Disclaimers, et al, in Part 1 --
*******************
IN HARM'S WAY
by Yahtzee
Yahtzee63@aol.com
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Part 5
"Alive? Buffy's alive?" Willow gasped, jumping to her feet.
Giles clutched Spike's arm. "Are you quite sure?"
"Yeah, positive," Spike said. "Should be able to get her back in a jif --"
His words were cut off when Willow flung herself at him and wrapped him in an enthusiastic embrace, then stepped back, somewhat abashed. Giles sank back into his chair, wearing an expression of the profoundest relief. Even Anya's face had lit up. Xander shook his head and said, "Spike, all those nasty things I've said about you? I take -- three of 'em back."
Preening in the unaccustomed light of approval, Spike elaborated, "Yeah, looks like Harmony and that lot have Buffy locked up."
"Harmony?" Willow said. "She's involved in this?"
"Apparently she's making like the ringleader --"
"Harmony?" Xander repeated. "Can't be. Harmony couldn't organize anything more complex than her earring collection."
"Maybe she just organized the trip to the mall," Willow said. "But what's happening with Buffy?"
"They've got her locked up and drugged. Tranquilizers, you see?" Spike said. "Keeps her from fighting back."
"Why drug her?" Giles said. "Rather, why drug her and then keep her alive? Do they want something from us?"
"They've got what they want," Spike said. "A Slayer who can't fight them, and a guarantee that no other Slayer's going to show up and ruin the party."
"Of course," Giles said. "If Buffy were killed, they would run the risk of another Slayer taking her place in Sunnydale. But by keeping her captive, they remove the threat entirely."
"Plus they get snacks," Spike said.
"What do you mean?" Willow said.
Giles looked pale again. "They're -- feeding from her?"
"Keeps her weak. Makes them strong," Spike said.
Xander swore under his breath. Willow put one hand over her mouth, but did not speak.
Giles shook his head. "This is -- repellent. Hideous. Evil, and yet ingenious."
"Thank you," Spike said.
"Beg pardon?" Giles said.
"Well, you didn't think Harmony came up with something that bright, did you?" Spike said. "Hell, no. That was my plan."
The room was quiet for a long minute. Then Xander said slowly, "You mean -- this is something you were planning to do to Buffy."
"Yep," Spike said easily. "After that whole Gem-of-Amarra fiasco, I was ready for some quality revenge, you know? I'd come up with the idea before, more for larks than anything else. Didn't mean to spend all that much time in Sunnydale, but it was something to tell Harmony about. It was about the only thing that would make her shut up about going to sodding France."
"France?" Anya said.
Spike ignored her. "Anyway, I came back here, ready to get my act together and go, and then the commandos got me. You know the rest of the story --"
"You were going to do this to Buffy," Xander repeated, and Spike realized that the blankness he had taken for the Scooby Gang's usual slack-jawed incomprehension was, in fact, only the first stage of intense anger. "You were gonna chain her up and feed off her, Spike? That your big plan?"
"You bastard," Giles hissed.
"Hey, that was before the new Spike-and-Scoobies alliance," Spike said, looking uneasily at the wooden spoons still sticking out of Xander's coat pockets. "Water under the bridge, right?"
Willow sobbed once, a small, broken sound. Giles stepped close and took Spike's collar in his fist. "Where -- are -- they?"
"I'd planned on using the high school," Spike said quickly. "Only place in town nobody goes anymore."
"Thanks ever so," Giles said, then pointed at the door. "Now get out."
"Get out?" Spike said. "Are you mad? You're going to need my help --"
"You've helped enough," Xander said. "Go before one of us wises up enough to stake you dead. Er."
Spike stood there for a minute, hands on his hips. "This is a fine howdoyado. I save your asses repeatedly, not to mention the asses of tons of stupid, innocent mouth-breathers at the mall. Then I come back and explain what's happened to your Slayer, and you're all up in arms about some big talking I did months ago --"
"Don't start counting off all the good stuff you've done," Willow snapped. "You're not going to convince us you're the good guy here, no matter how hard you try."
Spike's jaw dropped, and he looked at her for a moment in pure horror. Then he spun on his heel and stalked out into the night.
The others remained in silence for a moment; Giles was the first to speak. "Right, then. We've got to move against the vampires at the high school. How many were at the mall?"
"Somewhere between two and three dozen," Anya said. "I think the three of us took out a little more than a dozen."
"Good," Giles said, moving quickly to his chest of weapons and kneeling to open it. "They would not have left Buffy unguarded. We'll operate under the presumption that there are two dozen vampires at the school."
"Yeesh," Willow said. "Slayerless, that's not gonna be easy --"
"Time to call Angel," Xander said evenly.
"You want me to --"
"That's okay, Willow. I'll call," Xander said, going to the phone.
Giles looked up at Willow. "Even with Angel's help, we'll be at a disadvantage. If you could think of any spells that could assist us --"
Willow smacked the side of her head. "Oh, so dumb. Of course! A sleep spell -- not so effective on individuals, but really good for crowds. The energy from each person, like, reverbs -- okay. Too much detail. But, I'm just saying, good spell, really obvious spell, stupid not to think of it right away."
"No," Giles said, managing to smile as he stood and touched her shoulder. "You're right on time."
Xander, meanwhile, was drumming his fingers on the desk as the phone rang. He steeled himself for the outrage that was likely, once he told Angel they'd let Buffy get hurt.
Instead, he next heard the recorded voice of his ex-girlfriend. "Angel Investigations! We help the hopeless. If that's you, leave a message after the tone."
"Cordy -- hey. It's Xander. Listen, we have trouble, big trouble, and we need Angel up here pronto. It turns out Buffy's been taken prisoner. There's all these vampires, and they've got her, like, locked up at the old high school. It seems like Harmony's in charge of it all, though I kinda doubt it -- uh, did we mention that Harmony's a vampire now? Sorry if that was a shock. But she is. And Buffy's in trouble. And we're going to get in that high school as soon as we can, and there's about two dozen vampires in there, so some Angel help would be real nice right about now. Call when you get this. Or just get Angel here as soon as you get this. Right. Thanks. Bye."
Xander hung up and glanced over at Willow. "So, was I poised? Confident?"
"Very," Willow said. Anya had an expression on her face that suggested she had just remembered how close Xander and Cordelia used to be.
Giles said, "Willow, what do you need to perform this spell?"
"Just have to know the incantation, that's all," she said. "And I do."
"Then we have two options," Giles said. "Angel was out, yes? That means we do not know when he will get our message. It would normally take him about two hours to get here, and I would be willing to wait that long. But longer -- " Giles shook his head as if to clear it. "We can wait for Angel to get our message and arrive, even though that may be many hours. That option is safer. Or we can move right now, trust our abilities, take our chances."
Xander squared his shoulders. "Willow's got the knowhow, and I've seen you throw a punch. I say we go for it."
Willow nodded. "Me too. I couldn't -- keep breathing -- knowing Buffy's trapped in there."
Anya said, "I'm the only one who wants to wait for Angel, right?"
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Angel were here," Xander said. "All the same, I can't sit here on my hands waiting for the guy to check his voicemail."
"He just seems like a very large, glowery, effective person," Anya said. "Ideal for this sort of occasion."
"True and true," Xander said. "But Buffy's in trouble right this minute."
"That settles it," Giles said. "Let's go."
They arrived at the high school around 8 o'clock at night. Anya had a crossbow, Giles a broadsword, and Xander a hefty stake and a few leftover spoons. Willow's hands were empty, though she was, Giles knew, as well-armed as any of them -- with words instead of weapons. Yet she clutched briefly at the tiny bundle of herbs she wore around her neck.
"I thought you said you needed no tools for the spell,"Giles said.
"This isn't for the spell, exactly," Willow said. "It's just something my friend Tara gave me. It's a kind of positive-energy thingy. Like a RAM doubler for magic." Willow looked at him carefully for a moment, then sighed. "You were with me on the spells, but I lost you at the RAM doubler, right?"
"Ah. Yes. It's not germane to our work here tonight?"
"Nope," Willow said. "Now, where in the high school would they be?"
"The library's toast," Xander said. "We all saw that for ourselves. Lotta ceiling gone there, lotta daylight coming in."
"From the looks of things, that's true for pretty much the whole building," Anya said.
"Look at it," Willow said softly. "We spent four years of our life here -- I mean, so much stuff happened here. And it's just in ruins. Like it never was."
"Time -- takes everything, eventually," Giles said, slowly. He was looking at a tipped-over, chipped stone bench and remembering a brown-bag-and-thermos lunch there with Jenny Calendar, which seemed to have taken place in another lifetime. "It gives us new people, new experiences, but it always destroys the past."
"And sometimes we help it along with a few hundred pounds of TNT," Xander said. "Think, people. Are they gonna be underground? I'm so not amped on our chances down in the basement, but at least I've done some exploring down there --"
"With Cordelia," Anya muttered. Xander folded his arms across his chest.
"Yeah, but the basement was pretty torn up by the blast, too," Willow said. "But look at the gym -- it's a little crispy around the edges, but it's pretty much in shape."
"It's worth investigating," Giles said.
They walked through the courtyard (where Willow first kissed Oz, where Xander asked Buffy to the prom), beneath the belltower (where Jonathan had tried to die), around the principal's office (where Snyder's face still stared from a few charred plaques) and toward the gym. They were all quiet; Giles wondered if the younger ones were, as he was, caught between the urgency of the moment and the memories of the past -- all rendered painful by the stark desolation around them.
Not that many of the memories needed much help to be painful, he thought, as they walked by the classroom that had been hers.
For her part, Willow was caught up in her own reverie. She saw different memories, but more memories than reality, at least until the two collided. As they approached the gym, Willow whispered, "Do you hear something?" Sure enough, music was playing -- not loudly, just somebody's portable stereo, cranking out the tunes. Willow flushed a little as she realized the tape was a homemade dub of a Dingoes show; that was Oz's guitar echoing slightly in the dark. "Okay, somebody's home."
Giles murmured, "Are we certain these are the vampires?"
Xander hissed, "Giles, take a look at this place, will you? Nobody's hanging here unless they really like the whole death-and-destruction vibe."
"Doesn't matter anyway," Willow said. "The sleep spell works on humans or vampires. A few of them will probably slip through, but we should be able to handle that, right?"
"We shall see," Giles said, with an encouraging smile. "How long will the spell give us?"
"About half an hour."
"More than enough," Xander said, gripping his stake a little more tightly. "It's showtime."
Willow lifted her hands and began chanting softly: "Everan, melathan, summoned hence --" She felt the energy begin to swirl within her, around her, charging the air. Her hair fluttered in the created breeze, her skin tingled --
Her eyes opened wide. Something was wrong, very wrong --
The energy spun out of control in an instant. It crashed back into her, searing skin, jarring bone, oh god ripping through her --
She screamed, the sound torn from her, as the energy exploded all around them, knocking them all through the air and onto the ground. And for a long, unknowable time, everything was white with sound and pain --
Giles heard Xander cry out, "Willow?" He fought to catch his breath; he'd landed hard and flat a few feet from Xander, who was scrambling to Willow's side. Anya had already pushed herself upright, but blood was trickling down the side of her face. Willow was shaking as though in the throes of a seizure.
Worse than all of this was the laughter he heard from the gym -- laughter that was coming closer.
"I think they took the bait," someone said, as the gym door opened.
"We gotta run," Xander said.
Giles, who had struggled to his knees, pushed Xander toward Anya. "The two of you get out of here. I've got Willow."
"But you need help --"
"Xander, Anya, run!" Giles said, giving Xander a harder push. Xander obeyed, grabbing Anya's hand as he got to his feet and started running.
"Where are we going?" Anya panted.
"The Citroen," Xander said. "God, that guy has got to find another getaway car."
Giles picked Willow up and tossed her over his shoulder, ignoring the muscles that were already shrieking in protest. Insensible, she trembled against him. He glanced behind him; the vampires were rounding the corner, cutting him off from the quickest way to the car. "Damn," he muttered as he ducked into the nearest building.
He hurried down the hallway, hoping against hope the vampires would not follow. Just as he turned into a different corridor, he heard the doors open again, followed by the muted sound of laughter. Where to go, what to do --
The back doors to the auditorium were near, and Giles hurried through them. At least this provided him with a few passages and cubbyholes -- places they could possibly hide, or better yet, places vampires could possibly get lost. Quickly, he stoooped to grab a vaguely stake-like piece of wood. He had dropped beloved broadsword outside, where the vampires pursuing them probably found it.
Not a comforting thought.
The auditorium had been decimated out front, but backstage seemed almost intact. The velvet curtains, though worn from exposure to weather, still hung there. Giles moved through them as quickly and quietly as he could. After a few moments, he realized Willow's shaking had stilled. "Willow?" he whispered.
"Giles?" she murmured. "Where are we?"
"Hiding," he said simply. She took the hint to be silent. He hurried through the red curtains, back behind the stage, through the lighting area. Electrical cords lay there, doing their inanimate best to trip him up as he tried to balance Willow's weight on his shoulder and move up the shaky steps toward the back door.
A dull thud from the front of the stage announced that at least one vampire had tracked them this far.
Giles hesitated at the door; opening it would make noise, tip off their pursuers, but there was nothing for it now. Just fling it open and run, he told himself. God willing, you can get Willow to the car --
But the car was all the way around the building, and Willow seemed like dead weight on his middle-aged body, and there were a few more thuds on the stage --
To hell with it, he thought, and burst through the door.
Down the steps, running, feet sliding slightly in the gravel lot behind the auditorium, every step jarring him, his own ragged breath louder in his ears than the sound of the vampires crashing through the door behind them --
And then the Citroen zoomed into the lot. The lights were on, and the horn was blaring; the car still didn't look impressive, but it was, apparently, surprising. Giles glanced behind him to see the pursing vampires standing still in shock, then realizing that the driver -- a very angry-looking Anya -- had no intention of hitting her brakes before she smashed into them. They leapt out of the way at the last possible moment. Most of them made it, but one made a very satisfying smack against the bumper before flying off out of the headlights' glare.
"Giles!" Xander yelled from the passenger seat. "Get in here!"
"The thought had occurred to me," Giles panted, staggering forward. Xander opened the door and grabbed Willow, dragging her into the back seat. Giles clambered in next to Anya, who hit the gas and pulled them out of the parking lot, even as more vampires ran up. Although Giles was pretty sure his car moved faster than a vampire, he was relieved to see that none of them were in pursuit.
"Wil, you okay?" Xander said.
Willow leaned against his shoulder, still unable to sit up on her own. "I think so."
"However did you start the car?" Giles said, checking for and finding his keys in his pocket.
"I can hotwire," Anya said simply. "Came in handy as a vengeance demon. A lot of guys are very attached to their cars. Sometimes, all the girls would ask me to do is smash the car into a tree or something. Not exactly challenging, but kinda satisfying, all the same."
"Should I drive?" Giles asked.
Willow had recovered enough to speak in something approaching her normal tone of voice. "Giles, what was that?"
"An anti-magic charm," Giles said. "Designed to charge the energy in a location, make the mystical forces more -- chaotic. Virtually guarantees that any spell in a given area will go wrong."
"How come you never told me about those?" Willow said tiredly.
"They're rare. Only a very few people know how to do them. Actually, I once had a book that explained the spell --" Giles' voice trailed off.
"Which book was that?" Willow asked.
"That would be the one Spike had stolen from the library," Giles said. "Damn."
"I would never say this to Spike's face, but he's one smart son of a bitch," Xander said. "The emphasis is on the son-of-a-bitch part, but the smart's there too. We have to deal with him, don't we?"
"I believe we must," Giles said. "And we must hurry. The vampires now know that we're coming for Buffy. They'll try and move her as soon as possible."
Or they could simply kill her, he thought but did not say. The game is over, and that's all they have to gain now.
"We must hurry," he repeated.
"Ohmigod, Harm, that anti-magic spell was, like, so amazing," one of the vampires said, tossing her red hair as she spoke.
"Chill out, Aphrodesia," Tess said. "Stop glomming all over Harm for a minute, and think about what this means. They're coming for us."
"They already came," Harm said. "And went away again."
"You don't think they'll come back?" Tess said incredulously.
"We've got other traps," Gregory said.
"They've got other friends," Tess said. "I mean, we can deal with them tonight, maybe tomorrow. But after that? Then what? Wasn't she dating Angelus at one point? I thought I heard that. We haven't got anything here that would stop him -- not if what I've heard is true."
This seemed to sink in to some of the other vampires. For the first time since Buffy's kidnapping, the mood in the room was of uncertainty instead of exhilaration. The vampires all looked to Harm to see what she would say.
And she couldn't think of what to say.
Spike had covered the bases, sure. He'd made her go over the plan often enough, even though he said she'd be lucky if he let her anywhere near the operation. So she'd known what to do at first. But after this point, she got a lot less certain. Spike's backup plan, just in case any of the Slayer's friends got into the school, had been to personally beat them senseless -- something he was still pretty good at, to judge from the fight at the mall. Harm wasn't sure she was up to that. Xander was kind of a wuss, but Willow might be able to figure out an anti-anti-magic spell, and that librarian had always creeped her out.
"Harm?" Gregory said, looking up at her expectantly. Was that disappointment in his face?
"We gotta move," Harm said with far more decisiveness than she felt. "We'll move first thing tomorrow. Right after sundown."
"Move where?" Tess said, arms folded across her chest.
"We have all day to figure it out," Harm said. That seemed to satisfy most of the vampires, and Harm tried to relax. It was all still working out. She just had to go with the moment.
Nearby, Buffy was supposedly unconscious. She was actually just coming to, catching a few phrases here and there. The first words she was able to register and understand were, "We gotta move."
Move, she thought dully. Move. They're taking me away. The others aren't going to be able to find me if they take me away --
And then it hit her, like every horrible, terrible thing she'd ever seen crashing into her at once.
They aren't coming.
They aren't coming for me. I've been here for days and days and days, and they hurt me and they chained me up and they fed off me and they didn't come. Not Giles, not Willow, not Xander --
Not Angel --
Buffy slammed a wall down in her mind, shutting off her terror and her memories, everything besides this moment.
I'm gonna get out of this, she swore silently. I'm just gonna have to do it myself.
CONCLUDED IN PART SIX
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IN HARM'S WAY
by Yahtzee
Yahtzee63@aol.com
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Part 5
"Alive? Buffy's alive?" Willow gasped, jumping to her feet.
Giles clutched Spike's arm. "Are you quite sure?"
"Yeah, positive," Spike said. "Should be able to get her back in a jif --"
His words were cut off when Willow flung herself at him and wrapped him in an enthusiastic embrace, then stepped back, somewhat abashed. Giles sank back into his chair, wearing an expression of the profoundest relief. Even Anya's face had lit up. Xander shook his head and said, "Spike, all those nasty things I've said about you? I take -- three of 'em back."
Preening in the unaccustomed light of approval, Spike elaborated, "Yeah, looks like Harmony and that lot have Buffy locked up."
"Harmony?" Willow said. "She's involved in this?"
"Apparently she's making like the ringleader --"
"Harmony?" Xander repeated. "Can't be. Harmony couldn't organize anything more complex than her earring collection."
"Maybe she just organized the trip to the mall," Willow said. "But what's happening with Buffy?"
"They've got her locked up and drugged. Tranquilizers, you see?" Spike said. "Keeps her from fighting back."
"Why drug her?" Giles said. "Rather, why drug her and then keep her alive? Do they want something from us?"
"They've got what they want," Spike said. "A Slayer who can't fight them, and a guarantee that no other Slayer's going to show up and ruin the party."
"Of course," Giles said. "If Buffy were killed, they would run the risk of another Slayer taking her place in Sunnydale. But by keeping her captive, they remove the threat entirely."
"Plus they get snacks," Spike said.
"What do you mean?" Willow said.
Giles looked pale again. "They're -- feeding from her?"
"Keeps her weak. Makes them strong," Spike said.
Xander swore under his breath. Willow put one hand over her mouth, but did not speak.
Giles shook his head. "This is -- repellent. Hideous. Evil, and yet ingenious."
"Thank you," Spike said.
"Beg pardon?" Giles said.
"Well, you didn't think Harmony came up with something that bright, did you?" Spike said. "Hell, no. That was my plan."
The room was quiet for a long minute. Then Xander said slowly, "You mean -- this is something you were planning to do to Buffy."
"Yep," Spike said easily. "After that whole Gem-of-Amarra fiasco, I was ready for some quality revenge, you know? I'd come up with the idea before, more for larks than anything else. Didn't mean to spend all that much time in Sunnydale, but it was something to tell Harmony about. It was about the only thing that would make her shut up about going to sodding France."
"France?" Anya said.
Spike ignored her. "Anyway, I came back here, ready to get my act together and go, and then the commandos got me. You know the rest of the story --"
"You were going to do this to Buffy," Xander repeated, and Spike realized that the blankness he had taken for the Scooby Gang's usual slack-jawed incomprehension was, in fact, only the first stage of intense anger. "You were gonna chain her up and feed off her, Spike? That your big plan?"
"You bastard," Giles hissed.
"Hey, that was before the new Spike-and-Scoobies alliance," Spike said, looking uneasily at the wooden spoons still sticking out of Xander's coat pockets. "Water under the bridge, right?"
Willow sobbed once, a small, broken sound. Giles stepped close and took Spike's collar in his fist. "Where -- are -- they?"
"I'd planned on using the high school," Spike said quickly. "Only place in town nobody goes anymore."
"Thanks ever so," Giles said, then pointed at the door. "Now get out."
"Get out?" Spike said. "Are you mad? You're going to need my help --"
"You've helped enough," Xander said. "Go before one of us wises up enough to stake you dead. Er."
Spike stood there for a minute, hands on his hips. "This is a fine howdoyado. I save your asses repeatedly, not to mention the asses of tons of stupid, innocent mouth-breathers at the mall. Then I come back and explain what's happened to your Slayer, and you're all up in arms about some big talking I did months ago --"
"Don't start counting off all the good stuff you've done," Willow snapped. "You're not going to convince us you're the good guy here, no matter how hard you try."
Spike's jaw dropped, and he looked at her for a moment in pure horror. Then he spun on his heel and stalked out into the night.
The others remained in silence for a moment; Giles was the first to speak. "Right, then. We've got to move against the vampires at the high school. How many were at the mall?"
"Somewhere between two and three dozen," Anya said. "I think the three of us took out a little more than a dozen."
"Good," Giles said, moving quickly to his chest of weapons and kneeling to open it. "They would not have left Buffy unguarded. We'll operate under the presumption that there are two dozen vampires at the school."
"Yeesh," Willow said. "Slayerless, that's not gonna be easy --"
"Time to call Angel," Xander said evenly.
"You want me to --"
"That's okay, Willow. I'll call," Xander said, going to the phone.
Giles looked up at Willow. "Even with Angel's help, we'll be at a disadvantage. If you could think of any spells that could assist us --"
Willow smacked the side of her head. "Oh, so dumb. Of course! A sleep spell -- not so effective on individuals, but really good for crowds. The energy from each person, like, reverbs -- okay. Too much detail. But, I'm just saying, good spell, really obvious spell, stupid not to think of it right away."
"No," Giles said, managing to smile as he stood and touched her shoulder. "You're right on time."
Xander, meanwhile, was drumming his fingers on the desk as the phone rang. He steeled himself for the outrage that was likely, once he told Angel they'd let Buffy get hurt.
Instead, he next heard the recorded voice of his ex-girlfriend. "Angel Investigations! We help the hopeless. If that's you, leave a message after the tone."
"Cordy -- hey. It's Xander. Listen, we have trouble, big trouble, and we need Angel up here pronto. It turns out Buffy's been taken prisoner. There's all these vampires, and they've got her, like, locked up at the old high school. It seems like Harmony's in charge of it all, though I kinda doubt it -- uh, did we mention that Harmony's a vampire now? Sorry if that was a shock. But she is. And Buffy's in trouble. And we're going to get in that high school as soon as we can, and there's about two dozen vampires in there, so some Angel help would be real nice right about now. Call when you get this. Or just get Angel here as soon as you get this. Right. Thanks. Bye."
Xander hung up and glanced over at Willow. "So, was I poised? Confident?"
"Very," Willow said. Anya had an expression on her face that suggested she had just remembered how close Xander and Cordelia used to be.
Giles said, "Willow, what do you need to perform this spell?"
"Just have to know the incantation, that's all," she said. "And I do."
"Then we have two options," Giles said. "Angel was out, yes? That means we do not know when he will get our message. It would normally take him about two hours to get here, and I would be willing to wait that long. But longer -- " Giles shook his head as if to clear it. "We can wait for Angel to get our message and arrive, even though that may be many hours. That option is safer. Or we can move right now, trust our abilities, take our chances."
Xander squared his shoulders. "Willow's got the knowhow, and I've seen you throw a punch. I say we go for it."
Willow nodded. "Me too. I couldn't -- keep breathing -- knowing Buffy's trapped in there."
Anya said, "I'm the only one who wants to wait for Angel, right?"
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Angel were here," Xander said. "All the same, I can't sit here on my hands waiting for the guy to check his voicemail."
"He just seems like a very large, glowery, effective person," Anya said. "Ideal for this sort of occasion."
"True and true," Xander said. "But Buffy's in trouble right this minute."
"That settles it," Giles said. "Let's go."
They arrived at the high school around 8 o'clock at night. Anya had a crossbow, Giles a broadsword, and Xander a hefty stake and a few leftover spoons. Willow's hands were empty, though she was, Giles knew, as well-armed as any of them -- with words instead of weapons. Yet she clutched briefly at the tiny bundle of herbs she wore around her neck.
"I thought you said you needed no tools for the spell,"Giles said.
"This isn't for the spell, exactly," Willow said. "It's just something my friend Tara gave me. It's a kind of positive-energy thingy. Like a RAM doubler for magic." Willow looked at him carefully for a moment, then sighed. "You were with me on the spells, but I lost you at the RAM doubler, right?"
"Ah. Yes. It's not germane to our work here tonight?"
"Nope," Willow said. "Now, where in the high school would they be?"
"The library's toast," Xander said. "We all saw that for ourselves. Lotta ceiling gone there, lotta daylight coming in."
"From the looks of things, that's true for pretty much the whole building," Anya said.
"Look at it," Willow said softly. "We spent four years of our life here -- I mean, so much stuff happened here. And it's just in ruins. Like it never was."
"Time -- takes everything, eventually," Giles said, slowly. He was looking at a tipped-over, chipped stone bench and remembering a brown-bag-and-thermos lunch there with Jenny Calendar, which seemed to have taken place in another lifetime. "It gives us new people, new experiences, but it always destroys the past."
"And sometimes we help it along with a few hundred pounds of TNT," Xander said. "Think, people. Are they gonna be underground? I'm so not amped on our chances down in the basement, but at least I've done some exploring down there --"
"With Cordelia," Anya muttered. Xander folded his arms across his chest.
"Yeah, but the basement was pretty torn up by the blast, too," Willow said. "But look at the gym -- it's a little crispy around the edges, but it's pretty much in shape."
"It's worth investigating," Giles said.
They walked through the courtyard (where Willow first kissed Oz, where Xander asked Buffy to the prom), beneath the belltower (where Jonathan had tried to die), around the principal's office (where Snyder's face still stared from a few charred plaques) and toward the gym. They were all quiet; Giles wondered if the younger ones were, as he was, caught between the urgency of the moment and the memories of the past -- all rendered painful by the stark desolation around them.
Not that many of the memories needed much help to be painful, he thought, as they walked by the classroom that had been hers.
For her part, Willow was caught up in her own reverie. She saw different memories, but more memories than reality, at least until the two collided. As they approached the gym, Willow whispered, "Do you hear something?" Sure enough, music was playing -- not loudly, just somebody's portable stereo, cranking out the tunes. Willow flushed a little as she realized the tape was a homemade dub of a Dingoes show; that was Oz's guitar echoing slightly in the dark. "Okay, somebody's home."
Giles murmured, "Are we certain these are the vampires?"
Xander hissed, "Giles, take a look at this place, will you? Nobody's hanging here unless they really like the whole death-and-destruction vibe."
"Doesn't matter anyway," Willow said. "The sleep spell works on humans or vampires. A few of them will probably slip through, but we should be able to handle that, right?"
"We shall see," Giles said, with an encouraging smile. "How long will the spell give us?"
"About half an hour."
"More than enough," Xander said, gripping his stake a little more tightly. "It's showtime."
Willow lifted her hands and began chanting softly: "Everan, melathan, summoned hence --" She felt the energy begin to swirl within her, around her, charging the air. Her hair fluttered in the created breeze, her skin tingled --
Her eyes opened wide. Something was wrong, very wrong --
The energy spun out of control in an instant. It crashed back into her, searing skin, jarring bone, oh god ripping through her --
She screamed, the sound torn from her, as the energy exploded all around them, knocking them all through the air and onto the ground. And for a long, unknowable time, everything was white with sound and pain --
Giles heard Xander cry out, "Willow?" He fought to catch his breath; he'd landed hard and flat a few feet from Xander, who was scrambling to Willow's side. Anya had already pushed herself upright, but blood was trickling down the side of her face. Willow was shaking as though in the throes of a seizure.
Worse than all of this was the laughter he heard from the gym -- laughter that was coming closer.
"I think they took the bait," someone said, as the gym door opened.
"We gotta run," Xander said.
Giles, who had struggled to his knees, pushed Xander toward Anya. "The two of you get out of here. I've got Willow."
"But you need help --"
"Xander, Anya, run!" Giles said, giving Xander a harder push. Xander obeyed, grabbing Anya's hand as he got to his feet and started running.
"Where are we going?" Anya panted.
"The Citroen," Xander said. "God, that guy has got to find another getaway car."
Giles picked Willow up and tossed her over his shoulder, ignoring the muscles that were already shrieking in protest. Insensible, she trembled against him. He glanced behind him; the vampires were rounding the corner, cutting him off from the quickest way to the car. "Damn," he muttered as he ducked into the nearest building.
He hurried down the hallway, hoping against hope the vampires would not follow. Just as he turned into a different corridor, he heard the doors open again, followed by the muted sound of laughter. Where to go, what to do --
The back doors to the auditorium were near, and Giles hurried through them. At least this provided him with a few passages and cubbyholes -- places they could possibly hide, or better yet, places vampires could possibly get lost. Quickly, he stoooped to grab a vaguely stake-like piece of wood. He had dropped beloved broadsword outside, where the vampires pursuing them probably found it.
Not a comforting thought.
The auditorium had been decimated out front, but backstage seemed almost intact. The velvet curtains, though worn from exposure to weather, still hung there. Giles moved through them as quickly and quietly as he could. After a few moments, he realized Willow's shaking had stilled. "Willow?" he whispered.
"Giles?" she murmured. "Where are we?"
"Hiding," he said simply. She took the hint to be silent. He hurried through the red curtains, back behind the stage, through the lighting area. Electrical cords lay there, doing their inanimate best to trip him up as he tried to balance Willow's weight on his shoulder and move up the shaky steps toward the back door.
A dull thud from the front of the stage announced that at least one vampire had tracked them this far.
Giles hesitated at the door; opening it would make noise, tip off their pursuers, but there was nothing for it now. Just fling it open and run, he told himself. God willing, you can get Willow to the car --
But the car was all the way around the building, and Willow seemed like dead weight on his middle-aged body, and there were a few more thuds on the stage --
To hell with it, he thought, and burst through the door.
Down the steps, running, feet sliding slightly in the gravel lot behind the auditorium, every step jarring him, his own ragged breath louder in his ears than the sound of the vampires crashing through the door behind them --
And then the Citroen zoomed into the lot. The lights were on, and the horn was blaring; the car still didn't look impressive, but it was, apparently, surprising. Giles glanced behind him to see the pursing vampires standing still in shock, then realizing that the driver -- a very angry-looking Anya -- had no intention of hitting her brakes before she smashed into them. They leapt out of the way at the last possible moment. Most of them made it, but one made a very satisfying smack against the bumper before flying off out of the headlights' glare.
"Giles!" Xander yelled from the passenger seat. "Get in here!"
"The thought had occurred to me," Giles panted, staggering forward. Xander opened the door and grabbed Willow, dragging her into the back seat. Giles clambered in next to Anya, who hit the gas and pulled them out of the parking lot, even as more vampires ran up. Although Giles was pretty sure his car moved faster than a vampire, he was relieved to see that none of them were in pursuit.
"Wil, you okay?" Xander said.
Willow leaned against his shoulder, still unable to sit up on her own. "I think so."
"However did you start the car?" Giles said, checking for and finding his keys in his pocket.
"I can hotwire," Anya said simply. "Came in handy as a vengeance demon. A lot of guys are very attached to their cars. Sometimes, all the girls would ask me to do is smash the car into a tree or something. Not exactly challenging, but kinda satisfying, all the same."
"Should I drive?" Giles asked.
Willow had recovered enough to speak in something approaching her normal tone of voice. "Giles, what was that?"
"An anti-magic charm," Giles said. "Designed to charge the energy in a location, make the mystical forces more -- chaotic. Virtually guarantees that any spell in a given area will go wrong."
"How come you never told me about those?" Willow said tiredly.
"They're rare. Only a very few people know how to do them. Actually, I once had a book that explained the spell --" Giles' voice trailed off.
"Which book was that?" Willow asked.
"That would be the one Spike had stolen from the library," Giles said. "Damn."
"I would never say this to Spike's face, but he's one smart son of a bitch," Xander said. "The emphasis is on the son-of-a-bitch part, but the smart's there too. We have to deal with him, don't we?"
"I believe we must," Giles said. "And we must hurry. The vampires now know that we're coming for Buffy. They'll try and move her as soon as possible."
Or they could simply kill her, he thought but did not say. The game is over, and that's all they have to gain now.
"We must hurry," he repeated.
"Ohmigod, Harm, that anti-magic spell was, like, so amazing," one of the vampires said, tossing her red hair as she spoke.
"Chill out, Aphrodesia," Tess said. "Stop glomming all over Harm for a minute, and think about what this means. They're coming for us."
"They already came," Harm said. "And went away again."
"You don't think they'll come back?" Tess said incredulously.
"We've got other traps," Gregory said.
"They've got other friends," Tess said. "I mean, we can deal with them tonight, maybe tomorrow. But after that? Then what? Wasn't she dating Angelus at one point? I thought I heard that. We haven't got anything here that would stop him -- not if what I've heard is true."
This seemed to sink in to some of the other vampires. For the first time since Buffy's kidnapping, the mood in the room was of uncertainty instead of exhilaration. The vampires all looked to Harm to see what she would say.
And she couldn't think of what to say.
Spike had covered the bases, sure. He'd made her go over the plan often enough, even though he said she'd be lucky if he let her anywhere near the operation. So she'd known what to do at first. But after this point, she got a lot less certain. Spike's backup plan, just in case any of the Slayer's friends got into the school, had been to personally beat them senseless -- something he was still pretty good at, to judge from the fight at the mall. Harm wasn't sure she was up to that. Xander was kind of a wuss, but Willow might be able to figure out an anti-anti-magic spell, and that librarian had always creeped her out.
"Harm?" Gregory said, looking up at her expectantly. Was that disappointment in his face?
"We gotta move," Harm said with far more decisiveness than she felt. "We'll move first thing tomorrow. Right after sundown."
"Move where?" Tess said, arms folded across her chest.
"We have all day to figure it out," Harm said. That seemed to satisfy most of the vampires, and Harm tried to relax. It was all still working out. She just had to go with the moment.
Nearby, Buffy was supposedly unconscious. She was actually just coming to, catching a few phrases here and there. The first words she was able to register and understand were, "We gotta move."
Move, she thought dully. Move. They're taking me away. The others aren't going to be able to find me if they take me away --
And then it hit her, like every horrible, terrible thing she'd ever seen crashing into her at once.
They aren't coming.
They aren't coming for me. I've been here for days and days and days, and they hurt me and they chained me up and they fed off me and they didn't come. Not Giles, not Willow, not Xander --
Not Angel --
Buffy slammed a wall down in her mind, shutting off her terror and her memories, everything besides this moment.
I'm gonna get out of this, she swore silently. I'm just gonna have to do it myself.
CONCLUDED IN PART SIX