At Giles' house the research wasn't going well, they had managed to find out that there was a prophecy about to come into effect, but they couldn't find which one.
"How about this one?" asked Anya and passed the book she was reading to Giles who studied it for a few seconds
"No, we had this one three years ago." He replied
"Come on can't we give this up now?" asked Spike who was totally bored with the entire prospect of research but didn't have much choice since he had nothing else to do.
"We keep looking." stated Giles, and then they were interrupted by a loud bang against the door and the sound of a vehicle screeching off at high speed.
"Wh-what was that?" asked Tara, suddenly nervous again
"I don't know" replied Giles "but I think we should find out."
As they opened the door none of them were prepared for the sight that awaited them, Tara fainted, Giles broke down and cried, Anya's face paled and Spike went quiet, his customary half smirk disappearing completely.
"I'm gonna find whoever did this." He said coldly "and I'm gonna make them pay."
"What do we do?" asked Anya softly
"I think we need to bring her inside luv." Stated Spike and he walked over to Buffy's body and picked it up reverently, he brought it inside and laid it on the table. They then brought Tara in and woke her up. Giles managed to compose himself but it was clear to anyone who had seen him around Ethan that he had gone into "Ripper" mode.
"How did it happen?" asked Tara
"How should I know?" snapped Giles angrily, then he realised and apologised.
"I know a way we can find out." Offered Anya
"How?" asked Spike
"A spell I know from my vengeance days, it shows you the last few seconds of someone's life through their eyes." She explained
"Let's do it" replied Giles
"We should get Willow and Xander," said Tara
"No" said Anya "We shouldn't tell them until we know how it happened, no need to cause them more pain than we need to, we can do the spell without them."
"What do we need?" asked Giles
"We need something of hers, and a powerful artefact."
"The doll's eye crystal is still here, would that do?" asked Giles
"That's fine." Replied Anya "What of hers should we use?"
"How about that silver cross she always wears?" suggested Spike
"I'll get it," said Giles and he walked over to her body and removed the cross from her neck. They set up the spell and after about five minutes they were ready, they began the spell and after a few seconds the room seemed to fade away and they saw Buffy's house on fire, then they saw Willow,
They saw Dru, then they watched through Buffy's eyes as she looked down at the stake in her chest and as she looked up at Willow. Then they all gasped as they saw Willows face change and then their normal vision was restored. After a stunned silence for about ten minutes Spike was the first to speak
"Dru's dust." Was all he said, in a calm, flat, emotionless voice, then Giles managed to recover his senses.
"Can we do the spell again, for Willow?" he asked. This shook the others out of their thoughts
"Yes." Replied Anya
"We can use this necklace she gave me." Offered Tara and they began the spell again. This time when the room faded away they saw the inside of Buffy's house, then the room seemed to spin as Willow had quickly turned round and they saw a broken window, then they saw a burning branch come flying in the window and set the curtains and carpets aflame. They watched as she ran to the door and then their vision was jolted as she was grabbed. They saw the ring of Vampires surrounding her and watched in horror as Xander walked up to her, vamped out and sunk his fangs into her neck. And then the room faded back in.
"Not all three of them, not at once" muttered Giles to himself and then a thought came to him "How did Willow rise so quickly?" he asked.
"Dru knows a spell," explained Spike "it allows her to raise fledglings instantly and give them the maturity of a fifty year old vamp."
"Oh." Answered Giles momenterily speechless.
"There's just one question left," said Spike and they all looked at him "Who's gonna tell Angel." They all kept looking at him and Giles spoke up
"I think you should do that." He said and Spike thought for a moment
"I suppose I should." He concluded.
Spike Dialled Angel's number and after a few seconds the phone was picked up and Cordelia answered with the usual introduction
"Hello, This is Angel Investigations, we help the helpless"
"Go get Angel." Replied Spike
"Is that Spike?" she asked
"Just get Angel."
"Alright, give me a second" there was a short pause then Angel spoke
"Spike"
"Angel"
"What is it?"
"It's Buffy, She's Dead" there was a short pause then Angel spoke again
"How?"
"Stake in the chest."
"No, I mean how did it happen?"
"Dru came back." Explained Spike "She turned Xander, Xander turned Willow, Willow killed Buffy before she even realised she was a vamp."
"Where are they now?"
"We don't know, they just dumped Buffy outside Giles' and drove off."
"Stay there, We'll be there in an hour." And he put the phone down.
"He's coming over," said Spike to everyone in the room "he'll be here in an hour." They all sat in silence for a while before Giles suddenly thumped the arm of the chair he was sitting in.
"It just doesn't make sense!" he exclaimed "They've got us right where they want us, what are they waiting for?"
"Maybe they don't think we're a threat without Buffy." Suggested Tara
"Any other vamps maybe, but not them, they know us too well." Replied Giles
"Why don't they just burn us out like they did at Buffy's?" asked Spike more to himself than anyone else.
"Willow knows I could use magic to put the fire out, so she won't bother trying." Answered Tara she then started crying again as she continued "If I'd managed to teach it to her then she'd still be alive."
"This isn't the time for regrets, we need to come up with a plan." said Anya
"How about the soul spell?" asked Spike
"It's specific to Angel, we just don't know enough about it to change it." Dismissed Giles
"We could try?" suggested Tara
"If only I had my necklace." Muttered Anya, then Giles jumped up
"That's it!" he shouted enthusiastically "We have to get your necklace back, then you can just wish everything right again."
"But how are we going to do it, I already tried remember?" she replied
"We have to try." said Spike "What happened last time you tried?"
"I summoned a vampire version of Willow across from the other dimension instead of my necklace." Anya explained.
"We should wait until Angel gets here before we try it, in case we pull a powerful vampire across." stated Giles
"Err hello" said Spike waving his arms around "I think I can deal with a vamp as well as soul boy can."
"It'll take us at least half an hour to set the spell up, so we might as well wait for Angel anyway," said Anya
"Fine, It's not like I might be useful occasionally," added Spike sarcastically
Just as Anya and Tara finished setting up the spell there was a knock at the door
"I'll get it," said Spike and he went to the door, he looked through the spy hole to check that it was Angel and then he opened the door
"Angel." He said
"Spike." Angel responded coldly and he entered the house followed by Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn.
"So," said Angel pulling a large broadsword from inside his coat, "are we going hunting?"
"Erm no actually." Said Giles, slightly distracted by the spell, which he was checking as he spoke. "We came up with a better idea."
"What's that?" asked Wesley
"We're going to try to retrieve Anya's necklace from the alternate universe, if we succeed she should be able to fix it so that Dru didn't come back to Sunnydale earlier so tonight will never have happened." Explained Tara
"What do you need us to do?" asked Gunn.
"Well since only Tara and Anya are needed to do the spell, the rest of us will stand guard as they might bring back other things first if the spell doesn't work properly.
They began the spell, with Tara and Anya sitting next to a large chalk circle chanting, after a short time a light appeared in the middle of the circle
"Something's happening." Whispered Wesley
"Give the boy a banana." Muttered Spike sarcastically. Then the chanting rose in volume and suddenly stopped, there was a flash of smoke and as it began to clear they saw a figure standing in the circle
"I guess it didn't work." Said Gunn and they all raised their weapons
"What's going on?" said the figure and it became clear was the Master.
"Angelus, William Why have you brought me here?" he asked but then exploded into dust as Spike staked him, his skeleton falling to the floor.
"I hate that name," said Spike softly
"Try the spell again." Said Giles, and then as they started chanting again Angel doubled up in pain
"What is it?" asked Cordelia worriedly
"The curse," whispered Angel "Willows undoing the curse."
"So that's what they were planning." Said Giles with admiration then he turned to the two witches "Keep going, we have to get the spell done before Willow succeeds."
"Too late." Screamed Cordelia
"I'm back!" said Angelus in a jolly singsong voice as he hefted his sword in one hand.
"Get him." Yelled Spike and they all began to attack Angelus except Tara and Anya who carried on with the spell. It was clear though that the fight was pretty one sided, Cordelia fell almost instantly as Angelus' first swing cut her throat. Then he punched at Spike; his spring mounted wrist stake extending and dusting the blond vampire, as he swung his sword back for a second stroke he elbowed Giles in the face before hacking his sword into Wesley's chest, where it got stuck. He discarded his sword and turned to Gunn, who managed to land a couple of hard blows on him before he fell with the second wrist stake embedded in his stomach. He then turned back to Giles who was just managing to stand as Angelus put his boot on Wesley's stomach and pulled out the sword, before decapitating Giles with one stroke. Then he turned to the pair of witches who hadn't even seen the fight since they were so concentrated on their task. Just as Angelus was about to kill them both there was a second flash of smoke and a small pendant appeared in the circle. Anya dived for it, but before she could reach it Angelus' sword hacked her right arm off before he stabbed her through the back as she lay on the ground. He then stooped and picked up the pendant as Tara tried to scuttle away from him and he heard a voice from the direction of the door
"Bravo, Bravo" he turned to see a fully vamped Xander walk in the door clapping slowly "I don't think I could have done it much better myself." Then he walked up to Angelus
"You know," said Xander "when I was human and you were a souled vampire, I didn't like you. When I was human and you were an evil vampire, I didn't like you. But now I'm a vampire and you're an evil vampire," he paused and thrust a stake into Angelus' heart "I still don't like you." As Angelus exploded into dust Xander caught Anya's necklace with his other hand as it fell to the ground.
"A small present for you Wills." He said and hung it round Willows neck as she came into the house.
"Ooh, it's lovely." She said, then she spotted Tara cowering in the corner "Fancy some lunch?"
"What a good idea." He replied and they advanced on Tara.
"How about this one?" asked Anya and passed the book she was reading to Giles who studied it for a few seconds
"No, we had this one three years ago." He replied
"Come on can't we give this up now?" asked Spike who was totally bored with the entire prospect of research but didn't have much choice since he had nothing else to do.
"We keep looking." stated Giles, and then they were interrupted by a loud bang against the door and the sound of a vehicle screeching off at high speed.
"Wh-what was that?" asked Tara, suddenly nervous again
"I don't know" replied Giles "but I think we should find out."
As they opened the door none of them were prepared for the sight that awaited them, Tara fainted, Giles broke down and cried, Anya's face paled and Spike went quiet, his customary half smirk disappearing completely.
"I'm gonna find whoever did this." He said coldly "and I'm gonna make them pay."
"What do we do?" asked Anya softly
"I think we need to bring her inside luv." Stated Spike and he walked over to Buffy's body and picked it up reverently, he brought it inside and laid it on the table. They then brought Tara in and woke her up. Giles managed to compose himself but it was clear to anyone who had seen him around Ethan that he had gone into "Ripper" mode.
"How did it happen?" asked Tara
"How should I know?" snapped Giles angrily, then he realised and apologised.
"I know a way we can find out." Offered Anya
"How?" asked Spike
"A spell I know from my vengeance days, it shows you the last few seconds of someone's life through their eyes." She explained
"Let's do it" replied Giles
"We should get Willow and Xander," said Tara
"No" said Anya "We shouldn't tell them until we know how it happened, no need to cause them more pain than we need to, we can do the spell without them."
"What do we need?" asked Giles
"We need something of hers, and a powerful artefact."
"The doll's eye crystal is still here, would that do?" asked Giles
"That's fine." Replied Anya "What of hers should we use?"
"How about that silver cross she always wears?" suggested Spike
"I'll get it," said Giles and he walked over to her body and removed the cross from her neck. They set up the spell and after about five minutes they were ready, they began the spell and after a few seconds the room seemed to fade away and they saw Buffy's house on fire, then they saw Willow,
They saw Dru, then they watched through Buffy's eyes as she looked down at the stake in her chest and as she looked up at Willow. Then they all gasped as they saw Willows face change and then their normal vision was restored. After a stunned silence for about ten minutes Spike was the first to speak
"Dru's dust." Was all he said, in a calm, flat, emotionless voice, then Giles managed to recover his senses.
"Can we do the spell again, for Willow?" he asked. This shook the others out of their thoughts
"Yes." Replied Anya
"We can use this necklace she gave me." Offered Tara and they began the spell again. This time when the room faded away they saw the inside of Buffy's house, then the room seemed to spin as Willow had quickly turned round and they saw a broken window, then they saw a burning branch come flying in the window and set the curtains and carpets aflame. They watched as she ran to the door and then their vision was jolted as she was grabbed. They saw the ring of Vampires surrounding her and watched in horror as Xander walked up to her, vamped out and sunk his fangs into her neck. And then the room faded back in.
"Not all three of them, not at once" muttered Giles to himself and then a thought came to him "How did Willow rise so quickly?" he asked.
"Dru knows a spell," explained Spike "it allows her to raise fledglings instantly and give them the maturity of a fifty year old vamp."
"Oh." Answered Giles momenterily speechless.
"There's just one question left," said Spike and they all looked at him "Who's gonna tell Angel." They all kept looking at him and Giles spoke up
"I think you should do that." He said and Spike thought for a moment
"I suppose I should." He concluded.
Spike Dialled Angel's number and after a few seconds the phone was picked up and Cordelia answered with the usual introduction
"Hello, This is Angel Investigations, we help the helpless"
"Go get Angel." Replied Spike
"Is that Spike?" she asked
"Just get Angel."
"Alright, give me a second" there was a short pause then Angel spoke
"Spike"
"Angel"
"What is it?"
"It's Buffy, She's Dead" there was a short pause then Angel spoke again
"How?"
"Stake in the chest."
"No, I mean how did it happen?"
"Dru came back." Explained Spike "She turned Xander, Xander turned Willow, Willow killed Buffy before she even realised she was a vamp."
"Where are they now?"
"We don't know, they just dumped Buffy outside Giles' and drove off."
"Stay there, We'll be there in an hour." And he put the phone down.
"He's coming over," said Spike to everyone in the room "he'll be here in an hour." They all sat in silence for a while before Giles suddenly thumped the arm of the chair he was sitting in.
"It just doesn't make sense!" he exclaimed "They've got us right where they want us, what are they waiting for?"
"Maybe they don't think we're a threat without Buffy." Suggested Tara
"Any other vamps maybe, but not them, they know us too well." Replied Giles
"Why don't they just burn us out like they did at Buffy's?" asked Spike more to himself than anyone else.
"Willow knows I could use magic to put the fire out, so she won't bother trying." Answered Tara she then started crying again as she continued "If I'd managed to teach it to her then she'd still be alive."
"This isn't the time for regrets, we need to come up with a plan." said Anya
"How about the soul spell?" asked Spike
"It's specific to Angel, we just don't know enough about it to change it." Dismissed Giles
"We could try?" suggested Tara
"If only I had my necklace." Muttered Anya, then Giles jumped up
"That's it!" he shouted enthusiastically "We have to get your necklace back, then you can just wish everything right again."
"But how are we going to do it, I already tried remember?" she replied
"We have to try." said Spike "What happened last time you tried?"
"I summoned a vampire version of Willow across from the other dimension instead of my necklace." Anya explained.
"We should wait until Angel gets here before we try it, in case we pull a powerful vampire across." stated Giles
"Err hello" said Spike waving his arms around "I think I can deal with a vamp as well as soul boy can."
"It'll take us at least half an hour to set the spell up, so we might as well wait for Angel anyway," said Anya
"Fine, It's not like I might be useful occasionally," added Spike sarcastically
Just as Anya and Tara finished setting up the spell there was a knock at the door
"I'll get it," said Spike and he went to the door, he looked through the spy hole to check that it was Angel and then he opened the door
"Angel." He said
"Spike." Angel responded coldly and he entered the house followed by Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn.
"So," said Angel pulling a large broadsword from inside his coat, "are we going hunting?"
"Erm no actually." Said Giles, slightly distracted by the spell, which he was checking as he spoke. "We came up with a better idea."
"What's that?" asked Wesley
"We're going to try to retrieve Anya's necklace from the alternate universe, if we succeed she should be able to fix it so that Dru didn't come back to Sunnydale earlier so tonight will never have happened." Explained Tara
"What do you need us to do?" asked Gunn.
"Well since only Tara and Anya are needed to do the spell, the rest of us will stand guard as they might bring back other things first if the spell doesn't work properly.
They began the spell, with Tara and Anya sitting next to a large chalk circle chanting, after a short time a light appeared in the middle of the circle
"Something's happening." Whispered Wesley
"Give the boy a banana." Muttered Spike sarcastically. Then the chanting rose in volume and suddenly stopped, there was a flash of smoke and as it began to clear they saw a figure standing in the circle
"I guess it didn't work." Said Gunn and they all raised their weapons
"What's going on?" said the figure and it became clear was the Master.
"Angelus, William Why have you brought me here?" he asked but then exploded into dust as Spike staked him, his skeleton falling to the floor.
"I hate that name," said Spike softly
"Try the spell again." Said Giles, and then as they started chanting again Angel doubled up in pain
"What is it?" asked Cordelia worriedly
"The curse," whispered Angel "Willows undoing the curse."
"So that's what they were planning." Said Giles with admiration then he turned to the two witches "Keep going, we have to get the spell done before Willow succeeds."
"Too late." Screamed Cordelia
"I'm back!" said Angelus in a jolly singsong voice as he hefted his sword in one hand.
"Get him." Yelled Spike and they all began to attack Angelus except Tara and Anya who carried on with the spell. It was clear though that the fight was pretty one sided, Cordelia fell almost instantly as Angelus' first swing cut her throat. Then he punched at Spike; his spring mounted wrist stake extending and dusting the blond vampire, as he swung his sword back for a second stroke he elbowed Giles in the face before hacking his sword into Wesley's chest, where it got stuck. He discarded his sword and turned to Gunn, who managed to land a couple of hard blows on him before he fell with the second wrist stake embedded in his stomach. He then turned back to Giles who was just managing to stand as Angelus put his boot on Wesley's stomach and pulled out the sword, before decapitating Giles with one stroke. Then he turned to the pair of witches who hadn't even seen the fight since they were so concentrated on their task. Just as Angelus was about to kill them both there was a second flash of smoke and a small pendant appeared in the circle. Anya dived for it, but before she could reach it Angelus' sword hacked her right arm off before he stabbed her through the back as she lay on the ground. He then stooped and picked up the pendant as Tara tried to scuttle away from him and he heard a voice from the direction of the door
"Bravo, Bravo" he turned to see a fully vamped Xander walk in the door clapping slowly "I don't think I could have done it much better myself." Then he walked up to Angelus
"You know," said Xander "when I was human and you were a souled vampire, I didn't like you. When I was human and you were an evil vampire, I didn't like you. But now I'm a vampire and you're an evil vampire," he paused and thrust a stake into Angelus' heart "I still don't like you." As Angelus exploded into dust Xander caught Anya's necklace with his other hand as it fell to the ground.
"A small present for you Wills." He said and hung it round Willows neck as she came into the house.
"Ooh, it's lovely." She said, then she spotted Tara cowering in the corner "Fancy some lunch?"
"What a good idea." He replied and they advanced on Tara.