CHAPTER SEVEN - DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES
Buffy was dreaming.
She was standing in a large underground cavern, filled with the sound of running water. An unearthly, cold white light flooded the centre of the cavern, where a man dressed in black was standing with his back to her. Standing around him in a circle, hidden in the shadows, she could sense a crowd of people, completely still and silent. Suddenly Drusilla appeared at her side.
"You can't kill him, you know," she said conversationally.
"Why not?" Buffy asked.
Drusilla looked into her eyes. "Because you don't have the courage." With a malicious smile, she walked away, moving among the crowd that Buffy could sense but not see.
"She's right, you know." Buffy turned. Willow was standing just behind her. "You don't have the spirit." Willow reached out and took Buffy's hands in her own. "It takes two, you see." She pulled Buffy round so they were both looking at the man bathed in the harsh light. As Buffy watched, he began to turn round, until she could see his face. She had never seen him before, but there was something familiar about him. As she watched, his face began to change, sinking in on itself, grotesque and misshapen, and with a shock of recognition she realised that she was looking at the Master.
He began to walk towards her, and she pushed Willow behind her, taking up a fighting stance.
"Buffy, you can't …" she heard Willow say behind her, but she ignored her, tuning out her voice and focussing on the figure approaching her.
He was close enough now, and she lashed out with a punch that would disable him. But, to her horror, her arms wouldn't move … she was helpless as he took hold of her head between his two hands and twisted …
She woke with a gasp of air, shuddering.
"You're ok, you're ok." Spike was crouched by the sofa, pushing a sweat-dampened strand of hair off her forehead. She noticed that someone had draped a blanket over her at some point while she slept, and she pulled it up to her chin, still shivering from the after-effects of her nightmare. Was it a nightmare? Or one of those prophetic dreams? She couldn't think about it just yet. She shoved the memory to the back of her mind, and allowed herself to be calmed by Spike's gentle stroking of her hair.
"Thanks," she murmured, looking into the eyes so close to her own. Their gazes held and tangled for a long minute, and the wild thought rushed into Buffy's mind - what would he do if I kissed him? She wrenched her eyes away, and Spike moved away, standing and stretching.
Buffy sat up, also working the kinks out of her back. "What time is it?"
"Eleven," Giles replied from behind her. She twisted to face him. One by one, the Scoobies were filing down from up stairs, yawning and stretching. Alison came last, looking exhausted but calm. "Were you having a dream, Buffy?"
She nodded hesitantly. "I think so. I'm not sure. Let it simmer for a while, 'kay?"
Her Watcher nodded. She often found her Slayer dreams too intense to deal with straight away. Giving her an hour or so to recover usually did the trick.
He turned his attention to Alison instead. She had roused them all a few minutes ago, telling them that she had received some useful information from Drusilla and they needed to talk.
Soon, everyone was gathered in the lounge area. Only Dru was absent, resting at Alison's insistence.
"Right." Giles kicked the meeting off. "Alison, what have you been able to find out from Drusilla?"
"Quite a bit. She told me about what is planned by the Order of Aurelius and how they will open the Hellmouth. She has also given me an idea of how it can be stopped." She paused. "How much do you know about the Order of Aurelius?"
Everyone round the table looked at each other. No one volunteered anything. Finally, Angel spoke up.
"Not very much. Darla was into all that, but it wasn't my thing."
"Well, Drusilla explained a bit more about it," Alison said. "The Order of Aurelius is the group of vampires that were sired by the Master. The two of you and Drusilla are also part of the Order due to Darla, but it's those that are directly created by him that are the major players. They tend to be particularly strong, clever and, well, vicious."
She paused, took a deep breath. "The head of the Order itself - the Master - is also a particularly strong vampire. With special skills and abilities. I'm not sure I understood this part fully, but this is the best I can do.
"We all know that a vampire is created when a demon inhabits and animates a human body. The vampire can live pretty much forever like that, except for the few threats we know about - sunlight and beheading and stakes through the heart and so on. These things destroy the human body, returning it to the dust that it should be, and therefore kill the demon that was animating it, and cannot survive without it.
"Except for a Master vampire. The human body that the Master inhabits can be destroyed in the same way as the usual vampire, but the demon isn't. That's why it would have been possible for those vampires to bring back the Master after you killed him, Buffy. They could revivify the body, and the vampire demon could inhabit it again."
"Um." Xander put up his hand. "I have a question. What?"
"I think that what Alison is saying is that the Master can be resurrected, Xander," Giles explained. "It's not something that could be done with many other vampires, but the Master is different."
Angel spoke up. "Wolfram and Hart did something similar with Darla, a few years ago. But she was brought back as a human, not a vampire."
Alison nodded. "That's different. In this case, the Master would be brought back exactly as he was when he was destroyed. The same strength, the same abilities ... everything."
Xander nodded, still looking a bit confused. Buffy sympathised. She decided to ask her own question.
"When I dusted the Master, his bones remained - which was pretty unusual. With those bones, the rest of the Order could, umm, revivify the body and the Master would "live" again. Is that right?" Alison nodded. "But I crushed the bones. So they can't do it now, can they? Not without the bones?"
"Not as easily. But, if the time is right, then it can be done another way, or so Drusilla says," Alison said. "There are a number of different factors involved, but it seems that all those things are coming together shortly. And so the Order will try again to bring back the Master. And the first thing that the Master will want to do, apparently, is open the Hellmouth."
Buffy nodded slowly. "I think that that's what my dream was saying, then. That the Master was coming back." She explained her dream briefly.
"That makes sense," Alison mused. She looked at Giles. "Drusilla also gave me a hint about the meaning of the prophecy, and how we can stop it. Buffy's dream ties in as well."
Everyone looked at her expectantly. "Well?" Giles prompted.
"Well. I think the translation of the prophecy is actually closer to this:
'Only if the Dark Princess leads the way; Only if the three souled vampires come together; Only if the two hands guide the spirit; Will the Hellmouth remain closed'," Alison quoted.
"But what does the hands and the spirit bit mean?" Buffy asked in exasperation.
"It's that spell," Willow said suddenly. "Do you remember? When we fought Adam. Buffy, you were the hand. And I was the spirit."
Alison nodded. "That's what I thought as well."
"However, the prophecy talks of two hands," Giles pointed out. "The spell we did to destroy Adam only referred to one hand."
Buffy held up both her hands. "I've got two of them," she said helpfully, but Alison was shaking her head. She let them drop back into her lap.
"It's not that," Angel said slowly. "Not two of your hands. Two of you."
"Two slayers," breathed Giles, enlightened.
Buffy stared at him in dismay, realisation dawning on her. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Wait." Xander pointed at Angel, then at Alison, then at Buffy. "Are you saying ... we've gotta have Faith?"
TBC
