Disclaimer: I claim no right over the characters from BtVS portrayed in the piece of
fiction. All rights of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reserved by Mutant Enemy,
Sandollar, Kuzui Enterprises and Fox. This piece of fiction is not to be reproduced
anywhere or edited without the express consent of the author as named above.
Warning: This piece of literature contains scenes with violence, strong language and
religious references that may be considered offensive. Parental disgression should be
applied.
Chapter 8: Enemy revealed
Angel stayed behind with Cordelia, while the gang went to free his former mentor. He
stared out the window looking at Willow`s car, as it disappeared around a corner.
"Are you okay?", the unusually emotional voice of Cordelia Chase asked him from
behind, while back away from the light of day coming up outside his windows.
"I don`t know. How is everybody else taking it?", Angel tried to avoid answering right at
that moment.
"I think we`re coping. It`s really typical of her to come back just like that. We were all
getting better and getting a normal… Well all right an almost normal… Okay so we
didn`t really change, but she came back and stirred up old feelings. Xander was getting
moody and Willow was isolating herself… Why doesn`t this come out negative for her!
Why can`t I just dislike her like I used too!", Cordelia hit the table in anger.
Angel smiled and turned to face her. "Because your dislike of Buffy was never really
justified".
Cordelia stared at the vampire. She was speechless. Unexpectedly reason found it`s
way through to her not stupid but well hidden brain and sudden realization struck her. "I
was jealous, but I had nothing to be jealous about. I hated her for nothing. I could have
had a friend instead of this weird bickering relationship I had with her. With everyone",
Cordelia looked into the mirror of her mind and found that she had wasted years and
years hurting people she should have been nice to. But she was Cordelia Chase, so not
a single tear escaped her.
Angel understood that somehow a penny had dropped in the woman`s mind. Now she
was finally growing up and beginning to become a person without people prepping up
her selfesteem.
"You are not distracting me that easily. How about you? What happens between you
two now?", Cordy asked again.
"There can be no us. Buffy knows this now. I think we shouldn`t underestimate either
that she serves as a warrior now for the greater powers of the universe. I can`t be with
her. Nor should I have been before she died. I know this now. I have a different purpose
and Doyle will help me get there", he explained and sighed again. Stray sunlight was
slowly making staying the room painful to stay in. "I`ll go get some sleep. I think
Willow`s new spells will keep the demons out for now, but don`t go outside", he said and
head for the elevator to the basement.
"Good… day", Cordelia said and yawned. She had been up for over 24 hours.
The car stood in a shadowy alley across the street from a very shabby warehouse
building. The occupants were standing besides it.
"So we charge in and fight the best we can", Xander suggested.
"No. I think we need to use smarts instead of brute force here. You guys couldn`t stop
those blue creeps in a fist fight, so I think recon first and then we make them dead",
Buffy explained.
Everybody nodded their heads in agreement and watched as Buffy casually walked
across the street and disappeared into an alley several warehouses over from their
target.
"I still don`t quite get it", Xander said.
"I know, but it`s really her. She`s more powerful and somehow a lot more wise than
before, but it`s her. At least it seems so. Oh, I wish Giles were here. He would know for
sure", Willow looked towards the corner around which her resurrected friend had
disappeared.
Xander looked at Willow. It was like seeing and understanding a sudden renaissance.
She was unconciously smiling, her eyes sparkled with happiness usually reserved for
Oz and she seemed alive in a way he nearly couldn`t remember anymore. He was
probably exactly like her. It was like an amputed arm suddenly regrowing.
Buffy felt a wild joy inside as she jumped across the alley separating her from her target.
She felt alive. With catlike agility she landed on silently on the warehouse roof. She
peered down the overhead window into the huge open room below. They were lucky for
once. She could see 2 blue demons guarding the front door and a bald man torturing
Whistler with whitehot silver pokers. Whistler was chained with what looked like old
rusty iron chains.
"He should be able to break those easily", she thought, when sudden a blue glow
emanated from the floor in a pentagram shape surrounded by a circle as the man stuck
another poker in the human looking demon. He was caught in a demon prison.
Instead of charging in like she would have 2 years ago, Buffy chose the safe path. She
found several other viewpoints and discovered that there wasn`t just two blue demons,
but four and probably one or two more hidden in the sewers. Quietly she stalked away
and jumped into the dark alley.
"So what`s up?", Xander asked the newly returned Buffy.
"Whistler is inside getting tortured by some guy. There`s four guards in the warehouse
and probably one or two more in the sewers. My plan is simple. I go in through the
sewers and kill the two demons as loudly as possible. The other demons either try to
attack or flee with their prisoner. You are containment. You must keep the demons
inside. I`ll be able to handle everything as long as I am able to pick them off at my pace
and at my time. Questions?", Buffy looked around, but no one spoke.
Minutes later.
Whistler felt like he had hung from that damned roof for ages. He hadn`t experienced
pain like this for thousands of years and he saw everything through a haze of red pain.
Suddenly he heard demonic howling. His captors had posted a hellhound in the sewer
to act as an early warning system. Angel and his gang were probably on the way to get
killed. The howling stopped rather suddenly.
Whistler craned his neck and stared at the open manhole. A wet splat resounded
through the entire room as the torn off head of a hellhound landed on warehouse floor.
Predicable as always the Krieger demons dashed towards the threat and jumped one at
a time into the manhole. Whistler had a weird feeling of dread while looking into those
depths. A feeling like he knew something which wanted everyone here dead was about
to rise from there real soon now. It wasn`t a feeling he was very familiar with being a
mighty demon and all. Suddenly white hot pain shot through his body once more.
"Ah ah ah", his torturer admonished him and rummaged around in the deep wound with
the burning poker. It was a vampire, which lived to torture. It was frightfully efficient.
"They`ll be able to handle that petty attack down there just fine", he said. Whistler didn`t
listen. He could hear the roar of a car engine.
Willow`s car crashed through the thin door and came to a screeching halt.
The vampire roared and tried to charge the unwelcome visitors. Whistler heard the
thankful sound of a crossbow firing and the blissful sound of dust falling to the ground
behind him. The demonic prison flickered out of existence and he was finally able to
exert his own powers. Wounds disappeared, aches were dulled and he turned to face
his rescuer.
Suddenly a blue skinned demon scrambled out of the manhole screaming with terror. It
didn`t get it`s feet out in time. Something grabbed it from below and drew it into the
darkness. Whistler watched in puzzlement and maybe a little fear as he heard the
scream turn to panicked pleas for mercy then fell silent after a deep frightful crack. He
felt a déjà vu as a longhaired blond girl rose out of the manhole like a vampire from a
grave. Only with all his senses focused on her, was he able to pierce the strong
concealment surrounding the girl and he beheld the immensity of the thing within.
Whistler shallowed down a huge lump of fear. All standing between him and extinction
now, was his glib tonque and ageold contracts, which had been broken many many
times by his own people.
"A Seraph", he whispered and cautiously stepped closer.
"Whistler", Buffy greeted the helpful demon. "Don`t worry I am not here on the Final
Days kind of business… Not yet anyway".
"Are you alright man?", Doyle asked in his accented english.
"As if you care", Whistler said and pretended to dust of his clothing.
"What are you doing here?", Whistler demanded of the girl in a sharper tone of voice
than intended.
The instincts in her to decapitate the offending worm with a holy sword or just simply
render it limb from limb were easily quelled and Buffy replied in her cheeriest voice:
"Proactively defending humanity".
"You call that defensive", Whistler whispered and shook his head. He was very certain,
he didn`t want to go into the sewers around here right now.
"Listen Whistler, we don`t have time here to discuss interdimensional politics right now.
Someone is messing around again and I bet you know a lot about it", Buffy hinted as
they walked towards Willow less than new looking car.
Whistler was about to say something, when Buffy suddenly asked Willow: "Say Will,
why didn`t you just open the doors instead of crashing through them? I know it looks
cool on TV, but look at your car it`s all banged up".
Willow whined a little and looked at Xander, who suddenly seemed obsessed with the
warehouse roof. It had been his idea.
The car was on the road and gunning for the home and base of this demon slaying
gang.
"I don`t know exactly what is going on, but I know who is behind this. It`s an unholy
alliance. Drusilla, Spike`s cracy girlfriend has hired Wolfram and Hart with a huge wad
of money to make you all dead or at least distracted, while she tries to bring back Spike
from the dead", he explained.
"What did they want you for?", Xander asked.
"I stole parts of the spell from a spellbook recently. The spellbook they want to use.
She`s really crazy you know. She can`t recreate Spike from his few remaining parts,
because there aren`t any, so the only way to get him back is to open the way for the
demons of Hell. If she manages to open the right dimensional gate, she would bring
Spike`s demon as well as the first few million others across right here in the middle of
Los Angeles. And the bad news is she can do it without the part of the spells, she`s
missing. But without it, chances are great that she`ll open a way to some random
demon dimension instead. Which brings forth the final wars, which I so seriously hope
to avoid", Whistler looked at Buffy, who seemed far away.
"This world must not fall. We will not allow it", Buffy said, but her voice as if spoken from
the mouth of a thousand others.
"What the hell was that?", Xander asked as Whistler fainted in the back of the car.
Whistler was out for only a few seconds. "Are you alright?", the redhead asked.
"I`ll be alright in a few minutes, if the damned Powers of Light could refrain from trying to
blow my brains out of my cranium", he explained.
"I am sorry. I became angry, when you said that and my allies responds to my feelings",
Buffy explained, "I`ll be more careful in the future". She at least had the decency to look
sorry.
And Whistler understood that, he was sitting besides the other side`s equivalent to an
early warning system. When she went off, the Others would follow and the final war for
this dimension would be decided. He hoped he wasn`t part of the demonic forces
anymore at that point. He was building up a more than solid respect of the up until
recently almost nonexisting forces of light. They were not cowards, weak, stupid or aloof
like the other demons always said. No, they were smarter, wiser and most probably
preparing or ready to win a war most of his people thought they would win by default.
Well if his ideas were correct, then their sides were really less than equal, but not to
their advantage.
The car pulled up besides the home base.
"So now what?", Doyle asked and looked around at the gathering as they sat down in
Willow`s living room.
"I think that I can find out, where Dru is, when the night comes. Doyle, Whistler. You two
are very well connected, couldn`t you shake all the trees for information and watch out
for any demons that fall out of them. The rest of you should rest and recuperate. We`ll
need to be in good form for the next few days", Angel said. They had woken him up
after they had returned with Whistler.
Everybody nodded in agreement. And they spread all over the building to find some
peace and quiet.
Buffy stayed with Willow. "Can I crash here? I have nowhere to go", Buffy asked and
failed miserably at not sounding like she was pleading.
Willow smiled warmly and hugged Buffy. "I have this entire floor to myself over half of it
is empty. If you want to, you can move in", she suggested eagerly.
"I-I I don`t know Will. It might be painful for you all esspecially Angel having me
around…", Buffy smiled sadly at her friend.
fiction. All rights of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reserved by Mutant Enemy,
Sandollar, Kuzui Enterprises and Fox. This piece of fiction is not to be reproduced
anywhere or edited without the express consent of the author as named above.
Warning: This piece of literature contains scenes with violence, strong language and
religious references that may be considered offensive. Parental disgression should be
applied.
Chapter 8: Enemy revealed
Angel stayed behind with Cordelia, while the gang went to free his former mentor. He
stared out the window looking at Willow`s car, as it disappeared around a corner.
"Are you okay?", the unusually emotional voice of Cordelia Chase asked him from
behind, while back away from the light of day coming up outside his windows.
"I don`t know. How is everybody else taking it?", Angel tried to avoid answering right at
that moment.
"I think we`re coping. It`s really typical of her to come back just like that. We were all
getting better and getting a normal… Well all right an almost normal… Okay so we
didn`t really change, but she came back and stirred up old feelings. Xander was getting
moody and Willow was isolating herself… Why doesn`t this come out negative for her!
Why can`t I just dislike her like I used too!", Cordelia hit the table in anger.
Angel smiled and turned to face her. "Because your dislike of Buffy was never really
justified".
Cordelia stared at the vampire. She was speechless. Unexpectedly reason found it`s
way through to her not stupid but well hidden brain and sudden realization struck her. "I
was jealous, but I had nothing to be jealous about. I hated her for nothing. I could have
had a friend instead of this weird bickering relationship I had with her. With everyone",
Cordelia looked into the mirror of her mind and found that she had wasted years and
years hurting people she should have been nice to. But she was Cordelia Chase, so not
a single tear escaped her.
Angel understood that somehow a penny had dropped in the woman`s mind. Now she
was finally growing up and beginning to become a person without people prepping up
her selfesteem.
"You are not distracting me that easily. How about you? What happens between you
two now?", Cordy asked again.
"There can be no us. Buffy knows this now. I think we shouldn`t underestimate either
that she serves as a warrior now for the greater powers of the universe. I can`t be with
her. Nor should I have been before she died. I know this now. I have a different purpose
and Doyle will help me get there", he explained and sighed again. Stray sunlight was
slowly making staying the room painful to stay in. "I`ll go get some sleep. I think
Willow`s new spells will keep the demons out for now, but don`t go outside", he said and
head for the elevator to the basement.
"Good… day", Cordelia said and yawned. She had been up for over 24 hours.
The car stood in a shadowy alley across the street from a very shabby warehouse
building. The occupants were standing besides it.
"So we charge in and fight the best we can", Xander suggested.
"No. I think we need to use smarts instead of brute force here. You guys couldn`t stop
those blue creeps in a fist fight, so I think recon first and then we make them dead",
Buffy explained.
Everybody nodded their heads in agreement and watched as Buffy casually walked
across the street and disappeared into an alley several warehouses over from their
target.
"I still don`t quite get it", Xander said.
"I know, but it`s really her. She`s more powerful and somehow a lot more wise than
before, but it`s her. At least it seems so. Oh, I wish Giles were here. He would know for
sure", Willow looked towards the corner around which her resurrected friend had
disappeared.
Xander looked at Willow. It was like seeing and understanding a sudden renaissance.
She was unconciously smiling, her eyes sparkled with happiness usually reserved for
Oz and she seemed alive in a way he nearly couldn`t remember anymore. He was
probably exactly like her. It was like an amputed arm suddenly regrowing.
Buffy felt a wild joy inside as she jumped across the alley separating her from her target.
She felt alive. With catlike agility she landed on silently on the warehouse roof. She
peered down the overhead window into the huge open room below. They were lucky for
once. She could see 2 blue demons guarding the front door and a bald man torturing
Whistler with whitehot silver pokers. Whistler was chained with what looked like old
rusty iron chains.
"He should be able to break those easily", she thought, when sudden a blue glow
emanated from the floor in a pentagram shape surrounded by a circle as the man stuck
another poker in the human looking demon. He was caught in a demon prison.
Instead of charging in like she would have 2 years ago, Buffy chose the safe path. She
found several other viewpoints and discovered that there wasn`t just two blue demons,
but four and probably one or two more hidden in the sewers. Quietly she stalked away
and jumped into the dark alley.
"So what`s up?", Xander asked the newly returned Buffy.
"Whistler is inside getting tortured by some guy. There`s four guards in the warehouse
and probably one or two more in the sewers. My plan is simple. I go in through the
sewers and kill the two demons as loudly as possible. The other demons either try to
attack or flee with their prisoner. You are containment. You must keep the demons
inside. I`ll be able to handle everything as long as I am able to pick them off at my pace
and at my time. Questions?", Buffy looked around, but no one spoke.
Minutes later.
Whistler felt like he had hung from that damned roof for ages. He hadn`t experienced
pain like this for thousands of years and he saw everything through a haze of red pain.
Suddenly he heard demonic howling. His captors had posted a hellhound in the sewer
to act as an early warning system. Angel and his gang were probably on the way to get
killed. The howling stopped rather suddenly.
Whistler craned his neck and stared at the open manhole. A wet splat resounded
through the entire room as the torn off head of a hellhound landed on warehouse floor.
Predicable as always the Krieger demons dashed towards the threat and jumped one at
a time into the manhole. Whistler had a weird feeling of dread while looking into those
depths. A feeling like he knew something which wanted everyone here dead was about
to rise from there real soon now. It wasn`t a feeling he was very familiar with being a
mighty demon and all. Suddenly white hot pain shot through his body once more.
"Ah ah ah", his torturer admonished him and rummaged around in the deep wound with
the burning poker. It was a vampire, which lived to torture. It was frightfully efficient.
"They`ll be able to handle that petty attack down there just fine", he said. Whistler didn`t
listen. He could hear the roar of a car engine.
Willow`s car crashed through the thin door and came to a screeching halt.
The vampire roared and tried to charge the unwelcome visitors. Whistler heard the
thankful sound of a crossbow firing and the blissful sound of dust falling to the ground
behind him. The demonic prison flickered out of existence and he was finally able to
exert his own powers. Wounds disappeared, aches were dulled and he turned to face
his rescuer.
Suddenly a blue skinned demon scrambled out of the manhole screaming with terror. It
didn`t get it`s feet out in time. Something grabbed it from below and drew it into the
darkness. Whistler watched in puzzlement and maybe a little fear as he heard the
scream turn to panicked pleas for mercy then fell silent after a deep frightful crack. He
felt a déjà vu as a longhaired blond girl rose out of the manhole like a vampire from a
grave. Only with all his senses focused on her, was he able to pierce the strong
concealment surrounding the girl and he beheld the immensity of the thing within.
Whistler shallowed down a huge lump of fear. All standing between him and extinction
now, was his glib tonque and ageold contracts, which had been broken many many
times by his own people.
"A Seraph", he whispered and cautiously stepped closer.
"Whistler", Buffy greeted the helpful demon. "Don`t worry I am not here on the Final
Days kind of business… Not yet anyway".
"Are you alright man?", Doyle asked in his accented english.
"As if you care", Whistler said and pretended to dust of his clothing.
"What are you doing here?", Whistler demanded of the girl in a sharper tone of voice
than intended.
The instincts in her to decapitate the offending worm with a holy sword or just simply
render it limb from limb were easily quelled and Buffy replied in her cheeriest voice:
"Proactively defending humanity".
"You call that defensive", Whistler whispered and shook his head. He was very certain,
he didn`t want to go into the sewers around here right now.
"Listen Whistler, we don`t have time here to discuss interdimensional politics right now.
Someone is messing around again and I bet you know a lot about it", Buffy hinted as
they walked towards Willow less than new looking car.
Whistler was about to say something, when Buffy suddenly asked Willow: "Say Will,
why didn`t you just open the doors instead of crashing through them? I know it looks
cool on TV, but look at your car it`s all banged up".
Willow whined a little and looked at Xander, who suddenly seemed obsessed with the
warehouse roof. It had been his idea.
The car was on the road and gunning for the home and base of this demon slaying
gang.
"I don`t know exactly what is going on, but I know who is behind this. It`s an unholy
alliance. Drusilla, Spike`s cracy girlfriend has hired Wolfram and Hart with a huge wad
of money to make you all dead or at least distracted, while she tries to bring back Spike
from the dead", he explained.
"What did they want you for?", Xander asked.
"I stole parts of the spell from a spellbook recently. The spellbook they want to use.
She`s really crazy you know. She can`t recreate Spike from his few remaining parts,
because there aren`t any, so the only way to get him back is to open the way for the
demons of Hell. If she manages to open the right dimensional gate, she would bring
Spike`s demon as well as the first few million others across right here in the middle of
Los Angeles. And the bad news is she can do it without the part of the spells, she`s
missing. But without it, chances are great that she`ll open a way to some random
demon dimension instead. Which brings forth the final wars, which I so seriously hope
to avoid", Whistler looked at Buffy, who seemed far away.
"This world must not fall. We will not allow it", Buffy said, but her voice as if spoken from
the mouth of a thousand others.
"What the hell was that?", Xander asked as Whistler fainted in the back of the car.
Whistler was out for only a few seconds. "Are you alright?", the redhead asked.
"I`ll be alright in a few minutes, if the damned Powers of Light could refrain from trying to
blow my brains out of my cranium", he explained.
"I am sorry. I became angry, when you said that and my allies responds to my feelings",
Buffy explained, "I`ll be more careful in the future". She at least had the decency to look
sorry.
And Whistler understood that, he was sitting besides the other side`s equivalent to an
early warning system. When she went off, the Others would follow and the final war for
this dimension would be decided. He hoped he wasn`t part of the demonic forces
anymore at that point. He was building up a more than solid respect of the up until
recently almost nonexisting forces of light. They were not cowards, weak, stupid or aloof
like the other demons always said. No, they were smarter, wiser and most probably
preparing or ready to win a war most of his people thought they would win by default.
Well if his ideas were correct, then their sides were really less than equal, but not to
their advantage.
The car pulled up besides the home base.
"So now what?", Doyle asked and looked around at the gathering as they sat down in
Willow`s living room.
"I think that I can find out, where Dru is, when the night comes. Doyle, Whistler. You two
are very well connected, couldn`t you shake all the trees for information and watch out
for any demons that fall out of them. The rest of you should rest and recuperate. We`ll
need to be in good form for the next few days", Angel said. They had woken him up
after they had returned with Whistler.
Everybody nodded in agreement. And they spread all over the building to find some
peace and quiet.
Buffy stayed with Willow. "Can I crash here? I have nowhere to go", Buffy asked and
failed miserably at not sounding like she was pleading.
Willow smiled warmly and hugged Buffy. "I have this entire floor to myself over half of it
is empty. If you want to, you can move in", she suggested eagerly.
"I-I I don`t know Will. It might be painful for you all esspecially Angel having me
around…", Buffy smiled sadly at her friend.
