Chapter 22: Little Box of Horrors Part 3

At the Transamerica Pyramid Trey was still looking for a way out.

"What are you doing?" Paige asked as she glared at Trey. "Are you out of your mind? What if the elevator starts?"

"Relax, sweetheart. I know what I'm doing," Trey said as he looked at the open electrical panel in front of him.

"Hello!" Linda said into the call box. "Is anybody there? What's going on? What is taking so long?"

Paige noticed that Wendy was beginning to have trouble breathing as she knelt down in front of the girl. "Okay, honey, I need you to breathe. Just breathe."

Roger who was trying to pry the doors open gives up and hits the doors in frustration. "Dammit!"

"Big man," Linda scoffed.

"Can you two get along for two seconds?" Paige asked.

"Hasn't happened in three years," Linda said. "Why do you think we're in marriage counseling?"

"Do you have to air out all our problems?" Roger asked.

"Oh, airing out our problems is your biggest concern?"

"Ahh," Trey shouted as he shorted out the wires and zapped himself. He fell off the elevator railing and hit the ground with a thud.

Roger grabbed Linda and stepped aside.

"Oh, my god!" Linda said looking at Trey.

Paige glanced at Wendy who was starting to panic. She moved over to check on Trey. "Uh ... okay," she said as she knelt down to listen. "He's not breathing."

"Oh, god," Roger said.

Paige pressed her fingertips against the side of Trey's check. "There's no pulse."

Wendy started coughing and collapsed to the floor.

"Oh, my god," Linda said as she rushed to Wendy and sat the girl up. "Come on, sweetie."

"What are we going to do?" Roger asked.

"Do you know CPR?" Paige asked Roger.

Roger shook his head. "No."

"Well, I need you to get down here and help me," Paige told him. "You're going to learn."

Roger nodded as he knelt down next to Paige and Trey. "All right." He put his hands over Paige's.

Paige turned to look at Linda. "I need you to sing to her."

"Sing?" Linda asked confused.

Paige nodded. "Just sing. Get her breathing in order," she said as Wendy gasped for air. "Anything. Just sing."

Linda held Wendy and starts to sing to her. "Hush, little baby, don't say a word."

"I need you to put two fingers above the xyphoid process," Paige said as she grabbed Roger's hands and put them on Trey's chest.

"The what?" Roger asked.

"Honey ... you can do this, honey," Linda said as she stopped singing.

Roger looked at Linda and nodded. "All right."

"Come on," Linda said as she returned to singing. "If that mockingbird don't sing."

"Push down five times for every breath," Paige told Roger.

Roger nodded. "Right."

"Go."

"One, two, three, four, five ... " Roger counted as he pumped Trey's chest.

"And if that diamond ring turns brass," Linda sang. "Come on. Sing with me."

"Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass," Linda sang as Wendy joined in with her.

"Good," Paige said. "Good job."

"And if that looking glass gets broke, mama's gonna buy you a billy goat," Linda and Wendy continue to sing as Wendy's breathing calmed down.

Linda smiled. "Good."

Roger looked over at Linda with Wendy just as Linda looked at Roger. He returned to doing chest compressions just as Trey lurched and started coughing.

"He's alive. Okay. He's alive," Roger said as he looked over at Linda and Wendy.

"Good job," Paige said just as the elevator gave a jolt and lurched. Suddenly the lights shut off again.

"Oh, god!" Linda said as the elevator shook, shivered and creaked loudly.

The lights come back on as the elevator door opens.

"Wendy!" Wendy's father said.

"Daddy!" Wendy said as she got to her feet and ran into both her father and mother's embrace.

"Ohh," Trey said.

"You okay?" Paige asked Trey just as the EMTs peered into the elevator. "He was electrocuted. We gave him CPR."

Roger got up and looked at Linda who turned and the two of them embraced each other.

Trey looked at Paige. "Thanks."

Paige sighed.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy slowly reached for the box as it continued to whisper to her.

"Open it ... or your friend dies," Katya said.

Buffy looked at Katya. "She dies, you die," she said and then picked up the box and opened the lid. Black dust slowly rose up, then shot straight up in a pillar of all things evil. The force of the explosive column of evil pushed her back onto the floor. She stared at the black cloud of evil hovering near the ceiling.

Katya smiled and laughed with glee as the black cloud of evil escaped out of the cave through the cracks and crevices in the walls. She turned to Buffy and took out the metal dagger from behind her back. "It's done."

"I figure you lied," Buffy said. "Don't think I will be a pushover."

"Don't worry I didn't think you would, after all you are a Slayer. But heck you are still only mortal."

Lucius appeared in the doorway.

"Since the next Guardian hasn't been born yet and with you dead, there won't be anyone around to put everything back," Katya said as she threw the dagger at Buffy.

Buffy smiled and held out her hand. "Dagger," she said and it orbed into her hand.

Katya frowned as she watched Buffy get to her feet.

"I'll say it again, I'm a Slayer. But I'm also a witch and a Whitelighter."

Just then Dawn, Piper and Phoebe appeared behind Buffy.

Piper looked around and took in the opened box on the table.

"We're too late," Piper said just as Lucius stepped toward them. She raised her hands and blasted him with her explosive power vanquishing him.

"I had to," Buffy told them quickly. "She has Willow. I had to make a judgment call."

"It's alright," Phoebe said.

Katya quickly stepped forward and closed the box. She held it and fluttered out of the cave, vanishing from their sight.

"Where is she?" Piper asked.

"This way," Buffy said as she headed into a tunnel with Dawn, Phoebe and Piper not far behind her. "Willow? Where are you?!"

"Willow?" Phoebe and Piper shouted.

"Willow, where are you?" Dawn shouted.

"Here."

They found Willow in a side cavern as Buffy ran to her friend. "You okay?"

Willow nodded. "Get me out of here."

Buffy nodded as they all took each other's hands and she orbed them out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Okay, well, I guess your day trumps my day," Paige said as they all sat in the living room of the Summers home. "Thanks for bringing me here to clean up the mess, though. Is anybody else feeling blue?"

"It's the effects of the box being opened," Joyce said.

"Okay, there's still a demon on the loose, and the longer she is, the more we're all going to be affected," Piper said.

"Yeah, exactly," Willow said. "We need to get out of here …"

"You're safer here," Giles said.

Willow shook her head. "No. Not as long as that demon is trying to kill us. We're sitting ducks."

Piper smiled. "Not as much as we are out there. As long as Katya knows that Buffy can put all the evils back in the box, she is a very large target."

"Which means you are, too," Giles said. "In fact Buffy it's a good thing you had your mother and Dawn go to help protect him."

"Buffy," Willow said. "I know you've been against all this from the start and that its been too much. No one says that you even have to care about this stupid box anymore."

"Actually, she does, you see?" Paige said. "Because it's her birthright."

"A birthright I never wanted Paige," Buffy replied. "It just been too much, being a Slayer, being a witch, a Whitelighter and now a Guardian. How much more can they ask of me, how much more can I take?"

"Buffy," Willow said, "think about it for a second. Why are they so interested in your protecting the box? Katya can shapeshift, she could be any of them. After all she's done it before. That's what she does, right? "

Phoebe nodded as an idea began to form in her mind. "I think she is right." she said as she looked to her sisters.

"Phoebe!" Paige shouted.

"We can't make Buffy do something she doesn't want to do. This is her path to either follow or not," Phoebe said. "But before we leave, Buffy, why don't you and Paige talk. This will after all affect your relationship."

Paige and Buffy looked at each other as they walked into the kitchen. Phoebe moved to follow them. "Anyone want a water?" she asked.

A second later Phoebe and Buffy returned.

"Why don't I walk you home, Willow," Buffy said as she and Willow headed for the front door.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Piper said to Phoebe.

"Trust me," Phoebe said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Willow closed the front door as they stepped onto the front porch. She glared at Buffy.

"What? What's the matter?"

Willow grabbed Buffy by the hair. "This is getting to be way too easy," she said as she shapeshifted into Katya. Buffy's eyes widen with surprise.

Katya laughed as she fluttered them out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Katya and Buffy flutter into the cave and she tossed Buffy forward next to Willow who lay on the ground.

"Buffy?" Willow said as she looked at her friend.

"I'm okay," Buffy said.

Katya smiled. "Actually, not for long."

Buffy turned and looked at Katya. "Okay, you heard me say it, and I meant it. I do not want anything to do with that box. I swear!"

"But you will ... in time," Katya said. "You'll come to believe in yourself again, your new powers, just like Pandora did. And then you'll want to get the box back, put the sorrows back—but, see, I can't let that happen." She knelt down and took out a dagger. She twirled it around familiarly in her hand.

Buffy got to her feet. "You won't have a choice."

Katya laughed.

"What?" she said. "You think you can stop me? Remember our first meeting. I through you around like a rag doll. Yes the Whitelighter powers took me by surprise but this time I don't intend to give you …"

"Dagger!" Buffy said as the dagger orbed out of Katya's hand.

Katya frowned. She thought she had fortified herself to neutralize Buffy's Whitelighter powers.

"How, I neutralized your Whitelighter power?" Katya asked surprised.

"Ah but that might have been the case if Buffy had been here," Buffy said. "Of course she's not the only Whitelighter." She released the glamour spell and morphed into Paige.

"Sorry we haven't met before, but I've been otherwise engaged!" Paige said as she threw a potion at Katya's feet vanquishing her.

"Paige?" Willow said. "Can you tell me exactly is going on?"

"Sure," Paige said. "Pandora's box is real. Buffy is the next Guardian and has been fighting it." She held out her hand. "Pandora's box!" As the box orbed into her hand and then handed it to Willow. "I need you to give this to Buffy for me. I'd give it to her myself, but there's somebody I have to see. Tell her, I love her, I will see her soon and that she is ready, ready for everything that comes and I will be there standing by her side through all of it." She waved her hand. "Buffy's house."

And Willow orbed out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Willow orbed into the living room of the Summers home to find Buffy, Piper and Phoebe waiting.

"Willow?" Buffy asked.

Willow smiled. "I have a message from Paige. She'd give it to you herself. But she said she had someone she needed to see. She wanted me to tell you, that she loves you. That you will see her soon and that you are ready, ready for everything that comes and she will be there standing by your side through all of it."

Buffy smiled as she took the box from Willow. "That's her."

Phoebe nodded. "Good, I have to say I didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Okay Buffy, you are the only person that can do this."

"You can do it," Piper agreed.

Buffy took a step back and held the box close to her chest as she opened it. The black dust gathered in the living room, coming in from the open window, the cracks in the walls and ceiling. It swirled around the room and around the girls. They watch as the black dust obediently headed straight back into the box just as the lid closed.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Paige stood on the tallest tower of the Golden Gate bridge waiting.

"How are the ears?" Sandra asked as she orbed in.

"Better, thank you," Paige said. "It was pretty risky of you, sending me off to help a future Whitelighter."

"Was it?"

Paige nodded. "Yes. We almost didn't get Pandora's Box."

"But you did get it back," Sandra said.

"Yes."

"Which proves that you can handle both your Charmed and your Whitelighter responsibilities."

Paige sighed. "I don't see what that has to do with –"

"Didn't it make you feel so proud, accomplishing what you did in that elevator?" Sandra wondered.

Paige nodded. "Of course, I did," she said.

"And you did it all by yourself without your sisters, without even Buffy or Rupert Giles, or anyone. Maybe this is what you have been searching for, Paige, your separate identity. Being a Whitelighter can give you that and much more."

"Like what?" Paige wondered.

Sandra smiled. "Fulfillment. You're a natural, Paige. Everything you've been and done in your life has been preparing you to be a Whitelighter. Everything you needed to help those people has been inside of you all along."

"Well, it did feel good to save them."

"Then don't fight that. Embrace it, not for me, not for the Elders, but for yourself. Think about it?" Sandra said as she turned to leave.

"Wait," Paige said. "Just out of curiosity, who was the future Whitelighter I was supposed to save?"

"Actually you were saving two, but you just didn't know it. You and Buffy."

"Me and Buffy?"

"As I told you we did not want to thrust another destiny upon her so early. That is why Pandora's Box went to her; it knew that not only would she make the best person to be a Guardian. But also it knew she needed the courage to face her destinies all of them, and being Guardian would do that. If not for you, the demon might have gained the upper hand and killed her. So by saving yourself, you also saved her, in more ways than one. Before she was not ready for what lay ahead, but with your guidance she will be."

"Can I ask is that why you steered us together?" Paige asked.

Sandra smiled. "In part yes. But Kyle told you the truth, you are each other's rewards. But he did not tell you everything the seer saw in Buffy's life. This is why we went to the Angels of Destiny. We wanted a way to prevent it if at possible."

"Prevent what?" Paige wondered.

"Her death."