FIC: Split- Part 1/?

[eridan22000@xxxxxxxx]

Disclaimer: The Characters of Buffy: The Vampire slayer do not belong 
to me, but to Joss Whedon. The story is mine, as well as the 
characters of "Eridan" and "Na'Dara". 

Another Disclaimer: If I am putting small things wrong, please be 
gentle with me. I have to rely on older episodes, since I am from 
Germany. So, please don't kill me.

Spoilers: I do not know the exact name of the episode, but this fic 
takes place after Oz has left Willow due to the incident with Veruca.

Of course, the name should be "Split". But I was very tired (yet 
unable to sleep, as always during full moon) when I wrote this.

Chapter 1 begins where the prologue left off. 

Split - Chapter 1


" Will?" Buffy asked in astonishment. 
Standing before her, in this crazy armor was the red-haired witch. 
There was no way to confuse her with someone else. The red hair was 
as bright red as Willow's and she wore exactly the same hairstyle 
Willow used to wear.
And the face...if this was not Willow, then the witch had to have a 
twin.
It WAS Willow's face - except for the eyes. The woman standing before 
her had no eyes. Instead of eyes there were only bright lights in the 
eyecaves.

Still, Buffy was unable to say anything coherent. The only thing she 
did was to murmur Willow's name over and over. 
The....person....said: " I hope you will take this as a lesson. You 
should train harder, slayer."
With these words, the woman turned around and leaped away into the 
darkness.

Buffy did not even know how she had made it back to her bedroom.
But she had made it. And when she stood before her bed, she did not 
even think about undressing first. She simply fell into her bed, 
completely exhausted - though she did not know from what.

The next morning, Buffy kept looking for Willow the whole morning, 
but she did not find her on the whole university area. She asked 
people who went to the same lessons as Willow, but they had not seen 
her also. Now Buffy knew that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

She did the only thing that sounded right at the moment: she decided 
to pay a visit to her watcher Giles. Perhaps he could at least give 
her some clues about who this person had been. 

As Buffy walked towards his house, she suddenly stopped. Her eyes had 
caught a glimpse of red hair among the crowd.
"Will!", she shouted and went after the woman - who indeed turned out 
to be her friend.

The witch stopped and turned around...and Buffy gasped in terror.

Her friend looked terrible. Her eyelids were halfway down and there 
were deep black shades around her eyes. Her skin was cheesy pale and 
the witch breathed through open lips as if she would not get enough 
fresh air.

"Buff?", the redhead whispered, "how are you? Did I miss anything 
this morning?"

Then Willow faded and Buffy barely caught her in her arms. 
And as she held her friend, the slayer felt another presence within 
the witch. A powerful presence. it did not directly feel evil, 
but...somehow weird.
At least it was a short way to Giles. Now she had to see him. 
Something was wrong with Willow. Perhaps she was possessed by a demon 
or something else.
She surely needed help.

Giles went to the door when he heard the knock. He had just been 
reading an essay from a scientist who claimed to be an expert in the 
field of occultism. Now the essay overflowed with corrections and 
additions. Giles had hoped that this man would never meet a deomon or 
a vampire in persona. That would be his dead.
The watcher himself was a real expert in the field of occultism, 
demonology and some other subjects related to these topics. He knew 
how to deal with vampires and some demons as well. And, due to 
himself being a watcher, he was always prepared to face weird 
circumstances.

Thus, he did not even flinch when he saw Willow unconsciously 
standing next to Buffy, being held upright by the slayer.
He just said: " Come in."


Later, after some explanations from Buffy

" Ok, ok. The person was clothed in metal armor, a long black cape 
and wore a golden headband? And instead of eyes there were only 
lights? And it looked like Willow?"

Buffy nodded. Willow was lying on a sofa next to the table where now 
many books on demonology, occultism, witchcraft and related topics 
were laid out.

" Would you please pass me...this book there?" , the watcher asked 
and pointed at one of the books on the table.

Buffy handed a big black book over to him. The watcher opened the 
book and then began to read some passages.
But obviously he did not find what he had been searching for and so 
he grabbed another book.
And then, another....

The minutes seemed to last eternities for Buffy as she saw her best 
friend lying there on the sofa. It gave her a sting in the heart when 
she saw her this helpless and vulnerable. Willow was not a slayer, 
but she had her own powers, powers of the mind.
Now her slayer strength and endurance were of no use. She could not 
help Willow and this fact drove her insane.
More than once, she caught herself drumming on the table with her 
fingetips. At least, Giles was too engulfed in his research to notice 
it.
But finally, Giles handed an open book over to Buffy and pointed at a 
painting on one of the pages.

"Did she look like this?" 
On the picture, there was a man standing. He was tall and clothed in 
what seemed to be an exact copy of her rescuer's clothing. The artist 
who had painted the picture had managed to make the eyes shine with 
the same inhuman fire as her rescuer's.

Buffy nodded. " This is it."
Giles nodded, his face very serious. "Then, we have a problem."
Buffy looked at him, asking an unspoken question.

" Willow has been taken over by a guardian demon."

Buffy frowned, then looked at Giles, waiting for further explanations.
The watcher had also a frown on his face. "But I thought they had 
died out..."
Then he read another passage and another...until Buffy's patience was 
over.

" Very nice to know how that demon's called, but could you please 
tell me WHAT a guardian demon is?"

Giles looked up, then began to explain, a very serious expression on 
his face.

" A guardian is some kind of crazy arch-demon. Once, the guardians 
were many and they were extremely powerful. 
Many cruel and vile acts were performed by them. Until a very 
powerful chinese magician cursed them. He punished them with madness, 
a kind of madness that would make them unable to harm innocent 
people. He forced them to change sides. 
>From that time, the guardians were both useful and dangerous allies 
of the powers of Good. 
They believe themselves to be destined to fight evil, to be guardians 
of mankind. The magician had created powerful creatures, but he had 
made a mistake.
Their madness had also rendered them reckless.
They never cared about the consequences of their behaviour. And so 
they soon were fought by both good and evil. No wonder that the 
guardians, though they were arch-demons, did not survive it. I 
thought that a slayer had killed the last one of them, a demon named 
Eridan, 150 years ago. 
But it seems as if we had another one before us.
I think I should tell you something about their behaviour patterns. 
Their madness also makes them follow strict patterns in their 
behaviour - though normally they would not have to follow them.
A guardian demon has to inhabit a human body and can only travel from 
one body to the other when the old body is dying and this body is 
touching a living body.
Then the demon travels into the other person's mind. It then tries to 
establish control inside the human's mind. Not through brute force, 
but through temptation.
The demon is so powerful that it can give the human incredible power. 
Even now, Willow would be able to fell an ox with one punch. No 
weapons will kill her.
The demon offers this power to the human. This works best if the 
human was hurt by something or someone. Through the powers of the 
demon, the human will be able to take revenge. And the demon makes 
the human reckless also. The more and more it takes over the human, 
the less the human cares about consequences of his actions.
If the human accepts, the demon will establish control over parts of 
his mind. And it will widen its influence slowly. 
But it is not a parasite. The human would normally not take damage 
from it. And during specific periods, the human will even be able to 
control his body again. 
In the beginning, the guardian will take over the body very rarely. 
But later, these periods grow in lenght until the person is a 
guardian most of the time.
When the guardian takes over the body, it makes the body change in 
this way", he pointed at the picture. "They seem to be very fond of 
the middle ages. Most guardians are extremely sarcastic and one can 
easily make them angry. They also tend to be very cruel to their 
enemies - their demon nature shines through. Guardians like hand-to 
hand-combat, though with their powers, they would not have a need to 
make their hands dirty.
These are the basic facts. But what irritates me is: why is Willow in 
such a bad state? The taking over does not do any damage to the 
human. Normally, the human feels as if he had slept very good 
afterwards. Willow should be healthy as hell by now."

" Isn't this something we can ask us about later? How do we get this 
thing out of her?"

Suddenly, Giles had a very grave expression on his face. " Buffy, 
listen to me. Neither you nor I can do anything. This is an 
archdemon. Willow could crush us with a single thought. She is 
invulnerable to bullets, knifes, stakes, blades. Crosses won't have 
any effect on her. This demon cannot be exorcised. It is too strong. 
I am sorry to say that, but it would be best if we could find a way 
to heal her body and let her live with the demon inside her. I cannot 
help her, Buffy. I am sorry."

That's it for now again.
Hope you like it.
Don't choke me because of this sort-of-cliffhanger. The next part 
will come soon. My muse is finally awake again.

Eridan.