FF: Stages.

["The Fool" <honouredfool@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Stages

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Warner Brothers etc own all the BtVS and Angel characters. I'm just borrowing them long enough to rip out their hearts then maybe put them back when I'm done.

Feedback: If I don't get feedback I'm going to start killing more characters. *Waves pen in front of Giles' face* (Holding characters hostage for feedback is probably bad form eh?)

Authour's Notes: I've been working on this for a good while, never quite happy with the result. I would really appreciate feedback on this one, either positive or negative. I'll give the first person who recognizes the pattern of this installment a shiny Canadian e-nickel which is worth exactly one dot of ink on an American dollar.


Chapter One: The Mistake 

//The Queen is dead.// The words echoed through his mind like cannon fire. 
//What? Then we are lost. The Dark will ascend.//

//Do not be so quick to surrender boy. We still have opportunity. Who has dominion over her soul?//

//I have no idea master. Yahweh I suppose. It never came up. Are we going 
to--//

//We will speak with Yahweh. We will also speak with the Goddess and the God. Go Maclas, you still must rescue the witch.//

***

//Master we need you//

"I am already here Rupert. I understand some things have come up since I left?"

"I found out where Talos was holding Willow and I came over to tell Spike and Cordelia but Cordelia was gone and left this note but she had seen Willow in a vision and went off to rescue her which was really very stupid because this Talos is quite dangerous and?"

"Giles!" The old man shouted to intercept the Willowesque babble. "One Willow is quite enough thank you. Now tell me three things. Where is Spike? Where is my daughter? And how is Buffy holding up?"

"Not very well I fear. I've spent every waking moment with her since Spike left. All she does is sit by the window in their bedroom. I've never seen her like this Usually when Willow is in danger she doesn't stop until Willow is once again safe. It bothers me a great deal."

"Frankly I can't understand it either. I would've expected her to want to charge off to Willow's rescue. I'll have to speak with her in a few minutes. Now, what of the others.?"

"spike went after Cordelia, he planned to stop her from doing anything stupid." Giles saw the pain flash across the older man's face. "Master what is it? What's wrong?" Owen collapsed into a chair, the strain of the last few days evident on his face.

"He was too late Rupert." Owen watched his words sink in.

"She was captured then? Another hostage against us?" Giles asked hopefully. The old man shook his head. "Surely not?" Giles gulped down horror at what he was about to say. "turned?" Again he was faced with a negative response. "Then she's been killed."

"I'm afraid so. I passed Spike on my way here. I want the body so I asked him to recover it, but not to go after Willow. Under no circumstances is anyone to go after her by themselves. I don't like this Rupert, it reeks of some one smarter than Talos. I need to find out who. But first I'd better go talk with Buffy." Owen stood up and swallowed away the pain Giles knew he was feeling. //What are we going to tell Faith.// Giles had no idea and he doubted Owen did either.

***

"Buffy, what exactly are you doing sitting up here staring out the window? Are you hoping to accomplish (something) up here? Would you hope to sit your enemies into submission?" //Maybe I can goad her into action.//

"Hmph." //Then again maybe not. Let's try a different approach then.//

"Cordelia is dead."

"What?!" Buffy jumped and spun around. "This had better not be a ploy to get me to move Owen, because if it is I swear to God I'll kill you." She grabbed him and swung him into the wall. 
"Please Buffy, would I ever be so capricious? I would never do such a thing especially after what happened to Tara. Cordelia snuck out while we had our collective backs turned."

"Or our heads buried in self pity." Owen could see Buffy was already starting to blame herself. "Oh God, what am I going to tell Faith? That I sat idly by and let her life's great love get killed by vampires? What the hell was I doing?" Her face crumpled into tears. "I killed her." She sobbed as Owen reached to hold her. "I killed her."

//This is going from bad to worse.// Just then there was a soft knock at the door. 
"Buffy?" Joyce stuck her head around the door and looked into the room. "Giles let me in he seemed quite upset. Buffy what happened? Willow isn't??" She let the question die in her throat afraid to learn the truth. Buffy straightened up and pulled away from Owen before she answered.

"No, Willow's alright. Well as alright as could be expected probably." She turned to Owen, fear suddenly clouding her eyes. "She is alright isn't she?" He nodded. Relieved Buffy turned back to her mom, "It's Cordelia she went after Willow by herself, when no one, when I wasn't--" The words were cut off by a renewed bout of tears. This time it was Joyce who rushed to comfort Buffy.

"Oh Buffy that's awful." Joyce gently stroked her daughters hair. "Why don't we go sit down on the bed." She gently led her grieving daughter over to her bed and sat her down on it. "Shush now, why don't you lay down for a minute or two?" Buffy lowered her tear stained face into her pillow all the while Joyce rubbed her back gently. After a few minutes Joyce stood up and walked over to where Owen was standing by the door watching the scene unfold.

"Getting pointers?" Joyce asked, trying to inject a little humor into a situation completely devoid of it.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, just being silly. This is pretty bad isn't it? I mean wasn't Cordelia one of these 'Companions' you talk about? It supposed to be impossible without her or something?"

"Yes she is. I won't lie to you Joyce, this is potentially disastrous. However, and I don't want you to say anything about what I'm about to tell you to anyone, no matter how upset they are, I have one possible chance to save her. There is a certain ceremony that can be completed to bring Cordelia's soul back from the dead but I'm not certain yet so I don't want anyone to know." 
"Alright. I don't like it but okay I won't say a word to a soul. I should probably go sit with Buffy now though." She looked over towards her daughter whose crying was now escalating from a low keen to a loud wail. The pain Joyce felt for her daughter was evident on her face.

"I mean it Joyce. Not a word." Owen looked down at her sternly. Joyce looked up at him and nodded then turned and walked over to her daughter's bed and sat down beside her. 
"Don't worry baby, everything's going to be alright."


***


"Come on we're leaving. If the Seer found us then the others must know where we are too. We'll take the witch somewhere else and if the slayer doesn't meet our demands we'll kill the witch and mail her head to the Old Man." Spike watched and listened to the gang of his "brethren" made their plans. The head of this little band, Talos, Spike supposed, was possibly the biggest, meanest, ugliest looking vampire Spike had ever seen. //That's saying a lot, considering the company I used to keep.// Inwardly Spike sighed in frustration. //I could probably snatch Willow and get gone before anyone noticed.// If only that old man hadn't made him promise to steal back Cordelia's remains. //He'd better have a good bloody reason for this. Willow's my responsibility and I'm letting them slip her away right under my nose.//

"Talos, Master, I have an idea." A skinny, shaved head vampire spoke up from the crowd. "Why don't we leave the body of the Seer here as a warning to the others. Its much easier than taking it with us and then mailing her parts back to them from wherever we end up." 
"Alright, this is what we're going to do. I've had the idea that it would be silly to drag the Seer's remains all over hell and high-water so we're going to leave her here as a warning to the others should they come here to find us. Imagine, Nargoth, you wanted to bring her along and mail her back in pieces." Talos flashed a superior grin at the vampire who had spoken up.

//Looks like we have a secret leader in this little brood. That could be useful to Giles and the Old Man, maybe they've heard of this "Nargoth."// Spike leaned back in the shadows and continued to watch the vampires preparations. //At least I won't have to go chasing them down for the body now?//


***

"Rupert, my plan was a miserable, absolute and utter failure. A royal cock-up as it were."

"I don't know about that Master, 'royal cock-up seems a bit harsh. Perhaps we should call it a "aristocratic cock-up." Giles flashed the old man a quick grin.

"Glad to know I can always count on you for support Rupert." Owen growled at him. "Dammit!" he crashed his fist into the table. "how could I have been so wrong about the consequences of telling Buffy about Cordelia? I thought she would get angry, would be fired up for vengeance. Instead she's even worse than before. Joyce is furious with me."

"I know. She told me the other night. I can't understand it either master. Buffy used to be so quick to go after those who attacked her immediate family and friends."

"Have you told the others about Cordelia yet?" Owen wanted to get off the subject of his recent failures before he leveled Giles' apartment with a single word. 
"I told Anya. She was very upset surprisingly. Other than that there's no one else to tell. Joyce already knew, Faith and Xander have yet to return and Angel and Wesley are? Where are Angel and Wesley?"

"Running an errand for me." Just as Giles was going to inquire further Anya burst through the front door.

"They're back." Anya said through gasping breaths. "I saw them walk down Fifth together. I think they're heading to the Mansion." Giles was already reaching for his keys as the old man turned to address him.

"I'll meet you there." And he was out the door.

"Master wait it would be faster if you?" Anya cut him off.

"Giles, don't you remember you're stories? He can shift his shape remember?" Giles started to hurry out the door. Anya shook her head at him "Watchers." She sighed as she ran out the door after Giles.




Chapter Two: Denial.

Isn't there supposed to be a bright light at the end of a tunnel or something? It's cold too. If I have to spend the rest of eternity freezing my ass off someone is going to hear about it. I don't know who though, there's damn nobody around here. If this is the afterlife I feel worse than ripped off. Maybe this is that place that starts with a "P". Penury? No that's not it. Paraguay? No that's a country in South America stupid. What's it called again? Purgatory? That's it! Purgatory! Am I in Purgatory? After all the good stuff I did to keep the world safe from demons? Boy is my minister ever going to here about this. What the hell-oops-Is going on? Hello? Helloooo? Is there anybody in this ice box with me? Cause I could really use the company. I'm cold, and I'm scared and I miss Faith. I've decided I'm not going to like being dead so I'm just going to go back and be alive some more okay?

Oh my no you can't do that.

Who are you?

My name is Bridgit.

I'm not really dead. Am I?


****


"So what are you going to do?" Xander asked Faith as they approached the doors of the mansion.

"Fall on my knees and beg her for forgiveness of course. What the hell else would I do?" She grinned at him as they walked through the gate and up the walkway. 
"I don't think I've told you this yet but I'm really glad you came back to the side of good and that you and Cordy found each other."

"Thanks Xander, that means a lot coming from you." Xander was sure he saw Faith blush a little but he was equally sure he wasn't going to be the one to call her on it.

"Hey there's Owen." Xander picked up the pace a little. "He sure doesn't look to happy to see us."

"Oh shit. Xander something really bad has happened." Faith broke into a run. Xander quickly followed after her. As they stumbled on to the front porch Faith asked the question.

"What happened? Is Willow alright?" Owen swallowed before answering.

"As far as we know she's fine. At least, she's alive. Talos and his minions appear to be planning to use her as a hostage or something. No, it's not Willow."

"Hey where's C?" Faith looked into the old man's sad eyes. "Oh no. Not Cordelia. Please not Cordelia." She ran past him into the house. "Cordelia? Cordy, I'm back! I love you!" She ran frantically from room to room desperately calling her lover's name. When she burst into the living room Buffy, Joyce, Giles and Anya were all sitting there with grief stricken looks on their faces. Faith looked from one face to another and slowly reality sank in.

"Noooooo!" Buffy ran forward to embrace her friend. "This isn't happening!"


Chapter Two: Anger


I am? Goddamn it! I finally found true love, I finally found happiness and somebody decided that it was time for me to die? Is this some kind of sick cosmic joke?

Please Cordelia calm down.

NO!

****

Faith didn't need Buffy's hug though. She didn't collapse in grief like everyone else in the room thought they would do if put in the same position. No, true to her nature Faith did what came naturally. She flew into a blind rage. Her first victim was the chair she was standing beside. Her second was the window she hurled it through

"Uh, we better leave." Buffy whispered to the others. "Before anyone--" her words were cut off by a flying bust of Athena flying through the air and destroying a coffee table on the other side of the room. "Gets hurt." The five scrambled out into the hallway where Owen stood watching the carnage unfold from a safe distance.

"You'd better go in there and calm her down." Xander told him.

"Oh no. I have no intention of trying to stop her. I fully intend on joining her in a few seconds." His mouth curled into a humorless grin. "Buffy are you particularly attached to anything in this house?"

"Just the stuff on the second floor."

"We'll stay down here then. I suggest you all head to Giles' if you don't want to be part of the fun." Four heads nodded at him.

"I think I'll stay if you don't mind." Rage and grief darkened Xander's face. "A little too much of dad in me not to want to really hit things now." The remaining four turned and hustled for the door as a call of "Batterup!" Echoed behind them.

****

A fireball shot across the cavernous room and exploded against a chiar.

"Holy fuck!" Xander stopped mid-blow to a stereo system. "How did you do that?"

"Less talk. More break." An antique clock flew off the fireplace mantle and shattered against a pillar. Xander returned to chopping the stereo into tiny pieces with a battleaxe. Faith grunted as she used a two-handed broad sword to cleave a couch in two.

"I never liked those stupid flowers."

"Duck!" Xander yelled as half a dozen dinner plates flew out of the dinning room, through the window and into the courtyard.

"Sorry about that!" Owen yelled from the dining room.

The Great Furniture Massacre continued for about three hours before its perpetrators were too tired to continue and all that was left were weapons without cabinets, shards of glass and splinters of furniture.

"Well, that was fun." Xander quipped. 
"And therapeutic too." Faith noted.

"Come on. Let's go kill Talos." Owen led the other two down towards Giles'

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Stay tuned...




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Faith: You can't trust guys.

Buffy: You can trust some guys. Really, I've read about them.

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