Breaking down the
Walls
TITLE:
"Breaking down the walls" Chapter 2 - 2/12 - Rated PG - B/A Angst,
series 6 predictions
AUTHOR: Charlie/Selwyn29
EMAIL: selwyn29@ntlworld.com
DISCLAIMER: They're not mine, they're Joss's. But if they were mine I give them to Duck's for safekeeping J
PAIRING: B/A, and loads more
TIMELINE: After end of series 5 Buffy, series 2 Angel
SPOILERS: Anything is possible... say all, up to B5/A2
SYNOPSIS: My take on series 6 and what should happen, please read Chapter One
or none of this will make sense.
FEEDBACK: Definitely wanted, its my first attempt.
RATING: PG CONTENT
DEDICATION: To Trammie, AlwaysLuv and Mark my Beta readers and Duck's who without her epics I would never had started this one. Also to the Babble Board posters, who have been an inspiration for some storylines
Now on
with the storytelling………..
A bright flash blinded Buffy and
Doyle and they found themselves confronted by two beautiful Grecian style
people. The woman spoke first.
"Slayer, you have been brought
before us."
Doyle whispered into Buffy's ear,
"Wow, no waiting, no gifts, they must really want to see you."
The man flicked his hand and Doyle
vanished from the room.
"Hey, we were talking." Buffy snapped.
"The Powers That Be demand your
full attention." They said in unison.
"Well, can you kinda get on with
it, cause you know, heaven, redemption, got a lot of partying to do."
The woman looked surprised for a
moment.
"But you are not in this heaven
you speak of, you are in the limbo world. You chose to come here before your
time, you should not have come."
"Can we have a bit less of the
cryptic and a bit more of an explanation? You brought me before you, I assume you have a reason."
"You are needed, Slayer. There is no more of your line," the man said
simply.
"Oh come on, even I know the drill
by heart, a slayer dies, another is called in her place, it's an eternal thing,
yadda, yadda yadda, surely you know this by now. I died, some other poor girl has been called in my place…life
goes on."
"But your replacement was already
called, the slayer line passed on. She
is no warrior for the Powers."
"Faith." Buffy whispered.
"She will not fight for our cause,
there is no slayer."
"Hey, would love to help, but what
do you know, I'm dead."
"It was not your time, you should
not have come here."
"But I did, I saved the world, I
defeated Glory."
"But others are rising. The world is left unprotected."
"So what are you proposing…?"
Buffy asked.
"Slayer, you must return to your
world and fight in your role as it was destined to be."
Buffy looked at them for a moment,
staring at their passive faces, their voices and emotions giving nothing away.
"I have given up 5 years of my life
for your cause, I have fought demon after demon, year after year, I have
averted the end of the world on numerous occasions. I lost a normal life because of you and your role for me. I put my family in danger many times and now
finally when I have found some peace in this world, when I have discovered an
end to it all, you want me to go back and fight again? How would that even be possible? Dawn tried to resurrect my mom and that
didn't work, how will you send me back?"
"The witch has been working on the
resurrection spell, help will be given." the woman answered.
"And what if I don't want to
return?" Buffy asked defiantly.
"It cannot work against your will,
but you are needed, Slayer, you are being given a chance most people can only
dream of. We must have an answer."
Buffy found herself once more in
the white room where she had started. She sat back down on the floor, somewhat stunned by the entire thing.
"How am I supposed to decide?" she
whispered into the brightness.
"I would have thought that was an
easy choice to make." Joyce's voice
carried across the vast room, as she walked over to join her daughter.
"Do you not want to go back?" Joyce asked her.
"A lot of me wants to." Buffy said quietly.
"And the other bits?"
"Want nothing more than to stay
here with you." Buffy looked at her
mother with tears in her eyes.
"Why does everything have to be
such a choice?" she asked her.
"Because that's the way life
is. It makes you appreciate the choice
you have made for yourself because you have given up so much to make it."
"I've spent so much of my life
being the Slayer, being the one responsible for saving the world over and over
again. I spent most nights in the
graveyards and the crypts, instead of at the mall or at the clubs, talking to
vampires and demons, instead of boys, wondering each day if that would be the
day I died."
"And you did die. And now you have a chance to go back."
"But to die then was my choice, it
was one of the few independent things I did as a slayer. Usually it was prophesised, or written
somewhere what would happen, but this time, I took them all by surprise. I took my destiny into my own hands and I
chose to give up my life at that point, and not wait for it to be taken from
me. This is my redemption, my peace, at
last. No more wondering if I'm going to
make it home tonight or if I'll return and find all my friends in little pieces
at the whim of some maniac. I have peace now, and I have you again, I don't
want to let that go."
"I know you don't, darling, but
you have to look at the other side. There is no one to take your place, no one to help down there. No one to stop the world becoming over-run
by demons. You don't belong here with
me, you belong down there, protecting Dawn and the rest. Take the chance now, while it's given to
you."
"It's so hard though, I just want
to be happy and this is my chance here and now, not to have to think anymore
about what I have lost, about what was taken from me. I lost Angel, then Riley, and then you. I don't want to go through any of that again."
"It's a second chance, Buffy, a
chance to make things the way you want them to be. You're stronger now, and you know I'll always be watching over
you. Please think about it, you belong
back there with Dawn. She needs
you. Not everyone is lucky enough to be
given a second chance."
Buffy looked away for a second and then back into her
mother's eyes.
"Then, if I do go back, there's something I need to tell you, something I need
to take a second chance on, one the most important reasons for me to go back,
and I want you to understand."
"Angel." Her mother said, "You're going to go back to Angel."
"You know me so well, " Buffy said smiling at her mother. "Give him a
chance, please; he's part of me, my soulmate. I tried to have the average
boy next door as a boyfriend and it didn't work, I just ended up hurting him,
and myself."
"I just wanted you to have a normal life, he wanted you to have that too."
"I'm never going to be a normal girl, especially not now, being resurrected and
all.
But normal to me is Angel; without
him, it's like going through life with a huge part of me missing.
I love him Mom, I've loved him since the first second
I looked into his eyes and saw his soul and I'll love him forevermore."
"But Angel can't give you everything you want." Joyce replied.
"Angel is everything I want, and more. As long as we are together, I
don't care about the rest; just being close to him is enough, knowing he's
there. I need him; the past 2 years have been like living a shadow of a
life, watching the world go by, not really taking part. Every night when
I came home from Patrol I wanted to pick up the phone and call him, talk to him
about my day and about his. I can't even count the amount of times I've
called his number and hung up. He makes me believe in who I am and what I
am destined to do. He makes the curse of being a Slayer somehow
bearable. He understands me, more than anyone else in the world."
"All I want is for you to be happy and I guess if you think that you can find
that with Angel then you have my blessing. But please be careful."
Buffy stood up and looked at her mother and wrapped her arms around her.
Joyce completed the embrace and held her elder daughter close to her.
"I love you, so much Buffy."
"I love you too, Mom"
A blinding flash brought Buffy
before the Oracles again.
"So slayer, have you made your
choice?" the man asked.
"I want to know what this entails
first. What happens when I get down
there? I'm dead, how you gonna fix that
one?"
"Things will fall into place,
together you are strong."
"Make your choice, Slayer."
Buffy closed her eyes. Her mother's voice echoed in her head,
"Please, Buffy, for Dawn." Buffy knew
what her decision was; she could never leave Dawn.
"I'll go back."
"You have made the right choice."
the woman said, graciously.
"But just so you know, you owe me
big time for this one."
The Oracles looked stunned for a
moment but recovered quickly.
"The rewards will come to the
worthy in the end." And with that last
comment they vanished.
Buffy found herself in the room
again.
"So what now, I just sit and
wait?" she asked the room.
"They have given you me for
company, you lucky girl" the voice came from behind her ear.
"Doyle! Did Angel teach you his lurking trick?!"
"I like to think of it more as
stealthiness, meself. So you up for a
game of scissors, paper, stone?"
"How about you tell me everything
about your time in LA, and especially the bits about Cordelia."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Willow looked across the bed at
where the sleeping figure of Tara lay. She gently pulled her arm out from underneath the blonde girl's head and
got herself up into a sitting position. Swinging her legs over the side of the
bed she pulled a pair of pants and a sweater on, grabbed a pair of trainers,
and stole across the room. Sneaking one
last look at Tara, she opened the door, grabbed her jacket and crept out into
the hall.
Willow ran across the campus and
started on the familiar route into town, past the empty coffee houses, the
shops and the mall, she slowed a little as she passed the ruins of the old high
school, so many memories there, so much Buffy. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and ploughed on. Soon she was at the door where she wanted to
be. She concentrated her mind on the
space in front of her and whispered the words, "Sono il creatore mi concedo l' entrata." [1] A tiny shimmer appeared in the doorway,
she walked through the guarding spell and opened the door with the key she
pulled out of her pocket.
She walked carefully across the
floor of the Magic Shop, trying not to dislodge anything on her way to the
ladder. She climbed the ladder in the
moonlight, until she got to the top and knelt on the floor next to the
bookshelves. Working quickly, her heart
pounding in her chest, she got a flashlight out of her pocket and scanned it
across the shelves. There, hidden
within a pile of dusty books on ancient Norse mythology, was the book she was
looking for. She reached over and
pulled it out of its space. Holding it
carefully in one hand she climbed down the ladder and went over to the desk,
near the back, where Giles had had a computer installed for 'research
purposes'. She switched the machine on
and its screen blinked into welcome life.
As she was waiting for the
computer to start up she turned to the book in her hands. She had been hoping that Giles hadn't
destroyed it since the night that Dawn had stolen it for her own uses, and
fortunately, he hadn't. By the light of
the computer screen, the witch scanned the first page of the book, headed
resurrection spells.
Willow looked up at the screen and
clicked on her e-mail program. She had
new mail:
From: Merlin
Had a look at that resurrection spell you sent and I found
this small section variation of it from a book I managed to trace. I think it will work better than the last
time it was tried. Just make sure to
follow the instructions exactly and get a group together who can help create a
more powerful magic field.
Happy casting
Merlin
From: Phoenixes
Are we still prepared to do this? I think we need to get ready, it's getting close to the time.
Willow made a little sigh and turned
back to her book again, she read over the words again, pretending that they
weren't already drilled into her mind. She slowly looked up again and read the attachment from Merlin, which
was now displayed on the bright screen.
"An orb of Thesulah, now why does
that not give me a good feeling?" She
whispered to herself.
She crept across the floor of the
magic shop and looked along the shelves behind the till where Giles put all the
'trade' goodies. She reached up on to
one of the top shelves and picked up the glass ball. She left a $50 dollar bill in the space.
"Here's to bringing you back,
Buffy, let's hope you can afford some food for us both."
She quickly printed the page off
the computer and scribbled down the instructions from Giles' book. She ran up the ladder and set the book back
where it had been, switched the computer off and headed back to the door. As she closed and locked the door softly
behind her, she whispered the spell again and the magic field reappeared,
shimmering slightly in the moonlight. She briefly looked up at the sky; the moon was almost full.
"Three weeks," she whispered to
herself and ran off into the darkness.
Inside the shop, darkness encased
everything once more, but then, out of the shadows, a pale face appeared.
"Well, well, well, looks like
Red's gotta plan." Spike chuckled to
himself.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"How long now?" Buffy asked Doyle, for the three millionth
time.
"You know, if I'd wanted to spend
my life, sorry, death, answering that question I would have had some
kiddies."
"I'm just not the patient type."
"You're telling me. It's been about three months down there."
"Three months? It feels like about a day up here. If Willow doesn't get on with it soon I'll
be resurrected and die again from old age."
"There'll be no chances of that."
"What's that supposed to
mean?" Buffy asked.
"Well, you know, resurrection,
voodoo, zombies, you might be all singing and all dancing, but you won't exactly
be living."
"I'll be immortal?"
"Eternal is a better word, that
is, unless something nasty and unforeseen happens."
"And like there's no chance of
that, me being the Slayer and all."
Buffy thought for a moment.
"No time for thinking now, Buff,
it's showtime."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Willow looked anxiously around the
room, it was Saturday night and everyone was over at Xander's. Xander and Anya were sat watching QVC on the
sofa, every now and again Willow could hear her voice carrying over.
"Xander, buy me that."
"Anya, it costs money, and it's
not worth it, really it isn't."
"But that lady says that everyone
should have one, and if she can have one, why can't I.?"
"I thought you liked our money,
liked us keeping it."
"I do like our money, but I think
I would like that bracelet, I can put it with my money."
Tara and Dawn sat at the kitchen
table. Dawn was trying to move the salt
and pepper shakers with her mind. Tara
was trying to give her helpful hints, without being too helpful or involving
actual witchcraft. They had made the
decision, that if Dawn really wanted to learn witchcraft, she must develop
naturally, rather than be tutored.
Spike sat on the kitchen cabinets,
a can of beer clenched in his mouth. Xander yelled over to him.
"Spike, really, do you have to
kill the can, I think it might be dead already."
Dawn was giggling at the vampire.
"Oh, I have to have some use for
these teeth you know. Actually someone
find me some aspirin, I'll try biting Xander."
"Very funny." Xander said, and sunk back onto the couch,
as Spike growled at him.
"Willow are you alright?" Tara asked.
"Yeah, just a bit of itchy, witchy
feet tonight, I think I might go and have a bit of a patrol."
"On your own? I'll come with you." Tara said, concerned.
"I'll be OK, got those new spells
in my head, might try a few out." Willow tried to laugh it off. "Anyway, you stay with Dawnie. I
need to be alone for a while."
"Alone, but not dead. I'm coming with." Spike said, jumping off the kitchen counter.
"I'll be OK," Willow started to
protest, heading to the door, but Spike was there just as quick.
"Nah, those vamps and demons are
starting to gang up, you never know what could be out there. I fancy a bit of fightin' to get rid of all
this frustration."
Willow just nodded in resignation
and picked up her backpack.
"Be careful." Tara said just before she left.
"I will." Willow answered.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Golly, a backpack, what's in
that?" Spike kidded Willow.
"Just some…things to help us
patrol tonight."
"What, you hoping to put it over a
vamp's head and he'll fall onto a stake?"
"No, it's just some provisions,
for a spell."
"It wouldn't happen to be a
special kind of spell, that needs a special kind of night, and, maybe, a
special type of orb?"
"I don't know what you mean." Willow started, her voice trembling a
little.
"Come on, Red, I watched you in
the Magic Shop, you're gonna conjure up Buffy aren't you?"
"You shouldn't be spying on
people, you know that, don't you?"
"Hey, shoot me." Spike retorted.
They were walking along the road,
heading to the tower where the final fight had taken place with Glory.
"Ah, good place to pick, full of
all those vibes and stuff." Spike
whispered in Willow's ear.
Willow just hurried on ahead.
A young man met her at the gates
to the tower.
"Hurry up, time is passing by."
"Oh, he's good." Spike muttered
behind her.
Willow walked through the gates
and into the yard under the tower. She
allowed her eyes to look briefly across at the spot where Buffy's broken body
had fallen. Everything came rushing
back through her head, everyone gathering around her, praying for signs of life,
Dawn's inhumane screeching in the background. Willow shook her head, she couldn't think of that now, she had to
concentrate, everything was going to be all right, it just had to be.
She walked across the construction
site to where there was a crude pentagram drawn on the floor. A voice called across the yard.
"Willow, finally, can we get
started? Oh good, you brought another
caster, it'll make the spell more powerful."
"I didn't bring…" Willow started,
but Spike jumped past her and sat cross-legged at one of the points of the
pentagram.
She sighed and sat down next to
Spike.
He leaned over to her.
"Jonathan? You chose Jonathan to help you cast an all
powerful resurrection spell?"
"He's a part of some sorcery
group, they have quite a lot of power, and they were the only ones willing to
help with very little detail."
"But didn't even Xander pick on
Jonathan at school?"
Willow looked across to where
Jonathan sat, fiddling nervously with the ground, he sighed quietly, then
reached into his pocket and put an inhaler to his mouth. Willow kicked Spike to stop him laughing.
Willow's attention turned to the
older boy of the group, who called himself Raven. She didn't quite know whether to trust him or not, he seemed very
intent on the black arts and it had been he who had put her in touch with
Merlin for the rest of the spell. At
the final pinnacle of the star sat a young girl who obviously doted on the
aforementioned Raven, however, Willow could sense a strong power coming from
her. She seemed to have some Romany
roots, her big dark eyes, matched with dark hair and slightly tinged skin gave
that away.
Willow slowly unpacked her bag and
laid her goods into the centre of the circle. As she put each one down she explained its significance.
"That's a lock of hair, from…the
person, to signify the body." She said
quietly.
Spike's eyes were drawn to the
blonde lock pointing towards him.
She laid a silver piece of
jewellery next to the hair.
"This is a present from someone,
that signifies the soul."
Spike's eyes flickered across the
silver cross; the significance of it, being the first present his poofter of a
sire had ever given to Buffy, wasn't lost on him.
"This is a vial of blood from the
egg of a Mohra demon, to give life."
Then she laid the orb down on the
ground.
"And this is an orb of Thesulah,
to keep the soul safe until it can pass into the body."
"Are we ready then?" Raven asked the circle.
Willow quickly passed a piece of
paper to Spike with the spell written on it.
The group reached out their hands and
touched one another, completing the circle. Spike balked a little when Jonathan reached out and touched his hand,
but one look from Willow and a look into the centre where all her things lay
and he reached out his hand too.
The group closed their eyes and
concentrated and slowly began to chant.
"Osiris, giver
of darkness, taker of
life, God of Gods - accept my
offering… Bone, flesh, breath -
yours, eternally.
Bone, flesh,
breath…
I beg of you -
return to me.
Bone, flesh,
breath - yours,
eternally. Bone, flesh, breath -
I beg of you - return to me."
Over the quiet chanting, Willow
began casting additional spells, first, one to capture Buffy's soul.
"Soulcatcher return to us what is
hers,
Give us this essence that
completes her."
She slowly chanted this mantra,
all the time watching the orb sitting on the ground. Slowly it began to glow, getting brighter and brighter each
second. Willow was transfixed on the
glowing ball; the wind began to whip up around the yard, blowing soil around.
"Finish the spell!" Raven shouted.
Willow looked across at them, all
eyes closed, concentrating. She felt a
powerful surge come through the hand of the young girl sitting next to
her. She looked at the girl, shocked
for a second, then Spike's voice called out.
"Come on Red, finish it, what's
next?"
"Her age, I have to count out her
age. Up to twenty…"
Willow started counting in the
wind, shouting into the dark sky.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5…"
As she was counting, the wind got
stronger and the power coming from the young girl was agonisingly painful, but
Willow dared not let go of her hand.
"6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13…"
The wind was beginning to drown
out the sound of her voice. The objects
inside the pentagram began to move about on the ground.
"14, 15, 16, 17, 18………"
At that point a mass of darkness
shot up through the pentagram, scattering the objects. Spike broke the circle first, grabbing the
silver cross as it whipped past his head. Willow could only watch as the orb was taken up in the air across the
yard. The other three spell casters
stood up and began to run across the yard. Willow concentrated her whole being and shouted up into the heavens.
"I beg of you – Osiris – return to
me!"
Spike grabbed hold of her hand and
dragged her out of the yard, Willow looked back from the gates and saw a black
mist forming in the centre.
"It's not her, Red, give it
up." Spike shouted against the chaos.
Willow took one last look at the
yard, tears beginning to blind her sight. She whispered an incantation under her breath. Spike watched, in awe of the young witch, as the site went calm.
"Bloody hell! What did you do?"
"Protection spell, whatever that
was, it should be bound here now."
"It's not Buffy, Red, whatever it
is."
Willow looked up at him, tears in
her eyes. "I know." She whispered.
The two of them had one more quick
look around the yard, turned, and walked away.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Cordelia
sat at her desk in the office tapping a pencil against the pile of invoices she
had been printing.
"Waste of paper," she muttered to
herself, "Angel Investigations, we help
the helpless and the penniless."
She looked across the office at
the other workers. Gunn was out on a
patrol in his neighbourhood. Wesley was
talking quietly to Fred over near the books. Fred was turning out to be quite a valuable member of the team; her
librarian skills were helping with the large amount of demon texts they were
amassing. She had fit in well with the
group since they had left Pylea. Sure,
she was nervous and a bit jumpy, but you had to expect that. Cordelia allowed herself a small smile at
the thought of the attachment that Fred had formed for Angel. She saw him as some sort of protector and
would sit patiently, day after day, listening to him say, well, very little, if
anything at all, about how he was feeling. She would just sit there in companionable silence with him, making sure
he knew someone was there for him - if he ever had a complete character change
and decided to talk. The thought of her
friend drew her eyes to the office. Wesley had graciously given it up to Angel, for the time being, it
wasn't a permanent fixture, but they all felt, at the moment, that having a
brooding (well, more than usual) vampire in the main office was quite off
putting for the people who came in for help. He had the habit of staring through them and mainly ignoring them. He was still working and going out with them
to jobs, but Cordelia knew neither his heart, nor his soul was quite in
it. It was an improvement though, it
had taken them weeks and massive amounts of coaxing to get him even to come out
of his apartment.
She could see Angel sitting,
staring into space, his eyes dark and empty. She got up from her desk and walked over to the door. Angel was just opening the top drawer of his
desk. She noticed a small photograph
lying there and she knew whom it would be of.
"Angel, coffee…" she began, when
he cried out and bent over double, as if in pain. She ran quickly to his side.
"Angel? What is it, what hurts, oh my god, Wesley call an ambulance, it
could be a heart attack."
Angel looked up at her, pain in
his eyes.
"Heart attack? Now that would be a miracle." he said.
"Well, what's wrong, what
happened?"
"I don't know." Angel said, sitting up slowly. "I just felt this pain, like something was
being ripped out from inside of me."
"Something…" Cordelia began
cautiously, "something, maybe, soul
like? I mean, do any of us look tasty
to you, not hungering for a bit of a massacre?"
Angel sat quietly for a minute.
"Everything seems to be in check,
maybe, it's just too much coffee." Angel said, trying to make light of the situation.
"Are you sure you're OK?" Wesley asked from the doorway.
"I'm fine." Angel said. "I'll be fine." He looked
Cordelia directly in the eyes.
"Well, there goes my hope that the
Power's had transferred the horrible debilitating visions to you." Cordelia huffed, as she went out of the
office.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ten
days later, Xander was walking down the same road Willow and Spike had walked,
towards the construction site. His
company had been instructed to tear the tower down and start building some new
houses on the grounds. He hadn't told
the rest of the gang about the job because he didn't know how they would
react. Personally, he was quite happy
that the tower would soon be destroyed. It was a pretty harsh memory of what had gone on that night, none of
them could pass it by without reliving the events, and he knew that Dawn had
been avoiding it completely. No, this
would be the best for everyone. Especially Willow, she had been really quite strange lately. It was beginning to worry him, he knew that
Willow was taking Buffy's death incredibly hard, as were they all, but Willow
seemed to have withdrawn even more into herself the past week or so, and no one
could seem to work out why. She
wouldn't even talk to Tara about it.
Xander entered the site and began
the initial check before any of the men arrived, the boss had sent him down to
assess the site, prior to any work starting. Xander was quite proud, it was the first time he had been given this
amount of responsibility.
He began to wander around just in
front of the tower, checking for drainage and any unstable ground. He noticed a few marks in the ground here
and there, some bits of rubbish lying around. Most probably kids, he thought. He began to walk over towards the tower, slow steady steps. His heartbeat was increasing as he passed
the spot where her body had fallen. Tears began to well up into his eyes, as he thought of his friend, but
he pushed his grief to the back of his mind, he had a job to do. He walked around the side of the tower and a
glinting in the ground caught his eye. Glass shards lay partly embedded in the
ground, millions of them catching the sun. Something pretty dense had obviously been broken down here. He followed them round to the back of the
tower, to check if there were anything more. The shards seemed to stop, there were some crates lying around at the
base and a bit of wood debris, but that was it. He was about to turn and walk away, when his brain registered
something else. He stepped cautiously
over towards the debris and he saw it again. A hand was lying on the ground. He knelt down and closed his eyes, praying quietly to himself.
"Please let this be attached to an
arm, which is attached to a body."
"…And a head." he added, as an
afterthought. He'd seen too much in
Sunnydale.
Still with his eyes closed, he
lifted up a large piece of wood on top of the pile. He slowly opened his eyes and looked down.
"Holy, moly Batman." he whispered,
under his breath.
There was a body lying on the
ground, under the crates. A body in a
pink dress, a body in a very familiar pink dress, a prom dress to be more
exact, a body which seemed in a very good condition, considering, and which had
a very familiar face to it.
"Buffy."
Xander backed away and sat on the
ground, breathing heavily. The shrill
pierce of his mobile phone, shocked him into some form of consciousness.
"Harris, is the site all
right? I want to send some men down
now. I need to know what kind of tools
and machines we need. Harris, HARRIS?" The voice of his boss rang out in his ear.
"Erm, erm." Xander stalled, trying desperately to think
of what he could do or say, people on their way down. He had to do something.
"Harris, is everything all right?"
"Sorry Mr.Taylor." he said, voice
shaking. "It's just my mother rang, my
grandmother was taken very sick this morning and she's asking for me. Its all a bit of a shock." That was an understatement and probably more
of a shock to his grandmother, who was fighting fit at 84.
"Well you'd better go, I'll send
Duncan down to assess the site." Mr.
Taylor replied, gruffly.
"Thank you sir, I'd better go to
her."
"Well, make sure you're back at
the site tomorrow. I need all my
workers for this contract. But well,
grandmothers, they are important, I remember when my grandmother…" Xander cut
his boss off before he could start reminiscing about the past and when he was
young.
"Have to go boss, sorry, you know,
not long to go and all that."
"Yes, right, best wishes to
everyone and all." Xander hung up the
phone and just sat there, his brain trying to process the mass of information
running through it. Whatever he did he
had to move fast, the other guys would be along shortly.
Taking a deep breath, he walked
over to the crates and swept Buffy up into his arms and quickly walked out of
the yard.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Giles
was standing behind the counter in the magic shop, trying to make heads or
tails of the account books that Anya had been filling in recently for him. His head was already beginning to ache and
it was only the start of the day. He
had sent the ex-demon out on an errand to get some change from the bank. The knowledge of all that money seemed to
keep her happy about that task. He knew
he was the only one in the shop, so when a massive crash was heard from the
back room, he was alert immediately. He
grabbed a broadsword from behind the counter and cautiously walked towards the
back of the shop and training room. He
heard another crash now, it sounded very much like the back door being kicked
through. He held his sword aloft and
walked steadily through the door into the other room.
Xander stood in the middle of the
training mat, breathing heavily, red in the face.
"Xander, what on earth is the
matter, shouldn't you be at work?"
Xander just looked at him,
straight in the face and uttered the words.
"Houston, we have a problem."
"My back door, that's a problem
looming heavily at the moment, who's going to pay…" but Giles didn't finish his
sentence. Xander had stepped to one
side, revealing the prone form on the floor behind him.
"Buffy!" Giles whispered.
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[1] Italian –I am the creator, allow me entrance
