Part 6
#
The curator of the Sunnydale Museum was a patient and easygoing man. He never hurried, never let impatience of curiosity get the best of him. So it was that, even though his curiosity burned hot inside him, he didn't lay a finger on the huge stone monolith standing in front of him.
Workers had discovered it during excavations for a new housing project, buried deep underground. Preliminary dating estimated that it had been there for at least a thousand years, probably more. It was old, very old, and there was no telling what secrets it might contain.
The curator had wanted to consult Rupert Giles, one of the most notable experts on archeological curiosities in the known world, but had only been told that Mr. Giles was on an extended leave of absence from work due to some sort of personal tragedy. They were waiting for another expert on this, one who was due to fly in from New York within the next two days.
Unfortunately for everyone said expert would never lay an eye on this monolith. And the curator had about two or three seconds to realize that the stone seemed to be whispering to him when he found himself grabbed by two strong hands, a sharp pain slashing into his neck a moment later.
He knew nothing else.
#
"There was a break-in at the museum." Giles said, putting down the receiver. "The curator is dead and only one thing was stolen. A stone monolith recently unearthed near Sunnydale."
"Akathler." Kendra said, looking worried.
"Run that by me again!" Buffy looked at her sister Slayer, then her Watcher. "You both pale at that name. What is it?"
"Akathler is a demon, Buffy, created many thousand years ago. His sole purpose is to raze the Earth and consign all non-demon life to eternal torment in Hell. With an intake of breath he can create a portal that will grow into a vortex. According to lore it will then sweep across the Earth, burn the land into ash, and suck all living things into the fire."
"To Hell in a handbasket." Buffy muttered. "Or an ugly demon in this case. What can we do?"
"Well," Giles looked at the book in front of him, as well as the notes Kendra had brought from her own Watcher, "it appears that, before Akathler could fulfill his mission, he was impaled by a knight with an enchanted sword. He then turned to stone. To awaken him..."
"Pull out the sword?" Buffy guessed.
"Simply put, yes. There is a ritual involved, otherwise the sword can not be removed. But once it is..."
His voice trailed off.
"We can't afford to wait then." Angela said, almost forgotten as she had listened to everything that was said. "Angelus will not hesitate to unleash this creature. It will wipe out all that ails him in one swoop."
She remembered how much she ... he had distained all things human, though he had not been consistent in that dislike, seeing as he had liked to surround herself with human luxuries. But this new Angelus, wanting nothing more than to rid himself of all things human, would consider this demon the best gift ever sent to him.
They had to stop him. Now.
"Don't even think what I think you're thinking!" Buffy warned her.
"Buffy..."
"No, Buffy is correct in this case." Giles said. "Even if we do ... kill Angelus by ... you know, it will leave the demon in the hands of Drusilla. I have little doubt what she would do with him."
He was right, Angela realized. Drusilla would certainly love to unleash Akathler upon the world, even more so if said world had taken her 'daddy' away from her. Spike now, he wasn't the kind to destroy the world. He loved it too much. After three months of Angelus back in charge, though, she doubted that Spike still held a lot of influence in the household.
"We have to find them." Kendra said. "My Watcher gave me another sword, blessed the same way as the one that still impales the creature. Should worst come to worst it should be able to ban him again. I think."
She took the blade from her sports bag, the metal gleaming in the overhead lights.
"Let us hope it won't come to that." Giles muttered, rubbing his tired eyes. "Angela, I realize how much this is asking of you, but ..."
"The best way to stop Angelus from unleashing Akathler is to reunite us." She finished the sentence, looking down. "I figured that out."
The look of joy on Buffy's face was cut short by the pure misery she saw on Angela's features.
"Can we?" Buffy asked Willow, who was still studying Ms. Calendar's notes over by the table. "Can we just say some magic words and have them back together?"
Willow shook her head.
"There are some notes here at the end, dated the night she was attacked. It's a spell she thinks could do the trick, but apparently both Angela and Angelus would have to be in touching distance for this."
"That still leaves us with the problem of how to find him."
#
Spike had heard enough. This demon would suck the world into Hell, people and all. Would leave nothing but a burnt-out wasteland here on Earth while everyone hightailed it to demon country, where a vampire like him would be pretty much near the bottom of the food chain.
If Angelus let him live that long, that was.
He had to do something and fast. Dru certainly wouldn't help him. She would go along with whatever insanity Angelus cooked up, even if it were to mean her own death. He had screwed her up so much she would never go against him.
He needed help from some other corner. Someone who hated Angelus every bit as much as he did. Someone who would see him dead.
Angelus seemed to have forgotten all about him ever since this whole big demon thing had come up, allowing Spike to build up his strength. Not nearly enough to fight, but enough to break out of the room where Angelus had left him and reach a phone.
#
"Sunnydale High School Library, Mr. Giles speaking." Giles answered the phone.
Buffy looked up sharply as he gasped, holding the receiver away as if he was handling a poisonous snake.
"What is it, Giles?" She asked, worried.
Giles looked at Angela. "It's for you. Apparently... the caller says he is Spike."
Angela frowned, but moved forward to take the phone from Giles.
"Spike?" She asked.
"Hello, poof." His unmistakable voice sounded in her ear. "How is life as a human going these days?"
"Much better than yours, I'd wager." She replied, forcing herself to remain calm and collected. "I am certain Angelus was not gentle with you upon his return to the family."
There was a short silence at the other end that confirmed her suspicions.
"Let us say, we have different opinions on how things should be run." Spike said eventually. "Especially concerning a certain world-swallowing demon. Does that sound familiar?"
"It certainly does."
"Well then. You might want to send your spunky Slayer friend to the old mansion in Crawford Street then. Your better half is preparing to unleash all sorts of juicy Hell as we speak, darling."
Angela was almost tempted to just slam down the phone and forget about it. After everything Spike had done to her, helping him in any way was the last thing she wanted. There was the fate of the world to consider, though. Not something to just forget about.
"I will tell her, Spike." Angela said after a moment. "You might want to do what you can on your end to make sure she doesn't face too much opposition."
#
Spike put down the phone, feeling a lot better. The Slayer would take care of the poof and the big stone dude. He just had to make sure that Drusilla got away clean and then things would be like they had been before. Just the two of them.
Oh yes, things would be good.
"Naughty Spike." Drusilla's voice sounded out behind him. "Look at the mess you've made."
Or maybe not.
-----------------------------------------
Part 7
#
"Okay, here is the plan!" Buffy said after learning what Spike had told Angela. "I will go to this address Spike gave us."
"You mean we will." Kendra interrupted her.
"No, I need you here. This could be a trap after all. You stay here and protect Angela, Willow, and Giles while they try to figure out this spell. Once you have done that you come to join me at this mansion. If I haven't brought Angelus here by then, that is."
"You can't beat him alone, Buffy." Angela reminded her. "Remember, he has grown a lot stronger."
"I don't have to beat him. Only make him come after me until the two of you are close together. Two Slayers should be able to hold him down then. At least until we do the spell."
Angela looked away, clearly not comfortable with the idea of being reunited with the demon. Was it even necessary still? If they knew where Akathler was they could destroy it before either Angelus or Drusilla could unleash the demon. She wouldn't need to let that monster back inside.
No need to tell that to Buffy right now, though.
"What if he's in the middle of unleashing that demon?" Xander asked from the sidelines. "He might not be inclined to run after you if he's busy bringing about the end of the world."
"In that case I might have to do something radical to get his attention. Like burning down that mansion. Don't worry, I'll find a way."
The others nodded, not really happy with the plan, but seeing no better way either. Angela walked towards Buffy, every step now an effort, and placed her hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Please be careful, Buffy." She said, looking her into the eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
The Slayer just nodded, squeezing Angela's hand in return. Soon, she resolved inside herself. Once this was all over with and done she would spend time with Angela and they would figure out what they were to each other. Although Buffy already had a very strong suspicion of what it was she felt for the former and hopefully (though that was a strange word to use in this case) future vampire.
"I'll be back soon." She promised, then turned toward the door.
"Wait!" Kendra stepped in front of her. "If you get into trouble, well ...," she took an intricately carved stake out from under her jacket, "take my lucky stake along. I slayed many vampires with this one. It's called Mr. Pointy."
Buffy looked at her. "You have named your stake?"
Kendra nodded shyly.
"I think I'll have to get you a stuffed toy before you leave." She smiled, taking the stake from Kendra's hand.
With another smile she was gone.
"To work then!" Giles sighed. "We have a spell to figure out."
#
Buffy slowly made her way closer to the mansion ahead of her. It was a scary place, that much she knew. Willow and her had passed it by a few times and the redhead had told her the numerous ghost stories about this supposedly haunted house. About all the monsters that were said to dwell there.
Right now, though, Buffy was interested in but one of the monsters living here.
"I thought you'd never come." A voice sounded out behind her. "The end of the world wouldn't be the same without you here."
Buffy froze the moment she heard him speak, turning around as if in slow motion. There he stood, only a few meters away from her, grinning from ear to ear. His fangs flashed in the moonlight.
"Won't happen, Angelus!" She told him, drawing Mr. Pointy from within her coat.
"Oh, Buff." He sighed. "Aren't we past that stage already? I mean, haven't you realized by now how futile this all is? You can't defeat me. Maybe you could have beaten the old me. You know, that disgusting female vampire with a soul? The one that lusted after you every chance she got? You might have taken her down. Boy, she would have enjoyed that even."
He walked closer, supremely confident.
"But I'm not your sweet Angela, Buff. I'm the real deal. And, well, I think before I send this entire sorry world to hell, I'll take the time to you kill you."
"You're welcome to try!"
Angelus attacked!
#
"I think we've got it!" Giles said, taking the latest computer printout Willow had produced. "With some minor modifications to Jenny's spell we should be able to merge you back together."
Angela took the printout from his hands, looking at the words written there. The words that would doom her.
"Is distance still a factor?" She asked him.
"Uh, yes. While this spell won't actually require you two to touch each other, you still have to be close. The same room at the least. You will have to say the spell out loud."
She nodded, closing her eyes. This was it, then. Her one-way ticket back to damnation. She just hoped she wouldn't have to use it. If they could reach Akathler without reuniting her with Angelus ... she folded the piece of paper together and put it into her pocket. With any luck she would never have to take it out again.
"Then let's go catch up with Buffy." Willow said, gathering her things together. "By now she'll be facing Angelus all by her lonesome."
"Let's go then." Giles said, nodding to Kendra. The second Slayer was ready for action and anxious to do something.
At that same moment the doors flew open and a dozen vampires entered the library, led by Drusilla. The mad vampiress had a broad smile on her face.
"Look!" She giggled, excited. "Such pretty humans, all in a row."
#
Angelus shoved Buffy away, but made no move to follow up. She rolled back to her feet again, glaring at him.
"Is it me or aren't you really trying?" Angelus sighed. "Half the time I think you're about to run away."
Buffy was breathing hard. He had gotten stronger still, her hardest blows barely affected him. Would a stake through the heart still do the trick even? Not that she had any plans of killing him. Not as long as there was still a chance to save Angela.
"No running away tonight." She told him.
"Oh, really? And here I thought you would try something tricky. Like, oh, I don't know, try and lure me away from Akathler. Maybe get me to follow you back to your friends, who are, no doubt, preparing some kind of trap for me back at the library."
Buffy barely succeeded at keeping her poker face. Did he know something? Had Spike betrayed them? He seemed to have known she was coming, had been out here waiting for her.
"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked.
"I'm talking about your friends, Buff. The ones you left back at the library. All alone. Defenseless."
She heard the tone of his voice, saw his widening grin, and she knew. Without a second thought she turned her back on him and started sprinting back toward the school.
"You really should know better than to trust someone like Spike, Buff." She heard his voice, taunting after her. "I thought I taught you better than that."
#
The distance towards the school seemed to grow with every step she took, the seconds dragging by with agonizing slowness. Hours seemed to have passed by the time she finally reached the school, barreling past the entrance doors without slowing down. Silence hung over the school. Complete silence.
She burst through the library doors and skidded to a stop, the world around her one giant freeze frame.
Kendra! Motionless on the floor before her, lying in a puddle of blood. The table overturned, books scattered everywhere. Xander! Up between the collapsed stacks, not moving either. Nothing was moving, everything was still.
Still as death.
Without quite knowing how she got there Buffy found herself besides Kendra, looking down at her sister Slayer. Her throat was slashed, her open eyes staring at the ceiling with that look of supreme disinterest only the departed managed. Buffy felt her breathing accelerate, cold sweat breaking out on her brow, unable to tear her eyes away from those eyes.
This was her fault. She had failed them all. All of them. Where were the others? Willow? Giles? Angela?
"Freeze!" Someone yelled at her, causing her to look up and directly into the barrel of a gun.
-----------------------------------------
Part 8
#
Buffy looked up and straight into the barrel of a gun, not comprehending what she saw for many a moment.
A cop? In Sunnydale? She wasn't sure she had ever seen a cop before in this city. Certainly not at a crime scene. Sunnydale's Finest had developed the very healthy habit of staying away from all the things that went screaming in the night. What was a cop doing here?
"Get up!" The cop yelled at her. "Hands over the head!"
Slowly Buffy rose, the entire scene completely surreal. Maybe she was dreaming. None of this was really happening, it had to be a dream. A dream where Kendra was dead. Maybe Xander. All the others. Where were the others?
A second cop came in, kneeling down beside Kendra.
"This one's dead." She pronounced.
"What about the boy?" The first cop nodded toward Xander.
This had to be a nightmare. It just had to be. Because of this was really happening, then... it had to be a nightmare. There wasn't any alternative.
"Call the paramedics!" The second cop said. "And take the girl out!"
Buffy found herself dragged out of the library, too dazed to resist. She could clearly feel the cop's rough grip on her forearm. Did that mean this was real? Had Angelus' vampires really come here while she was busy fighting a futile fight against him? Sure, it made sense, a detached part of her mind said. Spike had betrayed them. Had she really expected anything else? And it also made sense that they had arranged for the cops to be here just in time to... in time to... God, did they think she had done this?
She planted her feet down, refusing to be dragged any further.
"Please let me check on my friends!" She told the cop, pleading with her eyes.
"You're coming with me to the station." He just said, attempting to drag her further. At that moment another man came around the corner. Principal Snyder.
"Summers." He sighed.
"You know this girl?" The cop inquired.
"Buffy Summers. If there's trouble then she's to blame." He stated.
Buffy's temper exploded as the reality of the situation hit her. Kendra was dead. Maybe the others as well. And Angelus was still out there, ready to launch the end of the world.
"You little idiot!" She spat at Snyder. "You have no idea what's going on here."
"Violent tendencies." Snyder just said with a satisfied smile. "She's a troublemaker."
"Please!" Buffy turned toward the cop again. "I just want to know whether my friends are..."
"That's enough!" He spun her around, taking out a pair of cuffs. "You have the right to..."
She couldn't allow herself to be arrested, Buffy realized. Not now! Angelus had to be stopped, no matter what. Without another thought she elbowed the cop right in the face, bringing him down with a follow-up kick to the belly. He collapsed to the floor and Buffy started running past a very surprised Snyder.
She dimly heard the other cop behind her, screaming for her to stop or else.
#
The first thing Angela became aware of was the cold that had spread through her body. It had started a few days ago, a chill that worked its way through her flesh. A chill she knew all too well. Liam had felt it all these years ago when a beautiful vampire's fangs had sunk into his throat and torn the warmth from his body.
The chill of the grave. She was dying. Quickly.
She was also hurting quite a bit. She dimly remembered vampires storming into the library, too many of them for Kendra to fight. Xander had tried to defend her and Willow, as had Giles, but they had both gone down as creatures much stronger than they had overwhelmed them. She was quite sure that Cordelia had managed to flee.
There was a brief image of Drusilla fighting Kendra before the world had gone black.
"Someone's coming awake." She heard a familiar voice whisper close by.
Angela became aware that she was standing. Or hanging, rather, suspended by her wrists, the cold of a concrete wall against her back. Cold metal bit into her wrists and she felt the barest trickle of warm blood down her arms from where her wrists had been chaffed open. Blood that wasn't nearly as warm as it should be.
For a living human being, that was.
Angela finally opened her eyes and looked directly into her own face. The face she remembered having. A long time ago.
"Welcome home, my dear." Angelus said. "What do you think? Wouldn't old Freud have a field-day with this kind of situation? Here we are, the one of us. Isn't it great?"
She blinked, trying to get her rapid heartbeat back under control. He was here. The demon she had thought forever gone from her mind. So close, she could feel his dead breath on her face. He stank of blood and death. His face was twisted by the demon features. She had never seen herself like this, of course, but something was wrong with that. There seemed barely any humanity left in that face.
Which was very true, she realized, remembering what Willow had told them but a few hours ago. Or maybe longer. No telling how long she had been unconscious.
"Nothing to say?" Angelus asked, a mocking sadness on his face. "I was so looking forward to having my inner monologues out loud with you. Well, not really. Actually I was looking forward to killing you."
Angela swallowed hard, the cold inside her only intensifying with the fear she felt. She didn't trust her voice, so she didn't say anything. Instead she looked around.
They were in a large room, looking like the insides of an old mansion. The mansion in Crawford street? Had Spike told her the truth about that at least? She realized that her childe (no, HIS childe!) must have betrayed her.
A huge stone statue stood in the center of the room. Angelus followed her gaze and smiled.
"Oh yes. Akathler! Nice fellow. Even harder to wake up than you, though. It's been bugging me, you know? I already tried to unleash him, but the ritual didn't work. Must have done something wrong."
"Tough luck!" Angela whispered, surprised at herself.
"Yes, isn't it?" Angelus smiled, content that there seemed to be some fire left in his human half. "But we're not the type to despair, are we? Or rather I'm not. You despaired for a century when you were in control, didn't you? Thankfully I'm over that. I'm over you. And I got professional help for my little demon problem."
He gestured at something to her right and Angela spotted Giles, tied to a chair not ten feet away from her.
"Giles!" She yelled, impotently pulling at her chains with what little strength she had left.
The Watcher was awake, but just barely. His skin was covered with bruises and cuts, his glasses broken. Blood was trickling down his face from a big gash on his forehead.
"Don't worry about him!" Angelus smiled. "He will live longer than you. After all, it's only fair that he should live to see what he will help me achieve. Akathler's awakening. He will see as he swallows the world."
"N-never!" The Watcher stammered. "I'll ... never ..."
"Stubborn fellow, isn't he?" Angelus' smile never wavered. "I already tortured him a bit. Nothing spectacular. Nothing grotesque, either. I'm sure you remember everything that we liked to do in the good old days. Too bad they didn't have chainsaws back then, right?"
Angela was almost frozen with fear, but one thing remained crystal-clear in her mind. Angelus clearly planned to kill her. He would probably want to make it slow and have his fun doing it, but he would kill her.
And once he did, he would die as well.
"Get it over with, Angelus!" She said in as steady a voice as she could manage. "Rid yourself of your humanity! Isn't that what we always wanted to do?"
The demon moved closer until their forehead's touched.
"I see we still understand each other. That's good. I'd hate to think I can't get along with myself. Come to think of it, I can't get along with you. So I think I'll just kill you."
Moving away a bit, he took a sharp knife from a nearby table. The blade glinted in the light of the flames roaring in the old fireplace. Angela bit back a whimper. No matter what he did to her, he would feel it as well. And he would die, too. Everything else didn't matter.
"Feel free to scream!" He said, leaning closer.
We will both scream before this is over, Angela thought with the barest hint of a smile on her lips as he moved the knife closer. She would drag him down into hell with her.
-----------------------------------------
Part 9
#
Sneaking into the hospital wasn't easy, there were a lot of cops around, but with a little Slayer stealth and some assist by Xander she managed to make it to Willow's room. The redhead was lying in the bed, pale as the sheets, hooked up to some kind of machinery.
Buffy balled her fists, tears leaking from her eyes. That was the second of her friends the bastard had put into the hospital. He would pay for that. Somehow she would make him pay.
"The doctors say she could wake up every moment," Xander said, a cast on his arm where a vampire had broken it, "but the longer she stays asleep..."
His voice trailed off. Buffy shook her head, dispelling the need to just collapse on the floor and weep. There was no time for that now. Not now. She needed to be strong until this was over. One way or the other.
"Where are the others?" She asked Xander, wiping the tears away with her sleeve. "Angela, Giles, Cordelia. Where are they?"
"Cordy managed to escape through the stacks." Xander looked down. "I ... I don't know about the others. When I was knocked out Giles was still fighting. I didn't see much of Angela."
Calm! Buffy told herself. Remain calm! Angelus wanted Angela dead, she knew that, but her body hadn't been at the library. That meant that she had either gotten away or been captured. There was a chance she was still alive.
'And as long as she lives, so will Angelus!' Her inner voice said.
"The spell!" She remembered. "What about the spell? Did Giles and Willow find anything before..."
"They did." Xander nodded. "Willow said ... I think she said that Angela will have to read the spell out loud while being in the same room with Angelus. She ... she wrote it down on a piece of paper."
"What happened to it?"
"I don't know, Buffy. That was right when the vampires attacked us and we all got very busy just staying alive."
Buffy sighed, trying to think of something to do now. If Spike hadn't been a complete liar then she knew where Angelus was holed up, but what did that avail her? She couldn't beat him one on one, she knew that by now. Kendra was dead and ...
Oh God! Kendra was dead!
Pulling herself away from the edge of despair she returned to her list of options, shutting out all other emotions. She had no backup. Xander was hurt. Giles and Angela were gone. Willow was ... asleep. Would wake up soon! Just asleep! Anyway, that left exactly no one.
'You just need to kill Angela and Angelus will die as well!'
"Stop that!" She yelled out loud, startling Xander.
"What...?"
"Nothing, sorry. What can I do, Xander? Everything has gone wrong."
He sat down on the edge of Willow's bed, looking very tired.
"I hate to say this, Buffy, but to me it looks like the only thing we can do is hope that Angelus ... that he will try and ... kill Angela before he unleashes that demon dude. If he does ..."
"I won't accept that!" She interrupted him.
"The spell is gone, Buffy!" Xander reminded her. "The vamps wrecked the computer Willow had Ms. Calendar's notes on. Willow is ... and God alone knows whether Angela is even capable of saying anything out loud anymore, much less pronounce a complicated spell."
"Shut up!" She shook her head. "Shut the hell up!"
Xander did, too tired and distraught to turn this into a fight. Buffy paced the length of the room, trying to think of something to do. She couldn't just wait for either the world to end or finding out that Angelus had ... she had to do something.
"I'm going back to the library." Buffy resolved. "Kendra ... she had that second magic sword. Maybe that will help me some."
"I told the cops what happened when I woke up." Xander said. "I think they're still looking for you, though. Assault on a police officer or something."
"I didn't have time to fool around." She just said. "Watch Willow for me, okay?"
"Looks like there's nothing else I can do." He nodded.
#
The sharp blade caught the light from the roaring fire as it descended on her flesh and Angela bit her teeth together. There was a risk in this. Angelus intended to kill her slowly. If the bond between them was still strong enough for him to feel the wounds as he inflicted them on her, if he figured out that...
The blade sliced along her chest and drew blood. Angela hissed in pain, just managing to keep from screaming. God! She had forgotten how much being human hurt. The phantom pains she had received from Angelus across the bond hadn't been half as real.
She heard a low growl from Angelus.
"I know this is hurting." He whispered into her ear. "Believe me, I feel your pain!"
Did he? She opened her eyes and searched his naked chest for a wound mirroring the one he had just inflicted on her. There was a faint scar there, she saw. It looked like a wound that had been inflicted months ago, almost healed. Before her eyes the scar vanished completely, the vampire's skin once again smooth and flawless.
It seemed he hadn't noticed a thing. Good!
"You know I won't kill you until you scream." Angelus whispered. "We never did, did we? We always wanted to hear them scream. So why are you making this hard on yourself? Scream for me, Angela!"
He sliced the knife across her stomach, the wound just deep enough to draw blood without doing any serious damage. Angela hissed and bit her bottom lip.
"Then again," Angelus shrugged, "we have barely started."
Again a faint scar appeared on his own flesh, disappearing almost as quickly as it had come. Angela managed half a smile. He didn't feel it. He was too much a demon already, these slight wounds not even noticeable.
She knew his methods. They were her own, after all. He would keep inflicting small but painful wounds until she screamed for him. Then he would inflict some more. But nothing serious, nothing even close to lethal, until she begged him for death. Then he would kill her in one stroke. Drink her blood or simply break her neck.
Which would mean his own doom. He just didn't know it yet.
"Are you planning on boring me to death?" She asked him, smiling. Time to escalate things.
Angelus' eyes sparkled with rage and pleasure.
"No, my dear!" He grazed her cheek with his fangs. "Boredom will not be what you die of, I assure you."
It took another four cuts to make her scream.
#
Rupert Giles was still tied to a chair, trying to ignore his abused body and the pain that surged through him in never-ending waves. He was a Watcher and a Watcher was trained for such happenings as well. Many creatures of the night knew about the Watchers, knew that they held a lot of knowledge about all things arcane. Watchers had been kidnapped before in order to make use of their accumulated knowledge.
Watchers were trained to withstand torture until given the opportunity to escape or take their own life. Unfortunately for Rupert Giles neither of these options was feasible at the moment and he found that he was rapidly reaching his limits. He didn't know whether he would be able to withstand another round of torture at Angelus' hands.
Someone was screaming. A female voice. Angela? Was that monster harming Angela now? If so, the cold and clinical part of him said, he was sealing his own fate.
"Rupert!" A voice whispered, close to his ear. He knew that voice.
"Jenny?" He said, not believing that she could be here. "Jenny, are you...?"
She slipped into his field of vision, whole and healthy as he remembered her. How was this possible? He had seen her just yesterday, still in the hospital. She couldn't be here, could she? This had to be a dream.
"Shhh!" She put her finger on his lips. "We must be careful! The others are here as well. We'll get you out of here."
Giles' eyes lit with hope. Jenny was awake again. The others were here to rescue them. Angelus would be defeated.
"Has he already done anything with Akathler?" Jenny asked as she started working on his bonds.
"No, no! He tried, but ... he doesn't know. We ... we must get him away from Akathler."
"Why? Can Angelus free him?"
"He ... his blood, it's ... if he tries and pulls out the sword with his blood on his hand ..."
"That would unleash Akathler?" She asked him.
"Yes! We ... we must get him away from ..."
"Everything will be all right, Rupert!" She stopped working on his bonds and leant down to kiss him. "Everything will be all right."
Angelus smiled as he heard Giles' words. Turning toward Angela, taking in her beautiful, blood-soaked appearance and the look of pain on her face, he couldn't resist laughing out loud.
"Did you hear that, my dear?" He asked her, roaring with laughter. "It looks like Drusilla has not lost her touch. Soon we will put things to an end."
When Giles looked up he found not Jenny's face, but that of the mad vampire Drusilla. Horror spread on his face as he realized what he had just done.
"I liked the kiss." Dru whispered to him.
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Part 10
#
She was two blocks away from the mansion where Angelus and Drusilla were holed up. Two blocks away from a demon that would soon destroy the world unless she found someway to stop him from being awakened. Two blocks away from the man who was closer to her than her own father and the woman ... man ... whatever, for whom she felt more strongly than she could ever explain. She didn't know whether they were both still alive. She just had to go these last two blocks, enter the mansion, and find out.
In a minute.
Buffy was leaning against the wall of a building, her face buried in her hands, pushing against the dark abyss of despair that was threatening to overwhelm her. How could everything have gone wrong so very quickly? How could her entire life just collapse in so short a time?
She had gone back to school to get Kendra's sword and had run into Snyder, who had informed her with a diabolical smile on his face that, even should she be cleared of charges, she was out of his school. Not that she really cared much about that right at that moment. And the look of fear on his face when she walked past him with the sword in hand almost made up for everything that stupid little dwarf had done to her these past two years.
Then she went home. And everything had gone wrong.
Her mother had been visited by the police, who had told her their version of what had happened in the library. Had told her that a girl was dead, two more people injured, and that her daughter was believed to be the culprit.
Looking into her mother's eyes Buffy knew that Joyce believed that it could be true. She actually believed that her daughter could have done something like that.
Buffy hadn't had the time or the patience to explain everything to her, not trusting herself not to say something terrible and hurting. But then a vampire had attacked her right on her front lawn, one of Angelus' people, and she had been forced to stake him in front of her mother's eyes.
There was no time, she kept repeating to herself, I had no time to explain it all to her. Joyce hadn't been satisfied with that, though, had refused to listen to the few short words Buffy had said while gathering more weapons from her room. Some part of Buffy kept telling her that it had been too much for her mother, too much revelations in too short a time. That she hadn't meant the things she had said.
That she hadn't meant it when she said that Buffy should never ever come back.
Swallowing the sob building in her throat Buffy forced herself back to her feet. If she started crying now she would not be able to stop. She would collapse into a sobbing wreck while the world ended just two blocks away. No time for that now. Not while there might still be some people left who depended on her, who needed her.
Who loved her.
Buffy stood on more or less steady legs, grabbed her dead sister's sword, and started walking the two blocks.
"Hey, kid!" A voice behind her suddenly called out. Buffy whirled around to see a short, stocky man in a dingy jacket and a funny hat standing there.
"Who are you?" She snarled, no time for pleasantries.
"Whistler." He simply said.
She looked at him a moment longer, then turned away again. He wasn't human, her Slayer sense told her that much, but she was really not in the mood to deal with any kind of boogaboo right now except for the ones that awaited her in the old mansion.
"Knock yourself out, Whistler!" She told him as she walked away. "My Slayer card is full for the night."
"I first met your pal Angela about three years ago."
The words were in conversational tone, but caused Buffy to freeze on the spot.
"Found her in New York." He continued. "She was living in filth, drowning in her own misery. I told her that the only way she would ever be able to repay her sins was by doing something, not by suffering in silence."
Buffy turned around to look at him.
"When she was recovered from starving herself for decades," Whistler had walked up to her, "I sent her here to Sunnydale. To the newly called Slayer."
"You sent her here?" Buffy whispered.
"We knew you would need help, kiddo. Chosen as the Slayer, but not trained for it from birth. Destined to face more world-class menaces than most Slayers before you. Standing guard over the Mouth of Hell. We figured you could use someone to watch your back. Someone who wanted to redeem herself."
Shock quickly gave way to anger and Buffy grabbed Whistler, throwing him into the nearest wall.
"Did you know this would happen?" She snarled into his face. "Was that why you sent her here? So Angelus would return and destroy the world?"
"We never counted on that happening." He said, making no move to defend himself. "The future is fluid, kid, no one can predict what's to come with a hundred percent success rate. We didn't figure on mad Dru here spinning some mojo that would unleash Angela's old self."
Buffy let him go, but was fully prepared to hit him again any moment now.
"We knew Akathler was destined to resurface around this time," Whistler said, drawing his wrinkled jacket back into place, "but I figured Angela would help destroy him. Maybe earn her redemption that way."
"And now?" Buffy asked, her right hand gripping the sword tighter.
"Now everything's going to hell. Angelus will unleash Akathler to destroy the world. He's becoming a pure demon, completely insane and ruthless. By now he knows how to do it, too. The only question is whether he will do that first or give preference to killing his human half before ending the world. If he does he will die, of course, but then Drusilla will take up the reigns and wake up the demon in his stead."
"How?" Buffy asked forcefully. "If you're so all-knowing, tell me how! How will they awaken Akathler? How can I stop it?"
Whistler sighed. "It's pretty easy, actually. Someone has to draw the sword from the stone, someone whose hand has his or her own blood on it. That's all there is to it, really. And once it's done, once Akathler is awake and starts creating that vortex of his..."
He glanced down at the sword Buffy held. "Should that happen, the only way to stop it is to take the sword that impaled Akathler, or its twin you have here, and use it on the one who awakened him in the first place."
"Use it to kill Angelus, you mean." Buffy asked, the coldness of her voice chilling her down to her soul.
"If he's the one opening it, yes."
Buffy closed her eyes. Killing Angelus! God, how she wanted to do that. But she couldn't. It would kill Angela, too.
"I know what you're thinking, kid." Whistler said. "But there is no way around it. Angela and Angelus are one. What happens to one will happen to the other. Right now Angelus has come very close to killing Angela and ..."
Her eyes snapped open, looking at them. "And you couldn't tell me that sooner?"
She started running toward the mansion at full speed.
"You can't beat him one on one, kid!" Whistler yelled after her. "He's grown too strong to be defeated. You have to ..."
She drowned out his words, fully knowing what he would say. The only option left, the only one she could see.
The only way to defeat Angelus.
"Never!" She swore to herself. "I'll find another way!"
Only she had no idea what that other way might be.
TO BE CONTINUED