Female of the Species (15/15) By Lesley Mckenna

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

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



PART FIFTEEN

No one hindered Buffy as she entered the building, searching for Giles. In
fact, she saw no one, although she felt the presence of several of Lilith's
daughters, felt their eyes, their minds, upon her. Watching her. Buffy
didn't allow the unseen scrutiny to distract her from her purpose. Finding
Giles, if she was able, freeing him. Although somehow she didn't think that
doing the freeing thing would be easy. Or, if she were to be really gloomy,
that it would even be possible. Lilith had everything well under her control
in this dimension. Even, she thought again, Willow.

Mounting a flight of stone steps, Buffy rid her mind of her former lover.
Then stopped for a second. Former lover? Was that how she saw Willow now?
The woman with whom she'd shared so many times, both good and bad. Former?
Had it come to this then, that Buffy had decided that there was no future
for them anymore? Well, how could there be a future when Willow quite
obviously had turned her back on the love they'd shared?

"But I still love her," she muttered, beginning her ascent again. "More than
anything..."

Yeah, but did love count for anything if there was no trust? Look at Angel,
how badly that had turned out. And Buffy had thought - believed, at the time
with her whole heart - that no love could ever replace his. Had believed in
that until she realized that her feelings for Willow had changed from those
of close friendship into an even greater, if different, love.

"Ah, quit it," she told herself. There was a time and place for analyzing a
situation, and this was most definitely not one of them.

She reached the top of the staircase; found herself looking down three
corridors that led off in three different directions. Still no one around.
But now she could hear faint singing, and, she thought, murmured laughter.
It seemed to come from a room at the end of the right-hand corridor, so
Buffy decided to go that way. Of course, she realized as she walked, it
could be a trap. But anywhere in this place could be a trap, or something
dangerous, although she reminded herself again that Lilith wanted her alive
and willing. It occurred to Buffy that maybe Lilith had given up trying, and
therefore that made her a target now, but somehow she didn't believe that.
Lilith was persistent and determined. Lilith would try again.

She came to the end of the corridor. Huge mahogany doors guarded the room.
Locked, surely, Buffy thought, reaching out a hand to try the black iron
ring-handle, but she was shocked as the door glided open to reveal a room
that quite literally made her jaw drop open in astonishment.

The room was pure fantasy, again, something out of Arabian Nights. Perfectly
circular, it was huge and airy, with columns supporting the painted ceiling.
>From the columns - which apparently formed entrances into other, smaller
chambers - were hung white muslin drapes that reached to the pale pink
marble floor. In the center of the room, a small fountain sprayed fragrant
water into the air with a gentle, babbling sound.

Perfume - musk and jasmine - filled the air, worn by the succubi who
thronged there, around twenty of them, Buffy guessed. Those that weren't
naked and flaunting their inhumanly exquisite bodies were dressed in gauzy
outfits of transparent silken fabrics that clung to their luscious curves.
As Buffy entered the room, they all turned as though one being and smiled at
her.

"Welcome, Slayer," said a voice from amongst the almost overpoweringly
beautiful group. A voice that sounded familiar - too familiar. Deanna
emerged from amongst her sisters, a welcoming smile on her features. Buffy
took a step backward; the sight of Deanna infuriated her, but she didn't
want to fight just yet. And still, she had to admit; there was that
attraction. Yes, that was there, although Buffy didn't want to admit to it.

"I've come here to see Giles," Buffy stated, keeping her voice hard and
impersonal.

"And what makes you think he's here?" Deanna inquired.

"Lilith told me he was being kept in this building. And since I've only seen
you and your... sisters since I've come in here, I have to assume he's with
you. Or that you know where he is, at least. And Lilith said I could see
him." Buffy paused, staring hard at Deanna, who gave a tiny smile. "I guess
you wouldn't dare go against your mother, or whatever she is."

Deanna inclined her head.

"If that is what Lilith said, then of course we must allow you to see him.
But rest assured, he is most comfortable." Another small smile. "She did not
mention... the other we have here?"

"Other?" Buffy said, taken aback.

"Other, yes. Would you like to see? Or..." Deanna licked slick red lips,
"would you perhaps like to... relax with me first? Enjoy that which you so
enjoyed when I visited you before?"

The calling in Deanna's eyes was strong, but Buffy found she was able to
resist. Anger formed a large part of this resistance. How dare Deanna taunt
her with what had gone on before? If Buffy wasn't so concerned for Giles'
safety - and that of... the other... whoever that was - then she would fight
Deanna here and now, to the death if necessary, no matter whose.

"Just let me see." Biting back a faint terror, because who else could these
creatures have enslaved?

"Then follow."

Deanna turned her back and led the way through a fall of drapery, under a
columned arch into a small, darkened antechamber lit only with a single
fiery torch. Once Buffy's eyes had adjusted to the semi-darkness, she saw
who lay on the bed within.

"You're dead," she whispered, looking at Xander's half-naked body. He didn't
answer her, didn't appear to have heard, or even seen her, although his eyes
were open wide. "What's going on here?" Whirling round, she hissed the
question at Deanna. "He died in the hospital..."

"His body died," Deanna said, agreeing. "From human exhaustion. There is no
returning him back to the human world. This, what you see here, is his
spirit, the essence of the man. Still very much of use to us, at least for a
while longer."

Buffy's fury reached an uncontainable level and she snapped.

"You total bitch...!"

Launching herself at Deanna, Buffy connected to the lovely, smirking face
with a hard, well-aimed punch that made the succubus fall across the room to
land sprawling on the floor. Buffy was on her at once, hitting, punching,
and delighting in feeling demon flesh give under her fists. She heard
herself shrieking; unintelligible words that spewed out her enraged grief
and disgust. Then hands took hold of her and hauled her off Deanna, who had
been helpless to defend herself against the Slayer's frenzy. Struggling in
the arms of several succubi, Buffy was unable to move.

Deanna rose from the ground, her battered features rearranging themselves as
she did so. Instant regeneration, Buffy saw, realizing as she watched that
probably only decapitation and dismemberment would be sufficient to kill
her. Once again, Deanna was smiling.

"I shall forgive you for that outburst," she told Buffy magnanimously. "I
understand your pain at your friend's plight, but you will come to
understand that he is, like most men, nothing. Worthless, except as a source
of energy. And his soul does not suffer. As it feeds us, so it knows only
delight and pleasure."

"It's perverted," Buffy spat. "It's horrible, and not only that, but you're
stopping his soul from... from resting or... or... advancing, or
whatever..."

"Not your concern. And when you come around to our way of thinking, then you
will realise that..."

"I will never come around to your way of thinking."

"We shall see," Deanna said, echoing Lilith's earlier words, sounding, like
Lilith, very confident about Buffy having a change of heart. "Now, if you
wish, you may see your other friend." Smiling in a self-satisfied manner. "I
think you'll find him very well looked after. So follow, if you can promise
no more violence. Because, after all, you wouldn't want either of your male
friends to suffer, now would you? And whether they suffer or not is of no
concern to us. They are commodities, no more."

After a few seconds, Buffy nodded, and she found herself freed.

"Take me to him," she instructed, and with a heavy heart, left Xander's
oblivious soul to follow Deanna once again. But silently she vowed that she
would find a way to free him, along with Giles, and give him peace.

Giles was in a similar chamber to the one Xander's soul was being kept in. A
prison without walls, Buffy thought as she went inside. With Giles were two
women who were tending to the small wounds left on his body by the
fairy-creature from the forest. The women withdrew from Giles at a motion
from Deanna. When Buffy saw Giles, she ran to him, hugged him. Felt him hug
her back.

"Are you okay?" she whispered. "Jesus, Giles, I'll get you outta this place,
I promise."

She felt Giles pull away from her, look at her with a quizzical expression.

"Why should I want to leave, Buffy?" he asked, and she saw that he had been
utterly bewitched.

"Giles?" This shouldn't have happened. Giles was protected by... Buffy
grabbed at his left hand saw only a thin white line on his ring finger.
Realized that his protection had been stolen from him, no doubt while he was
unconscious from the fairies' venom.

"I'm perfectly happy here," Giles said, and Buffy fell away from him,
understanding properly now that she was alone and there was nothing she
could do...

"See, Slayer," Deanna said. "No one else fights us. Why do you? Can you not
see Lilith's vision? Not wholesale destruction, as you would describe, but a
return to balance, to..."

"I don't wanna listen to this anymore," Buffy interrupted, going back to
Giles, who lay, eyes closed, upon his couch, perfectly relaxed. Roughly, she
shook him, her hand biting into the muscles of his upper arm. "Giles! Giles,
pull yourself together and get up!"

"Get up for what?" he murmured lazily, as though he were enjoying a day at
the beach. Now, under the watchful, amused eyes of Deanna and her sisters,
Buffy pulled back her hand and slapped his face hard. That made him sit
straight up.

"Why did you do that?" he inquired, affronted. "I don't understand why
you're trying to make me leave."

"See?" Deanna said. "He's perfectly happy to be with us."

Buffy didn't waste her breath answering her, just kept her eyes on Giles.

"My mother wouldn't be very happy with you. My mother would be heartbroken,
Giles." No reply, as though he didn't care. Probably, enthralled as he was,
he didn't. "Where's your wedding ring?"

She glanced up and away from Giles, to Deanna, saw then what she hadn't
noticed before. A band of gold glittering on the index finger of her right
hand. Oh yes, Giles' wedding ring.

"Looking for this, perhaps?" Deanna raised her hand, allowed the light to
play across Buffy's face.

Buffy bit at her lower lip. She had to have that ring, but using force would
do no good here, she'd already learned that. Maybe...

Deanna gave a long drawn out moan suddenly, clutched her head as though an
unexpectedly violent pain had rippled through her.

"What?" Buffy said, disarmed by this, and by the way that, one by one, the
other succubi were moaning, crying, apparently overcome by the same pain.
Some had dropped to the floor, where they lay, writhing. Deanna herself had
turned a peculiar shade of off-white.

Buffy didn't know what was going on here, but she didn't waste time. Once
more, she threw herself at the suffering Deanna, kicked her to the ground,
and once she was down, aimed several kicks to her ribs, felt them stave in
under the pressure. The pain of her caved-in ribs, along with the apparently
excruciating pain in her head, was enough to disable Deanna long enough for
Buffy to be able to pull the ring from the finger. No one else attempted to
stop her, and she raced to Giles, forcing the ring onto his finger.

At once, it seemed, the spell was broken. Giles shook his head, clearing it,
looked at Buffy, horrified, seemed about to ask questions, but Buffy put a
finger to his mouth.

"Later, okay?" she said. "We gotta get outta here. Something's happening,
something big." She glanced at the succubi - none of them seemed in a fit
state to stop them. "Come on." Grabbing Giles' hand, she pulled him up off
the couch, then they ran, not daring to stop just in case one of the succubi
decided that maybe they weren't in such pain after all.

Out of the chamber, down the still empty corridor, down the flight of stone
steps, out into the courtyard.

Waiting for them, something so bizarre that both Buffy and Giles stopped and
watched.

Still standing where they had been left were Willow and Lilith. Buffy saw
they were holding each other's hands. But the skin was not just touching, it
was...

"Fused," Buffy whispered. "Oh my God, what's happening here?"

She heard a moan of pain come from the other side of the courtyard, saw
Zuleka laying on the sandy ground, blood pouring from her eyes, nose and
mouth. Looked again toward Willow and Lilith, saw the fusion was increasing.
>From where the skin was joined, silver light streamed outward.

"Will!" Buffy screamed. "Will...!"

But Willow only smiled serenely, as though nothing was happening. Not the
same for Lilith. The ancient crone was evidently suffering, because tears of
blood streamed down her wrinkled face. More light poured out from between
them, almost blinding in its brightness. Yet Lilith wasn't fighting whatever
process was occurring here. No, she seemed to lean toward Willow, perhaps
wishing it to be over.

The fusion continued.

"What's going on, Giles?" Buffy asked, shielding her eyes. Giles shrugged.

"They're joining in some way," Giles said, stating the obvious. "Willow
seems to be... to be absorbing Lilith in some miraculous way, but I don't
understand..."

Lilith had leaned right toward Willow now. Buffy could see their clothes
interlacing, interweaving together. Their faces touched, and became skin to
skin, features merging, Lilith's features becoming Willow's features. And
finally, the absorption was finished, and Willow stood there alone. Stood in
a bubble of light that seemed to come from within her. Her eyes were closed,
moving as though she were in a dream. Buffy found herself afraid to
approach. Then the light was drawn into Willow, and she opened her eyes, saw
Buffy. Her mouth stretched into a smile of such brilliance and love that
Buffy felt any doubts leave her instantly. Flying forward, she found herself
in Willow's arms.

"What happened here?" she asked, although the question seemed inadequate
somehow, when a million questions wanted to burst from her lips. Willow
smiled a Willow smile, but didn't it seem that much brighter? Weren't her
eyes that little bit more...? Buffy couldn't describe what she saw in
Willow's eyes. A kind of knowledge that hadn't been there before.

Willow pulled away a little, took Buffy's hand, held out the other hand to
Giles, who took it.

"We're all safe now," she said. "The succubi are dead or dying. They can't
hurt us."

"But how, Will? I thought it was all over... I thought you'd... betrayed
me."

Willow began walking, and they sat on the stone bench in the courtyard. The
feeling of peace - true peace - was indescribable.

"I'm the servant of the Goddess," Willow began. "And Lilith was part of the
Goddess. Of course I'd find her attractive. But," another smile, "she found
me attractive too. She was all-dark, don't you see, Buffy? Giles? All dark,
no balance. And dark is attracted light, isn't it? Wants to destroy it. She
might've won me over, I guess, if I hadn't had help."

"Help?" Giles asked, because Buffy didn't seem able to speak.

"The Goddess - my Goddess - hadn't deserted me, as I thought she had. Oh no.
I've learned that she never does, not really. If her daughters are true to
her, then she is true to them. I... I was needed here, Buffy. The Goddess's
light couldn't penetrate here naturally anymore, Lilith's anger and
bitterness prevented it. I, marked by the Goddess herself as the Great
Sorceress, had to be the one who carried it in. So that Lilith could be...
transformed. Not destroyed, because she is part of the Goddess's whole. But
made light again."

"In you, Will?" Buffy asked through dry lips. What, exactly, was Willow
saying? Was she... was she a goddess now, then?

"Yeah. In me. To transform Lilith's dark and hatred to light and love. But
Lilith was right, Buffy."

"Right?" Giles protested before Buffy could reply. "How could she be right?
She planned mass murder."

"She was right in that the world needs to change, Giles. She was right in
that we've desecrated the earth and Her beauty with wars, pollution and
technology. And it has to change. We - all of us - can do it together. We
must. Because otherwise we'll kill ourselves, go the way of the dinosaurs."

"How?" Buffy asked. But Willow shrugged.

"We'll find a way," she said. "We've saved the world from demons and who
knows what else before. Now let's save it from ourselves? You, the Slayer,
and me the great Sorceress. Together, with our friends, we can do anything."

Buffy hugged Willow.

"I love you," she said, meaning it with her whole heart, wondering how on
earth she could ever have believed that Willow would betray her. Then
remembered poor Xander's soul...

"He's free," Willow said when Buffy told her. "As soon as Lilith's power was
broken, he became free."

"But we'll... we'll give him a proper memorial service, right? Just to show
we loved him." Buffy's voice choked, remembering Xander's death.

"Just to show we loved him," Willow agreed, wiping away a tear.

"And you, Giles, you'll go back to my mom?" Buffy asked, and Giles nodded.
"You gonna tell her all about this?"

Giles flushed a little.

"Perhaps not quite all," he said. "Wouldn't want your mother thinking I'd
been out of control of myself for a while, now would we? I doubt she'd take
any too kindly to that."

Buffy frowned, then giggled.

"I guess not," she agreed. "Your secret's safe with me."

Willow stood, held out her hands to the others again.

"Let's go home," she said. "We've got a lot of work to do."

"But there's no exit..." Buffy began.

"Yes there is. Trust me."

Willow began to walk and the other walked with her. They walked toward the
courtyard wall, on and on, until Buffy thought they would walk right into
it. Instead, they walked right through it. And on the other side, their
apartment.

"Told you there was an exit," Willow said.

"And Lilith's dimension? What about that?" Giles asked, sitting down on a
chair, apparently overwhelmed.

"Gone," Willow replied. "Not needed anymore. The balance is restored, after
all."

For a while, they sat in silence, absorbing the events of the past few...
Well, however long they had been in the demon realm. From time to time,
Buffy stole a glance at Willow, who seemed to be dreaming again. Was she
seeing visions of how they could save the future of humankind?

Funny, Buffy thought, that this had never really been about her. Usually,
with these save-the-world things, she did all the fighting and the others
helped her. But this time... Weird. There had been very little fighting.
Very little bloodshed or true physical danger. No, this time had been purely
about love and its power to conquer its enemy, hate. She wondered if love
was strong enough to aid them in their task ahead. That of making the world
listen to the words that could bring back the balance it needed to survive.
Then she glanced at Willow again, and this time Willow smiled back, love
shining from her eyes. Giles joined in the smile, and Buffy began to laugh.

"How could I have doubted it?" she asked. "You're right, Will. Together, we
can do anything. And we will. We will."



THE END