Sunnydale
Doyle's Apartment
3:30 pm
"Charlie!" Doyle yelled, but Cordelia held him back. At that moment, a
wall of fire sprang up between Adam and the others, effectively
blocking Adam from harming them further. Doyle and Cordelia stood
motionless in shock, but Charlie wasn't taking the reprieve for
granted. She stumbled to her feet shakily and gasped, "Inside! Now!"
pushing the others to the door.
Adam, meanwhile, had stubbornly tried to continue his attack, getting
badly burned several times before deciding to retreat with a parting
roar of anger. Cordelia looked back and saw him running back down the
street. *Yeah, but how long before he decides he's bored again,* she
wondered.
When they got inside, Doyle shoved a large bookshelf against the door.
Charlie slumped down to sit against the wall, pressing her hand to the
wound to try to stop the bleeding. Doyle crouched down next to her,
and checked her wound. "We have to get you to the hospital," he said.
Charlie opened her mouth to argue, but at the look on his face thought
better of it.
Cordelia saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Willow fall
to the floor in a faint. "Willow!" she ran over to the girl, and
pulled her onto the couch, "Willow?" she checked her pulse to be sure
that Willow was okay. "What is going on here?" Cordelia directed at
Doyle.
"My guess is that we owe Willow for the pyrotechnics," Doyle replied.
"But how--"
"I'm familiar with the spell, but it's really difficult." Doyle
answered. "I wouldn't have thought she had the power in her. Any spell
that powerful really drains the person who performs it, but she'll be
okay. Call Giles and warn him and Wesley that they might be next on
the Adam agenda. Tell him that we're going to take Charlie to the
hospital, they can meet us there if they think it's safe."
"What about Willow? We can't leave her here," Cordelia said, while
dialing Giles' number.
"She'll come out of it soon," Doyle said. He went to the kitchen to
grab a towel and knelt down next to Charlotte, trying to stop the
bleeding.
"Giles said they'll come over here and keep an eye on Willow. He said
he thinks she'll wake up soon, but she'll be weak," Cordelia said as
she hung up the phone.
Doyle walked over to Willow, and checked her pulse. It was still
strong, a good sign. Willow stirred then, and opened her eyes. "Well
hello, there. You should warn us next time you're going to throw fire
like that," Doyle teased her.
"It was a sudden inspiration, and besides, I wasn't sure it would
work," Willow replied, sitting up. "How'd I get inside?"
Cordelia smiled and said said, "I think we kinda shoved you inside,
and then you fainted."
"Fainted?" Willow replied. "I don't faint!" she insisted.
"Sure, you just decided to take a little nap," Charlotte said
sarcastically. "On the floor," she added.
"Where's Adam?" Willow asked, looking around apprehensively.
"He went running off," Cordelia answered. "Hopefully in a different
direction than the one Giles and Wesley will be coming from."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Paris
1 am
Drusilla and Spike returned to their house after hunting. "Had enough,
Pet?" Spike asked.
"Mm, yes," she said with a smile, sitting down on the couch. "Why does
European blood taste so much better?"
"Classier people, I guess," Spike shrugged, lighting a cigarette. "I
just love that we can hunt the way we were made to. Not having to
worry about blonde girls with stakes or giant rampaging hybrid demons
with an attitude. While we're here, I've got a little business to
take care of. Something that will help us both."
He walked over to a stack of books that he kept on a nearby table, and
leafed through it. "Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned Paris, Drusilla.
These books say we'll find the very thing I've been looking for for
years right here. Something that will make the remainder of our un-
lives very fun."
"What's that?" Drusilla asked.
"It's a surprise, Dru," Spike teased, his eyes sparkling.
"For me?" she said hopefully.
"This is for both of us, Dru. When I find it, we'll go back to the
Hellmouth, and I'll finally be the Master vampire of that town. And no
Slayer will be able to stop us," he said.
"Will?" Drusilla walked up to him and put her arms around his neck,
smiling up at him.
"Yes, Pet?"
"Is it later yet?" she said, pressing a kiss to his lips.
"Wha-- Oh," Spike's eyes darkened with desire as he remembered his
remark before they had left to hunt. "Yeah," he said. He stood,
picking her up and kissing her before adding, "it's most definitely
later," as he carried her to the bedroom.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Sunnydale Hospital
5 pm
Giles, Wesley, Oz and Willow arrived at the hospital. They found
Charlotte's room, and Doyle and Cordelia were sitting outside. "Is she
okay?" Willow asked Doyle.
"The doctors are amazed that she's healing so fast," Doyle replied
with a smile. "She's got four of them in there right now asking her
all kinds of questions. So, other than being incredibly irritated
with all the attention, yeah, she's fine."
"How about you, Willow?" Cordelia asked.
"I'm fine," Willow replied. "Embarrassed at passing out like that--"
"Don't be!" Cordelia interrupted. "You got rid of Adam, that was so
amazing!"
Willow smiled, and looked to where Giles and Wesley were standing
behind her. "Giles still gave me the 'being careful and cautious with
magic' lecture."
Giles was saved from defending himself by the sound of Charlotte's
voice. "Guys!" she yelled.
"What's wrong, kid?" Doyle said as he and the others went into the
room. Charlie had a horrified look on her face, she pointed at the TV
above his head. They looked up, and she turned up the sound.
The television news program showed the center of town, but it wasn't a
pleasant sight. Several buildings were on fire, and cars were
overturned along the street. The reporter began to speak, "This Rita
Malone, reporting from the center of Sunnydale. The street you're
looking at is Main Street, although you may not recognize it right
now. Just in the last hour, we've started to receive reports of a
group of men who have gone through the center of town attacking
people, breaking windows of the local businesses, overturning cars,
setting fires. We've been told that there are ten people dead so far,
although we can't get confirmation on that yet. The men are who are
doing these terrible acts have been able to withstand any attempts by
the local law enforcement agencies to stop them so far."
"I can't watch anymore," Charlotte said, angrily turning it off. She
tried to get out of bed, but Doyle went to stop her, grabbing her arm.
"Doyle, if you think I'm staying here, while that creature Adam
destroys this town and kills half the population, you've got another
thing coming."
"What the hell are you going to do about it?!" Doyle yelled. "Run out
there, find him and get yourself killed? That's not going to help
anyone!"
"I can't do _nothing_!" Charlotte yelled back. She shook off Doyle's
grip on her arm, and jumped out of bed on the other side. Oz blocked
her at the exit.
"Don't do it, Charlotte," he said quietly.
"What is wrong with you people! We've wasted two months talking
about how to stop Adam, and it hasn't gotten us any closer to stopping
him. I'm going to go out there, and trust my Slayer instincts to tell
me how to stop him. Something I, Buffy and I, should've done a long
time ago. She tried to push Oz out of the way, but he didn't
budge. "Dammit, Oz! Move!" she yelled.
Before she could charge Oz again, though, Doyle grabbed her around the
waist, holding her arms to her side. "Doyle! Let go!" she yelled,
struggling to free herself.
"Charlotte, calm down," Doyle said. "Or I'll get those doctors back in
here to make you calm down."
"You wouldn't," Charlotte replied.
"Don't tempt me," Doyle warned. "I got to watch you get skewered once
already today, I have no intention of letting that happen twice. Now
if I let you go will you go sit down?"
Charlotte nodded, and he released her. She went and sat on the edge of
the bed, and glared at Doyle. "Now what?" she said through her gritted
teeth.
"Charlotte," Giles said, "I think it's safe to say that the Initiative
have started to mobilize and do their part to stop Adam and whatever
demons have been assisting him today. I don't think they can stop
him, but I do think they can make life more difficult for him for the
time being.
"Wesley, Willow and I were discussing a possible way to destroy Adam
earlier today. I had dismissed it as being unlikely to work, but I now
think I was wrong...."
&&&&&&&&&&&
L.A.
Angel's apartment
5:30 pm
Angel and Buffy were napping when Angel's cellphone rang. "Don't do
it," Buffy mumbled sleepily as she felt Angel move to answer it.
"I have to," Angel said, but she tried to hold him back, unconvinced.
"Buffy, the only people who have that number only use it in
emergencies," Angel added. Buffy immediately released him, wondering
what emergency had ruined their weekend together this time.
"Yeah," Angel answered. "Cordy, hi....What?"
Angel turned away from Buffy, but she caught the worried look on his
face and silently began getting dressed.
"When?" Angel continued to question Cordelia. "Is she okay? What about
Willow?"
"What's wrong with Willow!" Buffy demanded, grabbing the phone from
him. "Cordy? What's wrong with Will?"
"She's fine, Buffy," Cordelia answered. "Look, we don't have a lot of
time to waste, so I can't give you the long story. But short story: we
had a run in with Adam. Charlie got hurt, Willow saved us. Now Adam's
going around town killing people and destroying everything in his
path. How soon can you come back?"
"We're out the door right now," Buffy said, in a resigned tone of
voice. When she ended the call, she looked to Angel and said, "Well,
that was a fun normal day while it lasted. But I gotta go, so--"
"I'm coming," Angel replied.
She thought about arguing, but it didn't seem that she had time to
waste doing that, according to Cordelia. "Fine," she nodded.
"I'll drive," Angel called after her as she headed up the stairs.
&&&&&&&&&
Holiday Inn
Kansas City, Kansas
8 pm
Anya and Xander were sitting on the bed of their latest hotel room
eating pizza. "So why Kansas?" Anya asked.
"Seemed like it might be a good place to stay for a while," Xander
shrugged. "I'm sure I can find a job somewhere for a while.
Construction or something. Why not?"
"Just curious as to why we just backtracked."
"We didn't backtrack," Xander replied. "I never claimed to have a
plan, Anya." He reached over and grabbed the remote. "Wait a second,
that looks like...."
"--not sure exactly who is responsible for this destruction and
the...well, reports are twenty-five murders so far. But let's hope the
true count is much less, considering this just started a couple of
hours ago. The good news is that the military has responded to this
situation, although we're not sure how they responded so fast, or
where they came from. Reports are that these soldiers, well-armed and
trying their best to stop this assault on the town, appeared as
suddenly as this group of murderers."
The other news anchor broke in then. "Let's get those people who may
have joined us in the last few minutes up to speed. This is a small
town in California, near Los Angeles, right?"
The reporter answered, "Yes, it's called Sunnydale...."
"What?!" Xander yelled, jumping off the bed, still staring at the
scene unfolding before him on the television.
"Xander, it's Adam," Anya said. "Buffy and that new red-headed Slayer
can stop him--"
"If they could stop him, they wouldn't have let it get this far
already," Xander replied. "Something's wrong."
"Maybe," Anya shrugged and reached for another piece of pizza.
"You aren't upset? Why aren't you upset?" Xander said.
"It's not really my home, Xander. The only reason I stayed in
Sunnydale after I lost my powers was because of you," Anya
replied. "And as for the Slayer, oh sorry, Slayers and the Scoobies,
they were never really my friends. There was a time when you thought
they weren't really yours, either. Have you changed your mind about
that?"
"Huh?" Xander gave her a blank look.
Anya rolled her eyes, "When do you want to leave?" she asked.
"Again, I return to...huh?" he said.
"I'm not going to make this decision for you, Xander," Anya
replied. "If you want to go back to Sunnydale, I'll go with you of
course. Or we can stay here, and let Buffy and that other girl kill
the demons by themselves. It's up to you," she shrugged, and grabbed
another piece of pizza.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
END Four
Doyle's Apartment
3:30 pm
"Charlie!" Doyle yelled, but Cordelia held him back. At that moment, a
wall of fire sprang up between Adam and the others, effectively
blocking Adam from harming them further. Doyle and Cordelia stood
motionless in shock, but Charlie wasn't taking the reprieve for
granted. She stumbled to her feet shakily and gasped, "Inside! Now!"
pushing the others to the door.
Adam, meanwhile, had stubbornly tried to continue his attack, getting
badly burned several times before deciding to retreat with a parting
roar of anger. Cordelia looked back and saw him running back down the
street. *Yeah, but how long before he decides he's bored again,* she
wondered.
When they got inside, Doyle shoved a large bookshelf against the door.
Charlie slumped down to sit against the wall, pressing her hand to the
wound to try to stop the bleeding. Doyle crouched down next to her,
and checked her wound. "We have to get you to the hospital," he said.
Charlie opened her mouth to argue, but at the look on his face thought
better of it.
Cordelia saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Willow fall
to the floor in a faint. "Willow!" she ran over to the girl, and
pulled her onto the couch, "Willow?" she checked her pulse to be sure
that Willow was okay. "What is going on here?" Cordelia directed at
Doyle.
"My guess is that we owe Willow for the pyrotechnics," Doyle replied.
"But how--"
"I'm familiar with the spell, but it's really difficult." Doyle
answered. "I wouldn't have thought she had the power in her. Any spell
that powerful really drains the person who performs it, but she'll be
okay. Call Giles and warn him and Wesley that they might be next on
the Adam agenda. Tell him that we're going to take Charlie to the
hospital, they can meet us there if they think it's safe."
"What about Willow? We can't leave her here," Cordelia said, while
dialing Giles' number.
"She'll come out of it soon," Doyle said. He went to the kitchen to
grab a towel and knelt down next to Charlotte, trying to stop the
bleeding.
"Giles said they'll come over here and keep an eye on Willow. He said
he thinks she'll wake up soon, but she'll be weak," Cordelia said as
she hung up the phone.
Doyle walked over to Willow, and checked her pulse. It was still
strong, a good sign. Willow stirred then, and opened her eyes. "Well
hello, there. You should warn us next time you're going to throw fire
like that," Doyle teased her.
"It was a sudden inspiration, and besides, I wasn't sure it would
work," Willow replied, sitting up. "How'd I get inside?"
Cordelia smiled and said said, "I think we kinda shoved you inside,
and then you fainted."
"Fainted?" Willow replied. "I don't faint!" she insisted.
"Sure, you just decided to take a little nap," Charlotte said
sarcastically. "On the floor," she added.
"Where's Adam?" Willow asked, looking around apprehensively.
"He went running off," Cordelia answered. "Hopefully in a different
direction than the one Giles and Wesley will be coming from."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Paris
1 am
Drusilla and Spike returned to their house after hunting. "Had enough,
Pet?" Spike asked.
"Mm, yes," she said with a smile, sitting down on the couch. "Why does
European blood taste so much better?"
"Classier people, I guess," Spike shrugged, lighting a cigarette. "I
just love that we can hunt the way we were made to. Not having to
worry about blonde girls with stakes or giant rampaging hybrid demons
with an attitude. While we're here, I've got a little business to
take care of. Something that will help us both."
He walked over to a stack of books that he kept on a nearby table, and
leafed through it. "Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned Paris, Drusilla.
These books say we'll find the very thing I've been looking for for
years right here. Something that will make the remainder of our un-
lives very fun."
"What's that?" Drusilla asked.
"It's a surprise, Dru," Spike teased, his eyes sparkling.
"For me?" she said hopefully.
"This is for both of us, Dru. When I find it, we'll go back to the
Hellmouth, and I'll finally be the Master vampire of that town. And no
Slayer will be able to stop us," he said.
"Will?" Drusilla walked up to him and put her arms around his neck,
smiling up at him.
"Yes, Pet?"
"Is it later yet?" she said, pressing a kiss to his lips.
"Wha-- Oh," Spike's eyes darkened with desire as he remembered his
remark before they had left to hunt. "Yeah," he said. He stood,
picking her up and kissing her before adding, "it's most definitely
later," as he carried her to the bedroom.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Sunnydale Hospital
5 pm
Giles, Wesley, Oz and Willow arrived at the hospital. They found
Charlotte's room, and Doyle and Cordelia were sitting outside. "Is she
okay?" Willow asked Doyle.
"The doctors are amazed that she's healing so fast," Doyle replied
with a smile. "She's got four of them in there right now asking her
all kinds of questions. So, other than being incredibly irritated
with all the attention, yeah, she's fine."
"How about you, Willow?" Cordelia asked.
"I'm fine," Willow replied. "Embarrassed at passing out like that--"
"Don't be!" Cordelia interrupted. "You got rid of Adam, that was so
amazing!"
Willow smiled, and looked to where Giles and Wesley were standing
behind her. "Giles still gave me the 'being careful and cautious with
magic' lecture."
Giles was saved from defending himself by the sound of Charlotte's
voice. "Guys!" she yelled.
"What's wrong, kid?" Doyle said as he and the others went into the
room. Charlie had a horrified look on her face, she pointed at the TV
above his head. They looked up, and she turned up the sound.
The television news program showed the center of town, but it wasn't a
pleasant sight. Several buildings were on fire, and cars were
overturned along the street. The reporter began to speak, "This Rita
Malone, reporting from the center of Sunnydale. The street you're
looking at is Main Street, although you may not recognize it right
now. Just in the last hour, we've started to receive reports of a
group of men who have gone through the center of town attacking
people, breaking windows of the local businesses, overturning cars,
setting fires. We've been told that there are ten people dead so far,
although we can't get confirmation on that yet. The men are who are
doing these terrible acts have been able to withstand any attempts by
the local law enforcement agencies to stop them so far."
"I can't watch anymore," Charlotte said, angrily turning it off. She
tried to get out of bed, but Doyle went to stop her, grabbing her arm.
"Doyle, if you think I'm staying here, while that creature Adam
destroys this town and kills half the population, you've got another
thing coming."
"What the hell are you going to do about it?!" Doyle yelled. "Run out
there, find him and get yourself killed? That's not going to help
anyone!"
"I can't do _nothing_!" Charlotte yelled back. She shook off Doyle's
grip on her arm, and jumped out of bed on the other side. Oz blocked
her at the exit.
"Don't do it, Charlotte," he said quietly.
"What is wrong with you people! We've wasted two months talking
about how to stop Adam, and it hasn't gotten us any closer to stopping
him. I'm going to go out there, and trust my Slayer instincts to tell
me how to stop him. Something I, Buffy and I, should've done a long
time ago. She tried to push Oz out of the way, but he didn't
budge. "Dammit, Oz! Move!" she yelled.
Before she could charge Oz again, though, Doyle grabbed her around the
waist, holding her arms to her side. "Doyle! Let go!" she yelled,
struggling to free herself.
"Charlotte, calm down," Doyle said. "Or I'll get those doctors back in
here to make you calm down."
"You wouldn't," Charlotte replied.
"Don't tempt me," Doyle warned. "I got to watch you get skewered once
already today, I have no intention of letting that happen twice. Now
if I let you go will you go sit down?"
Charlotte nodded, and he released her. She went and sat on the edge of
the bed, and glared at Doyle. "Now what?" she said through her gritted
teeth.
"Charlotte," Giles said, "I think it's safe to say that the Initiative
have started to mobilize and do their part to stop Adam and whatever
demons have been assisting him today. I don't think they can stop
him, but I do think they can make life more difficult for him for the
time being.
"Wesley, Willow and I were discussing a possible way to destroy Adam
earlier today. I had dismissed it as being unlikely to work, but I now
think I was wrong...."
&&&&&&&&&&&
L.A.
Angel's apartment
5:30 pm
Angel and Buffy were napping when Angel's cellphone rang. "Don't do
it," Buffy mumbled sleepily as she felt Angel move to answer it.
"I have to," Angel said, but she tried to hold him back, unconvinced.
"Buffy, the only people who have that number only use it in
emergencies," Angel added. Buffy immediately released him, wondering
what emergency had ruined their weekend together this time.
"Yeah," Angel answered. "Cordy, hi....What?"
Angel turned away from Buffy, but she caught the worried look on his
face and silently began getting dressed.
"When?" Angel continued to question Cordelia. "Is she okay? What about
Willow?"
"What's wrong with Willow!" Buffy demanded, grabbing the phone from
him. "Cordy? What's wrong with Will?"
"She's fine, Buffy," Cordelia answered. "Look, we don't have a lot of
time to waste, so I can't give you the long story. But short story: we
had a run in with Adam. Charlie got hurt, Willow saved us. Now Adam's
going around town killing people and destroying everything in his
path. How soon can you come back?"
"We're out the door right now," Buffy said, in a resigned tone of
voice. When she ended the call, she looked to Angel and said, "Well,
that was a fun normal day while it lasted. But I gotta go, so--"
"I'm coming," Angel replied.
She thought about arguing, but it didn't seem that she had time to
waste doing that, according to Cordelia. "Fine," she nodded.
"I'll drive," Angel called after her as she headed up the stairs.
&&&&&&&&&
Holiday Inn
Kansas City, Kansas
8 pm
Anya and Xander were sitting on the bed of their latest hotel room
eating pizza. "So why Kansas?" Anya asked.
"Seemed like it might be a good place to stay for a while," Xander
shrugged. "I'm sure I can find a job somewhere for a while.
Construction or something. Why not?"
"Just curious as to why we just backtracked."
"We didn't backtrack," Xander replied. "I never claimed to have a
plan, Anya." He reached over and grabbed the remote. "Wait a second,
that looks like...."
"--not sure exactly who is responsible for this destruction and
the...well, reports are twenty-five murders so far. But let's hope the
true count is much less, considering this just started a couple of
hours ago. The good news is that the military has responded to this
situation, although we're not sure how they responded so fast, or
where they came from. Reports are that these soldiers, well-armed and
trying their best to stop this assault on the town, appeared as
suddenly as this group of murderers."
The other news anchor broke in then. "Let's get those people who may
have joined us in the last few minutes up to speed. This is a small
town in California, near Los Angeles, right?"
The reporter answered, "Yes, it's called Sunnydale...."
"What?!" Xander yelled, jumping off the bed, still staring at the
scene unfolding before him on the television.
"Xander, it's Adam," Anya said. "Buffy and that new red-headed Slayer
can stop him--"
"If they could stop him, they wouldn't have let it get this far
already," Xander replied. "Something's wrong."
"Maybe," Anya shrugged and reached for another piece of pizza.
"You aren't upset? Why aren't you upset?" Xander said.
"It's not really my home, Xander. The only reason I stayed in
Sunnydale after I lost my powers was because of you," Anya
replied. "And as for the Slayer, oh sorry, Slayers and the Scoobies,
they were never really my friends. There was a time when you thought
they weren't really yours, either. Have you changed your mind about
that?"
"Huh?" Xander gave her a blank look.
Anya rolled her eyes, "When do you want to leave?" she asked.
"Again, I return to...huh?" he said.
"I'm not going to make this decision for you, Xander," Anya
replied. "If you want to go back to Sunnydale, I'll go with you of
course. Or we can stay here, and let Buffy and that other girl kill
the demons by themselves. It's up to you," she shrugged, and grabbed
another piece of pizza.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
END Four