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Hi
All.
Again, it's been
a long time coming, life indeed is sometimes in the way and makes you lose track
of what's important, like updating the story! :o) Anyhoo, here's chapter 15,
hope the longtime waiters can forgive the delay. Please
enjoy.
Stefan
Akerblom
The
Slayer And The Witch - Stefan Akerblom - nagarek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Brief: Buffy and Willow have both recently lost their partners, Willow is hospitalised and Buffy is almost paralysed with guilt over it, both Willow and Buffy realise how much they really mean to each other, they embark on a voyage of discovery and figuring out a way to break their new relationship to their friends while keeping the minions of the hellmouth from taking over. Meanwhile solutions present themselves which can have far reaching effects on Buffy and Willow's future. Distribution: BuffyWantsWillow and MegaWitches (www.megawitches.net) get automatic rights, anyone else who likes it enough to host it, just please give me a link to where it's hosted Many
thanks go to: Chapter 15 - You won't like me when I'm angry "Rack! I'll kill him, that ... that ... bastard!" Buffy was livid and shaking, clenching her fists and looking around as if searching for something to hit, "Will, he's the one, tell me how to find him, I don't know how, with that ... that mobile invisible magic crack house of his." Buffy began heading towards the cabinet at the back of the shop where the weapons were stowed. Willow's eyes betrayed her panic at the Slayer's words. "NOOO Buffy, uuh ... you .. you can't ... he's too tough, you can't fight him, I ... I should know." Buffy stopped in her tracks, and turned to Willow frowning. "He's pure evil, and way powerful, areal big bad ... he ..." Willow blanched and swallowed "... he can ... reach into your mind ... and he can take anything from you that he wants." Willow shuddered unconsciously and looked very scared as she remembered her times in the 'Rack And Rune Emporium'. She'd experienced some of the worst moments of her life there, disguised as times of ultimate pleasure while she was in the deepest darkest part of her addiction. " He ... he uh ... um ... with ... my mind ..." She gulped and dropped into silence. Buffy looked at Willow and saw that she still suffered from what Rack had done to her, Willow hadn't gone into whathad happened at Rack's saying it was too horrible for her to think about, but had simply sworn that Buffy need never worry that Willow would ever go near Rack again. Buffy suspected now that Rack had literally raped Willow's mind, andfor that his life was forfeit, no matter what it took. And not one to be easilyput off, Buffy shook her head defiantly. "He's just a man Will, and he'll go down just as easily as any vamp ... easier ... I'll take him, I promise. You just watch me, he won't know what hit him! He's never seen me angry ..." She dropped her voice to a whisper and looked as though she was staring through Willow's chest, "You hear me in there Rack? You won't like me when I'm angry ..." Giles blinked and wiped a hand over his face, Buffy turned to look at his movement and absently noticed a sheen on his cheeks, had Giles been crying? He put his glasses back on and brushed fingers through his unruly hair, he spoke softly, his voice quavering slightly. "Uhm ... Willow is quite right, if ... if what I have heard on the grapevine is correct, Rack is too powerful an adversary for you to go up against like this." "Huh ... what? Why? I don't get it ... what's the big? We ... we beat Glory ... we beat a goddess and lived to tell ... uh ... s ... some of us lived to tell about it, what's a man going to be able to do that she couldn't? So he can cast a few spells, big de ..." Erin interrupted Buffy. "No Buffy, he's not just a man, he's a demon in the shape of a man, a very powerful demon as well, nobody even knows what type he is, but he's completely in his element when it comes to powerful dark magic." She walked over to Buffy and stood before her. Buffy couldn't quite fathom how someone could look and be so incredibly much like Willow, and yet be so completely different as well, but then her mind drifted momentarily back tothe vampire doppleganger of Willow who had materialised out of another time and dimension and stepped into Sunnydale, she couldn't have been any more different if she had been deliberately trying to be. Erin drew Buffy's drifting eyes into her own, concern etched on her pale features. She spoke with conviction. "Everyone that I know who uses magic, says to stay away from this guy, he'll tear your heart out, he'll plunder your mind and eat your soul." Buffy looked at her, a little ill at ease, but not completely convinced. "Humph ... sounds like a real poser. That's just a sales pitch if ever I heard one." "I don't think so Buffy, I've heard of horrible things happening around that place, people just disappearing, they walk into Rack's and are never seen again." Buffy waved her hand at Erin. "There you are! All the more reason to stop his little racket. He ... he's violated Will, and I won't sit still for it. He'll pay for what he did, and ..." Buffy looked from face to face for reassurances "... if you don't want to help me then I'll do it on my own." Giles walked up behind her and laid his hand on Buffy's shoulder, squeezing gently and speaking softly. "Buffy ... it's not a matter of us not wanting to help, you know that. But you have to have a better plan than just attackinghim in an all out frontal assault. Rack is too clever by far to be taken that easily, his place is likely to be heavily protected and his magic prevents it from ever turning up in the same area for more than a night at a time. He probably has demons and god only knows what else protecting it." He let go of Buffy's shoulder as she turned to face him. He pushed the glasses up his nose and leaned against the table, he still looked drawn and pale, and his red rimmed eyes betrayed he was scared and worried, and ... sad? Disappointed? Something else? Buffy couldn't tell which, but she registered on some level that something wasn't right with him. She determined to find out what was bothering him when they had a quiet moment together. Willow spoke with a quiet nervous voice. "Amy and I walked into his place easily enough once we knew it was there, once I knew what to look for. But I always felt ... eyes on us, like ... like someone was watching us all the time, we weren't alone in there at any time, and I suspect the place isn't entirely what it seems,I got the feeling somehow that it's not only here, in Sunnydale, it's also somehow connected to some other place, some other dimension." Giles nodded as she finished, and looked again into Buffy's eyes. "Quite right, a gateway or portal into some other place. Fighting and slaying is all very well Buffy, but when dealing with someone like Rack, you need a little more than simply pure muscle, although..." he smiled awkwardly at her and blinked "... that doesn't go astray even in a fight such as this will probably turn out to be." Becky walked up beside Giles then. "All right! Maybe it's not the only weaponwe have, but finally something I can help with ... this magic and demons and vampires stuff is for the birds ... give me something to punch and kick anyday ..." Becky looked around at the group who was staring at her "... uh, I ...do a little bit of martial arts ..." Erin snorted softly and grinned. "A little bit? Huh ... she's got more black belts and stuff in almost any martial art you could pronounce, even some you couldn't." Becky smiled softly, and looked a little embarrassed. "Don't listen to her, she's exaggerating. But I know a little bit about how to take care of myself, so if that can come in handy then I'm your gal." Buffy looked at Becky with renewed respect, another fighter, good. "Ok then, let's draw up a plan, Erin do you think you can find Rack's place?" "Sure, it reeks of supernatural vibes, anyuser of magic or anything not human can sense if it's anywhere nearby, a location spell coupled with some other stuff should give me a direction, then it's simply a matter of homing in on him." She looked at Willow. "Didn't you feel it when you were near Rack's place?" Willow looked perplexed. "I felt ... something, but at the time I didn't know what it was I was feeling, I thought it was just butterflies and the shakes, but ..." she looked up, chagrined, "... now you mention it, there was a ... uh ... a vibe, a feeling of ... something I can't quite describe." Erin sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and nodded. "That's about what I expected, you haven'tquite got the training to know what's what yet, you have the power but not the disciplines ..." she looked up at Willow who simply looked back with sad eyes. "I don't want to push anything on you but ... we have to get rid of Rack's touch, not just for your own sake but for all of us, and I can do it for you, you don't need to do much of anything, or ... I can show you how to do it yourself, it's not something dark, it uses healing magic." She hesitated when she saw Willow's resolute face. "We can talk about this later." Willow looked up to Buffy who smiled at her and nodded. Dawn walked up to Willow and knelt down in front of her. She looked up and met Willow's gaze, and smiled a bit sadly. She placed her hand on the edge of the table to balance as she knelt, her hand resting on Spike's clothes. She felt the cool leather of his coat beneath her fingers, and felt a comfort from the contact. "I was in that place Will, with you. And I hated it, it smelled bad and felt cold and empty and weird and ... just really bad. Please let Erin help you get rid of it. I just want you safe from him, and us safe too. Please do it Will?" She looked pleadingly, her eyes wide and eyebrows arched high, she reached up to hold Willow's hand. "Please?" Willow looked back at her, and sighed, closing her eyes. "Ok Dawnie, I will, but after that I don'twant anything more to do with any magic, good or bad. I know wicca is good magicbut I ... I just can't trust myself ..." she drifted to an awkward silence. Buffy decided to break the somber mood. "Ok, we'll check on Angel before we leave tonight, in case he's already turned, and so we can lock the sewer entrance. I'm gonna do a quick sweep around outside first just in case. Dawn, you stay here please and lock the doors after I leave. Damn, I wish Tara was here right now, we could use some of her ... oh Erin, maybe ..." "Sure, lead me to the supplies, I'll cast some warding spells and stuff for the shop before I help Willow, that should keep out almost anything. Hmm ..." she tugged her top lip and stared off pensively "... I might go back home and grab some of my books." Giles spread his hands wide. "I'm sure you can find almost anything you require here, our collection is quite extensive and unique. Take anything you need to use." Anya gasped and began to speak, but from out of nowhere a hand shot out to cover her mouth. She looked around at Xander, who cringed and smiled nervously, but kept his hand in place. Everyone began walking over to the large table where they could begin planning their little war. Dawn stood back up and looked down at the table at Spike's long coat. Her eyes fell on the label inside the collar, blanklyshe looked at a tear where the coat lining had come away from the leather of the collar just above the label. Looking closely she saw something in one of the folds, small metal filaments caught in the satin fabric. She picked at it and had to pull it loose from where it was hooked into the thread of the cloth,she got it free and brought it up close to to examine it. It was a small electronic device no larger than a penny, a computer chip. She knew instantly what it was, and pocketed it. ------------------------------- Erin took a deep breath and put down some containers of ingredients she'd been using, she put aside a large leatherbound book she had held in her lap and rubbed her hands together to free them of herbs and dust. "Ok, nearly there, last part, you ready?" She looked at Willow with a confident smile. Willow licked her pale, dry lips which seemed dark in her ghost white face, she nodded quickly and swallowed. Erin nodded back and reached into a small pouch beside her knee, she withdrew her hand and tossed a pinch of powder from it onto a fire burning in a copper brazier before them both, Willow's eyes were drawn to the flame as it fizzled and sputtered on the burning herbs. As the powder hit the fire, the flames enthusiastically burst into a bright purple ball of magical energy that subsided quickly into an intense cold sphere of dark blue light. She spread her arms around the brazier and linked hands with Willow who sat still with her on the floor. She began to chant. "Hear my plea Diana, mother of all creation. Release this, your vassal from the cloying touch of the hellfire, release this woman and cleanse the earth of its taint." she took a breath, closed her eyes and began reciting in a language that sounded almost like latin but was somehow different. As she spoke the words, the blue flame brightened visibly. "E-anta, liminae donaes quaedros aperte
fenestras, The fire had changed and was burning with a cool lambent flame with the appearance of living ice, that didn't seem to be generating any heat whatsoever. A tendril of ice-fire reached out slowly and headed for Willow. The red-head's face bore a look of concern as the tendril began to undulate in front of her like a snake. Suddenly it shot out as quick as lightning and struck Willow in the chest above her heart. She gasped and almost cried out in terror, but she maintained her silence and clutched Erin's fingers frantically, not wanting to let her go. Erin looked with approval at Willowand continued chanting. "Expatriae sudiranam, querae
ferenta, The cold flame was now apparently buried deep in Willow's chest, and she began to see the tendril pulsating and throbbing, almost as if it was drinking from her. Up the tendril at an agonising pace crawled a dark stain of cold and evil blackness that eventually reached the brazier and was engulfed in the cool flame of the blue fireball, which glowed more brightly as the blackness filled it. Eventually the darkness began to diminish and dim, as if it was draining and becoming clear, the blue tendril zapped back into the brazier, again as quick as lightning. Erin's voice rose in pitch, and from somewhere a breeze lifted and began blowing their hair around. Willow caught the scent of apple blossom and calming smells like pine and sea breeze, a feeling of comfort descended around the room. The breeze turned into a stiff wind that was tossing loose papers around and pulling at their hair and clothes, Erin's voice rose even more as she finished off her incantation. "Exuenz malefarium, quandro madre
Diana, The fire suddenly went out and the explosive detonation as of a clap of thunder rocked the room and set glasses and other objects rattling and falling to the floor, the energy from the thunderclap knocked both girls backwards off balance and onto their backs. The Scoobiescame running at full speed at the sound and coming to a skidding halt they foundboth of the girls getting to their feet. Buffy rushed to Willow's side and helped the struggling red-head to get up. Willow brushed her skirt off with her hands and frowned. "What happened, what was that ..." Willow looked up to her with a crooked grin. "Oh, THAT was just a last little parting gift Rack had left me in there, a booby trap in case we did this. It was a little ... goodbye present, from him to me. It was designed to kill us outright but Erin safeguarded against it. It just took a lot to neutralise that much energy is all, that's why the big kerblooie at the end!" Buffy looked with wide incredulous eyes at Erin. "K ... kill you ... outright? You didn't tell me it was dangerous! Is ... is it gone now, for good, or ... or will it return later anytime?" Erin looked upto Buffy from where she was pouring water onto the last embers in the brazier,she smiled and shook her head. "Nah, Rack put that little piece in there,a ... uh ... call it a piece of his essence, so I made sure it returned to him and gave him a touch of ... spiritual heartburn. After this he was going to know anyway that his little touch was gone from Willow, I wanted him to experience a moment of discomfort for what he did." She looked at Willow who smiled backat her, Erin's grin spread and she returned her eyes to Buffy. "Trust me, he knows he's been nudged, it'll be a cold day in Hades before he tries that little trick on Willow again!" She stood up and grabbed Willow's arm and gave it a friendly gentle squeeze. Willow smiled at her, and turned to look at Buffy, who nodded and swallowed and looked into Willow's eyes, they both reached out at the same time and linked fingers. "You ok Will?" Willow smiled and sighed deeply. She moved forward, dropping Buffy's hand and draping her arms over Buffy's shoulders, her hands resting on the back of Buffy's neck, she leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips. Buffy reached out and grabbed Willow's waist, pulling her towards herself, pressing her body into Willow's, deepening the kiss, breathing hotly and moaning softly into Willow's mouth, running her hands up and down Willow's back, momentarily completely lost to the passion. Willow reluctantly pulled her face back and broke away from the kiss, sighing again, licking her lips and grinning widely at Buffy, her eyes shining and glistening, emerald green and deep as pools of clear pure water, Buffy lost herself in their tranquility and she felt the calmness that spread out from the red-head. Willow seemed at peace and completely herself again. They both looked around at the Scoobies, who were pretending to look away distractedly or be pre-occupied elsewhere. Willow and Buffy turned back towards each other and again locked eyes. Willow saw Buffy's adoration, saw how Buffy worshipped her, and knew that Buffy would do anything to protect her and care for her, including throwing herself mercilessly at Rack, knowing it might be her life he took, not Willow's. "Yeah, I'm really all right Buffy, I can feel ... Rack's touch, it's finally gone, like another weight has been lifted from me. I feel pretty darned good for a trainee cripple." ------------------------------- "How come Willow, how come you couldn't feel it inside you? I'd have sworn you could feel his touch, it was so obvious, if nothing else, Rack is not a subtle demon, he lacks any kind of finesse." Erin poured Willow a cup of peppermint tea in the kitchen, the rest of the Scoobies were out at the table making plans for storming Rack's lair. Willow sat at a chair and absently looked out to where Buffy was shaking her head and discarding battle plans, the steaming tea broke her stare and she turned back to look at Erin. "I don't ... I ... can't ..." she sighed with a frown, confusion written on her face. "... I think I could, but I didn't know what it was, I didn't know ifit was some residue from the spells I used to bring Buffy back or not." Erin sat down beside her and sipped from her own cup of scalding tea, the aromatic smell wafting throughout the kitchen. "Yeah, that blew my mind when you said that you brought Buffy back ..." she looked back to Willow, the awe in her face plain to see, but Willow was looking back into the other part of the shop, her mind focused on the Slayer. "... I haven't heard of anyone trying that in recent years, not since sometime in the 20's at least, and that went pretty badly,as I read it the whole house collapsed on it's foundations and disappeared into an almost bottomless hole in the ground, never to be seen again. I think they build a shopping mall over it now or something, it was somewhere in Detroit." Willow looked back to Erin and smiled. "I read that, and no it was a factory, a car plant, and it's still there today." Erin grinned, and chuckled throatily. "Uhuh, I think you're right, some of thosecars would have to be designed by hell creatures!" Willow laughed quietly at that, and turned to look back to Buffy. "Well anyway, you're clean now, there's nothing to worry about in that respect, Rack's not going to ever use you that way again, count on it. And I'm pretty sure Buffy's going to lay siege on the guy, I think he'd better leave this dimension and return from wherever he came from." Willow smiled gratefully at the wiccan nurse. "Thanks Erin, I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am, now finally maybe we ... Buffy and I, stand a chance of ... of happiness. I was always afraid something bad was going to happen, with the way I was feeling, and knowing now that I had this ... this thing inside me, thisevil touch ..." "Yeah, it's pretty nasty stuff, any time amortal is touched like that by a demon, it leaves a stain that's hard to wash off,no matter how much spiritual bleach you use, it takes a darned lot of elbow grease and sucking up to good spirits like Diana to clear it out, but they're usually glad to comply cos it helps the earth to become pure again which is what the good gods ultimately want, to bring earth back to how it was before the demons took over, before they were banished to the hells and man began to flourish. But it can be pretty tough on the psyche." "I guess so." Willow turned to look at Erin, "You can do the warding stuff with what Giles has here, I think you should be able to, I see he's got just about everything you need." Erin nodded and sipped from her tea. "Yeah, should be cool, I just wanted some of my personal stuff but that can wait, generic warding shouldn't be a problem." she looked pensive for a moment then cast her eyes up to look at Willow. "Say what's the deal with Angel anyway? A good vampire with a soul? Where but Sunnydaledoes that happen?" Willow grinned. and drank a mouthful of her tea. "Uh ... it's a kinda long story. Buffy ...and Angel used to be ... were a couple at one stage ..." Erin's eyebrows shot up. "You're kidding me, right?" Willow looked at her tea and shook her head. "Nope, they were quite an item together." Erin looked at Willow, and paused, shaking her head. "Like I said ... go figure, only here in Sunnydale. And I gather that they finished their relationship seeing as Angel lives in L.A. now?" Willow nodded. and wrapped her fingers around the cooling cup of tea. "Yeah, they've got a paranormal detective agency run by Wes, Angel Investigations. They 'help the helpless' ... that's their motto." she looked up and smiled. Erin grinned crookedly. "Gods how corny, who came up with THAT?" Willow absently tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'd say it was Cordelia who came up with that one, she was always a bit that way, smart things out of a smart mouth sometimes. She's another Sunnydale export living in L.A. she went to school with Buffy, Xander and me. she left to pursue a career in film but wound up working with Angel and Wes instead." Erin nodded and smiled. "Yeah, life throws you curve balls like that all the time, I was on my way to doing industrial design when I discovered I had wicca powers and could heal people, I found my new vocation in life, and i trained formally then and became a nurse, I moved here and got a position at Mercy and I've been there for the last 3 years." Willow nodded and rolled her eyes, a thin smile on her lips. "I know all about curve balls, I was destined to become a nerd, a computer geek, that seemed to be all I was good for, that and most other forms of science.I was kinda the study buddy you had when exams were on because of my academic scores, but I was mud for the rest of the term. Then my life changed completely..." she looked back to the war room, "... I met Buffy. She made everything change, when I found out she was the Slayer." Erin swallowed some tea and waved her fingers towards Buffy. "Yeah how did she become that, I heard it's not normal." Willow laughed. "Depends on what you mean by normal, Buffy's pretty normal as far as I am concerned, it's just her life that's not normal. But yeah she's kinda like a superhero, she's built for fighting, she looks buff and tight and she's super strong, even if she never bothers doing any exercise. It's amazing, she burns calories like you wouldn't believe, she could eat a whole chocolate fudge mudcake a day and never put on an ounce of fat! Now you tell me THAT'S not an unfair advantage!" Erin laughed quietly at the imagery. She looked out at the diminutive blonde with the bearing of a leader, as she cast away bad plan after bad plan as they made them, her arms waving as shedrew maps and diagrams on the white board. "Yeah that's pretty impressive, so how didit happen?" "Well it happens when each Slayer is killed, the next one is called, it's some mystical thing the gods cooked up back in pre-history sometime. She's not officially the slayer any more because she's died a couple of times in the past ..." Erin looked at her again, goggling. "She's died a couple of times? I thought you brought her back fairly recently." Willow drank the last of her tea and setthe cup down with a click. "Yeah, more long stories, let's just say she died and Xander did CPR on her and brought her back to life, but that meant the new Slayer was called, or rather a couple were, one was killed, the other is currently cooling her heels in prison in L.A. ... god this gets complicated, um ... Kendra was called and died, then Faith was called and committed murder, Buffy nearly killed her and put her in hospital, when she got better she fled to L.A. where she eventually gave herself up. So technically speaking she's still the current Slayer, but she can't do anything from a prison cell, Buffy's sort of Slayer by proxy these days, unless Faith dies in jail which is possible I suppose, and a new Slayer gets called." Erin looked at Willow and shook her head. "Yeah, complicated is an understatement. Did Faith go after Angel in L.A.?" Willow nodded. "Uhuh, yeah she did, and then Angel saved her from herself, after that, Faith gave herself up and went to prison." Erin looked like she was trying to put together the pieces of a complex puzzle. "Saved her from herself ... is that why Buffy and Angel broke up, because of Faith?" Willow shook her head. "Um ... nope, technically they broke up before that, Angel and Buffy both figured because he was immortal and she wasn't, they could never have a life together, he'd never grow old with her, and she'd die old and wrinkly while he lived on, so they split up. Not to mention the soul thing, if they uh ... if ... well if they ever experienced ... pure and true happiness for even one second, Angel's soul would be ripped from his body and he'd revert back to being one of the most evil vampires that ever existed, Angelus, the monster with the face of an Angel. That actually happened onceand it was SO un-good!" "Jeeze, that really sucks bigtime, but I guess in the end, you win because of that little technicality. So how long ago was that, recent? And what's this pure happiness thing, what does it mean, does it mean what I think it means?" "Well ... you know ... uh ... happiness, bliss, happy ... you know ... if she gave him a ... happy ..." Willow blushed slightly and she stumbled over her words in embarrassment. Erin smiled at the sweetness of the innocent before her. She thought to herself ... she's so much like me before I met Becky. "You mean sex? But ... she's ... how long ago did he leave did you say?" Willow looked up with a puzzled frown. "A couple ... couple of years ... Angel's been living in L.A. a couple of years now, this is his first visit here in ages. Why?" Erin shrugged her shoulders and spread her hands. "Well ... can't you tell? Now that you know what Rack's touch did to you? Can't you feel the touch?" Willow's brows creased and she looked at Erin with a stare of non-comprehension. "The touch ... I don't ... I don't underst..." Erin pointed out to the war room. "In Buffy? Can't you feel the demon touch in Buffy?" Willow's eyebrows rose, her eyes betraying a look of concern. "What are you talking about, Buffy's not been touched by a demon, well not like Rack touched me ..." Erin shook her head and closed her eyes, trying to explain what she meant. "Nooo ... I mean she's been touched by a demon recently and strongly, she's got the mark just like you did, hers is more subtle, not as overt, probably just because of the contact ..." Willow looked out to where Buffy stood and gesticulated at the whiteboard. Her brows cleared and she smiled. "Ohh ... I get it, that'd be Spike, she's probably got ... Spike's been with us helping us fight against vampires and demons here in Sunnydale ... I ... uh ..." again her brows creased, her frown betraying her suspicion of Erin's words. "... say what are you getting at anyway?" "Well you don't bear that mark, neither does anyone else here, have they been ... you know ... close?" "Close, how ... how do you mean, how closedo you mean?" "Well that sort of touch can only be had by ... by ... oh goddess ... I ... I, no forget it ... I'm sorry Willow, it can't have happened ... not that way." "What do you mean, have they ... slept together? Pffttt! God, I wouldn't think so! Buffy can be a bit weird sometimes, a nice weird but not ... Spike was ... well ... blech! I mean he's been a good guy since he had a computer chip implanted in his brain that stopped him hurting humans, but he was still basically an evil vampire, and Buffy's been under a lot of strain lately, what with the whole being dragged out of heaven thing I did on her and all, so you could hardly blame her for acting a bit strange sometimes, but ... her and Spike? She'd never ... she wouldn't ... that is, Buffy wouldn't ... she ... uh ..." Willow looked into the war room as she sawBuffy look back at her and smile sweetly, then look away again as Giles said something to her. Willow frowned, her brow creasing again, she slowly reached up and touched her own lips with her fingertips, where a few minutes before, Buffyhad kissed her so passionately. ------------------------------- A single sharp bright flame-coloured light like a dagger through the mind, threatened to tear asunder sanity, and then just as suddenly as the light had begun, it was gone. Darkness returned, and with it relief from the agonising pain. A sudden panic ... where am I? It tried to reach out and touched nothing, could feel no boundaries, no walls,in fact it could feel nothing touching it's body anywhere, it was as if it seemed to float in space, still or rotating, it didn't matter, with the darkness there was no frame of reference, simply silence, coldness which didn't hurt but wasn't entirely tangible either, almost total sensory deprivation. What the hell is this? Hello? The voice sounded just like it's thoughts, deep and with a tinge of insolence, there seemed to be no difference to the sound. Had there in facteven been a sound at all? With things so dark and no sensations of any kind other than the apparent coolness, and the rising anger at possibly being held prisoner like this, it reached out again and tried to move forward to reacha wall or barrier of some kind, and found that there was nothing to touch andno amount of trying seemed to set it in motion, it was simply existing in stasis or in free fall or some other bizarre fashion that didn't make any kind of intelligent sense right now. A rising panic then began to set in. It tried to reach up and touch it's facethen and faltered, arms didn't move, legs didn't seem to work either, nothing seemed to be functioning as it should, it felt like it was unconscious, and yet how could it be, and still reason and think in this fashion? Was it dead, or insome sort of coma? It knew that it had been unconscious before, but not often, with a mirthless mental grin it knew it dealt out that sort of thing usually, not received it. Ok, let's take stock of the situation, I seem to be conscious, although I seem to be unable to move my body, so either I am in some sort of coma or in shock or something similar, ok. What else? Well notsure if I am seeing anything either, not sure if my eyes are open or shut, so again that brings me back to being in some form of coma. It felt odd to be assessing the situation in this disjointed and disconnected fashion. how had it come to be in this situation? Well ... the thoughts faltered again, I can't remember how, all I remember just now was the bright light and waking up here. So maybe I'm in some sort of hospital, or maybe I'm lying somewhere injured or ... again, lack of pertinent detail and not being ableto take sensory stock made any more analysis impossible. Well sooner or later,if it's a hospital or a prison of some kind, someone will come by and then I'll try to discover more, until then I think I'll just relax as much as I can and gather my strength, maybe I'll be in a better situation to do something. With that final thought, it acquiesced and relaxed its mental struggle, resting and biding its time. To be continued in: Chapter 16 - Ashes, ashes, we all fall down |