THE UNSUSPECTING HERO
3
Willow looked around and she was frantic with fear. There was no sign of Warren anywhere. But she was deep in the woods so she knew that it was only a matter of time before he caught up with her.
How could I possibly run? she asked herself, a fearful sob escaping her. He's going to kill me no matter what I do. She realized that if he had more power than she had had, then he already knew exactly where she was and what she was thinking.
At least she could breathe normally again, and that was a plus.
She put her hands to her mouth and sighed with deep relief. That was the scariest sensation she had ever felt when her mouth literally disappeared from her face. She remembered stitching Warren's mouth shut with magic. Unfortunately, he had more tricks up his sleeve for her than she could imagine. Any second now, she was going to experience one of those tricks.
As if on queue, an invisible force picked her up off the ground and threw her into the air. She crashed through branches and twigs, and when she hit the ground, it was hard. Something cracked. She cried out in pain and held her hands against her side. The sudden pain made her see spots when she closed her eyes. She rolled onto the ground and managed to get to her knees.
From where she had been, something was crashing through the woods toward her. Something that she couldn't see.
She tried to get up but the pain shot through her and caused her to fall. She cried out and rolled onto her back, hugging her side in a desperate attempt to make the pain go away. Well, it didn't go away and that invisible force was closer. She clamped her mouth tightly shut and struggled to her feet. As much as she could, she tried to run away.
It was more like hobbling. She wasn't going very far and she knew it. And yet she tried. She moved as quickly as the pain would allow and stumbled along. She went through the woods with branches whipping at her in her haste. Several times she tripped over the uneven ground.
Willow only managed to go a very short distance before she was suddenly picked up from off the ground once again and hurled high into the air. She slammed against a tree and came down hard. Branches snapped and cracked as she went down. When she was finally down on the ground, she cried out once more in renewed agony. Her right arm was broken.
With a few ribs cracked and her arm broken, Willow decided that she wasn't going to run any more. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and put her back against the tree for support.
"Come and get me, you bastard!!" she shouted, tears streaming down her face as she held her broken arm against herself. She looked around in desperation.
"Well, that's disappointing," Warren said from above her.
Startled, she looked up and gasped.
Warren looked down at her and shook his head. "You break too damn easily. But what should I expect from someone as weak and pathetic as you?" He paused. "You were strong, Red. You were the most powerful force on the planet. Even more powerful than your Slayer friend, but you allowed your greatest weakness to overpower you." He smiled and made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "'Love'."
"Wh-what do you know about love?" she demanded.
He reached down to her and grabbed her broken arm. "I 'love' causing you pain." He applied a great deal of pressure to her injury.
Willow screamed from the pain. The pain was so intense, the earth began to spin and she felt nausea overtaking her. But the pain was also a relief for just a short time because it caused her to black out into unconsciousness.
"You son-of-a-bitch!!" someone shouted from a short distance away. It was Xander. "Leave her alone!"
Warren ignored him as he touched Willow's face. "No, you don't, Red. No sleeping."
For a second, Willow's face was illuminated in light. She gasped for air as she opened her eyes. As her eyes took focus, she discovered to her horror that Warren was still leaning over her.
He was smiling with joy. "Now that was a rush, wasn't it? Your scream was like music to my ears. Wanna do it again?"
She was about to say no when he waved his hand over her. Blue lightning flashed from his hand and completely engulfed her body. Willow arched her back uncontrollably and screamed yet again as her body was overcome with waves of searing agony.
Warren stepped back and watched her writhe on the ground. She was broken more than he could possibly imagine. She screamed and cried out for mercy but he had none to give. He smiled as the pain ran its course and eventually left Willow panting on the ground, in between sobs.
He leaned toward her again. "Was that good for you?"
"P-please..." Willow begged. "Please...n-no more..."
"Are you begging me, Red?"
She looked up in desperation. "I-if you want me to b-beg...I-Im begging you...please...d-don't hurt me any m-more..." She sobbed as she lay on the ground.
"But I'm really just beginning to enjoy this. I love it when you scream. I should have brought a tape to record this." He laughed.
Then, he waved his hand.
Suddenly, vines came out of the earth and they grabbed her. Willow was unable to fight against it. The vines tied her between two trees, just like when she had done the same to Warren a year ago. With her arm broken and her ribs cracked, she was in a lot of pain. It showed on her face, and she cried out against the agony. The pain only intensified as the vines stretched her arms out.
Warren leered at her. "Pain looks good on you."
She breathed in hard, watching him with fear in her eyes. She swallowed, but her mouth was dry. "Why don't y-you just kill me?" she asked him.
He wagged a finger at her. "I told you, Red. You're going to die, but you're going to suffer first. Now I have given this a lot of thought. I carefully laid out all of my plans for your eventual death. Now I don't want to spoil everything, but I can tell you this." He smiled at her. "You won't suffer alone." He pointed toward a clearing.
There were Buffy, Giles, Anya, and Xander. They were being held to the ground by vines.
"Willow!" Xander called to her.
"X-Xander!" she called back. New tears began to fall. This time for her friends. "Please, Warren...let them go! I-I'll do anything you ask. Please!"
Warren shook his head and looked at Willow. "Pity. I killed your girlfriend a year ago. Now, I'm about to kill your boyfriend."
"No!" Willow cried. "Noooo! Please, Warren! I-I'll do whatever you say! P-please don't kill him!"
"Oooh, begging again, Red?" He chuckled. "Well, I must say that I like it. I like it a lot." He shrugged. "But...well, I really didn't come here to play the Mercy Game. No. I like bringing pain to the ones that you love." He pointed at Xander. "C'mon over here, Lover boy."
Xander found himself being carried over to Warren and Willow by the vines. When he was there before them, the vines released him and he stood up on shaky feet. Apparently, he had already been given a thrashing of some sort. His face was bruised, and his lip was bleeding.
Willow couldn't take her eyes off Xander.
Xander calmly brushed himself off, looked at Warren as he reigned in his anger, and then he looked at Willow. He flashed her a smile of reassurance. "It'll be okay, Will," he said to her, looking into her eyes. "We'll get out of this."
Willow looked into his eyes and she never wanted to look away again.
Warren looked at them. "Awww...Well, isn't this so sweet. Would you two like me to leave you alone?"
Xander focused his eyes on Warren. "I want you to let Willow go."
"And do you really think I'm just going to 'let Willow go'?" He looked at Xander with disappointment. "That would kind of spoil my purpose for being here, don't you think, Hero-Man?"
"You can't win, Warren."
"Why not? Just because you saved the earth from your little bitch, do you think you're hero enough to stop me?" He laughed. "How in the hell do you think I'm going to lose? Not even the Slayer has the power to stop me now. Do you think you have what it takes to stop me?"
Xander glared at him. He wanted to hit him but he realized that he wouldn't accomplish anything that would help Willow by giving in to anger. "You will be stopped."
Warren raised his eyes. "You really think?" he asked sarcastically. He made a ball of energy appear in his hand. "How about...NOT!" He released the ball.
The ball flew toward Xander and struck him hard in the chest. He fell to the ground and writhed in agony. The ball expanded into some kind of net that engulfed Xander and caused pain to reach every nerve ending. There was no way he could stop it. He screamed.
Buffy, Giles, and Anya struggled in vain against their vines, but it was hopeless.
"Xander!" Willow cried out.
Eventually, the net disappeared, and Xander lay gasping on his back. He gathered as much of his dignity as he could and then he rose to his feet.
Warren watched him, amused.
Xander walked toward him slowly because of the pain he was in and he stopped in front of the conjured dead guy. He dusted himself off once more. "Is that really the best you can do?" Xander asked him. looking him in the eye. He snorted in disgust. "Hell, Warren, I've faced gremlins meaner than you."
Warren's jaw clenched in anger. "The best I can do?" he asked. "You've faced gremlins meaner than me?!" He made another ball of energy. This ball was bigger and it crackled loudly in his hands. He threw it at Xander.
The ball hit him in the stomach and hurled him off the ground. The impact took him over Buffy, Giles, and Anya where across the clearing; a large tree stopped him from going any further. Xander cried out and fell to the ground.
"Xander!" Buffy shouted. "Xander!" She struggled hard against the vines, but she couldn't budge them.
"W-where is he?" Giles asked. "Can you see him?"
Anya shook her head. "I can't see Xander. Buffy...?"
Buffy looked toward where Xander had fallen. She could see only his arm. "I-I think he's lying on his side." She turned to look at the ex-Watcher in dismay. "He's not moving, Giles."
Warren laughed as he turned to look at Willow. "I hope he's still alive," he told her. "This isn't supposed to be this easy." He regarded Willow thoughtfully. Then he snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute. I know what I should do. Do you remember what you did to me? You ripped my shirt open!" He leered at her. "Well, why shouldn't we do that to you? We could--"
"Hey!" Buffy shouted from the clearing. "I crushed your balls of power once...I can do it again!"
Warren turned to look toward his archenemy in the clearing. He held up a finger to Willow. "Give me a moment, would you? I'll be right back."
Willow watched him, wincing from her pain.
He left Willow alone and moved slowly toward Buffy, who was still on the ground bound tightly by the vines. He looked down at her. "You were saying something about crushing my balls again?"
Buffy glared up at him. "Get these vines off from me and I'll kill you myself."
"Don't you have some kind of honor system or some stupid ass code where you aren't allowed to kill another human?" Warren asked with a chuckle.
"Well, technically," Anya began, "since you're already dead, Buffy has the right to make you stay dead."
Warren glared at her. "Except she can't do that because I'm more powerful than she is." He looked down at Buffy and there was hatred in his eyes. He reached down, picked up Buffy by the throat and held her above the ground. "The hell with toying with you, Slayer. I'm just going to kill you now."
Buffy struggled in vain against the vines, but it was no use. If they didn't get some kind of a miracle soon, Warren was going to win after all. He was going to kill them all and there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop him.
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Dawn couldn't understand where Buffy, Giles, or Anya had gone off to. She looked all through the Magic Shop and they just weren't there. Giles' car was still outside, however...but what had happened to them?
She went into the back room again and she just happened to look at the wall mirror because she thought she saw someone standing there.
She blinked. She moved toward the mirror and she stared at her own reflection. She touched the reflection in the mirror...but it wasn't her reflection.
It was Tara's.
Dawn's eyes blurred with tears. "Tara?" She moved closer to the mirror. "What...what's happening? Why is everybody gone, and why am I seeing you in mirror's?"
Suddenly, Tara's reflection reached out and grabbed Dawn.
Startled, Dawn screamed and tried to pull away. But it was too late. The reflection of Tara pulled Dawn into the mirror...and they both vanished. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To Be Continued---
3
Willow looked around and she was frantic with fear. There was no sign of Warren anywhere. But she was deep in the woods so she knew that it was only a matter of time before he caught up with her.
How could I possibly run? she asked herself, a fearful sob escaping her. He's going to kill me no matter what I do. She realized that if he had more power than she had had, then he already knew exactly where she was and what she was thinking.
At least she could breathe normally again, and that was a plus.
She put her hands to her mouth and sighed with deep relief. That was the scariest sensation she had ever felt when her mouth literally disappeared from her face. She remembered stitching Warren's mouth shut with magic. Unfortunately, he had more tricks up his sleeve for her than she could imagine. Any second now, she was going to experience one of those tricks.
As if on queue, an invisible force picked her up off the ground and threw her into the air. She crashed through branches and twigs, and when she hit the ground, it was hard. Something cracked. She cried out in pain and held her hands against her side. The sudden pain made her see spots when she closed her eyes. She rolled onto the ground and managed to get to her knees.
From where she had been, something was crashing through the woods toward her. Something that she couldn't see.
She tried to get up but the pain shot through her and caused her to fall. She cried out and rolled onto her back, hugging her side in a desperate attempt to make the pain go away. Well, it didn't go away and that invisible force was closer. She clamped her mouth tightly shut and struggled to her feet. As much as she could, she tried to run away.
It was more like hobbling. She wasn't going very far and she knew it. And yet she tried. She moved as quickly as the pain would allow and stumbled along. She went through the woods with branches whipping at her in her haste. Several times she tripped over the uneven ground.
Willow only managed to go a very short distance before she was suddenly picked up from off the ground once again and hurled high into the air. She slammed against a tree and came down hard. Branches snapped and cracked as she went down. When she was finally down on the ground, she cried out once more in renewed agony. Her right arm was broken.
With a few ribs cracked and her arm broken, Willow decided that she wasn't going to run any more. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and put her back against the tree for support.
"Come and get me, you bastard!!" she shouted, tears streaming down her face as she held her broken arm against herself. She looked around in desperation.
"Well, that's disappointing," Warren said from above her.
Startled, she looked up and gasped.
Warren looked down at her and shook his head. "You break too damn easily. But what should I expect from someone as weak and pathetic as you?" He paused. "You were strong, Red. You were the most powerful force on the planet. Even more powerful than your Slayer friend, but you allowed your greatest weakness to overpower you." He smiled and made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "'Love'."
"Wh-what do you know about love?" she demanded.
He reached down to her and grabbed her broken arm. "I 'love' causing you pain." He applied a great deal of pressure to her injury.
Willow screamed from the pain. The pain was so intense, the earth began to spin and she felt nausea overtaking her. But the pain was also a relief for just a short time because it caused her to black out into unconsciousness.
"You son-of-a-bitch!!" someone shouted from a short distance away. It was Xander. "Leave her alone!"
Warren ignored him as he touched Willow's face. "No, you don't, Red. No sleeping."
For a second, Willow's face was illuminated in light. She gasped for air as she opened her eyes. As her eyes took focus, she discovered to her horror that Warren was still leaning over her.
He was smiling with joy. "Now that was a rush, wasn't it? Your scream was like music to my ears. Wanna do it again?"
She was about to say no when he waved his hand over her. Blue lightning flashed from his hand and completely engulfed her body. Willow arched her back uncontrollably and screamed yet again as her body was overcome with waves of searing agony.
Warren stepped back and watched her writhe on the ground. She was broken more than he could possibly imagine. She screamed and cried out for mercy but he had none to give. He smiled as the pain ran its course and eventually left Willow panting on the ground, in between sobs.
He leaned toward her again. "Was that good for you?"
"P-please..." Willow begged. "Please...n-no more..."
"Are you begging me, Red?"
She looked up in desperation. "I-if you want me to b-beg...I-Im begging you...please...d-don't hurt me any m-more..." She sobbed as she lay on the ground.
"But I'm really just beginning to enjoy this. I love it when you scream. I should have brought a tape to record this." He laughed.
Then, he waved his hand.
Suddenly, vines came out of the earth and they grabbed her. Willow was unable to fight against it. The vines tied her between two trees, just like when she had done the same to Warren a year ago. With her arm broken and her ribs cracked, she was in a lot of pain. It showed on her face, and she cried out against the agony. The pain only intensified as the vines stretched her arms out.
Warren leered at her. "Pain looks good on you."
She breathed in hard, watching him with fear in her eyes. She swallowed, but her mouth was dry. "Why don't y-you just kill me?" she asked him.
He wagged a finger at her. "I told you, Red. You're going to die, but you're going to suffer first. Now I have given this a lot of thought. I carefully laid out all of my plans for your eventual death. Now I don't want to spoil everything, but I can tell you this." He smiled at her. "You won't suffer alone." He pointed toward a clearing.
There were Buffy, Giles, Anya, and Xander. They were being held to the ground by vines.
"Willow!" Xander called to her.
"X-Xander!" she called back. New tears began to fall. This time for her friends. "Please, Warren...let them go! I-I'll do anything you ask. Please!"
Warren shook his head and looked at Willow. "Pity. I killed your girlfriend a year ago. Now, I'm about to kill your boyfriend."
"No!" Willow cried. "Noooo! Please, Warren! I-I'll do whatever you say! P-please don't kill him!"
"Oooh, begging again, Red?" He chuckled. "Well, I must say that I like it. I like it a lot." He shrugged. "But...well, I really didn't come here to play the Mercy Game. No. I like bringing pain to the ones that you love." He pointed at Xander. "C'mon over here, Lover boy."
Xander found himself being carried over to Warren and Willow by the vines. When he was there before them, the vines released him and he stood up on shaky feet. Apparently, he had already been given a thrashing of some sort. His face was bruised, and his lip was bleeding.
Willow couldn't take her eyes off Xander.
Xander calmly brushed himself off, looked at Warren as he reigned in his anger, and then he looked at Willow. He flashed her a smile of reassurance. "It'll be okay, Will," he said to her, looking into her eyes. "We'll get out of this."
Willow looked into his eyes and she never wanted to look away again.
Warren looked at them. "Awww...Well, isn't this so sweet. Would you two like me to leave you alone?"
Xander focused his eyes on Warren. "I want you to let Willow go."
"And do you really think I'm just going to 'let Willow go'?" He looked at Xander with disappointment. "That would kind of spoil my purpose for being here, don't you think, Hero-Man?"
"You can't win, Warren."
"Why not? Just because you saved the earth from your little bitch, do you think you're hero enough to stop me?" He laughed. "How in the hell do you think I'm going to lose? Not even the Slayer has the power to stop me now. Do you think you have what it takes to stop me?"
Xander glared at him. He wanted to hit him but he realized that he wouldn't accomplish anything that would help Willow by giving in to anger. "You will be stopped."
Warren raised his eyes. "You really think?" he asked sarcastically. He made a ball of energy appear in his hand. "How about...NOT!" He released the ball.
The ball flew toward Xander and struck him hard in the chest. He fell to the ground and writhed in agony. The ball expanded into some kind of net that engulfed Xander and caused pain to reach every nerve ending. There was no way he could stop it. He screamed.
Buffy, Giles, and Anya struggled in vain against their vines, but it was hopeless.
"Xander!" Willow cried out.
Eventually, the net disappeared, and Xander lay gasping on his back. He gathered as much of his dignity as he could and then he rose to his feet.
Warren watched him, amused.
Xander walked toward him slowly because of the pain he was in and he stopped in front of the conjured dead guy. He dusted himself off once more. "Is that really the best you can do?" Xander asked him. looking him in the eye. He snorted in disgust. "Hell, Warren, I've faced gremlins meaner than you."
Warren's jaw clenched in anger. "The best I can do?" he asked. "You've faced gremlins meaner than me?!" He made another ball of energy. This ball was bigger and it crackled loudly in his hands. He threw it at Xander.
The ball hit him in the stomach and hurled him off the ground. The impact took him over Buffy, Giles, and Anya where across the clearing; a large tree stopped him from going any further. Xander cried out and fell to the ground.
"Xander!" Buffy shouted. "Xander!" She struggled hard against the vines, but she couldn't budge them.
"W-where is he?" Giles asked. "Can you see him?"
Anya shook her head. "I can't see Xander. Buffy...?"
Buffy looked toward where Xander had fallen. She could see only his arm. "I-I think he's lying on his side." She turned to look at the ex-Watcher in dismay. "He's not moving, Giles."
Warren laughed as he turned to look at Willow. "I hope he's still alive," he told her. "This isn't supposed to be this easy." He regarded Willow thoughtfully. Then he snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute. I know what I should do. Do you remember what you did to me? You ripped my shirt open!" He leered at her. "Well, why shouldn't we do that to you? We could--"
"Hey!" Buffy shouted from the clearing. "I crushed your balls of power once...I can do it again!"
Warren turned to look toward his archenemy in the clearing. He held up a finger to Willow. "Give me a moment, would you? I'll be right back."
Willow watched him, wincing from her pain.
He left Willow alone and moved slowly toward Buffy, who was still on the ground bound tightly by the vines. He looked down at her. "You were saying something about crushing my balls again?"
Buffy glared up at him. "Get these vines off from me and I'll kill you myself."
"Don't you have some kind of honor system or some stupid ass code where you aren't allowed to kill another human?" Warren asked with a chuckle.
"Well, technically," Anya began, "since you're already dead, Buffy has the right to make you stay dead."
Warren glared at her. "Except she can't do that because I'm more powerful than she is." He looked down at Buffy and there was hatred in his eyes. He reached down, picked up Buffy by the throat and held her above the ground. "The hell with toying with you, Slayer. I'm just going to kill you now."
Buffy struggled in vain against the vines, but it was no use. If they didn't get some kind of a miracle soon, Warren was going to win after all. He was going to kill them all and there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop him.
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Dawn couldn't understand where Buffy, Giles, or Anya had gone off to. She looked all through the Magic Shop and they just weren't there. Giles' car was still outside, however...but what had happened to them?
She went into the back room again and she just happened to look at the wall mirror because she thought she saw someone standing there.
She blinked. She moved toward the mirror and she stared at her own reflection. She touched the reflection in the mirror...but it wasn't her reflection.
It was Tara's.
Dawn's eyes blurred with tears. "Tara?" She moved closer to the mirror. "What...what's happening? Why is everybody gone, and why am I seeing you in mirror's?"
Suddenly, Tara's reflection reached out and grabbed Dawn.
Startled, Dawn screamed and tried to pull away. But it was too late. The reflection of Tara pulled Dawn into the mirror...and they both vanished. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To Be Continued---