&&&&&&&&&
The Bronze
10 pm

Buffy and Charlotte had been fighting Adam for an hour, and he wasn't
even showing any signs of wearing down. Suddenly, he turned his back
on the Slayers and went to where Giles and Willow were sitting. Angel
was watching, and reached them before Adam did.

He had an axe in his hand and threw it at Adam. It lodged in Adam's
shoulder, and Adam lunged at Angel. Angel had been prepared,
remembering Cordelia's warning. His dive to Adam's left as he threw
the axe saved him from being stabbed through the heart by a few
inches. Adam did manage to stab him, but the poker went into Angel's
left shoulder, instead.

Buffy charged Adam. He was prepared, and turned to block her sword
thrust with his poker. Charlie ran up from his left side and swung her
axe, but he sensed her approach and backhanded her. She went flying
toward the front door.

Charlotte fell against a vampire that was attacking Graham, and all
three went tumbling to the ground. She leaped up and grabbed the
vampire by the hair pulling him off Graham. Forrest shot him with a
tranquilizer gun, and Charlotte dropped the unconscious vampire.

"That would be one option," Charlotte shrugged, retrieving her axe
from where she'd dropped it. "This would be a better one," she added
as she decapitated the vampire. "That's the fun thing about vampires,
no bodies to dispose of," she said as she walked away from the pile
of ashes to assist her fellow Slayer.

Buffy had moved to the opposite end of the floor, luring Adam further
away from Willow and Giles. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that
Forrest and the Initiative commandos were still managing to keep other
demons from entering the Bronze from the front door. She looked behind
Adam, and saw that Angel and the others were at the back of the
Bronze, covering the back entrance. Doyle was seeing to Angel's
wound, and she was relieved to see that he looked okay. Charlotte
returned to her side, and Buffy said, "I'm still not done yet, if you
don't mind?"

Charlotte shrugged, and replied, "Go crazy." She moved away far enough
to stay out of Buffy's way, but close enough to help quickly if Buffy
needed her.

"Why don't you fight like a real man, instead of cheating?" Buffy
taunted. "Don't think you can take me? I'm just a girl, after all.
What are you afraid of???"

"Afraid?" Adam retorted. "That's funny. I could take you
with....what's the phrase? One hand tied behind my back."

"Yeah, yeah. You couldn't defeat either me _or_ Charlie in hand-to-
hand combat," Buffy said.

"What, you mean without this?" Adam grabbed the poker with his other
hand and ripped it out of his arm. Throwing it across the room, he
said, "I don't need that to kill you."

"Okay. First, I just have to say I've seen some gross things in my
time as Slayer, but that was by far one of the grossest. Second,
unlike some people, I don't cheat," and she threw her sword to the
ground a few feet away.

"Buffy!" Angel yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"I'll be fine, Angel," she said. She didn't look at him, keeping her
eyes on Adam. "Trust me." She ran at Adam, and kicked him in the
stomach. He barely flinched, but instead grabbed her leg, twisting it.
To avert a broken leg, she twisted her body with it. She landed on her
stomach and rolled, quickly avoiding him as he bent down to grab her.
She kicked down with her heel on the back of his knees and sent him
sprawling on the floor.

"Now this is more a fair fight," she said with a grin. She jumped to
her feet and waited for him to get up. He did, and he was
grinning. "What's so funny?" she said, looking around warily.

"You are," Adam said haughtily. "You think you can defeat me. But you
have no idea the power I have within my grasp." At that moment,
Forrest, Graham and the other commandos collapsed, unconscious, as
five men in black robes walked into the Bronze.

"Like I said, Adam, cheating again," Buffy said, shaking her head in
disgust.

"To borrow another one of you people's phrases, 'all is fair in love
and war'," Adam replied.

"I really wish you'd stop with the cute little sayings. Because when
you say them, they lose their cuteness forever," Buffy said. She
turned, distracted as the men began to chant. "What
the--"

Buffy was interrupted as Willow screamed and grabbed her head,
slumping to the floor in the fetal position.

Oz ran to her as she continued to scream. "Stop them!" He yelled at
Buffy, and pointed at the men.

"You suck in every possible suckable way," Buffy yelled at Adam, and
then turned to Charlotte. "Could you take over for a few? I have some
warlocks to kill."

"Sure," Charlotte replied. "Have fun."

"Oh, I plan to," Buffy said grimly. She picked up her sword, and
walked to the men. Doyle and Wesley joined her. She took the warlocks
by surprise with her sudden attack as she swung her sword, beheading
the one nearest her. The others turned on her, and she too fell to
her knees, screaming and holding her head as Willow had.

"Buffy!" Angel yelled, and ran to her, a panicked expression on his
face. Wesley threw a chair at the Warlocks, succeeding in breaking
their concentration. Angel picked Buffy up and he and Wesley met the
others were standing. "What do we do?" Angel asked, as held the still-
screaming Buffy in his arms. Oz and picked up Willow, she was still
in obvious torment, as well.

"We have to get out of here, is what we do," Doyle replied. "We'll all
end up like these two if we don't. He's won this round. Let's just cut
our losses before it's too late to try again."

Charlotte heard them and said, "Get out, all of you! I'll be right
behind."

"But--" Doyle started to protest, and Charlie raised her hand to cut
him off. "Don't argue, Doyle. Just go!"

"Doyle, please!" Angel pleaded. Buffy's screams of pain were tearing
him apart, and it showed in his face. Oz was as panicked as well due
to Willow's state.

Doyle took pity on them, and nodded. "Fine, but what do we do about
the soldiers?"

Cordelia had picked up Oz's crossbow, and sent the occasional arrow at
the warlocks, keeping them from returning to their black magic. "You,
me, Wes and Giles can get them out," she said. "Let's go now,
before another one of us gets attacked by whatever spell those guys
tried."

"Giles?" Wesley turned to the Watcher. "Let's go!"

Giles shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. "Sorry. I was
trying to remember if there was a way to stop this," he said, waving
toward Willow and Buffy. I can't think of it."

"We'll find it," Wesley said. "I think we should go back to your place
and barricade ourselves in for now," he added, as the group ran to the
door.

Cordelia shot another arrow as they reached the door, sending the
warlocks retreating. She covered the exit as Giles, Doyle, and Wesley
pulled the unconscious soldiers out of the building. "Charlotte!" she
yelled. "Outside, now!"

"Yes ma'am," Charlie grinned, and ran out the door, Cordelia close
behind. "Hey, I have an idea," she said. She knelt down beside
Forrest, and reached into his vest pocket. She turned to Cordelia,
and said, "You didn't see me do this."

Before Cordelia could react, Charlie pulled the pins out of the two
grenades and threw them inside.

They looked at her for a moment in shock, and then piled into the car.
Giles drove away as The Bronze exploded.


&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
11:30 pm
Giles' Apartment

The gang reached Giles' apartment and got inside with minor slaying.
Oz and Angel carried the two girls inside. They
hadn't stopped screaming, and nobody could get them to respond.

"Do something!" Angel yelled at Giles, as he held Buffy. "It's
killing them, and it's killing me and I'm sure Oz, to watch it," he
said, an anguished expression on his face. Willow was curled up on
one end of the couch, and Angel held Buffy as he sat on a chair. Oz
was sitting on the floor, stroking Willow's hair, trying to calm
her. "What he said," Oz added.

"Look, yelling won't help!" Giles yelled back, jumping up. "Wesley
and I have to find the counter-spell. It will take time."

Wesley started leafing through a book, and said, "I've located the
spell that they used, thanks to Tara's black magic books that Willow
took two months ago. Now all we have to do is ascertain how to
reverse it."

Doyle and Cordelia came into the room, having located all of the
weapons Giles had in the house. They piled them on the table in front
of the couch. "Well, at least we'll be ready for Adam when he comes
back," Doyle said.

"Not if I get him first," Charlotte said angrily and ran out before
anyone could stop her.

"Charlotte!" Doyle yelled, and ran to the door, but the girl had
already disappeared down the street.

"What did the Warlocks do to them?" Angel asked Giles, who was looking
over Wesley's shoulder at the book.

"I...you don't want to know that," Giles said, looking up at
Angel. "It won't do anything to help them."

"Tell me," Angel insisted. "Wesley, please," he begged the other man.

"It's a curse," Wesley said, sighing. "Quite ancient, and rare, due to
the extreme malicious intent. The main theme of the curse is that all
the torments of hell are visited on the subject for as long as they
live." He looked away, unable to withstand the expression on Angel's
face.

Angel looked down at Buffy. She was too far gone to see him. "As long
as they live." He took a shaky breath and asked, "It will kill them?"


"Buffy's got incredible strength, being the Slayer," Giles
replied. "As for Willow, she has become quite a powerful wicca."

"You didn't answer my question," Angel said. "I need to know."

Neither of the men answered, looking at each other silently. "Hello?"
Oz spoke then. "He asked a question, and it's one I want an answer to
as well. Worst-case, Giles. What if we can't break the curse?"

Giles removed his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. "Worst
case... According to the book, the curse has only been cast
twice. One of the risks of the curse is that the person who speaks it
will be cursed as well, if he or she is not powerful enough to protect
themselves. That is why the curse is used so seldomly.

"In the earlier cases, both victims were Slayers. I guess that the
forces of darkness get a kick out of visiting the torments of hell on
Slayers. One of the young women jumped in a river and drowned herself
within hours. The other was placed in a sanitarium. Her Watcher had
been killed, so she had nobody to protect her. She withstood the
torment for a week, but she then slipped into unconsciousness. She
died two weeks after the curse."

He looked at Angel, and then Oz, sadly. "I assure you, I have no
intention of letting either of those things happen to Buffy or
Willow. We'll find the counter-spell, and we will save them."

"But what will be left if you do?" Angel whispered.

Cordelia shivered and retreated to the kitchen. Doyle followed
her. "You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"The screaming is just getting to me. I can't even imagine--"

"Hey," Doyle pulled her into his arms. "It's upsetting to all of us.
You haven't had the best night either, though. How many visions?"

She pulled back, and smiled up at him. "I lost count. I've still got a
killer migraine, but I'll survive. I was luckier than they were."

"Have you tried to call Xander?" he asked.

"And tell him what?" Cordelia replied. "It would do nothing but upset
him." She sighed, and continued, "I know, I should call him anyway.
I'm just being a wimp."

"Where's your cellphone?"

"Out there in my purse," she pointed to the living room.

"I'll get it," Doyle said, and went out to get it. He handed it to
her, and said, "Sooner you get it over with, the sooner it's done."

"Okay, here goes nothing," Cordelia shrugged.

"Do you want some privacy?" Doyle asked.

"No. I definitely need you here for moral support, if you don't mind,"
Cordelia replied.

"I never mind, Princess," Doyle said, and put his arm around her,
offering all the support he could.

Cordelia dialed the number, and waited.

"Xander, it's me....Oh, you are? Well, that's a good thing." She
winced, and said, "Yes, that's Willow you hear...Xander calm
down....Xander, please pull over so I can talk to you.... I've had an
awful day and listening to you get in a wreck won't make it better,
that's why!....Okay, thank you....We're at Giles' apartment....
Because a doctor won't help!.....Will you please please listen and I
will _tell_ you what's wrong?!....

"Short story, and I'll fill in the rest later if you want. Adam went
on a rampage and started killing people. We ended up at the
Bronze, and Giles and Willow were going to perform a paralyzing spell
on Adam. Unfortunately, Adam had some warlock friends, and they did a
curse on Willow to stop the spell. They also cursed Buffy, when she
tried to stop them from hurting Willow.

"We got out of there as fast as we could, and now we're at Giles'
place. They're trying to figure out how to reverse the curse right
now.....What kind of curse?....uh, I don't know?"

She brushed away the tears that had rolled down her cheeks and
said, "I can't, Xander, it won't do you any good to know, anyway.
Just get back on the highway and get here as fast as you can....Be
careful....What? No I will _not_ give her that message. Don't even
talk like that, she'll still be here when you get back. So you can
tell her yourself.....Bye."

She ended the call, and said, "He's devastated, of course. He blames
himself, even though that's ridiculous. Nobody could have stopped what
happened tonight. I didn't even see it coming. What's the good of
those stupid visions if they don't help you protect your friends?" she
demanded and burst into tears.


&&&&&&&&&
End of part 8