learn as much as I can about him for the day that Buffy must face him."
"Something's already in motion, something big, but I don't know what. You've read all the Slayer lore there is, right?"
"I-I've studied all the extant volumes, of course. But the, uh, most salient books of Slayer prophecy have been lost. The Tiberius Manifesto, the Pergamum Codex-"
"The Codex?" Angel asked.
"It's reputed to have contained the most complete prophecies about the Slayer's role in the end years. Unfortunately, the book was lost in the fifteenth century."
"Not lost. Misplaced. I can get it."
Giles gasped, astounded. "That would be most helpful! Uh, m-my own volumes have...been rather useless of late."
Angel looked at the book that Giles was holding. "Legends of Vishnu?"
Giles was a bit embarrassed. "There's an...invisible girl terrorizing the school."
"That's not really my area of expertise."
"Nor mine, I'm afraid. Uh, it's fascinating, though. By all accounts it's a-a-a wonderful power to possess. Um, speaking of..." Giles pointed at Angel's reflection in the bookcase's glass and raised an eyebrow.
Angel smiled. "Don't believe everything you read."
The next day, at school, people were gathered in the quad, where a stage had been set up. Buffy and Tara were there. Buffy leaned on a nearby pillar.
Principal Snyder was standing on the stage. "The winner is Cordelia Chase! Let's bring up our new May Queen."
Buffy, Tara, and the other students applauded.
Cordelia walked onto the stage and over to the microphone. "Thank you for making the right choice - and for showing me how much you all love me."
The crowd applauded again.
"Being this popular is not just my right, but my responsibility, and I want you to know I take it very seriously. It all began when..."
Buffy stared at Cordelia. "Last night was a bust. But I still think Cordy's the key."
Tara held up a sheet of paper. "This is the dead and missing list. I pulled up their classes, activities, medical records..."
Buffy took it. "Good work."
Tara noticed two men in black suits loitering by some stairs. "Has Cordelia hired a bodyguard or something?"
Buffy didn't care. She was reading the list. "Hey, check out this one. It's the most recent disappearance, Marcie Ross; disappeared, like, six months ago."
Tara looked at her. "I don't know her."
"Her only activity was band. She played the flute."
"So?"
"Well, last night, when I was hunting, I heard this flute, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. And it was in the band room that I lost Miss Invisible yesterday. You know what? This all tracks. I'm gonna check it out. See you later?"
"Okay, I'll see you after geometry." Tara kissed Buffy on the lips.
"Ask not what your school can do for you; ask: 'Hey! What am I wearing to the Spring Fling?'"
Buffy chuckled, looked at Cordelia, and then walked away.
Buffy looked around the band room and almost ran into a chair. She noticed a boot print on it, guessed it was used as a step to climb, and looked up. She noticed in the corner of the ceiling that there was an access hatch. She climbed up onto the cabinet and crawled over to the hatch. She lifted it up and put it aside as she poked her head in and had a look around. She climbed up onto the ceiling and began to crawl through the space. Near a skylight, she found some things. A flute was there, and Buffy picked it up to look at it. Buffy picked up a teddy bear, looked at it, and put it back. She looked under some sheet music, found a yearbook, pulled it out, and opened it.
"Marcie Ross. So it is you." Buffy sat there and reflected for a moment, and then she closed the yearbook and took it with her as she started back to the hatch.
Once out, she closed the hatch and climbed back down from the cabinet.
Cordelia arrived at Ms. Miller's classroom and knocked on the door.
After waiting a while, Cordelia opened the door and walked in. "Ms. Miller?"
She found Ms. Miller slumped over on her desk. A plastic bag was over Ms. Miller's head.
"Oh, my God! Ms. Miller!" Cordelia ran over and lifted her up. "Oh, my God!" She pulled the bag off Ms. Miller's head. "Are you okay?"
Ms. Miller drew a sudden, deep breath and began coughing.
"Ms. Miller, what happened?" Cordelia asked.
"Attacked. Didn't see."
They heard the noise of a piece of chalk writing on the board. Cordelia and Ms. Miller turned to see a floating piece of chalk finish writing the word "listen".