Harry Potter and the Chains of the Soul
by RyianaT
Disclaimer: All things Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Twentieth Century Fox. All things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling. This story is being written for fun and no profit is being made of it.
Summary: Slayers, resurrections, transdimensional travel, Druidic rituals. Just when Harry thought his life couldn't get any stranger.
Spoilers: Buffy: up through the ending of Chosen, then AU; Harry: up through Order of the Phoenix.
Author's Notes: Thanks go out in huge degrees to my beta, and good friend, Arieanna. Without her, this story would royally suck. Thanks, Arie! I highly recommend checking out her stories, especially Champion Industries, which can be found under her name here.
The End is Really the Beginning - Prologue
The fighting is going on strong. The girls, once potentials, now Slayers, fight with a zeal and a passion they had been missing before. In the second she has to look around, in between uber-vamps, Buffy finds herself filled with pride at how well they are doing. Then the second is over, and it was back to swing, strike, kill. She hears Spike says something behind her, but she is too focused to understand it. She calls out to the girls, "Keep the line together! Drive them to the edge! We can't let them do...."
Buffy breaks off in surprise, then looks down at the sword protruding from her abdomen. She stumbles forward and collapses to the ground, face-first. God, it hurt. She knows the scythe is needed, though, so she hands it off to Faith, who heads back into battle. She lies there, trying to catch her breath, wondering if this battle will be the end for her. Not that the end is anything new mind you; she has done it twice already, after all. She doesn't long for death anymore, as she had last year, but she isn't afraid of it either. Living isn't so bad, but there was definitely something to be said for eternal peace. For a moment, just a moment, she considers just lying there and letting death come. But then the First, being just like all other evil, decides it needs that last laugh.
"Oh no," the First looks down at Buffy's wound reflected on its body, "Oow! Mommy, this mortal wound is all...itchy. You pulled a nice trick. You came pretty close to smacking me down. What more do you want?"
'Taunting, my God, did everything evil just have to get that last word in?' Buffy thinks, setting her jaw. "I want you to get out of my face," she snarls at it, letting her anger and irritation with it flow through her, force her off the ground. Faith sees her up and grins, shaking her head. There wasn't much out there that could keep B down. Rona, holding the scythe, sees Buffy back up and quickly throws the weapon back to the original Slayer. Buffy catches it, and goes back to fighting, this time with a smile in place. They are gonna win, she can feel it.
Then Spike calls her name. The amulet she had given to him is sending off streams of light, hitting all parts of the cavern, disintegrating Turok Hans wherever it touches. The hellmouth shakes, and rocks and dirt began to fall. Several of the slayers let out screams of shock at the shaking.
Faith quickly yells, "Everybody out now!" and the girls run pell- mell for the stairs.
Buffy hurries to Spike's side. Spike looks at her in amazement, "I can feel it, Buffy!"
"Feel what?"
He smils at her, "My soul. Its really there. Kinda itches a little."
The amulet gets brighter by the moment, sending out rays of light into the hellmouth.
"Go on then," Spike tells Buffy.
"No," she shakes her head violently, "No. You've done enough. You could still..."
"No, you beat them back. It's for me to do the cleanup."
Faith stands on the stairs, waiting for Buffy, "Buffy, come on!"
Spike sends a grin at the blonde slayer, "Gotta move, lamb. I think its fair to say school's out for the bloody summer."
Buffy looks at him in disbelief. Dammit, they aren't supposed to lose anyone! "Spike!" she says.
"I mean it! I gotta do this!" he says, holding out a hand to stop her. The light shining out from the amulet increases by ten, practically blinding them. She knows he's right. This job is for him; she chose him for it. Tears in her eyes, she reaches out for his hand. She's not leaving him here without touching him one last time.
As their hands touch, the amulet sends out a giant shock wave of light, catching Buffy, and Faith, who is still standing on the stairs waiting for her sister slayer, in its path. Spike, beginning to disintegrate, yells out as Buffy is yanked away from him. He tries to find her, tries to move, hands reaching up to yank off the amulet, because Buffy always comes first, but it is too late and too bright and he is too far gone. As the light explodes out one more time, this time bringing the hellmouth, and all of Sunnydale down around him, he calls out one more time, "Buffy!" But there is nothing, no answer and then he is gone.
Buffy moaned, putting a hand to her head. "Did anybody catch the mack truck that hit me?" she quipped quietly as she opened her eyes. She blinked in surprise as she looked around and sat up quicker then she should have. Her head pounded, threatening to explode, but she shook off the pain, and climbed quickly to her feet. She can see Faith, standing at the edge of a cliff a few feet away, and went to her quickly, staring off at the landscape stretched in front of her. Faith glanced her way as she walked up.
"B, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Buffy had no response to this as she stared out across the bleak, barren plain laid out before her. It looked like a desert, with pools of lava, dark mountains and cliffs, dust flying everywhere. And on the plain below, though quite far in the distance, she saw the movement of demons, of all types and descriptions. She swallowed, eyes wide in disbelief, and flexed her hand around the comforting presence of the scythe she still held.
Faith, her face sharing the same worry and fear as Buffy's, looked over at the blonde slayer. "Where the hell are we?"
Buffy didn't take her eyes off the view before her, "I think hell is the key word. I think we've been pulled into hell."
