Blackness
by bad shot
Back Track
[reviews]
Chapter 3
Willow and Giles are talking to an officer outside the police station. The streets there are chaotic too, with the honking and the traffic. Giles is wearing a gray turtleneck sweater and a black trench coat. Willow's staring intently at the officer.
"Ah, thank you, officer. We—we appreciate your help," Giles says.
"Oh, no, thank you, Inspector. We don't get a lot of contact with Interpole, so we're happy to help you with anything you need. Is there anything else we can help with?" the officer says.
"No. Thank you. We're fine," Giles says.
"Right... because— Wait... Who are—who are you?" the officer asks Willow.
"I'm with the Inspector," Willow says pointing to Giles.
"You're with the Inspector. Right. Well, we don't get a lot of contact with Interlope, so—" while Willow and Giles are talking to the officer, two other officers escort a crazy man into the police station.
"A single step!" the crazy man says.
"Stay on the sidewalk, folks," another officer says.
"A single step, and it is upon us. It is nigh! From beneath you it—" the crazy guy says.
"Freaking nutcase," one of the officers says. Then the two officers take the crazy man inside the police station.
"Ow," Willow says.
"Uh, people are acting up, getting nuts. Man, you just let us know if you need help with your guy 'cause we are itching to hand out some justice," the officer explains.
"He—he doesn't seem like much of a threat," Willow states.
"And—and you are?" the officer asks.
"Um, I think it's time we were catching our flight to, um... Interpole," Giles says pulling Willow away.
"Right. OK," the officer says.
Willow started walking away with Giles, "Good idea. My control was fading. What's up with those cops?"
"Oh, same as everyone. The hellmouth is active again," Giles says casually.
"Come on. I want to get back to Xander, and Faith," Willow says.
***
"It's OK. It's gotta be done. And I might see you tonight, without depth perception, of course, but... still," Xander says smiling.
"So, I guess you're stuck with me then, huh? Let's order some cherry-flavored off-brand gelatin, and then I think we'll be up for a rousing game of—" Willow babbles.
"I might need a parrot," Xander jokes.
"Huh?" Willow asks.
"Well, to go with the eye patch, to really complete the look. I think I still have that costume from Halloween," Xander says.
"Yeah, and don't underestimate the impact of a peg leg. Maybe the hospital can hook you up with a nice one. Maybe they have a 2-body-parts for the price of one kind of deal." Willow says faking a chipper tone of voice.
"Oh, you know what the best part is? No one will ever make me watch jaws 3-D again," Xander jests.
"Yeah, and, you'll never have to..." Willow says trying to hold back tears for her friends pain.
"Oh, Willow... please don't," Xander says seeing Willow about to cry.
Willow looks down, trying to keep her tears from falling. She's desperately trying not to make a scene here, for Xander's sake.
"I'm sorry. I-I got to go see Faith okay," Willow says. Xander gives a nod, and she walks out.
***
"Faith? You up?" Willow whispers as she comes into Faith's room.
Faith turns over, "Oh Red! Please I need to tell you something before the drugs come back."
Willow looks curious, and sits down next to Faith's bed, "Okay shoot."
Faith clears her throat, "We need to go back to the vineyard."
Willow jumps up, "What! How can you say that! Look at what happened!" Willow yelled.
Faith flinched a little, "Willow you need to understand. There was a girl there," Willow now has a horrified look on her face, "Caleb has her now. We forgot her down there."
Willow stumbles back, "I-I should talk to G-Giles right?" Willow asks. Faith nods, and starts to run out to her car so she can get back to the house.
***
Anya is standing in front of the group of potentials lecturing while Andrew stands to her side, writing key words on an easel-pad. Andrew writes "UBERVAMP."
"And so we know that a battle is coming. Ubervamps galore. We also know that the Ubervamps are hard to kill..." Anya says.
"Hard...to...kill," Andrew says while writing that down.
"But I have been out talking to some of my old contacts, and they've provided some surprising bits of news. Yay for them!" Andrew draws a picture of an Ubervamp, "Uh...OK. For example, Ubervamps can be staked... right through the heart. Zing—poof," Andrew writes "steak" then crosses it out and writes "stake" beside it, "Just like regular vamps. Um...we didn't know this," Andrew draws a red arrow from the word "stake" to the torso of his Ubervamp drawing, "Of course, these guys have incredibly strong sternums, so it's a lot like driving a wooden stake through solid steel. But you guys are all super-strong, right?"
"Um...no," Kennedy says.
"Right. OK. Um... but still, heart information, still good to know since holy water seems to run off these guys like they've been scotch-guarded. And, well, sunlight would work, but guess what— they're not coming out during the daytime," Andrew flips to a clean sheet of paper and draws a yellow smiling sun, "Uh, also, beware of their, uh, teeth and the claws they use to shred flesh," Anya holds up her hand, fingers spread, like she's clawing and shredding with her hand; Andrew writes "teeth, claws" on the board.
"OK, you know what? I used to be really afraid of these Ubervamp guys. But then the scary preacher blew into town, and now I'm mostly terrified of him," Rona says.
Flips her note cards, "Right, well, um... we're working on getting info on that guy." Anya says.
"Why bother? Nothing works. Nothing will," Amanda says.
Shuffling her note cards, "OK... I know you're all upset... and I, myself, would much rather be sitting at the bedside of my one-eyed ex-fiance than killing time here with you people in this overcrowded and might I add increasingly ripe-smelling basement. And I would be, too, if not for a certain awkward discussion he and I recently had right over there on that cot immediately following some exciting and unexpected breakup sex,"some of the girls seem grossed out and move off the cot; Andrew writes "breakup sex" on the paper, underlining it, "But...I need to give him some space... so I'm doing what I can do, contributing any way I can... and so will all of you. You still need to know this information. We can't stop just because something else is trying to kill you, too."
***
Willow bursts through the front door, "Giles!" Willow yells.
Giles looks startled, and throws up the notes in front of him, "Willow. What are you doing?" he asks pulling off his glasses, and cleaning them.
"Giles. We have a... Problem," Willow says making sure none of the potentials were able to hear.
Giles looks around, and motions for her to come into the kitchen with him, "So what sort of problem?" Giles asks when they reach the kitchen.
Willow takes a deep breath, "We need to go back to the vineyard," Giles stumbles back.
"What! How can you say that?" Giles asks loud enough for the potentials to hear.
"Giles we left someone there. A girl according to Faith," Willow says eyeing the few potentials that had came because of the noise.
"Wait, wait, wait," Rona says, "I am not going back in that hell hole for one girl. Let her burn for all I care."
"Rona please shut up," Giles says, "So how can we get her out though if we can't survive in there?"
"Giles. I don't know," Willow admitted.
***
"OK, well, here's the one that stood out. It's, um, a mission up north in Gilroy," Dawn says handing Giles some files.
"Um, Mr. Giles, Faith stole the last meatball-and-mozzarella-flavored hot pocket out of the freezer even though I had called dibs on it," Andrew says like a little child.
Giles looks at a picture, while ignoring Andrew, "I don't see anything."
"Exactly. No vandalism at all," Dawn says.
"Then why is it in the file?" Giles asks.
"The place was abandoned," Andrew walks to the freezer in a huff, "Um... locals started noticing after a few days that no one was going in or out. 6 members of the order lived there, but when the cops showed up... all gone. Unsolved."
"Yup. See, the post-it's still here: "Andrew's. Please do not eat." But the box is empty now," Andrew says dejectedly.
"Oh," Giles say.
"Oh? Oh, good?" Dawn says.
"Not sure. Here..." Giles and Dawn walk into the living room Andrew just follows them.
***
Giles walks to the desk and pulls a magnifying glass out of the drawer. A bunch of potentials are sitting on the couch and chairs in the living room as well, but they're quiet and solemn-looking.
"See, it's not the hot pocket itself— even though it did have that new-and-improved thicker tomato sauce— it's just the fundamental lack of respect," Andrew whines.
"Shut up. Pay attention. Dawn, what do you see?" Giles asks.
"What am I looking for?" Dawn asks.
"On the back wall, A... knothole," Giles says. Through the magnifying glass Dawn can see an imprint of what looks like Caleb's ring in the wood on a wall next to a statue of Mary.
"That's not a knothole," Dawn says.
"Amanda, would you go down to the basement and get Spike?" Giles asks.
"Maybe this'll help...if this does bring us closer to Caleb," Dawn says.
"What's up... Rupert?" Spike says walking into the room.
"Spike, I have a mission for you," Giles states.
"Oh, really? 'Cause, you know, sometimes our missions end up with you trying to kill me. I'm not fond of those," Spike says.
"This is bona fide... with real ramifications. Take a look at this," he hands Spike the photo and the magnifying glass.
"Looks like our boy's been here. You want me to go check it out?" Spike says casually.
"I need someone who can take care of themselves in case Caleb has... left some souvenirs," Giles says. Spike shrugs and walks toward the door.
"Are we gonna get to the food-stealing issue soon?" Andrew whines.
"Take Andrew," Giles yells after Spike.
"What?" Spike, and Andrew say at the same time.
"Well, you are always saying you wanna get out of the house more," Dawn shrugs at them.
"Yeah, but—" Andrew says trying to find a way out of this.
"There may be demons... lurking about. You never know. He's a demon expert. He can help," Giles says with false hope.
"Oh, please," Spike mocks.
"Well, he can bring his pan flute thing along. Excellent. Off you go," her pushes Andrew out of the chair, and Andrew follows Spike out.
"So, see? That's something, right? We'll have some news soon," Dawn says cheerfully.
"Sure. Maybe that'll get us somewhere," Amanda says.
***
Buffy hung from the ceiling her hands scraping the cement as Caleb casually whipped her back, "So you think they will come back for this one?" Caleb asks to the First who was in the form of Buffy.
The First stepped out of the shadows, and looked over Buffy, "I don't know give it another hour of torture then just drop her off in some cemetery, or something."
Caleb nodded, and went back to work repeatedly whipping Buffy back until it looked like a canvas of blood.
***
There's a hastily made yellow banner painted with "WELCOME HOME" in big red letters hanging over the fireplace. Giles, Dawn and the potentials are gathered in the living room as Faith who was still holding her stomach slightly, and Willow escort Xander in the room. Wood follows, closing the door behind them.
Xander looks around, "Oh, God."
"We didn't have time to do more. You have to pretend there's a big party here," Kennedy says. Dawn goes up to Xander and gives him a big, long, tight hug.
"That's fine. Parties in this house, I usually end up having to... rebuild something," Xander jokes.
Willow helps him sit down, and then walks over to Tara, "Tara. I need you help," Willow whispers to Tara. Tara nods, and they both walk upstairs.
"So what you got honey?" Tara says.
"Tara we have to go back to the vineyard," Tara looks at her like she expected this, "Faith said there was a girl there, and I don't want to leave her there. Faith said she would come, and help us."
Tara smiles at her, "I felt that something was on your mind," Tara thinks about it for a second, "Sure I'll come. When are we going?"
Willow looks at the clock, "How about 45 minutes. Faith said she wanted a little time here first." Tara gives her another nod.
"Okay 45 minutes then we leave."
***
The three girls near the vineyard, and stop at the fence.
Between the bars they can something being dragged out by three bringers.
The thing has a bag over it's head, and it's hands are tied behind the back while it's feet are tied together.
The three ease into the woods, and let the bringers open the fence door before attacking.
Faith jumped up, and snapped the closest bringers neck. One of the remaining two lets go of the figure. He pulls out a knife, and lets the other one run into the woods with the figure over his shoulder.
Willow runs after him trying to hit him with a fireball, but he always jumped behind a tree when she shot one.
Tara immobilized the other one, and Faith ran up, and stabbed it only wincing a little from the pain in her chest, "Where did Red go?"
Tara looked into the woods, and took Faith's hand dragging her into the woods after Willow.
***
Willow groaned as they neared a ravine. She slowed down watching as the bringer sprinted to the edge, and jump straight into it with the figure still over it's shoulder.
Willow doubled over for cramps, "Willow!" she heard Tara yell as Tara, and Faith skidded to a stop behind her.
Willow pointed down in the ravine. Tara mumbled a couple words, and shot a green light down into the ravine illuminating the entire ravine.
They looked down, and saw the bringer whose neck was at an ackward angle.
The other figure was at the bottom not moving.
The three moving as one crept down the side of the ravine slowly. When they reached the bottom they slowly crept over to the figure.
Faith bent down, and pulled off the bag from it's head.
A/N: So what you think? Any comments good, or bad give 'em to me. If I get a lot of reviews I may magically find a way to update faster.