Interesting Times
Interesting Times by John Jones

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Part Twenty-Eight

Emily still wore the white dress she'd had on earlier in the evening, although she'd added to her ensemble. She wore the cross that Giles had used to put her to sleep and there were fresh bloodstains on her white dress.

"I'm not tired now, Dolly." she said in that empty, childish voice. "Not the least little bit."

"Tell you what," said Buffy, backing up. "Tomorrow morning I'll take you to a Toy's R Us, there's *plenty* of dollies there."

Emily shook her head, continuing to follow Buffy at a leisurely, measured pace. "I don't wanna *buy* dollies, I wanna *make* them. It's a little messy, but it's *really* fun. I don't even have to use the marker anymore."

"Goody for you." said Buffy, sarcastically.

Clouds built in the sky with supernatural speed. Red-tinted lightning split the sky. A storm was coming.

Buffy turned and ran. There was no way she could fight Emily without something other than a stake. Buffy had seen Belial's men using rocket launchers before, and she remembered how to use them from when she'd defeated the Judge.

"Oh, goody, a race!" Buffy heard Emily say.

Ahead of her, Buffy saw a straggler from the battle, a Black Spiral trying to flee. Buffy dodged around it as it reflexively lashed out at her. The claws came within inches of Buffy's face. She knocked the arm away and it turned to pursue her.

"No!" squealed Emily. "Bad wolfie! You'll scratch up Dolly's face and ruin her skin!" Buffy looked back to see Emily seize the deformed Garou and pull it toward her. With her other dainty-looking hand, Emily grabbed the Dancer's chin and tore its head from its shoulders with a single yank. Blood fountained into the air and soaked her dress. She licked some of it from her face and then tossed the head and body aside.

With a feral gleam in her empty eyes, Emily charged at Buffy. Buffy, trying to distract Emily, threw the stake at her. The stake splintered when it struck her chest, but its force of impact severed the chain holding the cross. The cross tumbled to the ground.

"My cross! You broke it!" shrieked Emily. The insane vampiress glared at Buffy in a rage. "I don't want you to be my dolly anymore! You broke my cross, now I'll break *you!*"

"Great." said Buffy to herself. "Most people go from the frying pan to the fire. I get to go from the fire to the surface of the sun!"

Emily charged at Buffy. Buffy tried to dodge, but Emily was too fast. She swung her hand backward and caught Buffy a glancing blow. The force was still enough to knock Buffy flying backwards. She landed with a grunt and looked beside her. Lying next to her was the cross. She grabbed it.

Buffy tried dangling the cross as she'd seen Giles do. "Um, doesn't the light look pretty, Emily. Like a rainbow, or something."

The furious vampire paid no attention and charged again. Buffy barely rolled away in time. "Forget *that*" she said. She held the cross in a more traditional manner, trying to drive Emily back.

Snarling, Emily turned on her again. Buffy tried to remember some lines from those old vampire movies. It was worth a shot. She had no *other* cards to play. "In God's name, I say get *back*" and shot Emily a glare of determination as a peal of thunder echoed from the sky.

The glare was a mistake. Emily's gaze suddenly trapped Buffy like a fly in amber. "Um, God?" said Buffy to herself. "If you're up there, I could *really* use some help just now!" Buffy looked back at Emily. Despite her own fear, Buffy felt a stirring of pity for the vampire girl, trapped as she was in a form alien and hostile to the faith she'd held in life.

Emily stopped snarling and slowly approached, cocking her head at the cross. The cross caught the floodlights and seemed to be glowing. Emily kept walking, undeterred.

Buffy looked at the cross, still held outstretched in her frozen hand. There was no question now, the cross was actually glowing! Buffy felt a spasm of hope. Hope that died when she saw that Emily kept on coming. The vampire girl was smiling in triumph.

Emily stopped just shy of Buffy and reached out her hands. Buffy would have flinched away, but was held helpless by the girl's will. Emily's cold hands touched Buffy's fist as it gripped the cross.

Buffy glanced at Emily's face. The vampire's head was bowed as if in prayer. Buffy heard whispered words in a language she could not fathom. Emily looked up again, still smiling in victory. Behind her eyes, Buffy seemed to see a trapped, insane thing, screaming in frustration. Emily took the cross from Buffy's hand.

As she did, Buffy felt something like a rushing wind flow past her. The cross was incandescent in Emily's hands, blazing like a miniature sun. Emily pulled it to her chest and hugged it to herself, tears of blood spilling from her eyes. The glow enveloped Emily and she began to fade away.

A whisper caressed Buffy's ears as she felt herself able to move again. Two words. "Thank you." Emily lost form and cohesion as the glow of the cross covered her completely. It seemed to Buffy that, at the last, Emily did not so much dissolve into ashes as ascend into light.

* * *

In Sunnydale, thunderclouds had been gathering through the night. Lightning and thunder flashed and roared. The wind began to howl and rise.

* * *

Willow Rosenberg looked at her screen as lightning sent a power surge through her equipment. The screen fritzed slightly. Willow sighed in annoyance. She logged off the net. "Guess I'd better turn in now. There's a storm coming."

* * *

Rupert Giles put down his Watcher's diaries and rubbed his eyes. He had had this feeling of...dread, throughout the night, but he'd found nothing in the prophecies to explain it. Finally, he picked up the phone to call Buffy. With her mother out of town on a buying trip, Buffy would be alone. So there wouldn't be any need to explain why the librarian was calling at three-thirty in the morning. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered.

* * *

In their current hideout, Angelus paced and cursed. Spike watched in bemusement from his wheelchair and Drusilla sat on the floor, singing and whispering to herself.

"I was just *this* close to having her when this werewolf interfered." explained Angelus for the tenth time.

"Right, mate. Then 'e picked up the Slayer and jumped through a mirror and disappeared. Sounds to me like you drank someone who'd had too much to drink." said Spike in a bored tone.

"I know what I saw, Rollerboy!" said Angelus, gritting his teeth in anger. "And what's Dru mumbling about?"

Spike shrugged indifferently, knowing his lack of visible emotion would annoy Angelus. "She's Dru." He looked at Drusilla. "What're you saying there, pet?"

Drusilla looked up at them with wide eyes. "They're kno-cking, kno-cking and they want to be let in. Someone's come calling. Someone's at the door." She resumed her rocking and singing.

* * *

In the center of an empty construction site that promised the swift arrival of a new mall, nothing stirred. Imbedded within the cement foundation, special runes carved into the rock began to glow and hum. Soon, they seemed to sing, very soon.

* * *

Buffy turned away from the place Emily had faded. She began striding into the rising wind, needing to get back to the sigil being drawn. Then three shapes stepped into her path.

They were in Crinos form, their claws and teeth covered in blood. Their bodies were covered in a greenish rash. They looked at her, hungrily.

Buffy pulled her only weapon, a dagger *not* made of silver.

"I don't suppose we can talk about this, huh guys?" she asked.

They continued to advance, drool dripping from their jaws.

She brandished the knife at them. "Okay, I'm warning you. Back off *right now* or somebody's gonna get hurt!" She gave them her best Slayer glare.

Abruptly, the three backed up, turned and fled away from her. She looked at them with eyes wide in surprise. "Wow!" she said. "I guess I look scarier than I thought."

"I reckon so, little lady." rasped a leathery voice from behind her.

The runes being carved into the soft earth were beginning to shine with a sickly green glow. Abruptly, Belial stopped carving and stood. "Well, shit. Power's out of it. Thought I'd have the power generators and the dish to compensate. Now where am I gonna find some more vampire blood way out here?" he asked aloud.

Melissa hissed into her com unit. "Andru, get me the fuck oughta here now!"

"Tryin' babe. There's an atmospheric wierdness shapin' up down there. The lightning's screwin' with the teleport lock-on." the surfer voice said.

Melissa saw Belial look at her. "Well whadaya know?" he said, smirking. "Seek and ye shall find." He walked toward her, Dagger in hand.

Buffy spun at the sound saw found herself face-to-nose with a pale horse. The creature was huge at close range, bigger than a Clydesdale. It's lower legs were spattered with blood and gore. It opened its mouth and made an odd hissing noise, revealing vampiric fangs as it did.

"Careful, there darlin'. We've been together a long time, but Horse here's still a mite unpredictable. And he tends to snap at strangers." Buffy stepped back and looked up at the speaker.

Blackthorn was looking down at her. A smoking gun was in his left hand. His right held the reins. A severed Dancer's head had it's teeth buried in one of his legs.

"Um," said Buffy, pointing at the head, "you've got something..."

He looked down and brushed the head away like a piece of lint. It tumbled to ground and landed with a faint, wet sound.

"Belial's pullin' his boys in around himself. He's tryin' to make sure we can't bust through before he finishes. We haven't got time to wait for the rest of the Widers and Nosferatu to rally here. If we're gonna stop him, it's gotta be now." he said, stone-cold determination filling his voice.

"What do we have to do?" asked Buffy.

"Ride through their lines, kill the son of a bitch and close the gate." he said.

"Oh, give me a *hard* one why don't you?" said Buffy. "And how do we get through their lines without getting shot?"

"*We* don't. You do." he said. "You sit right up against me and hold onto to the saddle. Don't expose any part o' your body you don't want them to shoot off. I'll blow a hole through their lines. You hop off, get the Dagger and close the gate. Mel told you 'bout that, didn't she?" he asked.

"Yeah, but what about you?" asked Buffy.

"Me and Horse've had worse'n these dipshits." he said in that raspy, cold voice. "It'll still be dangerous for you. You got the grit for it?" he asked her.

Buffy deepened her voice to imitate his as closely as possible. "I reckon so." she said.

He chuckled, a rumbling sound like an uneasily dormant volcano. "Then hop up. We got some riding to do."

Gracefully, Buffy leapt onto the horse's cold, broad back behind him. She gripped the wide saddle and huddled against his broad back and legs, trying to make herself as small of a target as possible.

She saw him put the reins in his teeth and draw his other gun. He kicked his legs and spurred Horse into motion. Horse quickly accelerated into a gallop, his hooves slamming into the ground with a sound that balanced the overhead thunder. Buffy heard the wind scream past her as they rode to war on the wings of the storm.

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