Part Three:
The Glow of Life
"So? What does it say?"
Dawn looked closely at the crystal in Tara's hands. She couldn't see anything in it, but Tara seemed to be studying its small, sharp ridges.
"It says you're kind, and you care for others, and that you're important in the world," Tara finally deduced.
"Well, I get that last part," Dawn said. "Important to the world as in I almost ended it."
Tara and Willow exchanged worried glances.
"Oh, I have the Murof!" Willow began digging in her bag.
"Ma-what?" Dawn asked.
"You'll love it Dawnie," Tara said. "It's really the most fun you can have with a...um...rock."
Giles, who had been looking through the books in his bedroom, walked out to the living room to join them. "Are Xander and Anya back yet?"
"No," Willow replied.
"I told you we shoulda waited until Spike came back," Dawn said. "Xander and Anya could get hurt."
"Don't worry," Tara told her. "They're not trying to hurt the Fyral, just trying to find it."
"And what if it finds them first?" Dawn countered.
"Not to worry," Giles said, returning to the open book on his desk. "I'm sure they'll be back shortly."
"Found it," Willow said, removing a stone from her bag. It was round and smooth, like a regular rock, but clear as glass.
"So what's it do?" Dawn asked her.
"The Murof is also called the Life Stone," Willow explained. "Ancient cults in Asia used it for burial rituals. See, the Life Stone detects living energy. So when someone died, one of the priests would place it above their body. This way they could make sure that it was death and not just a coma or trance. Also good in detecting vamps." Willow held the stone in the palm of her hand and concentrated on it. It began to glow a dusty blue and then levitate slightly above her hand.
"Here, hold your hand out," Willow said. She put her hand near Dawn's and slid the stone to her, where it continued to glow and float.
"Wow, cool," Dawn said.
The door suddenly banged open. Dawn dropped the stone and Giles jumped in his chair. Spike walked in, carrying his jacket and his shirt, the previous night's wound on his chest bleeding again.
"Spike! Are you okay?" Dawn asked, standing up.
"Fine," Spike said. "Thought this sodding thing was healed, but it must've been deeper than I thought. Just started up again out of nowhere." He looked at Giles. "Got some bandages?"
Giles nodded and walked to the bathroom. Spike followed close behind.
*
Spike shut the bathroom door behind them and blurted out, "I saw Buffy."
Giles dropped the gauze and tape he had been holding. "What?"
"I went into the abandoned building on Main Street, and I saw her. She was there."
"Spike, are you sure you're not...I mean...can vampires hallucinate?"
"I'm not crazy, you poncy bugger. I saw her."
Giles considered this briefly. "We should tell the others. We should go there."
Giles took a step towards the door, but Spike stopped him with a hand to his chest. "Wait. What about..."
Giles finished the thought for him. "Dawn."
"I'm not saying the girl shouldn't know. Just..." Spike sighed and averted his eyes. "Let's make sure I'm not a bloody lunatic before we get her all worked up."
*
By the time Giles and Spike came out of the bathroom, Xander and Anya had returned with no news of the Fyral demon. Giles sent Anya and Dawn to the Magic Shop to pick up a book of his that contained information about the Fyral.
When the two women had left, Giles sat on a chair in the living room and gestured for Willow, Tara, Xander, and Spike to do the same.
"Something has happened." Giles said. He looked at Spike as the shirtless vampire settled into a seat. "Tell them Spike. And...try not to bleed on my couch."
Spike gave Giles the finger.
Giles sighed. "I've just had it steam-cleaned."
"What is it?" Willow asked. "What's happened?"
"I was breaking into the abandoned jewlry store on Main Street," Spike began, "and I saw...I saw Buffy there."
"Buffy?" Xander asked, shocked.
"Was she...alive?" Tara asked timidly.
"Seemed like it," Spike said.
"Did you talk to her?" Willow asked.
"I would've, but here's the thing. She was kind of...insane."
"Insane how?" Tara asked. "Like, insane me?"
"No, she was talking to herself. Having a whole bloody conversation with no one else around."
"Is it possible?" Xander asked. "Could she really come back? I mean, Angel did, right?"
Willow shook her head. "Angel wasn't dead, he was just in another dimension. For Buffy to come back, it would have to be some sort of magical resurrection. And those types of spells are unreliable. The person could come back as a zombie, or...or..."
"Insane?" Spike asked flatly.
Giles nodded. "I'm afraid it's possible that this may be the case."
Tara paled. "You don't think Dawn would have-"
"Not a chance," Spike cut in. "She couldn't get the egg without me."
"What?" Tara said.
"What? Nothing."
Xander stood up and began to pace. "But there are other options. It doesn't have to be zombie-Buffy. We've seen people have doubles before. Like when Toth split me in half."
"That couldn't be it, there was nothing to split." Willow argued. "But it could be a shape-shifting demon, like the Hansel and Gretel demons who tried to have us burned at the stake."
"Possibly," Giles said.
"Or the same person from an alternate reality, like vampire Willow." Xander added.
Spike raised his eyebrows. "Vampire Willow?"
"Yeah, in this alternate reality, Willow was a vampire." Xander explained to him. "She was all vicious and wore leather and grabbed my ass."
"I can't imagine," Spike said. He smiled at Willow, his tongue dancing on his lower lip. "Don't suppose you'd like to give us a little demonstration, help my imagination out."
"Spike, if you could please put your mind back...in your pants..." Giles stood up. "The only way we can be certain is to see her. Let's hurry. That way, if we're wrong, we can be back here without Dawn be any the wiser."
*
The store was just as Spike had left it: the broken door, the stench of death, the discarded and dusty jewlry, and the sound of their dead friend.
"All my fault, I know," came Buffy's voice from the back room. It was strained, and sounded as if she had been crying. "I could have killed him that night in the mall, but I didn't. If I had, he wouldn't have killed you. So it's my fault you died. I killed you."
"That's right, Buffy. You killed me. You know what you have to do now to make it better. Embrace your darkness, and kill them all."
Spike didn't recognize the second voice, but he could tell that Giles did, from the sudden pallor of the Watcher's face, the weakening of his knees, and the name that escaped his lips like a breath: "Jenny."
Xander was the first one in the door.
"Buffy," he said.
Buffy turned to face him. She was wearing the same clothes she had worn the night she died, though the white shirt was gray with dirt and splattered with blood. Her hair was loose and long, also marred by filth, hanging in clumps and knots. But other than her neglected appearance, and her tear-streaked face, she seemed to be herself. The glow in her eyes was distinctly her. And as Spike entered the room behind the others, he could smell it.
It was Buffy. And she was human.
Her eyes were locked on Xander's. She took a step closer to him.
"Buffy, what's going on?" Xander asked.
Buffy gestured to the dark-haired woman standing behind her. "Miss Calendar. Remember, Xander? Remember when Angel killed her?" Buffy turned and looked at the woman sadly. "It was my fault. I had a chance to kill him, but I couldn't do it. So it's really all my fault that she died."
The air was heavy with dust. Buffy and Jenny Callendar stood on the far side of the room, and Xander, Willow, Spike, Tara, and Giles stood on the other side, just beyond the doorway. Willow brushed past Spike to inch closer to Buffy.
"Miss Callendar is *still* dead," Willow said gently. "This isn't Miss Callendar. Trust me, Buffy; I can feel it, it's not her."
Then what is it? Spike thought.
"The first evil."
Spike looked around to see where the voice had come from, and was about to start shouting when he realized that the sound had been in his mind. He looked over at Willow. Apparently the little trick she had done during the battle with Glory was only a warm-up. Now she had found a way to not only speak to him telepathically, but to read his thoughts as well. He could have sworn it was impossible to read a vampire's mind. Crafty little bitch, he thought.
Willow shot him a nasty look and Spike heard her voice again, though her lips weren't moving. "Can you tell?"
Spike nodded slightly. Human, he thought. And definetly Buffy. But what's a bleeding first evil?
Willow turned away from him. "I'll explain later."
"Buffy," Giles said, stepping forward. "You need to come with us. We can help you."
Buffy chuckled. "Help me? I'm beyond help, Giles. I've done too many horrible things. I'm responsible for Miss Callendar's death. And Giles - I let him torture you, and then tried to defend him! Xander - your best friend, Jesse, remember? He blames me too."
"Blames you?" Xander said. "Buffy, he can't blame anyone. He's dead."
Buffy shook her head sadly. "They're not dead. Miss Callendar, Jesse, Kendra, Forrest, my mom." She looked around the room slowly. "They're all here. Them and more. All over."
"No, Buffy," Willow said. She walked up to Buffy and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Do you remember Christmas, two years ago? Do you remember what happened to Angel?"
"Let go of me," Buffy said softly.
"Listen to me!" Willow shouted. "Don't you remember-"
Effortlessly, Buffy lifted Willow off her feet and threw her against the far wall. The crack of her back against the concrete echoed through the small room. Tara rushed to her side as she slid to the floor.
"I thought I knew, who I was," Buffy said, advancing on them, her eyes dark and malicious, "and what was to come. But I was wrong. I'm a horrible, disgusting, evil creature. I accept it. I embrace it."
"Buffy..." Xander reached out to her, but caught only a blow to the face. When Giles and Spike attempted to get between she and Xander, they were thrown against each other with such force that Spike felt his teeth rattle in his skull.
They looked up when they heard the laughing. Buffy stood over the five fallen bodies,
smiling like the friend they all remembered. But something different shone in her eyes now. She stepped over them, followed by Jenny Callendar, and walked to the doorway, where she turned to face them again.
"You think that was bad? Just wait." Buffy grinned and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I haven't even begun."
The Glow of Life
"So? What does it say?"
Dawn looked closely at the crystal in Tara's hands. She couldn't see anything in it, but Tara seemed to be studying its small, sharp ridges.
"It says you're kind, and you care for others, and that you're important in the world," Tara finally deduced.
"Well, I get that last part," Dawn said. "Important to the world as in I almost ended it."
Tara and Willow exchanged worried glances.
"Oh, I have the Murof!" Willow began digging in her bag.
"Ma-what?" Dawn asked.
"You'll love it Dawnie," Tara said. "It's really the most fun you can have with a...um...rock."
Giles, who had been looking through the books in his bedroom, walked out to the living room to join them. "Are Xander and Anya back yet?"
"No," Willow replied.
"I told you we shoulda waited until Spike came back," Dawn said. "Xander and Anya could get hurt."
"Don't worry," Tara told her. "They're not trying to hurt the Fyral, just trying to find it."
"And what if it finds them first?" Dawn countered.
"Not to worry," Giles said, returning to the open book on his desk. "I'm sure they'll be back shortly."
"Found it," Willow said, removing a stone from her bag. It was round and smooth, like a regular rock, but clear as glass.
"So what's it do?" Dawn asked her.
"The Murof is also called the Life Stone," Willow explained. "Ancient cults in Asia used it for burial rituals. See, the Life Stone detects living energy. So when someone died, one of the priests would place it above their body. This way they could make sure that it was death and not just a coma or trance. Also good in detecting vamps." Willow held the stone in the palm of her hand and concentrated on it. It began to glow a dusty blue and then levitate slightly above her hand.
"Here, hold your hand out," Willow said. She put her hand near Dawn's and slid the stone to her, where it continued to glow and float.
"Wow, cool," Dawn said.
The door suddenly banged open. Dawn dropped the stone and Giles jumped in his chair. Spike walked in, carrying his jacket and his shirt, the previous night's wound on his chest bleeding again.
"Spike! Are you okay?" Dawn asked, standing up.
"Fine," Spike said. "Thought this sodding thing was healed, but it must've been deeper than I thought. Just started up again out of nowhere." He looked at Giles. "Got some bandages?"
Giles nodded and walked to the bathroom. Spike followed close behind.
*
Spike shut the bathroom door behind them and blurted out, "I saw Buffy."
Giles dropped the gauze and tape he had been holding. "What?"
"I went into the abandoned building on Main Street, and I saw her. She was there."
"Spike, are you sure you're not...I mean...can vampires hallucinate?"
"I'm not crazy, you poncy bugger. I saw her."
Giles considered this briefly. "We should tell the others. We should go there."
Giles took a step towards the door, but Spike stopped him with a hand to his chest. "Wait. What about..."
Giles finished the thought for him. "Dawn."
"I'm not saying the girl shouldn't know. Just..." Spike sighed and averted his eyes. "Let's make sure I'm not a bloody lunatic before we get her all worked up."
*
By the time Giles and Spike came out of the bathroom, Xander and Anya had returned with no news of the Fyral demon. Giles sent Anya and Dawn to the Magic Shop to pick up a book of his that contained information about the Fyral.
When the two women had left, Giles sat on a chair in the living room and gestured for Willow, Tara, Xander, and Spike to do the same.
"Something has happened." Giles said. He looked at Spike as the shirtless vampire settled into a seat. "Tell them Spike. And...try not to bleed on my couch."
Spike gave Giles the finger.
Giles sighed. "I've just had it steam-cleaned."
"What is it?" Willow asked. "What's happened?"
"I was breaking into the abandoned jewlry store on Main Street," Spike began, "and I saw...I saw Buffy there."
"Buffy?" Xander asked, shocked.
"Was she...alive?" Tara asked timidly.
"Seemed like it," Spike said.
"Did you talk to her?" Willow asked.
"I would've, but here's the thing. She was kind of...insane."
"Insane how?" Tara asked. "Like, insane me?"
"No, she was talking to herself. Having a whole bloody conversation with no one else around."
"Is it possible?" Xander asked. "Could she really come back? I mean, Angel did, right?"
Willow shook her head. "Angel wasn't dead, he was just in another dimension. For Buffy to come back, it would have to be some sort of magical resurrection. And those types of spells are unreliable. The person could come back as a zombie, or...or..."
"Insane?" Spike asked flatly.
Giles nodded. "I'm afraid it's possible that this may be the case."
Tara paled. "You don't think Dawn would have-"
"Not a chance," Spike cut in. "She couldn't get the egg without me."
"What?" Tara said.
"What? Nothing."
Xander stood up and began to pace. "But there are other options. It doesn't have to be zombie-Buffy. We've seen people have doubles before. Like when Toth split me in half."
"That couldn't be it, there was nothing to split." Willow argued. "But it could be a shape-shifting demon, like the Hansel and Gretel demons who tried to have us burned at the stake."
"Possibly," Giles said.
"Or the same person from an alternate reality, like vampire Willow." Xander added.
Spike raised his eyebrows. "Vampire Willow?"
"Yeah, in this alternate reality, Willow was a vampire." Xander explained to him. "She was all vicious and wore leather and grabbed my ass."
"I can't imagine," Spike said. He smiled at Willow, his tongue dancing on his lower lip. "Don't suppose you'd like to give us a little demonstration, help my imagination out."
"Spike, if you could please put your mind back...in your pants..." Giles stood up. "The only way we can be certain is to see her. Let's hurry. That way, if we're wrong, we can be back here without Dawn be any the wiser."
*
The store was just as Spike had left it: the broken door, the stench of death, the discarded and dusty jewlry, and the sound of their dead friend.
"All my fault, I know," came Buffy's voice from the back room. It was strained, and sounded as if she had been crying. "I could have killed him that night in the mall, but I didn't. If I had, he wouldn't have killed you. So it's my fault you died. I killed you."
"That's right, Buffy. You killed me. You know what you have to do now to make it better. Embrace your darkness, and kill them all."
Spike didn't recognize the second voice, but he could tell that Giles did, from the sudden pallor of the Watcher's face, the weakening of his knees, and the name that escaped his lips like a breath: "Jenny."
Xander was the first one in the door.
"Buffy," he said.
Buffy turned to face him. She was wearing the same clothes she had worn the night she died, though the white shirt was gray with dirt and splattered with blood. Her hair was loose and long, also marred by filth, hanging in clumps and knots. But other than her neglected appearance, and her tear-streaked face, she seemed to be herself. The glow in her eyes was distinctly her. And as Spike entered the room behind the others, he could smell it.
It was Buffy. And she was human.
Her eyes were locked on Xander's. She took a step closer to him.
"Buffy, what's going on?" Xander asked.
Buffy gestured to the dark-haired woman standing behind her. "Miss Calendar. Remember, Xander? Remember when Angel killed her?" Buffy turned and looked at the woman sadly. "It was my fault. I had a chance to kill him, but I couldn't do it. So it's really all my fault that she died."
The air was heavy with dust. Buffy and Jenny Callendar stood on the far side of the room, and Xander, Willow, Spike, Tara, and Giles stood on the other side, just beyond the doorway. Willow brushed past Spike to inch closer to Buffy.
"Miss Callendar is *still* dead," Willow said gently. "This isn't Miss Callendar. Trust me, Buffy; I can feel it, it's not her."
Then what is it? Spike thought.
"The first evil."
Spike looked around to see where the voice had come from, and was about to start shouting when he realized that the sound had been in his mind. He looked over at Willow. Apparently the little trick she had done during the battle with Glory was only a warm-up. Now she had found a way to not only speak to him telepathically, but to read his thoughts as well. He could have sworn it was impossible to read a vampire's mind. Crafty little bitch, he thought.
Willow shot him a nasty look and Spike heard her voice again, though her lips weren't moving. "Can you tell?"
Spike nodded slightly. Human, he thought. And definetly Buffy. But what's a bleeding first evil?
Willow turned away from him. "I'll explain later."
"Buffy," Giles said, stepping forward. "You need to come with us. We can help you."
Buffy chuckled. "Help me? I'm beyond help, Giles. I've done too many horrible things. I'm responsible for Miss Callendar's death. And Giles - I let him torture you, and then tried to defend him! Xander - your best friend, Jesse, remember? He blames me too."
"Blames you?" Xander said. "Buffy, he can't blame anyone. He's dead."
Buffy shook her head sadly. "They're not dead. Miss Callendar, Jesse, Kendra, Forrest, my mom." She looked around the room slowly. "They're all here. Them and more. All over."
"No, Buffy," Willow said. She walked up to Buffy and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Do you remember Christmas, two years ago? Do you remember what happened to Angel?"
"Let go of me," Buffy said softly.
"Listen to me!" Willow shouted. "Don't you remember-"
Effortlessly, Buffy lifted Willow off her feet and threw her against the far wall. The crack of her back against the concrete echoed through the small room. Tara rushed to her side as she slid to the floor.
"I thought I knew, who I was," Buffy said, advancing on them, her eyes dark and malicious, "and what was to come. But I was wrong. I'm a horrible, disgusting, evil creature. I accept it. I embrace it."
"Buffy..." Xander reached out to her, but caught only a blow to the face. When Giles and Spike attempted to get between she and Xander, they were thrown against each other with such force that Spike felt his teeth rattle in his skull.
They looked up when they heard the laughing. Buffy stood over the five fallen bodies,
smiling like the friend they all remembered. But something different shone in her eyes now. She stepped over them, followed by Jenny Callendar, and walked to the doorway, where she turned to face them again.
"You think that was bad? Just wait." Buffy grinned and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I haven't even begun."
