One Last Reason
by zenithar
Chapter 3
[reviews]
Author's Notes: Thanks go to Rebelrsr for checking over this thing, trust me, there was a lot to check. Biggest note really is next chapter I plan to work on is Reminding the Fallen's 28. Other than that I've got nothing I think... or hope... Regardless here's the chapter. :)
Angel saw the vampiric change come over the leather-clad Willow and everything clicked into place. A low growl rumbled deep within him as he understood that Buffy had been turned. There was no question about it after seeing her singing along to the vamp track and her doing nothing as the other Willow shifted. Struggling to control his anger at Buffy being vamped, he turned his head to whisper to the gang when his eyes caught sight of the large vampires guarding the doors. Another growl came forth since he knew the vampires in the Bronze were planning on feasting on everyone inside.
Oz looked over at Angel to see what the growling was about, but the rest of the gang watched in shock as vampire Willow's face shifted. Once the ridges and fangs were fully formed she tilted her head down towards the unknown blonde's neck.
Willow was lost. 'Nothing's making sense. Buffy's just kissing the girl's neck as she lets vampire-me lean in to bite the girl,' the redhead thought in confusion. Just as her double's fangs sank into the unknown girl's neck, Willow called out instinctively to the Slayer, "Buffy!"
Buffy looked over at the Willow next to her when she heard her voice. Seeing that she was drinking heavily from the girl they were eating, she looked into the crowd.
When Buffy turned around, the gang saw a ridged forehead, the golden eyes of a vampire, and fangs dripping with blood where Buffy's face should have been.
Buffy caught sight of the Willow in the fluffy sweater and loose jeans and blinked - then smirked. Turning back to the Willow in leather she said, "The blood must be making me see things. There are two of you now. Here I thought one would be enough to satiate my thirst."
Willow lifted her bloody mouth away from her meal to look at Buffy. "That's because there are."
Buffy's smirk dropped from her face in a heartbeat. "You mean she's real?" Buffy asked with a slight hint of fear.
"She's more than real." Willow paused to lick her lips clean, "Her blood thrums beneath her skin. I'd love to kiss and tell."
Buffy's mind slowed to a near stop. 'Wait. Willow's right in front of me — dead, undead, vampy, whatever!' she yelled in her mind as confusion and anger swirled. 'She's dead and yet there's another one in the crowd.' Buffy paused in her ramblings. 'In the crowd...' Turning back to look at the other Willow, she saw what she feared; the rest of the Scoobies. 'Then... then... that's my Will... Then what's?' Buffy's eyes glazed over as she looked at the vampire next to her. Buffy settled on her most basic instincts: fight or flight. As always, whenever emotions were involved, she went with flight.
Dropping the blonde in her arms and breaking free of the redheaded vampire, Buffy practically flew for one of the exits. Unfortunately, there were two large bruiser vampires guarding the door. Unfortunate for them as the Slayer moved with speed and power that no one had even seen before. Sending one into a nearby wall with enough force to crack his skull, Buffy threw the other into a pallet leaning up against the wall. It shattered in hundreds of pieces, and a small chunk found its way into the large vamp's heart, bursting into a cloud of ash. When she reached the exit, she found it locked with a chain. Buffy simply kicked the double doors squarely in the middle. The chain snapped like string, and the doors went flying off their hinges. With her path clear, the undead Slayer spent no time in running like hell itself was after her.
Vampire Willow was surprised at the Slayer's sudden action. The girl she had just been sucking fell forgotten to the floor as she called after her Slayer Vampire, "Childe! Get back here!" But her childe was already out the door. A smirk graced her features as she quietly purred, "Bad kitty, I'll have to punish you."
Angel finally let loose a deafening roar as his face changed, and he charged the vamped Willow. Hearing her say childe gave him something to focus his anger on. 'She's the one who cursed Buffy. She killed her!' Thoughts screamed through his mind; yet all that came out were animalistic growls and snarls. His first punch caught the vampire straight in the face as she had turned around to see what had made the sound.
As their fight started, the vampires around the Bronze closed in. The crowd of people began screaming and fleeing for the broken door. The Gang snapped into action at the advancing vampire guards. Xander went over to a pool table and grabbed one of the cues. Breaking it over his leg, he tossed the tip over to Oz and moved to intercept the vampires heading towards Angel.
"Thanks for the small end," Oz said in his usual controlled tone. He rushed a vampire from behind and plunged the makeshift stake through his heart. That got another vamp's attention.
"Hey! If you want a bigger one go find your own stick," Xander retorted as he used his cue to club a vampire across the back. As he staggered forward Xander hit the vamp to his right in the face.
As her friends were pulled into the fray, Willow drew a bottle of holy water from her purse and moved to help them. Splashing the water on the vampire going at Oz's back, she managed to make it turn away in pain. Noticing Willow had entered the fight both male teens moved closer to her cover her. "We need to open a path for these people to get out," Willow said to them.
"That'll be a little hard to do, even with Buff busting through," Xander responded over his shoulder as he staked another vamp.
At a shrill whistle, the human combatants looked up. "You want these blood suckers cleared?" The Scoobies looked for the source of the sounds; it was a girl wearing a leather jacket with a fur collar. Oz recognized her from his earlier scanning of the Bronze and wondered why she was offering to help in the fight. "Want to cover me for a min or two?" she asked.
"What for?" Oz asked hesitantly. His inner animal seemed to be getting more restless and it was not because of the fight. Some sort of aura or scent emanated from the girl, and his wolf was picking up on it.
"You'll see," she said with a wolfish-grin. She threw off the jacket she had been wearing and doubled over as if in pain. The hackles on the back of Oz's neck stood up as he watched the girl shake. Lowering her knees to the ground, she wrapped her arms around her midsection. She started thrashing uncontrollably as her body shifted. Faint snapping sounds could be heard as the girl's bones reconfigured themselves. Her new skeleton and muscles shredded her clothes, and fur rapidly grew to cover her. After the creature that had been a girl stopped shaking, she lifted her muzzle to look at Oz through wolf eyes. A grin seemed to come over the feral mouth as she stood up on her legs.
Looking into those animalistic eyes, Oz saw human intellect.
Standing to her full height, the werewolf towered over even the largest vampire. Easily eight feet tall, she moved with a speed that belied her size. Her midnight fur reflected the shoddy lights that lit the Bronze as her tremendous, clawed hands clamped down on the necks of two vampires. She lifted them to eye level. With a low growl, the were, threw the pitiful creatures across the length of the large dance floor. Before they even reached the far wall, the raven-furred werewolf had moved on to her next victims.
While the appearance of the wolf was a great surprise, the Gang recovered quickly. They started to usher the civilians out through the door Buffy had busted open. With the help of the werewolf, the Bronze rapidly cleared of all party goers and vampires save for Angel and the vamp Willow up on stage. The old vampire was standing over the pale Willow with pure hatred in his eyes as he raised a stake to end the doppelganger's existence.
"Angel, stop!" a voice yelled out.
The fury driven vampire looked up at the source of the interruption with golden eyes. The stake in his hand hovered barely an inch above the female vampire's heart. His shifted face locked onto the living redhead's Resolve Face. Even under the baleful glare of the old vampire, Willow's famed visage held up slowly, pushing Angel to regain his reasoning and sanity. "Why?" he growled out between fangs.
"We need her. That may not have been our Buffy, it could have been another double," Willow explained. "And if she really did turn our Buffy then she might be our best chance at showing Buffy we're not going to outright dust her."
"Uh, Will? Not quite following. Wouldn't it be better to stake that thing, especially if it did turn our Buff?" Xander asked.
Angel's sudden growl started out low but quickly grew to a monstrous roar. Swinging his stake down, he flipped the wood around and struck the vampire beneath him in the head with the larger end, knocking her unconscious. "Willow's right. We need her for answers and for her to use her sire bond to bring that Buffy here."
Bursting through the door, Buffy continued running like a bat out of hell. So many things were going through her mind that she just shut everything off and fled. Running blindly through Sunnydale, she lost track of time. When she finally came to a stop, she unconsciously noticed she wasn't out of breath. Her muscles didn't even burn from the exertion. Wandering through a wrought iron fence, Buffy finally realized where she was: one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries. A rough chuckle escaped her lips before the blonde fell silent once more. Stepping between the graves, she eventually slumped to the ground, leaning against the back of a headstone. In front of her was a monument of a female angel with her wings unfurled and slightly bent, as though she were about wrap someone in a hug. Her hands stretched out before her, welcoming all. The only thing out of place was the tear falling down her face.
Looking up into her face Buffy wondered, 'Would you honestly be willing to welcome one of the damned? Why are you crying?' The vampire hadn't noticed it, but tears had begun to fall down her own face as she looked at the statue. 'Is it for me? Or for you?' Suddenly her mind took a radically different direction, 'This isn't fair! I gave everything I had to this fucking world, and this is what I get in return? What's even more fucked up is that you assholes didn't even take away my conscience. I killed that girl and I care about it. Why!? I thought I wasn't supposed to care anymore! Why am I like this? Why did Willow make me like this? No, that wasn't Willow.' Shaking her head, she brought her hands up to clutch the sides of her skull. 'But it was Willow. In every way, smell, looks, touch. But so was that other one.' Looking up, blinded by the tears streaming from her eyes, Buffy whispered, "Why do I still care so much?"
Stepping from behind the angel was Faith. With a smirk on her lips, she asked, "Whatcha doin out here, B? It's not safe for you." She got nothing in response. Buffy just kept on staring off into space. "Yo, B." Stepping a little closer, Faith still got nothing. Finally she bent over in front of the older Slayer and waved her hand back and forth.
"That's not something I have to worry about anymore, F" Buffy said suddenly and quietly while still staring forward.
Straightening, Faith looked at the blonde curiously. Somewhat hesitantly she asked, "What do you mean?"
The Slayer's eyes finally focused on the brunette. When their eyes locked, Faith realized her senses were going insane. Something was horribly wrong, and it went beyond the lost and hopeless look in Buffy's eyes. "Willow gave me a gift," the blonde said in her quiet voice.
Buffy was really beginning to creep out the younger Slayer, yet she held her ground. "What kind of gift, B?"
Looking away from Faith again, Buffy whispered, "One that's both beautiful and horrifying at the same time."
Getting more worried the longer the conversation went on, Faith was tempted to just leave things be. Pushing her hesitancy away, she pressed on, "Still not getting it."
A thoughtful look settled on Buffy's face for a moment before fleeing. Her eyes took on a childlike deviousness. "I could show you."
The way Buffy said that once again set off warning bells in the raven-haired slayer's head. This was what she had been looking for - whatever had messed up Buffy was this. "Sure, show me what Red got ya," Faith said as calmly as she could, yet her voice shook betraying her insecurity.
A small smile crept onto Buffy's face as she cocked it to the side like an inquisitive animal. Her face slowly moved into its demonic version.
As the change overcame her, a building horror rose in Faith. Like a chain reaction, thoughts raced through Faith, Buffy was a vampire, her new status was a gift from Willow - Willow must be a vampire, and the Mayor sent vamps to kill Willow... "Oh god... oh god... I didn't want this... I didn't think he'd do this," the words tumbled from her lips as she backed away from the now-giggling Buffy. Spinning Faith bolted, heading for a place she always regretted visiting. As she ran, the giggling behind her sounded more and more hysterical. She knew the sound would haunt her for the rest of her life.