Chapter 3: The Harvest Part 2
Paige let out a sigh. "Try calling on your power now," she said. She had just cast the reversal spell that would give Joyce her powers back.
Joyce nodded as she tried to remember the trigger for her power. And then slowly she faded from view.
"It seems you remember how to use your power," Leo said.
"That's good," Joyce said as she became visible once more. "I had always wondered …" She then noticed a frown on Paige's face. "What?"
"I was just sensing Buffy's location and found her not at school but in a cemetery," Paige said.
Joyce let out a sigh. "Why would she have skipped classes?" she asked.
"I don't know," Paige said, "but I'll find out." She orbed out just as the telephone rang.
Joyce moved to the desk in the living room and picked it up. "Hello?"
"Mom," came Dawn's voice. "I thought I would call you before the school does if they haven't already. Buffy left school after getting some new information on what happened last night. She's going to try and save a boy that was taken."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy moved cautiously, inching farther and farther into the darkness of the mausoleum. Her eyes kept a continual watch. She reached the iron door on the opposite side of the room. She tried it, but it was locked. Standing there, she lowered her arms to her sides and let out a long, slow breath.
Suddenly she felt a presence. "Paige?" she said as she turned face her Whitelighter.
"Your mom was not happy when I told her you weren't at school," Paige said. "And I'm not sure the school calling just as I orbed out helped matters. What are you doing here?"
"Jesse could still be alive," Buffy said. "I'm going to try and save him. Can you get me to the other side of the gate?"
"I could or…" Paige suddenly stopped when she noticed a shadow in the door. She and Buffy turned to find Xander there.
"Who is this?" Xander asked.
"Paige Matthews," Buffy said. "You remember her from last night don't you? I was just asking …" Paige shook her head as if to warn her not to say anything about her being a Whitelighter or a witch. "… telling her I could do this on my own. What are you doing here?"
"Something stupid. I followed you," Xander didn't seem at all contrite. "I couldn't just sit around not doing anything."
Buffy stared at him, not knowing whether to laugh or scream. "I understand. Now go away."
"No!"
"Xander, you're gonna have to!"
"Jesse's my bud, okay?" Xander insisted. "If I can help him, then that's what I gotta do."
She paused, weighing the sincerity of his words.
"Besides," Xander added, "it's this or chem class."
Buffy sighed.
Paige sighed too. It was Buffy's call of course but she couldn't fault Buffy's friend from wanting to help save his friend. Then a thought occurred to her. Why hadn't the Cleaners erased his memory of last night? She began to think he had a part to play in Buffy's destiny.
Buffy kicked the gate open and the three of them made their way through the maze like tunnels.
Dark and twisting, the tunnels ran in all directions. They moved slowly as they came to a corner and turned. This new passageway seemed to be empty, Buffy hesitated a moment, ears straining through the eerie quiet. Once more they started forward.
They continued down the tunnel, reaching the end and pausing to listen.
There was nothing around the next corner.
Relieved, they turned into still another passageway, their eyes searching the shadows. They kept close to each other, bodies tense, ready for anything.
"Okay," Xander said, trying to prepare himself. "So, crosses, garlic, stake through the heart."
"That'll get it done," Buffy assured him.
"Cool. Of course, I don't actually have any of those things."
Paige rolled her eyes. Of course she couldn't fault him for not coming prepared; after all she had not come prepared either.
Buffy gave Xander a look, then immediately handed him a cross. "Good thinking."
"Well, the part of my brain that would tell me to bring that stuff is still busy telling me not to come down here," Xander defended himself. "I brought this, though."
He produced a flashlight and flicked it on. The bright beam of light stabbed through the darkness, illuminating seeping walls and oozing puddles underfoot.
"Turn that off!" Buffy hissed while Xander scrambled to do so.
"Okay, okay," Xander complied. "So, what else?"
"What else what?"
"For vampire slayage."
Buffy sighed. "Fire, beheading, sunlight, holy water . . . the usual."
"So," Xander's voice sounded a little weak. "You've done some beheading in your time?"
"Oh, yeah. There was this one time, I was pinned down by this vampire, he played left tackle for the varsity—I mean, before he was . . . well anyway, he's got one of those really thick necks, and all I've got is a little X-Acto knife—"
"Buffy," Paige interrupted. "You're not helping. He's not loving the story."
Xander managed to suppress a shudder. "Actually," he mumbled, "I find it oddly comforting."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Are we going to the Bronze tonight?" Harmony asked Cordelia.
They were in computer class—definitely not one of Cordelia's favorites. And today—like all other days—even though everyone else was working diligently on their assignments, devising programs was the furthest thing from Cordelia's mind.
Now she glanced over at Harmony, her class partner, who was also struggling to make sense of their project, and Harmony realized that Cordelia hadn't heard her question.
"No!" Cordelia burst out in total frustration. "It's supposed to find the syntax and match it. Or, wait ..."
Harmony kept her eyes on the keyboard, typing slowly. "Are we going to the Bronze tonight?" she asked again.
"No," Cordelia retorted. "We're going to the other cool place in Sunnydale."
Harmony gave her a blank look, and Cordelia sighed.
"Of course we're going to the Bronze! Friday night, no cover. But you should have been there last night."
Harmony didn't ask what had happened. Instead she just frowned at their program. "I think we did this part wrong."
"Why do we have to devise these programs?" Cordelia asked irritably. "Isn't that what nerds are for?"
She glanced at the desk beside them where Dawn and Willow was sitting. "What did they do?" she mumbled.
Harmony craned over to look at Dawn and Willow. Both of the girls were obviously lost in her own world bringing things up on the Net and was completely engrossed in her work. She shrugged and looked at Cordelia. "Uh, their doing something else."
Cordelia glared. Sure enough, both girls were busy at the next terminal. She dismissed them with a sneer and went back to holding court. "Okay," she said to Harmony. "And then 'Pattern Run,' right? Or 'Go To End.' That's it."
Harmony looked completely lost. "Maybe . . . I think . . ."
"Well, what does the book say?" Cordelia was practically out of patience. "So anyway," she went on, "I come out of the bathroom and she comes running at me with a stick, screaming, 'I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill you!' I swear."
"Who?" Jared asked. He was one of the cutest guys in class, and he leaned eagerly from his desk now to listen.
With smug satisfaction Cordelia realized she'd finally hooked an audience.
"Buffy," she told him.
"One of the new girls," Harmony echoed.
Jared looked puzzled. "What's her deal?"
"She's crazed!" Cordelia said.
"Did you hear about their old school?" Harmony asked conspiratorially as she pointed toward Dawn. "Booted."
"I exhibit no surprise," Cordelia declared.
Jared leaned closer. "Why were they kicked out?"
"'Cause they're both psycholoony," Cordelia said.
"No, Buffy and I are not."
The voice was totally unexpected. It spoke out firmly and calmly, and the other three turned to look and found Dawn standing over them her eyes blazing with anger.
"And if I hear you repeating that, I will make sure you regret it," Dawn said and then she nudged Willow who got up and the two of them left the room.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"They're close," Buffy said.
They'd been walking quite a while without speaking. Tunnel after tunnel melted into nothingness behind them, and their uneasiness continued to grow. There was no comfortable banter between them now. The air was heavy, thick with a dark, dangerous expectancy, and Buffy frowned as she scanned the blackness with worried eyes.
"How can you tell?" Xander asked nervously.
"No more rats," Paige remarked remembering the version of vampire she and her sisters had faced last year. They were a different sect than these; these were more of a possessor demon. Though these vampires shared similarities to the kind her and her sisters had faced, such as the requirement to drink blood. When there are no human sources it was a safe bet they could lower themselves to drink from rats.
It wasn't exactly the information he wanted to hear, but Xander said nothing. They passed through several more tunnels before he spoke again.
"Over there." He stopped, pointing. "What's that?"
Ahead of them was a small, gloomy side chamber. They could just barely make out the outline of a doorway, but past that, nothing.
After a quick glance behind them, they walked closer. Xander pulled out his flashlight and played it slowly over the entrance.
The light shone faintly just beyond the opening. Over the motionless shape of a body, lying face down on the ground.
Xander drew a quick, sudden breath. "Jesse!"
"Oh, no . . ." Buffy murmured. She glanced at Paige and then at Xander.
Paige nodded in understanding. Should anything go south she would orb Xander out even if it meant the risk of exposure.
Buffy started forward as Xander kept the light focused on her. Reaching Jesse, she held out her arms to help him.
Jesse leaped at her without warning, a heavy pipe brandished in his fist. As he prepared to bring it down on her head, Xander's voice rang out.
"Jesse!"
Jesse stopped, amazed. "Xander?"
With a look of sheer relief, Jesse dropped his weapon. He walked slowly toward his friend, meeting Xander's hug with one of his own. After a moment, Xander pulled away, holding Jesse at arm's length, looking him over.
"Jesse, man, are you okay?"
"I'm not okay on an epic scale." Jesse made a frail attempt at humor.
Something was wrong, Paige could almost feel it. Why was Jesse here alone simply chained to the wall? She was sure that he was being used as bait. "We should get out here," she said. "He's bait."
"Bait?" Xander asked as he looked at Paige.
Buffy looked around realizing Paige was correct. She ran one hand over Jesse's restraints. "Hold on," she said grimly. Taking the pipe he'd dropped, she smashed the lock on the shackles. The sound of it reverberated back and back through the labyrinth of tunnels.
Xander cringed, fixing Buffy and Paige with a doubtful stare. "You think anybody heard that?" he murmured.
"Yes, someone heard," Paige said. "As I said, your friend here is bait and we walked into the trap. We are going to be hard pressed I believe getting back out."
Buffy motioned Jesse and Xander to follow her. "Paige."
Paige nodded in understanding. If anything happened to Buffy she could orb Xander and Jesse out before a vampire could hopefully grab them or her.
"They knew you were gonna come," Jesse said anxiously. He nodded to Paige. "She's right. They said that I—I was the bait ... I've seen their leader." He didn't have to elaborate; as Paige, Buffy and Xander watched him, the look of sheer horror in his eyes said all there was to say.
Quickly Buffy led the way back through the tunnel. Then without warning, she froze in her tracks. There ahead of them in the deep, murky, shadowy tunnel were multiple vampires.
"Oops," Buffy said.
Jesse's voice quivered with fear. "Oh, no, no ..."
"Do you know another way out?" Paige asked Jesse
Jesse threw her a desperate look. "I don't, uh, maybe?"
"Come on," Xander ordered.
Turning, they hurried in the opposite direction. They began to run, and as they came to a junction of several tunnels, they chose one and headed inside. They didn't expect to see the eyes there ahead of them, gleaming in the darkness— they didn't expect the whispered sounds of laughter. They swung back again, until they reached yet another intersection.
"Wait, wait," Jesse paused breathlessly. "They brought me through here! There should be a way up. I hope."
No one stopped to argue—they simply ran.
A moment later they found themselves in a small, murky chamber. Too late, they saw the vampires closing slowly in behind them—too late, Buffy realized their only way out was going to be Paige.
"Paige," Buffy said as she looked at her Whitelighter. "I know you don't want to show them that you don't want to risk exposure. But …"
Paige let out a sigh; innocent lives were as stake here. She knew Buffy was right. There was a time to hide her powers and a time to risk exposure."
"Give me your hands," Paige said to Jesse and Xander who looked at her as if she were crazy. "Give me your hands. If you want to get out of here, you will do it now."
Jesse frowned as his face transformed, into a vampiric visage.
Paige grabbed Buffy and Xander's hands as Jesse lunged at them and she orbed out with them leaving Jesse standing all alone in the room.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Giles was pouring intently over his notes. When he suddenly realized that someone had entered the library, he glanced up, his voice hopeful.
"Buffy?"
Willow shook her head, looking apologetic. "It's just me and Dawn. So there's no word?"
Giles's face fell. "Not as yet." He looked very tired as he took off his glasses.
"Buffy is alright," Dawn said. "I'm sure of that." She didn't mention Paige, but her mother had told her that Paige had orbed out just as she had called to let her mom know that Buffy had skipped classes and why.
"Did either of you find anything of interest?" he asked them.
The girls sat down, spreading out the copied articles so he could see.
"I think maybe," Willow said. "We looked through the old papers, around the time of that big earthquake back in 'Thirty-seven." She placed her finger on one of the pages. "And for several months before it, there was a rash of murders."
"Great!" Giles straightened and put his glasses back on. "I mean, not great in a good way. . . . Go on."
Dawn flipped through the articles. "They sound like the kind you were looking for. Throats, blood. Months, and not even a clue."
"It's all coming together." He nodded. And then, with an anxious glance at Willow and Dawn, "I rather wish it weren't."
Just at that moment Paige orbed into the library with Buffy and Xander.
Willow and Giles looked at Paige with wide eyes.
"Hi," Paige said. "The name's Paige."
"I thought you didn't want to do that in front of others, that it would risk exposure," Dawn said.
"Normally I don't," Paige said. "There were extenuating circumstances. And this was the first place I thought of, especially since Mr. Giles is Buffy's Watcher."
"What are you talking about?" Willow asked.
"I'm a Whitelighter," Paige said. "Buffy and Dawn's to be in fact."
"I've heard of Whitelighters," Giles said. "The Devon coven has one. I met him a couple years ago. Wait you said you were Buffy and Dawn's Whitelighter?"
"That's right," Paige said.
Giles looked to Buffy and Dawn. "But you two are not witches."
"Actually," Buffy said with a glance at Paige.
Paige sighed. "Go ahead. If they're not meant to know the Cleaners will erase their memory of you telling them and my orbing in front of them. I figure that there is a reason that they have not had a visit yet already."
Buffy nodded. "Mom bound our powers when we were babies."
"This is astonishing," Giles said. "I've never heard of a Slayer who was a witch as well, especially one gifted with powers."
"Not that this isn't interesting," Willow said. "And it is and I know I want to know more. But, did you find Jesse?" Deep down she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
Xander confirmed it with a terse reply. He wouldn't even look at her. "Yeah."
"Worse," Buffy echoed.
She plopped heavily into a chair, her face a mixture of anger and regret.
"I'm sorry, Willow," Paige said. "We were too late. And they were waiting for us."
Willow shook her head. "At least you guys are okay."
"I don't like vampires," Xander burst out. He aimed his foot at a trash can, kicking it in frustration. "I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."
Buffy turned to the Watcher. "So, Giles, you got anything that can make this day worse?"
"How about the end of the world?" he replied calmly.
"I knew I could count on you."
"This is what we know," Giles went on. "Some sixty years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, and not just to feed."
Buffy sat down at the table. She rested her chin on her hands. "He came 'cause this town is a mystical whoosit?"
"A Hellmouth," Paige supplied as Giles looked at her. "I'm the one she mentioned to you. I was ten feet away when you two were having that conversation last night."
Giles nodded. "The Spanish who first settled here called it Boca Del Infierno, but Paige here is correct, roughly translated it means Hellmouth." He began pacing. "A sort of portal from this reality to the next. This vampire hoped to open it."
"Bring the demons back," Dawn added.
"End of the world," Xander clarified.
"But he blew it," Willow picked up the story. "Or, I mean, there was an earthquake that swallowed about half the town. And him, too—or at least there were no more vampire-type killings afterward."
Giles looked thoughtful as he pulled up a chair. "Opening dimensional portals is tricky business. Odds are he got himself stuck. Like a cork in a bottle."
"Not as hard as one thinks," Paige said. "But not easy either. It's mostly a power relegated to hire beings. Very few witches have the kind of power it requires to open a portal; it is a very advanced form of magic."
"And this Harvest thing is to get him out?" Xander asked.
"It comes once in a century. On this night."
Giles stood and crossed to a chalkboard where he'd rendered several mysterious diagrams. He began to design several more as he explained.
"A Master can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds. Enough power to break free and to open the portal. The minion is called the Vessel, and he bears this symbol."
He paused, pointing to a sketch of the three-pointed star.
"So," Buffy made an attempt at cheerfulness. "I dust anyone sporting this look, and no Harvest."
"Simply put," Giles responded, "yes."
"Any clue where this little get-together is being held?"
"Well, there are a number of possibilities—"
Before Giles could finish, Xander broke in. "They're going to the Bronze."
The room went silent. They all stared at him.
"Are you sure?" Dawn looked surprised, but Xander simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Come on, tasty young morsels all over the place. Anyway, that's where Jesse's gonna be. Trust me."
"Then we need to get there." Giles's voice was tense. "The sun will be down before long."
Willow, Xander and Giles headed for the door, but Buffy and Dawn moved beside Paige.
"We gotta make a stop," Buffy explained. "Won't take long."
"What for?" Giles asked.
Dawn gave a secretive smile. "Supplies."
And then Paige orbed out with Buffy and Dawn.
