To Cross The River Styx
by Chazzman
Chap 4
[reviews]
"Willow!" sobbed Buffy softly as she looked into the coffin holding the body of her dearest friend. It had been found in the city morgue. No one knew how it had gotten there, or how long it had been there. It had just been discovered in one of the cabinets that was supposed to have been empty. Each of the morgue attendants had thought another person was working on her. Nothing was said for three days before someone asked when the body in cabinet 15 was to be picked up.
Now Buffy stood beside her coffin, last in the line of mourners who had passed by to take one final look, before she would be buried in the cold ground. Buffy knew she had to move but she felt frozen as she looked down upon Willow's face. She leaned forward to place a light kiss on Willow's lips. "I miss you, Will."
Her mind felt like it was in a daze. **They've over done the make-up** she thought. "Willow never wears that much make-up," she said aloud.
"I'm sure it's for the best," said voice and she looked up in surprise to find Riley at her side. She had hardly seen him outside of class for the last couple of weeks.
"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked puzzled.
"Ssh," said Riley. "There's a new sheriff in town. Better take your seat, the lecture's about to start."
Buffy looked over at the altar and found Professor Walsh instead of the Rabbi. She looked around, only to find herself in the crowded auditorium at UC Sunnydale. Riley and Buffy moved to sit down in the only open seats in the front row near the door.
"Death. The final frontier. Paradise, purgatory, hell. Who can truly say what happens to us when we pass on? Impressions of the afterlife have changed throughout history as theology has changed." As Professor Walsh went on, Buffy slowly tuned her voice out. The room seemed to darken until only a single spotlight shown down on Willow's coffin. Except it wasn't a coffin, it was a large, perfectly square, wooden box.
A soft humming began to intrude upon her consciousness. It seemed to be coming from the hall.
"Do you hear that?" Buffy said turning towards Riley. Riley however was listening as Forrest whispered something in his ear.
Buffy slowly stood up and headed out of the lecture hall. Riley watched her go and smiled as he whispered, "Along came a spider..."
As Buffy moved into the hall, the humming became a girl's voice singing a nursery rhyme.
"Can't even shout.
Can't even cry.
The Gentlemen are coming by.
Looking in windows,
knocking on doors...
They need to take seven
and they might take yours..."
Buffy turned the corner and saw a girl standing facing her at the other end of the hall. In her hands, she held a smaller version of the box that had been Willow's coffin. She continued singing.
"Can't call to mom.
Can't say a word.
You're gonna die screaming
but you won't be heard."
Buffy felt a presence behind her. She thought it was Riley, but when she looked behind her, a hideous grinning white face was all she saw before-
...she woke with a start in the lecture hall as Professor Walsh finished her lecture.
Gathering up her notes and bag, Buffy moved with the rest of the students as they exited the hall. But her progress was interrupted when she bumped into Riley Finn.
"Buffy!"
"Hello, Riley."
"Look I know I haven't been around much lately. It's just that something came up and Professor Walsh has been-"
"It's OK. I haven't really been one for company lately. Not like I've really had any time to go on a date or anything since..." she trailed off.
"Since Willow disappeared," said Riley in a subdued tone.
"Yeah."
"Can I...Would you like to go for a cup of coffee? Maybe talk a little."
"Uhm... no, sorry I've got a meeting to get to."
"Oh well...uhm...maybe later."
"Sure. Later. But... right now, I gotta book. Kay?"
"OK"
Riley watched her quickly walk off. Unseen, Willow stayed beside him for a moment, "It's OK. She likes you. It's just going to take a little time. Specially, with her hunting for me and the commandos and all." Willow frowned. "'Course if she does find me it's gonna be a depression-fest. Seeing as I'm dead and all."
Forrest came up. "Ri. Hey what's up?"
"Buffy," Riley said nodding toward the blonde girl who had stopped at a pay phone to make a call.
"Oh. Yeah well, the Professor wanted us to round up Green and Metz and meet her back at the lab at 5. Right away."
As they walked off Willow shrugged and headed off after Buffy.
*****
Jude Law stepped into the lab where Professor Walsh and Dr. Ackerman were watching a monitor. "How's your monster today Doc?"
Professor Walsh refused to react to Jude Law's goading. She knew he did it to test her and she refused to play his games. Instead she answered his questions directly. "She has exceeded every single one of my initial predictions on her performance. The modified DNA has healed all of the surgical wounds, and her residual memory is far more complete than I had anticipated, alleviating many of the expected rehabilitation problems. In light of this we should be ready to return her in two more days."
"Really? Well that's wonderful. It's the type of news I love to hear. Now if only she performs as well in real life as she has in all your simulations."
"She will. But in preparation for that, I wish to introduce her to alpha team. Tonight."
Jude leaned back as he pulled out a cigar. "That's fine. They were going to need to be informed in any case before we released her. But I'm going to be there to make sure they understand what's at stake."
*****
Buffy and Willow were bored. Actually Buffy was bored. Willow was embarrassed. This was the third Wicca group on campus who's meeting Buffy was attending. Thus far, however, all she had found were a lot of irritating, pseudo-hippie girls who spent their time talking about nature, menstrual cycles, Gaia, scented candles, womyn empowerment, male oppression, and, now, a bake sale as a fundraiser. None of which Buffy was interested in. She was looking for a witch, a real witch.
Giles had found and attempted a locator spell only to have a rather nasty, little imp appear and run about the apartment whimpering, shrieking and urinating on everything. After the beast was dispelled back to the nether realms, Anya had the bad taste to point out that this was what happened when a man performed a spell design exclusively for a witch to cast. From the baleful glare Giles gave her it was apparent that he had been unaware of this stipulation of the spell, and Xander couldn't get her out of the now foul smelling apartment fast enough.
So now Buffy had spent the last ten days hunting for a real witch and thus far coming up empty handed. In her search through Willow's papers, she had come across information on the campus Wicca groups and had decided to check them out. Unsure of how else to approach the subject, when Nancy, the group leader had asked about what else they could do as a Wicca group, Buffy had brought up the possibility of spell casting. As she was shot down for making such a 'non-empowering stereotype' suggestion, she noted who laughed and who didn't. On girl, a rather shy blonde had looked as if she wanted to speak up but had immediately retracted back into herself when she became the center of attention for starting to say something.
After the meeting, however, Buffy followed the girl and caught up with her outside.
"Hey," said Buffy.
"Uhm...Hello," Tara said uncertainly.
"Tara, Right?"
"Y-Yes."
"I'm Buffy. Do you have a few minutes to spare?"
*****
The four soldiers sat and stared in shock.
"Woah."
"My God."
"!"
"This -This is wrong," said Riley. He was beginning to hyperventilate.
"You are in shock," Professor Walsh said calmly in what she hoped was a soothing voice. "I understand. It takes a while to accept, but when you've had time to absorb everything, you will see this is for the best."
"This is obscene!" Riley continued to protest. "How... How did you-?"
"Those details are not important," Jude Law harshly interrupted. "Dr Walsh and Ackerman have done this to save your collective asses, son. As well as this giving the Initiative a new lease on life. Or do you think we should close this project down because of one unforeseen accident?"
"No sir, but-" Riley started to say
"Miss Rosenberg is dead. It was unfortunate, but we are engaged in a war on our own soil that can never be declared, against an enemy that can never be made public. Ever think about how you would explain to the Rosenbergs that their daughter was caught in the crossfire while you were hunting a vampire?"
He paused to let his words sink in.
"Public pressure is bad enough with the girl missing and the rumors of military involvement, if we only returned the body who knows how bad an uproar may occur or what investigations may develop. Therefore we return the girl alive and apparently suffering from amnesia. She spends a few months establishing herself while things cool down, after which she will 'decide' that she must leave Sunnydale. Join a cult or something. That way she disappears again but without the questions directed towards this operation. Yes, there will still be questions about her kidnapping but blame for that will be directed elsewhere when she is found wandering in another city."
Riley looked down in defeat. "I still think this is a mistake."
"Well it's not your decision. Your only concern is to follow the game plan. Of the soldiers here, only the four of you are aware of Miss Rosenberg's demise. I trust, as per your instructions, you haven't discussed what happened to anyone. Family, friends, your local parish priest?"
The four soldiers shook their heads.
"Good. Then we will proceed with Project Resurrection and Willow Rosenberg will return home in two days."
****
Tara sat on the floor in Rupert Giles' apartment working her way through the finder spell. She wasn't quite certain how she had gotten here. Within 15 minutes of meeting her, Buffy had managed to get her to admit to having some spell capabilities and having been practicing magic since she was very young. Before she knew it, Buffy was walking arm-in-arm with her of the campus as if they had known each other for years instead of five minutes.
Tara had been working magic for as long as she could remember, but this girl, who barely knew her, was so enthusiastic and was pinning so many hopes on her success that Tara couldn't help but be nervous. Buffy had generated an urgent need in Tara to be successful.
When Tara began the casting she felt the power begin to slowly build and start to swirl about her. Suddenly, the spell abruptly sputtered out. Panic immediately began to grip her.
"I told you, Giles. The Havalich had to be fresh," murmured Willow from the counter where she sat.
"S...S...Something's wrong. I could feel the spell s...start, but it didn't hold," she said apologetically to Buffy.
"Well at least she didn't summon little Timmy the Tinkler again, eh Rupes," said Spike with a smirk.
Giles ignored the jab and moved to look over the spell components, "Maybe the translation of the phrasing is wrong-"
"Phrasing is fine," said Anya as she bit into an apple. "It's the dried Havalich. It looses potency over time. The best is fresh."
"See Giles, even demon girl knows better," Willow sighed.
"Are you certain about that?" Giles asked.
"Why would I have said so if I wasn't?" Anya said irritably. "Look, I've been around for 1100 years. Demon powers are great, but occasionally I needed to cast a spell to find someone."
Tara's eye widened slightly at that statement and she looked at Buffy. Rolled her eyes and sighed. She would have to do some explaining. She noticed Olivia giving Giles a look and grinned. Looks like she wouldn't be the only one having to explain. "I'll explain later," she whispered to Tara as she tried to smile reassuringly.
"Ok fresh Havalich. No problem. We just hop on down to Mage Depot-" Xander began to say.
"They won't have it," interrupted Anya. "It's too temperamental. You need a specialty shop, maybe in LA."
"On it," said Buffy and she moved to pick up the phone and begin dialing. She listened for a moment. "Hello Angel? Hi, do you know of any magic shops down their that might carry fresh Havalich. We need it to cast the finder spell for Willow. You do? Great. Uhm do you think you could get some up here tonight? Maybe send Doyle or Cordy if you can't come? Angel? Angel, what's wrong?" Her sudden stillness caught everyone's attention. "Oh. Oh god." Giles was by her side in a flash. Tears began to escape as she continued to listen to the phone. "Angel, I-. Oh god, I'm so sorry. I- How's Cordelia? I see. No. No you don't have to. We can wait. Oh. OK then. We'll be at Giles'. OK. See you in a while."
She hung up the phone as she turned toward the apprehensive and questioning looks directed at her.
"Doyle...died last night."
****
Maggie sat next to Eve and watch as she rapidly answered question after question on the computer. She now only experienced the slightest twinges of guilt about what she had done to the body of Willow Rosenberg. After all she was dead. Now, Eve would help her solve the problems that had arisen from her death, and she could get on with her work on Adam. Her real accomplishment. She knew Dr. Ackerman had been astonished by what she had achieved with 'Eve', but that was because he did not understand what she had done.
She had cheated.
She had done what she had promised her father she would never do.
She had used "The Book" and created an 'abomination'.
She knew most people would consider Adam to be the abomination. Because most people were fools, who would only judge him on his appearance. But his appearance was of no concern to her. It was what he would be capable of when he finally was complete. The ultimate warrior. Designed by science.
Eve was a couple of left over parts that could be hidden in a dead body over which she had several spells cast in secret. In truth she hadn't needed the parts, but then Dr. Ackerman would have certainly known that something was wrong and might have let slip to Jude Law what was really going on.
Jude Law. She really hated that man. He irritated her in a way that no one else ever had. His control over HER project. His snide comments. He was a thug. A bully. He had no respect for her or the people under her, and she could see the way it was slowly wearing them down. Eve had to be a spectacular success so that she could once again get back control over her whole project and get him off of her back.
"Finished," said Eve as she completed the final question.
Maggie looked at the screen and entered the check code. The results appeared within seconds, showing Eve to have answered 99% of the 500 questions correctly.
"Very good," said Maggie. "You only missed 5 questions."
"Actually, I didn't," said Eve. "I intentionally entered them wrong."
"Why did you do that?"
"'To err is human'," Eve said with a shrug. "While Willow Rosenberg is smart, she is still capable of mistakes. To be perfect would draw more attention to me. Since this was a test of my knowledge as Willow Rosenberg, I decided to provide a few errors that would have been in character for Willow. Even if she would have preferred to have received a 100%."
Maggie smiled. "Very good Eve. You are perfect."
Eve smile at the praise. Just like she would have if she were a real girl.
****
"Who are you people?" Tara asked Buffy directly and without any of her characteristic stammering. "If you expect me to do a spell for you I have to know your intentions."
Buffy looked at Tara who held her gaze steady. Tara normally would have looked away but she needed to know before she went any further that her instincts about Buffy were right. She really wanted to trust her. But Anya's demon comment had thrown her for a loop.
"How much do you know about demons?" asked Buffy.
"Only that they exist. My mother...she knew about a few, and I've read a few books."
"And did you by any chance happen to come across a reference to 'The Chosen One' or 'The Slayer'."
"Oh yes. A girl blessed by the gods and goddesses with the strength and skill to fight the demons..." Tara trailed off as she looked at Buffy.
"Blessed is not how I would put it," Buffy said with a shake of her head.
"And Anya?"
"She used to be Anyanka. A vengeance demon. Only something happened and she lost her powers and now she's human again."
"And Spike? Cause I've noticed that nobody seems to like him and he's not really very nice."
"Spike. Spike's an annoyance. He is a vampire who can't hurt people because the commandos who took Willow put something in him. He came to us for help in exchange for information about them."
Tara's eye's got even wider at this information.
"There's something else I suppose I'd better tell you. The guy I called who is coming up here. Angel. Well, he's a vampire too, only he got cursed with a soul. So he's good now, and he helps people who need help."
"OK" Tara said slowly. "That leaves the question 'Why did the commandos take Willow?'"
Buffy bit her lip. "I don't know. The only thing I can think of is that they took her cause they thought she was a vamp and then haven't released her because they found out she was a witch. At least I hope that is all it is."
****
It was after midnight when Angel finally knocked on Giles' door. As Tara and Anya prepared the Havalich for the spell, Angel told Buffy, Xander, Giles and Olivia about Doyle's sacrifice.
"How's Cordelia taking it?" Giles asked.
"She's having a pretty rough time. She was just beginning to get close to him. I tried to bring her, but she insisted that she didn't want to see anyone." Angel frowned. "Which in an odd way makes Dennis the perfect person to take care of her at the moment."
"Dennis?" asked Xander.
"He's a ghost in her apartment," Angel explained.
"Oh," said Xander as he nodded his head. A second later her lifted his head to stare at Angel and ask, "Say what?"
"A ghost?" said Willow suddenly perking up.
"His mother bricked him up in the wall in the 1950's to stop him from marrying a girl she disapproved of," Angel explained.
Xander blinked. "Suddenly, the idea of my parents charging me rent to live in the basement seems quite charitable of them."
"Argh!" Willow clutched at her head. "Buffy why didn't you stay the night at her place, maybe I could have talked to him."
*****
"So what are you thinking about," asked Forrest.
Riley took a long pull on the beer. "I'm think about how much I would like to be out there kicking some hostile's ass."
"Yea, I hear you," nodded Forrest. "Still it shouldn't be too much longer before they let us back out for some action."
"No, I don't care about that. I just want to beat the hell out of something. I just can't believe this whole thing is happening. I mean, we're the 'Good' guys. Even though we weren't allowed to tell people, at least we knew we were doing something to be proud of. Now, hell I can hardly look at Buffy because I feel so guilty. What am I gonna do when I see her with that...that thing."
"You're gonna do nothing. Move on Riley. It's for the best. Don't screw your career over because you wanted to nail some girl."
"I'm not Parker."
"Damn right you aren't. And you got a lot more to loose. So listen up to your buddy. Don't be chasing after this girl. Let her go. There's to many chances you'll let something slip. Why risk it. OK."
Riley said nothing, choosing instead to take another drink from his beer.
*****
Meanwhile in downtown Sunnydale, within a clock tower, tall sinister shapes began to prepare a ceremony of their own. The center of their attention was on a little wooden box that had been gently placed upon the table.
*****
It was past one in the morning, when they began the spell again. Tara sat calmly in the center of the room.
"Diana, Goddess of the hunt. To you we appeal to show us the way to she who has been taken from us. We-"
Tara felt a sudden sharp pulling in her throat and she paused to swallow. She began to speak again, and nothing came out. She raised her hand to her throat. Buffy tried to ask 'What was wrong?' and when nothing came out she realized what she too couldn't speak. Seconds later everyone in the room was trying to say something, anything, to even get a whisper out but to no avail.
In an instant, their voices had been stolen.
Willow, however, had seen it happen. A faint whisp of what looked like white smoke had escaped from everyone's mouth. She follow the whisps outside where they joined others in a swirling cloud like mass that began to rapidly move towards downtown. Willow tried to follow but soon reached as far as she could go from Buffy. "Dammit!" she cursed as she watched the cloud like substance disappear down the street. An idea occurred to her and she flew up into the air. Rising high above Sunnydale she watched as from all across the town, the white cloud whisps converged on a clock tower. Willow concentrated, trying to focus in on the tower. To her amazement she was suddenly seeing colors from all across the spectrum. The town was glowing with energy and she could see dozens of lines entering the town from all directions, throbbing and pulsating with power and color. It was beautiful, entrancing and she lost track of how long she stared at the shimmering panorama before her. But then she noticed something else.
It was difficult to tell for certain because she was so far away. But the line that passed through the clock tower seemed to dim as it exited the tower. Something evil was in there; of that Willow had no doubt. The only problem was, how would she inform Buffy.
****
Willow spent the remainder of the night observing as much as she could, trying to figure out her new ability. Although she had a few ideas about what they were, the lines of energy that she could now see when she concentrated still confused her. She had returned to the group last night while still looking at the strange colorful lines that seemed to suddenly fill the world about her, she had discovered a very large strand that extended between her and Buffy. She figured that this was the binding that kept her beside Buffy.
Then there were the aura's. Although she had not done much studying on them she was sure that she was seeing a lot more from people's auras than she would have if she were still alive. Willow found the sight of auras running the gamut from the dazzling and beautiful to dark and lifeless. And that was just looking at Buffy and Spike's. Angel's was a truly strange one. The closest thing to which she could compare it was heavy dark thundercloud behind which, the sun was shining with streaks of light streaming out from behind the cloud. Not understanding what the various colors meant she could only guess at why Giles' was a predominate azure blue tint where as Xander's and Olivia's looked quite orange. Watching Anya's yellow aura, Willow was surprised to see many small strands from her aura seemed to merge out into Xander's and a few strands from his extended back into hers. Tara had an interesting bluish/purple tinge to her aura.
Buffy's aura, however, was overwhelming in its intensity and Willow found it to be truly beautiful. It sparkled and pulsed with a variety of colors. Willow looked to see if there were any of the small strands between her and Angel the way there were between Xander and Anya. There were, but to her surprise while there were several dozens of strands passing from Angel to Buffy, only a few fine strands extending from Buffy back to Angel. The more Willow concentrated, the more she noticed the finer strands that extended out from Buffy to practically everyone in the room. A few strands even extended to Spike, although these pulsed with a darker reddish-black color. Willow looked at the strand connecting her to Buffy and began to perceive that it was not just one large strand, but hundreds of strands binding them together the way a rope is made up of hundreds of fibers.
It was not until morning that the rest of the Scooby's discovered the whole town had been affected by whatever had stolen their voices. Tara was actually slightly relieved that the entire town having been affected. Despite assurances from Buffy and Giles, she had spent the remainder of the night worrying that they might think she was somehow responsible for their voice loss.
Giles, Angel, Buffy and Xander spent much of the day searching through Giles' books for any information from Buffy's dream regarding 'The Gentlemen', while Anya and Tara searched through Tara's spell books for anything to help regaining their voices. All to no avail.
Since the town had been quarantined, Angel was unable to return to LA that evening. Instead, he patrolled with Buffy through the town. The mysterious silence that had befallen the town was actually a good distraction from his grief over Doyle's death. For Buffy, however, the sudden theft of everyone's voices seemed like a slap in her face by some higher power that enjoyed toying with her. To have been so close to possibly finding Willow and then stopped, frustrated her to no end. Her sullen disposition was exacerbated by the memories of the dream of Willow's funeral. She had not said anything to Giles, but she was now terrified about that portion of her dream coming true.
Running into Riley breaking up an argument between two men on the street did not improve her mood. Riley had turned around to shoo off one man when the other decided to pick up a handy piece of pipe. Buffy snapped his wrist as she walked by. Angel arched an eyebrow at her and she just shrugged. When Riley turned and found her and Angel, he raised his own eyebrow in query. Buffy quickly wrote on her dry erase board *Angel / Riley* and flashed it to both of them. They nodded and shook hands while Buffy wrote further. *He's a P.I. friend from LA / He's a TA friend from my Psych class.* Riley smiled at Angel and nodded, however, when a crash came from up the street he quickly moved towards it and away from Buffy and her P.I. friend. He was suddenly feeling quite happy about the loss of his voice. Had he been able to speak he was certain he would have been too nervous and blown it.
As Buffy and Angel continued to walk through the town, Willow was finally able to get close to the clock tower. She stood outside for several minutes and looked at the tower. Shifting her vision to observe the lines of power about the place, she found that she could see a large line of blue-white light emerging from the ground and springing up into the tower. A second emerald green line streamed in from the North to pass through wall below the clock face. What emerged from the side of the tower however was dark and sickly looking. Willow wasn't certain how she knew, but something in the tower was polluting the line, and it was wrong. Evil. She could feel it.
Although she knew that nothing could harm her, she was still hesitant to enter the building. The presence of something evil was making her feel strange. Gearing herself up however, she boldly stepped forward through the wall to find a strange group of about eight fiends in what looked like unfastened straight jackets sprawled about the floor, sleeping. 'Obviously the Brute Squad,' Willow thought to herself. Looking up, Willow saw there was another floor above her through which the light stream penetrated. She floated upwards and poked her head through the floor. Five emaciated ghouls dressed in old fashion attire floated about a foot off the floor. Willow noticed with her altered vision that they had some kind of black cord extending from their heads upwards, and then she saw the 'Thing'. Hanging near the top of the ceiling where the two power lines met, it hovered there, a large bulbous, greyish-brown sac-like mass with thick black cords extending from it to the floating cadavers. 'Puppet strings,' Willow thought in disgust. She also realized that the thing would not be visible to normal sight. It was only her enhanced vision that was allowing her to see the creature.
Everything looked asleep so she moved further in to the room and saw a table with 7 jars sitting neatly on it along with some beakers of fluid and a box. She kept watching the hovering blob as she moved forward the get a closure look at the box. The creature seemed quiescent. Willow moved closer to the table and stared at the box. She could see the magically energies built into it. Tentatively she extended a finger towards the box.
"Aaaahh!" she suddenly screamed out. For the first time since dying, she felt a searing pain cut through her back, as if a red-hot sword had been thrust into her. Panic set in as she spun about to find the ghouls were now awake and moving as if to surround her, with ghastly grins plastered across their bone white faces. Willow dropped herself through the floor and flew out the side of the tower. The pain in her back dimmed but it felt as if something was tugging at her. Confused and somewhat frightened by what had just happened, Willow looked over her shoulder as she moved away from the tower. To her dismay she could see a thin black strand following behind her. The creature had attached itself to her! Aghast, she grabbed at the strand to try and yank it out. With mounting dread Willow found that the thread simply stretched itself out while she pulled at it.
Willow was verging on hysterics when she reached Buffy, only to find a new crisis. Angel was running to the hospital carrying an unconscious Buffy in his arms. Upon arriving at the emergency room, he wrote out that they had been walking and that she had suddenly collapsed. A preliminary vitals check showed normal temperature, pulse and blood pressure. As the hospital staff began to decide what tests they would need to do, Angel left to get Giles since he could not phone him.
Six hours later, everyone had come and gone. The blood tests had shown nothing wrong and a x-ray showed no visible traumatic head injury. Since she appeared stable, it was decided to let her to rest and in the morning they would arrange for a CAT scan.
Willow sat alone next to Buffy's side, sick with worry and guilt. It was too much of a coincidence. The black strand that the creature had attached to her was somehow related to Buffy's condition. But no one would know because no one could see it. And no matter how hard she pulled on it, Willow could not rip the damn thing out of her back. What really scared Willow was that Buffy's aura appeared to be very slowly dimming, as if the link was draining her energy.
Suddenly, Buffy sat straight up in her bed and yanked the monitoring wires from her body. Turning away from where Willow sat she quickly moved out of the bed and towards the door.
"Buffy?" Willow called out despite knowing that she couldn't hear her. Willow started to follow after her but as she reached the hallway she frozen in shock.
"No!" Willow gasped out in horror.
Buffy wasn't walking down the darkened hallway. She was floating. The way those ghouls had floated back at the clock tower. That thing from the tower was controlling Buffy the same way it controlled those other ghouls. Willow snapped out of her shock as she saw Buffy's had dart out and snatch up something as she passed a medical supply cart. Running to catch up, Willow saw that Buffy now held a scalpel and was swinging her head back and forth as she glided along as if looking for something. Willow was sickened to see Buffy's face was plastered with that same horrid grin she had seen on the other ghouls' faces back at the tower. The scalpel in her hand really frightened Willow. Buffy was going to be forced to do something terrible.
"Buffy! Wake up!" Willow screamed out as she tried frantically to pull out the black strand from her own back. "Come on fight it! Please God! Buffy!"
They moved though another pair of doors into a dimly lit hallway. Buffy paused for a second as if to contemplate something before she moved into one of the rooms. She floated over to the side of the patient and reached out to rip open the patient's hospital gown. Willow tensed up as Buffy carefully placed the scalpel against the girl's left breast, just above the heart. She had to stop Buffy, but there was nothing she could think of that would stop her. Why didn't the girl wake up?
Then she saw the face of the girl who Buffy was about to kill.
It was Faith, and she was still in a coma.
*****
Willow would never actually be certain what it had been that gave her the idea. The sight of Buffy wielding the scalpel. The sight of Faith whom Buffy had stabbed with her own knife. The memory of Faith holding that same knife against her throat.
It was an epiphany. She existed in a state where thought literally formed existence as she knew from being able to change what she appeared to be wearing. The line by which the creature had attached itself to her was created by a thought and it therefore stood to reason that it could be broken with a thought. At least she hoped so. She no longer had the luxury of time for experimentation. As Buffy began to press the scalpel into Faith, Willow willed into existence the largest, sharpest pair of scissors and with both hands snapped the blades closed, cutting through the black strand.
Buffy stiffened and collapsed to the floor.
To say that it hurt would have been a grotesque abuse of the term in relation to the pain that Willow felt. In fact, it would have been fair to say that if she had not snapped the scissors closed as fast as she had, she would never have been able to do it. It was as if she had cut off a finger... or maybe a hand... or possibly a leg.
The strand that was still attached to the creature zipped off and disappeared through a wall. Willow hoped that the damn thing was in as much, if not more, pain as she was at the moment. The strand that was attached to her, and through her to Buffy, hung limply in the air but did not vanish as she had hoped it would, and now Buffy lay unconscious on the floor.
"I can do this," Willow whispered to herself with a firm conviction. Although was it was that she was going to do was less clear. Holding the limp strand she whispered a quick prayer for some divine guidance from whoever was monitoring the celestial switchboard tonight. Concentrating, she first tried to will the thread to detach itself from wherever it had affixed itself to Buffy. Nothing. Five minutes later, she had still no success.
Willow was starting to worry that maybe she had permanently damaged Buffy. Perhaps the shock of the severing the evil cord had overloading her mind. Willow examined the end of the cord only to see it was comprised of hundreds of tiny strands the seemed to gleam and ooze. Hesitantly, she poked at the ends with her finger. An abrupt, cascade of images began to flash before Willow's eyes, startling her so much that she yanked her hand away. The images had been accompanied by feelings of anger, hate, grief and despair.
For several minutes, she stared and the strand like it was a poisonous cobra. For several long minutes, she thought about what she had seen and felt. The creature had tapped into Buffy's negative experiences and emotions and, from there, had controlled the rest of her mind and body. Now it was up to Willow to fix it.
How? With magic, you had to balance the forces in order to prevent a destabilizing of the spell. Here, it looked as if there was no balance, only an overwhelming of negative emotions. Could she simply counter the negative emotions with positive ones? Could it be that simple? She had, after all, just severed the link with a pair of shears that she had simply thought up out of thin air. Still, Willow tried to think about but nothing else came to mind.
Willow tried to meditate and calm herself. When she felt she was as ready as she would ever be, she picked up the strand and placed her hand over the end of it. The onslaught of sensations hit her again but this time she was ready for them. Willow strove to keep her mind calm and focused as images flooded her thoughts. Buffy running into their dorm room and finding it a wreck and Willow gone. A dark basement with a voice telling her how she should give up and that everyone had abandoned her. Angel walking away as the high school burned. Stabbing Faith on the rooftop. Faith betraying her and going to work for the Mayor. Giles confessing to injecting her with the muscle relaxant. Acathala. Kendra. Angelus. Jenny. Ford. The Master. Her parent's divorce. Merrick dying. Her friends at Hemery distancing themselves from her as she developed her Slayer skills. On and on, further and further back they went.
Willow began to concentrate on remembering the good moments that she had with Buffy, their friendship and their support of one another with each of their own strengths and love. Slowly, the rush of images from Buffy began to slow. Willow's delight in this gave her a feeling of happiness that she fed back into her link with Buffy. With ever-increasing speed, the black strand began to dissolve and fade, but a few pieces appeared not to be affected. Willow could still sense Buffy's sadness and feelings of abandonment and the fear demon Gavrock telling her how everyone was going to leave her. Dominating this thought was the weeks of fear she had bottled up inside of her for Willow's safety and the slowly growing despair that she would never find her.
Willow began to speak in order to focus her thoughts. 'Buffy. Please listen to me. Gavrock was wrong. I haven't left you. Even if I were still alive, my heart would always be with you. Yes, I am dead. It's a little strange, not exactly what I was told would happen. But hey, it looks like I'm going to be with you now for the rest of your life, and I want it to be a good long one, Buff. We've got a lot of evil still to fight. I can still fight it too, apparently. You're gonna get better and we're gonna go back to that clock tower and you're gonna kick evil's butt in the real world while I take out a certain blobby parasite. If it thinks that it can just stick its ugly little tendrils into us and make us do whatever it wants, well it's just got another thing coming."
As Willow babbled, the last of the black strands began to fade, first to a grayish color, but slowly brightening until they shone with a clear white light. If she had still had a real body, Willow would have said she was beginning to feel lightheaded and weak. She began to ramble as she continued to talk to Buffy.
'It's weird Buff. Most of the time, I don't feel too bad being dead and all. I just wish I could talk to you. Tell you I'm OK with it, and that you need to start living again. I feel like I'm waiting for something. Like my death has been put on hold. Of course, since I have no idea where my body is, maybe it's cause I haven't been buried properly. There's one for Giles to figure out. Or maybe the Greeks had it right and I need some coins to pay the ferryman. I wonder if he still uses a wooden ferry or if he used all that money to get himself a bigger more modern boat. You think maybe he's got a hovercraft now? Bet that be pretty cool. Course he's pretty much got a monopoly on the whole crossing the river. Of course why I would need to ride a boat across when I could just fly over it.'
A half-remembered poem came to mind, as Willow grew more tired. Slowly her head started to drop, and she closed her eyes as she concentrated on remembering the poem.
'So do not weep when I am gone,
My shade shall wait for thee.
Though I can see Elysium,
I'll not pay Charon's fee.
For I am waiting for you, my dear,
Beside the river Styx,
And with our love, we'll need no boat,
To cross the river Styx.'
As she softly murmured the last few lines from the poem, Willow drifted off to sleep and her spirit retracted back inside the slumbering body of Buffy Summers.
****
Buffy awoke to the sensation of something cold and hard pressing against her face. After a few seconds, she realized that her face was pressing against the floor. 'Why am I on the floor,' she thought. 'I don't remember a fight.' Her body, however, felt exhausted. While she didn't exactly feel sore in her muscles, the commands to move and sit up were not being obeyed rapidly. Her eye caught the gleam of light off of the scalpel near her hand. There was blood on it. 'Blood?' The image of her cutting into Faith flashed across her mind and suddenly she was sitting up and saw that she was in a darkened hospital room and a body was in the bed.
'Oh god, please no,' she gasped to herself as she struggled to stand up. As Buffy stood, she saw Faith resting in her bed, her gown torn and a shallow cut upon her left breast. Buffy exhaled in relief as she saw that Faith was still alive. The wound was small enough that Buffy could see it would heal quickly, she just needed to clean up the blood and fix the gown. Ditching the scalpel in the needle disposal box, Buffy cleaned the wound that had already stopped bleeding. She looked through the room's cupboards for a replacement gown and came up empty. Finally, she decided the only thing she could do was switch gowns with Faith and invent a story that she must have torn it herself in her sleep. As she took a last look at Faith, before leaving the room, she remembered Faith's final words to her, 'You killed me'.
It occurred to Buffy that maybe Faith would rather be dead than in her current state of existence, for as it was, there was nothing waiting for her if she ever awoke. Normally, this line of thought would have depressed Buffy with it's futility, but for some reason she was feeling inspired. Angel had believed she could be redeemed. Of course that was before she tried to kill him, but even so, maybe he could think of something she could say to Faith to get her to listen. Faith would probably fight her tooth and nail, but she was going to listen when she woke up. A smile crept across Buffy's face. 'Why wait until she's awake?' Buffy thought as she left the room.
Five minutes later she was being guided back to her room by a concerned nurse who came across her staggering down the hall, apparently lost and confused. The nurse helped change her gown and went to fetch the doctor. When the nurse brought back the doctor on call, the doctor wrote out a series of questions about how she felt. Buffy smiled and wrote that she was feeling fine except for a feeling of being weak and tired. After half an hour of writing back and forth, the doctor finally said it would be OK for Buffy to try to get some sleep as whatever apparently had been affecting her seemed to be moving out of her system. Since the blood tests had shown no signs of drugs or elevated white blood cell counts, the doctor decided that whatever had affected Buffy must have been some form of stress induced exhaustion probably exacerbated by the sudden loss of everyone's voice. The doctor told Buffy that she would proscribe her some medication to help her relax and left her to sleep.
*****
In the morning Giles, Xander, Anya and Olivia showed up. Immediately, Buffy showed Giles the account she had written out about waking up in Faith's room with the scalpel and the cut on Faith's chest. Giles paled as he read her story, then he showed her the morning paper and its announcement of two murders over night each with the victim's heart cut out.
Buffy stared in shock at the article before raising her eyes to look at Giles and ask if she had done it. Giles immediately assured her that she couldn't have done them since she had been here at the hospital. If there had been a victim here at the hospital then, perhaps, but apparently her Slayer abilities have overridden whatever had directed her to Faith's room. When she calmed down, Giles showed her what they had found out about the Gentlemen. How Olivia had seen one last night and had sketched it. Giles' own research had finally turned up information on them as fairy tale monsters. They were invulnerable to weapons but could be killed with a scream. Which was why they had stolen everyone's voices. He also theorized that, somehow, the Gentlemen had known of the Slayer's presence and had apparently taken steps to keep her from interfering with their 'Harvest' of seven hearts.
'So they are afraid of me?' wrote Buffy.
Giles nodded.
'GOOD!' She mouthed emphatically before writing, 'So let's get me out of here and figure out how to get my voice back.'
******
Although the hospital had been reluctant to release her, Buffy was able to check out by one in the afternoon. She was still feeling very sluggish and drained. As she sat in Giles' living room she was beginning to worry whether she would be in shape to patrol that night. At the moment, Tara was explaining about her inability to break the silence spell.
'Either the spells I've cast keep getting countered by the original silence spell, or I just don't have sufficient power.' Tara wrote to Buffy. She hung her head down showing which explanation she believed.
Tara was feeling more self-conscious than she ever had in her life. She knew that she could do magic. Powerful magic. To a degree. However, since meeting Buffy and being asked to help cast a single locator spell, everything she had attempted had ended up being a failure. The latest had been her attempts to break the silence spell.
Buffy reached out to tilt Tara's head up, looked her straight in the eye and waved her finger at Tara. She then wrote out, 'You're doing the best you can. That's all any of us expect. Don't kick yourself. I appreciate your efforts.'
Tara smiled and then snapped her fingers as she remembered something and began to dig through her purse. She drew out an amulet and handed it to Buffy. She then wrote that last night when she had seen Buffy at the hospital, she had seen Buffy's aura looking fainter than it had earlier when Tara had looked at it, almost as if it was being siphoned off. This amulet was something Tara's grandmother had given her to help protect against a psychic attack and would help restore her energies from the surrounding environment.
'My Aura?' asked Buffy as she eyed the amulet. It was circular, made of some type of metal with a rather intricate design carved upon its face. The amulet was about two inches in diameter, considerably larger than anything Buffy usually wore. As she held the amulet, it seemed to warm and grow lighter.
'Yes. It's very strong and really stands out. Actually, it almost looks as if there is more than one person there. But I'm guessing that is just something connected to you being the Slayer. Maybe it's your Slayerness shining through.'
Willow awoke with a start when Buffy put on the amulet. Tara was pleased to see Buffy's aura immediately began to brighten. After an hour, Buffy was feeling much more energized and alert. By the time night fell, Buffy was ready to kick some demon ass.
Willow was feeling pretty powered up as well. She would have been bouncing off of the walls is she wasn't passing through them. While they had waited for night to fall, Willow had concentrated on building a shield around her and Buffy. She wasn't certain whether the creature could have attached itself to Buffy if she hadn't given it a path through herself, but she was not going to take any chances.
Ten minutes after she was finished, Willow began flipping through outfits to go into battle with. At first, she thought about her Joan of Arc costume she had worn at Halloween. However, since she already had the full body shield, she decided to try something that had a 'less bulky, more stealthy' feeling to it. She pictured herself in what her vampire double had worn and began to modify it. Toward the end, she was experimenting with an outfit that was like something she had seen on 'Aeon Flux'. It was wholly impractical and if anyone could have seen her, she would have died of embarrassment. But there wasn't anyone except the monster and she didn't care what it thought. She did care about what she thought, though, and she felt silly. Deciding that with the shield it didn't matter what she wore, she decided to be comfortable and settled on a pair of blue-jeans and a T-shirt. Pink. Although with minimal frillage.
Through out it all, she had kept the sword from the Joan of Arc outfit. It sort of gave her a comfortable feeling to be holding something that seemed heavy and sharp. She wasn't certain that 'thought' guns would work but since the scissors had, Willow hoped that a sword would as well. She was guessing the sword was an extension of her spirit in the same way that the clothing she believed herself to be wearing was. A vision of herself as the shape shifting T-1000 from 'Terminator 2' gave her a start when her right hand suddenly shifted to a silver color and merged with the sword she was holding in it. 'Woah,' she thought, as she began to play with having the sword dissolve down into her hand and then suddenly shoot out like a lance.
Finally, after playing with her newest ability for awhile and learning to control it, Willow decided to settle down and wait for nightfall. As she waited, she did something that she hadn't done since she had died.
She sent a prayer of thanks to the God and Goddess for gifting her with the ability to fight off the earlier threat to Buffy, and asked for the strength to defeat the creature.
*****
Eve looked up when Maggie Walsh slammed the door shut as she stormed into the lab. 'Damn him!' she shouted silently. Jude Law had pulled rank on her again and countermanded her authorization for the teams to suit up and patrol with weapons tonight. When she had pointed out that people had been killed last night and probably would be again tonight, he had simply shrugged and told her that it was unimportant to the mission. Maggie could see her inner frustration and anger reflected in the eyes of 'HER' soldiers, and she was about ready to tell him to 'get the hell out of here'. Her soldiers would have backed her up, she was sure of it. But then Jude had passed her a note telling her that if any weapons were issued to the teams he would e-mail Washington and order an immediate cancellation of the whole project. She knew he wasn't bluffing, so she had been forced to fold in front of the troops who had been waiting for her order.
'What is wrong?' wrote Eve on the computer.
Sighing Maggie took her seat next to Eve's and wrote a quick summary of the confrontation that had taken place. Eve read the account and looked blankly at Maggie. 'So?'
'So more people are going to die tonight.'
Eve shrugged and wrote, 'People die all the time in Sunnydale. It's Buffy's problem not yours.'
Although Maggie understood Eve's first statement, the second one had her stumped. She wrote back, 'What do you mean? Buffy Summers? Why is it her problem?'
'Because she is The Slayer.'
*****
It was a markedly different Sunnydale that Buffy and Angel walked through that night. Gone were the aimless crowds of people wandering about and getting into fights. Now there were only empty streets to match the eerie silence that had fallen over the town. The murders had reminded people that while they may have lost their voice's, they could still lose more. So they hid in their houses, behind locked doors, huddling in groups for comfort and safety. Parents kept their children in their beds with them that night.
Buffy strode through the empty streets of Sunnydale as if she owned them. Angel found himself having to lengthen his own stride in order to keep pace. He had never seen Buffy concentrate so intently upon a hunt.
The last few weeks had change her. In the same way that his own reversion to Angelus had stripped her of her innocence, Willow's disappearance had given Buffy a new grim determination in her job as a Slayer. He knew she was afraid that Willow was dead, and truthfully so was he. And he worried about how she would react if it were true. Doyle's death had made that possibility all the more tangible and alarming.
Floating above the two warriors, Willow was attempting to direct Buffy towards the clock tower, thus far without much success. Buffy's intense concentration on patrolling seemed to be blocking her efforts. At least she hoped that was it. This inability to communicate was really starting to get her angry.
Although it was only 11:30pm, the presence of a car on the street was strange enough for Buffy and Angel to stop and watch it slowly pass by. The fact that it was a large, black Humvee with tinted windows raised immediate suspicions in the Slayer. Tint implied a possible vampire, whereas the make of the vehicle gave Buffy the impression of military. Spike's story of the hidden lab facility had a secret government feel to it, and while she still did not trust Spike, last year's confrontation with the Mayor had given Buffy a 'once bitten, twice shy' attitude towards anything connected to the government.
Inside the Humvee, Jude Law stared back at the couple standing alone on the sidewalk watching as he passed. While he knew that she could not see him, there was something about the expression on the girl's face as she turned her head to track the car. The man with her was watching the car go by as well; however, it was the girl who was triggering that little voice that he always listened to.
Jude Law was very good at identifying unusual or surprising problems. Unusual or the surprising problems never bothered him. It was one of the reasons why he was so good at dealing with them. That, plus his ability to eliminate the problem which had not bothered him.
So now as he rode past the girl he signaled for the driver to turn at the next corner and then had him stop. Turning around to watch out the back window he waited. Sure enough, a minute later, the girl appeared around the corner and stopped to watch the car. Turning around he was surprised when the driver handed him a note. 'Her name is Buffy Summers. I don't know the guy.'
Buffy Summers. He recognized the name. Willow Rosenberg's roommate and best friend. Also, the leader of the hunt for the missing Miss Rosenberg. He knew she was persistent in her pushing the search, but for her to be out tonight... something was up.
He gestured for the driver to proceed and they started up again. After another block they turned down another street. When they were far enough out of sight, Jude indicated for the driver to stop and he got out. He gave the driver the command to return to the base while he slipped away into the dark.
Sighing Graham started off in the car. Riley would have been pissed at him for pointing out Buffy but after today Graham knew who was in charge at the Initiative and it wasn't Riley and it certainly wasn't Dr. Walsh. Something had happened to Alpha team the night of Hostile 17's escape and everyone knew it had something to do with that girl Rosenberg. Her disappearance and the subsequent shutdown of activities had started a lot of rumors amongst the troops, but Riley, Forrest, Sanchez and Metz were hardly speaking with anyone. Personally, he was leaning towards the rumor that the chip in Hostile 17 had failed; Alpha team had interrupted him while he was killing the girl; Riley had recognized her and taken her to initiative HQ to get her medical attention but it had been too late. Jude Law was here because the chip had failed and Alpha team had compromised their cover and now everyone thought there was some group of wackos who were kidnapping people.
The irony that it was Riley's almost girlfriend who was now leading the crusade against the Initiative only proved to Graham how fallible Riley could be.
*****
Buffy and Angel walked up to look down the street where the Humvee had turned and saw a now empty street. Buffy was about to proceed down the street when Angel grabbed her shoulder. She looked at him and he indicated for her to listen. At first she heard nothing but then she caught a faints hint of the sound of something jingling back down from where she had just come. In a flash she was running down the street, sticking to the shadows, dodging behind trees and leaping hedges and fences. Angel was hard pressed to keep up and, further back, Jude Law watched in surprise as the girl rapidly flew down the street in a stealthy hunting pattern.
Reaching Main Street, Buffy paused to listen, turning her head this way and that. Angel had just reached her when she darted off down the street again. She caught sight of something white disappearing around a corner and she streaked down the alley that connected to Elm Street.
Peering out from the alley, Buffy spotted a shambling figure wearing a straightjacket as it scuttled down the street. She was about to follow it when she suddenly caught sight of the clock tower and something within her gave a shout. All day she had been receiving vague impressions relating to a clock face, and she had thought it was some kind of Slayer instinct telling her that time was running out. Now, she realized that it was actually an image of this clock tower that she had been seeing.
Angel finally caught up, saw the figure in the straight jacket and looked at Buffy with an arched eyebrow, as if to ask why she was just standing there. Buffy pointed at the clock tower just as a shadow of two people passed by the window. Somebody was inside. Buffy and Angel looked at each other and nodded in agreement before walking out of the ally and moving purposefully towards the clock tower as they readied their weapons for battle.
Jude Law was out of breath by the time he reached the alley. Holding his gun at the ready he had proceeded cautiously down the alley, alert for any signs of a trap. The couple was nowhere in sight, and he wondered if he had lost them. Reaching the end of the alley he spotted them outside the clock tower. To Jude's surprise, it was the girl who walked forward first and kicked open the door. He was even more intrigued when she raised her hands and fired what looked like a crossbow before leaping forward into the building, closely followed by the man. He moved forward to watch and was startled when a figure in a straightjacket crashed headfirst through the boarded up lower window.
Peering through the broken window, Jude could see the couple was engaged in an all out brawl against four more figures wearing unfastened straightjackets while three lay on the floor, dead or unconscious he didn't know. Jude was more than a little amazed when Buffy kicked one figure and he flew across the room, snapping a support beam as he crashed into it. Although she showed an impressive fighting ability, she should not be able to do that. The girl could not have weighed that much and she certainly didn't look to be that muscular. Next he caught sight of the man who had accompanied Buffy and was astounded to see the now familiar vampiric ridges on his face that Jude had seen on a number of the hostiles in the Initiative's containment facilities.
Jude would have been content to watch the remainder of the fight through the window, however he was interrupted when someone tackled him from behind.
Rolling across the grass he lashed out with his feet and was rewarded with a satisfying thump. Looking around quickly he found himself facing four more of the straightjacket fiends and some type of grinning floating cadaverous man wearing a suit from the turn of the century.
*****
Willow was again on the second floor of the clock tower looking at the blobby thing that hung near the ceiling where the two lines of power seemed to meet. She knew that she should have been feeling somewhat frightened or possibly even sick from the sight of hearts sitting inside three of the jars on the table with the box. Instead, however, she felt calm and determined, almost as if she was looking forward to the battle. 'I feel the way I imagine Buffy does when she's about to face down a big bad,' she thought to herself. 'I wonder if I'm getting affected by Buffy's slayer side.'
The creature abruptly lashed out with several tendrils at Willow. Willow flinched back but did not retreat as she held up a hand and the tendrils impacted upon her shield. Relived at the success of her shield, Willow slashed back at the tendrils with a sword. The tendrils eluded her sword thrust by retracting back towards the creature. Willow pursued the tendrils, hacking and slashing with her swords. All of a sudden, the creature dropped from the ceiling and seemed to spread out to envelop her. Her swords doing no noticeable harm, the creature surrounded her like some type of jellyfish. She could feel thousands of probing tendrils as the creature tried to get through her shields.
As little as a day ago Willow might have panic and lost control of her shields, however today the creature was facing a more resolute and determined Willow than she had ever been before. She would not give one inch to this monster that had violated her and Buffy. Yes, it was disgusting, but so what? It was evil, and it was going to die tonight.
If she could just figure out how to harm it.
Four of the ghoulish grinning Gentlemen moved to stand in a circle around her and she could hear a faint whispering from them as if they were chanting something, but their mouths never moved.
They were casting a spell.
Inside the jars, one of the hearts began to glow and slowly disappear. The creature surrounding her suddenly seemed to grow stronger and pressed harder upon her shields. Constricting upon her. Crushing down upon her with an ever-increasing pressure.
Ever so slowly, Willow felt herself beginning to succumb to the pressure.
*****
Buffy followed one of the demons as it fled upstairs and got her first look at four of the gentlemen just before she was tackled by another one of their lackeys. The Gentlemen had been standing in a circle staring at nothing when Buffy crashed their party.
Spinning about Buffy sent one of the footmen crashing into the group of Gentlemen.
However, three more were upon her. Clutching at her; restraining her; holding her up for the advancing Gentleman with the scalpel.
*****
Angel charged upstairs to find Buffy being held by three of the footmen as one of the Gentlemen moved in with a scalpel. With an inaudible growl, Angel leapt onto the Gentleman, in the process knocking off balance the group trying to hold Buffy and setting her free. Buffy scramble to her feet, leapt to grab an overhead beam and kicked out at the charging footmen, sending them crashing back over some crates.
She turned to see Angel grappling with another couple of footmen, the Gentlemen hovering back away as if afraid.
Something in her head was screaming for her attention and when she looked and saw the table with the jars and the small box she realized what it was.
The box on the table was the same as the box from her dream.
She took a step forward only to be grabbed from behind by two more footmen. They grappled with her as she struggled to reach the box. Pressed against a large wooden cable spool, Buffy extended her hand towards the box on the table in a futile attempt to reach it.
Then the amulet on Buffy's chest began to glow.
*****
Outside Jude Law had put up a hard fight. He knew over a dozen different forms of martial arts and had done his share of hand to hand combat when he had been outnumbered before. However, when your opponents could get back up after having a bullet pass through their chest or head, and you were out numbered... well, the outcome had been simply a matter of time. He was beginning to think it had been a mistake to put the silencer on the gun as he could really use some help right now from either the girl or the vampire inside.
Jude was bei