Turned
by Bob Head
Chapter 13
[reviews]
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 specific ones for 'Once More With Feeling'.
Distribution: IKOLY, BtVS Wishful Thinking and the Immortal Slayer. Anybody else, just ask.
Rating: NC-17 for language, violence, and the occasional sexiness between B/W.
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.
A/N 3: (Buffy's demon.)
Turned
Part Thirteen
There was a pounding in her head that sounded suspiciously like... hammering? "Dammit Xander!" Willow groaned as she sat up in bed and looked around bleary eyed from lack of sleep.
Seeing Buffy was gone, the redhead dressed and went in search of her lover.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
The Slayer Vampire watched from the safety of a shadowed corner as Xander boarded up another window. "Do you really think we need to cover up every window Xand?"
"Well... that's not what I'm doing." He returned to hammering as he continued. "I'm blocking up strategic windows so that all the main ways to get around the house are out of direct sunlight." He grabbed the last piece of pre-cut plywood and started up the stairs, greeting a grumpy looking Willow as they passed each other. "Hey Will."
The redhead issued an irritated grunt and folded herself into Buffy's arms as she reached the bottom of the stairs. The blonde scooped up her girlfriend and settled them both on the couch.
"Poor baby, did Xander's hammering wake you?"
"Yes." Willow replied grumpily. "Did you really want Xander to do all this?"
Buffy sighed, "I think he's just being a little over-protective." She pulled the sleepy redhead even closer and carefully examined her pale face. "And now I'm going to be over-protective." She lifted Willow's chin. "No more feeding from you."
"But..."
"No Will! It's too dangerous. And not just for you." She slid away from her girlfriend and stood, padding across the room. "If I get too used to drinking human blood then I might lose control of my demon." She turned and caught Willow's gaze. "If that happens, it'll make Angelus on his worst day look like a kids birthday party. So I need you to make me a promise..."
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
Vicky woke with a roaring headache, 'Oww. What was it old Crowley said; 'You're not officially a Slayer's watcher until you've been knocked unconscious.' Well, it's bloody well official.'
She pulled herself stiffly out of bed. Swaying a bit on her feet, she noticed the time. "Damn. I over-slept!" Quickly shedding her pajamas, the watcher dressed in a pair of sweats and sneakers.
'Feel like my head's about to fall off.' She thought as she made her way to the kitchen. "Faith?" she called, wincing. "I know I said you should rest today but I'm surprised you aren't already in the training area..." She saw a note on the table.
Picking it up she read, 'Vicky, gone to see Giles, back soon, F.'
"Damn!" She cursed, crumpling the note and throwing it across the room.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
Before Xander had gone to the Summers house, he had dropped Giles at the Magic Box. For some hours, he had been working to learn more about the ritual that Willow had used to resurrect Buffy. He paused to take a sip of tea and grimaced when he found it had gone cold. He was busy making a fresh pot when he heard a commotion from the front of the store.
"Giles! Giles, help!" cried Anya.
Grabbing up a sword he rushed around the bookcase dividing the research area from the rest of the store. "What the devil..."
He lowered his weapon at the sight before him. Anya was trying to brain a slightly battered looking Faith with a broom.
Giles sighed, "Anya, do put that thing away."
"Yeah, 'fore I put it somewhere that you ain't gonna like." The brunette growled.
"Are... are you threatening me?" she screeched and turned to the watcher. "She's threatening me Giles!"
The Englishman took the broom away from Anya. "Take care of that customer coming in and I'll speak with Faith." He gestured towards the back of the store and led Faith to the training room.
"Alright, but if you're not out of there in ten minutes I'm calling... somebody!" she called after them and huffed off to wait on the customer.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
She was in the basement, taping her hands, getting ready to pummel the heavy bag. Xander had installed it not long before... well, before he had summoned Sweet in a misguided attempt to ensure a 'happy ending' with Anya. She had never gotten a chance to use it.
Now she was trying to work off some frustration. Because Willow had done the one thing she hadn't expected. She'd said no.
"I won't." Willow had replied. "Don't ask me."
"If it comes right down to it Will... I don't think anyone else can."
"Good." The redhead snapped, "'Cause it won't come to that. I can fix this Buffy. I just need a little more time." She stood, her features settling into the resolve face that Buffy knew so well. "I have to go to the Magic Box. I promised Giles I'd help him do some research."
She headed upstairs to change. "Will, please?" Buffy called after her.
"No." Willow closed the bedroom door behind her.
Growling in annoyance, the Slayer Vampire had stalked downstairs to the basement.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
She finished taping her hands and started a warm up exercise. 'Why won't she do this for me?' she thought.
(Because she loves you.) Her demon said.
'I wasn't asking you.' She punched the bag experimentally. Since it didn't break she started working it more aggressively
(Okay, but if not me, then who? Willow? She didn't seem especially willing to discuss it with you.)
"You," Punch. "Are," Kick. "The reason," Left, right, kick. "I had," Left, right, right elbow strike, left elbow strike, spin kick. "To ask her," Right, left, left, right. "To kill me!" With a final roundhouse kick, the one hundred and twenty pound heavy bag tore loose from its moorings to fly across the room. Buffy looked disgusted as the sand ran out of it's ruptured seams.
(Actually, that would be Spike.)
"What?" asked Buffy.
(Face it Slayer. Spike is the reason that we're stuck with each other.)
'So what do you suggest we do about it?'
(Just what I always have, kill him.)
"Gotta find him first." Buffy muttered, "And I can't leave Sunnydale right now, I promised Dawn."
(We don't have to go anywhere. We just have to get him to come to us.)
Buffy leaned against the wall and chuckled mirthlessly. "If Spike has half a brain..."
The demon interrupted, (If Spike had half a brain, he'd never have turned you in the first place!)
Doubtfully, the Slayer asked, 'So what's your plan?'
(Just listen, and I'll explain.)
Sometime later, not long until sundown, The Slayer vampire called a number she hadn't used since before the night she dived off Glory's tower. "Angel? I need a favor..."
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
Faith settled on the sofa off to the side of the training room with a little sigh.
Giles asked, "How are you getting on Faith?"
"Besides the obvious?" she lifted her slung arm. "I was actually hoping you could make sure patrol got covered for the next couple of nights."
"Yes, of course. I... I can ask someone to take it." Giles stammered. "I was... um, wondering how that happened." Indicating her injured arm.
Faith sat up a little, "Surprised Buffy didn't tell you."
Giles started, "I... um... you've seen Buffy?" He began cleaning his glasses.
"It's okay Giles, I know she's a vampire. Figured Red..." Faith sighed in frustration. "Willow musta cursed her like she did Angel."
"Er... something like that." Giles replied evasively. "How is... the council treating you?"
The dark haired Slayer made a face. "'Bout like you'd expect 'em to treat the second stringer. Least they're payin' me now, not a lot but better than nothin'. And they rented this old warehouse on Bleeker for me and Vicky to train in. It's got a converted loft too."
"Bleeker Street? Isn't that..."
Faith gave a wan smile, "The alley's right next door."
Giles bristled, "That... that pompous ass! I should have known Travers would do something like this. Does your watcher know?"
The Slayer shook her head, "Nah. She knows what I did but I don't think she knows where... where it happened."
Giles replaced his glasses, "I'll take steps to rectify that. And then we'll get you out of that damn place."
Faith rose and laid her good hand on the agitated watcher's arm. "It's okay Giles, I shouldn't forget."
He shook his head, "No, but you shouldn't have your nose rubbed in it every day either! This is completely unacceptable Faith."
"Cause I deserve so much better, right?" Faith said bitterly. "I'm a murderer Giles. That's never gonna change." She walked to the back door. "And while it's... nice... that you care, I'll deal." She walked out into the dwindling twilight of the alley, leaving a very concerned watcher staring after her.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
Willow entered the Magic Box just as Giles came out of the training room. Anya nodded stiffly at her, still holding a grudge over the disrupted wedding plans. Unseeing, the redhead moved to the research table and sat down heavily on one of the benches surrounding it.
Giles sat next to the obviously upset girl. "Willow, is something wrong?"
"Wrong? No, of course not." She took one of the books on the table and began absently flipping through it.
"Well in that case, I have..."
"Why would anything be wrong?" Willow threw up her hands. "I brought her back from the dead! Sure, she was in heaven but I didn't know that! All I knew was that she was being all avoidy with us. And then when she did tell us what was wrong, she just... just vanished! Granted not entirely her fault, but still. And then after three months of busting my ass, mystically speaking, I find her and she's a vampire. Okay, problem, but we're dealing, or at least I thought we were and then... today... she asked... and I couldn't Giles! And she just doesn't understand." With that, Willow burst into tears.
"You see!" Anya said, "I told all of you that this would end badly!"
Glaring at the tactless ex-demon, Giles folded the sobbing wiccan into his arms and comforted her as best he could.
After a few minutes, when Willow had begun to calm down, "Willow, I'm not sure I understand... did you and Buffy have a disagreement?" He handed her a handkerchief.
"Thanks." The redhead dried her eyes. "Disagreement? Yeah, you could say that. She asked me to kill her."
Giles sighed and removed his glasses, earning a curious look from Willow. "You don't exactly seem shocked."
Searching his pockets for another cloth, "Only um... that she waited this long." He stood and got a paper towel from the counter. Willow followed.
"You knew she was gonna do this?" she asked angrily.
"Knew... may be too strong a term. Suspected?" he shrugged. I uh... I take it... you refused?"
"Of course I refused!" Making a visible effort to control herself, Willow continued, "I just got her back Giles, how could you... how could she... how could anyone expect me to promise to... to do that."
"Oddly, I can't imagine her asking anyone else." Perching his glasses back in their accustomed place the watcher returned to his research. Not long after, a thoughtful Willow joined him.
~~~~~BtVS~~~~~
After fleeing Chicago, on an eastbound train in a freight car that was full of sides of beef, Spike had made his way to New York. He had contacts there that he hoped to use to arrange passage out of the United States.
Unfortunately, some of those contacts were dead and the rest had heard of his time with the Slayer and her cohorts. So now, he was scrounging for passage anywhere and not being too picky about how he got there.
Currently, he was waiting in a waterfront dive for a freighter captain with a reputation for providing people with discreet transportation, whether they had a pulse or not.
'Bloody sod should have been here half an hour ago.' He thought. 'If I didn't need him to get out of the country I'd eat the ponce for making me wait.'
Sipping a beer to calm himself, he listened to scraps of conversations going on around him. Nothing particularly piqued his interest until he heard a scruffy looking vampire say 'Sunnydale'.
"You're full of shit!" Scoffed a dwarfish looking demon seated at the same table as the vamp.
"No, seriously! If I could get a crew together I might head out there myself." The vamp said.
"Yeah right! And how long do you think it'd be before a Slayer dusts you? I hear there's two of them in Sunnydale now." he downed a gulp of some foul looking liquid. "Which is really not fair when you think about it. Ain't there only supposed to be one at a time?"
"If this amulet works like it's supposed to, it wouldn't matter if there was a hundred Slayers..."
Spike interrupted by yanking the sorry looking vamp out of his chair. "What amulet?" he growled.
"Hey man! Ya made me spill my beer!"
"I'm gonna spill a lot more than that if you don't stop whining and start talking, now!" Spike snarled and shook the smaller vamp.
The hapless vampire looked for his demon companion, only to see him scurrying toward the door.
"This amulet, what's it called?"
The vampire shook his head, "Dunno. All I know is that it's supposed to make a regular vampire like, a Super-Vamp! Like ten times stronger and tougher. And it's supposed to be in Sunnydale."
Spike released his victim and grabbed two beers from the tray of a passing waitress. "I know what you're talking about. It was called the Gem of Amara. Made the vamp who wore it damn near invincible, but I know for a fact it was destroyed a couple years back."
Still shaking, the scruffy vamp took a sip of the beer. "No man, that was supposed to be like... a... a ring or something."
"Yeah, so?"
"So this is supposed to be like a necklace thing." The vamp drew a circle in the air. "Like you wear around your neck?"
With a scathing look, the master vampire shook the weaker demon. "I know what a necklace is you nit!" Spike shook his head. "How the hell did this thing turn up in Sunnydale?"
"It's the Hellmouth, man, all kinds of weird shit gets drawn in there."
Spike looked thoughtful, 'The moron's right about that. God knows what's been buried in or around that burg over the centuries.'
The bleach blonde vampire saw the man he'd been waiting for come in the door of the bar. Grinning evilly, he made his decision. 'What the hell. Looks like I'm gonna get to eat that fool after all.' He walked away to greet his latest victim.
TBC...