Primal Hiding
by Salix
Dominance Issues
[reviews]
The group walked into the kitchen, and saw that Prue looked really upset, scared even. It was clear that she had not meant to do that to Cordelia, no matter how humorous the situation is, but what they heard when they walked in put them all on edge and it made Buffy's slayer scream one word: -Attack!- But the rest of her was just scared, as much as she wanted to know what happened, even if she had to beat it out of the witch.
"It happened earlier. I did it on accident to Buffy, but nothing changed, nothing happened," she told her sisters and then looked on in shock, horror, fright, panic and every other synonym for the word when she saw Buffy and crew staring at them. They heard a low rumble and they all looked on in surprise (all expect Willow and Giles) as Buffy growled. It started out low, but it grew in volume, until it was like a lion's roar. Her eyes were starting to turn yellow, and it was one scary sight to see.
Willow knew that she had to do something. Even if it seemed that Prue was somehow responsible for Buffy's memory loss, or at least she's the lead suspect, she can't just let the slayer take over and kill the witch. She gently grabbed onto Buffy's upper arm, just in case she has to try and hold her back (or get dragged across the kitchen) and she started to make a soft shushing sound. Buffy calmed down, her muscles loosened a little, but the low rumbling sound stayed in her throat and chest as she eyed the black haired witch suspiciously. Willow really wished she could do something to calm the slayer side of Buffy and make the yellow in her eyes go away, but she couldn't think of anything.
"Ok, let's all just calm down. Clearly you didn't mean for anything bad to happen, if it really was an accident. We just need to stay calm and rational and figure out how to reverse the side effects. Now, why don't you start by telling us exactly what happened earlier with Buffy," Giles said and stepped out in front of the slayer a little. He needed to be prepared to grab her if she made a run for the witch. He knew that they weren't a threat. They wouldn't intentionally hurt an innocent or a fellow warrior on the side of good. But with magic accidents happen all the time if you're not careful, and those accidents can have devastating consequences.
"We still didn't know who or what she was, and we've been on demon alert lately because of all the attacks. So I woke her up to...ask her some questions," she tried to avoid using words like interrogate, especially with the slayer looking at her like she wanted the witch's blood. "She denied knowing anything about magic and demons so I was going to prove it to her by floating a candle, but when I tried this blue stuff came out of my hands and went into her chest. She stopped responded, almost like she had blacked out, and then she backed away, and got really scared and started screaming for Willow. And then you guys ran in." She tried to keep her voice as light and casual as possible, but it was hard. She didn't know what was happening to her powers and she was starting to get really freaked out. Her main concern was not being able to protect her or her sisters if a demon attacked.
"We need Leo. Leo!" Piper screamed and Cordelia was about to ask who Leo is when this blue light showed up next to Piper. It hung in the air for a few seconds before it took the form of a man and then went solid and turned into the concerned looking blonde man. A very good looking blonde man who Cordelia could not keep her eyes off of. Piper noticed the looks the once brunette was sending her husband she was quick to mark her territory. She put her left hand on Leo's chest, a seemingly affectionate gesture, but she made sure that the wedding ring caught the light so that everyone would look at it.
"What is it?" he asked and then looked around at the strangers. He recognized Willow immediately and he tried not to panic. The Elders were going to kill him (well, again) for this. He searched Willow's face as surprise from his entrance turned into recognition. She tensed up a little and then pointed at him, her eyes growing wide and her mouth dropped open a little.
"Hey, you're that guy from the library," she said and everyone looked at Willow and then back to Leo. Piper got a little...upset. She hates the fact that Leo can't tell her about his charges, and she gets jealous when they're women. Especially young, college girls who might want to seduce Leo. She couldn't help but let out her own little growl, only loud enough for Leo and Phoebe to hear. Well, them and the slayer, who viewed the growl as a threat to her "mate" and she wrapped an arm around Willow's waist. The fact that Piper had glared at Willow before the growl did not help, and now Buffy was eyeing her like she does the vampires that she kills almost every night.
"Yeah I am. And can I ask what they're doing here?" he asked turning to Piper. She didn't hear him. She hadn't been listening. She and Buffy were having a little stare down, both woman protecting their "mates", and sizing each other up. Buffy may have all of that slayer strength but Piper has an advantage over the blonde: magic, and the power to freeze time. The only people who seemed to notice the little 'showdown' was Phoebe and Cordelia, and the two women had to bite their lips to keep from laughing.
"Buffy showed up at our doorstep this morning. She passed out so we took care of her, and then the rest of them showed up to take her home, and we sort of got caught up in conversation," Phoebe answered since her sister was having some serious dominance issues at the moment. Prue may by the most aggressive of the three sisters, but everyone knows that it's Piper who really runs this house, and she doesn't like the fact that her husband had run-ins with this little redheaded witch. She doesn't know where Leo goes when he orbs out, for all she knows he could be going off to the library for a quickie with this girl.
"And Prue has a new power. Yeah, she turned Cordelia's hair blue, and we don't know what she did to Buffy, but it can't be good because her eyes turned yellow and she looked like she was about to rip Prue's throat out," again Phoebe was the representative for the Halliwells. Prue was still too shocked about her powers, and Piper was still busy staking her claim. She noticed that Buffy's eyes had gone completely yellow where the hazel color used to be, and it was really freaky to see. She couldn't help but get a very, very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Someone had to get the middle Halliwell and this blonde out of the same room before they go after each other's blood.
"Ok, Leo, why don't you take Piper and Prue into the other room and explain to them what's going on, because I have a feel you knew about this new power. I'll stay in here and try to figure out what happened to Buffy, ok?" she asked and one glance over at the slayer told Leo that Phoebe had an ulterior motive for wanting his wife out of the kitchen. Which he was fine with because he knows exactly how powerful this slayer is, and how challenging his wife can be. He let Piper out of her room. Her eyes never left Buffy's until the last possible second when she had to break eye contact to walk into the other room. Prue followed closely behind.
With Piper out of the room Buffy calmed down significantly, but she kept her hold on Willow. She wasn't about to let go of what is hers. Especially now that she's viewing Piper as a threat. She stretched out her neck, feeling the muscles loosen up and the bones popped. Having Willow in her arms helped relax her, and she actually started to purr. It was obvious that they weren't dealing with Buffy any more. The slayer herself was back in the game. Even if it was an accident they still needed to get the human side of Buffy to come back out. If they were going to fix this problem then they need to be able to talk to someone who at least has good grammar and is interested in more then just slaying and Willow.
"Ok, is she purring?" Phoebe asked and watched as Buffy started to nuzzle Willow's neck. The movement reminded her of her Siamese and she was trying to remember everything she's ever read about slayers, but with the tension being this thick she just couldn't really remember anything other then they're super strong and they kill evil, and they're always a girl. Apparently being a slayer is a girl's only club. "Nevermind. Look, is what she doing normal for her? Because if not it could be because of what Prue did to her." She watched as Willow tried to pull away but the blonde kept her hold on her. She continued with the nuzzling, which was embarrassing the redhead to no end. Then Buffy started to place light kisses on Willow's neck, softly saying the word 'mine'.
"Um, not really, but it has nothing to do with the spell, or whatever your sister did. This is Buffy's slayer side right now, and it seems that she's...very happy to see Willow again," Giles said and cleared his throat. He took off his glasses and started to clean them. Cordelia watched the way Buffy was acting feeling just the smallest twinge of jealous. She convinced herself that it wasn't jealousy and she felt that little twitch in her stomach because she hasn't had anything to eat in a few hours.
It took Willow about ten minutes to fully calm Buffy down and get her human side to emerge again. They weren't too sure why Buffy wasn't able to just switch back from one to the other instantaneously. The way Buffy made it sound it was like when one side is in control the other has to fight like hell to get it back, or the controlling side can give up easily and apparently the slayer doesn't like going down without a fight. It seemed that Buffy was still exhausted from what she's been through even though she doesn't remember and so it's a lot easier for the slayer to take over. They need to get this sorted out and then get home so Buffy can rest and get better before something really bad happens. Like, oh say, a cat fight between her and Piper.
"Ok, I think we've got this figured out," Piper said as she and the other two walked back into the room. She eyed Willow again, trying to be discreet about it but Buffy saw it and she was instantly on high alter. But luckily Willow picked up on her sudden change in mood and soothed her by rubbing her back and whispering some rather naughty things into her ear.
"To help us in this big battle that's supposed to happen or whatever, the Elders or The Powers That Be or whatever you guys call them, gave Prue this new power, we aren't quite sure what exactly it is, but she can do mind control or change the shape or color, as the case may be," she sent a very cheeky smile Cordelia's way. "This afternoon when she was trying to show off to you-"
"I was not showing off," Prue protested in a very defensive manner, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Piper. "I was simply showing her how I work my powers." Piper rolled her eyes and Phoebe gave her the 'all knowing look'. Cordelia smiled wide at the thought of the witch showing off to her. She wasn't sure why but she liked that idea a lot.
"Anyways, when I was trying to show you my power I was thinking of..." she stopped, knowing her sisters were going to tease her to no damn end out this. "About how great your hair looks that length and that color, and because my power is new I can't control it and it turned your hair blue, for unknown reasons.
"And this morning when I was trying to talk to you," she said and looked into Buffy's eyes. The blonde girl could see the compassion and the sympathy in them. She wasn't too sure why. Nothing had happened to put her in a position to be sympathized with. "You just seemed so...upset and haunted. And you wouldn't say why you came here and I thought that it was because of something bad. We found demon blood on your shirt and I thought you had been attacked, so when I tried to float the candle I just wished that you could forget about whatever had upset you and then the blue stuff came out of my hands and into your body." She tried as hard as she could to hold Buffy's gaze but she couldn't and she looked down, ashamed for not being able to control this new thing.
"That's why I can't remember anything passed Tuesday," she said and looked into Willow's eyes. She witch knew the rest of the explanation just by looking into Buffy's eyes. Not only that but she had been there, she was the one who had upset her, and because of the big upset she ended up here in the Halliwell Manor. A thick tension grew over the room. Willow couldn't help but feel guilty. She can remember the look on Buffy's face. When she said no to the blonde it was almost like someone had hit the slayer in the stomach with a sledgehammer. And then when Willow couldn't really give her an answer as to why she wouldn't date her the blonde's eyes went completely blank, it was almost like she had died inside.
"So how do we reverse it?" Buffy asked, looking over at Leo and then from one Halliwell witch to the other. They were quiet as they thought about it. Nothing like this has ever happened to them before so it might take a while before they figure out how to reverse it. They didn't want Prue to try and change it back with her powers, something even worst might happen if she does. Buffy watched as all four witches silently thought, trying to come up with something. And then Phoebe perked up and stepped forward.
"We can do an annulling spell," she said and looked over at her sisters, and then the redhead witch. Willow started to nod her head in agreement and turned to Buffy to speak her agreement, but the blonde spoke up before one word left her mouth.
"What's that?" she asked and couldn't help but start to pace. If it's one thing Buffy doesn't really understand it's magic. It's just not her thing and even though she's been friends with Willow for years whose been a witch for along time now she still doesn't quite understand the way it works. But she was willing to listen to their ideas, as long as they explained all of the details, she doesn't want to loose anymore of her memory.
"We just ask the spirits to take back what Prue did. I've used it before when I tried to conjure a dove but got a one winged pigeon instead," she explained and her sisters gave her nasty glares for the little confession. Especially Prue, she's always all over Phoebe about not using magic for personal gain. The two are constantly fighting about it and Prue is just going to yell at Phoebe later on about the little spell.
So, ten minutes later they were all set and ready to do the spell. They were in the living room, Buffy and Cordelia on one side of the coffee table, Prue on the other. There was a white candle in between them. Prue struck a match and lit the candle and then held onto one of Cordelia and Buff's hands in her own. She felt a little spark when she touched the blue haired girl's hand. She tried to ignore but when she looked into the dark brown eyes of the younger girl she could tell that she had felt it too.
"Ok, so after I say 'let it be' you two have to say it, and then the magic should be reversed. Now it might not work, but let's hope for the best," Prue said and then took a deep breath and let it out slowly before starting. "Guiding spirits hear our plea, annul this magic, let it be." There was a five second pause before the other two said theirs. Cordelia's hair instantly went back to brown and she squealed with joy and started to run her fingers through it. She was just so happy that she wouldn't have to dye it herself.
At first Buffy thought that it hadn't worked, nothing seemed to happen after she had said the words she was supposed to say, but as soon as she let go of Prue's hand it all came rushing back to her. She could see herself as if watching from a third person point of view all of the things that had transpired over the last three days. Her pacing in their dorm room, Willow coming in, them talking and Willow rejecting Buffy. Buffy losing pretty much all faith in anything good, and letting the slayer take control.
Going to Giles' house and pacing frantically there. Yelling at Willow and then running. Killing every demon she would find, twisting one vampire's head around so quickly that it spun seven times before he was dust. Running away again, looking for more things to kill, feeling angry and alone and hurt. Feeling like nothing would ever be good again, feeling worthless. Asking herself over and over again why Willow didn't want her.
Running away to L.A., Cordelia taking care of her, telling her that she hates Angel and thinks he's stupid. Feeling better whenever the brunette was around. Making her move on her, and almost sleeping with her before being turned down yet again, only this time she was given a reason, Cordelia simply didn't want to be a rebound girl. Getting up off of the bed and pacing, yelling that nobody wanted her before jumping out of the window.
Feeling this pull calling out to her, feeling like she needed to find whatever it was and protect it. Killing vampires and demons along the way. And then finally getting so worked up that she had to get release. Stalking the vampire and then fucking him in an alley and then staking him when she was done. Feeling so dirty, like grime that you just can't get off of your skin no matter how many times you shower, no matter how hard you scrub.
Getting up off of the dumpster and running all the way to San Francisco and finally passing out from sheer exhaustion. All of this and more came flooding back into her mind and she couldn't handle it all at once. She fell to the floor, her head feeling like it was going to explode, and then the darkness finally took her over as she slipped into unconsciousness, easing her pain for a little while.