Wish Upon A Demon
by UrbanGoth
The Wizard's Quarters
[reviews]
6. The Wizard's Quarters
They stood in front of Giles' couch, waiting to be briefed.
"Okay, Buffy, at your request this will be a mission for just the three of us." Giles said. "Despite my having contacts," he added sourly.
"Look, Giles, I don't work well with others." She pressed. Then, catching his glance at Willow, added "That's different."
His brow raised but he said nothing else about it.
"I don't want you dragging them into it, Giles, if we can do this on our own. Buffy can do the fighting, we can do the magicks and it isn't a big day for anyone now so there won't be a party waiting for us at the factory. Surprise attack." She illustrated how much of a surprise it would be by waving her arms a bit and Giles softened.
"I just.. I don't want Oz to get hurt. In my dimension he gets shot. I'd rather I didn't take a chance with this one. I get the feeling something worse would happen." Her voice had quietened. Giles nodded.
"Very well." He acknowledged. They all nodded to each other and no one at the same time. Buffy squeezed Willow's hand and twisted hers to wrap their fingers together. The witch smiled at Buffy, glad of the contact, but wondered inwardly about her feelings for Oz.
She loved him, yeah, but there was something about this adventure that changed that love. She wasn't exactly sure how. Obviously, Buffy was a big part of that change but she'd been friends with Buffy for over two years now. Surely this had been gradual. She'd never thought about being with anyone else, but then, the prospect of having someone else, especially someone like Buffy, had never really occurred to her.
"Now, as you know I've found the spell to reverse what has been done to your mother but I need Willow's help to perform it, and it has to be near the body." Buffy visually stiffened at the word 'body'. "I suggest we do it in the factory, assuming we find her there."
Willow sighed. It was gonna be a long night and Giles had already been over what to do. The spell, the ingredients, the fighting. He even had Buffy training, despite the fact that she argued 'til she was blue in the face that he was not her watcher so he couldn't tell her what to do. The only thing that could possibly go wrong with this plan was if Willow was poofed out of here mid-spell.
She grasped Buffy's hand tighter. Her feelings were a mass of conflict. She'd never wanted to be here and be somewhere else so much equally before. She so badly wanted to stay with this Buffy, stay and help her, be her friend. After she went, who would Buffy have? Giles? She would have to go back to Cleveland, to her watcher. I could go with her in this dimension. Live with her. Be her... Be her what, Rosenburg? Be her girlfriend? Yeah, okay. Willow shook her head slightly. Well, it was very gentle actually, so it might just have been her eyes. That was the real reason she wanted to stay. To see what Buffy would do after this whole mission deal. Everybody knows that adrenaline heightens emotions thus rendering everyone mildly out of control with how they handle their feelings. Buffy might only have kissed Willow because she was there.
She shook her head again. This time it was a definite shake. There was no way Buffy would do that. Not her Buffy, and not this Buffy.
Suddenly, the slayer picked up her weapons, Giles picked up his ingredients, and Willow found herself being dragged out of the front door.
[Oh. We're going.]
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It was a long walk to the factory, despite it being only a few blocks away. Buffy had suggested taking the car but Giles, ever sensible and cunning, thought it better to go in quietly and take them by, he waved his arms in the air a bit, 'surprise'. They had all agreed and for the entire walk, Willow had found herself on Buffy's arm, being protected from the nightmare she walked through. Sunnydale.
Soon enough, the factory came into view and Willow's nerves started playing up. This spell Giles had found was almost impossible to do for someone of her power but she had to try. It was intense and required a lot of concentration. She only hoped that Buffy could hold whatever might attack them at bay.
They entered through a side entrance into the room that Willow had poofed into not 24 hours ago. The machine, even though it had no one writhing on it, still looked as ugly and inhumane as ever. Giles moved swiftly to a corner of the room and began to set up the ingredients. Buffy stood with arms folded, naturally, in the centre of the room with a tight grip on her stake and assessed her surroundings then went off in search of the zombie. She hadn't said much and, the redhead noticed, her face had been the same stony expression since they left the house. It was a quarter fear of what she would see again, a quarter pain at what she had to remember to look for and a half pure determination. Buffy wanted this over.
Willow wondered if there had ever been a time where she had wanted to see Mr. Pointy so badly.
No.
"Willow?" Giles called quietly and pointed to the circle he had set up. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Here goes. She hoped the body was here. She wanted this over too.
Sure enough, Buffy returned, nodding her head. Giles silently asked of her whereabouts.
"Few rooms from here. With the Master." Giles froze. Buffy noticed. "I can handle him Giles. I'm the Slayer. It's what I do."
His eyes softened, his head lowered and he sighed. Willow watched intently at the proceedings. Even in this dimension, even though he'd hit her on the head with ice cubes and argued solidly with her about many different things... even though he'd known her for less than a day, he was worried. He liked her and he wanted to see her safe.
Crazy, Willow pondered, the way that things work. Of all the people to be concerned with seeing others safe, surely it should be Buffy, Guardian of the Hellmouth and world surrounding it. But all Giles and Willow wanted, was for Buffy to get through this. Why else would they be here? The protector was being looked out for by the protected. Kinda backward. Of course, Willow decided, that's the way Buffy works. And that's kinda what she does to people. Brings out their virtues. Brings out the best in them. [In me.]
Giles sat down opposite her and he began an incantation. Willow wasn't sure but from what he'd said it was a preliminary. Sort of like an offering as an apology for taking back what had been asked to do, even though he hadn't done any asking prior to this. It isn't typically a long p-
"SHIT." Buffy spun under the dirty arm that had her round the neck. Willow's head snapped to the slayer's direction to see her twisting back Joyce's arm. Giles began to speak faster, hearing the commotion. He knew what had happened. He had explained earlier why the body hadn't attacked Buffy at the cemetery. The spell that was performed was only to awaken Joyce Summers and bring her to her master. The Master. Then she would be given her orders, which were likely to be to kill the slayer. Guess she got them.
The body, as strong as any zombie would be, pulled its arm forward and brought Buffy with it. She hit the floor and rolled, getting straight back onto her feet. The zombie lurched forward at Buffy and she dodged it, delivering a swift left hook under the arm. The body stumbled sideways, regained its footing and advance on the slayer. Willow knew, without looking, still concentrating on the spell, that Buffy was holding back. She would do everything within her power not to disfigure the body more than it was. She circled it, not hunting now but dodging mostly, and hit out at the shoulder. The zombie spun and hit the floor.
"Now is as good a time as any to get that spell done, Giles." She called. "She's floo-"
"Hey! Slayer!" Willow's head snapped round again. This time in the direction of the voice. She knew that voice. She knew it all too well.
"Xander!" She shouted to him. Maybe, just maybe she could get through to him. To the real him.
He paid no heed and focused on Buffy. "Got somethin' for ya." He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a knife. Buffy was visibly shaken. And visibly shaking. Willow wasn't sure with what. It was either fear or anger and neither of those options seemed great in a fight for your life.
"Give. That. Back." It was Buffy's. Maybe that's what she had instead of Mr. Pointy. Willow sensed it had some sort of sentimental value.
"Why?" Xander giggled. It sounded so much like his usual giggle. The one he did when he was nervous or watching Charlie Brown's Christmas Special, but it was tainted. With evil. "So you can kill your mother with it again?" He smiled incredulously.
Willow knew it was special. She didn't know it was that special.
Buffy, staring hard at him, shot an arm out to her left. It caught the body on the chest, right over the heart. Willow heard a crack in between Giles' words. The body hit the floor, dangerously close to where she and Giles were sat. She exhaled anxiously.
Buffy continued to stare down Xander in all his bumpy glory. "That," she pointed to the zombie, "is NOT my mother."
Xander growled. "You're gonna die tonight, slayer."
Buffy sighed, and threw her head back to the ceiling. She shook her head and stared him down again.
"Whatever."
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"Willow." Giles said. She opened her eyes. "Now."
Her hand shot to the small pot beside her and she poured it onto the picture of Mrs. Summers, making sure to cover the entire face. A few words and that's it. She closed her eyes again and joined Giles in his incantations.
It was intense. It was magnificent. It was powerful. Willow could feel the power flowing through her. It danced around her mind and onto her finger tips. She could feel it there, crackling, waiting, begging to be used. Her pupils dilated and the hair on the nape of her neck stood up on end. She could feel everything in the room. Even the dead things. Buffy was buzzing with power. Willow could sense it. She didn't need the incantation. She could do it anyway. The power was there for the taking and it felt beautiful. It needed a release.
Enough of this.
"Release her."
The zombie, which had been advancing on Buffy as she fought with Xander, dropped to the floor. There was no showy death, no fancy convulsing. She just hit the floor like a rock. A dead weight.
Willow shook herself and came out of the spell. Her fingers still crackled ever-so-slightly and she still had goose-pimples, but her pupils had contracted and she could see Giles clearer now. His face was a picture. He looked half fearful. The bemusement in his eyes surprised Willow and she sent him a questioning glance.
"I'm sorry. I, I didn't know you had that sort of power." He cleared his throat. "You have a natural talent for magic, Willow, but it's a powerful thing and can become a need, an addiction. Don't take-"
"Take it for granted?" Willow finished. Giles nodded, still a little confused. "I won't. I don't. I, I'm just starting, really. I don't really know my limits." She spoke quickly. "It started last year when Buffy- the other Buffy- had to fight Angel."
Giles' brow furrowed. "Angelus." She corrected. "It's kinda a long story and we don't really have time fo-"
"GILES!" Buffy shouted. "STAKE!"
Willow, knowing she wasn't demanding a nice 8oz Rib Eye, picked up the stake and threw it to Buffy. The slayer caught it easily and, as soon as it was in her hand, delivered an uppercut to Xander's jaw. He flew back and hit the ground heavily. Willow knew what was coming next. Buffy would stake him and he would be dust. Xander. The boy she had grown up with. Surely their childhood here was the same as it had been in the other dimension. Up until Buffy didn't come to Sunnydale when they both changed. But yesterday, back in the very same room she was standing in now, she knew that he still saw her as a vampire. They were still friends. Even if they were dead. That meant something. That they were friends even though they were evil. It had to mean something. She could save him. She could bring him out of the evil... She could try.
"BUFFY, NO!" Buffy stopped an inch from Xander's heart, but held it there, daring him to move. Willow approached her, brushing down her clothes automatically. "Nice reflexes." She gave.
"Well, y'know. I work out." Buffy smiled at her friend. Then reeled back. The footprint on her black sweater caught Willow's eye and before she could panic, she felt a cold hand thump the side of her head and the cold floor hit her front.
Xander. Xander had hit her. Her head was craned back by a hand in her hair and she was lifted vertical again by a strong limb from under her arm and across her chest. The hand on the end of it held her shoulder tightly and the other moved her head to the right, baring her neck for all to see. A voice whispered in her ear. The same voice she had recognised just minutes before.
"You're no fun like this." Xander said, and went in for the kill.
"She's more fun than you are." Buffy caught him by the shoulders and pulled him off Willow, in turn pulling her onto the floor but free of his grasp. The witch turned to see Buffy throw him into a wall and pull out her stake.
"Well, well." New voice. "Quite a raucous you've caused here."
Buffy's head swivelled over to the Master's standing place, giving Xander the chance to slip away. She didn't care. This was the reason she came to Sunnydale. This was going to be finished.
"Now," he grinned smugly, eyes twinkling with excitement in his walnut-shell head. "Now I'm going to kill you."
The slayer took off at a run and jumped into roundhouse kick to the jaw. He staggered and stumbled back against the doorjamb. Buffy sniggered and shook her head at him. "You can try."
Unexpectedly, he smiled. Quick as, he lashed out at her and she swivelled her top half bringing her right arm up to block his left jab, leaving his chest open for a counter attack. She tried, but he caught her wrist, twisting it violently downwards. She flipped, cartwheeling in mid-air, and landed perfectly, twisting his arm and bringing it up in the process with a swift backhand to the right of his ribcage. He stumbled again, but not as much as she'd expected and came back with a hard left hook to the face. She hit the floor. He was stronger than he looked, Willow deducted, but then, she didn't suppose you get called the Master for being good at picking strawberries.
Willow almost ran to Buffy, but Giles held her back, going in himself. He charged the Master, tackling him from the left and they both hit the floor. Giles got to his feet quickly and produced a stake from what looked to Willow liked nowhere. He swung it down but the Master caught his arm with his left hand and grinned at the watcher.
"Pitiful." He laughed, and knocked Giles into a wall with his right hand. Willow saw the contact with the concrete and knew that it had knocked Giles out. He had hit the wall pretty hard with his head. Laid on the ground there wasn't much he could do now. So it was up to Willow to help. She shifted on her feet. She had no idea what to do, how to help. How do you help a slayer without getting in the way? Buffy had rolled onto her feet now and was fighting the Master again with all she had.
She wasn't winning though. The Master swung again, this time catching her stomach, winding her, and he kicked her very smoothly into the wall that stood behind her.
It was now that Xander decided to rejoin the party. He strolled in from the entrance she, Buffy and Giles had used previously and stood beside the Master, grinning. The hunger in his eyes was almost too much to bear. The Master moved in towards Buffy, as did Xander, who stood in fighting stance, calculating her odds against two rather than just the one.
Time to stop that calculating. Willow thought.
"Buffy!" She knew the slayer wouldn't look. She knew why Willow had shouted. Xander swivelled around, hearing the call. He looked to the Master, who nodded, and advanced towards the young redhead. Willow panicked. Her breathing became shallow, her nerves tickled, her eyes twitched along with other body parts and she swallowed. For a split second, it felt like she was back in Giles' front room, about to do the most courageous thing she would ever do - kiss Buffy, which she did. And for a split second, she felt powerful.
Xander dived for her, and she ran at a right angle. Xander switched his footing and followed, diving again and catching her legs. She fell forward, cracking her forearms on the floor but saw what she had been heading for. She scrambled to the weapons bag that Buffy had brought and grabbed a long sword. Xander laughed down at her, knocking the sword across the room and threw himself onto her, going for the kill again.
Willow coughed the dust out of her mouth, spitting and choking it out, throwing the stake back into the bag. She rubbed the left of her chest where the end of the stake had dug into her as his weight fell onto the pointier end. She sniffed a little, and bit her bottom lip. She'd just killed her best friend.
"WILL!" She grabbed the stake again and ran over to where Buffy was, just around one of the wooden corners, to see the Master knock the sword from her hand and pushed the slayer against the conveyer belt of the blood machine. She hit it hard but managed a round kick to the right of his face, grounding him. Willow's breath caught and she did all she could do and threw the sword to Buffy, who was weaponless. She caught it again so smoothly just as the Master swung in front of her. Willow couldn't see Buffy now, her vision obscured by the Master, but she heard an almighty growl, then a screeching, retching noise, and the Master's head came clean off his shoulders. He slumped to the floor. Willow ran up to Buffy, smiling and laughing, but stopped abruptly.
She was bleeding. Violently. From her chest. From the heart.
He did it. He said he'd kill her. He hit her right in the heart. Ripped her open.
"No." Willow was shaking. She could feel every part of her body shaking.
"No." She repeated.
"Buffy." The slayer's eyes were closed and she was twitching. The blood was pouring from her chest. She was lying in her own blood.
Without thinking, Willow dragged Buffy away from the Master. She laid her head on a pile of wood.
Buffy's mouth was open and her breath came in short gasps. Her face was wet. The witch didn't know when she had started crying.
Didn't care.
"Buffy! Buffy, no! Please! Please don't die!" Buffy continued to twitch violently, eyes still closed, mouth hanging open. Her throat kept catching on air. Small choking noises escaped her lips.
"Buffy! Buffy!" Willow shook the slayer. She was desperate. She knew she was going to die but she had to see her. She had to see her eyes. "Buffy, please! Open your eyes!"
Willow fell from her position on her knees and sat on the floor, still shaking Buffy fiercely. Her eyes poured, her nose poured, it was hurting her head. She didn't notice.
"Buffy, please," she cried, "please, look at me."
The slayer, still convulsing, soaked in her own blood, moved her mouth. No sound came out. But Willow saw it. She wiped the hair from Buffy's forehead. She wasn't careful, or gentle, but it didn't matter. Buffy's eyelids twitched and they opened. They were heavy and it hurt so much to move her eyes, but Buffy looked at Willow.
Willow saw. She cried harder. "Oh, Buffy! I tried to- I tried to save you. I- I thought-, he didn't have a head and-, I-"
Buffy closed her eyes slowly and closed her mouth. Her body had stilled slightly. She was going to die soon. She was cold. Every part of her. Except her cheek. That's where Willow's hand was. She could feel the warmth coming from the girl who had changed a big part of her, made her look at her short life with a little less cynicism and a little more hope. Not hope for herself, but hope for the world. Knowing that there were people like Willow in it made Buffy feel better about her job. Old job now. Willow changed the way she saw it. She wasn't just a slayer, she was a protector. And she was a friend.
She opened her eyes again and smiled at the redhead above her. She caught her eyes and tried as hard as she could to tell her what she was just thinking, hoping that Willow understood what she was trying to convey with just one look. If not, all she could hope for was that Willow knew that she was loved and that it didn't matter in which way. All that mattered was that she was loved greatly and deeply by Buffy. By every Buffy, she was willing to wager.
Willow, who couldn't read minds, was at a loss. But she felt what Buffy felt, and she smiled back at the slayer and leaned forward as Buffy's eyes closed and her twitches subsided. She pressed her lips gently to her forehead, as she had done back in Giles' apartment, and, as she had also done before, kissed Buffy's bloody, cold lips goodbye, feeling the warmth that she would always remember.
Light blinded her and she felt the world around fall away.