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“Noooo!” Giles screamed while Buffy fell on the pavement, her neck
snapped by a demon.
It didn’t matter to him, that the woman who had just died wasn’t
the real Buffy…it hurt all the same. He rushed toward her,
oblivious of the others, and took her limp body in his arms.
He held Buffy’s body to him for some seconds, there weren’t tears,
the hurt, the sorrow, was so deep that it couldn’t be expressed by
tears or screams.
He gently placed her on the ground, grazing her forehead with his
lips and whispered against her cheek, “I’ll see you again in my
dreams, love…I want you to tell me I told you so….”
He closed his eyes when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he slowly
opened them and turned, it was Willow, she had a bruise under her
right eye, her shirt was shredded, but he had never seen her more
calm.
Her infamous resolve face was firmly on, she lightly squeezed
Giles’ shoulder and said, “Come on Giles, we can’t stop
now…they’ll pay for this, too…”
Giles nodded and got up. They were alone now. Xander and Anya had
died, killed by two vampires. Willow had held Xander in his arms,
gently rocking him for some minutes.
She hadn’t shed a tear, she hadn’t cried not even when Spike had
been dusted. He had heard what Spike had told her just before
being dusted…he had whispered to her, “I’ll be waiting…”
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I don’t know whether I’ll be ever again all right…but I’m fine
now…and you?”
“Ripper is looking forward to get acquainted with the pillock that
has taken us.”
“Let’s….”
“WILL?”
Both Willow and Giles started hearing Xander’s voice. They
exchanged a glance, Giles swallowed and said, “It can’t be
him…it’s just another illusion, Willow…”
“GUYS ARE YOU THERE?”
Xander’s voice called again. Willow and Giles took a step toward
the voice, Giles hand was on Willow’s shoulder. They stopped when
they saw him.
Xander was walking toward them; he looked different from the
Xander who had been killed. He was paler and a green light
surrounded him, like a halo. The young man stopped when he saw
them, both Willow and Giles could see his eyes filling with tears
when he saw them, he started walking again, his pace quicker and
when he was in front of them he asked, “Are you all right? I
wasn’t even sure you were still alive…”
“You’re not real…so don’t even start” Willow said, her voice
steel-like.
“Eric sent me…I don’t know how…”
“Who?” Willow asked.
“The Eletti who suggested me how to break the spell…” Giles
informed her.
Willow turned and looked at Giles, the man nodded at her.
“Man, it’s so good to see you….” Xander said grinning.
“It’s good to see you too, Xand…” Willow mumbled.
“We have to hurry, we don’t have much time….” Xander said.
“How long have we been under the spell?” Willow asked. Time had
stopped making sense to her, since that nightmare had started.
“You’ve been taken four days ago; the day after Spike and Buffy
went looking for you…”
“A…are they all right?” Giles asked.
“I don’t know, G-Man…they were fighting when Eric sent me
here…they were doing great, but…” he stopped, and shrugged his
shoulders.
Giles nodded then said, “Why are you here?”
“I’m Eric’s eyes and arms here…and I’m your warrior…”
“Well, warrior…we have some major kicking ass to do, are you up to
it?” Willow asked smiling at him.
Xander just nodded at his friend and said, “They will never know
what hit them”
He stretched his arms toward them, both Giles and Willow took his
hand, they both could feel energy flowing into them.
Giles nodded at Xander, a Ripperish gleam in his eyes and
whispered, “Indeed”
~~*~~*~~*~~
Buffy didn’t know how many demons she had killed over the last
days. She didn’t feel tired, although she knew the only thing
which was keeping her awake was adrenaline and the fear for Willow
and Giles.
She knew she had been hurt, but she almost didn’t feel the pain.
The last vampire she had been fighting turned in dust under her
eyes and she couldn’t help sighing in relief.
She could hear the noise of Spike’s fights, she couldn’t hear Eric
but she knew he was there somehow. She knew he had found a way to
widen the leak and was helping Willow and Giles.
“Are you tired, Slayer?” a woman’s voice called, she could barely
discern the form of her speaker, it was partially hidden by the
purple light.
Her spider sense didn’t warn her, and Buffy knew that it was the
moment she had feared since she had entered the tunnels.
The figure took a step forward and Buffy could clearly see her.
Her opponent wasn’t an ugly looking demon, it wasn’t a vampire.
Her opponent was a woman. She wasn’t much older than her. She had
a heart-beat, and was alive. She was human…
….technically speaking.
“Look, I've had some really crappy days and I’m really not in the
mood…” Buffy said, “I'll give you a fair warning…get the hell out
of here, get a life… and for god’s sake get some make up while
you’re at it, you look like death warmed over!”
The woman smiled at her, showing her decayed teeth, she took
another step toward her, her skin was livid and there was a huge
bluish stain on a side of her face, “I’ll get a life, yours…”
“You know what? Your puns suck your outfit…”she said pointing at
her grey tunic“suck…and about the rest, may I say: eeeeew?”
The woman growled at her and stretched her hands toward her; Buffy
rolled her eyes and from seemingly nowhere produced a knife that
immediately threw at the woman.
The knife with deadly precision pierced her hand; the woman
screamed and brought her hand to her chest.
“I’ve many more knives, and I’m really in venting mode…but I give
you another fair warning, Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. Here” she
hissed.
The woman looked at her and laughed. She extracted the knife from
her hand and toyed with it for some seconds before throwing it
back at her.
Buffy sighed and caught it without even really concentrating on
the task; she then threw the knife on the ground and said,
“Fine…don’t tell I hadn’t warned you….”
The woman didn’t let her finish though; she threw herself at
Buffy, aiming a sword at her.
“Oh, please…” was what all Buffy said. She easily disarmed the
woman and grabbed her, circling her neck with her arm. She noticed
a medallion that hung, on the woman’s neck, and took it away from
her with the other hand; Buffy lightly tightened her grip around
the woman’s neck and said, “Now …whatever shall I do?”
“Do what you want” the woman rasped, “you won’t be able to stop
us…”
“Perhaps…but you won’t be here to see the outcome” the Slayer
said. She tightened a little more her grip around the woman’s neck
and met Spike’s eyes; he was slowly getting close to her. She
hoped neither the woman nor the vampire could see how frightened
she really was.
How frightened she was of herself.
She swallowed while tears filled her eyes. She could hear the
woman gasping for breath beneath her. She closed her eyes
and tightened her grip a little more. The woman stopped
struggling. Buffy lessened her grip and the woman fell on the
ground.
“You didn’t kill her…” Spike said in a low voice “I can still hear
her heart-beat”
Buffy opened her eyes, “She won’t harm us….”
She threw the medallion on the ground and shattered its stone,
with the heels of her boots. Tears were rolling on her cheeks, but
she didn’t even realize that.
“Slayer…” Spike said getting close to her.
Buffy raised a hand to stop him, she didn’t even look at him, her
shoulders shook, while she was trying hard to hold back sobs. She
feared that if she started crying now, she wouldn’t have been able
to stop.
“Buffy…”
Her lower lip trembled, she turned giving her back to Spike, she
sucked in a big gulp of air when she felt Spike’s cool hands on
her shoulders pulling her to him.
She slowly turned and hid her face in his duster inhaling the
leather smell. She felt Spike’s hand hesitantly patting her
shoulder.
“You didn’t kill her…that’s all that matters…” he said in a low
voice.
“Y…you…d…don’t understand…I wanted to…I forced myself not to…I’d
always thought that when the moment came I should have forced
myself to kill…instead…my God Spike, what’s happening to me? Am I
becoming a monster?” she sobbed.
If someone four days before had told her she would cry in Spike’s
arms she wouldn’t have believed…but so many things had happened
since then.
Spike lightly forced her to raise her head, tilting her chin up
with a finger and said, “I told you when this started, Buffy…God
doesn’t fit into this picture…you are not a sodding monster…and
take it from someone else besides you who has been making a living
of fighting them for centuries…”
Buffy nodded and couldn’t help smiling at him. She sniffed and
stepped back from him saying, “Tell someone about this and soul or
not you’ll fit into an ashtray, Spike…”
Spike smiled back at her but said, “Yeah? You and what army? Come
on, ducks…we have a wanker to kill and I’m not talking about the
big poofini…”
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