Female of the Species (11/?) By Lesley Mc Kenna

["Diana Renee Bouvier" <DianaBouvier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Female of the Species
Author: Lesley Mckenna mckenna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Feedback: Please send it to Lesley. mckenna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rating: PG or a mild R
Spoilers: None really.


***WARNING: There is a Character Death in this part.***


PART ELEVEN

"Should we be doing this, d'you think?" Willow asked. Hidden in the shadows
of the building's deep entrance porch, Buffy looked into her lover's face
and nodded unsmilingly.

"What do you reckon, Will? You think we should turn around and go home
again?"

Willow shifted from foot to foot, thoroughly unsettled.

"Well, nooo... I guess not. I don't know Buffy. This is... illegal, right?"

This time when Buffy nodded, her face was wreathed in a sardonic smile.

"Yeah, breaking and entering usually is. But..." She fished in her pockets,
produced her Agency ID and a permit to search. Forged, of course, by Willow
magic just over an hour ago. "Anyone asks, we got these, right? But there's
no night watchman here. C'mon, Will, where's your backbone? You were okay
about this before."

"That was earlier. Seemed like a good idea then. I mean, we were all fired
up about Xander and all. But it's like... three am now... And here we are,
lurking about." Buffy heard Willow sigh again, then saw her face set, become
resolved. "Oh hell, we're here now. Let's go for it. But I just hope those
demons aren't around. It's a little late for a full-on fight."

Buffy let herself sigh with relief. If Willow had been determined to change
her mind, she knew she couldn't have forced her to go inside. But as ever,
Willow's bravery and curiosity had finally come through. As Buffy should
have known it would.

"That's my girl," Buffy whispered. She leaned in toward Willow and the two
shared a swift, but intense kiss. "Do your magic now, Will," she urged. "Get
us inside."

Willow nodded.

"Got to override the building's security systems first. You can bet that if
I try messing with the locks, the alarms'll go off and we'll have the local
cops here. Don't want that, right?"

"Right," Buffy echoed.

Willow reached into her holdall, brought out her new state-of-the-art
palm-top computer, logged onto the Internet, brought up the building's
mainframe computer using codes that Buffy had no hope of understanding and
didn't even bother trying to anymore. Earlier, just after they'd left Giles'
house, Willow had tried to access the main computer for Dreams Fulfilled,
but it had been inaccessible. Possibly - even probably - it had been
magically protected. So instead, Willow had found the building in which the
dating agency was housed in, located that system saving the site address in
her "Favorites" file.

"Okay, here we go," Buffy heard her mutter, heard the click of fingernails
on the keys. Heard a few curse words that made Buffy laugh under her breath,
because Willow didn't like to swear, and coming from her, the words were
incongruous, somehow even more dirty. Then, after a few more moments: "Got
it! Yay! Systems... OFF!"

"Clever girl," murmured Buffy, full of awe at her lover's adeptness and
quick mind.

"It was nothing," Willow replied with mock-modesty. "Now, to get in." A few
more clicks on the keyboard. "Ha! Child's play! Push the door, Buffy."
Smugness now. "I think you'll find it'll open."

Buffy did so, marveling as the front door slid open smoothly. Once inside,
she hugged Willow again, allowing herself to relax a little for the first
time since the decision to come here under the cover of night had been made.

"You're a genius, Will," she said, and Willow looked pleased.

"I know," Willow replied, and in the dimly lit silence of the entrance hall,
they both giggled like teenage girls. Tension reasserting itself, Buffy
thought. Certainly on her part, the relaxation hadn't lasted long; now she
felt warily alert. Because getting in had been the easy part, she guessed.
If there were demons in this building, getting out would be hard.

Still, they'd come armed this time. Buffy had her FBI issue revolver, plus a
short, curved sword in case bullets were no use against the succubi. Willow
had charged a crystal wand, which would emit a high-charge beam of pure
spirit. Enough to blow anything away said with the correct words of power.
Really, they should have taken them to Cordelia's earlier, but they'd been
kind of rushed. Besides, they hadn't known that Xander was under sexual
attack by irresistible but lethal beings then.

Hand in hand, they took the stairs to the floor where Dreams Fulfilled was
housed. Buffy stopped outside the frosted glass doors.

"No lights on," she observed.

"Doesn't mean no-one's here though. Succubi might like dark places. All the
better to seduce..."

"Assault their innocent victims, more like." Buffy sighed. "What's their
agenda, though, Will? That's what I don't understand."

"What agenda do all demons have?" Willow countered. "To bring about the end
of the world, right?"

"I don't know, Will. This feels different. I mean, before, they've always
tried to kill us, right? But this time... This time they wanna honor us.
That's what's different. So why?"

"Well, we're not gonna find out unless we go in here," Willow pointed out.
"So let's go."

Once through the doors, Buffy stopped. Gaped. Swore under her breath.

"Bitches're gone." She looked around the now bare office space. There were
no chairs, no desk, no computer. Even the coffee table with its tacky
magazines were gone, as were the pictures that had adorned the wall, along
with the potted plants. Only the brief scent of flowers lingered, as though
mocking them.

"Goddam it!"

"I guess they thought we were getting too close," Willow offered.

"But they want us to get close..."

"Not this kind of close, I guess. They... they must want us to go to them on
their terms, not on ours. Because... Because if they'd left their computers
here, whatever, and they'd contained evidence of... whatever they've been up
to, then... I don't know..." Willow seemed to be groping for ideas, or at
least the words with which to express them. "I guess us having their records
and suchlike would've been too official or something."

"Maybe."

"Let's check out back."

Buffy looked at Willow, grimaced.

"Any point, Will? I expect they've cleared out the offices too."

"Yeah, I expect they have. But you never know, right? They might have left
something behind."

"Okay. But it'll be a waste of time."

Willow tutted.

"I bet that's not what you were taught in your training, right?" she said.
"In fact, I bet your instructors would scold you if they could hear you say
that looking back there would be a waste of time. Overlooking evidence and
the like. Not making a thorough investigation..."

"Shut up, Will," Buffy said, but she was laughing through her mild
irritation because she knew that Willow was right. Not thoroughly
investigating all the possibilities was a cardinal sin in the eyes of the
Agency. Almost a dismissable offense.

They searched the offices - three in all - one by one. Two showed the same
barrenness as the outer office. In the third, sitting on the burgundy
carpet, a small, ornately engraved box. Next to it, an envelope with "The
Slayer and The Sorceress" inscribed on it in black calligraphic writing.

"Score," Buffy murmured. "You were right, Will."

"Naturally," Willow said. "Aren't I always?"

Together, Buffy and Willow knelt to read the contents of the envelope, a
beautifully scripted note on handmade parchment.

"For obvious reasons, Dreams Fulfilled has had to cease business," the note
told them. "But our main business here has not been completed. You, Slayer,
and your Sorceress, are important to us. And, we believe, we can be
important to you too. The box you now see before you holds the key to our
dimension. Dare you enter it?"

Buffy blew air slowly from between pursed lips.

"Sounds like a challenge to me, Will," she said. Willow, she saw, was
staring fixedly at the box.

"Key to their dimension," Willow breathed. "We gonna dare, Buffy?"

"What do you think?"

"I think, yeah. But not here, Buffy. We have to prepare first, and I think
we should tell Giles too. See if he has any ideas. Maybe he's seen this box
before. We shouldn't open it until we know what we're getting into."

"Yeah, you're right, Will. Not here. I'll call Giles. Tell him what we've
got. But I have a feeling he'll be as much in the dark as we are."

Pulling out her mobile phone, Buffy did that. On the other end, Giles
sounded both excited and afraid.

"Mom's not gonna like this," Buffy reminded him. She heard Giles exhale down
the phone line.

"Perhaps not," Giles said. "But she's going to have to accept it.
Besides..." Now Buffy heard a definite thrill in his voice. "It's been a
long time since we fought together. In a strange way, I've missed it."

"Well, I hope you're not disappointed," Buffy said. "Be at our place in
thirty minutes. Bring your books on magical artifacts - especially boxes."

"Boxes? Right. See you then." Giles broke the connection, leaving Buffy with
the hum of an empty line.

"Well, he sounded... pleased. I hope mom doesn't give him too much of a hard
time. Don't want another divorce..."

"We'll worry about your mom later, Buffy," Willow said. "But first we have
to see what these demons want."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Buffy stood. "So, let's go find out."

*****


Three hours later, in the early morning light of Buffy and Willow's
apartment, they still hadn't found out. Leafing through Giles' many volumes
on ancient occult artifacts had proven pretty much useless. Once or twice,
they'd seen a similar-looking box, only to discover on closer inspection
that one or other detail was subtly different. The only connection between
all these boxes was that they were all made by demons. But the trio had
already guessed that much.

"You know, I don't think we're going to know exactly what this is until we
open it," Buffy said, holding the little box in her hands, watching sunlight
glint off the silver-colored metal inlay. Metal inlay that showed weird and
wonderful scenes of a land they hadn't managed to identify. No doubt the
land which somehow lay within the box.

"But we don't really want to risk it until we know what it does, do we?"
Giles asked; he appeared, Buffy thought, very tired. And he looked older
too; funny how she hadn't noticed that before. Of course, he was older than
he had been in Sunnydale. Weren't they all? But a few years on being twenty
was different from a few years on being in your mid-forties. How old was
Giles now? Fifty. Maybe too old to deal with this shit. Especially now he
was out of practice. Maybe he was no use to them anymore? Past his sell-by
date...?

Buffy frowned. That wasn't right, thinking about Giles in such a derogatory
way. Giles was still vital, and even if he wasn't so fit physically,
mentally he hadn't slowed down in any way. What was she doing? How insulting
of her.

"I wish Ethan Rayne would hurry up with those books he promised me," Giles
was saying. "I expect we'd find have information on this box then..."

"Yeah, well, he hasn't come through, has he?" Buffy snapped, causing Giles
to stare in surprise at her abrupt tone. "He never was one to keep his
promises. Such as they were. He'll be one of the first to..."

Buffy stopped, frowned. Once again, wondered what the hell she was thinking
of.

For a second there, she had been about to... Another frown... She couldn't
remember exactly what she had been about to say. But she knew it was
something to do with killing and death. Uneasily, she looked at Willow, then
at Giles, who were watching her warily.

"I don't like this box," she said, putting it down - almost dropping it in
her sudden desire to be rid of it. "I think it's capable of influencing
minds."

"You do?" Giles queried. "How so?"

"Don't know," Buffy mumbled. "But when I was touching I felt kinda...
hostile."

"Toward me?" Giles said. Buffy nodded, ashamed.

"Yeah. Not toward Will. Just you. Oh, and Ethan Rayne of course. But that's
not really a new concept, is it? We all feel hostile toward him." Her face
colored.

"But not murderous hostile..."

"Interesting," Giles said, bending toward the box, taking it in his hands,
twirling it round and round. "I feel no hostility."

"Maybe it's a woman thing," Willow said, holding out her hands for Giles to
put the box into. "But I didn't notice anything the last time I held it."
She closed her eyes, trying to "feel" the antagonistic vibrations Buffy had
felt. Shook her head. "No, I don't feel it."

Buffy scowled.

"Guess you're just too pure and innocent, Will," she muttered, not really
meaning it, but feeling worried that she had been singled out in some way by
the box. But how could a box pick on a person? Boxes weren't sentient
beings. Were they? "I think we should just open the damned thing."

"And what if we just open the damned thing and all hell's let loose?" Willow
cautioned. "I've seen "Hellraiser", you know. I know that pretty little
boxes can lead to terrible danger."

"Yeah, well that's the point, Will. We know that the answer to the question
lies inside. It was left for us to open, to discover. That's what the note
said. And all we're doing is sitting around on our asses talking about what
we should or shouldn't do. I say we should act. We've done enough talking
and I'm bored of going round in circles with this."

Willow sighed. Buffy watched as she placed the box back on the floor and
went to the window, where she stared out at the cityscape. Looked at
Willow's slim form silhouetted against the light. Knew that Willow wanted to
take action too, but was afraid. Of course, she was right to be afraid. Who
knew what would happen once they took the final step of opening the box? But
without the relevant information, Buffy knew they had to take the risk. And
besides, wasn't the idea... intriguing? Exciting? Almost desperately
fascinating?

Buffy guessed the box was still influencing her thinking in that it was
making itself attractive to her. Urging her on to cross over into the as yet
unknown. And she knew that the succubi wanted them to go in, for whatever
reason of their own. Otherwise they wouldn't have left the box for them to
find. But Buffy had the majority of her mind to herself, and she thought
that the female demons really didn't understand what they were fighting
either. Didn't really understand the combined awakened power of the Slayer
and the Great Sorceress. She and Willow would show them their combined power
and...

"Hey, Buffy, Giles, listen to this..."

Willow had gone from her place by the window, over to the television,
switched it on. Was watching the program - a news item - that was flashing
over the screen. All of the young boys - thirty in number - in one of the
city's detention centers had died suddenly and inexplicably overnight.

"Doctors have quarantined the area," the reporter - a woman of around
thirty - was saying into her microphone, "in case of communicable disease,
but the first reports are that these deaths appear to be Sudden Adult Death
Syndrome, similar to cot death in infants. None of the boys were reported as
ill yesterday. Strangely, perhaps, all of the female detainees are
unaffected..."

Willow switched off the television quickly. She looked pale, and Buffy
noticed that her hands were shaking a little. Giles had his face in his
hands, was rubbing them over his eyes, as though he was finally exhausted by
the whole thing.

"All those young boys," Willow whispered. Buffy nodded.

"It's a sign, right?" she said. "I mean, we've been sitting here half the
night, talking, and now all those boys are dead. And I think we know what
killed them, don't we? And I think we're seeing the pattern here."

"Male deaths." Willow supplied the answer. "Succubi hate men because Lilith,
their Queen, considered herself insulted by Adam, by God Himself. Now that
hate has finally come to a head and they're killing young men here in this
city. And maybe other cities too..."

The telephone rang. To Buffy's ears, it had the sound of extreme urgency and
she ran to answer it.

"Yeah?" For a moment, she heard nothing but muffled sounds. "Yeah? Who is
this?" she snapped impatiently; she didn't have time for stupid prank calls.

"Buffy... It's Cordelia..." More muffled sounds. Buffy knew suddenly that
Cordelia was weeping and felt a thud in her chest similar to a knife-thrust.

"Cordy...?" Dread in her heart.

"I don't know..." Cordelia seemed incapable of stringing the words together
to form a proper sentence. "I... Xander..."

"Cordy, what's happened? Has he gotten worse?"

A full-fledged sob now.

"He's... I can't even say it... He... he died..."

Buffy felt the knife twist in her heart and she heard a choked cry emerge
from her own throat.

"No way," she whimpered. "No way..."

>From out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw Willow sag into a chair as she
gathered from the conversation what had happened to her dearest friend. The
friend she had loved since childhood. Saw Giles go to Willow, put his arms
around her.

"When?" Buffy managed to ask.

"About... about fifteen minutes ago. Buffy... What am I gonna do?"

But Buffy could only shake her head and replace the receiver, unable to
offer even basic words of comfort to the stricken Cordelia.

For a long time, Buffy just stared and stared at the phone. Cordelia didn't
call back, and Buffy could only hope that she had someone with her to take
care of her. Because Buffy didn't feel capable of taking care of anyone
right now. Eventually, when she had herself under some kind of control, she
picked up the receiver and phoned her mother, told a shocked Joyce what
happened.

"Go to the hospital, mom. Please? I don't know if Cordelia has any support
there and we... we have things to do here... Things we should've done days
ago..." Forgetting that they hadn't had the means until just a few hours
ago. She heard Joyce protest, but hung up on her. Knew that Joyce would have
no choice but to go to Cordelia, because Joyce couldn't ignore another
person's pain.

Buffy went to the still-sobbing Willow, held her hands.

"You know we have to go in now, don't you?" she murmured. "You know that we
have to at least try and fight these things?"

Willow shook her head.

"I can't think clearly, Buffy," she said between bouts of weeping. "Oh, God,
poor Xander." She raised red-rimmed eyes to Buffy's, then Giles's. "Could we
have stopped all this death?" she asked. Neither Buffy nor Giles answered
that question. There was no answer that could satisfy.

"We can stop others though," Buffy said. "Will, between us we can prevent
more young men from dying. But..." She swallowed her own sorrow. "But we
have to be strong together, Will."

"I can't be strong... Xander just died..."

"And you know why and you don't want to make those who killed him pay? You
saw what killed him, Will. Don't you want to destroy it?" Ah, vengeance,
Buffy thought. Sweet, sweet vengeance. "This is really personal now, Will.
And if you don't - can't - help me now, then I'm gonna open the box and take
what happens alone. No matter what it is."

Emotional blackmail. Hitting Willow when she was at her lowest. But Hell,
Buffy felt Xander's death too. He'd been her friend too. Seen her through
bad times. Terrible times. She would miss his friendly, open face. Would
miss his smile. His wisecracks, terrible though they were sometimes, had
always made her laugh. She'd never laugh at him again now he'd been
murdered. His death would leave a huge hole in her heart, and she knew she
couldn't even begin to fill it until she had at least tried to avenge him.

"Okay," Willow said. Her voice shook, but was under control at last. "Okay,
Buffy, you're right. We have to go in now."

"Yeah." Buffy picked up the box, made to twist it around so it would come
open, but Willow took the box from her.

"Wait until the apartment is sealed," she said. "If there is something
terrible that will spiral out of control in here, then I can't let it escape
the confines of this apartment." Willow turned to look at Giles. "If you
want to go, then go. Because you don't have to risk your life. We do."

"I'm staying," Giles said with a shake of his head. Buffy flung herself into
his arms, almost knocking him over.

"If anything happened to you too, I couldn't bear it," she told him. But
Giles just shook his head again.

"I'm staying," he repeated. "And Willow's right. We must seal up this
apartment so the power doesn't escape. But Buffy, you don't know what you're
fighting yet. Or at least, not how to fight it. Are you certain that this is
the right thing to do? We could still wait for Ethan's books..."

"No!" Buffy snapped. "No more waiting. This is right. We'll know what to do
when the time comes. This is how it's meant to be."

"I agree with Buffy," Willow said. "Fate. Destiny. That's what this is, and
this is what we're meant to do. So we should do it."

For the next hour they magically sealed the apartment so that nothing could
escape it. Of course, if they were swallowed into the demons' land forever,
then they couldn't prevent the ultimate course of events. But that didn't
stop them from taking all the precautions they could.

Finally, when Willow and Giles had said all the spells, made all the signs,
placed all the protections, Buffy took up the box once more and prepared to
open it.

"Here we go," she said.

And began to twist it open.