Chase pool house, Sunnydale
November 4th, 1997
"Who sent you?" Xander aimed his wand at the four demons, ready to fire a spell at them.
"Don't kill us!" Murk abruptly begged.
"It was Mistress Bellatrix's command to have us spy on the girl, good sir," Slook added helpfully.
Xander didn't know it yet, but after seeing their own people dying right in front of them, these minions were now willing to sell Bellatrix out; despite how dangerous that was. He asked, "Why's Bellatrix interested in Cordy?"
"We don't know," Dreg admitted.
"But that makes no difference. That black-haired witch who works for Mistress Bellatrix killed our people. While we had to watch!" Jinx shuddered.
"What witch?" Cordelia demanded.
"Mistress Bellatrix called her 'Willow', I believe," Jinx replied fearfully.
"Willow's alive!?" Both Xander and Cordy said at the same time. They looked each other in the eyes, before quickly turning back towards the demons.
"If Mistress Bellatrix finds out we were caught like this, it's over, sir. She'll torture us to death. She's much worse than the glory that was Glorificus!" Slook said pleadingly.
Xander sighed. "So what do you want ME to do about it? Obliviate you all, and send you on your way?"
"That wouldn't do any good, I'm afraid," Dreg shook his head. "Mistress Bellatrix would torture us to death for incompetence, instead."
"I don't get it. You're here, she's not. Why don't you just run for it, and take your chances with the future?" Cordelia demanded.
"Alas, young madam, it's not that simple. Mistress Bellatrix has enslaved us to her will with a variant of the Imperius Curse," Murk explained. "We literally cannot do that."
"Well, that sucks," Cordelia scrunched up her nose.
Xander sighed again, he didn't need this right now! But it occurred to him that depriving his aunt of these minions (however useless they were) could only help in his ultimate aim of killing her. "I guess I can try to free you guys with my magic."
"Really? You can do that, Xander?" Cordy asked with a puzzled look.
"I dunno," he said, narrowing his eyes and trying to focus. "The Imperius is one of the three Unforgiveable curses, Cor. In many ways, it's THE worst 'cause it doesn't actually hurt you; it just robs you of all free will. And if Bellatrix has changed it so that these guys still appear to have some kind of free will - uh, this ain't gonna be easy..."
Indeed, it took a while with several diagnostic spells which Dumbledore had taught him months ago in the Underworld. But eventually, Xander thought he was ready to give it a try - and after getting the demons' permission to do it...
His hands lit up, glowing blue. Xander blasted blue waves of magical energy at the demon minions, which instantly made them writhe in terrible pain. But a few moments later, it released them from slavery.
"It worked! It worked! We're free!" Dreg shouted happily.
"Glory be!" Jinx added, doing a little happy dance.
"Well punned!" Slook replied, doing her own happy dance.
"Doubtless this will be a day long remembered in history, sir," Murk said to Xander. Both he and the other minions thanked him and quickly vanished back home, to where they'd come from.
"Well, now I've seen everything," Cordelia said, before sitting down on the bed.
Xander sat down alongside her, he was feeling tired. He never noticed how close they were as he said, "I know what you mean, Cordy. But still...this, this was practically nothing. You heard what those demons said about Willow, after all."
"Yeah, Willow's with that crazy psycho who hijacked your body last Friday. It's majorly obvious how this isn't good, doofus," she told him, leaning against his shoulder.
Xander instinctively put his arm around her shoulders. "Pretty much goes without saying, honey."
"So what are we gonna do?"
"I'm gonna kill Bellatrix with own dagger...hopefully that'll make Will snap out of it, whatever spell my aunt has put her under," Xander replied, looking troubled.
"And if it doesn't?"
"Uh...guess I'm gonna have to improvise. Hope and pray that I can make her come out of it, somehow," Xander replied fearfully.
Cordelia certainly didn't look like she liked the sound of that plan, but she voiced no objection as they sat there together on the bed, waiting for the time of Giles's funeral to arrive.
Back in her own hellfire dimension, Glory was in a BAD mood. She wasn't exactly happy about being back here (even though at one point, it was all she had ever wanted), and she wasn't ecstatic about the betrayal from Harry Potter either. The other two hellgods avoided her as she started tossing things around, smiting random individuals.
Ares suddenly appeared, amused by Glory's actions. "You're pretty hot when you're mad, sweetheart," he laughed.
"Shut up, Ares!" Glory shouted at him.
"Hey, it's not my fault you didn't get the Key and Harry did. I tried to warn you; never trust a demon."
Glory rolled her eyes.
Elsewhere, Angelus was happy being his old self again, now that the soul was back where it belonged. He saw Spike and Dru talking to some demons that quickly left. "Hey, baby."
Dru smiled, calling out, "Daddy's back!" As she gave him a big hug, Spike just sighed with an annoyed look on this face.
"I thought you'd be in Heaven for your good deeds with Blondie, mate," William sneered.
"Good to see you too, Spike," Angelus sneered back at him. "And that was Angel, not me. Soul Boy's gone, and good riddance to him!"
Spike considered this, and nodded. "So, did the bloody Slayer do you in?"
"No. It was that a sshole Harris while he was dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, during Halloween," Angelus growled.
"Really? The whelp went as a female Death Eater? Didn't know that he swung that way!" Spike burst out laughing.
"Aww. I miss seeing Kitten wearing a pretty dress," Dru said sadly, in her own insane way.
Angelus just sighed. "At least he freed me from Liam's soul. I'll have to thank him for that, one day."
Elsewhere, Damien was in his office at the head office of Thorn Industries in New York. Luckily, he was able to pass himself off as his own nephew. He wrote something down on his desk and thought to himself, { Maybe I should go back to Sunnydale to pay Xander Harris a visit. After all, he's going to be my right hand man for the End of Days. }
Later that night, the secret funeral for Giles started. It wasn't much of a burial; only a priest was present to conduct the ceremony and give the body its last rites. Everyone said their final goodbyes as Dawn held on to Faith, trying to hold back her tears. Buffy placed a rose on the coffin as it was lowered into the ground. Jenny was in tears as well, though she tried to keep it together as best she could.
"Goodbye, G-Man," Xander said forlornly, tossing some dirt into the grave.
More dirt piled into the hole, covering the coffin. Even Cordelia participated, looking upset.
Then a puff of black smoke appeared - before Willow started throwing fireballs in all directions. Many gravestones exploded into flaming debris; Jenny got hit by one, and collapsed unconscious after putting out the flames.
"Why are you attacking us, Willow?" Buffy demanded in disbelief.
"Does it matter, Buffy?" Willow laughed, darkly evil.
{ Bellatrix will pay for this! } Xander thought to himself, just as Willow attacked Buffy.
"Cordelia, get Dawn out of here!" Faith yelled, on the move.
"Sure thing, Faith!" Cordy grabbed the little girl and ran. Xander covered them as they made their way to Cordy's car. "Are you coming, Xander?" she asked worriedly.
"No, we need a spell caster here..."
Ron was elsewhere fighting Kross, as Crody drove herself and Dawn to safety.
Just then, Bellatrix herself showed up to crash the funeral...
TBC
