Heroes and Lovers
by als
Chapter 2 — Rebirth
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Giles woke with a start. Someone was banging quite loudly at his door and he thought he could hear someone calling his name from outside. He rose quickly pulling his robe on as he headed downstairs to the door.
"Giles!" A panic-stricken Buffy burst through the door, as he opened it. "Giles! Willow's gone - something's happened to her!"
"Buffy, calm down, tell me what's happened?" Giles couldn't recall the last time he'd seen Buffy upset like this.
"I got back to my dorm room after searching for Spike and Willow wasn't there. There was blood on her bed and it looked like there had been a struggle. I think...I think Spike may have taken her."
Giles felt the blood drain from his face at the thought of Willow in Spike's clutches. "Oh, Dear God..."
"We have to find her Giles. She has to be okay." Her voice cracked as she spoke, and Giles could see the tears welling up her eyes.
He turned and reached for the phone as he started talking, "I'll call Xander; we'll start searching all of Spike's known hideouts. You should go to Willy's and see if you can find any information on his whereabouts."
"Giles..." The pain in his Slayer's voice cut through him like a knife.
It took every ounce of his emotional control to keep his voice calm and steady. Buffy needed him to be strong for her now. "I know Buffy. We'll find her."
* * * * *
Spike strolled angrily through the cemetery. 'What the bloody hell was that about? Why didn't Red turn like any other human would have?' In 126 years, he'd never had any trouble with this before. 'Something's just not bloody right, she drank my blood, she bloody well should have turned,' he thought.
Spike stopped and looked around suddenly. Something strange was going on. He saw an incredibly bright flash of light coming from inside the crypt where he'd stashed Red's body. 'What the hell is that about?' he wondered as began to run toward the crypt.
* * * * *
'What the hell was that?' Buffy thought as she noticed a brilliant flash of light a short distance inside the graveyard. She'd been heading this way to search for signs of Willow and Spike on a tip from Willy. 'It might be Willow!' Buffy broke into a sprint.
* * * * *
Spike threw open the door to the crypt and looked around quickly, noticing immediately that all that was left in the crypt was a pile of Red's bloodstained clothes. Spike cursed disgustedly, "This is just sodding wonderful, where the hell'd Red's body go?"
"Spike!" He heard a familiar voice call his name and turned to see Buffy running up with a stake in hand.
"Well, if it isn't Slutty the Vampire Slayer. What's the matter pet? You manage to run another boy out of your bed already?"
"Where's Willow? What did you do with her?" Buffy's voice was cold and hard. Spike smiled evilly as he realized just how much killing Red had hurt the Slayer.
"Hmm, Willow... Oh you mean your little mate, about so tall with the red hair, makes with the mojo?" Spike held out his hand as though he was showing about how tall Willow was. "I found her in your room a bit ago, she seemed sort of down, and I was feeling peckish...so I ate her." Spike slipped into his game face. "Thought she might appreciate bein' put out of her misery. And now I think I'll wash her down with a Slayer."
"You sonuva...this ends tonight Spike. You die for hurting Willow."
"Oh, I didn't hurt her Slayer. She right enjoyed it, moaning and squirming the whole time. You remember what it's like, feeling the teeth slide in. Getting you all hot and wet as the demon at your throat drinks your life away. And that girl was something, tasted like fear and strawberries she did, sweet to the last drop." Spike smirked, mocking her. "But enough about her, if you really think you can take the Big Bad, come on then, let's see what you've got."
Buffy lashed out with her fist catching Spike squarely in the face and followed it with a jump kick to the chest that drove him back into the crypt. She moved fast, much faster then he expected. For every attack that he managed to block, she threw two more that he couldn't. Attack after attack, she forced him backwards through the crypt relentlessly. He'd never seen any Slayer fight like this. 'Bloody hell,' he thought, 'this is going to be bad.' He struck out at the Slayer, only to have her brush his fist aside, plant a step-behind sidekick in his gut and slam him into the back wall of the crypt. Spike's eyes went wide as the Slayer followed the kick with her stake and he crumbled into dust.
* * * * *
It was over. Spike would never hurt anyone again. Buffy stood over the pile of dust for a moment, winded by the assault. She'd been clumsy; let her anger get the best of her. As her breathing slowed back to normal her mind cleared. 'Oh God, what if he was lying? I let him provoke me, but Willow, she could be trapped somewhere'
Cold panic gripped her heart and she spun around looking for some clue, some sign of where Willow might be. 'Please God, let her be okay, let her be okay.' Her eyes fell on a pile of clothes. 'Willow wore those to the party earlier. She's been here.'
"She was here; she's got to be close." Her voice sounded too loud in her ears, even though she'd barely whispered. 'Look closer,' urged an insistent voice at the back of her mind.
Slowly Buffy walked over to the clothes. 'Why would her clothes be left like this?' she wondered. There was something strange about the way they were laying there. Like Willow had just disappeared and her clothes had been left behind.
Buffy swallowed hard and reached out, lifting Willow's blouse from the pile and looking at it. The front of the blouse was soaked with blood. 'No, Willow...no.' Buffy sank to her knees - it was too much blood. 'It can't be, Willow can't be...please no.' Willow had to be here, had to be somewhere close.
* * * * *
Willow stirred. She could have sworn she heard Buffy's voice. Pain tore through her as she realized that Buffy was crying for her. 'Oh God, Buffy needs me!' she thought. She tried to move to open her eyes and look for her friend, but her body wasn't responding. She tried in vain to open her mouth, to call out for Buffy, desperate to comfort her. 'Buffy! It'll be okay, I'm alright!' she thought, wishing that Buffy could hear her.
A deep, masculine voice echoed in Willow's mind, "Easy little one, rest now, you'll be with your Slayer again soon."
'But she needs me,' Willow protested, 'she's in pain because I'm not there with her; she thinks I'm gone forever. She doesn't know!'
"You always put her first, above all others. The love you carry for the Slayer is nothing short of miraculous little one, but the Slayer must endure this for a short time so that she may truly know what it is that she nearly lost."
Willow drew in a sudden breath as a warm feeling, unlike anything she had ever known, enveloped her body. Her skin began to tingle as the warmth deepened to a heat and grew ever more intense until it felt as though fire coursed through her veins. It became pain unlike anything she'd ever felt before and she longed to scream out.
"Be strong little one, your pain will pass quickly, but we must cleanse the taint of the demon's blood from your body before you can be reborn."
Mercifully, the pain began to ease, and Willow slipped back into unconsciousness once more.
* * * * *
'Three days,' Buffy thought as she lay curled up in Willow's bed in their shared dorm room, 'you've been gone for three days Will and I miss you so bad that it hurts to breathe.' Hot tears slid down Buffy's cheek onto Willow's pillow. Reaching up, Buffy wiped at them with her hand and sniffled.
Willow's disappearance, and presumed death at the hands of Spike, had devastated the Slayer. Giles and Xander had found her in the remains of the crypt where she'd killed Spike, crying into the bloodied shirt Willow had been wearing the last time Buffy had seen her. They'd had to carry the sobbing Slayer back to Giles' car, drive her back to the campus and carry her to her bed. She hadn't left the room except to use the bathroom since. All she could bring herself to do was lie on Willow's bed and think of her lost friend.
The loss had forced her to accept something she had long denied. She'd been absolutely head over heels in love with her best friend for as long as she could remember. She could remember so clearly her first day at Sunnydale High, when she'd talked to Willow for the first time. With her shy smile and obvious surprise that someone who could have been one of Cordelia's sheep wanted to be her friend, Willow had just made it so easy to fall in love with her. But they'd never had a chance: first there was Willow's crush on Xander and she was with Angel, then Willow and Oz. The timing had just never been right for Buffy to tell Willow how she felt. And even it had, there was nothing to suggest that Willow ever felt anything but friendship for her, and that friendship had been too important for her to risk losing it by telling Willow how she'd felt.
"I-I miss you Willow," she whispered as she reached out and picked up a picture of her Willow from the nightstand. Holding the frame in one hand, Buffy touched the image of her lost friend with the other. "There were so many things I should have told you, things I was afraid to say. And now I'll never get the chance, because you're gone. I-I don't think I can do this without you...not anymore." Buffy hugged the picture to her chest and closed her eyes. 'I love you Willow.' She thought, 'I've always loved you, I just wish I could have said it before.'
As she drifted toward a fitful sleep, Buffy felt a calm and comforting presence in her mind. And as she had so often dreamed before her friend disappeared, Buffy heard Willow's voice say "I love you too Buffy."
* * * * *
"It is time little one. Your transformation is complete and your Slayer is ready for your return."
Willow was giddy with anticipation. She could feel her new strength, the power she had been given coursing through her, but that meant nothing to her. All she could feel was Buffy's continuing pain; her anguish over losing Willow and it was killing her. She wanted nothing more in this world then to gather the heartbroken Slayer into her arms and hold her until the pain stopped. 'I am ready,' Willow thought, 'send me back to her, please, she needs me.'
* * * * *
Buffy sat on Giles' couch hugging her knees as she stared at the floor. She knew that Xander was sitting close by, and Giles was in the kitchen making tea, but she couldn't bear to look at either of them.
It was Xander who finally spoke, "I still can't believe she's gone. I just keep waiting for her to come through the door." His voice cracked, "I mean, it's Willow, she can't be gone."
Giles spoke as he entered the room carrying a small tray, "She was like no other." As he sat down, he began pouring tea into cups for the grieving Scoobies.
As Giles sat down, something strange happened. A faint humming noise started and the air in the room began to stir ever so slightly. The three Scoobies glanced around as a strange energy began to build in the room, setting them on edge.
"Giles?" Buffy asked, "What's going on?"
"I-I'm not sure Buffy," he replied.
"What the hell?" Xander practically yelped as blue sparks began dancing along the floor of Giles' living room. The sparks converged together with a massive flash, startling and momentarily blinding everyone in the room. There was a distinct popping sound and the room was flooded with a pungent smell of electrically burned air as the flash faded to nothing.
Blinking furiously to clear their eyes, the mourning Scoobies looked down to find a very naked Willow, lying on the floor, curled into a fetal position on Giles' carpet.