Thirteen Steps -3- Gravity
by Valyssia
The Darkness Before Dawn
[reviews]
Buffy headed straight for the communications center after leaving Willow. She caught Xander's eye with some effort and finally a violent poke to the ribs. "Xander, I need the girls. We are going to do a little demon hunting before it gets dark."
"Okay... I'll send out a page. Hold a moment," Xander walked over to a terminal and fiddled for a moment, then, keying his earpiece, he said, "Alpha Team members please report to the communications room." His voice sounded out over the PA.
Buffy smiled as she considered how much Xander must be loving this.
"So what we killing, Buff?" Xander grinned as he spoke.
"Not killing actually...just distracting... We just need to get an egg from this thing. Willow feels it would be better, given the nature of the beast, if we treat it as a full assault," Buffy finished with a sigh.
"What is it that Willow feels is so special about this one demon...is it huge with the scales and all that sorta stuff?" Xander was a bit bewildered.
"Nope, it's pretty much people sized, Xander. The hook is that it's a succubus...big with the mind games...strength in numbers is a bonus with that sort," Buffy sighed again thinking, I could probably kick its ass solo, but I'm not in the mood to argue with Will.
"Hummm...well, that's certainly different than our standard feature creature. Is this for Dawn?" Xander queried.
"Yup...so I'm told. Will's the one that's really putting this thing together. I'm just here to bust heads," Buffy grinned wolfishly, picking up a video headset from a table.
Buffy's favorites, the girls of the Alpha Team, began to file into the com center. Satsu was the first to arrive; she looked at Buffy expectantly.
"Go get into your Sunday best, Satsu. We have a problem," Buffy said, smiling at the young Asian slayer. "We'll meet in front of the building in 20 minutes. Think 'hunting bear' when you arm yourself...bring something sharp and pretty. Grab a headset, too. Xander is such the voyeur; we wouldn't want to deny him his jollies."
As the girls all filed in, she gave them all similar instructions. When the last of them had trickled in, she leaned down to Xander and said, "We'll need a ride, but I'm not sure where yet. I think a driver would be best. Willow said there would be something close."
"Okie-dokie, Buffy... I can drive if needed or..." Xander was not sure if he should press.
Buffy considered this. "Well... The trouble is that this demon is a succubus and she might just see you as a meal ticket waiting to be punched. Odds are, an all girl team would be safer. I'd hate to see you end up as Lillake's bitch ala those Dracula days. The whole eating bugs thing, not a flattering look for you."
Xander looked a bit hurt. "Okay, Buffy... Suit yourself."
"Actually, I think Leah drives if you could just score the keys to a truck for us," Buffy said, considering each of the girls in turn. She just knew that they would not all fit on Bernie and from there it went straight to the puzzling.
Xander walked over to a wall cabinet by the door and unlocked it; he fished for a moment and found what he was looking for. "These fit the Land Rover Discovery that's parked in the lot out back. It's white... You can't miss it."
Having all she needed now, Buffy shot Xander a "thank you" and left to get Willow and suit up herself.
"So what we got?" she said as she broke into the room.
"There's a really good spot about 20 minutes north of here in the highlands. Nice rocky area, from what I can tell, with a lot of natural caves," Willow was looking thoughtfully at a map she had in front of her. "There's definitely demon activity there, too. Look, Buffy."
Buffy came over and looked closely at the map; it was lit up with several glowing dots just to the north like Willow had said.
"Yeah, and even better...see this town? Really close...these things are predatory so...they need humans. Luckily, they are not social so there should be just one in the area. This is as good as it gets. We should get going. I don't relish trying to do this after dark," Willow said rushing to fold the map.
"Okay... let me get my stuff," Buffy said, removing the helmets from the top of her weapon's trunk. From it, she took a sling and positioned it over her shoulders. Into this, she slid the scythe. Then, she cinched the sling down; pulling the weapon up close to her back. She clipped a military style kabar onto her belt, tying the lower strap to her leg, and stuck a large Spyderco knife into her pocket. "There's not a lot out there that I can't kill and gut with this setup." She winked at Willow and walked out the door, motioning for her to follow.
Willow caught up a large covered bucket in her left hand, holding the map in her right, and trailed out after Buffy.
"What's the bucket for, Will?" Buffy said, looking over her shoulder.
Willow smiled and said, "The eggs...these things spawn sort of like fish do. The eggs will actually be in their water source."
Buffy crinkled her nose and said, "Ewww...no supper for me...in fact, I may just be off food for a while."
Willow giggled at this as they filed out into the afternoon sun to meet the other five slayers in Buffy's core team. "Thanks for the help, ladies," Willow smiled warmly as she made eye contact with each girl.
"Do any of you drive well enough to not scare or kill us? This hasn't come up yet so...anyway, this place is close and I hate cars." Buffy looked around for volunteers.
It was Leah that spoke up. "Aye... An I'm even licensed 'ere."
Buffy tossed Leah the keys as she spoke, "I'm told we'll find they fit a white Rover that's sitting out back. This is Willow's show, so unlike other missions, I'll let her handle the technical bits. I'm still on point though, so if I say jump..."
Rowena followed up with a flat, "Vill be askink how high." She wrinkled her nose as she shot the barb at Buffy.
"That's right, and if you give me lip again you'll be doing jumping jacks," Buffy winked and smiled at the blond slayer, catching the rim of her ball cap with a finger and flipping it down over her eyes.
Buffy took off for the back of the citadel and they all followed. Satsu decided that Willow did not need to carry the bucket too and took it from her. When they got close, Leah hit the alarm and unlock buttons on the key fob and the Rover's parking lights lit up to show them where it was.
Willow, arriving at the Rover, spread the map out on the hood and motioned for Leah to come, "'K...so... This is where we need to go... You take a look at the map and try to sort out the route you think best. You sound like a bit more of a local girl than I."
Leah nodded. "Aye...I've lived 'ereaboots me entire life."
The other girls, including Buffy, filed into the Rover and it was not long before they were leaving the grounds.
Yeah... Leah's doing a fine job of not getting us all killed. Buffy smiled to herself as she thought this.
Willow began to speak, "I suppose I should give you an idea what we are doing, eh?" She listened as affirmations came from around her in the truck, "Okay, well... You know Buffy's sister is experiencing a bit of growing pains right now..."
She paused, collecting her thoughts, and continued, "The creature we will be facing is pretty strong, but not particularly skilled in combat. It will do whatever it has to in order to avoid a direct fight. It'll take what you perceive as a strength and use it against you. The way it does this is by charming its victims. People who come into its influence are completely pliant to its will. Do whatever you have to if one of the team falls victim...just get them out of the cave. Posty-hasty..."
Leah smiled, "Dis seem right to you, Weelow?" she asked, indicating their location with her hands.
Willow looked briefly at the map and affirmed that the crags ahead of them were indeed the goal. Leah put the Rover into four-wheel-drive high and left the road gently, then took off across the open field.
They arrived a few minutes later and piled out of the truck.
Buffy made eye contact with Satsu saying, "You are with Willow. Guard her like she means the world to you, because she does...if she gets hurt, I promise I will beat you to death with a shovel." There was not even a tinge of humor in Buffy's voice as she said this. "Willow, you will just get what we came for with Satsu's help. Ignore the fight and keep your eyes on the prize. The rest of you are with me. If one of us falls under this bitch's spell, the others will attack. Circle her and keep her focus broken," Buffy paused for a moment to sigh and said in closing, "Once you have what you need, Willow, leave and let us follow you out as we can."
Willow smiled, "I thought I was gonna get to lead?" she opened the hatch and pulled out the bucket.
Buffy shot her a warm grin as she pulled the scythe off her back, "You will. Find this cave for us. When we get there, I'm taking point though. You and Satsu bring up the rear."
Willow took off up the hill into the crags. They walked a while, weaving in and out of rocky outcroppings. Soon, they arrived at a cavern mouth in the rock wall that was partially obscured by brush and undergrowth. "As you wish." She motioned Buffy ahead.
It soon became crystal clear how bad the place they were in actually was when the team fired up their video equipment and soft illumination came from the headsets. They could see that what they were stepping over were not branches, as they first thought, but human and animal bones.
"Xander... You gettin' this?" Buffy whispered.
"Yeah... Coming through just fine... Jeeze! Willow knows how to pick the vacation spots now, doesn't she?" he retorted.
They crept further into the cave and Buffy saw a small body of water in front of them. She motioned for Satsu to take Willow to it as the remainder of the team circled around the cave perimeter.
Then it happened... Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw movement headed toward Satsu and Willow. The Slayer ran to intercept whatever it was; the rest of the team on her six fanning out as they went. Buffy jumped and tackled the thing that meant to harm the others, bringing it to the ground momentarily.
The demon climbed back to her feet barely recognizing that she had been stopped. She turned on Buffy and spat, "Enter my home uninvited, girl child!"
Buffy pulled herself up and faced Lillake...soon they were circling each other. The Slayer refused to make eye contact; heeding Willow's warnings. Instead she studied the creature's body, watching her shoulders and hips for signs of forward movement indicative of an attack.
The remaining four slayers circled around Buffy and Lillake watching for an opening. Buffy was so close to the thing that they stared, wondering if she would strike.
As the two circled each other, Buffy became alarmingly aware that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. The body of this creature was clothed in a sheer, black colored toga; it dipped down at the side to reveal one breast...pretty slutty Buffy reflected. It had wavy red hair that was cut to mid-back. The hair moved in front of Lillake as she hunched, ready to attack the Slayer.
Lillake laughed as she circled the Slayer. It was almost musical.
Rowena, seeing more movement in the shadows, turned to catch a man running at them. He was tall and muscularly built, dressed in shabby, torn clothing and wearing a light reddish beard. He struck hard at Leah's back, but Rowena blocked the blow with her staff. Now with the full attention of two slayers, the man was not long for this world.
He lashed out violently at the two women. As Rowena took his feet out from under him, Leah drove at him causing his head to violently smack the cave floor. Leah bent to feel for a pulse and, finding the man alive, she motioned for the other two slayers to get him out of the cave.
Buffy could hear Xander calling her over the headset, but couldn't find her voice to answer. Instead, she found herself drawn into watching graceful movement of Lillake; studying the details. She looked in disbelief at the milky, freckled skin across her chest and the shape of the demon's breasts. As they moved, she noticed that the demon also bore a tattoo of a miscellaneous Japanese symbol at the base of her spine that Buffy could see as the demon turned slightly to her side. She couldn't quite place it... Well... yes, she could place it... Bitch is showing me that on purpose. The only striking differences were the rust colored scaly wings that jutted up from the demon's shoulders, and her clawed feet...Buffy was freaked...She wanted desperately to look up now...to see if the demon had the same hazel eyes as her friend.
Lillake hissed, "That's right, child, look at my eyes...be in me..."
Buffy responded to these words. That was the last thing she remembered.
Rowena smacked Buffy over the back of the head with her staff.
Leah grabbed up the Slayer's scythe as it fell, catching the demon in the throat as Rowena dragged Buffy out of the cave.
Lillake shrieked in pain, dark blood pouring from the nasty gash at her throat; she did not pursue the intruders.
Once outside, they caught up with the others. Leah and Satsu took the man under the shoulders and they all ran. Rowena stopped for a second, acutely aware that dragging Buffy back to the truck would just piss her off more. She threw the Slayer over her shoulders, moving again as she voiced, "Vi need to be elsevhere!"
They were halfway to the nearest town when Buffy finally came to; her head in Willow's lap. She looked around, startled, inventorying the people in the car. "Well, I guess I kept it busy... or rather it kept me busy. We get the goods? Where are we?" She rubbed her head. "Hey! Who hit me?"
Rowena raised her hand; smiling sheepishly.
Willow helped Buffy sit up and simply said, "Yes, we got what we came for; plus one." She motioned over her shoulder at the unconscious man in the aft storage area. "...And Rowena and Leah saved your life as I hear it... Once you looked into Lillake's eyes, it was over. You would have killed all of us at her whim and then lain down to die yourself. Remember what I said, Buffy. This demon is highly intelligent and very old. It will pick the strongest one in a group and turn her against the others to avoid having to fight for itself. We're just lucky Rowena and Leah listened." Willow tried to keep her voice inflectionless so as not to sound like she was chiding.
Buffy grinned shyly, "I'm sorry, guys. It just threw me off. Thanks for the coverage."
Leah and Rowena both echoed, "Oh, yher vilcome," and started to giggle.
They dropped the man off at the nearest hospital. Willow handled the meet-and-greet part of that process, as she was the only one really in typical street attire. She tried to answer the questions they asked, but had to admit she knew very little. Finally, the hospital personnel took her word that the girls had been hiking and had simply stumbled across him on the trail.
Then they set off for home.
Dawn was walking across the lawn as they came up the drive toward the castle. She ran to meet them. It was more than slightly alarming, but Leah kept her cool and simply stopped the vehicle to wait for Dawn to catch up.
Willow leaned out the window and yelled, "We got it, sweetie! I'll have antidotey goodness for you in a few hours!"
Dawn said, "Oh, thank God! Thank you all!"
There were waves and smiles to be had from the others as Leah continued on, returning the truck to where it was parked.
Buffy thanked the girls and told them to return their headsets to Xander. "Oh, and Leah, make sure he gets the keys to the Rover back. He'll be all snippy if they come up missing. Would you mind taking my headset back too? I need some time. My head hurts."
Leah nodded an affirmation and took Buffy's headset.
"Willow, if you want to go start on Dawn's treat, I need some time to get my head back together." Buffy sighed heavily as she said this.
Willow gave the Slayer a concerned look and said, "I could come with you. This will keep for a few hours if need be..." She raised the bucket slightly to indicate what she meant.
"If you like...I just need to see that footage. I'm not used to getting my ass handed to me so thoroughly. I want to see what I missed," Buffy said knowing full good and well this was not the truth. What she needed to see was what the thing really looked like.
"Okay... I'll drop by the kitchen and stash these in the walk in fridge, then meet you back in your room," Willow said as she started off down the hall.
Buffy made a beeline for her room and phoned Xander. "Xander, I need you to feed that mission footage from my camera to the computer here in my room, please," she said curtly.
Xander replied, "Yeah... What's up Buff? It's not like you to drop the ball like that? You okay?"
"Yeah...just peachy... Please get me that footage. Actually, give me as many angles as you have." She paused a moment and said, "Thanks, Xander," and hung up the phone. Shaking the cursor, she awaited the video feed.
Watching the footage, she missed Willow entering the room. Lillake was not at all what she remembered. The dress was the same, but she had no real distinguishing features. She had white hair, her skin was scaly and dark gray in color with an odd sort of sheen, and her eyes were stark black like Willow's had been when she embraced all that dark magic. The wings and clawed feet were really the only physical features she had recalled correctly.
I suppose as demons go, it was one of the better looking things I've faced, but it looked more like one of The Trio's gaudy, mostly naked female action figures... If they had come from hell itself...
She and the demon had only circled each other twice at the most. She thought it had been many more times than that. She watched Leah and Rowena deal with the man in short order. They deserve cookies, she noted. ...And there it was; a staff to the back of the head! No wonder I hurt!
Willow spoke softly, trying not to scare Buffy. "So, what did you see?" She thought she already knew the answer.
"I'm not sure, Will. I need some more time to process this."
"Buffy... you do know Lillake can't take on male forms? They strictly hunt men for that reason...well, that and the whole making demon babies thing. For her to have affected you like that, you would have had to...well... there would have to be someone female you were attracted to," Willow said frankly as she began to rub Buffy's shoulders.
Buffy said nothing, but instead got up, picked the scythe up off the bed where she had laid it and began to stow her weapons back in the trunk.
Willow continued as the Slayer knelt, dealing with her toys, "Its okay, Buffy... I certainly don't expect anything from you. Especially anything you feel you can't give me. Just know if you want to talk I'm here and I do love you." With this, she turned to leave the room.
Buffy caught the redhead's arm as she passed by on her way to the door, "Wait, Will. You can imagine how confusing this is for me, but I love you too. You know that." She sighed deeply, looking into Willow's eyes, "I'll tell you what. Let's go fix the brat together. It'll give me a distraction. Then, I want to take a ride. You've already said no solo trips, so I fully expect you to come with me."
Willow smiled and said, "Okay... Deal, but nothing faster than normal highway speeds..."
Buffy took Willow's hand and they walked to the kitchen together. "I'm hungry!" she announced on the way. "I can make food while you make the other thing... if I won't get in your way."
"That'd be great," Willow said in chipper tone. They arrived in the kitchen a few moments later and Willow looked at the various herbs she had hung from the metal cart that sat on one wall. They would not be really dry for days. The bark had to dry, so she pulled it from the string she'd hung the stuff by and focused on it, "Come here and help me, Buffy. Please."
Buffy came over and sat down by Willow, taking her hand. She watched with wonder as water began to bead up on the surface of the bark and fall to the floor.
Willow broke a piece of the bark in her hand. It crumbled, as it should. She smiled at Buffy and said, "Thank you. It's so much easier on me when you help."
Buffy stood up and simply said, "Pasta sound good?" She was done being surprised.
"Yes, please," Willow smiled broadly. She snickered a bit and added, "That was chemistry...just strip the oxygen and hydrogen molecules a bit quicker than they might wanna come normally."
Buffy shuddered for a moment as it occurred to her that anything with water in it...well that would be unpleasant. Glad she's good now... the Slayer thought as she looked for a pot to boil water in.
Willow sat chopping and grinding herbs at the table. "Would you mind getting a big stock pot out and putting 6 liters of distilled water in it for me?"
"Not at all... Would you like jar-sauce or alfredo with your pasta? It looks like we have the right stuff to do a good alfredo, so I'm voting that way," Buffy fiddled around, fishing out the stock pot.
"Alfredo, definitely," Willow said, grinding one of the pieces of bark with a mortar and pestle she'd managed to locate.
They continued to work together for a while, and soon there were two pots of boiling liquid on the stove.
Buffy looked over her shoulder and said, "Let's just try not to mix them. Pasta boiled in whatever that crap is you're making would be so the not good!" She got up to make the alfredo.
"You think that's bad, wait 'til I get the egg in the mix. Maybe we should have held off on dinner a bit...let this place air out some," Willow grinned evilly, waving her hand in front of her face. "We may end up with a room full of pissed off, hungry slayers if we're not careful."
"How much longer does that crap have to go before you add the egg?" Buffy looked at the boiling pot thoughtfully.
"About five minutes. In fact, if you wait, the boiling time on the egg is only 20 minutes. We can drop it in, set the heat on low and put a sign up warning death to any who touch it...then get some air." Willow thought this sounded like a fine idea to her.
"Okay then...I'll turn my part of the project off and we'll do just that," Buffy said, wondering why so much of this magick stuff had to smell like ogre armpit.
"I'm sorry, Buffy. I had no idea it would be this bad," Willow sighed.
"I just wish we could make Dawn smell this. Might make her a bit more careful about who she boinks," Buffy giggled.
Willow looked thoughtfully for a moment; "If you really want a disgusted thirty-ish-foot teen stomping around the yard, I could grant that wish for you."
"Sokay... We can skip that bit of the process. Let's just finish and bail," Buffy said firmly.
"Buffy, fetch a strainer and a second pot for me, please, dear. I need to remove the herbs before I add the egg. In fact, how about just the strainer, and we'll use your pasta water pot. Just dump it. I'm not going to be hungry for a bit," the witch said, gasping a little.
The two worked together to strain the mixture and get one egg out of the bucket and into the stockpot unbroken. It was quite challenging; the eggs had a very delicate membrane that served as a shell and they were clumped together. They finally managed to accomplish it by magick. Buffy wrote a note and put it on the stove warning shovel beatings to anyone that touched the delicate mix. They both broke out of the room in a dash.
"Right, so...Outside?" Willow gasped.
"I'll race you!" Buffy said with a giggle as she tore off down the hall.
Willow being Willow, after all, stopped and set the timer on her wristwatch as she watched the Slayer tear off down the hall in a full run.
Willow finally caught up to Buffy in the stable; she was sitting on Bernadine talking to either herself or the motorcycle...she dared not guess which.
Buffy smiled seeing the witch approach and said, "So, what are we going to do tomorrow?"
"I've got nothing on my plate," Willow admitted, wondering how long it had been since she had honestly said that to anyone.
"Good, because I think we should find the fun, as Faith is so fond of saying. We both deserve it. You name it and I'll be totally up for it. Shoes, maybe? I feel a solid shoe craving coming on," Buffy snickered.
Willow pondered for a moment and said, "I could go for some new shoes. Actually, I could do with some new clothes," she said, looking down at her borrowed attire with a grin. "I wonder if we could get by with burning a hole in the Watcher expense account." Willow giggled too.
"Could be..." Buffy smiled evilly.
The alarm on Willow's wrist went off and she left Buffy to dream of the perfect pair of shoes for a few. She returned with a green jelly oval on a baking tray that she'd covered in waxed paper. She set it carefully aside on a crate and said, "There it is. It just has to cool and harden. Maybe another 15 minutes and we can dose Dawn and bail."
There was just a little bit of sunlight left in the sky. Buffy dismounted Bernadine and walked out of the stable to watch the sunset. "How about we just go into town for food? I can't bring myself to cook after that and I'm still starved," she said, taking Willow's hand.
"Sounds good...let's find Dawn and get this over with," Willow offered.
Buffy smiled. "Sounds good to me too."
They located Dawn and both sat down with her.
"Well Dawnie, full day, but we got it done. The antidote is out in the stable. We should walk back there. I'm sort of nervous about leaving it...too much work to want to do again. Here's the thing...there's a catch. Once you take this, don't expect too much. The results will be gradual. You'll find yourself shrinking daily. I expect it will take at least three full days to work completely." Willow stopped to sigh. "Now, before you go getting upset, know that a quick result would likely be extremely unpleasant. Slow is actually better. You'll be sore the entire time but you won't be in excruciating pain."
Dawn considered this for a moment, "Three days I can handle, as long as I return to normal and don't shrink until I disappear or something."
"No chance of that," Willow confirmed, pulling herself to her feet and then turning to take Buffy's hand to assist with the same. "Let's go take our medicine, Dawnie."
Willow led them all quietly back to the stable. She went inside and touched the egg case. It was cool to the touch. Actually, it looked like a huge green gel capsule. She picked it up carefully in both hands and carried it outside saying, "Hold your hand out, sweetie."
Dawn put her hand down to Willow and received the pill for her effort, "This is cool, Willow. Thank you both. I wish I could hug you, but I think that would end in much horror and...with the bloodshed...so I'll wait." Saying this, she popped the pill and swallowed.
Buffy said in a kindly voice, "We can wait, Dawn. I just want you back down here with me so I can kick your ass when you get out of line."
They all laughed.