The Night Remembers - Part 41
It was dark. Dark and quiet. Too quiet. Hadn't there been noises just a
second ago? Noises and light? Disoriented Buffy's eyes opened. Slowly.
Carefully. Not knowing what they would see. What had happened? Where was
she?
There was nothing, but darkness. Everywhere. Surrounding her.
The Gate.
She remembered the Gate glowing. There had been a storm. A light. Noises.
Voices. Shouting. Whining. Crying.
The slayer frowned. Why was it quiet now? Why was it dark?
Demons.
There had been demons. All kinds. Vampires, old and young. Where were they?
She could still hear their voices crying in outrage and in panic. Just a minute
ago.
Panic?
Why would a vampire cry in panic? There was no sunlight. The darkness
surrounding her was almost frightening. But Buffy was sure there had been
panic all around it. And she remembered Angel glowing almost unearthly,
power coming from him. Then he'd taken her hand and they'd run.
Where was he now? Panic crept up her spine. Angel. Where was Angel? She
tried to see something in this darkness but already knew it was impossible.
Where were her friends? What about Spike and Faith? Had they made it?
Oh God! She stifled a sob and pressed a fist to her mouth. Maybe this was
their damnation. Eternal darkness. Lonely. Lost. Was she maybe trapped in
the demon's dimension? Was Angel trapped as well?
She almost jumped out of her skin when suddenly someone coughed beside her,
then a voice croaked, "B.?"
"Faith!" there was so much relief in the blond slayer's voice, one could've
believed she'd just found her best friend. "Oh Faith, are you okay?" She
reached out in the darkness, tried to reach her. "Where are you?"
"Uh... no idea," the brunette replied honestly. What the fuck had happened?
"Somewhere near by."
"I think you are on my left," Buffy reached out the same arm, waving it
around, hoping to connect with human skin, human warmth. "Try touching me,
Faith," her voice was frantic. She needed to touch, to be touched, to find
warmth, if not light, in this darkness.
But there was none. Faith was there, but obviously too far away, to reach
her. "Do you know what happened?" she asked finally giving up waving her
hand around, rising on her knees instead, crawling towards the other
slayer's voice. Her whole body hurt, she was sure she had bruises
everywhere. She could remember boulders flying around, debris and shots of
fire, a lot like it had happened before in the tunnel.
"No, I have no idea," Faith coughed again. She felt blood in her mouth, the
coppery taste making her nauseous. She hated tasting her own blood. Her ribs
hurt. Badly. Badly hurting ribs and blood in her mouth? Not a good sign.
Every time she coughed it was as if someone was sawing her chest open. The
brunette slayer stifled a groan and yelped when suddenly something warm
connect with the skin of her arm.
"It's okay, it's just me," Buffy said quietly, "Oh God, Faith. What
happened?"
"Damn if I knew," the other woman replied. "It was as if the whole world was
coming down on us. Something hit me, hard, on my chest." She coughed again
and this time she couldn't prevent the groan from leaving her mouth.
"Are you hurt?" Buffy asked instantly, her hands moving over Faith's body,
searching for injuries, the touch light like a feather.
"Yeah, I think I am," the brunette slayer said after the worst pain had
settled. "My ribs hurt and I can taste blood."
"Oh God, Faith," a sob came from the blond, startling Faith.
"Hey, B. I'm tough, I'm not going to die. So don't go soft on me now."
"I won't," Buffy said angrily, wiping the tears from her face, although
Faith couldn't see them anyway. "I'm just a bit shaken. I can't find Angel."
"Oh," the brunette made. "But... uh... you haven't really searched for him,
right? And it's dark. He might be around somewhere."
"Yeah, somewhere," Buffy's voice sounded defeated, "If we just knew where
this somewhere is."
They were quiet for whiles, each hanging on their thoughts, when the blond
broke the silence, her voice quiet, almost a bit shy, "I remember, you know.
I remember everything now."
"You mean you... oh," Faith's voice was small and she was frowning in the
dark. "That's... uh... good."
"Yeah, I guess. I remembered the moment Angel overcame the Gate, got me
back. I don't know what happened, but the memory - well, the parts that were
still missing - was back like that," she snapped her fingers.
"Well," the brunette said weekly.
"Hey, relax, I'm not going to shout at you," Buffy laughed nervously,
running a hand through her hair.
"You're not?" Faith couldn't quite believe it. "That's a start then."
"Yeah, but I want to say something nevertheless."
"Figures," the brunette slayer muttered. Just when she'd thought they were
finally over-
"Thanks."
Startled, Faith's head snapped around, looking at her sister slayer without
seeing her. She wished she could see her eyes see the expression in them.
Understand. "Why are you thanking me?"
"Because you came to help without asking."
"Angel did a lot for me," the brunette said slowly. "Without him I wouldn't
have known where to go, what would've happened to me? Not that it's a blast
to sit in a cell in prison, but..." she shrugged in the dark, her voice
trailing off.
Buffy squeezed the other woman's hand, "I understand. And again thanks. You
had no reason to come and help me. I wasn't really nice to you last time we
saw each other."
"Yeah, well," Faith, laughed, regretting instantly when her ribs began to
throb again, "you always were the jealous type."
"Oh yeah," Buffy laughed also, although it wasn't a happy sound. They were
both too desperate, using the conversation to keep their minds from the
reality around them. A reality they didn't even know. "I know."
"But," the brunette paused for a moment, welcoming the dark. It was so much
easier to say things in the dark. "But I... uh... wasn't nice to you
either."
"You behaved like a punk," Buffy's voice was matter-of-fact.
This time Faith managed just to chuckle. But even that hurt. Her injuries
had to be a lot worse than she thought. Blood in her mouth, maybe a lung was
punctured. Hell of time for such a mess. It didn't look as if there would be
an ambulance any time soon. She felt tears threatening. No way she would die
down here. Not now, it wasn't fair. Not now, when she had friends, people
who cared for her. After all the crap that had happened in her life, she had
managed to put it back together, to find a way for herself. She lifted her
chin stubbornly. No way, she would die now.
"The shrink in jail said that I wanted to hurt other people the way I was
hurting," she said, pressing a hand over her painful ribs. "She said it was
the only way I knew to get attention," she took a deep breath, "I... I
learned not to do it anymore. I hope."
"That's good," Buffy squeezed her hand again, "That's really good."
"Buffy, I don't want to die," Faith voice was suddenly like that of a little
child. "I don't want to die."
"We won't," the blond assured her, praying this wasn't a lie. "There's too
much still waiting for us."
Like Angel. Oh, Angel, she thought, for the first time we have a chance.
Please, those wonderful days with you, it can't be all we've been given. It
can't be all.
****
Giles stood in the middle of the ruins of the old high school and looked
around. The moon was shining so brightly that he had no problem seeing what
was around him. There were Willow and Tara holding on to each other, their
eyes huge and confused. Xander was holding Anya in his arms, he had a
bleeding wound on his right arm, but it didn't look serious. Wesley was
coughing, obviously in order to rid himself of the dust in his lungs. Kate
held Dawn in her arms, the slayer's sister staring at the hole that had been
the entrance to the hell mouth only minutes ago. Gunn was checking his
friends while Riley was standing over the unmoving form of General
Brookridge.
There were two neat little holes in his neck, his face was pale, his eyes
closed, the features relaxed. The blond commando narrowed his eyes, then
turned away in disgust. They had survived. He looked around counting heads
and faces. Yeah, they had survived, but for what price. The hellmouth
looked dormant as it had before, and it seemed as if nobody was suffering
from serious injuries. Yet, he felt defeated and weary. Buffy, Faith, Angel
and Spike hadn't made it.
If someone had told Riley he would ever mourn for a vampire he would've
thought they were nuts. But now he did. Not for Angel as a person, he didn't
know him well enough for that, but vampire or not, he had risked his life,
or rather unlife, for the sake of the world. Suddenly it wasn't important
anymore that Angel was a vampire. Or that Buffy had never stopped loving
him, that Riley had hated him as long as he could remember, because he had
never been able to overcome the other man's shadow.
All that was of no consequence. All that counted was that Angel had
sacrificed everything for a world that didn't even know Angel or the things
they were going against, existed. That was crying for the word hero and
suddenly it wasn't so complicated anymore to understand why Buffy had always been
so drawn to him.
His eyes met Giles' and they both looked at each other with a deep knowledge
of having lost someone they loved. Giles with the eyes of a father, Riley...
He wasn't quite sure about the expression in his eyes. Of course he had lost
Buffy a long time ago, if she'd ever belonged to him at all wasn't important
at the moment. Yet, the idea of her being dead was nothing he had ever
imagined and the stab of pain it caused was deep and Riley knew it would be
a long time until the wound healed.
He saw Dawn staggering over boulders and burnt wood towards Giles, the
watcher catching her in a loving embrace, the girl was crying in his arms,
her whole body trembling. Willow was crying as well, held by Tara and Xander
didn't try to hide his tears, the realization that their friends hadn't been
able to come back in time hitting them all the same moment.
"Oh man," Gunn came to stand beside Riley, his eyes focused on the closed
hole in the ground. "I can't believe he didn't make it. Damn idiot," Riley
heard him draw a sharp breath, Gunn's voice was thick with grief. "Why
didn't he make it?" he shouted, addressing nobody in particular. "Stupid
idiot."
"Gunn, Wesley," Cordelia's voice sounded through the night, her heels making
a clattering noise as she ran towards her friends. "What happened? I
couldn't stay at Buffy's house any longer. Did everything go okay?" She
looked at the former watcher, saw the sadness in his eyes, took in Willow
and Xander crying, Dawn sobbing senselessly in Giles' arms and her eyes
widened in horror.
"No?" she shook her head, backed away, "No," she repeated, her eyes darting
to Gunn, then back to Wesley. "Oh no." The first angry tears spilled over.
"No, no, no, no, no," she shouted, stomping one foot on the ground. "He
can't do that, he just can't do that."
"Cordelia," Wesley moved towards her, his voice gentle, but she held out her
hand in front of her body.
"Don't," she warned. "Don't touch me. I won't believe it. He can't be dead.
He c-can't... OH GOD," she moaned like a wounded animal, then almost
crumpled to the ground, Wesley catching her the last moment.
"Shhhh," he soothed, gathering her in his arms. "It's okay, everything will
be okay," he told her, stroking her hair. "It will all be okay."
"No, it won't," she sobbed, "it won't. He was meant to be immortal. He was
meant to be immortal."
"I know," he said, exchanging a sad look with Gunn over her head, then gazed
at Giles who hadn't been able to hold back his own tears any longer. They
had stopped the Gate of Hell from opening, had closed the hell mouth. Yes,
they had done well. But they wouldn't able to enjoy their victory.
... to be continued
It was dark. Dark and quiet. Too quiet. Hadn't there been noises just a
second ago? Noises and light? Disoriented Buffy's eyes opened. Slowly.
Carefully. Not knowing what they would see. What had happened? Where was
she?
There was nothing, but darkness. Everywhere. Surrounding her.
The Gate.
She remembered the Gate glowing. There had been a storm. A light. Noises.
Voices. Shouting. Whining. Crying.
The slayer frowned. Why was it quiet now? Why was it dark?
Demons.
There had been demons. All kinds. Vampires, old and young. Where were they?
She could still hear their voices crying in outrage and in panic. Just a minute
ago.
Panic?
Why would a vampire cry in panic? There was no sunlight. The darkness
surrounding her was almost frightening. But Buffy was sure there had been
panic all around it. And she remembered Angel glowing almost unearthly,
power coming from him. Then he'd taken her hand and they'd run.
Where was he now? Panic crept up her spine. Angel. Where was Angel? She
tried to see something in this darkness but already knew it was impossible.
Where were her friends? What about Spike and Faith? Had they made it?
Oh God! She stifled a sob and pressed a fist to her mouth. Maybe this was
their damnation. Eternal darkness. Lonely. Lost. Was she maybe trapped in
the demon's dimension? Was Angel trapped as well?
She almost jumped out of her skin when suddenly someone coughed beside her,
then a voice croaked, "B.?"
"Faith!" there was so much relief in the blond slayer's voice, one could've
believed she'd just found her best friend. "Oh Faith, are you okay?" She
reached out in the darkness, tried to reach her. "Where are you?"
"Uh... no idea," the brunette replied honestly. What the fuck had happened?
"Somewhere near by."
"I think you are on my left," Buffy reached out the same arm, waving it
around, hoping to connect with human skin, human warmth. "Try touching me,
Faith," her voice was frantic. She needed to touch, to be touched, to find
warmth, if not light, in this darkness.
But there was none. Faith was there, but obviously too far away, to reach
her. "Do you know what happened?" she asked finally giving up waving her
hand around, rising on her knees instead, crawling towards the other
slayer's voice. Her whole body hurt, she was sure she had bruises
everywhere. She could remember boulders flying around, debris and shots of
fire, a lot like it had happened before in the tunnel.
"No, I have no idea," Faith coughed again. She felt blood in her mouth, the
coppery taste making her nauseous. She hated tasting her own blood. Her ribs
hurt. Badly. Badly hurting ribs and blood in her mouth? Not a good sign.
Every time she coughed it was as if someone was sawing her chest open. The
brunette slayer stifled a groan and yelped when suddenly something warm
connect with the skin of her arm.
"It's okay, it's just me," Buffy said quietly, "Oh God, Faith. What
happened?"
"Damn if I knew," the other woman replied. "It was as if the whole world was
coming down on us. Something hit me, hard, on my chest." She coughed again
and this time she couldn't prevent the groan from leaving her mouth.
"Are you hurt?" Buffy asked instantly, her hands moving over Faith's body,
searching for injuries, the touch light like a feather.
"Yeah, I think I am," the brunette slayer said after the worst pain had
settled. "My ribs hurt and I can taste blood."
"Oh God, Faith," a sob came from the blond, startling Faith.
"Hey, B. I'm tough, I'm not going to die. So don't go soft on me now."
"I won't," Buffy said angrily, wiping the tears from her face, although
Faith couldn't see them anyway. "I'm just a bit shaken. I can't find Angel."
"Oh," the brunette made. "But... uh... you haven't really searched for him,
right? And it's dark. He might be around somewhere."
"Yeah, somewhere," Buffy's voice sounded defeated, "If we just knew where
this somewhere is."
They were quiet for whiles, each hanging on their thoughts, when the blond
broke the silence, her voice quiet, almost a bit shy, "I remember, you know.
I remember everything now."
"You mean you... oh," Faith's voice was small and she was frowning in the
dark. "That's... uh... good."
"Yeah, I guess. I remembered the moment Angel overcame the Gate, got me
back. I don't know what happened, but the memory - well, the parts that were
still missing - was back like that," she snapped her fingers.
"Well," the brunette said weekly.
"Hey, relax, I'm not going to shout at you," Buffy laughed nervously,
running a hand through her hair.
"You're not?" Faith couldn't quite believe it. "That's a start then."
"Yeah, but I want to say something nevertheless."
"Figures," the brunette slayer muttered. Just when she'd thought they were
finally over-
"Thanks."
Startled, Faith's head snapped around, looking at her sister slayer without
seeing her. She wished she could see her eyes see the expression in them.
Understand. "Why are you thanking me?"
"Because you came to help without asking."
"Angel did a lot for me," the brunette said slowly. "Without him I wouldn't
have known where to go, what would've happened to me? Not that it's a blast
to sit in a cell in prison, but..." she shrugged in the dark, her voice
trailing off.
Buffy squeezed the other woman's hand, "I understand. And again thanks. You
had no reason to come and help me. I wasn't really nice to you last time we
saw each other."
"Yeah, well," Faith, laughed, regretting instantly when her ribs began to
throb again, "you always were the jealous type."
"Oh yeah," Buffy laughed also, although it wasn't a happy sound. They were
both too desperate, using the conversation to keep their minds from the
reality around them. A reality they didn't even know. "I know."
"But," the brunette paused for a moment, welcoming the dark. It was so much
easier to say things in the dark. "But I... uh... wasn't nice to you
either."
"You behaved like a punk," Buffy's voice was matter-of-fact.
This time Faith managed just to chuckle. But even that hurt. Her injuries
had to be a lot worse than she thought. Blood in her mouth, maybe a lung was
punctured. Hell of time for such a mess. It didn't look as if there would be
an ambulance any time soon. She felt tears threatening. No way she would die
down here. Not now, it wasn't fair. Not now, when she had friends, people
who cared for her. After all the crap that had happened in her life, she had
managed to put it back together, to find a way for herself. She lifted her
chin stubbornly. No way, she would die now.
"The shrink in jail said that I wanted to hurt other people the way I was
hurting," she said, pressing a hand over her painful ribs. "She said it was
the only way I knew to get attention," she took a deep breath, "I... I
learned not to do it anymore. I hope."
"That's good," Buffy squeezed her hand again, "That's really good."
"Buffy, I don't want to die," Faith voice was suddenly like that of a little
child. "I don't want to die."
"We won't," the blond assured her, praying this wasn't a lie. "There's too
much still waiting for us."
Like Angel. Oh, Angel, she thought, for the first time we have a chance.
Please, those wonderful days with you, it can't be all we've been given. It
can't be all.
****
Giles stood in the middle of the ruins of the old high school and looked
around. The moon was shining so brightly that he had no problem seeing what
was around him. There were Willow and Tara holding on to each other, their
eyes huge and confused. Xander was holding Anya in his arms, he had a
bleeding wound on his right arm, but it didn't look serious. Wesley was
coughing, obviously in order to rid himself of the dust in his lungs. Kate
held Dawn in her arms, the slayer's sister staring at the hole that had been
the entrance to the hell mouth only minutes ago. Gunn was checking his
friends while Riley was standing over the unmoving form of General
Brookridge.
There were two neat little holes in his neck, his face was pale, his eyes
closed, the features relaxed. The blond commando narrowed his eyes, then
turned away in disgust. They had survived. He looked around counting heads
and faces. Yeah, they had survived, but for what price. The hellmouth
looked dormant as it had before, and it seemed as if nobody was suffering
from serious injuries. Yet, he felt defeated and weary. Buffy, Faith, Angel
and Spike hadn't made it.
If someone had told Riley he would ever mourn for a vampire he would've
thought they were nuts. But now he did. Not for Angel as a person, he didn't
know him well enough for that, but vampire or not, he had risked his life,
or rather unlife, for the sake of the world. Suddenly it wasn't important
anymore that Angel was a vampire. Or that Buffy had never stopped loving
him, that Riley had hated him as long as he could remember, because he had
never been able to overcome the other man's shadow.
All that was of no consequence. All that counted was that Angel had
sacrificed everything for a world that didn't even know Angel or the things
they were going against, existed. That was crying for the word hero and
suddenly it wasn't so complicated anymore to understand why Buffy had always been
so drawn to him.
His eyes met Giles' and they both looked at each other with a deep knowledge
of having lost someone they loved. Giles with the eyes of a father, Riley...
He wasn't quite sure about the expression in his eyes. Of course he had lost
Buffy a long time ago, if she'd ever belonged to him at all wasn't important
at the moment. Yet, the idea of her being dead was nothing he had ever
imagined and the stab of pain it caused was deep and Riley knew it would be
a long time until the wound healed.
He saw Dawn staggering over boulders and burnt wood towards Giles, the
watcher catching her in a loving embrace, the girl was crying in his arms,
her whole body trembling. Willow was crying as well, held by Tara and Xander
didn't try to hide his tears, the realization that their friends hadn't been
able to come back in time hitting them all the same moment.
"Oh man," Gunn came to stand beside Riley, his eyes focused on the closed
hole in the ground. "I can't believe he didn't make it. Damn idiot," Riley
heard him draw a sharp breath, Gunn's voice was thick with grief. "Why
didn't he make it?" he shouted, addressing nobody in particular. "Stupid
idiot."
"Gunn, Wesley," Cordelia's voice sounded through the night, her heels making
a clattering noise as she ran towards her friends. "What happened? I
couldn't stay at Buffy's house any longer. Did everything go okay?" She
looked at the former watcher, saw the sadness in his eyes, took in Willow
and Xander crying, Dawn sobbing senselessly in Giles' arms and her eyes
widened in horror.
"No?" she shook her head, backed away, "No," she repeated, her eyes darting
to Gunn, then back to Wesley. "Oh no." The first angry tears spilled over.
"No, no, no, no, no," she shouted, stomping one foot on the ground. "He
can't do that, he just can't do that."
"Cordelia," Wesley moved towards her, his voice gentle, but she held out her
hand in front of her body.
"Don't," she warned. "Don't touch me. I won't believe it. He can't be dead.
He c-can't... OH GOD," she moaned like a wounded animal, then almost
crumpled to the ground, Wesley catching her the last moment.
"Shhhh," he soothed, gathering her in his arms. "It's okay, everything will
be okay," he told her, stroking her hair. "It will all be okay."
"No, it won't," she sobbed, "it won't. He was meant to be immortal. He was
meant to be immortal."
"I know," he said, exchanging a sad look with Gunn over her head, then gazed
at Giles who hadn't been able to hold back his own tears any longer. They
had stopped the Gate of Hell from opening, had closed the hell mouth. Yes,
they had done well. But they wouldn't able to enjoy their victory.
... to be continued