FF: Giving In: Chapter One

[aerisjade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Title: Giving In
Chapter: 1/?
Rating: R
Pairing: Willow/Buffy
Type: Drama, Adventure, Song Fic
Fandom: Buffy, D&D
Crossover: Buffy/D&D
Time line: Right after wrecked
Spoilers: Hell yeah.
Beta Reader: Dark Gremlin the IV
Dedication: This is my apology to Shadow Drake for my long absence, and
inability to play with her.

Disclaimer: I don't own, or want to own, Buffy or Dungeons and Dragons.

<><><><><><><>

Artist: Adema
Album: Adema
Title: Giving in

Will you, walk me
To the edge again
Shaking, lonely
And I am drinking again
Woke up tonight and
No one's here with me
I'm giving in to you
Take me under
I'm giving in to you
I'm dying tonight
I'm giving in to you
Watch me crumble
I'm giving in to you
I'm crying tonight
I'm giving in to you

Caught up, in life
Losing all my friends
Family has tried
To heal all my addictions
Tragic it seems
To be alone again
I'm giving in to you

Take me under
I'm giving in to you
I'm dying tonight
I'm giving in to you
Watch me crumble
I'm giving in to you
I'm crying tonight
I'm giving in to you

<><><><><><><>

Damn it. How could she be so stupid? She knew better, hell, she'd seen this happen
hundreds of times, and yet she still fell into it. Damn it.

She shivered under the sheen of sheet, the cold hair hitting her boiling hot sweat, causing her
throbbing migraine to hitch up a couple of notches. She desperately clung to her guilt, trying
to stay grounded through the intense waves of paralyzing pain. Her body curled protectively
into a fetal position trying against hope that it would lesson the pain.

Whimpers escaped her chapped, bleeding lips, going from moans to barely audible
animalistic sounds. Each one, scrapping against her dried, swollen throat. Each time her
throat hurt more, she would feel another dot of blood fall from her nose to the sweat soaked
sheets. Each drop of blood that fell forced the sharp scalpel like pain in her eyes to slice back
into her mind.

Prying her eyes open, she struggled to make out the bright red characters on her clock. The
ensuing hoarse scream trapped in her unmoving mouth. It was only midnight, and she still had
to make it until morning.

Five more hours, she could make it that long. The section in her mind that stayed hidden
away seemed to go from the numb state of being to the black hole of pain. The burning in her
lungs became a pressure, making her fight for each deafening wheeze and cough.

The click of the door hit her ears with a high pitched buzz that sent her convulsing, and
sobbing. It had to stop. She couldn't do it, she just couldn't. Oh goddess, why here of all
places?

" Willow?"

She curled tighter into herself, needing to block every single noise that seemed to boom in
her overly sensitive, and more than a little painful senses. Each micro, every click, clink, and
thump.

A hand pressed into her arm, forcing the scream from her throat. The hoarse cries
becoming primal as the basic emotions took over. Pressure. Hurt. Pain. Bad.

The pressure left her arm, letting her go back to whimpers and tears. She couldn't do this,
she just couldn't, it hurt too much. She needed it to end, she had to end it. Slowly, she started
to crawl away from the blonde trying to get her to tell her what was happening.

She barely registered the edge of the bed, or the resulting fall, the blinding nerves hitting her
harder than before. Stop pain.

She forced her body to move towards the connecting bathroom. Stop pain, now.

She staggered through the door, wrenching the first drawer out. The contents flew across
the floor, her blurred orbs caught the shiny glint of metal. She fell to her knees, grabbing it
with locked, convulsing hands.

Pressure. Pain. End. Now. She shoved it against her skin, ignoring the scream from behind
her, and yanked the metal. Pain, End. Now.

She felt the darkness engulf her mind, and welcomed it with desperate joy. Pain gone.

<><><><><><><>

She'd never moved so fast in her life. The first drop of blood flowing from Willow's wrist
was all it took to send her diving onto her friend. The stained blade had already fallen useless
to the tiled floor, beside the witch's prone body.

Panic threatened to wail up in her chest at the sight of her friend and foundation. She had
known that the resulting consequences of Willow's refusal to use anymore magic would be
great, but she never imagined it would be this bad.

She ground down the urge to collapse in a heap, sweeping the unconscious body into her
arms. She quickly deposited her friend on the bed, and grabbed the closest piece of cloth.
Mentally reminding herself to replace the shirt later, she tied it tightly on Willow's wrist.

" What happened?"

She moved back into the bathroom, and grabbed the large first aid kit. " Her body isn't
handling her lack of magic use very well."

" Wh-what can I do?"

She glanced up surprised that her sister had the courage and heart to want to help the
person responsible for her broken arm. " I need you to call the others."

" W-will she be alright?"

She pulled the stitching kit from the bag, " I don't know."

She tied off the end of the short thread and began to sew, her stomach flipping dangerously
at having to do this. She was just thankful that her friend had been in too much pain to
remember to cut diagonally. In all, she'd gotten lucky.

She pushed the needle through the skin, adding a second stitch, and tying it off. One more,
and then.... She swallowed back the threat of nausea as she finished. Three stitches, it wasn't
that long but it was incredibly deep.

" You never should've let this get so bad..." She pressed a thick pad to the stitched cut, then
began to wrap the gauze around it. She ripped the end of the strip and tied it off, her hand
wondering down to grip the red heads. " I would've found some way to help you, if you'd
only told me."

" Daggerdale..."

She leaned forward, straining to hear the low croak of her friend. Each syllable seemed to
violently rasp through the deadly silence. She sighed heavily as her friend fell into a restless
sleep.

" Buffy?"

She cocked her head slightly, letting Dawn know that she was listening.

" They're on their way." Her sister shuffled nervously in the doorway. " Shouldn't she be in a
hospital?"

" They can't help her." She answered numbly. ' I just hope we can. '

<><><><><><><>

" This is hopeless/" Xander slammed the thick leather bound book onto the table in a fit of
rage. " We've been at this for five hours, and we have nothing to show for it."

" Would you rather give up?" She asked angrily, as she scanned her living room.

Box after box of books were scattered across the room. Books were hastily piled on
tables, by chairs, under table, anywhere the large mass of literature could go. Then there
were the discarded cups of coffee, bags of food, and cans of soda.

" Of course not, she'd my best friend. I'm just saying that this is pointless." Xander snapped
back.

" Didn't she say anything that could help us?" Tara asked quietly.

She shook her head, " Nothing."

" What about that word?"

She looked up at her sister walked into the room. There were dark circles under her eyes,
the redness told her more about how her sister was doing then a thousand words could.

" You mean, dagger tate?"

" Dale, Daggerdale." Dawn sat by her, leaning into her."

" Wait, she said Daggerdale?" Anya asked quietly.

" Yeah."

The ex-demon exploded out of her seat, her face turning an interesting shade of purple.
" Why the hell didn't you tell us that earlier?!! Do you know how much time we've wasted
because of this? Stupid...humans.......mortals.......idiots....."

The ex-demon grabbed the phone from beside Buffy, still muttering about being stuck
around a bunch of humans.

" What are you doing?"

Anya snorted at her question, turning away as she began to quietly talk to someone. Her
entire body was relaxed, but she could see the underlining tension in the blondes body. That
word, whatever it was, had triggered something in the ex-demons past.

" Jane is on her way." The demon finally said.

" Who's Jane?" She demanded, not liking the idea of a stranger near her Willow... near
Tara's Willow.

" An old friend, she'll be able to tell us what's wrong with Willow." Anya climbed into
Xander's lap, burrowing her face in his neck.

" Then I guess we wait."

<><><><><><><>

She wanted to kill something. No, she wanted to beat, torture and mutilate something, then
kill it. Slowly. She stared at Anya's old friend through narrowed eyes. ' She'd do just fine. '

She'd let the old woman into the house, but her body, mind, heart, and soul was screaming
at her not to let this seemingly harmless person near her witch... Tara's witch. The solemn
black Russian style peasant clothes, the short silver, black hair. The black eyes that seemed
to take in everything, and everyone.... It wasn't normal.

" Where is the young one?" Jane spoke softly in a Russian accent.

" Upstairs."

She sprinted in front of Anya and the woman, taking the lead to the bedroom. She'd let the
old hag check Willow, but not without her right there... Ready to snap Jane's neck at the
tiniest twinge toward her witch... Tara's witch.

She automatically sat on the bed at Willow's side, her sharp eyes, watching every
movement the woman made. She took the red heads hand in her's, nodding every so slightly
as the witch looked to her for permission to touch her friends forehead.

' Good, she knows not to mess with me. '

" Reveal yourself." Jane whispered over Willow, her hand glowing in a faint silver aura.

She growled deep in her throat at Jane, her eyes darkening in anger. ' No. Magic bad. Stop
her. ' Her inner slayer screamed.

" Uh, did she just growl? Did you hear Buffy growl? Since when does a slayer growl?"

" Xander, I love you and want to have lots of orgasms with you, but if you don't shut up, I'll
shove a stake so far up your whoopie that it'll come out your throat." Anya whispered.

" Shutting up now."

" What the hell are you doing?" She growled, this time making sure to tense her body in
warning.

" If the young one is who I believe she is, then I must have her show herself to me." Jane
pulled back letting the silver flow down Willow's body, wrapping around her in gentle
streams of rivets.

She almost gasped as she watched Willow's ears lengthen and becoming pointed. The silver
changed a blend of colors. Silver, red, green-blue, brown, then sank into the red heads body.
Her friends back arched up in an animalistic shriek of pain, her normally brown eyes
snapping open briefly, to reveal a deep rich emerald green.

" What...?"

" A halfing." Jane sadly smiled at her, " I was hoping I was wrong."

" Why?" She quickly pushed her own emotions behind her, " If you know what she is, and
what's wrong with her, then you can help her."

" Why did your friend start using magic?"

She nearly winced as she thought about her ex-lover, and everything they'd gone through
when he'd lost his soul. The pain was almost gone, but a dull throbbing still haunted her with
the memories.

" She gave my...friend his soul back."

Jane studied each of them in a silence that was deafening to her. The older woman's
emotions were closed off, but her eyes spoke volumes.

" I'm afraid it's not that simple." Jane sat in a nearby chair, her legs crossed in a regal
position. " In the dimension your friend is from, magic is in everything and everyone. The
difference is that where the human's try to use and harness it, Elves are the magic. It flows in
their blood, it is the oxygen they breath, the food they eat. For their culture, harnessing magic
the way humans do, with spells and demands, is a sin of unimaginable consequences. "

" When your friend was banished to this dimension, she found herself in a world with a
depletion of magic. She found herself unable to use her abilities, and had to use the last of her
magical energy to hide herself from the world."

" But when she did that spell to save your friend, she sacrificed more than you can imagine.
For an elf to use that kind of magic is not only dangerous, but deadly for them. The magic is
more addictive than you can imagine, and each spell they perform, brings their body closer to
death."

Jane pointed to Willow's prone body, " She is so far gone that only a healer from her
dimension would be able to save her, and even then, they'd probably fail."

Another dimension. Even that would fail, but there was a chance. A slim one, but a chance
all the same. Another dimension. How was she supposed to get her there? Then what would
happen? What if she died anyway? What if she lived?

Willow wouldn't even have to think about it, she'd just do it. She'd reach out to you, keep
you steady, and stay by you no matter what the consequences might be. Because they loved
each other, they were best friends, they were the other's foundation.

" Xander, can you and Anya watch Dawn while we're gone?" She finally asked.

" Yeah, sure, it's no problem. Just...take care of her will you? Elf or not, she'd my best
friend."

She nodded, then looked over at the old woman. " Now about the transportation...."

<><><><><><><>



" Are we mice, or are we men?"
" We're mice."

- Stephan Kings IT


Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com