Sunnydale, California
Sunnydale High School: Library: Main Area
The plan was final; Angelus was going to wreak his revenge on his mate's Sire. No one touched what was his.
Splitting apart was not what Buffy had in mind, but after Giles' polite demand that she'd stay behind with himself, Willow, and the others as they researched more about the Voivode of Wallachia as Angelus, Faith, and Xander hit the pavement in search of the castle Dracula could be staying in.
Sitting at one of the long research tables with a Watcher's Diary balanced on a leg crossed over her knee. She stared at the aged ink sketch drawing of her Sire's face. With her eyes, she traced the dark ink lines of his handsome face. She might be furious with him, but she'd be lying to herself if she said last night when he held her against the wall and kissed her she did not feel a thing. There would always be a small piece of her that feels for her Sire. They were eternally connected.
Up the small stairs and hidden behind the book stacks, Giles placed a shiny silver pot down on the floor where Willow was arranging the candles and sage.
"So we're settled then?" Giles whispered, careful that the evil vampiress would not hear them as they laid out magical supplies for a spell. "I know this is a lot to ask for Willow—"
"—Yeah, yeah," Willow tried to smile and mask the fact that she was terrified. "It's for the greater good, right? I can do this." She told herself and looked at the Watcher. "Danger, shmanger."
Oz and Cordelia appeared behind Willow and Giles holding the printed spell in their hands.
"We got it." Oz passed the printed spell over to Willow then ran his fingers through his red hair.
Cordelia stood with her hands on her hips. "How do we know if she—"
Giles held a finger over his lips to hush her speaking voice.
Lowering her voice, Cordelia continued, "—If she finds out about this, won't she just kill us?"
"We'll need someone to distract, Buffy in the meantime while we set up," Giles replied. "If she doesn't suspect a thing, I think we'll be just fine."
Willow nervously raised her hand. "I can distract her during the 'in the meantime' part." Oz looked at her with unease. "I'll be okay. She kinda likes me... I think." Willow said, trying to soothe his worry, though internally she was freaking out.
Walking down the stairs from the back of the stacks, where Giles, Oz, and Cordelia continued to set up the spell, Willow sent herself into the line of fire: Operation: Distract The Evil Vampiress.
Taking a deep breath, Willow walked over to the long table and sat down across from Buffy.
After a minute of the vampiress blatantly ignoring her, Willow decided to make herself known when she said, with an irritating amount of cheerfulness. "Hiya, Buffy!"
Bothered by the cheerful redhead, Buffy flicked her eyes up from the book to the teenager's face and glared with mild annoyance. "What do you want?"
"Oh, uh, nothing," Willow held her hands together on the tabletops and grinned at the blonde vampire. Buffy detected something off with the girl but decided not to make it known. Perhaps whatever the strange redhead was hiding would magically make itself known. "I-I was hoping we could, uh, talk?" Willow bit her bottom lip. "I mean, t-talk like we used to do before… um… we knew that you wanted to kill us."
Raising a highbrow, unsure if she had caught all of the teenagers strenuous ramblings. Buffy slammed the diary closed and paced it on the table. She sat back in the wooden chair and gestured for Willow to begin talking 'as they used to'. "Go on then… talk."
Willow nervously swallowed, "Oh uh…" thinking quickly, Willow opened the diary to a page, Buffy had just been looking at. "So, um, this is Dracula?" She eyed the ink drawing. "He's, uh, very… err—han-handsome?" Willow flashed Buffy a nervous smile that she hoped to God that Buffy found it endearing.
Eyeing the high schooler carefully, Buffy sensed something odd but knowing it was Willow, she decided to brush that feeling away. "He's handsome… in a tall, dark, and annoying sort of way."
Slowly nodding, Willow swallowed nervously and eyed the faded bite mark scared on the right side of Buffy's neck. "So when a vampire bites you, does that mean you're mated?"
"It's a bit more complicated than that," Buffy said.
"What does mating really mean?" Willow asked genuinely curious to hear about the traditions of the supernatural world.
Buffy lowered her gaze to the silver Claddagh ring wrapped around her right-hand ring finger. "There aren't many rules in the demon universe. Number one, Lucifer is King. Number two is to 'respect thy Sire'. Number three, 'I will be forever faithful to my claim of my mate'. The mark of a claim—or mate is sacred. No demon or Heavenly creature can touch you. The consequence is punishable by death."
"What about someone like a Sire?" Willow asked.
Buffy twisted the Claddagh ring round her finger and explained, "There will always be a bond between Vlad and I. It's inescapable between a Sire and Childe."
"What does it feel like?—Your bond between Angelus and Dracula?"
Sitting back in the wooden chair silently for a moment, Buffy quickly compared and contrasted the bonds she felt between the men in her life. With Dracula, there was always a tug in her chest pulling her towards him. The bond with Angelus made her feel warm. It was a comforting tingling sensation from her head to her toes.
Buffy shifted a bit uncomfortably with the subject, no one had ever asked her such a thing before. "With Vlad, there's this constant pulling in my chest. It feels… old, kindred... I guess. And with Angel, there's a strange feeling of warmth. He makes me feel warm and—"
"—Human?"
Buffy's green eyes crossed to Willow, unsure whether to agree or be offended by the redhead for her suggestion. "Um… sure…"
"How'd you know Angelus was the one?"
"Why the sudden interest in my personal life?" Buffy suspiciously eyed the redhead. "What are you up to, Will?"
"Wha-wha-what am I up to? Me? N-nothing! I'm not up to anything!" A nervous smile slid across her face hoping to God Buffy wouldn't see straight through the lie.
Letting it go, for now, Buffy stood down the defensive and watched the teen pick up one of the Watcher's Diaries from the small stack placed on the table. She swallowed nervously, still feeling Buffy's constant glare over her as she flipped through the pages.
"Wow!" Willow opened one of the diaries wider to examine the ink drawing sketched into one of the pages. It was Angelus.
Willow closed the book quickly to eye the date she had picked out; 1837-1901.
Opening the diary back up again, Willow studied the image of the handsome and infamously vicious vampire drawing. Angelus' dark features seemed more striking and sinister in the small drawing. His was short and neatly styled in the 19th century typical fashion. He had a mustache and a small sole patch under his bottom lip, as well as long thick sideburns lining the sharp line of his jaw. He wore a high collared shirt with a cravat tie.
"He looks so…" Willow was about to say 'strange' until she glanced up to see the look on Buffy's face that read, 'think very carefully to what you say next', "... much like a gentleman."
Smirking, thoroughly enjoying the fact that she made Willow very nervous. "Yes, I'd have to agree. There was something very gentleman-like about him wasn't there?"
"Do you know when it was drawn?"
Buffy took the diary and eyed the drawing. She could easily pinpoint the year it was drawn. A slow smile tugged at her lips. "Sometime in the mid-eighteen hundreds, I guess." She passed the curious teenager back the diary.
Accepting the diary, Willow laid it spread open over the tabletop and looked at Buffy. "Buffy, can I ask you something?"
"I have a feeling you'll ask me regardless. So..." Buffy sat back in the chair and crossed her leg over her knee, "... shoot."
"Why did you choose Angelus? I mean, with your dating history you could've had anybody. Why him? What was it about Angelus that made you want to be his mate? Did you always want to mate?"
Buffy leaned her elbow over the armrest of the wooden chair and held her chin between her thumb and forefinger as she thought for a moment. "No," she replied surprisingly candidly. "It was never ever my intention to mate. I come from a time where the only option for a woman to survive was to marry. Rich if you were lucky. Women in my era didn't have power. We couldn't even have property." Buffy looked at Willow. "I couldn't inherit my father's estate even if I had married because it would've all gone to my husband. But if he died and we didn't have children then, I'd get everything but birth control was very hard to come by in those days." A bit of sarcasm twisted around Buffy's words.
Willow frowned never having thought about a woman's place in the seventeenth century.
"When I was turned, I swore to myself that I wouldn't marry—mate anyone. That I didn't need a man. I was finally given this power to take control over my life. And do what I wanted. My father wasn't there to control me. Nor my many other prospects for a husband. Or the pastors telling me that I would be damned to Hell if I didn't do my duties as a woman."
"What changed?"
Buffy sat quietly for a minute and softly smiled, "Angel challenged me. He forced me to face a lot of feelings I didn't think I could possibly feel anymore—especially without a soul. At that point, if I felt anything remotely human, I ran." Buffy lowered her eyes to her hands. For a moment Cole Turner's face flashed in her mind. "And Angel wouldn't let me do that."
"You never felt like that with Dracula?"
"Oh, god no," she chuckled at the absurdity. "Me and Vlad… our relationship is a messy tangled web, but I never felt anything for him. He was my mentor… my lover… he took care of me at the beginning but then sooner I think he expected, he couldn't control me anymore. I know he wanted to mate, but I could never. But with Angel… I fell for him hard and fast and I've never looked back."
A small smile crossed Willow's lips finding the story of Quod Spiritus Sanctus (The Beautiful Demon) fascinating hearing from the vampiress' own lips.
"That's so romantic." Willow sighed and held her chin in her hand hoping that one day she'd feel that way for someone; fall for them totally and completely within minutes. After months of dating Oz, Willow finally felt comfortable enough saying that she was in love with him. "Can I ask you something else?"
Smirking, Buffy said teasingly, "You're curious tonight."
Willow blushed then asked, "What were you like before you went all 'grr'?"
It had been a long time since she thought about her life before becoming a vampire. She touched on some of it but what was she like? It was something Willow desperately wanted to know. She could read all of the books in the world about the famed vampiress but hearing it from the woman herself… Willow jumped on this opportunity.
"I was not a happy person," Buffy admitted quite candidly. "I was raised Puritan. Which is an old dead strict religion that taught us to believe that God expected us all to abide according to the Scriptures. In those days, we were constantly persecuted. Many in our town left. But papa refused to leave and sail to America. He felt that there wasn't a need to leave as long as the money kept flowing in and if I continued to act according to the Scriptures—which are very outdated by today's standards—we would thrive. But God's rapture seemed to overpass my father's sins. More than that, there was too much money and notoriety in England to be had."
Willow held her chin into her hand, fascinated by the tale.
"We were moderately wealthy for the time. Papa made his fortune as a whiskey merchant. But being a drunk and a greedy bastard, he began to use me to scam wealthier families for money."
"How so?"
Buffy smirked, "I was introduced and betrothed to many future Earls, Marquesses, and a Duke. But before the engagement, he'd present a hefty fee to the families. They would, of course, pay and papa would pocket the money and were out of town before anyone realised that they were fooled. I was very close to being engaged—for real. Papa had met a member of Parliament, Ellis Thurman, Duke of Dickinson. The Duke had his own ambitions for the marriage. He knew Papa had planned to jilt them so instead of bringing him to justice, the Duke made a created deal. Papa was to collect a monthly allowance from the Thurman's after I married. And I was to be used as an enticing offer for King Charles II. They wanted me to become one of the King's mistresses in order for the Thurman's to have a permanent place in the Royal Court."
Willow's expression soured. "Oh my god," she said with disgust.
"But the night I met Lord Owen Thurman, I was turned into a vampire. And everything I learned in church… Every ounce of fear I had twisted into anger and I took my vengeance out on them and I stuck their heads on spikes." She said with an eerie amount of offhanded casualness.
Willow was frightened for the rest of that sentence, it was a reminder that this civil conversation probably would not last much longer. Buffy was a soulless monster that could turn at a drop of a dime.
Pushing aside her fears, Willow maintained civility that seemed to tame the vicious demon. She did feel genuine sorrow for the vampiress. To live in a world where women were only valued as homemakers or objects to conceive children. There was no vote or basis for women's rights. Most of Buffy's young life was dictated by the Bible and the societal patriarchy.
"I'm sorry you were so unhappy, Buffy."
Buffy shrugged, wiping the frown from her face as it curved into a smile. "Don't feel too bad for me, Will. In the end, I won. I got my revenge on all who crossed me. And they were powerless to stop me—" The smile from Buffy's face slowly fell.
Willow frowned at the sudden change of demeanour and watched Buffy's green eyes flash into a golden colour before settling back into its usual green hue.
Following the vampiress gaze, Willow looked over her shoulder to see a tall man with an athletic slender build. He wore an elegant open-collared red button-down shirt with a button black vest with a small silver pocket watch chain. Over his clothes, he wore a black cape with red inside lining. His features were dark in a hypnotising way. His complexion was a deadly shade of white which was heavily contrasted with shoulder cut length jet-black hair. Without a doubt, Willow knew who this was… Dracula.
"Angel and the Slayer are out looking for you," Buffy said, breaking the tension of thick silence built into the room. "You're a fool for coming here."
"I am not afraid of your barbarian nor the Slayer," Dracula said. "I am here for a single purpose."
Buffy rolled her eyes feeling the shifting build from mild annoyance to anger. "You've got a lot of nerve, Vlad."
"You are still cross with me, I see." He took a step from the doorway entrance further into the library.
Jumping up from her chair, Buffy glared at her Sire. "Damn right I am! You took advantage of your power and I will never forgive you for that."
Willow eyed up the stairs to Giles, Cordelia, and Oz sneaking a look around the book stacks. Giles caught the redhead's eye and waved for her to come to them while the vampires were distracted with one another.
Biting her bottom lip, Willow sneakily stood from the chair and carefully moved behind Buffy and scurried to the stairs to be with the others.
"You take too much to heart, îngerul meu întunecat (my dark angel)," Dracula smirked, which only made Buffy angrier.
"No. You don't get to call me that. What in the hell did you think was going to happen, Vlad? That I'd be so ecstatic that you waltzed back into my life? That-that I was going to fall to my knees and beg for you to stay with me forever? Do you really have your head so far shoved up your own ass to actually believe that you would have any sort of chance with me? God, you are dense. I don't want you. I never wanted you. You meant nothing to me, Vlad. You were just... convenient." She shook her head in frustration. "I outgrew you long ago."
Dracula lifted a snobbish brow, finding her tantrum childish. "I was protecting you, prințesa mea morții (my Princess of death)," he told her. "I've been in the world much longer than you and I could see that your ego was growing too big. The difficulty with you, Lady Elizabeth is that you have gotten so good, you were beginning to think that you are invincible. I was trying to protect you from the Slayer—surely, you must know that." With each word he walked closer to her until he stood in front of her, towering her with his height. He reached out his hand and gently touched her chin.
"I never needed your protection, Vlad." She stepped way feeling much calmer. "You really should go. Angel will be here soon and he's looking for vengeance."
"I am not afraid. Your savage lover is the least of my worries, zeița mea întunecată (my dark goddess)." He reached out to her again, Buffy pushed him away once more and took a step back.
"No," she said, lifting up her eyes to his face and glared at him, "what you did, it almost destroyed my relationship. I assure you, darling, Angel is coming and he will not stop until you're dust in the wind."
Cockily, Dracula did not seem at all bothered by the prospect of an angry vampire coming for him. Nor was he afraid of the Vampire Slayer following in tow. He came to the Hellmouth town for one reason, to get his Childe back. "He may come but you won't let him kill me. It's not your true nature." He cupped her cheek and then let his fingers slid through her blonde hair. "I am in your blood. The power that you have is rooted inside me. My darkness is inside you and it yearns for me… it screams for my touch. I made you, my Elizabeth. You must feel it."
Buffy paused for a moment with a found, pondering everything he's said. She lifted her gaze back to his face and said, "No. You know what I feel? Bored." She shoved him away and collided her fist into his handsome face.
As she moved to attack him again, Dracula dissolved into smoke. Buffy straightened up and looked around the seemingly empty library with confusion. She always hated these magical tricks.
Dracula reappeared behind her and wrapped a hand around her throat, pulling her back into his chest. Buffy breaks out of his hold and faces him.
As she moved to throw a punch, Dracula dissolved into smoke again.
Frustrated, Buffy muttered, "Okay, that's cheating."
Dracula reappeared in front of Buffy, startling her. He moved to lunge at her when she jumped over his head and kicked him into a wall. Dracula spun around to her and caught her arm as she threw it to punch him. He flung her across the library.
Buffy landed on the long research table with a thud.
"You resist me," he said as he moved closer to his Childe.
Getting back to her feet, Buffy stood toe to toe with the elder vampire. The glare in her eyes made Dracula excited.
"Looks like," she said with a shrug then shot her arm out, landing a right hook punch into the side of his head.
Blocking her other arm above his head, Dracula jabbed his fist into her stomach then shoved her away.
Regaining her footing, Buffy looked up at her Sire. He appeared unbothered by the violence—almost bored that it was happening. He did not think of her as a threat, despite everything he has ever seen her do in the past, Dracula was confident that after she 'acted out', she'll come to her senses again.
"What is this?" He asked.
As he came closer, Buffy thrust her palm flat against his chest, sending Dracula flying backwards. He crash-landed into a floating counter near the weapons cage.
Buffy crossed over to him and stood above her Sire with her hands on her hips. "My true nature. You want a taste?"
Westside of Sunnydale: Mansion Row
Growling in frustrations for another dead end, Angelus stomped down the long stairs from the front door with Faith and Xander trailing behind.
"Okay, so that was another bust," Xander began trying to sound a bit positive. "We have four more mansions on this street. Then we have Bordeaux Drive, Chester Road, and Cloverhill Drive. Before we head to the Eastside."
Faith rolled her neck, bored and tired of this manhunt after the first ten minutes of it.
"I apologise that this is so dull for you." Angelus bitterly snipped at the Vampire Slayer, not at all taken with her lax attitude.
"Yo, man, I wanna find Drac too but I don't think he's here," Faith said.
Angelus' brows pinched together as he eyed the Slayer. "What are you suggesting, Faith?"
Faith sighed and sat down on the ledge of the staircase. "I'm suggesting," she cracked her knuckles together, "if Drac came for B… he's probably wherever she is now."
Angelus thought her statement over for a moment and realised that she could very much be correct. A feeling of dread washed over his entire body. He had left Buffy with the rest of the White Hats in the library.
"We have to move quickly." Angelus ordered and began to run into the direction of Sunnydale High, which was across town.
Sunnydale High School: Library: Book Stacks
Hidden towards the back end of the tall book stacks, Willow took a seat down onto the floor, surrounded by candles. Placed in a small bowl was the Orb of Thesulah. Giles had managed to find another at the local Magic Shop—There was a surprising amount of Orbs left in the world.
Willow looked up sheets of paper with the translation of the ancient Romanian spell held out in front of her and accepted it from Cordelia. She placed the book down in front of her as Giles held an open book with the original writings of the spell.
Oz knelt down on one knee and lit all of the candles around them.
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Their heads turned to the small walkway that led back down to the main floor of the library where Buffy was currently fighting her Sire.
Cordelia and Oz together waved burning herbs and incense over the Orb.
"Stinky herbs are a-go," Cordelia said, scrunching her nose in disgust.
Giles stood up straight and gave Willow a small nod to begin the spell.
Willow casts her stones over the small area of space by the Orb.
Giles began to read aloud, "Quod perditum est, invenietur (What is lost, return)," his voice was hushed. Still very much aware of the deadly demon only yards away. If Buffy found out what they were up too, they would no doubt be gutted and hung on a flagpole.
"Not dead nor not of the living," Willow said, "Spirits of the interregnum, I call."
Library: Main Area
Barrelling into Dracula, they fall together onto the floor. Dracula managed to roll on top of her. He punches her across the face. Buffy returned a punch into his chest and grabbed him by the front of his shirt flipping him over.
Now on top, Buffy punched him hard into the body a few more times when he caught her flying fist.
Grinning, Dracula flings her backwards to hit a wall. She landed back onto her feet and watched as he got up.
Sweeping her leg, Buffy took his feet out from under him. He punched her into the stomach and threw her up against the wall again, to pin her still.
"Do not resist me anymore, creația mea întunecată (my dark creation)." Gently, Dracula touched the line of her jaw, trying to draw her back into his deep hypnotising gaze.
Buffy paused her attempts to escape from his grasp and looked into his eyes.
Dracula began to smile as she stopped fighting him and stared into his eyes.
"You know," Buffy began, "I really think the thrall has gone out of our relationship." Buffy headbutted him into the bridge of the nose.
Dracula removed himself from pinning Buffy and staggered back holding his nose.
"You resist me, Lady Elizabeth. You shan't. I am the darkness that you crave. I am the creature that has given you life—a purpose. What would you have been without me?"
Buffy pursed her lips tightly together, hating to admit that he was right. It weren't for him, she would've been stuck in a loveless marriage, forced to be a whore to the King, she would have in all likelihood had an early death from either childbirth or the Black Death or perhaps some other disease.
Dracula rescued her from an ill-fate and she was grateful for that.
"You still have so much to learn," his voice was whispering. It felt like it was everywhere as he spoke.
Fighting the thrall that might have worked before, Buffy looked into his eyes and said, "No, I think you've taught me everything I need to know." She shoved him backwards to hit the wall behind him with a thud.
Angered by her resistance to him, Dracula growled and dissolved into smoke.
Buffy watched the trail of smoke on the ground and saw where the smoke would converge; near the doorway.
She broke out into a sprint across the library. As she ran, Buffy grabbed a broken piece of a wooden counter and leapt off of the floor to take on some more speed.
Buffy impaled the infamous medieval ruler of Wallachia into the heart with the fragmented piece of wood just as he reappeared.
Dracula's eyes were wide with shock. He stared at his Childe he has loved for centuries and looked down at the stake impaled deep into his heart.
"How do you like my darkness now?"
"... Elizabeth…" Dracula whispered her given name and fell to his knees onto the floor and exploded into dust.
After a minute of staring down at the pile of grey-brown dust. "Goodbye, my darling," Buffy pushed back the pang of hurt. The pulling connection that was always in her chest, surrounding her like white noise disappeared. The shackles that kept her and her Sire connected was gone. She was free from her Sire, Vlad Țepeș III.
Dropping the piece of wood to the ground, Buffy turned back to the main area of the library and wondered where Willow and the other's had run off too.
She began to walk when something struck her hard into the chest.
Falling to her knees, Buffy gasped in a striking pain. A hand held on her chest, Buffy dug her fingernails into her skin to rip out whatever was invading her body.
In the background, though it was muffled, Buffy recognised Willow's voice. "Acum (Now)! Acum (Now)! Acum (Now)!"
Gritting her teeth in pain. "Oh no..." her voice strangled in her throat just as Buffy's green eyes glowed to a bright red hue.
Running down the stairs from the back of the book stacks, Willow, Giles, Cordelia, and Oz saw Buffy on the floor, struggling to hold herself up by her hands. She collapsed again.
Buffy shot up her head when she heard a creak of the floor.
She was greeted by a strange group of people she had never seen before. They cautiously walked towards her with an unusual amount of fear.
Still a bit disoriented, Buffy wiped the tears from her eyes.
Willow took the first few steps closer to the vampiress when Oz' hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist. Looking back at him, Willow tossed her boyfriend a small smile of reassurance.
Oz removed his hand and let her heedfully walk towards the frightened vampire.
"Where…?" Buffy's voice was of a young frail girl. "Where am I?" The white of her eyes were red and puffy from the stinging tears. "What's happened?"
Willow frowned noticing the gentle English accent in her voice until she had remembered what she had read about Buffy. She was born and raised in seventeenth century England. And for some odd reason, Buffy reverted back to her former self.
"Who art thou?" Buffy stared at the people around her and got to her feet, realising the strange outfit she was wearing. Tearfully frustrated from the lack of answers, Buffy glared at the group through her blurry vision. "I command you to state thyself at once!" She demanded, unleashing her infamous venomous impatience.
"Buffy?" Buffy's wide terrified eyes snapped to Willow.
"Buffy?" Through her tears, Buffy frowned and snobbishly ran her eyes up and down the teenager. "You address me as if we are acquainted. I do not recall us ever meeting before. You shall only address me as Lady Elizabeth until we are properly introduced." She stuck up her chin into the air, despite the tears stinging her eyes, her upper societal upbringing shown through.
Willow raised a brow. "We are introduced. We're your friends—err… sort of…" The redhead held a hand flat against her chest. "I'm Willow." She pointed to the older man standing behind her. "That's Giles." Willow pointed her finger to the attractive young woman wearing an appalling tight dress. "That's Cordelia." Willow pointed to the final strange face in the room, he was a shorter man with a kind-looking face. His hair was longish and spiked messily. "And that's Oz."
Unable to retain any of the names that had just been introduced, Buffy turned her gaze back to the redhead. "How do I come to be here?"
Willow frowned, unsure if she understood Buffy correctly. The vampiress seemed to have lost her memory of the last four centuries.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Willow asked.
Composing herself, Buffy wiped the tears away with the pads of her fingers. "I was in the courtyard at Stationers Hall. I felt light-headed an-an-and I-I went out for a moment of fresh air…" her voice trailed off as her eyes darted around the library. "Where am I? Is this England?"
"You're in Sunnydale, California, Buffy," answered Willow with a cautionary voice.
Buffy's brows pinched together in confusion.
"Um…" Willow struggled for an explanation because this Buffy had never heard of Sunnydale or California for that matter. "It's in the United States." Willow told her.
"Pardon?" Buffy frowned, unable to understand what the redhead girl was talking about.
Stepping around from behind Willow, Giles, carefully approached the frightened vampire and said, "The Colonies. You're in the Colonies, Buffy."
Buffy's eyes grew big. "How…?" She had heard of the new land, but it was so far away from home that America did not seem at all possible to get to. "What is the year?" She asked.
"What year do you think it is?" Willow asked.
"The year of our Lord, sixteen hundred and sixty-six." Buffy watched the strangers' faces change into a surprised expression. Her unsettled stomach flipped with anxiety.
Willow released a breath and took a small cautious step towards Buffy, afraid she'd spook the vampire. "No, Buffy, the year is nineteen ninety-nine."
Buffy stared at the teen in bewilderment. "That's impossible," she said, shaking her head, unable to accept this new reality.
Feeling a sting of empathy for the vampiress, Willow hadn't expected to ever see Buffy appear so young and lost. She genuinely could not recall anything from the last three hundred and thirty years.
"You're a three hundred and thirty-three year old vampire, Buffy," Willow told her.
Buffy froze and narrowed her gaze over Willow as she whispered, "A vampire…?"
A sudden flood of images of random faces of the living and dead inundated her mind. Three hundred and thirty-three years of sadistic torture, malevolent violence, and satanic atrocities overwhelmed her pure unbeating heart, remembering who she was—a vampire.
"Oh my…" Buffy collapsed to her knees. A sob released from her lips as the four centuries of death paralyzed her. Tears poured from her eyes heavily as the realisation of all of the evil she has done on this earth consumed her. "What have I done?" She whispered through her tears that stung her eyes and coated her lips. "What have I done?" She felt surrounded and engulfed in guilt as Buffy cried into her hands.
Later
Sunnydale High School: Library: Main Area
Storming into the library in a hurry, Angelus, Faith, and Xander paused in the centre of the floor of the library and looked around at the broken desks, counters, and bookshelves. It was obvious that a fight had broken out.
Faith immediately snapped her eyes to Angelus, angered. "What the hell did she do? I swear to God, if she did anything to any of my friends, I'll fuckin' send you so far down into Hell, Satan himself couldn't find you." She threatened the master vampire.
"Buffy?" Ignoring the Slayer, Angelus frantically looked around for his mate.
He climbed up the stairs and searched the book stacks then ran back down the stairs and turned his head to the left to find Buffy huddled in the corner with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her head was against the wall silently crying.
"Buffy?" He walked over to her just as Giles and the others walked out from the back office discussing the ramifications of the spell they had performed.
Angelus crouched down in front of her. She had yet to notice his presence.
Carefully he outstretched his hand and laid it on her shoulder.
Startled, Buffy snapped her eyes over and her head to look at him. Her eyes grew large and filled with tears. She borrowed her face into his chest and his arms wrap around her.
Angelus frowned unsure how to react to his mate's tears.
In their two hundred plus years together, never once had he ever seen her shred a tear. He certainly has never seen his mate huddled in the corner rocking herself as she mentally breaks into a puddle of sobs.
"What happened?" He ignored the demon inside of himself that scoffed at the sight of her weakening tears. Tenderly, Angelus brushed away the fallen tears from under his eyes with the pads of her thumbs and cupped her face.
"I remember it," she said in a lithe English accent. "I remember it all so plainly. It burns... inside me. It burns..."
Angelus frowned with concern confusion. Her eyes moistened with tears again and looked away from him.
"She has her soul."
Angelus looked over his shoulder to Giles standing behind him at the bottom of the stairs.
"She has her what?" Angelus felt an eruption of anger rumble in his chest.
Giles could see the rising anger and yet, he stood his ground remaining cool and collected. "Buffy… she has her human soul." He repeated.
Tightening the arm that was wrapped around her shoulders, Angelus held his mate close into his chest and buried his nose into her blonde head of hair as anger washed over him.
Tenderly holding her face in his hand, Angelus brushed a sweet kiss against her forehead before removing himself from her.
He stood from his vampiress mate and whirled around with golden eyes of anger.
In a flash, Angelus' moved from the top of the stairs and pinned Giles up against the wall with a hand choked around his throat. "What did you do?" Angelus growled.
Faith grabbed Angelus by the shoulder and tugged him away from her Watcher. She punched a fist across Angelus' cheek.
Angelus did not possess an ounce of patience for the Slayer. He grabbed her by the hair and rammed her head against the counter.
"This was a plan." Angelus realised. "You knew I'd be searching for Dracula. You'd have Buffy alone so you can use Jenny Calendar's spell."
"That was the general plan," Faith elbowed Angelus into the stomach, forcing him to step back. "Revenge's a bitch, isn't it?"
Angelus growled and punched the Slayer across the face.
The fight continued on the ground floor near the entry door.
The Scoobies watched as the Slayer and master vampire exchanged hard punches.
Buffy lifted her face from her hands and threaded her fingers together. "Thou art the blessed God, happy in thyself, source of happiness in thy creatures, my maker, benefactor, proprietor, upholder." She whispered the prayer from her past, a prayer she had not thought or recited in nearly four hundred years. Squeezing her teary eyes closed, Buffy continued, "You have produced and sustained me, supported and indulged me, saved and kept me; thou art in every situation able to meet my needeth and miseries," she said through her tears.
Opening her eyes, Buffy raised her gaze to the ceiling, desperate for the Lord's guidance and His support. Her dead heart ached with self-reproach.
In the corner of her eye, Buffy noticed a wooden crucifix sitting on the main research table down the stairs.
Slowly getting up to her feet, Buffy took the small steps towards that familiar sense of comfort.
"May I live by You, live for You, never be satisfied with my progress but as I resemble Christ; and may conformity to His principles, temper, and conduct grow hourly in my life." She continued to whisper as she walked from the corner to the stairs.
Taking one step at a time, oblivious to the brawl between her mate and the Slayer ten feet away, Buffy fought her quivering chin and closed her eyes, feeling the presences of the ghostly apparitions of her assorted victims.
"Let thy unexampled love constrain me into holy obedience, and render my duty my delight. If others deem my faith folly, my meekness infirmity, my zeal madness, my hope delusion, my actions hypocrisy, may I rejoice to suffer for thy name," Buffy said as she walked closer to the crucifix on the table. "Keep me walking steadfastly towards the country of everlasting delighteth, that paradise-land which is my true inheritance."
Willow turned to see Buffy standing at the research table with her hand outstretched to pick up the crucifix.
Cautiously, the redhead approached the newly souled vampiress, careful not to startle her.
"Support me by the strength of Heaven that I may never turn back, or desire false pleasureth that will disappear into nothing." Buffy's fingers were inches from the wooden cross. She longed to hold it against her chest and pray for forgiveness for the evils she has done. "As I pursue my Heavenly journey by Your grace let me be known as a woman with no aim but that of a burning desire for You, and the good and salvation of my fellow man."
"Buffy, no!" Cried Willow, just as Buffy wrapped a hand around the vertical board of the crucifix and gasped in pain.
Immediately her hand began to smoke and sizzle from its burn. She let out a yelp and dropped the crucifix to the ground, pausing the fight and turning the room's attention to her.
She clutched the wrist of her burnt hand. Her eyes began to refill with tears and her chin quivered not from the pain of the burn. She was unable to hold the one thing she knew would give her comfort like it had done for her in the past. The Lord didn't want a disgusting demon to touch the holy symbol, imbed with religious power.
Angelus shoved Faith off of him. He ran to his mate's aide, pushing through the Scoobies standing around her away.
He wrapped an arm around Buffy's shoulders and held the back of her hand into his own to examine the burn. It was a deep burn that would surely take a few days to heal.
"Come on, I'll take you back to the mansion," he whispered into her hair, keeping her close.
Guiding her out of the library, Willow stepped towards them and felt horrible for Buffy's pain. All she wanted to make the vampiress good. This was not as she expected at all.
"Buffy—"
Angelus snapped his head into Willow's direction and growled, flashing his golden eyes. He held Buffy tighter and escorted her out of the library.
The Scoobies hung back, now unsure whether they had made the right call in restoring the famous Quod Spiritus Sanctus (The Beautiful Demon) with her human soul.
"Yo," Faith wiped her bloody lip with the back of her hand and gained Giles' attention, "so it worked. B's got a soul now? She'll be livin' with the guilt for what she's done for forever?"
Giles removed his glasses and turned out a handkerchief from his pocket to clean the invisible smudges from the glasses lenses. "She will." Giles had his own reasonsings for the restoration spell, he wanted vengenous for what Buffy's demon did to Jenny. "But god knows what it's doing to her."
"How'd you mean?" Xander asked.
"Buffy is now faced with centuries worth of evil. Evil that her soul had nothing to do with," Giles explained.
Willow looked solemnly at the crucifix that was still on the floor. "She was praying." Willow quietly announced as she picked up the crucifix.
"It's mostly likely the only thing she remembers giving her comfort as a human," Giles said, sliding his glasses back up his nose and stuffing the handkerchief back into his pocket, finding the idea of a demon turning to religion.
Willow placed the crucifix down onto the table. "She told me before becoming a demon she was raised very religious."
"Just as I would expect many people of her time," Giles said.
Willow faced the Watcher. "Should we do something?—To help her?"
"Pfft, why?" Faith rolled her eyes.
"I gotta second that." Xander inched his hand up in agreement with the Vampire Slayer. "Who cares? Buffy's evil. Why should we care what she's going through?"
Giles understood the teens reluctance but there were times he wished they all possessed Willow's empathy, open mindedness, and rationality. "Because, as I said, Buffy's soul is not responsible for her demons' actions." Giles looked at Faith. "She isn't responsible for Jenny's death. Her soul now has to somehow sort through the devastation for the violence she has bestowed during her three hundred and thirty-three years on this earth."
Willow looked up at the Watcher. "What should we do?"
"Wait," he said. "It's all we can do. When Buffy is ready, she'll be back."
