Chapter Twenty-Nightmares of Darkness
Willow was sitting in the kitchen lost in thought as the buzzer on the coffee pot sang out. In fact she was so distracted she didn't notice Tara coming into the kitchen until the blond embraced her from behind. She jumped in her seat with a squeak before realizing who was holding her.
"Whoa, it's just me Sweetie." Tara's voice was immediately soothing.
"Sorry. I didn't hear you. Just a little skittish I guess." Willow kissed her lover and grabbed two mugs from the cabinet. "Coffee?"
Tara could see the change in the redhead as she poured each of them a cup. "Willow, what's wrong?"
Willow thought for a moment. In the past she would have immediately made a vague denial or said she was just anxious about Elena. But those were the actions that led to problems in the first place. Little white lies that eventually became big dark spells. Not this time. If it was bothering her enough that Tara noticed, she would tell her the truth. "I had a disturbing dream."
Just as she was going to elaborate, knocking at the front door interrupted. When the witches opened the door Faith was standing on the porch alone.
"Faith. Where's Elena?" Willow was immediately concerned.
"Willow? What the hell. You're here. And that's Ok? Tara, where's B?" Faith was surprised to say the least.
"Buffy's upstairs, she'll be down in a second. It's fine Faith, please, come in." Tara saw the dark Slayer was wary of her lover, and for good reason.
"Sure. But Buffy's witch friend is still in the car with Spike. She kinda passed out on the drive back. I didn't know whether to carry her in or what." Faith stated.
"Elena passed out? What happened?" Willow was panicking as she headed for the car.
"Angel thinks she's just drained and needs rest. He got shot, but I don't think any hit her." Faith tried to explain.
"Shot! Oh my God." Willow was racing for the car now. When she got there she jumped into the back seat and put the dark haired woman's head on her lap. "Elena, can you wake up for me? It's Willow, you're back in Sunnydale."
The soldier stirred when she heard Willow's voice. "Hi. We made it back. Good."
"Faith said someone shot at you. Are you OK?" Willow's voice was nearly trembling.
"I'm fine. My cloak protected me. Angel took a hit, but he said he'd be Ok. I'm just drained, you know the feeling." Elena tried a weak smile.
"Thank the Goddess." Willow tried to get her fear under control. "Let's get you to bed, you need sleep."
"Not to bring up a touchy subject, but the sun's coming up soon. And the Slayer said something about getting my bonus when I got back with these two?" Spike spoke from the driver's seat.
The redhead rolled her eyes. "Of course. Hang on just a second."
Willow looked over to see Tara, Buffy and Faith standing on the porch. The redhead waved at Tara, beckoning her over and frowned a little when the blond seemed reluctant to approach. When she came up to the car Willow explained that Elena was exhausted and needed to sleep.
"Maybe I should take her to my house. Do you think Buffy could come help carry her?"
"I'll go ask. I can stay here with Faith. I'm sure she has lots of questions and she probably shouldn't be outside on the streets where someone could see her." Tara replied.
"I'll be back as soon as she is settled in and sleeping, promise." Willow touched Tara's arm as she spoke.
"It's Ok, really Will. Take as much time as you need. We have a lot to tell Faith." This time Tara smiled and squeezed the redhead's hand.
It took Willow an hour to get Elena settled in and Spike paid. The redhead told the blond vampire to be at the Magic Box after sunset before she headed back to Buffy's. She also set an extra alarm on her house that would signal her if anyone entered the property. Willow found Buffy still deep in conversation with Faith when she got back and Tara making breakfast in the kitchen with Isobel's help.
"How's Faith?" Willow asked Tara.
"Anxious, but glad to be here. I think she'd do anything for Buffy." Tara couldn't stop the half smile that crept onto her face. "Sweetie, could you see if they are hungry?"
Willow took the long way around the island to kiss her beloved before exiting to ask the Slayers if they were hungry, a question she immediately realized was completely superfluous. Everyone but Dawn, who was keeping a normal teenager schedule that did not include getting up at 4am, was soon digging into pancakes of all shapes and sizes with bacon on the side. Tara went back to make a second batch when she figured out that Faith was capable of eating the entire first batch by herself.
"Damn T, that meal alone was worth breaking out of the joint. Forgot how good food could be." Faith sat back, rubbing her belly.
"Mommy, what is a joint and why did she have to break out? Was she hungry cause they didn't have any food?" Isobel asked Willow who was sitting next to her in a loud child whisper.
"Whoa, that's a smart one you got there Red. Guess I'll have to watch myself." Faith laughed.
"Isobel, that is Faith. Faith this little smarty is Isobel, Tara's and my daughter." Willow looked proudly at the little girl.
Isobel was studying Faith carefully. "She looks like Aunt Buffy."
This time Tara spoke up. "Isobel, are you reading Faith's aura?"
"Just a little. It's the same, but different." Isobel answered sheepishly.
"You know you aren't supposed to do that. But to answer your question, Faith is a Slayer too, like Aunt Buffy." Tara rebuked her gently.
"Well, 'Aunt Buffy', now that I am up to speed on everyone around here and this new big bad, what's the plan?" Faith asked looking a little nervous. "I'm on the loose now, gotta make this count. I'm a little out of practice too."
"I know we've put you in a tight spot with your sentence. Willow has some ideas about taking care of that after we deal with this creep from Khul. And I find it hard to believe you're ever 'out of practice' for anything Faith." Buffy chuckled when she thought she saw a light blush on the dark Slayer's face. "Will, let's take this away from little ears and get our plan organized."
"Isobel can help me clean up and then she needs a bath." Tara told the other women. "Willow can fill me in later."
Soon thereafter Xander and Anya arrived and joined the planning session. It took several hours, but they finally all agreed on the best way to capture the dark magick lieutenant guarding the portal and bind his magick as soon thereafter as possible. Willow wanted to check on Elena and get her opinion on the binding spell. She knew they would need the Khul witch to perform the spell most effectively and wanted to see when she might be recovered enough to participate. They all agreed to meet at the Magic Box to research the spell and tell Spike they needed him to prep Oz's old cage and to be ready for guard duty.
Willow was surprised when she got back to her house and found Elena sitting at her dining table with a cup of coffee and remains of a sandwich.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd be up yet or I would have come back and made you a proper meal. How are you feeling?"
"Still tired, but I'll live. Just woke up a bit ago and was hungry. How is Faith?" Elena inquired.
"A little nervous I think, but still Faith. She's adaptable." Willow had to shake her head a little thinking of the dark Slayer. Then Willow noticed Elena was holding the Khul sphere. "Hey, you found the sphere! I'd kind of forgotten about that with everything else going on. The demons working for Morton used that to break into the shield around Buffy's house. Do you know how to make it work?"
"I think so. I could probably reprogram it to use Light Magick if we knew what we wanted to use it for. They are not common even in Khul, too expensive, but I have seen one before." Elena explained.
"Neat. We'll bring it to the Magic Box this evening, see if anyone has any ideas. We are meeting there later. We have a plan for the involuntary relocation of the guy at the portal, but I want to go over the binding spell with you. We will probably need you for the spell, when do you think you might be up for it?" Willow was worried about her friend's strength, but they had been lucky so far that Maxwiel hadn't attacked again and didn't want further delay.
"Another good night's sleep and I'll be ready. When do we need to leave for the shop?"
Willow nodded. "Couple hours. Do you want something else to eat? We'll probably get pizza or Chinese tonight, ooh, you've never had Chinese food, it's yummy."
"No, I'm good. I think I'll just go take a shower and maybe a short nap if you will wake me up in an hour."
When Willow nodded again Elena stood up from the table to head down the hall but found she couldn't move until asking what she really needed to know. "Willow, how did things go here, with Tara?"
The redhead sighed and looked down at the tabletop but couldn't disguise her smile. "Things went really well, amazing actually. I hope that's Ok, that you and I are Ok. I don't ever want to lose your friendship. I know that might be asking a lot, but I really care about you."
Elena stepped over to Willow's chair and bent down, giving her a brief hug. "I'm happy for you Willow. Of course we are Ok, I care about you too." She made it into the shower before the tears came, hidden in the water streaming down her face.
The evening session passed quickly with research, planning and kung pao. The plan was to wait until sunset the next day when the Slayers would grab the dark lieutenant and hold him while the three witches and Anya created a circle and bound his magick. Willow and Elena would take on the responsibility of the actual incantation with Tara and Anya anchoring. Xander would take lookout duty and Dawn would stay at the house with Isobel.
The Slayers would then deliver the harmless man from Khul to the cage where Spike would be waiting. At least that was the proposal for the vampire as Spike had failed to show up at the shop. Buffy and Faith decided to head out for a patrol and stop by his crypt to see if he had changed his mind about helping out.
Before the Slayers left, they needed to have a discussion about protection and sleeping arrangements. They decided everyone needed to start staying at Buffy's within the shield until the situation was resolved. Seeing the uncomfortable expressions on the faces of the three witches, Buffy decided she would have to dictate how this was going to happen.
"Dawn will bunk with me. Xander and Anya get the basement. Willow, Tara and Isobel are together in the master. Elena, you take Isobel's room and Faith gets the couch. Any questions?"
Seeing no one was going to say anything Faith spoke up. "Works for me B. Either you or me should be downstairs at night."
"Yeah Buffy, maybe Faith needs a good night sleep. She could stay in your room with me." Dawn interjected and then blushed when everyone looked at her. They all knew Dawn had always had a huge crush on the dark Slayer.
Faith just smiled. "Thanks Dawnie, that's really nice, but the couch is fine. An improvement over my recent digs."
With that the Slayers left to patrol and everyone else headed back to Buffy's. The Slayers had been walking for nearly an hour with no sign of vampire or demon. They had also found Spike's crypt empty and were now headed in the general direction of Oz's old cage to see if he was there. When they finally came across a disturbed grave with a lone newbie still shaking dirt off his funeral clothes, Buffy waved to Faith to take care of it, which she did without difficulty.
"Wow B. Is it always this boring?"
"Sometimes, but this is slower than usual. Something feels wrong, can you sense that?" Buffy had stopped walking and was just listening to the night.
"Yeah. I agree. It's like they are hiding, or maybe just somewhere else." Faith agreed.
"Right you are. They are most definitely somewhere else." Spike added as he strode up to the two Slayers.
"Where have you been? I thought Willow asked you to come to the Magic Box earlier." Buffy did nothing to hide her annoyance with the blond vampire.
"Don't get your knickers in a bunch little blondie. I've been checking something out and I think you will agree it's important when you hear it."
When the vampire stopped to take a dramatic drag on his cigarette, Buffy found herself tapping her foot impatiently, but held her tongue for now, knowing it was better to let Spike play his game.
"The dark magick warlock has been rounding up the demons and vamps and making them an offer which most are happy to take. Seems he's sending them back to Khul to work for him and they get to do some killing and general terrorizing of the population over there. He's using that portal over at the college. I went to look and it's a pretty long que. Those who declined, well, they were eliminated. "
Buffy scowled. This did not fit with their plan for tomorrow night. "Well, I guess patrol is over then. We need to get back and tell Elena and Willow about this. Let's go, you too Spike. The witches might have questions for you."
Elena was understandably upset at Spike's news. Her people had never dealt with demons. They could defend themselves, but had little knowledge of what they were facing. She shared her concerns with the redheaded witch who was now feeling the additional burden of Sunnydale demons using her portal to attack the people who had cared for her.
"I wish we could get a message to your mother. Esther would know what to do to protect your people." Willow said sadly.
Tara came over and hugged her from behind, knowing the redhead was feeling more guilt over something she could do nothing about.
Elena was watching Willow's face as Tara hugged her. The redhead's expression softened immediately and the love between the two women was palpable. She turned away to give herself a moment and her eyes fell on the sphere sitting on the dining table where she had left it earlier after they had gotten back from the Magic Box.
"Maybe we can send her a message Willow. Using the sphere."
"Really? That is great! Oh, but we will need to get it through the portal. Do you have to do it or can Buffy? What do you need to reprogram it? Can I help? Wow, finally something we can do!" Willow was on a roll now and saw that everyone was standing around smiling at her.
"Nice to hear your babble again Will." Xander chuckled.
"Oh fine. Make fun if you have too. I'm just glad to finally get a positive break." Willow pouted.
"Sweetie, we're just glad to see you so excited. You know we love you." Tara kissed the redhead on the cheek. "Now why don't you and Elena get the sphere to work."
"I think we should move up our timetable. We can't wait until sunset tomorrow, the vampires and demons will come out in force again. We need to do this in the daytime. Maybe we can catch them by surprise in the morning." Buffy was worried about the news Spike had delivered. Morton seemed to have big plans for Sunnydale as well as his home dimension and they still didn't know what those plans were.
"Well, the campus will be practically deserted. This close to Christmas nobody will be there." Dawn pointed out.
"Then morning it is. Let's get some sleep." Buffy declared.
Willow and Elena stayed up to work on the sphere and Anya stayed with them claiming she wasn't tired.
"This is bad you know." The ex-demon stated, making both witches look at her with confusion.
"What this warlock is doing, mixing up the dimensions, moving people and demons back and forth. He's unbalancing things. That never works out well. And he's using dark magick to do it. We had problems when Willow went dark, but this is much bigger. Whether it is us or someone else, this guy is headed for a big fall in the future."
"That is an insightful analysis Anya, thank you. I'm just hoping he doesn't destroy my people and their way of life in the process." Elena hadn't really thought about magick in the way Anya had described, but it made sense.
"Did you hear that Willow, I gave an insightful analysis! Nobody here has ever said that before." Anya was beaming. "I think I'll go wake up Xander to have sex now. Goodnight witches."
Willow and Elena watched Anya head down the stairs, shook their heads, and went back to work on reprogramming the sphere. It took some time, but once Elena described how the circuitry worked, Willow was able to embed a message to Esther and set a homing mechanism inside the device to find the First Lady of the Light once it was in Khul.
The women parted and headed for bed late in the night. When Willow slipped into bed she found Tara hugging Isobel whose limbs were flung out in four different directions. The redhead smiled and snuggled up to her lover's back and heard her sigh.
"Willow? Did you get it to work?"
"Yes Baby. Go back to sleep. It's all good." Willow murmured softly in the blond's ear and then lightly kissed the sexy lobe.
All she got back was a quiet expression of love before they were both soundly asleep.
For the second night in a row Willow awakened in panic. This one was worse than the night before. She was with Morton in a dark place. He was talking to her as if she was one of his soldiers, giving her orders. Then Tara was there and afraid. The image was fuzzy, as if she was looking through opaque glass, but she could see herself approach Tara who was suddenly terrified, of her.
This time Willow found she was not only sweating, but trembling. She headed for the shower again and by the time she was done Isobel was up and Tara was helping her get dressed.
"You're up early." Tara was curious why her usually late rising lover was up first again.
"Same problem as yesterday, only worse." Willow wanted to talk to Tara about the dreams, but couldn't do that in front of Isobel.
"We should talk." Tara stated seriously.
By the time the two women got downstairs, almost everyone was up and having cereal. Buffy was anxious to get the operation underway as soon as breakfast was over and was busy gathering weapons and going over last minute instructions.
Elena grabbed Willow to go over the binding spell again and Tara was left to settle down Isobel and talk to Dawn about taking care of her while the others were gone.
Then it was time to go.
The Slayers approached Fischer Hall from opposite sides. Buffy went in the front door and left Faith with the stealth approach at the back. They had scouted the area around the residence hall and had found no evidence of soldiers, demons or any other bad guys.
With the hall closed for the holiday, the dark magick lieutenant did not need the pretense of being a Resident Assistant at the desk, which Buffy found empty. He was apparently inside the dorm room with the portal as the Slayer saw no one as she looked down the hallway.
Buffy saw Faith scanning around the corner from the opposite end and they both signaled all clear and began to work towards the middle of the hallway. When they reached the door to Tara's old dorm room Buffy saw Xander now standing at the end of the hall near the lobby area. Buffy nodded to tell him the witches should set up in the student lounge and be ready for their guest.
Faith counted down on her fingers from three to one and the two Slayers both kicked in the door and stepped into the room together. The dark magick lieutenant was the only occupant of the room. He fired bolts of electrical energy, trying to hit both Slayers simultaneously and succeeding in missing both as the women darted away. The energy went through the door and left a gaping hole in the wall on the other side of the hallway. By the time he aimed a second shot at the closest Slayer, who happened to be Buffy, Faith had circled around him and pinned his arms behind his back. Buffy saw that he was moving his lips quietly.
"Nah ah ah. There will be no chanting of spells by you today." Buffy said to the young man as she pulled a gag from her back pocket. "Our witch friends are waiting for you and they didn't want to miss out on any conversation."
Buffy was startled to see the change in the portal since her previous visit to the room. Just a couple months ago she hadn't been able to sense the dark energy. Now the portal was a visible black hole in the center of the room. It was as if all light was sucked into it and lost. She could see nothing of the other side, but she could feel the malevolence emanating from it. She quickly removed the reprogrammed sphere from her pocket and tossed it into the portal, hoping it would find its way to Elena's mother back in Khul.
Faith had the lieutenant's arms quickly secured behind his back and they easily maneuvered him away from the portal, out of the room and back up the hall to the waiting witches.
Xander saw the Slayers emerge into the hallway with the target and gave the signal to Anya and the witches. The four were in the final stages of drawing the circle and runes of protection at the cardinal points. Binding dark magick was always dangerous and they were taking no chances. Anya and Tara took their positions as Willow and Elena waited for Faith to place the lieutenant inside the circle before sealing it.
When he was shoved into the room by Faith and saw the circle drawn out before him, the young man began kicking and yelling through his gag. Faith simply picked him up by the arms and carried him to the designated center of the circle and set him down.
Now Willow took her position and Elena waited for Faith to leave the circle before quickly completing it. Each of the participants felt a surge of power and then a series of dull thuds as the lieutenant ran himself into the barrier again and again, seeking a way out. After seeing the protection was holding well, the two Light Witches began a series of incantations, at first alternating, then repeating and finally calling out together in the language of Khul.
As the binding spell neared completion a dark red mist seeped away from the lieutenant and coalesced into a dull red cloud that hovered above the center of the circle. Then a golden light appeared and formed into a long thin rope which wound itself around the dark magick user again and again as he cried out against the gag in his mouth. He collapsed to the ground as the golden rope entered into him and the red cloud dissipated.
The witches had stopped chanting and the room was deathly quiet. Xander and the Slayers had watched the spell transfixed. Even Anya appeared duly impressed by what had happened. Tara was feeling slightly nervous to have bound the powers of someone she didn't know, even under these circumstances. It was only thoughts of protecting Isobel that had pushed her continued involvement, and then only as an anchor for Willow.
Willow and Elena were tired. They had provided the bulk of the power for the spell and Willow had boosted her portion knowing Elena was still tired from the events at the prison. Both Light Witches were sweating and panting heavily, trying to catch their breath.
Elena had sealed the circle and therefore needed to be the one to break it. She thanked the Goddess and did so, allowing Buffy to enter and retrieve the young man now huddled in the fetal position on the floor.
"He's harmless now right? No magick?" Buffy wanted to confirm before taking out his gag.
"Yes. His magick is bound. He will never use dark magick again." Elena answered solemnly.
Buffy left his hands bound, but sat him down and removed his gag. The young man immediately started babbling in his native language. It took a moment before Elena thought to listen to what he was repeating, over and over.
"What is he saying?" Faith asked. "I don't like this, it's all been too easy."
Elena translated what the lieutenant was saying in her head. "He said he would take the witch before I was bound. He said he would take the witch before I was bound." He repeated it like a mantra as he sobbed quietly.
The moment Elena started to relay what the lieutenant was saying the front doors of the residence hall blew open with enough force to knock everyone back several feet, flying against furniture and landing up against the walls of the room.
"He's saying I promised to stop his binding and take the witch. The problem is I needed weak witches and I knew they would be quite drained after performing such a spell. So he only got half of the equation correct, the part where I take the witch. So if you will excuse me. . ."
With that the intruder stepped further into the room touching one woman on the arm. Even as the Slayers regained their feet and rushed at him and the witches started to chant spells, it was too late. With a simple wave of his hand, Maxwiel Morton and Willow Rosenberg were gone.