CROSS ROADS
Part 2
The sun was now shining down upon Sunnydale, just as it had for many
centuries before...even before it became Sunnydale. The birds were
chirping, the pleasant breeze was making the flowers sway, and life was
stirring awake to face another day.
Michael Lenox was pouring two cups of coffee from in the kitchen as his
wife, Stacy, was standing before the window in the living room, staring out and seeing nothing but what was in her mind. She was uneasy and scared for Willow. Ira and Sheila Rosenberg were in a safe place, and she was grateful for that for she and Sheila had been friends since high school. Willow had become special to Stacy, like a daughter she never had...and yet she was missing. Willow was alone out there somewhere, terrified and facing dangers that only she knew of.
Lenox came into the room and handed her a cup of coffee.
Stacy took it from him automatically, but her mind was not on coffee. She fixed her questioning eyes on her husband. "Has Bill found anything?" she asked anxiously.
Lenox looked at her as he took a sip. "I thought you were big on faith, Stacy." He was concerned for his wife. He didn't like the scared look in her eyes.
"Faith is always good, my husband...but I am still only human." She
hesitated. "I believe that there is a purpose for what is happening
here...I just can't explain what that is." She shook her head. "It doesn't have to do with terrorists."
"But there are terrorists in Sunnydale," he said quietly. "This we already know. In spite of what you feel with your faith, the evidence we do have shows us that terrorists had tapped into Willow's computer and they linked it to their own. Everything Willow had in her system, they were able to break into without letting her know that they were there." He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what else there could be out there that is driving toward some specific purpose. Other than the terrorists."
"You know there are other things involved, Michael." She looked into his eyes, searching. "All things work together for the good. I believe that. I've seen evil at work and yet somehow, good does prevail. Sometimes it's not so noticeable at first, but...Well, you've seen it, too. And now that this is happening here...in this town, you want to see that it's only a coincidence?"
Lenox shook his head. "Honey...you're right. We know what's been going on in this town, and we have known it for a few years how different this place is. Look, Willow and her friends probably know more than we do about it because they've been here. They live here. Maybe that's the evil we should fear. Something Willow knows...about the Hellmouth, or any other horror, could be what the terrorists are after."
"Well, that's not a good thing," said a voice from behind them. "But
apparently, the terrorists have been watching Sunnydale for as long as we have."
Husband and wife turned as one and they found Albert Barrington standing in the doorway of the living room. "Has Crazy Man found something to support that?" Lenox wanted to know.
Barrington nodded solemnly. "He's found a link with other networks
throughout Sunnydale. A network of information, Knox. Everything from
school records to police records. Bank accounts, hospital records, medical histories, and morgue reports...you name it, it's there. Using that network of info, I'd say that the terrorists might even know more about this town than we do." He shook his head in amazement. "I don't know how he does it but Crazy Man is making Willow's computer sing like a bird."
Stacy shook her head, clearly bothered by something. "I don't understand, Al. That brings us right back to Willow. What was so different about her that made them take her?"
Lenox glanced at his wife. "I can think of one thing that makes her
unique." He drank some of his coffee. "Willow is friends with the Slayer."
"Buffy Summers?" Stacy inquired. She frowned. "I still can't believe that Buffy is the Slayer, Michael. When I first saw her, well...she's just a child. Like Willow."
Lenox finished his coffee and set the cup down onto the coffee stand.
"Well, this child is a Slayer. We need to find Buffy and Alexander." He looked at Stacy. "Sooner or later, they're going to come looking for Willow. They'll know something is wrong when she doesn't show up for class."
"School's already begun," Stacy told him.
Suddenly, the phone rang.
They looked at her.
Resolved, Lenox picked up the phone. He knew it would not be the terrorists calling. They were not after a ransom. They had already taken what they wanted and now they were up to something else.
So it had to be...
"Hi," greeted a young girls voice. "This is Buffy. Is Willow there?"
Lenox cleared his throat. "Buffy. No...Willow isn't here."
There was a pause. "Mr. Rosenberg?"
"No...I'm Michael Lenox."
"Oh! I remember you. Your wife went to school with Willow's Mom. Willow thinks you guys are cool."
He paused in thought as he glanced at Stacy. "She does?"
"Yes! She says that you do laundry for the government. Spy stuff! Like James Bond, only without the British accent and the shaken, not stirred drink." She paused on the phone. "Or is that stirred, not shaken?"
Lenox looked from Stacy to Barrington. He wanted to know how on earth did Willow know that he worked for the government. To Buffy, he said, "Listen, Buffy. My wife and I need to see you and Alex. We have to talk."
"We do?" Buffy paused. "Is this spy stuff?"
He hesitated. "Yeah. You could say that."
"Okay...but don't call Xander Alex. He doesn't like that."
Lenox shrugged. "Consider it done."
There was a pause. "Mr. Lenox...is there something wrong?"
He hesitated. "Where can we meet you?"
"We'll be at the library. Besides...someone left a video on my doorstep this morning. We'll watch it until you arrive."
"That's fine. We're on our way."
He hung up.
Then he realized what Buffy had just said. "Oh, God..."
Stacy looked at him with concern. "Michael, what is it?"
"Someone left a video on Buffy's doorstep."
Lenox and Stacy headed out the door and for the car. Barrington went to see if William "Crazy Man" Fronk needed any help.
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"This is not happening!!" Cordelia Chase screamed.
Xander Harris nearly jumped from his seat at the table as he had been trying to study from a history text bigger than a boom-boom box. "Cordy!" he hissed. "Oh, Mighty Queen of the Paint-By-Nails Club! This is a library!" He put a finger before his lips. "Shush!"
Cordelia pouted and showed him her nails. "But...I just broke a nail!"
Buffy Summers, who had been rummaging through her bag at the table, rolled her eyes. "Is that all?"
Cordelia shot her a venomous look.
"Oh...I mean..." Buffy hesitated. Then, she shrugged her shoulders and
smiled innocently. "Oh, darn. I hate when that happens."
"Easy for you to say, Buffy!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Your nails aren't as important as mine. After all, you chip and break your nails every time you throw a stake. But I have a life! Men adore me." She looked at her broken nail with dismay. "Now I have been marred for life!"
Buffy looked at Xander and rose her eyebrows as if to say, "Get a life,
girlfriend."
Xander looked at Buffy and shook his head. "It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine."
Buffy grinned and rummaged some more through her bag.
Cordelia nodded angrily at Xander. "Oh, sure! Make fun of me! You don't need nails!"
Xander rolled his eyes. "Cordy, why cry over one broken nail? Use a
different finger to reach those hard to reach bouger-baddies. Or wait until your broken nail grows a-new, then go to town on yourself."
She glared daggers at him. "Oh...You!!...You!!!"
"Me! Me! Me!" He threw his hands up into the air. "The truth comes out. It's always about you, Cordy, isn't it?" Before Cordelia could make a reply, Xander turned to Buffy curiously. "What are you digging in there so furiously for, Buffy? Cordy-Repellant Spray?"
Cordelia continued to glare at him.
Buffy shook her head. "No, I'm just looking for a tape. I figured we'd watch it while we waited for the Lenox' to arrive."
"Ooh...goody!" Xander rubbed his hands together. "A porno flick. What have you brought for us, Buffy? 'Cordy Does Sunnydale'?" He slapped his forehead. "I'm sorry. What am I saying? That's not a porno! That's a horror flick!"
"If you don't stop that," Cordelia warned, shaking her finger at him,
"you're going to regret it!"
Buffy found the tape and pulled it out of her bag. "I honestly don't know what's on this tape, Xander. I found it on my doorstep this morning."
Xander frowned. "You did?"
Buffy nodded.
Xander slowly rose to his feet and moved toward Buffy. All the while, his eyes were glued to the videotape in Buffy's hand. He held out his hand. Usually, Buffy would ignore him, but there was such intensity about the way he held his hand out and looked at her that she found herself handing the tape over to him. She was suddenly concerned. She didn't like the look on Xander's face.
Cordelia sensed the sudden demeanor from Xander and she was just as
concerned.
"Xander..." Buffy began softly, "you're wigging me out."
Xander held up the videotape in his hand. The his eyes found Buffy's and he held her gaze. "I've known Willow for all of my life, Buffy. My God...I should have seen this coming."
"Xander...what is it? Seen what coming?"
"Willow didn't show up here at the library for study after school yesterday. 'Okay,' we say. 'She's visiting with family and friends.' But we didn't call her to find out for sure." He swallowed. "I didn't call. Buffy...I always call...but not this time." He took a deep breath. "When the night drags on and we find ourselves at the Bronze...still no sign of Willow. And still...I don't call her. No, no. Because I'm too busy dancing on the dance floor with Cordy and having way too much fun."
Buffy looked at him with growing concern. "Xander..."
"Then she doesn't show up for school this morning and you call her home. Not me. You. And this Lenox guy, some friend of Willow's family, answers the phone. 'Willow is not home,' he says to you. 'We need to talk.' This coming from a guy who Willow has told us works for the United States Government, and if Willow told us that, then you know it's true!" He held up the tape. "Then this morning, you found this tape on your doorstep! Which means that someone must have put it there during the night or early morning hours. The question begs to be asked, Buffy...Why?!"
Buffy had found that she had been holding her breath. "Oh, my God...you don't think that...?" She couldn't finish.
Xander was furious.
Buffy and Cordelia looked at him with concern. Neither one of them had ever seen him so furious.
"If what I think is on this tape...is really on this tape..." Xander took a deep breath before continuing, "then there isn't a vampire, demon, witch, bug-eyed bastard, bad breath, stinking, foul, soul cursing, bad-ass monster within a thousand miles around Sunnydale that will be safe from my wrath!" He looked at them with determination. "Because nobody...NOBODY messes with my Willow!"
Any other time, Buffy might have laughed...but this was no laughing matter and Xander was dead serious. All she could think about was that if something had happened to Willow, then it was her fault. She should have been there for her.
Rupert Giles, the librarian and otherwise known as the Watcher, and Jenny Calendar, techno pagan computer teacher, had walked in at the tail end of Xander's speech. They both had the impression that something was terribly wrong.
"Buffy..." Giles began calmly as he looked from Xander to Cordelia and
finally to Buffy, "what is it? Why do you all look a-as if the world has stopped turning?"
Buffy just looked at him.
Xander moved past Giles without a word and headed for the back where Giles had his office and another room for conferences. It wasn't a very large room, but it did have a TV and VCR player, and that's what he was after. Buffy and Cordelia followed right after him, and Giles gave a stunned look at Jenny. She squeezed his arm and nodded her head toward the room, suggesting that they should tag along. The two went in after them.
Xander turned the power on the TV and the VCR player, and then he popped in the tape.
He picked up the remote and stared at it. Finally, with grim resolve, he pressed play. Behind them, Lenox and Stacy entered, but no one turned to see them. They were all intent on the screen.
A man with a dark beard was glaring back at them from the TV screen.
Xander scowled. "Who the hell is this guy?"
/"Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," the man began, "I know who you are. You can call me the Speaker!"/
Buffy sat down, stunned. "He knows who I am!" She was incredulous.
/"I represent the Iranian Liberation Front. We are fighting against you paganistic American infidels of Satan! Your reign on this earth will end. Soon! And you will see that you yourself will be the instrument of your own destruction!"/
"My God..." Jenny looked at Buffy. "This man is a terrorist! Where did this tape come from?"
Buffy shrugged. "It was on my doorstep this morning." She scowled at the Speaker. "A terrorist can't be any worst than a vampire."
She was wrong.
/The man on the screen said, "We have Willow Rosenberg and she will very soon meet her death. Make no mistake! She will die! But how she dies will depend on either you, Buffy Summers...or this Angel...or you, Alexander Harris!"/
Now they couldn't take their eyes off the screen.
The scenery changed. They saw Willow tied to a chair. They saw the look of fear on her face. They watched as she struggled in vain to break free from her bonds.
/"I haven't done anything to anyone..." Willow said softly. "I'm just a girl. Well, I call Principal Snyder Mr. Nazi...but...well...he is mean."/
/"Do you always talk to yourself, Willow?"/
The look of fear and helplessness in Willow's eyes was like a knife blade stabbing into the hearts for everyone who was watching the tape. Xander's fists were closed so tight, his knuckles were white.
/"Uh...only when I'm scared, cuz...talking seems to help."/
Buffy moved her chair closer to Xander as tears welled up in her eyes. But they couldn't turn away from the screen. They watched the interview in complete silence. Xander was usually tough, and his face betrayed nothing except for the hardness in his eyes and the single tear that traced down his cheek. But that tear didn't fall until Willow revealed her secret.
It wasn't really a secret, but Xander had never heard it from Willow's lips.
Not like this.
/"Do you like Xander, Willow?"/
/She nodded dreamily. Willow was under the influence of the truth serum.
"Yeah...a lot...only...it's not exactly 'like' 'cuz it's more like love..."/
/"You love Xander?"/
/"Yeah...a lot...but..." She frowned. "Xander likes Cordelia...That isn't fair because I like Xander a lot more than he thinks he likes Cordelia...And what has she got that I haven't got anyway?...I love Xander...I always have...always will..."/
/"Willow...if you had to live in this world without Xander, could you?"/
/Tears formed in her eyes. "Live?...without Xander?..." She shook her
head. "No...I'd...I'd rather die than live without him...Please don't take my Xander..." She began to cry./
The rest was about the Hellmouth and Willow telling the Speaker that only Xander, Buffy, and Angel knew the exact location of the Hellmouth. Then the screen went blank...until the Speaker returned.
/"Allow me to show you the kind of night your friend spent here with us," the Speaker said./
A new scene appeared. Two terrorists were standing before a closed door. They were holding clubs and each of them was beside large crude barrels. They began to bang on the barrels with enough noise to raise the dead. The scene then switched to something new. Willow was laying on a cot, curled into a ball. It was clear that her wrists were bound together and the twine was looped and tied to the headboard of her cot. She was screaming.
/"Make it stop! Make it stop!"/
In that tiny room, the racket had to have been unnerving.
There were other scenes. Each scene, when one of the terrorists would enter the room, Willow would try to huddle into her corner as far as she could go. They never touched her, but she was clearly terrified by her captors.
In one scene, a terrorist brandished a knife in front of Willow's face.
/"See this knife?" he snarled. "This knife has the name of Xander on it! This knife will spill his blood...after he confesses that he never had any feelings for you accept pity!" The terrorist turned and looked right into the camera. "This Xander never truly cared for such a pitiful girl as yourself!"/
When he left the room, Willow had fallen apart.
/The Speaker returned. "Come to me, Buffy Summers! Alexander Harris!
Angel! Don't let her suffer alone! Don't let her die alone."/
The tape seemed to come to its conclusion.
That was good enough for Xander. He rewound the tape to a close up of the Speakers face, and he then paused the tape. Then, before anyone could stop him, he got up and put his fist through the Speakers face and through the television screen.
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TO BE CONTINUED...
Part 2
The sun was now shining down upon Sunnydale, just as it had for many
centuries before...even before it became Sunnydale. The birds were
chirping, the pleasant breeze was making the flowers sway, and life was
stirring awake to face another day.
Michael Lenox was pouring two cups of coffee from in the kitchen as his
wife, Stacy, was standing before the window in the living room, staring out and seeing nothing but what was in her mind. She was uneasy and scared for Willow. Ira and Sheila Rosenberg were in a safe place, and she was grateful for that for she and Sheila had been friends since high school. Willow had become special to Stacy, like a daughter she never had...and yet she was missing. Willow was alone out there somewhere, terrified and facing dangers that only she knew of.
Lenox came into the room and handed her a cup of coffee.
Stacy took it from him automatically, but her mind was not on coffee. She fixed her questioning eyes on her husband. "Has Bill found anything?" she asked anxiously.
Lenox looked at her as he took a sip. "I thought you were big on faith, Stacy." He was concerned for his wife. He didn't like the scared look in her eyes.
"Faith is always good, my husband...but I am still only human." She
hesitated. "I believe that there is a purpose for what is happening
here...I just can't explain what that is." She shook her head. "It doesn't have to do with terrorists."
"But there are terrorists in Sunnydale," he said quietly. "This we already know. In spite of what you feel with your faith, the evidence we do have shows us that terrorists had tapped into Willow's computer and they linked it to their own. Everything Willow had in her system, they were able to break into without letting her know that they were there." He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what else there could be out there that is driving toward some specific purpose. Other than the terrorists."
"You know there are other things involved, Michael." She looked into his eyes, searching. "All things work together for the good. I believe that. I've seen evil at work and yet somehow, good does prevail. Sometimes it's not so noticeable at first, but...Well, you've seen it, too. And now that this is happening here...in this town, you want to see that it's only a coincidence?"
Lenox shook his head. "Honey...you're right. We know what's been going on in this town, and we have known it for a few years how different this place is. Look, Willow and her friends probably know more than we do about it because they've been here. They live here. Maybe that's the evil we should fear. Something Willow knows...about the Hellmouth, or any other horror, could be what the terrorists are after."
"Well, that's not a good thing," said a voice from behind them. "But
apparently, the terrorists have been watching Sunnydale for as long as we have."
Husband and wife turned as one and they found Albert Barrington standing in the doorway of the living room. "Has Crazy Man found something to support that?" Lenox wanted to know.
Barrington nodded solemnly. "He's found a link with other networks
throughout Sunnydale. A network of information, Knox. Everything from
school records to police records. Bank accounts, hospital records, medical histories, and morgue reports...you name it, it's there. Using that network of info, I'd say that the terrorists might even know more about this town than we do." He shook his head in amazement. "I don't know how he does it but Crazy Man is making Willow's computer sing like a bird."
Stacy shook her head, clearly bothered by something. "I don't understand, Al. That brings us right back to Willow. What was so different about her that made them take her?"
Lenox glanced at his wife. "I can think of one thing that makes her
unique." He drank some of his coffee. "Willow is friends with the Slayer."
"Buffy Summers?" Stacy inquired. She frowned. "I still can't believe that Buffy is the Slayer, Michael. When I first saw her, well...she's just a child. Like Willow."
Lenox finished his coffee and set the cup down onto the coffee stand.
"Well, this child is a Slayer. We need to find Buffy and Alexander." He looked at Stacy. "Sooner or later, they're going to come looking for Willow. They'll know something is wrong when she doesn't show up for class."
"School's already begun," Stacy told him.
Suddenly, the phone rang.
They looked at her.
Resolved, Lenox picked up the phone. He knew it would not be the terrorists calling. They were not after a ransom. They had already taken what they wanted and now they were up to something else.
So it had to be...
"Hi," greeted a young girls voice. "This is Buffy. Is Willow there?"
Lenox cleared his throat. "Buffy. No...Willow isn't here."
There was a pause. "Mr. Rosenberg?"
"No...I'm Michael Lenox."
"Oh! I remember you. Your wife went to school with Willow's Mom. Willow thinks you guys are cool."
He paused in thought as he glanced at Stacy. "She does?"
"Yes! She says that you do laundry for the government. Spy stuff! Like James Bond, only without the British accent and the shaken, not stirred drink." She paused on the phone. "Or is that stirred, not shaken?"
Lenox looked from Stacy to Barrington. He wanted to know how on earth did Willow know that he worked for the government. To Buffy, he said, "Listen, Buffy. My wife and I need to see you and Alex. We have to talk."
"We do?" Buffy paused. "Is this spy stuff?"
He hesitated. "Yeah. You could say that."
"Okay...but don't call Xander Alex. He doesn't like that."
Lenox shrugged. "Consider it done."
There was a pause. "Mr. Lenox...is there something wrong?"
He hesitated. "Where can we meet you?"
"We'll be at the library. Besides...someone left a video on my doorstep this morning. We'll watch it until you arrive."
"That's fine. We're on our way."
He hung up.
Then he realized what Buffy had just said. "Oh, God..."
Stacy looked at him with concern. "Michael, what is it?"
"Someone left a video on Buffy's doorstep."
Lenox and Stacy headed out the door and for the car. Barrington went to see if William "Crazy Man" Fronk needed any help.
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"This is not happening!!" Cordelia Chase screamed.
Xander Harris nearly jumped from his seat at the table as he had been trying to study from a history text bigger than a boom-boom box. "Cordy!" he hissed. "Oh, Mighty Queen of the Paint-By-Nails Club! This is a library!" He put a finger before his lips. "Shush!"
Cordelia pouted and showed him her nails. "But...I just broke a nail!"
Buffy Summers, who had been rummaging through her bag at the table, rolled her eyes. "Is that all?"
Cordelia shot her a venomous look.
"Oh...I mean..." Buffy hesitated. Then, she shrugged her shoulders and
smiled innocently. "Oh, darn. I hate when that happens."
"Easy for you to say, Buffy!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Your nails aren't as important as mine. After all, you chip and break your nails every time you throw a stake. But I have a life! Men adore me." She looked at her broken nail with dismay. "Now I have been marred for life!"
Buffy looked at Xander and rose her eyebrows as if to say, "Get a life,
girlfriend."
Xander looked at Buffy and shook his head. "It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine."
Buffy grinned and rummaged some more through her bag.
Cordelia nodded angrily at Xander. "Oh, sure! Make fun of me! You don't need nails!"
Xander rolled his eyes. "Cordy, why cry over one broken nail? Use a
different finger to reach those hard to reach bouger-baddies. Or wait until your broken nail grows a-new, then go to town on yourself."
She glared daggers at him. "Oh...You!!...You!!!"
"Me! Me! Me!" He threw his hands up into the air. "The truth comes out. It's always about you, Cordy, isn't it?" Before Cordelia could make a reply, Xander turned to Buffy curiously. "What are you digging in there so furiously for, Buffy? Cordy-Repellant Spray?"
Cordelia continued to glare at him.
Buffy shook her head. "No, I'm just looking for a tape. I figured we'd watch it while we waited for the Lenox' to arrive."
"Ooh...goody!" Xander rubbed his hands together. "A porno flick. What have you brought for us, Buffy? 'Cordy Does Sunnydale'?" He slapped his forehead. "I'm sorry. What am I saying? That's not a porno! That's a horror flick!"
"If you don't stop that," Cordelia warned, shaking her finger at him,
"you're going to regret it!"
Buffy found the tape and pulled it out of her bag. "I honestly don't know what's on this tape, Xander. I found it on my doorstep this morning."
Xander frowned. "You did?"
Buffy nodded.
Xander slowly rose to his feet and moved toward Buffy. All the while, his eyes were glued to the videotape in Buffy's hand. He held out his hand. Usually, Buffy would ignore him, but there was such intensity about the way he held his hand out and looked at her that she found herself handing the tape over to him. She was suddenly concerned. She didn't like the look on Xander's face.
Cordelia sensed the sudden demeanor from Xander and she was just as
concerned.
"Xander..." Buffy began softly, "you're wigging me out."
Xander held up the videotape in his hand. The his eyes found Buffy's and he held her gaze. "I've known Willow for all of my life, Buffy. My God...I should have seen this coming."
"Xander...what is it? Seen what coming?"
"Willow didn't show up here at the library for study after school yesterday. 'Okay,' we say. 'She's visiting with family and friends.' But we didn't call her to find out for sure." He swallowed. "I didn't call. Buffy...I always call...but not this time." He took a deep breath. "When the night drags on and we find ourselves at the Bronze...still no sign of Willow. And still...I don't call her. No, no. Because I'm too busy dancing on the dance floor with Cordy and having way too much fun."
Buffy looked at him with growing concern. "Xander..."
"Then she doesn't show up for school this morning and you call her home. Not me. You. And this Lenox guy, some friend of Willow's family, answers the phone. 'Willow is not home,' he says to you. 'We need to talk.' This coming from a guy who Willow has told us works for the United States Government, and if Willow told us that, then you know it's true!" He held up the tape. "Then this morning, you found this tape on your doorstep! Which means that someone must have put it there during the night or early morning hours. The question begs to be asked, Buffy...Why?!"
Buffy had found that she had been holding her breath. "Oh, my God...you don't think that...?" She couldn't finish.
Xander was furious.
Buffy and Cordelia looked at him with concern. Neither one of them had ever seen him so furious.
"If what I think is on this tape...is really on this tape..." Xander took a deep breath before continuing, "then there isn't a vampire, demon, witch, bug-eyed bastard, bad breath, stinking, foul, soul cursing, bad-ass monster within a thousand miles around Sunnydale that will be safe from my wrath!" He looked at them with determination. "Because nobody...NOBODY messes with my Willow!"
Any other time, Buffy might have laughed...but this was no laughing matter and Xander was dead serious. All she could think about was that if something had happened to Willow, then it was her fault. She should have been there for her.
Rupert Giles, the librarian and otherwise known as the Watcher, and Jenny Calendar, techno pagan computer teacher, had walked in at the tail end of Xander's speech. They both had the impression that something was terribly wrong.
"Buffy..." Giles began calmly as he looked from Xander to Cordelia and
finally to Buffy, "what is it? Why do you all look a-as if the world has stopped turning?"
Buffy just looked at him.
Xander moved past Giles without a word and headed for the back where Giles had his office and another room for conferences. It wasn't a very large room, but it did have a TV and VCR player, and that's what he was after. Buffy and Cordelia followed right after him, and Giles gave a stunned look at Jenny. She squeezed his arm and nodded her head toward the room, suggesting that they should tag along. The two went in after them.
Xander turned the power on the TV and the VCR player, and then he popped in the tape.
He picked up the remote and stared at it. Finally, with grim resolve, he pressed play. Behind them, Lenox and Stacy entered, but no one turned to see them. They were all intent on the screen.
A man with a dark beard was glaring back at them from the TV screen.
Xander scowled. "Who the hell is this guy?"
/"Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," the man began, "I know who you are. You can call me the Speaker!"/
Buffy sat down, stunned. "He knows who I am!" She was incredulous.
/"I represent the Iranian Liberation Front. We are fighting against you paganistic American infidels of Satan! Your reign on this earth will end. Soon! And you will see that you yourself will be the instrument of your own destruction!"/
"My God..." Jenny looked at Buffy. "This man is a terrorist! Where did this tape come from?"
Buffy shrugged. "It was on my doorstep this morning." She scowled at the Speaker. "A terrorist can't be any worst than a vampire."
She was wrong.
/The man on the screen said, "We have Willow Rosenberg and she will very soon meet her death. Make no mistake! She will die! But how she dies will depend on either you, Buffy Summers...or this Angel...or you, Alexander Harris!"/
Now they couldn't take their eyes off the screen.
The scenery changed. They saw Willow tied to a chair. They saw the look of fear on her face. They watched as she struggled in vain to break free from her bonds.
/"I haven't done anything to anyone..." Willow said softly. "I'm just a girl. Well, I call Principal Snyder Mr. Nazi...but...well...he is mean."/
/"Do you always talk to yourself, Willow?"/
The look of fear and helplessness in Willow's eyes was like a knife blade stabbing into the hearts for everyone who was watching the tape. Xander's fists were closed so tight, his knuckles were white.
/"Uh...only when I'm scared, cuz...talking seems to help."/
Buffy moved her chair closer to Xander as tears welled up in her eyes. But they couldn't turn away from the screen. They watched the interview in complete silence. Xander was usually tough, and his face betrayed nothing except for the hardness in his eyes and the single tear that traced down his cheek. But that tear didn't fall until Willow revealed her secret.
It wasn't really a secret, but Xander had never heard it from Willow's lips.
Not like this.
/"Do you like Xander, Willow?"/
/She nodded dreamily. Willow was under the influence of the truth serum.
"Yeah...a lot...only...it's not exactly 'like' 'cuz it's more like love..."/
/"You love Xander?"/
/"Yeah...a lot...but..." She frowned. "Xander likes Cordelia...That isn't fair because I like Xander a lot more than he thinks he likes Cordelia...And what has she got that I haven't got anyway?...I love Xander...I always have...always will..."/
/"Willow...if you had to live in this world without Xander, could you?"/
/Tears formed in her eyes. "Live?...without Xander?..." She shook her
head. "No...I'd...I'd rather die than live without him...Please don't take my Xander..." She began to cry./
The rest was about the Hellmouth and Willow telling the Speaker that only Xander, Buffy, and Angel knew the exact location of the Hellmouth. Then the screen went blank...until the Speaker returned.
/"Allow me to show you the kind of night your friend spent here with us," the Speaker said./
A new scene appeared. Two terrorists were standing before a closed door. They were holding clubs and each of them was beside large crude barrels. They began to bang on the barrels with enough noise to raise the dead. The scene then switched to something new. Willow was laying on a cot, curled into a ball. It was clear that her wrists were bound together and the twine was looped and tied to the headboard of her cot. She was screaming.
/"Make it stop! Make it stop!"/
In that tiny room, the racket had to have been unnerving.
There were other scenes. Each scene, when one of the terrorists would enter the room, Willow would try to huddle into her corner as far as she could go. They never touched her, but she was clearly terrified by her captors.
In one scene, a terrorist brandished a knife in front of Willow's face.
/"See this knife?" he snarled. "This knife has the name of Xander on it! This knife will spill his blood...after he confesses that he never had any feelings for you accept pity!" The terrorist turned and looked right into the camera. "This Xander never truly cared for such a pitiful girl as yourself!"/
When he left the room, Willow had fallen apart.
/The Speaker returned. "Come to me, Buffy Summers! Alexander Harris!
Angel! Don't let her suffer alone! Don't let her die alone."/
The tape seemed to come to its conclusion.
That was good enough for Xander. He rewound the tape to a close up of the Speakers face, and he then paused the tape. Then, before anyone could stop him, he got up and put his fist through the Speakers face and through the television screen.
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TO BE CONTINUED...