FIC: The Pain of Innocence (3/3) [Part 6 of "Season 5"]

[Patrick Kelly <bandits@xxxxxxxxx>]

Title: The Pain of Innocence (3/3)
Author: Pat Kelly
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Part 6 of what I've now deemed simply, "The Season 5 Series".
Disclaimer: Joss and Mutant Enemy only. I do not own..
No money is being made.

Part 3

Buffy laid on their bed in the dorm room, Willow at her side. She was numb. As a slayer
she had seen a lot of horrible things, but seeing a child in that condition was by far the
worst. She knew Evil was&evil, but it shouldn't go after children. It wasn't like&oh what
good did it do dwelling on it? She had to focus. Giles was going to find something, and
they were going to stop whatever was going on.

She looked at Willow, and was already starting to feel better.

"You didn't have to play hooky for me." Buffy told her.

"I couldn't let you sit in here and be mopey all by yourself." Willow argued.

Buffy sat up against the headboard. "The mopeyness is stopping right now."

"It was pretty bad, huh?"

"Be glad you weren't there."

"I am. Don't worry about that. But it's my job to cheer you up now." Willow got over top
of Buffy, spreading her legs so she was kneeling, and wrapped her arms around the blonde's
neck. "Do you know where I'm glad to be right now?"

"You better say here, or I'll start to worry about you." Buffy teased. "Though I could
start calling you 'Straightjacket Rosenberg'."

"Retaliation for the sleazeball comment? No effect."

"Just like caffeine?"

"Ooh! Buffy!" Willow fumed.

"What?" The slayer asked innocently.

"You're a poophead." The redhead stated.

"Just kiss me already."

And they did just that for many enjoyable minutes, until they heard a knock on the door.
They both looked at the piece of wood that had a brass knob, and sighed.

"What time is it?" Buffy asked.

"Uh&" Willow checked the clock on the bedside drawer. "Four-thirty."

"Good. That means the sun won't be down for another hour, and that means it's not a
vampire."

"And what does that mean?"

"That I don't have to get up and check, so I don't invite one in. Make yourself
presentable, my little Wicca chick."

"Little? I'm taller than you!" Willow said, untangling herself from Buffy.

"Come in."

The door opened, and the person entered, somewhat hesitantly.

"I'm not bothering you, am I?" She asked them.

"Hey, Christi." Willow waved.

"No, you're not bothering us. I'm glad you're here, actually." Buffy said.

"Really?" Christi asked, not expecting that from the blonde at all.

"Yeah." Willow confirmed. "We don't think we gave you a fair chance, yesterday."

Buffy got up off the bed, and walked up to the other girl.

"I apologize. I was rude, and I dragged Willow into the rudeness with me. I was bad. If
you still want us to join, we'd be more than willing to give it a shot."

"Oh. Great!" Christi was excited. "I actually came here to yell at you, but it wouldn't
make much sense now. Or help anything."

"You still can if it'll make you feel better." Willow said.

"No." She laughed in relief. "I already feel do. This&uh&thanks."

Giles appeared in the doorway then, and came in quickly.

"I think I may have -" He noticed Christi. "Oh. I didn't realize you had company."

"It's okay. I was on my way out anyway." She backed out of the room. "Next meeting's
Thursday."

"We'll be there." Buffy promised with a smile. Willow walked to the door, and shut it as
soon as the girl was gone. "Whataya got, Giles?"

***

They all met up yet again at the ex-librarian's abode. Currently, they were waiting for
him to collect his thoughts. That was a bad sign. One, it meant that it was probably going
to be an involved lecture, and two, long lectures meant they were facing a really evil
thing. Or in this case, things. Buffy was more concerned about Dawn at the moment, than
what Giles had to say, though. She had been quiet ever since she arrived.

"How are you holding up?"

Dawn was hesitant to answer at first. "Okay&it's just&I was watching the news last night,
and they said those kids lived in an orphanage in town, and&"

"You're an orphan?" Willow asked.

The girl nodded. When she first saw Dawn, Buffy had an automatic "big sister" instinct
kick in, and the more she was around her, the stronger it got. That was what made her go
over to her "little sister", and hug her.

"Hit close to home, huh?" She asked softly. "We'll stop 'em."

"Thanks, Buffy."

"That would be the Bookman's cue to come in and so some esplainin'." Xander said in his
best Ricky voice.

Willow came over and joined the two girls, smiling. Buffy looked up, mouthed "what", and
looked at Giles expectantly. He took the not so subtle hints, and was holding an
old-looking book as he began to talk. They wondered if he had any books other than the
old-looking kind.

"Where should I begin?" Giles directed the question more to himself than the other people
in the room. "Based on what Dawn and Buffy have said about the child's condition, his age,
and Dawn's earlier account of 'creatures' hovering around a little girl, I believe this
all ties in with an incantation in this book."

"A spell?" Willow asked.

"Yes, but these are darker magicks. Not ones that you would perform."

She looked appalled. "No way!"

"I didn't mean to imply that you *would* do such a thing, Willow. Just that the spells are
not associated with Wiccan practices."

"Well&good."

"They are, however, associated with Chaos."

"Chaos?" Buffy asked. "That stuff you messed with when you were younger?"

He nodded, ashamed. "But we never did the spell that appears to be in place now.
The group always voted it too dangerous."

"Well there you go. At least it was a democratic, evil spell-casting, orgy club." Xander
said sarcastically.

"Orgies?" Anya asked, suddenly interested.

"Keep going, Mr. Giles." Dawn urged him.

"No one wanted to go through with the casting because it directly affected the human soul.
When a human being is born, it is totally and completely innocent. Untouched, pure. But as
a child grows, it loses more and more of its innocence. That's simply a part of growing
up. It may happen quicker for others, say by experiencing a traumatic event. Let me know
if you don't understand something."

"We're with you, Giles." Buffy said, making a continue gesture.

"Well, innocence is tied in with a person's soul. When you say a child is pure, that means
their soul is pure is well as their body."

"Their body too?" Willow asked, blushing.

"That counts all of us out." Buffy said with a grin. "Except Dawn. You are the exception,
right?"

"Of course I am!" Dawn declared.

"Anyhow, as innocence is lost, the soul is affected." Giles continued.

"That's bad, right?" Xander asked.

"If you murder someone and lose your innocence, depending on your religious beliefs, your
soul could be judged. But like I said, innocence is lost as you grow and experience the
reality of life. That's natural, and it's not preventable. The soul absorbs the pain,
becomes stronger for it, resilient. Physically, you can't feel it, but -"

"Keep it moving." Anya said, cutting him off.

"Sorry." He cleared his throat. "That pain that's absorbed is a part of the soul, but it
doesn't completely envelop it. There's always a piece of every person's soul that can
remain completely innocent. But it's normally miniscule. What the spell does, and
apparently has done, is take that pain, that unpure area of the caster's soul, and removes
it from the whole, and manifests a creature of sorts. Described as smoke-like, and
invisible to all human eyes, except those of the casters."

"And me." Dawn said, raising her hand.

"So it would seem."

"Doesn't stop there, does it?" Buffy asked.

"Ah&no. The caster then has complete control over the creature. We're talking about chaos,
remember, so it's for an evil purpose usually."

"Like killing little kids?" Willow asked, angrily.

His mouth was getting dry. Having a feeling that he was going to have to do a lot of
talking, he had glass of water prepared. Grabbing it from the coffee table, he took a sip,
and then continued.

"If you need to go the bathroom, now's the time." Xander joked.

Giles glared, and ignored Xander. "The creature was once part of a soul, Willow, and still
considers itself to be. No matter how much a part of soul it was, it's always missing
that innocent part that it once had. No matter how small that part was."

"So, because kids are still mostly innocent, those things take that part of the soul, and
then it can feel whole again?" Xander asked, being serious.

"Exactly. It needs to keep consuming 'innocence' to stay manifested. The reason the child
in the hospital was like a shell is because those creatures just want the innocent part of
the soul. They leave whatever pain the soul has absorbed behind, and that eats away at the
body until it&dries up."

"But you said the caster controls the thing, right?" Dawn asked. "Why would he&you know?"

"You have to understand, that serious practitioners of Chaos -"

"Get off on it?" Anya asked.

"I never went that far." Giles assured everyone.

"But that other one, Pete, got hit by a bus. He wasn't like the little kid." Buffy pointed
out.

"I still felt their trail on him, though." Dawn insisted.

"That's probably because another creature was created from his soul just after he died
from the impact." Giles shook his head. "A person that young with enough painful
experiences to&that's a shame."

"Wait. So if one of those creatures ate part of the kid's soul, and the innocent part of
Pete's is still with his body&" Willow trailed off.

"Then they can't rest."

"That was heavy." Dawn said, rubbing her temples.

"He used to use visuals and mix it up a little. I think I forgot how much I missed that."
Willow said.

"We've covered the how, and why in lots of detail&but what about the who?" Xander asked.

"As far as I know, there are only two copies of this book. I had one when the group parted
ways, and&" Giles stopped.

"Tell me it's not who I think it is." Buffy said, her blood beginning to boil.

"I'm missing something, aren't I?" Dawn asked.

"It has to be Ethan." Giles said, not liking it anymore than his surrogate daughter.

***

Spike stood outside of his crypt smoking a cigarette when he heard the door to the
mausoleum, which was a few yards down, open. The one that was supposed to be locked, and
have a crazy man inside. The blonde vampire could hear the man moving on the grass. He was
going somewhere in a hurry.

"Well, well, well. Mr. 'A few Beatles short of a full band' is stepping out. I think I'll
just tag along. For kicks." Spike said to himself.

He started following the man, easily keeping up with him while at the same time, staying
hidden from view. But as he reached the mausoleum, Spike couldn't help but take a detour
and have a look inside. It was a round building, a large stone coffin sat right in the
middle, and it was very cramped. It wasn't your typical mausoleum, though. All over were
herbs, statues of heads he didn't recognize, bowls filled with different color dusts, and
there were candles all over the place.

Something caught his eye. Sitting on top of the coffin, were two molds tied together by a
rope. They looked like hands. One was obviously human, and the other was slightly
disfigured, but he could still make out fingers. Spike didn't know why, but he snatched
it. He figured that he could use it to decorate his home. It reminded him of his bondage
and torture days.

Glancing around one more time, Spike realized that the guy was working some dark mojo.
That, along with definitely being certifiable, was a lethal combination. He left the
mausoleum and continued after him.

***

They all decided that the best place to go would be the Home, because the creatures seemed
to like "eating" there, and that meant Ethan liked it too. It was only a few blocks from
Giles' house, so they ran, figuring that Ethan would be able to hear a car engine. Then
they'd lose any chance at the element of surprise they might've had. What they didn't get,
however, was why he was here.

"Didn't the military drag his evil arse outta here?" Xander asked as they reached the
front door.

"Think about what you're saying, Xand. This is the same military who thought they could
contain and starve demons without having to face any consequences." Buffy said.

"So what you're saying is that they underestimated him." He nodded in understanding.
"Sounds about right."

Everyone hushed as they entered the unusually dark home. After getting about halfway down
the entrance hall, Buffy turned around to make sure her friends were still following her.
She saw everyone but Dawn keeping up. The younger girl was still by the door. She appeared
to be shaking. Willow noticed too, and because she was closer, she went to see what was
wrong.

The redhead was shocked when Dawn looked at her with green eyes.

"It's okay." The girl said quickly. "This happened before. It's when I saw them."

"Oh. Do you&uh&see them now?" Willow asked, still surprised.

Dawn nodded. "They're everywhere."

"How&no, no&it's not great." She was looking around, panic on her face.

Dawn was determined not to freak out. She took a deep breath, and straightened up. "We
should keep going."

"Okay."

Willow nodded to Buffy, and they continued their trek. They reached the end of the hall,
and turned right, entering a large room. The lights came on unexpectedly, and they all
searched for the reason why. They saw that they were standing in a large, children's
playroom, with dead, dried out bodies scattered around.

In the middle of the room, they saw Ethan, gun in hand, standing over three adults that
were bound and gagged.

"Hello, Ripper. Always nice to see you." He thought for a second. "All right, it isn't,
but my mother taught me to be pleasant."

***

Spike was watching the scene, hidden in the still darkened hallway.

"Buffy and the Superfriends have joined the party? Now it's getting interesting. Damn. I
wish I had popcorn."

***

"Go on. Speak up now. Don't be shy." Ethan said.

Giles noticed stitching going across his old friend's forehead.

"What happened to you?"

"Oh yay. This is where I get to reveal my villainous intentions."

"We see what you're doing." Willow seethed, pointing to the bodies.

"Do you honestly think I'd allow the death of children for no reason it all?" His
audience's silence was answer enough. "I'm offended."

"Get on with it so I can kill you." Buffy said.

"You can try if you like, but even though it doesn't listen to my instructions anymore, it
will tear whatever innocence is left out of your soul, and the pain left, will destroy
you." He looked at Giles. "You have explained everything, haven't you?"

They all nodded furiously.

"What do you mean it won't listen to you?" Anya asked.

"Oh, that's right. You can't see them." Ethan closed his eyes. "Visnus, Nocgot, Invoci!
Better?"

Suddenly, appearing all around them, were the creatures Dawn and Giles had described.
Circling the room wildly, it was like a mass of black smoke. There was one sticking close
to Ethan, much larger than the others. They guessed it was his pain, his evilness.

"He's big, isn't he?" Ethan asked. "A lot of it is from me, but he has been eating a quite
a bit. Pretty soon he'll have to diet."

One of the adults, Buffy recognized her as Sarah, began screaming in spite of the gag.
Ethan backhanded her to floor without hesitation. Buffy starting moving towards him, but
he pointed the pistol in her direction.

"Now, to answer Rupert's question. Quite simply, my friend, the American Government is
full of Yankee bastards. Have you ever been lobotomized, and then had it reversed to try
and find out what made you tick?"

"That's not possible." Giles said.

"I beg to differ. They did all sorts of tests, experiments, to find out how exactly I was
able to perform magick. I won't bore you with details, because frankly, you wouldn't want
to hear them anyway. When their little operation failed here, they let me go. I don't know
why they didn't kill me, but I wasn't going to argue. Point is, I left there different
than from when I had arrived."

"Funny. Doesn't look that way to me." Buffy said.

"Oh, but I am. They have the knowledge to reverse a lobotomy, you see, but they can't do
it very well. It appears to have left me quite mad. But also sorry."

"Come again?" Giles asked, not believing what he was hearing.

"Yes, for the first time in his life, Ethan Rayne is remorseful. I realize how wrong I've
been, the things of done&"

"You sure about that?" Xander asked, taking a look around the room once more to make sure
he wasn't imagining the bodies, the tied up people, and the gun.

"Look how much I've poisoned my soul." Ethan looked up at his large creature. "When I die,
I don't want to go to Hell, but I have little innocence left in me. I've destroyed it
through malicious acts, I'm aware of this. So I don't appear to have much say in where I'm
going to end up."

Dawn stepped forward, her green eyes staring at Ethan.

"So you decided to steal other people's innocence by doing the spell, and then having
these creatures feed it to you? That's insane."

"I said I was mad, didn't I?" Ethan looked sad. "That was the plan, yes. But it seems to
have gotten out of my control."

"I warned you that some day a spell would get more powerful than you, Ethan." Giles
reminded him.

"You were always the sensible one. My creature here, created all the others you see around
you. They obey it. I had no hand in their creation. Taken on a mind of its own, I guess.
That'll teach me to let the evil in my soul free again, won't it? It won't give me the
innocence it's collected. It only sticks close, protects me, because it's still a part of
me. Whether it likes it or not."

The creature began to move towards Dawn. She started to back up.

"It does appear to like you, however. Got a lot of innocence left, have you?"

With that, it shot into her, and began to feed.

***

Spike continued to watch, now kind of disturbed at the whole thing. He had killed lots of
people, sure, but when he did, they automatically got a free pass to the good side. Well,
everyone except for the murderers, rapists, and what not. But this Ethan fellow was not
only preventing these people's souls from resting, but killing children. He was never
really into that. That had been more of Dru's thing.

He listened to them.

"Dawn!" Buffy was screaming. "Giles, how do we stop it?"

"We can't." Giles answered. "Not unless we sever the rope Ethan's using to keep the
creature manifested. If we did, it would return inside him, and join again with what's
left of his soul."

"You'll never find it. At least not in time to save her. Once it's finished taking her
innocence, the pain will eat away at her heart. Once that's gone, so is she." Ethan said.

Spike looked down at what he had grabbed from the mausoleum. Was this the rope? He grabbed
the two "hands". He had no desire to see the girl die, and it was worth a shot. He pulled,
and even though the rope was several inches thick, he easily snapped it in two.

***

The creature emerged from Dawn's body. All their eyes went wide. It bloated up even more
then it already was, and then spit out all these tiny green particles into the air. The
rest of the creatures began to do the same thing. Several of the particles shot into Dawn,
who fell to the ground. Buffy was at her side. Giles figured out that the particles was
the "innocence" the creatures had taken. Somewhere, someone must have broken the rope, and
Ethan was frantic.

"No! That's mine! No!" He screamed.

They all watched as the creatures finished regurgitating, and then Ethan's creature turned
to them. Dawn could hear the creature's voice in her had, just as she had been able to
before.

"One last thing. Then you can join your souls."

Hundreds of red eyes focused on Ethan, and he shook his head. It didn't do any good. Every
single creature rushed into his body. They ate whatever innocence he had left, and began
to destroy him. The gang kept thinking about that one scene in Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade where the guy chose the wrong cup. Ethan was wasting away, and it got so
disgusting, that they couldn't look anymore.

When they opened their eyes, the creatures were gone, and Ethan was no more than dust.
Buffy looked at Dawn, whose eyes were back to normal, and held her while she cried.
Willow, Xander, Anya and Giles began to untie the poor people Ethan had held hostage.

"They'll be okay, won't they Giles?" Willow asked.

"Who?"

"The kids. I mean now that they all have their innocence back, and the souls are whole
again, they'll be fine, right?"

"I'm afraid not, Willow." Giles said sadly.

"What? Why not?"

"Their brains, their hearts, no longer work. They're gone. A body needs a heart, a brain
and a soul to function if it's not undead. Having just their soul back won't bring these
kids to life again. Whoever broke that rope saved Dawn just in time."

"That's it? They're just dead?"

"I'm sorry. I wish there were something&their souls can rest now. Try and take comfort in
that. And I'm sure that Ethan's soul is paying for his actions."

Willow refused to believe that all those kids&she walked over to Buffy and Dawn, and
joined in on the hug. Xander, Anya and Giles were trying to console the people they just
freed, but it was hard to do considering words were not at all enough.

"They never got to do anything&be anything," Willow said sadly.

"We won, right?" Dawn asked, and Buffy nodded. "Then how come it feels like we lost?"

***

Spike walked out of the Home and into the night, angry at human death for the first time
in his unlife. He didn't even care that the Slayer and her friends didn't know he was the
one who had saved that girl's life. It didn't matter. Right now, he needed to go destroy
some evil things to get rid of the rage that was building up inside him.

And that's exactly what he intended to do.


--
"I wanna set the record straight. I thought the cop was a prostitute." (Homer J. Simpson)

"You think you know? What's to come? What you are? You haven't even begun."
(Tara to Buffy, BTVS)


"Since when is there a cowboy in 'Death of a Salesman' anyway?" (Willow, BTVS)