FF: Love Immortal 6/7

["David A. Knapton" <belgin_tei@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Love Immortal. 6/7
Author: David A. Knapton

E-mail: belgin_tei@xxxxxxxxxxx

Archived: NHA, The Mystic Muse, others if you want but it's polite 
to let the author know you are doing so.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my perverted mind. The characters 
belong to the owners of BtVS and Highlander.

Spoiler: Season 1 & 2, set sometime between Passion and Becoming II 
but Angelus killed Oz not Jenny who is still working on the spell to 
restore Angel's soul.

Rating: Possibly 18/NC17 at least over all this part 15/R for 
violence.

Pairing: Buffy/Willow (eventually) Giles/Jenny Xander/Cordelia.

Summery: Set a week or so after Buffy and Joyce's `little talk'. 
Jenny and Willow finally decipher the curse and Kendra turns up.

Notes: Just thought I'd point out that most of the dialog in this 
part is taken from parts 1 & 2 of `Becoming' but not necessarily 
spoken by the person that originally said it! Also some dialog is 
taken from the scripts but was cut before filming so may not match 
what viewers/readers remember. 

Thanks so much to my great beta Hilary.

<> = Thought. [Flashback] = Ah duh Flashback.

Feedback: If you wish but be warned only obscene amounts of money 
will stop me posting more parts of this story if you don't like it 
and want it stopped or you can do what I do don't read stories you 
don't like!!!!
I have been nominated for the Vixen Fiction Awards at CN's Caldron 
of Fan Fiction please visit the site at
http://cnscaldron.tripod.com/vixenawards.htm

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunnydale Gallery

The door chimed, looking up Joyce saw a man in his mid thirties with 
short dark hair and wearing a dark suit, it made her instantly think 
of James Bond. "Hello how may I help you?" she asked.

"Mrs Joyce Summers?" asked the man, he had an English accent.

"Yes I'm Joyce Summers, is there something I can do for you?"

The man extended his hand, "Wyndham-Pryce, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, I'm 
Willow Rosenberg's watcher, Mr Dawson sent me."

Before Joyce could say anything the door chimed again, she looked to 
the door in time to see Buffy and Willow enter, "Hi honey, what are 
you doing here?" Wesley's eyes went a little wide at seeing Willow.

"Ah nothing it's just that I was thinking of staying over at Will's 
tonight and ah after last week... you know... the talk and all I 
figured I'd see if that would be okay with you," Buffy said.

Joyce looked at her daughter smiling before looking past her to 
Willow, "You made her come didn't you dear?"

Buffy throw a look at her blushing friend before looking at her 
mum, "Ah yeah, but honest mum I would've called you. So is it okay?" 
she saw the speculative look the stranger was giving them, "Who's 
your friend?"

Wesley stepped forward holding out his hand, "Mr Wyndham-Pryce, I'm 
your new English teacher, Buffy isn't it?" Buffy saw her mum look at 
him angrily. 
Buffy frowned, <How did he know my name? God I hope mum's not dating 
him, I couldn't stand another Ted.> "Ah hi," she said taking his 
hand.

Wesley then held is hand out to Willow, Joyce's eyes almost bugged 
out of their sockets as she saw his watcher tattoo, <I'm going to 
kill Joe and him for this.> "Ah yes Buffy that's fine just don't 
stay up all night, remember you both have school tomorrow," she 
hurried to say as she tried getting Willow away from Wesley.

"Ah great mum," frowned Buffy wondering if her mum was on 
something, "I'll ah see you tomorrow after school. Ah nice to meet 
you Mr Pryce."

"Wyndham-Pryce," corrected Wesley.

"Right Wyndham-Pryce. Bye," nodded Buffy.

"Nice to meet you Mr Wyndham-Pryce," smiled Willow as she followed 
Buffy out the door.

As the door closed Joyce turn an angry look at Wesley, "Are you 
crazy? Weren't you told to get your wrist tattoo removed before 
coming here?"

"Yes, I ah did see something about that but I thought it was 
voluntary?" answered Wesley embarrassed that he had got off on the 
wrong foot with his immediate superior.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself for losing her temper with 
Wesley as well as the way she had gotten her daughter and her friend 
out of the shop, she looked at Wesley who she could see was 
embarrassed at the slip, "Okay go and see this doctor," she handed 
him a card, "Tell him I sent you and that you require your tattoo 
removed, if you still feel the need to have one I suggest you have 
it on your upper arm, but certainly nowhere it can be seen, Jenna 
knows about watchers but not that I am hers so please be careful 
around her and don't come here again, we'll set up a regular meeting 
place somewhere out of town but if you need to contact me urgently 
you have my contact numbers. Now you had better leave before anyone 
else turns up," she told him opening the door.

--------------

Sunnydale Museum of Natural History. 

A large rectangular chunk of rock stood in the middle of the room. 
A technician was carefully cleaning off a section of the rock, she 
let a jet of compressed air blow away some dust, a moment later she 
let another jet go, and then reached up with a brush and ran it 
across the rock. 

Dr. Doug Perren, one of the museum curators, came over to check her 
progress. "Careful, now," he pointed at a spot a little away from 
where is assistant had been working on, "Concentrate in this area."

He heard the door open behind him, and turned to see a man in his 
forties come in. 

"Hello?" said the man.

Doug walked over to greet him, taking a guess he smiled, "Rupert 
Giles?"

Giles nodded, "Yes."

Doug held out his hand, "Doug Perren. Thanks for coming."

Giles shook Doug's hand, "Oh, not at all. It's... flattered to be 
asked."

"I spoke with Lou Tabor at the Washington Institute, and he told me 
we had the best authority on obscure relics right here in 
Sunnydale," explained Doug.

Giles laughed, "Oh... He may have, uh, exaggerated a little," he 
said modestly. He saw the obelisk, "Ah, is this the..."

Doug turned to look behind him, "This is our baby." They walked over 
to it, "Construction workers dug it up outside of town. Don't have a 
clue what it is. Any ideas?" he asked as he watched Giles examine it.

Giles touched and looked at the rock, "A few. None I'd care to share 
until I can verify." He noticed the runes, "You have, uh, carbon 
dated it?" he asked looking more closely at the writing.

Doug nodded, "The results will be back in a couple of days. I'll go 
out on a limb and say old."

Giles gave a little chuckle, "Um, yes, it, it certainly..." he 
trailed off as he picked up a jar and a scraper, "Predates any, 
uh... settlements we've read about. Um, may I?" he asked pointing.

"Yeah. Sure," said Doug.

Giles leaned in and began to scrape at the corner of the obelisk, 
catching the debris in the jar. He dug into an apparent groove. A 
few scrapes later he stopped and tapped the scraper clean on the 
jar. "I assume you've, uh, you haven't tried to open it," he asked 
looking at the curator.

Doug frowned, "Open it?" He leaned over to see what Giles had 
discovered. "Ah, I'll be damned. I figured it was solid. What do you 
think is in there?"

Giles was staring intently at it, "I don't know," he mused.

Doug shrugged, "Well... I guess we won't know until we open it up."

Giles considered his options, "Yes, but could I ask, um... would you 
wait? I uh... I'd like to work on translating the text. It-it-it 
might give us an indication of... what we'll find inside." He said a 
little worried.

Doug gave Giles a surprised look, "You don't want to be surprised?"

Giles frowned, "A-as a rule, no."

Doug sighed, "Alright. You're the expert. But I'm pretty damn 
curious, though."

Giles removed his glasses, "Yes. Yes, so am I," he said quietly.

--------------

Buffy frowned as she walked away from the Gallery with Willow; she 
looked over her shoulder at the closed door, "That was weird," she 
said, "God I hope their not dating," she did a full body shudder.

"I donno Buffy he did seem nice and did you see his sexy eyes..." 
she trailed off as she saw the scowl on Buffy's face, "Ah if you 
like the hmm older types."

<Will thinks he's sexy! Not jealous, not jealous,> "So wanna grab a 
mocha before we go to the gym, I am so going to kick your ass 
today," Buffy smirked at the redhead.

"In your dreams, <And mine,> Buffy," laughed Willow as they headed 
for the Espresso Pump. In truth Buffy was learning fast, she had 
learned in a week what it had taken Willow all summer to learn.

--------------

Next day Computer room

Willow got up from her desk and popped the disc from the drive. 
Walking over to Jenny's desk she handed it to her, "I think I found 
the error in the code," she said taking a seat next to her mentor.

"Great, let's see if it works?" Jenny said putting the disc into the 
drive. She tapped a few keys then looked up at the screen. A 
percent complete window appeared over some Rumanian text, and the 
bar zipped across it. "Come on, come on..."

The bar disappeared, and a translation scrolled up next to the 
original text. Jenny turned to Willow and grinned, "That's it! It's 
gonna work!" She saved the result, "This... will work."

"Great," Willow said unconvincingly, "We better tell Buffy."

Jenny ejected the disc and set it aside by some books near the edge 
of her desk, while a hardcopy had started to print out. She wheeled 
her chair over to the printer and looked it over. "If this work's 
Angel will be back."

"Yes Angel will be back. Woo hoo." said Willow with very little 
enthusiasm.

--------------

The library 

Xander and Cordelia were sitting at the table. Giles walked up to 
Jenny and Willow. "What are you saying?" he asked them.

Jenny smiled at him, "The curse," she held out a printout, "This is 
it."

"We managed to replicate the original curse. To restore Angel's soul 
again," Willow clarified.

Giles took the printout, staring at it, "You said it couldn't be 
done."

"Well, I tried anyway. And it looks like it might work," said Jenny 
continuing to smile.

Xander didn't look pleased, "So he killed Oz... And now you're 
telling us we should do this ritual."

Cordelia gave everyone a little smile, "This is good, right? I mean, 
we can curse him again."

Buffy walked in standing just inside the main doors just observing.

Giles frowned, "Um, well, this... certainly points the way, but... 
the ritual itself requires a greater knowledge of the craft than I-I-
I can claim."

Willow smiled reassuringly at Giles, "Well, we've spoke to 
Cassandra, I maybe able to work this," she explained.

"The ritual must be performed by an `untouched witch' if Willow 
doesn't do it no one can," Jenny clarified for the watcher.

Giles looked very concerned, "W-Willow... channelling... such potent 
magicks through yourself, it could open a door that you may not be 
able to close."

[Flashback]

Late August previous summer

Willow could sense more than one immortal as she approached Jenny's 
door. Jenny had told her to come over if she was serious about 
learning the ways of the Craft and the God and Goddess, so with a 
little apprehension she used the key Jenny had pressed on her 
earlier that week.

Stepping into the hall she called out a little nervously, "H-
hello... Jenny?"

"Hello, you must be Willow," said a dark haired woman who looked 
about 30 coming down the stairs. She held out her hand, "I'm Grace, 
I'm a friend of Jenna's," she said smiling warmly.

"Ah yeah I-I'm W-Willow," stammered Willow.

"Come on in and I'll introduce the others," Willow followed Grace 
into the living room which held three other women. Grace indicated 
an athletic looking brunette about 5' 8", with prominent cheek 
bones, "This is Katya, she just flew in from South America."

Katya nodded to Willow, "It is a pleasure to meet you Willow," she 
said formally.

"Ah yes p-pleased to meet y-you," said Willow eyeing the tall woman 
somewhat nervously.

The woman with short cropped dyed blond hair came forward holding 
out her hand, "Don't mind Kat she recently lost her adopted 
daughter, she's not as unfriendly as this normally. I'm Amanda by 
the way I just know we are going to be great friends."

"Just keep your eyes on your money," said the other brunette, she 
had shoulder length hair framing her round face, "Ceirdwyn the 
name," she said standing next to Amanda.

Amanda snorted at Ceirdwyn, "I don't steal from friends especially 
sisters or future sisters." 

"Oh yeah what about Duncan? You've stolen from him before," said 
Ceirdwyn.

"That was different, I was desperate and Mac would forgive me."

"Yeah if he knew you had taken his money..." pointed out Grace.

"Well seeing we are all agreed that Mac would forgive me, why worry 
him about it?" said Amanda with a perfectly straight face.

All three looked at each other for a second before bursting out in 
laughter.

Willow was beginning to relax with these women as their good-natured 
banter reminded her of Xander and Buffy. "May I ask you all 
something?"

"Yes anything except where I have my money hidden, at least not in 
front of Amanda," smirked Ceirdwyn getting a slap on the arm from 
the woman in question.

Willow smiled at them, "Oh, nothing like that... just wondering 
really... why do all the female immortals only seem to have a first 
name? I mean Duncan has a surname."

"That's easy it only seems like that because of all the immortals 
you have met Duncan is the youngest," explained Grace, "The rest of 
us are much older, old enough that we were around before surnames 
were universally introduced. I was born in what is now Northern 
Italy in 510 AD, Amanda in Northern France around 830 AD while 
Ceirdwyn was a warrior in Britain four hundred years before the 
Romans invaded in 43 AD. Where as Duncan was born in 1592 so he is 
only a baby," she frowned, "Although you don't need to tell him I 
said that."

"Oh I see," nodded Willow, somewhat stunned at the ages of these 
women, it only beginning to sink in what it really meant to be 
immortal, "So where's Jenny?" she asked.

Grace smiled warmly at Willow misunderstanding what she saw for 
fear. "She has gone to pick up Cassandra from the train station. 
Willow you really have nothing to fear from any of us," she smiled 
at the other women, "The four of us as well as Cassandra and Jenna 
are bound by our vow to, and love of, the Goddess. If, as you 
indicated to Jenna, you wish to learn more about the Goddess and to 
be trained in the Craft you shall become our sister."

Willow looked around at the four female immortals and their warm 
smiles, she nodded, "Okay, but all this is so new, I don't just mean 
immortality but everything, a-a year ago I d-didn't even know 
vampires were real." She sat down on the settee with a sigh.

Grace sat one side and Amanda the other, Grace pulled the redhead 
into a gentle hug while Amanda placed a hand on her shoulder, "You 
are doing remarkably well, everyone here had the advantage of being 
around when demons where believed to be real by almost everyone, as 
the more `enlightened' times began that changed, now as you know 
very few believe, and even fewer know for certain," Grace said 
gently. "I for one don't think I would be coping half as well as you 
are."

All five immortals sensed others approaching, turning to look 
towards the door they watched as Jenny led Cassandra into the 
house. Each immortal came forward to hug the world's oldest witch, 
leaving Willow to look on, unsure what she should do.

"Blessed be, child," Cassandra greeted the redhead.

Willow looked up having not realised the immortal was stood in front 
of her blushed slightly, "Blessed be mother of my mother," she 
answered as Jenny had schooled her.

Cassandra held her by the shoulders, "Is it your desire to follow 
the path?"

"Yes, mother of my mother it is my desire to follow the path that 
lies before me," replied Willow.

"Very well child of my child," smiled Cassandra, turning to the 
others, "Daughters, is everything prepared to welcome a new sister?"

"Yes all is in readiness to welcome a new sister," the other five 
immortals replied in unison.

Jenny came forward and taking Willow's hand led her towards a door 
she had never been through, opening it they descended stone steps 
and into the basement. In the centre of the room there was a sacred 
circle set into the earth and slate floor, "Sit inside the circle 
Willow, facing the altar," Jenny whispered.

Willow did as she was told sitting cross-legged, she craned her neck 
to see the others lead by Cassandra walking down the steps, the 
redhead could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

Cassandra stood in front of Willow while Jenny stood behind, both 
within the sacred circle the other four immortals taking up position 
at the quarters, "When you are initiated, you are initiated into 
your own strength which is not found in books of magick or ritual, 
but in here," explained Cassandra bending slightly and placing her 
hand over Willow's heart, "For that is where all love resides." She 
straightened back up.

Cassandra raised her hands, palms out at shoulder height, "God and 
goddess spin the web of life for all living things, with many paths 
for us to choose. Let us feel their love and ours for them in our 
hearts. Let us walk our parallel paths together, learning from one 
another in perfect love and perfect trust. Blessed be."

"Blessed be," replied the other five immortals.

"Willow, you stand separate from us, do you wish to be accepted as 
our sister daughter," Cassandra said somewhat sternly.

Willow looked up, into the elder witches eyes, "Yes mother of my 
mother, I wish to be accepted as a sister daughter."

"Rise then sister daughter and be welcomed with love into our 
hearts," said Cassandra warmly.

Willow stood and as she turned to Jenny was immediately enfolded in 
her arms, "Welcome my sister," smiled the other immortal.

This was followed by the others lastly by Cassandra, "With the help 
of your sisters we will help you to unlock the love in your heart 
that you may use it to fulfil the lord and lady's will, blessed be 
Willow," she said kissing her on both cheeks. She turned to the 
others as they smiled at her, "Let us celebrate our new sister's 
awakening."

"Let the party begin," laughed Amanda as she led the rest up the 
steps.

A couple of days later Willow was sat with Jenny and Cassandra in 
Jenny's kitchen, "Why is it that I seem so much more powerful than 
all the others?" she asked the eldest immortal. Before they had all 
left to get on with their own lives Amanda and her other three 
sisters had began the long hard road Willow needed to unlock her 
full potential. Much to Willow's surprised she had surpassed all 
four in magickal ability within the day.

Cassandra smiled at the redhead, "It has to do with being an 
untouched witch Willow."

Willow was confused for a moment before the realisation dawned on 
her, "Y-you mean because I-I'm a v-virgin," she stammered.

Jenny laughed lightly at her pupil's sudden embarrassment; "Willow I 
hate to be the one to tell you bad news again but because you became 
immortal when you were still a virgin you will be for as long as you 
live."

"W-what do you mean?"

Cassandra sighed taking Willow's hand, "Willow when we first become 
immortal our quickening uses our bodies at the moment of death as a 
blueprint to restore it to normal. I'm sorry Willow but there is 
nothing anyone can do to change your situation."

"A-ah okay. But what does that have to do with my abilities?" asked 
Willow.

"It is partly to do with a natural ability, as we have taught you 
all Wiccan magick is based on sexual energy, that doesn't mean you 
have to have sex to make magick but the ability to draw on the 
sexuality in nature, but being a virgin you are able to use pure 
sexual magickal energy that is tainted by our own experience, but as 
you cannot lose your virginity, so you will never be tainted."

[End Flashback]

Buffy made herself known to the two immortals, "I don't want you 
putting yourself in any danger, Will," she said walking toward her 
friend.

Willow turned, realising that although it wasn't the same as sensing 
an immortal she had known Buffy was close before she spoke. "And I 
don't want danger. Big 'no' to danger, but I'm the only person that 
can do this."

Xander was getting angry, "Hi! For those of you who have just tuned 
in," he got up, "Everyone here is a crazy person." walking to the 
end of the table, "So this spell might restore Angel's humanity? 
Well, here's an interesting angle." His eyes going hard, "Who 
cares?" he said harshly.

"I care," Buffy told him quietly.

"Is that right," Xander said sarcastically.

"Let's not lose our perspective here, Xander," pointed out Giles 
trying to defuse the tension building up in the room. 

Willow looked at Xander, disbelieving what she was hearing from him.

Xander stood his ground, "I'm Perspective Guy. Angel's a killer."

"Xander..." Willow pleaded with her friend.

"It's not that simple," Buffy tried explaining.

Xander looked around a disgusted look on his face, "What? All is 
forgiven? I can't believe you people!"

Cordelia got up, "Xander has a point."

Xander turned on Cordelia, "You know, just for once, I wish you'd 
support me," he said in a raised voice then more quietly, "And I 
realize right now that you were, and I'm embarrassed, so I'm gonna 
get back to the point," he turned back to the others, "Which is that 
Angel needs to die."

"Curing Angel would have been Oz's last wish," Willow said quietly.

"Yeah? Well, Oz is dead," Xander said harshly.

Anger entered Willow's eyes as she approached Xander, "Don't 
you `ever' speak of him in that tone again!"

Xander wouldn't back down he yelled back, "Can't you hear what I'm 
saying?"

They begin to argue heatedly Giles and Jenny joining in. Buffy 
rushed over and got between them, "Stop it! Stop it!" she cried.

They all shut up and glared at each other for a moment. Buffy turned 
and taking Willow's hand she led the redhead over to the desk, they 
could all see Buffy was very upset. Giles paced away, Jenny 
following, also upset.

Willow took Buffy's other hand in hers, "What do you wanna do?" she 
asked quietly.

Buffy sighed, "I-I don't know. What happened to Angel wasn't his 
fault."

Xander looked up, "Yeah, but what happened to Oz is." Buffy and 
Willow stared at him in disbelief. Xander continued in a very cold 
voice, "You can paint this any way you want, but the way I see it is 
that you wanna forget all about Oz's murder so you can get your 
boyfriend back."

Buffy refused to listen to anymore and huffed out of the library. 
Jenny, Willow and Giles were merely able to stare in slack jawed 
shock at Xander. Unrepentantly, Xander walked back to his chair at 
the table.

Cordelia looked around at everyone, "Wow. Even `I' know that was 
insensitive."

Xander was staring at Willow, "Am I wrong?" Willow didn't answer, 
she just looked away.

--------------

Buffy was just about to open the door to go on patrol when she was 
stopped by her mother, "Where are you going?"

Buffy looked jumping a little having been startled out of her 
thoughts of earlier in the day, she looked up at her mum 
smiling, "Oh. Uh, to Willow's. To study. Got two finals tomorrow."

Joyce returned the smile figuring that the worry she saw on her 
daughter's face was caused by her up coming exams, "All right. Make 
sure you two study. Don't talk about boys all night."

"Oh, we don't like boys... I mean, while we're studying. We like 
boys. Some boys..." Buffy quickly amended, blushing slightly.

"Okay. Get a ride back if you come home late," Joyce said as Buffy 
closed the door behind her.

"Sure mum," Joyce heard Buffy call out.

Buffy was walking through Weatherly Park on patrol, trying to clear 
her head. She stopped and jerked her head aside when she heard 
something snap in the nearby bushes. Slowly she took a few more 
steps to investigate. She heard another sound behind her and spun 
around to look. Nothing. Cautiously she took a couple of steps. 
Suddenly Kendra came out of the bushes to stand right behind her. 
Buffy instantly pivoted around with her fist held up, ready to 
punch. She stayed herself when she recognized the other girl.

Buffy exhaled, "You know polite people call before they jump out of 
the bushes and attack you."

"Just wanted to test your reflexes," said Kendra, punctuating the 
statement with a raised eyebrow.

Buffy smirked at her, "How about testing my face-punching? `Cause I 
think you'll find it's improved."

Kendra ignored the other girl's come back, "I was on my way to your 
house. Saw you walking. Couldn't help meself."

Buffy smiled, "Which begs the question, and don't think I'm not glad 
to see you, but, why are you here?" Kendra started to answer, but 
Buffy answered for her, "Oh, wait. No, let me guess. Your watcher 
informed you. Dat a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale," 
she finished doing quite a good imitation of Kendra's accent.

Kendra smiled "Dat's about it," she said with just the faintest 
glint of mischief in her eyes.

"Great. So, you have any idea what this dark power is?" Buffy sighed.

--------------

Giles came out of his office into the main room where Buffy and 
Kendra were waiting at the table. Willow was behind the counter 
with Jenny she was searching on the net while her teacher searched 
in a book. "I've been on the phone to the museum. The artefact in 
question is missing, and the curator has been murdered. Vampires," 
he said leaning on the table.

"And you're sure this was the tomb of Alfalfa?" asked Buffy.

"Acathla. And yes, the information provided by Kendra's watcher 
seems conclusive," nodded Giles.

Giles straightened back up as Willow and Jenny walked out from 
behind the counter. "Okay, somebody explain the whole 'he will suck 
the world into Hell' thing, because that's the part I'm not loving," 
Willow asked Giles.

"Well, the, uh," Giles began to explain as he put on his 
glasses, "The Demon Universe exists in a dimension separate from our 
own." He said sitting on the table, "With one breath, Acathla will 
create a vortex, a-a kind of, um... whirlpool that will pull 
everything on Earth into that dimension, where any non-demon life 
will suffer horrible and... eternal torment."

"So that would be the literal kind of 'sucked into Hell'," Buffy 
smiled a little
nervously, "Neat."

"You think Angelus and the others are responsible for the theft of 
the tomb?" Kendra asked Buffy.

"Buffy nodded, "I'd bet folding money on it."

"I can't believe you dated him," Kendra mussed before seeing Buffy's 
eyes narrow, "I mean, he's got to be stopped."

"We don't know where they are. They moved after we rescued Jenny," 
Willow pointed out.

Buffy frowned, turning to Willow, "Willow, I think you should try 
the curse."

Kendra stepped to Buffy's side, "I tend to side with your friend 
Xander on this one. Angel should be eliminated."

Buffy nodded, "Oh, I'll fight him. I'll kill him if I have to. But 
if I don't get there in time, or if I lose, then Willow might be our 
only hope."

Willow was taken aback and more than a little worried about the 
possibility of losing Buffy, "I don't `wanna' be our only hope! Uh, 
I crumble under pressure! Remember what happened when I thought 
something had happened to Jenny? Let's have another hope."

Kendra moved back to the table, "We have." she pulled a sword from 
her bag, showing it to everyone, "Blessed by the knight who first 
slew the demon." Giles looked at the sword, as did Jenny, 
intrigued, "If all else fails, this might stop it. I think."

Giles approached, "Ooh. May I?" Kendra handed it to him as Jenny 
stepped to Willow's side, "Thank you. Well, l-let's, hope all else 
doesn't fail." He looked at Jenny and Willow, "Um, how close are you 
to f-figuring out the ritual of the curse?"

Willow went to her pack, "I need about a day. And..." she picked up 
the printout looking it over before looking at the watcher, "An 'Orb 
of Thesulah'. Whatever that is."

Giles handed the sword back to Kendra. 

Jenny turned to Willow, "Spirit vault for rituals of the undead. I 
got one from my tribe when I first came here just in case, I'll go 
and get it," she told them before turning to leave.

"Ah actually there is no need I have one in my office, uh I-I've 
been using it as a paperweight," Giles said somewhat embarrassed, he 
headed to his office to retrieve it.

Willow turned to Buffy, "This means I can't help you study for 
tomorrow's final."

Buffy shrugged, "Ah, I'll wing it. Of course, if we go to Hell by 
then, I won't have to take 'em." She pointed out before becoming 
worried, "Or maybe I'll be taking them forever."

Giles came out of his office holding a tennis ball sized 
globe, "Angel has a ritual of his own to perform before he can 
remove the sword and awaken Acathla. With any luck, it should take 
some time."

--------------

On the Dawn of no moon
The power of the immortal mother through the child
The blood will wash in you 
The blood will wash over you
And will cleanse him that has walked in both light and shadow
He who is worthy

Angel slammed the paper onto the table, making all but Drusilla and 
Spike jump, he growled in anger, "Why didn't we know about this 
before we took the thing," he said looking at the stoned demon with 
a sword in its chest.

"Because peaches Dru had to be able to read the runes on the thing 
first. How could she do that until you got your hands on it," 
smirked Spike wrapping his arm around Drusilla. <I just love when 
his plans start to fall apart.>

"Okay," said Angelus getting up, "I can still get this done, we'll 
just collect the mother and child," he looked around the room as the 
dozen or so vamps looked to him for orders, "Right boys this is what 
we're going to do..."

--------------

Willow, Buffy, Xander, Cordelia and the rest of the class were sat 
in a classroom taking one of their final exams. Everyone was intent 
on it. Buffy looked up and glanced around briefly a little nervous, 
then turned her attention back to her paper.

As everyone starts to concentrate on the test, no one noticed the 
vampire come in and pull a shawl away from its face. She stood in 
front of the row Buffy was in, "Tonight... Sundown..." everyone 
looked up, "At the graveyard..."

The teacher quickly moved to try and retake control of the 
class, "Excuse me..." she said walking towards the woman that had 
disrupted the test.

Exposed now to the daylight, the vampire began to smoke. "You will 
come to him," she looked directly at Buffy, taking the shawl 
off, "You will come to him or more will die." She pointed at Buffy, 
who sat stony faced as the vampire ignited. "Tonight! His hour is at 
hand!" she finished as she turned to ash.

The students screamed, jumped out of their chairs and began to run 
from the room. Cordelia and Xander also jumped up, but didn't run. 
Buffy remained calmly in her seat just staring at the empty space 
before her while Willow looked worriedly at the slayer.

--------------

The library. 

Xander, Cordelia and Jenny are researching at the table while Willow 
was sat quietly on her own preparing for the ritual. Kendra 
approached with her sword sheathed. Giles and Buffy, up on the 
mezzanine, were talking quietly.

Buffy looked concerned, "She said more would die. I have to go."

Kendra looked up at the elder slayer and her watcher, "Den I should 
go wit you."

Buffy turned to face Kendra, "No. I need you here just in case," she 
said as she headed for the stairs, "I can take care of myself. And 
look, as long as Angel's fighting me, then he can't do this end-of-
the-world ritual thingy, and that's of the good." She came down the 
stairs and over to where Willow sat, "Will, what do you think?"

Willow looked over her list on the ritual, "I just want to cross-
check..."

Buffy interrupted her friend, "We don't have time. If this is gonna 
work, it has to work now."

Willow sighed heavily, "Okay. Then I need maybe half an hour once 
we're all set up."

Giles looked at the shelves with the books on the 
supernatural, "Which means you just have to hold Angel off. Don't 
let him close on you." He pulled out a book and handed it to 
Xander. "If the curse succeeds, you'll, you'll know."

Xander checked the title, and handed it to Jenny.

Cordelia looked up from her book, "Why don't you just wait here to 
find out if it worked, see if he phones you?"

Buffy shook her head, "I can't risk him killing any more people."

"What if he shows up with an army?" asked Xander.

"I'll run away," said Buffy.

Kendra immediately jumped in; reciting from the slayer handbook, "A 
slayer never runs aw..." she saw the looks everyone was giving 
her, "Good plan."

"I better go." Buffy stated starting to head out.

"Be careful," called out Xander.

Buffy looked back, "I will," she said before continuing towards the 
doors.

Kendra, grabbed a stake from the table, "Here..." she hurried to 
catch Buffy.

Buffy stopped again and looked back. Kendra held up the twisted but 
very sharp stake. "In case de curse does not succeed, dis is my 
lucky stake. I have killed many vampires wit it. I call it Mr. 
Pointy," she said

Buffy arched her eyebrow, "You named your stake?"

"Yes," said Kendra a little embarrassed.

Buffy smiled, "Remind me to get you a stuffed animal," she said 
accepting the stake from Kendra and looked it over. "Thanks."

Kendra smiled, "Watch your back."

--------------

Buffy walked through a cemetery, watching all around as she went. 
Angelus stepped out from behind a small mausoleum. "Hello, lover. I 
wasn't sure you'd come."

"After your immolation-o-gram? Come on, I had to show. Shouldn't you 
be out destroying the world right now, pulling the sword out of Al 
Franken or whatever his name is?" retorted Buffy.

Angelus smirked, "There's time enough. I wanted to say goodbye 
first. You are the one thing in this dimension I will miss."

Buffy sighed anxious to begin, "This is a beautiful moment we're 
having. Can we please fight?"

Angelus looked as if he was surprised, "I didn't come here to fight."

Buffy raised her eyebrows, "No?"

Angelus shook his head slightly, "Gosh, I was hoping we could get 
back together. What do you think? Do we have a shot?" Buffy gave him 
a look that said she wasn't buying it, "Alright. We'll fight." He 
lunged at her.

--------------

Willow and Jenny sat cross-legged on the table facing each other; at 
the last moment Jenny had pressed the others to allow her to lend 
Willow her strength. In between them sat the Orb of Thesulah within 
a sacred circle and surrounded by candles, bones and stones. Willow 
cast some stones. She looked at them and then gave Giles a nod. 

He opened a book and began to read, "Quod perditum est, invenietur. 
(What is lost, return.)

Cordelia swirled incense into the air as she walked around the 
table, while Xander watched.

Willow continued the ritual, "Not dead nor not of the living. 
Spirits of the interregnum I call..."

--------------

Buffy ducked a punch from Angelus and came up behind him. He spun 
around to block her return swing. He blocked another jab from her, 
and punched her in the face. He followed up with a left hook, and 
Buffy lost her balance and nearly fell. Angelus grabbed her by the 
back of her coat and threw her over onto the ground. She rolled 
away and onto her back, and looked up at him. "Come on, Willow," she 
said under her breath.

She sprang to her feet and moved towards Angel.

--------------

Kendra was walking back and forth by the counter guarding the main 
doors, which she occasionally looked towards worried for the other 
slayer.

"Let him know the pain of humanity, gods. Reach your wizened hands 
to me. Give me the sword..." Willow suddenly stopped, eyes wide at 
the bolt sticking out of Jenny's neck. "No!" she screamed as she 
grabbed her friend as she slumped forward.

There was a moment of stunned silence before a vampire came out from 
the stacks and attacked Xander from behind. The main doors flew 
open, and Kendra spun around taking up a defensive stance as two 
more vampires walk in. 

Giles pointed to the steps and yells at Willow and Cordelia, "Get 
out! Go!" as a fourth vampire appeared from the stacks.

Willow grabbed her sword and she and Cordelia made for the stairs. 
Kendra punched the first of the two vampires to reach her. A fourth 
jumped over the mezzanine railing and landed on Giles' back, 
knocking him into the table.

Cordelia and Willow run up the stairs and saw Xander elbow the 
vampire in the back, knocking the demon into a bookcase. Having 
punched down the first vampire, Kendra grabbed the other and shoved 
her into the wall. The first one got up and rushed at Kendra. 
Willow pushed Cordelia who was frozen in fright towards the stacks 
and the back entrance. Giles grabbed the ritual vase from the table 
and smashed it over his attacker's head. The vampire Xander was 
fighting rushed him again, but Xander sidestepped him. The vampire 
spun around, grabbed Xander and shoved him into a bookcase. A fifth 
vampire that had managed to get past Kendra hopped up onto the 
table, ran across it and leapt over the railing above, Willow saw 
him coming, she shoved Cordelia out of the way just as the vampire 
pushed the bookcase over onto Willow. Darkness.

The vampire Kendra is fighting ducked her swing. Xander's vampire 
grabbed his arm, looped his own around it tightly and pulled down 
with a sickening crunch. Xander yelled out in pain as he felt his 
arm break; he grabbed his tormenter's hair and smashed his head down 
on the railing. Xander picked the dazed vampire up and shoved him 
into the other one going after Cordelia, knocking both the demons to 
the floor.

"Go!" yelled Xander through clenched teeth at his girlfriend. He 
grabbed his broken arm and winced in pain. Cordelia screamed and ran 
out through the stacks to the rear exit.

Kendra ducked a roundhouse kick from the first vampire and blocked 
several punches. Giles ducked a swing and punched another vampire 
in the gut, he then pounded him on the back, but the vampire just 
roared and spun around with a punch to Giles' face, knocking him out 
and tipping the heavy table on top of him for good measure.

Kendra landed two punches in the face of her attacker. Xander 
watched her opponent punch at her face, but Kendra ducked and 
twisted into the vampire and came up holding back the vampire's 
head, she plunged her stake into the vampire's heart turning her to 
dust.

Xander winced again in pain. Willow lay prone under the fallen 
bookcase, he went to try and free his friend. 

Kendra looked around for her next target. She saw a vampire going 
for Giles, and rushed over to pull him off. She grabbed him and spun 
the demon around onto the floor. The vampire tried to get up, but 
Kendra just punched him back down. He tried again, and she grabbed 
him and threw him through the window into Giles' office. Just then 
another vampire tackled her from the side.

--------------

Buffy punched Angelus, but he just took it in his stride. She swung 
again, but he grabbed her arm and held on tight. She swung with the 
other one, but he grabbed it, too, and then pushed her away. "Jeez, 
is it me, or is your heart not in this?" he smirked. Buffy pulled 
out Kendra's stake as she rose. Angelus sighed, "Maybe I'll just go 
home, destroy the world."

Buffy looked at him, pure hatred in her eyes as the realisation came 
to her that he had hurt her Willow, "Well, I think Mr. Pointy'll 
have something to say about that. Come on. Let's finish this. You 
and me."

Angelus chuckled, "Y-you never learn, do you? This wasn't about you. 
This was never about you," he told her the chuckles beginning to 
come louder.

Realization downed on Buffy's face; the trap was set for the others, 
<Willow!> she began to run. 

"And you fall for it every single time!" Angelus called after her 
smirking.

--------------

A vampire punched Kendra, and she stumbled, but regained her 
footing. Up in the stacks the other one came at Xander, as he tried 
to push the bookcase off of his oldest friend. As the vampire 
reached Xander, he punched the battered boy in the face, knocking 
him out. Below Kendra was hit by a roundhouse kick, and fell. The 
library doors swung open, and Drusilla walked in. 

The vampire tried to kick Kendra, but she blocked it her leg snapped 
out tripping him, and got back to her feet to face the other two, 
the one that came down from above, and the one coming back out of 
Giles' office where Kendra had thrown her. The one Kendra had 
tripped got up again, and they all closed in on her.

But Drusilla clapped her hands, "Enough!"

Kendra looked to Drusilla who beckoned the slayer come hither. The 
other three just backed off but positioning themselves so there was 
no escape. 

Kendra faced Drusilla, ready to fight. Drusilla walked around her 
and goaded her on. Kendra kicked at her, but Drusilla blocked her 
easily, Drusilla also easily block the two follow-up punches before 
she punched Kendra and sent her spinning to the floor.

Kendra jumped back up and kicked at Drusilla who ducked it and 
grabbed her by the arms. She swung Kendra around and shoved her 
away. Kendra came back at her again with a kick to the gut, and 
Drusilla doubled over for an instant. Using that moment Kendra 
lunged at her, but Drusilla grabbed her by the throat and forced her 
back against the counter, gripping hard and choking her.

Drusilla waved two extended fingers before Kendra's eyes, "Look at 
me, Dearie," she said in a hypnotic voice, "Be... in my eyes. Be... 
in me." She let go, and Kendra now under her spell began to sway 
back and forth with Drusilla to stay in contact with the master 
vampire's eyes. Drusilla backed away slightly, lowering her arms 
never losing eye contact.

Kendra continued to sway with Drusilla. The vampire extended out 
the fingers of her right hand at her side. She smiled evilly as she 
swept her hand up and across Kendra's neck with her sharp nails. 
Kendra grabbed at her neck as it began to bleed heavily, and 
collapsed to the floor.

Drusilla watched her fall, turning to look down at her. "Night-
night," she kissed the air above the dead slayer and turned to her 
accomplices. "Let's get what we came for, dears."

One of the vampires picked up Jenny's body and another collected the 
unconscious Willow, they followed Drusilla out the doors.

--------------

Buffy ran across the school grounds and threw open the door rushing 
towards the library. She barged into the battleground and stopped. 
She looked around at the damage, and then saw Kendra lying on the 
floor in a pool of blood. She ran to her and fell to her knees. 
She could see that her friend was gone but still gently took her 
hand.

Buffy reached up to Kendra's face with her other hand and stroked it 
gently. 

"Freeze!" came a female voice from the doorway.

Buffy turned to see a police officer with her gun levelled at her.

--------------

A/N: A little bit of trivia here, the actress who played Ceirdwyn in 
the Highlander episode `Take back the night' was played by Kim 
Johnstone Ulrich who plays the character Ivy Winthrop Crane in 
Passions. Spike would be pleased.