Turned
by Bob Head
Part 3
[reviews]
Author: Bob Head
Disclaimer: None of the characters below belong to me. All the BtVS/Angel people belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox. (Damn it!) I'm just trying to have fun.
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, of course.
Spoilers: A few general ones for Season Six and a few more specific ones for 'Once More With Feeling'. There are a couple of references in this part to a few things that happened in Season two.
Distribution: IKOLY, BtVS Wishful Thinking and the Immortal Slayer. Anybody else, just ask.
Rating: Still PG-13 for this part. Higher stuff will come in later parts.
Feedback: Yes please! frank_8281@yahoo.com
A/N: I know that many people don't like the musical episode of BtVS. I am NOT one of them. I liked it. The only part that I didn't like was that damn kiss at the end. So, what if that kiss had ended... differently.
A/N 2: For the purposes of this little AU, the so-called Trio are not an issue so I'm just gonna ignore them.
Turned
Part Three
Xander watched, with no small amount of trepidation, as Dawn made her preparations for the locater spell. She had searched Willow's bags to find all the ingredients necessary for it to work. One of them, a lock of Buffy's hair, had been carefully hidden in the lining of the book that the redhead had found the spell in. Willow's hairbrush had yielded a few strands to make the spell work for both missing girls.
The youngest Summers carefully measured out the ingredients into separate earthenware bowls. She set these on a map of the city on the floor around a small iron pot that Willow used for casting. Using a fine green powder, she drew a large unfinished circle with her and Xander at its center.
"I still don't understand why I have to be inside the circle." He griped, his face already turning a pretty shade of purple where Buffy had connected with her knee.
Dawn sighed as she put the jar of powder back on the desk, keeping a little in her hand to close the circle. "I told you twice already. I need a second for this." She settled into the lotus position on the carpet gesturing for Xander to sit opposite her. "Okay, do you have the hair?"
"Yep," he said holding up both hands to show red and blonde hairs between thumb and forefinger. "Two strands each of Willow and Buffy."
"Good. I'll nod when it's time to put them in, okay? First Willow's, then Buffy, Got it?"
"Yeah, I got it." Xander said, catching Dawn's eye, he continued, "You just be careful."
She smiled reassuringly at him as she closed the circle and began.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
"So," Willow asked, still massaging Buffy's feet, "what happened next?"
Buffy sighed as she thought; 'Now it gets harder.' Out loud she replied, "We were in Angel's old place when I..." she paused, "I rose."
"The mansion? Willow asked, "Cause we checked there..."
"No." Buffy interrupted, "When I first met Angel he was staying in an apartment in the basement of an old warehouse. It wasn't very far from the Bronze."
"Okay," Willow said thoughtfully, "that explains why we couldn't find you physically. I've never even seen Angel's apartment and I think the last time you mentioned it was right before... well, right before you slept with Angel and woke up with Angelus. But Buffy..." she stopped.
Buffy looked at the redhead and asked, "What are you getting at Will?"
Willow spoke hesitantly, her fingers still absently tracing little patterns on Buffy's feet. "I've been trying to find you with locater spells since a couple of days after you disappeared. You... well, you were up by then. I should have been able to find you and I couldn't!"
With a sudden flash of understanding, the blonde Slayer Vampire got up from the sofa. Buffy padded barefoot to a cabinet across the room. Puzzled, the redhead watched as her friend opened the doors to reveal a small but fairly complete home entertainment system. Reaching for something on the top shelf, she fumbled around for a few moments. She braced herself as if to jump, then seemed to think better of it.
"Will?" She said, turning to face the red haired witch over her shoulder, "Don't freak, okay?"
Willow started to rise from the sofa, and then she let out a soft gasp as she saw Buffy do something completely... inhuman for the first time. Buffy gave a casual hop to grab the top of the entertainment center with her right hand. Using only that hand she pulled her body up to a ninety-degree angle with the floor so that she could look unhindered into the top shelf.
"Ahh, there you are." The blonde said, reaching to the back of the shelf for a chain with a medallion on it.
Gripping the medallion in her left hand, she pushed off with her right. Spinning in mid-air Buffy landed on her feet with barely a whisper of sound. She looked apprehensively at Willow's shocked expression through a curtain of blonde looks that had fallen across her face in the movement.
For a few seconds the redhead said nothing. Then a smile slowly spread across her lips as she whispered, "Show-off."
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
As she poured in the first ingredient, a really foul smelling yellowish liquid, Dawn started chanting in what she hoped was Latin. Willow had taught her this spell and several of the others by rote, explaining that understanding what a spell said was sometimes not as important as believing that the spell was going to work.
When she reached the end of the first stanza, she poured in the contents of the second bowl, and nodded to Xander. Gingerly he dropped two strands of red hair into the pot. As soon as it made contact with the sludge that was forming in the bottom, there was a poof of red smoke and the color of the substance in the pot changed to a reddish hue.
Another stanza, another smelly liquid, blue and thick this time. Dawn nodded to the carpenter and held her breath as he dropped Buffy's hair to join Willow's. This time the smoke was yellow in color and when Dawn peeked into the pot, she saw the color of the stuff had changed to a reddish gold, which was just what it was supposed to be.
Sighing in relief the youngest Summers girl thought 'Almost there!' as she continued to recite the spell and prepared to add the final ingredient.
Finishing the last verse, she poured the contents of the final bowl, an orange powder, into the pot. The same pot that immediately began to shake back and forth as its contents began to glow a sickly green. Dawn's eyes went wide.
"Is it supposed to do that?" asked a panicky Xander. Dawn shook her head.
"Shit!" Xander leapt to his feet dragging Dawn with him.
"Don't break the circle!" she cried.
Xander glared at her in consternation but before he could say anything a wind screamed through the closed hotel room, Dawn's eyes changed to jet-black and with a 'resolve face' that would do Willow proud, she pointed at the pot and commanded, "Thicken!"
A shimmer of magically hardened air formed and began to solidify around the pot just as it exploded and threw Xander and Dawn in opposite directions.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
Buffy handed the medallion to Willow as they settled back on the sofa. This time the Slayer curled up in the corner, her arms wrapped loosely around her knees.
"I was wearing that when I... woke up. Spike called it a..."
"Blocking charm." Willow finished for her quietly.
Picking up on the sudden anger in Willow but not understanding, Buffy continued, "Yeah, he said he knew I wouldn't want you guys to see me this way and that it would keep..."
"Locater spells from detecting you." Still staring at the charm in her hand, Willow asked in a low voice, "Where did he say he got it?"
Buffy, confused by the rage she felt from her friend asked, "Will what is it? Did I do something to piss you off?"
"No!" Seeing Buffy flinch, the fiery haired witch made a visible effort to control her voice as she said, "No, just tell me where he got this. Please?"
"Spike said it belonged to Drusilla."
"Drusilla." Willow felt sick, as the realization came that she was going to have to tell Buffy that this could not have been an accident like Spike claimed. 'No, he murdered her! He planned this!'
Suddenly feeling the need to DO something, to move, Willow leapt to her feet and began to pace the small living room. Eight paces from the front door to the far wall and back again. Counting helped her think, helped calm the anguish she was feeling right now. As she completed her circuit at the wall, she noticed for the first time that the drapes there hid not a window, but a blank wall. 'Stupid, of course there's no window! She's hiding here during the day. Hiding from the sun.'
Glancing at the confused Slayer out of the corner of her eye, the redhead made note of the fact that her once golden skin was now nearly as pale as Willows own, "Of course it is!" she thought, as she turned to stride toward the door again, 'You can't spend three months in the dark...'
Knowing that something was drastically wrong but not knowing what, Buffy sprang into Willow's path grabbing her by the shoulders, "What is it Will? Please! Just tell me!" she begged.
Tears filling her eyes Willow managed to stammer, "B-Buffy, I..." and then she threw her arms around the vampire and started sobbing. Long, gut wrenching wails that must have been painful for Willow, because they felt like a knife to the Slayer's unbeating heart.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
Xander began to stir, mumbling "Amy Yip at the water slide park." Then he remembered what happened and realized he was still lying in a heap at the base of the wall. "Aw... Crap."
Ignoring his various pains he looked around for his companion. When he saw her lying across the room he shouted, "Dawn!"
"Not so loud Xander." She said without opening her eyes. "I haven't had a headache this bad since Janice stole those wine coolers from her mother."
The carpenter, in the process of helping the girl off the floor stopped abruptly and said with a grin, "Wine coolers?"
"D-did I say wine coolers?" Dawn asked nervously. "Must be the bump on the head, there were NO wine coolers... EVER. Okay?"
Xander smirked as he replied, "It'll be our little secret."
"Oww," Dawn groaned as he helped her stand upright. Looking around the rubble that was pretty much all that was left of their hotel room she muttered, "Guess I used a little too much eels bane."
"Ya think?"
Something in the debris caught Dawn's attention and she gasped, "Oh! Oh! Look, look! It worked!" Crossing the room on unsteady legs, she pulled the tattered map off the floor.
"What worked?"
Exasperated, she waved the map in his face. "The spell! It worked. No matter where they go in the city, we can find them now!" The excited teenager turned and began throwing clothes into their backpacks while Xander examined the map and it's two twinkling red and gold lights.
A few moments later, she looked up and seeing him still looking at the map, said impatiently "Xander!"
"What?" he said looking over the edge of the map at her.
"Help me finish packing so we can get the hell out of here!" seeing the confusion on his face she continued. "This isn't Sunnydale Xander. We just set off what sounded like a bomb in a crowded hotel in downtown Chicago!"
"Good point." He said turning to grab more of their stuff.
As they finished packing and dividing the load between them, the two Scoobies began moving towards the door. Just as Xander reached for the knob, he was startled to hear a pounding begin on the other side.
Wide eyed, Dawn asked, "Fire escape?"
Nodding, Xander replied, "Fire escape."
Bolting out the window, they made their way down into an alley beside the hotel. They heard sirens approaching as they hurried away under a rapidly lightening early morning sky.
TBC