Author's Note: And here we go with the continuation of Darkness Falls. I hope I didn't make any of you wait too long, and that the wait has been worth it. :) Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and mentioned characters from the show are not mine, just borrowing them for a while. I promise I'll give 'em back when I'm done.
Darkness Falls Part II: Devil In The Gateway
"So, to put this into simpler words", Xander gave back, "Amy's possessed by the Devil now, and she's made Willow and Pat go evil." "Yes, afraid so", Giles sighed in reply, silence filling the room again afterwards – before Buffy spoke up, summing the situation up perfectly, using some rather saucy language no one ever had expected from her. "Long story short – we're fucked."
The kitchen was as silent as it could be after such gloomy events, the five people sitting around the dinner table just looking at each other; no one knew what to say about what they just had witnessed, and even though their minds were running wild, no one could come up with how this could be solved.
"So what do we do now?" Anya finally broke the silence, shifting on her chair uncomfortably when four pairs of eyes focused on her. "Well, we just can't sit around here and wait for something to happen", she added, even though she didn't have much of an idea what else they could do.
"Can we stop it? Or reverse it?" Buffy was the next one to speak up before the silence could settle over the group again, throwing Giles such a hopeful look that it nearly broke his heart when he had to shrug helplessly and had to watch that hope fade away.
"I'm not sure", he also voiced his insecurity, a dismayed sigh escaping him before he continued. "As I said, Amy… or the Devil inside her, it doesn't make much of a difference… she woke the dark parts of Willow and Pat, and I'm not sure if we can undo this, without Willow's magic."
"And in her current state, she won't be very willing to help", Buffy muttered – before she looked at Anya, new hope filling her eyes as she went on. "But you know how to do magic, too, right? I mean, you did that spell with Willow back then, when you brought her vampire alter ego into our world?"
"That wasn't the intention of the spell, though", Anya pointed out in reply, "and that was a much smaller spell! I don't think I can do such a big thing."
"Maybe Giles and you together?" the Slayer tried, her shoulders slumping when they both gave her an insecure look in reply. "Look, there has to be something we can do", she then almost snapped, rising from her chair so fast she nearly threw it over. "Who knows what Amy wants to do with them! And even if she only wants to use them for her cause, whatever it is, that's bad enough, because you know damn well I can't fight them… Not them."
She stared at the rest for a few more moments, then slumped back on her seat, taking in a deep breath; with a concerned look, Giles placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, making her look at him again, the Watcher holding her gaze as he spoke up, his voice low, but calming. "We'll figure something out. You know we always do."
After a moment, the Slayer nodded, returning his smile weakly; he patted her shoulder once more, then pulled his hand back, silence filling the room again as they once more tried to figure out how to deal with this unexpected turn of events.
As the door of the church flew open, Amy sat up on the altar where she had been resting, smiling seductively at the two women standing in the aisle; she gestured at them to come closer, and they did so, making their way to the altar and kneeling down in front of it, the sight making Amy's smile widen.
"Welcome", she greeted, getting up from the altar and standing in front of the two, looking down on them for a few seconds in silent triumph before she crouched as well, making Willow look at her by tilting her head up with two fingers, her smile growing even wider when she saw the darkness which was filling the redhead's eyes.
"This is amazing", she stated after just studying them for a while, coming to her feet again and moving around the two, giggling girlishly to herself as she looked them over. "The great, oh so powerful Willow Rosenberg, now my faithful servant… I knew this would pay off when I made that deal."
She giggled again, then moved back to the altar and sat down on it, dangling her feet as she ran both hands through her hair, for a moment appearing disturbingly like a little girl instead of the twenty-something young adult she was supposed to be.
"You know, now that I got you here, I'm not really sure what to do with you", she stated after a while, smiling to herself again. "I just wanted you around so Buffy would stay outta my way for a while, and give me time to reach my full potential. I bet right now, they are racking their brains trying to figure out how to draw you two guys back on their pathetic good side. Isn't this funny?"
She giggled again, then sighed, lying back down and looking up at the still smoke stained ceiling of the church. "I'm still tired from making you join me", she mumbled, all at once sounding as if she was halfway asleep already, "so let me get some rest… The rest of my… followers… are down in the cellar, go and join them. Make yourself acquainted with them."
"As you wish", Willow and Pat replied in perfect unison, coming to their feet again; together, they made their way to the back of the church where the door leading into the cellar was located while Amy closed her eyes, quickly drifting off into sleep, the small, satisfied smile never leaving her face.
The moment Giles had hung up the phone, Buffy stood beside him, looking at him with a mixture of curiousness and hope in her eyes; when the Watcher let out a sigh in reply, her face fell, quickly causing him to give her a reassuring smile before he placed a hand on her shoulder.
"So?" the Slayer demanded to know when he didn't speak up immediately, "what did the coven say?"
"They can't channel their energies to me from England, as I feared", he let her know, causing her to make a long face again, "but they already felt the disturbance when Amy's spell took effect, so they've been aware of the danger already when I called them. The one I spoke to will assemble the rest and they'll try to come up with something to help us, until then, we'll just have to be patient… And hope that Amy won't send Willow and Pat after us in the meantime."
With a small sigh, Buffy nodded, knowing that the Watcher was right; still the thought that she for now could only sit around and wait made her angry to the core, and she clenched her fists as she inwardly cursed Amy for the hundredth time.
"How could she do it?" she then asked, more to distract herself from her anger than out of real interest. "It must have taken a lot of strength to do this, so how could she? I thought you said she wasn't strong yet…"
"I'm not really sure", Giles back, sighing to himself again while he made his way to the living room with the Slayer, where Anya, Dawn and Xander were waiting, all of them looking rather gloomy as well. "This is the first time we're dealing with something like this", the elder man went on while he sat down, Buffy doing the same after a moment, holding back the urge to jump up and break something. "So, until the coven comes up with an idea how to help us, we should try to find out if there are ways for her to increase her power quicker, and put a stop to it. Maybe, if we manage to cut off her supply of power, we can break her hold on Willow and Pat easier, as well."
"And how are we supposed to find that out?" Anya demanded to know, frowning at the Watcher. "It's not like we can just walk up to her and ask her, right?"
"No, we can't", Giles sighed, removing his glasses and beginning to clean them, as always when something was bothering or upsetting him. "I'll look into it", he then added, "maybe there'll be some information in one of the books at the Magic Box."
"If you go there, I'm coming with you", Buffy immediately stated, making him look at her in surprise – normally, she avoided research as much as possible. "It'd be just like Amy to send Willow and Pat after us when we're not together, and pick us off one by one", the Slayer clarified, causing Xander and Anya to exchange a look – before they both volunteered to join the research team as well, to the obvious amusement of Giles, despite the seriousness of the whole situation.
"Let's go then", Buffy almost ordered, "we shouldn't waste any time. Dawn, you're coming, too."
"Of course", the teenager agreed at once, not sure if she should be giddy about the fact that Buffy finally was taking her along – or scared because she knew why her sister wouldn't let her stay at home alone.
With determination now on their faces, the rest nodded their approval as well, then all got up and grabbed their jackets; together, they left the house and soon were on the way to the Magic Box, each and every one of them thinking about what had been done to Willow and Pat – and what Amy might have in store for them, all of them hoping that they would be able to figure out a solution for their problem before it might be too late.
An hour had passed during which the only sound had been the noise created by several people turning the pages of the books in front of them, accompanied by a low thump every now and then when one book was replaced with another one; then, a sigh broke the silence, and they all looked up at the cause of that noise, Buffy holding their gaze as she sighed again.
"Is there even a remote chance we'll find anything?" she demanded to know, once more reminding Giles why he usually didn't insist on her joining the research – her patience just wasn't big enough for that kind of work.
"Yes, of course", he reassured her, "or else we wouldn't be searching. We just need a bit of patience, Buffy."
"Well I don't have patience", the Slayer stated the obvious, snapping her book shut and glaring at the Watcher, the elder man knowing her well enough by now though to figure out that this glare wasn't really caused by anger at him, but at herself, by the feelings of helplessness and uselessness which overcame her whenever she thought of the current situation.
"Two very close friends of mine are under the control of that devil-witch, or whatever she is now", Buffy went on, gnashing her teeth briefly as horrible images of torture unbidden came up in her mind, "and she is doing God knows what to them right now, so I don't see why I should be patient!"
"I sincerely doubt that Amy is harming them", Giles tried to reason, even though he knew it most likely would be in vain – he had seen Buffy in this particular aggravated state a few times already, and it usually ended with the Slayer throwing or smashing something before she could calm down again.
"Probably not", Anya threw in, probably trying to be helpful, but only succeeding with making Buffy's mood even fouler, "she's more likely gonna use them to fight you, so you'll have a hard time fighting back."
"Dammit!" Buffy snapped in reply, stopping her pacing for a moment – before she suddenly swiped one of the books off the table with enough force to send it flying all the way to the stairs close to the door, making the rest of the group jump.
"Buffy, please", Giles muttered, moving over to the book and kneeling down beside it to pick it up, "the books really… oh."
"Oh?" Buffy repeated, her anger puffing away as she suddenly felt curious. "Oh what?"
"Perhaps you should do this more often", Giles gave back while he picked up the book and turned it around so he could read it properly, glancing up the Slayer again afterwards. "This is just the information we wanted."
"Oh", Buffy replied, surprised as well, "I guess that's good then…?"
"More or less", the Watcher sighed out as he finished reading, snapping the book shut before he looked at the blonde again, his voice grave as he spoke on. "If I understand this correctly, she gained the power she needed to get control over Willow and Pat when you were killing those demons she sent to your house."
"So I can't kill demons anymore?" Buffy demanded to know, frowning, crossing her arms over her chest. "This just keeps getting better and better…"
"I'm not sure", the Watcher gave back, frowning as well while he pondered the words in the book. "It's impossible that all demons and vampires here are connected to her that way, not as long as her powers aren't fully developed. It's more likely that she chose those demons, built up the connection and then sent them to you, gaining more energy with every one of them you killed."
"Great", Buffy mumbled, shaking her head to herself, "then how do we know in the future if some demon or vamp isn't under the same spell, or whatever it is?"
"We don't", Giles bluntly replied, not really telling her what she had wanted to hear.
"That is not what I wanted to hear", she let him know, holding back the urge to throw another book, by now calmed down enough to know that the Watcher wouldn't approve, no matter what he had said a few minutes ago. "So every time I kill a demon or a vampire now, I have to worry that she gets stronger?"
"Essentially, yes", Giles sighed, "but all in all, it doesn't make much of a difference, I assume. It doesn't matter if she gains her strength through the death of her minions or simply by waiting, if we don't stop her in time, she'll grow too strong for us either way."
"Why doesn't she just kill off enough demons until she's at her fully loaded state?" Xander threw in, frowning to himself as he pondered his own question. "Wouldn't that make taking over the world and turning it into the Devil's playground much easier?"
"She can't absorb too much power at once, brain leakage, remember?" Anya answered him, making the rest grimace as they thought of brains leaking out of ears; shaking the image out of her mind, Buffy let out a sigh and sat back down, picking up yet another book with the air of someone resigned to several more hours of tiring research.
"Well", she stated as she opened the thick volume, "we better try to find out then if there is a way how to stop her without that spell you wanted Willow to do… And how we can get Willow and Pat back." Nodding, the others focused on their books again as well, silence once more settling over the Magic Box as they tried to find answers to the questions burning on their minds.