An hour later he still hadn't found her when he decided to check out the last of Sunnydale's graveyards. As he walked past the various tombstones and monuments he smiled slightly as he remembered the times they had making out, arguing, making up (often followed by making out) when he ran into a freshly erected tombstone. Angel was about to keep moving when the words on the stone made him stop and drop to his knees in horror.
Buffy Summers
1981-1998
Rest in Peace
Angel put his hand on the dirt that now covered the body of his beloved and felt tears welling in his eyes. No! She can't be . . . His mind wouldn't say the word. He couldn't imagine the concept. A world without Buffy. Angel felt as though his heart had been torn from his chest as he knelt there. He had no idea how long he was there. It could have been seconds, days, centuries.
Then a hand shot out of the dirt and wrapped around his own. Angel pulled back in startlement but the hand held on. It was followed by an arm, and then Buffy was standing in front of him brushing dirt off her clothes. Her head was down and her face was concealed by her hair.
Angel stared in joyful amazement. She was fine. Then as he watched she said in a low, soft voice, "Angel?"
"Yes? Buffy I can't believe . . . You're okay!" Angel started forward when she suddenly backed away from him, her face still obscured. "Buffy? what's wrong-" as he stepped closer to pull her against him she backed away again.
"Don't! Please Angel. Don't look at me!" Buffy whirled around as he tried to get her to look at him and ran. Angel, confused but determined to find out what had happened, chased after her. He caught her just as she was about to vault the wall of the cemetery.
Buffy struggled against Angel. Then, abruptly, she stopped and buried her head into Angel's chest and began to sob. Angel immediately wrapped his arms around her and softly whispered to her telling her everything would be okay.
"I just can't believe it," She sobbed, "It was as bad as last time, maybe worse, oh Angel I-"
"Shh it's okay Buffy. What happened?"
Buffy stepped away from Angel and taking a deep breath looked up at him. Angel's eyes widened in shock as the hair fell away from Buffy's face. Only it wasn't her face. It was twisted by the same kind of horror that Angel carried inside himself. But as he watched in bewilderment, she didn't attack. She just stood there tears falling down her face.
"You weren't there when this happened the last time Angel-"
"This happened before?" Angel was stunned. He couldn't imagine Buffy as a vampire, and yet here she was. And somehow she seemed even more beautiful then ever. "When?"
"Last year. Some little league coach beat up one of the members of his team. The kid's astral body wreaked a little havoc making everyone's nightmares come true. Well I was attacked and buried alive by the Master and was changed into a vampire. It happened again tonight."
"Why did you run? You could have just told me." Angel was confused. She had run and now she was crying. What did she think he was going to do?
"You believe me? I . . . I thought you would stake and ask questions later if I let you see . . ." she gestured at her face which Angel realised after the initial shock he hadn't noticed. "And I didn't want you to see me like this. I must be hideous!"
"Oh Buffy, I could never think you were hideous. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever known." Angel bent to the pleasant task of telling Buffy how much he loved her.
"You're just saying that 'cause we're dating," She said with a smile. A shaky one at best, but a smile nonetheless.
"Are you going to look a gift horse in the mouth?"
"No. We should get back to the library, though. With all the latest weirdness that's going on we had better get back to researching."
With that the two of them left. Neither one noticed the eyes glowing in the darkness looking at them through the leaves of a bush.
The blond girl who the eyes belonged to stepped out and watched the couple jump the fence before breaking out into laughter. The eyes of the cheerleading trophy she held in her hands which normally seemed to follow the viewer now moved back and forth wildly on their own, and a muffled scream seemed to emanate from the statuette.
"That's right research away. It won't do you any good little girl. You helped my ungrateful brat and trapped me in that trophy. You'll pay, now that I'm back." Katherine Madison laughed again and walked away leaving the trophy lying in the grass of the cemetery and ignoring the the muffled but frantic screams of her daughter.
They had been researching for hours and nothing had come up. Giles was so deeply involved in his research he might as well have been in an isolation tank. Ms. Calender had managed to get him away from his investigation only by threatening to force him to do something on the computer. It wasn't an idle threat, as one of the only two people who could use the computer was unable to do so due to an extreme case of insubstantiality, and the other was getting too tired to see the screen straight. Buffy had finally suggested that she and Willow take over the task of computer research with her acting as Willow's hands.
The constant barrage of nasty comments and Oz's growling which rapidly became an ongoing dialogue between him and Xander did little to help.
Angel finally spoke up, "Giles, it's nearly dawn and we haven't found anything yet. I think we should all call it quits before you and Ms. Calender pass out."
"No! Go on Giles, I really want to see what your girlfriend looks like when she's lying down," Xander said with a leer, "I'll bet it's something you'll never get to see."
"This coming from someone who was a victim of a certified virgin thief?" Buffy said, "Boy I'd hate to think what you'd be saying if you actually had something resembling experience, hyena boy." She smiled and it had teeth in it.
Angel looked over at Xander, surprised, "Xander is still a card carrying member of the virgins club? I hadn't realised . . . I mean I thought-"
"We found out last year. Remember fork guy? Well I used him to find a giant preying mantis that mates with male virgins and then decapitates them." Buffy smiled at the memory it evoked, "You gave me your leather jacket."
"And Xander pulled a major jealousy fit. 'He's buff! She never said he was buff!'" Willow put in with a smile.
Before a somewhat taken aback Angel could respond to this Giles broke in, obviously annoyed, "If we are done chatting I really would like to get back to work. If any of you are interested in this, then I could use some help!"
"Sorry Giles, I-" Buffy began.
"Well Buffy and I can't stay any longer. The sun is coming up very shortly and I would rather not get caught out. And Giles, maybe you don't need the sleep but Jenny does, and Willow should probably go and reassure her mother that she's all right."
"Angel's right Rupert, you look exhausted. Let me walk you home. Okay?" Ms. Calender smiled at Giles winningly and levered him out of his chair. His concentration broken, Giles abruptly realised how tired he was and followed her docilely out the door.
"Oh isn't that sweet. The computer teacher is going to give the librarian a mercy lay." The hyena that was Xander snickered, "I never realised how much Ms. Calender was into helping the needy."
"Xander, shut the hell up!" Willow said in exasperation, "You're not one to talk about a mercy lay seeing as how you're dating Cordelia, Mantis boy!"
"Ooo scared Will, so scared. This from the girl who has to talk her boyfriend into kissing her. The only reason you're defending him is that you're in the same boat."
"Alright Xander that is certainly enough-" Angel began, but Xander interrupted him, ignoring the implicit threat in his words.
"What, Dead Boy, scared to hear what might possibly be the truth about you and Buffy? That she's only attracted to you cause you're dangerous? Well guess who's dangerous now, huh, Dead Boy. I mean really-"
"My God, do the bad guys ever come up with new things to say? I mean it was different last year when you were trying to rape me, but Xander, this is a little pathetic." Buffy cut into the hyena's monologue in irritation.
"He tried to rape you? When?" The growl in Angel's voice distracted the others from the conversation with Xander.
"Last year. Angel don't worry about it, it was a hyena who was converting his affection for me into hyena-ish methods of dating. Did that make sense to anyone?" Buffy said with a sigh.
"Listen," Willow broke into the discussion before it got any more senseless, "Angel, you and Buffy had better get indoors before the sun comes up, we don't need to worry about Xander getting loose, and when we all meet back here someone can bring Oz and Xander some raw meat to gnaw on. Okay?"
"Yes sir! I mean Ma'am!" Buffy grinned.
Buffy and Angel made it back to his place minutes before sunrise. Angel leaned against the doorframe and sighed, " I haven't pushed the dawn like that since Darla and I were feeding in Budapest in 1899."
"I'm sorry, it's just that I wanted to check the messages in case Mom had called. What was I supposed to do? Tell her when she got back that I didn't respond to her messages because I forgot to check the machine?"
"Yes."
"Angel, I'm a seventeen-year-old, white, Californian girl. We don't forget to check messages."
Angel sighed. He loved his girlfriend, but some days he just didn't understand her. He watched her now as she walked around the room looking at things. Angel let his thoughts drift back to the night before again.
Then he focussed himself with a shake of his head, "I'll take the couch and you can sleep on the bed."
Buffy shook her head, "No way. You had to sleep on the floor the last time we were having an emergency stayover. I'll couch it."
"Buffy, the couch isn't uncomfortable-"
"Then you won't mind if I sleep on it. Unless of course," Her face took on a lascivious expression, "You want to ah . . . share the bed." She smiled. then caught his look. It was his hopeful puppydog-eyed look. Buffy stepped towards him and slipped her arms around his neck. She kissed him, letting out a startled gasp as he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed.
Two hours later Angel lay in bed with Buffy curled around him. It was kind of disturbing to feel her lying there without a pulse or anything, but introducing her, at least temporarily, to vampiric sex had been worth it.
Buffy sighed in her sleep and Angel watched as her face briefly changed to that of a vampire and back again. The sight of Buffy's vampiric face reminded Angel of how disturbing this had to be for Buffy. She was the slayer, but she was also a vampire. *At least for the moment,* he reminded himself. He began to wonder what he was going to do that evening. For the most part fledglings were absolutely starving by the second day if they hadn't gotten a chance to feed. It was possible that Buffy might go through the same thing when she woke up. Angel sighed inwardly and cuddled Buffy closer. He would just have to improvise.
Willow was walking through the graveyard when she heard a sound. It was like a faint whimper. She paused and listened more carefully and then began to follow the sound to the source. She paused for a moment however considering getting somebody to come with her when it dawned on Willow that she didn't need to be as careful as usual, because she was currently a ghost, and therefore not in any danger from a physical confrontation.
As she rounded a particularly ugly monument to some member of Sunnydale who had died in the 20's, she saw a glint in the grass. As Willow hurried forward the sound suddenly got louder. She looked down and saw the trophy that Katherine Madison, Amy's mom had won when she went to high school. The same one that Oz had admired the lifelike eyes of. As Willow reached down to touch it, forgetting that she couldn't pick it up, she heard the faint noise again. This time however, it seemed to be forming a word. Her name.
As Willow's hand passed through the statuette she heard a voice clearly and distinctly in her head.
*Willow! Oh God! You've gotta help me!*
Willow jerked her hand away in shock. "Amy? What . . . How. . . Where are you?" She thought she heard the noise again. It was desperate sounding and Willow tried to remember what she had done that had made her hear Amy. She reached out her hand again and stuck it into the trophy.
*I'm in the trophy Willow. Mom somehow switched the two of us and she's in my body. She said something about revenge. I think she's after Buffy and the librarian. You have to help me. I'm sure that Mr. Gilis-*
"Giles."
*Giles then- can fix me. Please Willow, I need your help.*
Willow was about to tell Amy that she was going to be right back with assistance when a thought occurred to her. "Amy, did she say something about uh . . . memory, or I don't know . . . something else?"
*She said something about research when she overheard Buffy and her boyfriend talking but that's all. I don't know what she did.* Amy's thoughts simulated a shrug.
Willow sighed. She had no idea what it was that Amy's mom had done, but she was fairly sure it was connected with the flashbacks. "Look, I can't help you right now, 'cause I'm sort of a ghost, but I'll get Giles and we'll figure out a way to fix this. I'll be right back. Okay?"
*Okay. Just . . . just hurry.*
Willow took off for Giles' place. With any luck they would be able to figure out what was happening and stop it before something awful and irreparable occurred.
Giles was asleep. He was having a very nice dream about Jenny. As he leaned forward to kiss her a loud pounding sound interrupted his dream and he awoke with a start. Jenny was lying curled up against him asleep, and for a moment Giles hoped that the loud knocking had been a part of his dream. He was about to pull the technopagan closer and go back to sleep when the loud knocking sounded through his house again.
With a groan he got up and went to the door to get rid of whoever was there. "What do you-" He began but didn't get to finish the thought.
A young woman, *Amanda? Amy?* he thought, pushed past him into the house. Giles noted that she looked upset, almost panicking. "Mr. Giles, you helped me before when my mom went nuts and switched our bodies. I need your help, she's back now and causing the flashbacks of stuff that happened before on the Hellmouth."
Then Giles remembered her "Do you know what happened? Why she's back?"
"I . . . I don't know how she got out of the trophy she was trapped in, she said something about revenge on you and Buffy." The girl bit her lip, obviously frightened.
"Do you have any idea how she has achieved this flashback effect?" Giles demanded.
"As far as I can tell she pumped enough power into the Hellmouth to overload it. I'm not sure but she may have used the Hellmouth as a source of energy, creating a feedback loop which set it off faster. If we manage the counterspell in time it may stop the flashbacks and even reverse them."
Ms. Calender came down the stairs, "Well, then we'd better hurry. Do you know where this is set up?" She asked.
"Yeah. At my place. Mom is out looking for Buffy I think."
"Well then let's go," Ms. Calender said, "Just lead the way."
As they left Katherine smiled inwardly. Soon she would have her revenge, and that little blonde brat who had foiled her plans would be history. She led the oh so gullible girl's friends off to her house to begin the final step of her plan.
After shouting for what seemed the hundredth time, Willow just walked through the wall and began looking around. Nobody was there. As she reached the door she noticed that it was after sunset. Willow immediately headed off to Angel's, deciding that after they had Amy, they would go to the library and tell Giles.
When she got to Angel's Willow, forgetting the turn that Buffy and Angel's relationship had taken just walked straight in and marched into a tableau she would have preferred not to see.
Both Angel and Buffy were undressed and were heading for the shower, although both stopped when they saw Willow. "Um . . . Hi Will we were just uh. . . What are you doing here?" Buffy said.
*Oh crap crapcrapcrapcrap* . . . "I was . . . just . . . here to . . . tell you . . . that I know . . . what caused . . . the stuff and I'll go wait outside now bye!" She finished in a rush, and shot through the door leaving a confused Buffy and Angel in her wake.
When the door opened Buffy and Angel were there fully dressed and certainly wanting explanations. Of that Willow was sure. "Okay guys, I know you aren't exactly thrilled to see me right now, but there are more important things to deal with and you can kill me later," *Again* she added silently, "Amy's mom is back."
"WHAT! She caused this didn't she?! I'll kill her this time I swear I'll rip her head off with my bare hands!" Buffy's face had shifted and she was growling. *Not a good sign.* Willow thought. Angel grabbed Buffy and kissed her. As they were kissing Buffy's face shifted back to normal. "What was that for?" She asked looking confused, but certainly happier.
"You flipped out. I simply thought that it would be best if you calmed down before running off and letting the demon take control." Angel explained, "Who's Amy, and what does her mother have to do with all this?" He asked.
"Amy's mom is a witch who wanted to be a cheerleader again so badly she took over Amy's body, mutated various cheerleaders so that they were off the team, and nearly killed Buffy. Amy said she's back for revenge." Willow summarised for Angel's benefit.
"Then where is she?" Buffy inquired.
"That's another problem. You remember when her mom vanished without a trace? Well she was stuck in her cheerleading trophy. She got out, and switched places with Amy. We have to go by the graveyard and pick up the trophy, and then get to the library to tell Giles so that we can fix this."
The three hurried off to the graveyard and picked up the now somewhat panicked Amy and almost ran to the library. As they walked by the school supply room, they saw a bunch of vampires walking along as if they were in a trance. The three slammed against the wall (and in Willow's case through it).
"What's going on?" Angel asked in a hesitant whisper.
"That's what I would bloody well like to know," A far too familiar voice said from behind them. Willow, Angel, and Buffy turned. There was Spike, holding his head as though it was something delicate.
"All of a sudden Dru took off for here, and when I get here there's a bunch of sleepwalkin' dolts tryin' to kill me or something. Only they didn't do too good a job of it."
"Did they leave you locked up in a closet somewhere with an egg or a little gross buggy thing?" Buffy asked on a hunch.
"Yeah. You know something about it?"
"Yet another flashback in a long couple of days of them. Will, you remember the Bezoar right?" Buffy responded. "Anyway, I doubt the Bezoar is the worst of our problems. I have a very bad feeling about Drusilla being in the school. Call it a hunch. Until we've got this figured out though Spike, truce?"
"Agreed." Spike glowered however and demanded, "So what the hell is going on?"
They began moving quickly to the library with Buffy and Angel filling Spike in on the way. Willow decided to take a shortcut through a couple of walls to shorten the distance for herself. When she got to the library however, she saw something that made her head for the door. As she ran into the hallway she ran straight through the others coming up quickly.
"Whoa! Willow! What's wrong?" Angel began instantly worried.
Buffy turned away from the window in the library door saying, "I think I'm going to be sick."
Spike just continued to stare "Dru-" He said faintly.
Angel looked in and saw Drusilla sitting on a grinning Xander's lap. As he continued to watch, she leaned down and kissed him. Angel turned away from the window and stared at the two girls in shock. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it." He said in a dazed voice.
They suddenly heard growling from behind them. As the three of them turned around they saw Spike's face had changed, and he was snarling at the couple in the library. He slammed open the doors and strode in. The others followed hastily. Drusilla and Xander looked up from their reverie. "Oh look if it isn't Dead Boy, a friend of his and a pasty face," The grin Xander's face was truly nasty. "What do you think we should do with them Dru?"
"I know mate, you should run!" With that Spike leaped, snarling, at Xander who with unbelievable agility, dodged the enraged vampire's lunge. He whirled around in a vicious kick to the head which caught Spike off balance. Meanwhile, Drusilla flew at Buffy with an enraged cry and lashed out at her. Buffy's face shifted to that of the demon inside her, and lashed out with a powerful kick which sent Drusilla staggering back.
Willow watched the melee in stunned silence at first. Then, gradually, she started to get angry. Abruptly her loud voice cut across the room startling everyone into stillness, "Hey! Everyone shut up and sit down!" Much to Willow's surprise they obeyed. She didn't let herself think about it though, and just kept talking, "Buffy, Angel, I want you guys to focus on finding something that can switch Amy and her Mom back. Spike, If you want to get Drusilla back you'd damn well better help with finding something that will reverse the flashback effect. But first, we'll control the two loons, tie them up, and toss them in a cage somewhere. Get it?"
"Got it." Buffy replied having scooped up some rope and tied down Dru using the distraction.
"Good." Willow turned and faced the others "What are you waiting for? Move!"
Xander and Dru were tossed into the cage and sat there grumbling and trying to squirm across the floor to each other without the werewolf noticing. Spike, Angel, Willow, and Buffy researched with Buffy acting as Willow's hands. It was Spike who found the spell which would get Amy out of the trophy.
Amy, who had been forgotten, was intensely grateful to be remembered. Finally.
The set up for the spell was simple. A little rue and black alder burning in a bowl with the trophy in it, and a couple drops of a witch's blood added during the casting. The whole was to take place in a circle drawn with chalk on the library floor, while Willow recited the incantation.
When everything was set up, Buffy got ready by pricking Willow's body with a pin and getting ready to drop it into the bowl. Then Willow began to read.
"Korsheth feed of mine energy and be sated, release the unworthy from the confines of your spell! Heed your servant! Return her soul from the dark place! Release the unworthy! Release!" Willows voice grew louder with each word until she was shouting, "Buffy! Now!"
Buffy dropped the blood into the bowl and there was a flash. The bowl and everything in it had disappeared. There stood a woman with red-tinted brown hair who appeared to be in her forties. For a moment everyone just stood there, and then Amy said "Listen we just have to switch me and my mom and everything should be okay."
At Amy's house the blonde girl had just staggered as she felt her daughter get loose of the spell. *No! Not now! Not when I'm so close!* "We have to hurry, she's found out." She said in response to questioning glances.
Giles immediately began to read his portion of the spell while Ms. Calender sat and waited for her turn. Something had been nagging at the edges of her consciousness ever since that girl had started to outline her plans. Something about the spell wasn't right. *Maybe it's the construction?* She thought to herself, *What am I missing?* It was just as she was about to read her part that she realised what it was. The spell was going to disrupt the loop that was causing the Hellmouth's overload and dump all the power into the girl. She would become the Hellmouth! Jenny leaped up "Rupert stop-"
It was too late. The spell had already taken hold and there was nothing she could do except try to disrupt the spell, hope that it wouldn't blow anything up and that it would reduce the amount of power added to the witch's own. Janna of the Kalderash Romany began to read her portion, only altering some words and dropping into the language of her ancestors as she did so, "Release the power Korsheth and Hecate I implore return it to its place and let it be moved no more,"
Willow stood there and plunged her hands into the seething liquid before her shouting "Drink of mine energy and be sated! Korsheth release the unworthy!" Amy staggered and found herself in a room with Giles and Ms. Calender, and heard Ms. Calender shouting in foreign language. Then she was back in the library feeling so dizzy and sick, *This didn't happen the last time Mom and I were switched!*
Katherine staggered as she returned to her house. The Calender woman wasn't speaking English anymore, and she felt so dizzy. *That girl isn't going to stop me! Not again!* She thought, unsure whether she was thinking of her daughter or Buffy. Then she saw the shape the spell was forming. The Calender bitch must have caught on to what she was doing, *If I have to finish the spell on my own so be it!* "And I shall look upon my enemy, and I shall-" She was interrupted by another flash which had her in the library again, being held by that rotten child who had ruined her plans before.
Giles heard the beginnings of Katherine's spell and was briefly frightened "What is going on?!" He shouted over the din in the room. "Jenny, what did you mean by-" Then he saw her eyes. They were dark and as they concentrated for a moment on his face he felt he couldn't breathe. Then she refocussed on the spell and continued.
Amy staggered. She was back in her body, and the spell was continuing anyway. As she looked around, she realised that it was because Ms. Calender had started to disrupt Katherine's plans at this end and the spell was flying out of control, because some of the Hellmouth's power had already been dumped into her mother and she was now capable of maintaining the spell over a distance. A wind had started, and there was lightning flashing down from the ceiling. Amy did the only thing possible and went with her instincts, and began to recite another version of the release spell: "Drink of this energy, the Hellmouth's energy within her and be sated-"
Buffy didn't have time to react as the woman she had been holding up whirled around and slammed her into the wall. Angel started forward, "Buffy!" And he too was thrown violently to the side and slumped to the ground unconscious. That moment of distraction was all that was needed, however, for Buffy to tackle Katherine.
"Spike! Help me here!" Buffy shouted. Dimly in the background she could hear Willow finishing the chant.
"You bitch!" The woman shrieked "You've ruined it all again! Hecate I conjure thee-"
Suddenly, it all stopped. Amy, Giles and Ms. Calender looked at each other and slowly took a deep breath. Everything was calm again. The two women looked at each other and smiled, "Well that was . . . uh . . . certainly," He paused, unsure of what to say.
"Interesting," Jenny supplied.
At the library not all was calm. Drusilla had broken free and was attacking Angel who was only just holding her off. Spike had been knocked out in the process of trying to get Dru to go home, and Willow was only just waking up from the spot on the floor where her body had been left. All the spells had been reversed, but Katherine was still there and it was taking everyone's efforts to not get hit by a random blast.
Surprisingly, it was Cordelia who solved the problem. She came running into the midst of all this chaos. She had gotten her vision back and had rushed over as soon as it happened to find out if everything was alright, or if this was just a harbinger of the Apocalypse. She vaguely recalled something she had read during one of the research sessions conducted about a week before this latest incident. *The way to kill a witch is to cut her head off.* She saw the weapons which had fallen all over the floor and picked up a large double-headed axe. Running on adrenaline and panic, she came up behind the woman, and brought the axe around and chopped Katherine's head off.
Utter silence.
Then, "Cordy, when did you become Xena?" Xander said staring at his girlfriend, impressed.
It was a week later. Everything was kinda back to normal, well, as normal as things on the Hellmouth ever got. Xander and Cordelia had more than made up for their missed date, Jenny had made plans to drag Giles to see more monster trucks, and Willow and Oz were deeply involved in being cute together. Buffy and Angel made up for months of lost time.
And to quote Lex, "AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER DAMMIT!"
The End
Buffy Summers
1981-1998
Rest in Peace
Angel put his hand on the dirt that now covered the body of his beloved and felt tears welling in his eyes. No! She can't be . . . His mind wouldn't say the word. He couldn't imagine the concept. A world without Buffy. Angel felt as though his heart had been torn from his chest as he knelt there. He had no idea how long he was there. It could have been seconds, days, centuries.
Then a hand shot out of the dirt and wrapped around his own. Angel pulled back in startlement but the hand held on. It was followed by an arm, and then Buffy was standing in front of him brushing dirt off her clothes. Her head was down and her face was concealed by her hair.
Angel stared in joyful amazement. She was fine. Then as he watched she said in a low, soft voice, "Angel?"
"Yes? Buffy I can't believe . . . You're okay!" Angel started forward when she suddenly backed away from him, her face still obscured. "Buffy? what's wrong-" as he stepped closer to pull her against him she backed away again.
"Don't! Please Angel. Don't look at me!" Buffy whirled around as he tried to get her to look at him and ran. Angel, confused but determined to find out what had happened, chased after her. He caught her just as she was about to vault the wall of the cemetery.
Buffy struggled against Angel. Then, abruptly, she stopped and buried her head into Angel's chest and began to sob. Angel immediately wrapped his arms around her and softly whispered to her telling her everything would be okay.
"I just can't believe it," She sobbed, "It was as bad as last time, maybe worse, oh Angel I-"
"Shh it's okay Buffy. What happened?"
Buffy stepped away from Angel and taking a deep breath looked up at him. Angel's eyes widened in shock as the hair fell away from Buffy's face. Only it wasn't her face. It was twisted by the same kind of horror that Angel carried inside himself. But as he watched in bewilderment, she didn't attack. She just stood there tears falling down her face.
"You weren't there when this happened the last time Angel-"
"This happened before?" Angel was stunned. He couldn't imagine Buffy as a vampire, and yet here she was. And somehow she seemed even more beautiful then ever. "When?"
"Last year. Some little league coach beat up one of the members of his team. The kid's astral body wreaked a little havoc making everyone's nightmares come true. Well I was attacked and buried alive by the Master and was changed into a vampire. It happened again tonight."
"Why did you run? You could have just told me." Angel was confused. She had run and now she was crying. What did she think he was going to do?
"You believe me? I . . . I thought you would stake and ask questions later if I let you see . . ." she gestured at her face which Angel realised after the initial shock he hadn't noticed. "And I didn't want you to see me like this. I must be hideous!"
"Oh Buffy, I could never think you were hideous. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever known." Angel bent to the pleasant task of telling Buffy how much he loved her.
"You're just saying that 'cause we're dating," She said with a smile. A shaky one at best, but a smile nonetheless.
"Are you going to look a gift horse in the mouth?"
"No. We should get back to the library, though. With all the latest weirdness that's going on we had better get back to researching."
With that the two of them left. Neither one noticed the eyes glowing in the darkness looking at them through the leaves of a bush.
The blond girl who the eyes belonged to stepped out and watched the couple jump the fence before breaking out into laughter. The eyes of the cheerleading trophy she held in her hands which normally seemed to follow the viewer now moved back and forth wildly on their own, and a muffled scream seemed to emanate from the statuette.
"That's right research away. It won't do you any good little girl. You helped my ungrateful brat and trapped me in that trophy. You'll pay, now that I'm back." Katherine Madison laughed again and walked away leaving the trophy lying in the grass of the cemetery and ignoring the the muffled but frantic screams of her daughter.
They had been researching for hours and nothing had come up. Giles was so deeply involved in his research he might as well have been in an isolation tank. Ms. Calender had managed to get him away from his investigation only by threatening to force him to do something on the computer. It wasn't an idle threat, as one of the only two people who could use the computer was unable to do so due to an extreme case of insubstantiality, and the other was getting too tired to see the screen straight. Buffy had finally suggested that she and Willow take over the task of computer research with her acting as Willow's hands.
The constant barrage of nasty comments and Oz's growling which rapidly became an ongoing dialogue between him and Xander did little to help.
Angel finally spoke up, "Giles, it's nearly dawn and we haven't found anything yet. I think we should all call it quits before you and Ms. Calender pass out."
"No! Go on Giles, I really want to see what your girlfriend looks like when she's lying down," Xander said with a leer, "I'll bet it's something you'll never get to see."
"This coming from someone who was a victim of a certified virgin thief?" Buffy said, "Boy I'd hate to think what you'd be saying if you actually had something resembling experience, hyena boy." She smiled and it had teeth in it.
Angel looked over at Xander, surprised, "Xander is still a card carrying member of the virgins club? I hadn't realised . . . I mean I thought-"
"We found out last year. Remember fork guy? Well I used him to find a giant preying mantis that mates with male virgins and then decapitates them." Buffy smiled at the memory it evoked, "You gave me your leather jacket."
"And Xander pulled a major jealousy fit. 'He's buff! She never said he was buff!'" Willow put in with a smile.
Before a somewhat taken aback Angel could respond to this Giles broke in, obviously annoyed, "If we are done chatting I really would like to get back to work. If any of you are interested in this, then I could use some help!"
"Sorry Giles, I-" Buffy began.
"Well Buffy and I can't stay any longer. The sun is coming up very shortly and I would rather not get caught out. And Giles, maybe you don't need the sleep but Jenny does, and Willow should probably go and reassure her mother that she's all right."
"Angel's right Rupert, you look exhausted. Let me walk you home. Okay?" Ms. Calender smiled at Giles winningly and levered him out of his chair. His concentration broken, Giles abruptly realised how tired he was and followed her docilely out the door.
"Oh isn't that sweet. The computer teacher is going to give the librarian a mercy lay." The hyena that was Xander snickered, "I never realised how much Ms. Calender was into helping the needy."
"Xander, shut the hell up!" Willow said in exasperation, "You're not one to talk about a mercy lay seeing as how you're dating Cordelia, Mantis boy!"
"Ooo scared Will, so scared. This from the girl who has to talk her boyfriend into kissing her. The only reason you're defending him is that you're in the same boat."
"Alright Xander that is certainly enough-" Angel began, but Xander interrupted him, ignoring the implicit threat in his words.
"What, Dead Boy, scared to hear what might possibly be the truth about you and Buffy? That she's only attracted to you cause you're dangerous? Well guess who's dangerous now, huh, Dead Boy. I mean really-"
"My God, do the bad guys ever come up with new things to say? I mean it was different last year when you were trying to rape me, but Xander, this is a little pathetic." Buffy cut into the hyena's monologue in irritation.
"He tried to rape you? When?" The growl in Angel's voice distracted the others from the conversation with Xander.
"Last year. Angel don't worry about it, it was a hyena who was converting his affection for me into hyena-ish methods of dating. Did that make sense to anyone?" Buffy said with a sigh.
"Listen," Willow broke into the discussion before it got any more senseless, "Angel, you and Buffy had better get indoors before the sun comes up, we don't need to worry about Xander getting loose, and when we all meet back here someone can bring Oz and Xander some raw meat to gnaw on. Okay?"
"Yes sir! I mean Ma'am!" Buffy grinned.
Buffy and Angel made it back to his place minutes before sunrise. Angel leaned against the doorframe and sighed, " I haven't pushed the dawn like that since Darla and I were feeding in Budapest in 1899."
"I'm sorry, it's just that I wanted to check the messages in case Mom had called. What was I supposed to do? Tell her when she got back that I didn't respond to her messages because I forgot to check the machine?"
"Yes."
"Angel, I'm a seventeen-year-old, white, Californian girl. We don't forget to check messages."
Angel sighed. He loved his girlfriend, but some days he just didn't understand her. He watched her now as she walked around the room looking at things. Angel let his thoughts drift back to the night before again.
Then he focussed himself with a shake of his head, "I'll take the couch and you can sleep on the bed."
Buffy shook her head, "No way. You had to sleep on the floor the last time we were having an emergency stayover. I'll couch it."
"Buffy, the couch isn't uncomfortable-"
"Then you won't mind if I sleep on it. Unless of course," Her face took on a lascivious expression, "You want to ah . . . share the bed." She smiled. then caught his look. It was his hopeful puppydog-eyed look. Buffy stepped towards him and slipped her arms around his neck. She kissed him, letting out a startled gasp as he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed.
Two hours later Angel lay in bed with Buffy curled around him. It was kind of disturbing to feel her lying there without a pulse or anything, but introducing her, at least temporarily, to vampiric sex had been worth it.
Buffy sighed in her sleep and Angel watched as her face briefly changed to that of a vampire and back again. The sight of Buffy's vampiric face reminded Angel of how disturbing this had to be for Buffy. She was the slayer, but she was also a vampire. *At least for the moment,* he reminded himself. He began to wonder what he was going to do that evening. For the most part fledglings were absolutely starving by the second day if they hadn't gotten a chance to feed. It was possible that Buffy might go through the same thing when she woke up. Angel sighed inwardly and cuddled Buffy closer. He would just have to improvise.
Willow was walking through the graveyard when she heard a sound. It was like a faint whimper. She paused and listened more carefully and then began to follow the sound to the source. She paused for a moment however considering getting somebody to come with her when it dawned on Willow that she didn't need to be as careful as usual, because she was currently a ghost, and therefore not in any danger from a physical confrontation.
As she rounded a particularly ugly monument to some member of Sunnydale who had died in the 20's, she saw a glint in the grass. As Willow hurried forward the sound suddenly got louder. She looked down and saw the trophy that Katherine Madison, Amy's mom had won when she went to high school. The same one that Oz had admired the lifelike eyes of. As Willow reached down to touch it, forgetting that she couldn't pick it up, she heard the faint noise again. This time however, it seemed to be forming a word. Her name.
As Willow's hand passed through the statuette she heard a voice clearly and distinctly in her head.
*Willow! Oh God! You've gotta help me!*
Willow jerked her hand away in shock. "Amy? What . . . How. . . Where are you?" She thought she heard the noise again. It was desperate sounding and Willow tried to remember what she had done that had made her hear Amy. She reached out her hand again and stuck it into the trophy.
*I'm in the trophy Willow. Mom somehow switched the two of us and she's in my body. She said something about revenge. I think she's after Buffy and the librarian. You have to help me. I'm sure that Mr. Gilis-*
"Giles."
*Giles then- can fix me. Please Willow, I need your help.*
Willow was about to tell Amy that she was going to be right back with assistance when a thought occurred to her. "Amy, did she say something about uh . . . memory, or I don't know . . . something else?"
*She said something about research when she overheard Buffy and her boyfriend talking but that's all. I don't know what she did.* Amy's thoughts simulated a shrug.
Willow sighed. She had no idea what it was that Amy's mom had done, but she was fairly sure it was connected with the flashbacks. "Look, I can't help you right now, 'cause I'm sort of a ghost, but I'll get Giles and we'll figure out a way to fix this. I'll be right back. Okay?"
*Okay. Just . . . just hurry.*
Willow took off for Giles' place. With any luck they would be able to figure out what was happening and stop it before something awful and irreparable occurred.
Giles was asleep. He was having a very nice dream about Jenny. As he leaned forward to kiss her a loud pounding sound interrupted his dream and he awoke with a start. Jenny was lying curled up against him asleep, and for a moment Giles hoped that the loud knocking had been a part of his dream. He was about to pull the technopagan closer and go back to sleep when the loud knocking sounded through his house again.
With a groan he got up and went to the door to get rid of whoever was there. "What do you-" He began but didn't get to finish the thought.
A young woman, *Amanda? Amy?* he thought, pushed past him into the house. Giles noted that she looked upset, almost panicking. "Mr. Giles, you helped me before when my mom went nuts and switched our bodies. I need your help, she's back now and causing the flashbacks of stuff that happened before on the Hellmouth."
Then Giles remembered her "Do you know what happened? Why she's back?"
"I . . . I don't know how she got out of the trophy she was trapped in, she said something about revenge on you and Buffy." The girl bit her lip, obviously frightened.
"Do you have any idea how she has achieved this flashback effect?" Giles demanded.
"As far as I can tell she pumped enough power into the Hellmouth to overload it. I'm not sure but she may have used the Hellmouth as a source of energy, creating a feedback loop which set it off faster. If we manage the counterspell in time it may stop the flashbacks and even reverse them."
Ms. Calender came down the stairs, "Well, then we'd better hurry. Do you know where this is set up?" She asked.
"Yeah. At my place. Mom is out looking for Buffy I think."
"Well then let's go," Ms. Calender said, "Just lead the way."
As they left Katherine smiled inwardly. Soon she would have her revenge, and that little blonde brat who had foiled her plans would be history. She led the oh so gullible girl's friends off to her house to begin the final step of her plan.
After shouting for what seemed the hundredth time, Willow just walked through the wall and began looking around. Nobody was there. As she reached the door she noticed that it was after sunset. Willow immediately headed off to Angel's, deciding that after they had Amy, they would go to the library and tell Giles.
When she got to Angel's Willow, forgetting the turn that Buffy and Angel's relationship had taken just walked straight in and marched into a tableau she would have preferred not to see.
Both Angel and Buffy were undressed and were heading for the shower, although both stopped when they saw Willow. "Um . . . Hi Will we were just uh. . . What are you doing here?" Buffy said.
*Oh crap crapcrapcrapcrap* . . . "I was . . . just . . . here to . . . tell you . . . that I know . . . what caused . . . the stuff and I'll go wait outside now bye!" She finished in a rush, and shot through the door leaving a confused Buffy and Angel in her wake.
When the door opened Buffy and Angel were there fully dressed and certainly wanting explanations. Of that Willow was sure. "Okay guys, I know you aren't exactly thrilled to see me right now, but there are more important things to deal with and you can kill me later," *Again* she added silently, "Amy's mom is back."
"WHAT! She caused this didn't she?! I'll kill her this time I swear I'll rip her head off with my bare hands!" Buffy's face had shifted and she was growling. *Not a good sign.* Willow thought. Angel grabbed Buffy and kissed her. As they were kissing Buffy's face shifted back to normal. "What was that for?" She asked looking confused, but certainly happier.
"You flipped out. I simply thought that it would be best if you calmed down before running off and letting the demon take control." Angel explained, "Who's Amy, and what does her mother have to do with all this?" He asked.
"Amy's mom is a witch who wanted to be a cheerleader again so badly she took over Amy's body, mutated various cheerleaders so that they were off the team, and nearly killed Buffy. Amy said she's back for revenge." Willow summarised for Angel's benefit.
"Then where is she?" Buffy inquired.
"That's another problem. You remember when her mom vanished without a trace? Well she was stuck in her cheerleading trophy. She got out, and switched places with Amy. We have to go by the graveyard and pick up the trophy, and then get to the library to tell Giles so that we can fix this."
The three hurried off to the graveyard and picked up the now somewhat panicked Amy and almost ran to the library. As they walked by the school supply room, they saw a bunch of vampires walking along as if they were in a trance. The three slammed against the wall (and in Willow's case through it).
"What's going on?" Angel asked in a hesitant whisper.
"That's what I would bloody well like to know," A far too familiar voice said from behind them. Willow, Angel, and Buffy turned. There was Spike, holding his head as though it was something delicate.
"All of a sudden Dru took off for here, and when I get here there's a bunch of sleepwalkin' dolts tryin' to kill me or something. Only they didn't do too good a job of it."
"Did they leave you locked up in a closet somewhere with an egg or a little gross buggy thing?" Buffy asked on a hunch.
"Yeah. You know something about it?"
"Yet another flashback in a long couple of days of them. Will, you remember the Bezoar right?" Buffy responded. "Anyway, I doubt the Bezoar is the worst of our problems. I have a very bad feeling about Drusilla being in the school. Call it a hunch. Until we've got this figured out though Spike, truce?"
"Agreed." Spike glowered however and demanded, "So what the hell is going on?"
They began moving quickly to the library with Buffy and Angel filling Spike in on the way. Willow decided to take a shortcut through a couple of walls to shorten the distance for herself. When she got to the library however, she saw something that made her head for the door. As she ran into the hallway she ran straight through the others coming up quickly.
"Whoa! Willow! What's wrong?" Angel began instantly worried.
Buffy turned away from the window in the library door saying, "I think I'm going to be sick."
Spike just continued to stare "Dru-" He said faintly.
Angel looked in and saw Drusilla sitting on a grinning Xander's lap. As he continued to watch, she leaned down and kissed him. Angel turned away from the window and stared at the two girls in shock. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it." He said in a dazed voice.
They suddenly heard growling from behind them. As the three of them turned around they saw Spike's face had changed, and he was snarling at the couple in the library. He slammed open the doors and strode in. The others followed hastily. Drusilla and Xander looked up from their reverie. "Oh look if it isn't Dead Boy, a friend of his and a pasty face," The grin Xander's face was truly nasty. "What do you think we should do with them Dru?"
"I know mate, you should run!" With that Spike leaped, snarling, at Xander who with unbelievable agility, dodged the enraged vampire's lunge. He whirled around in a vicious kick to the head which caught Spike off balance. Meanwhile, Drusilla flew at Buffy with an enraged cry and lashed out at her. Buffy's face shifted to that of the demon inside her, and lashed out with a powerful kick which sent Drusilla staggering back.
Willow watched the melee in stunned silence at first. Then, gradually, she started to get angry. Abruptly her loud voice cut across the room startling everyone into stillness, "Hey! Everyone shut up and sit down!" Much to Willow's surprise they obeyed. She didn't let herself think about it though, and just kept talking, "Buffy, Angel, I want you guys to focus on finding something that can switch Amy and her Mom back. Spike, If you want to get Drusilla back you'd damn well better help with finding something that will reverse the flashback effect. But first, we'll control the two loons, tie them up, and toss them in a cage somewhere. Get it?"
"Got it." Buffy replied having scooped up some rope and tied down Dru using the distraction.
"Good." Willow turned and faced the others "What are you waiting for? Move!"
Xander and Dru were tossed into the cage and sat there grumbling and trying to squirm across the floor to each other without the werewolf noticing. Spike, Angel, Willow, and Buffy researched with Buffy acting as Willow's hands. It was Spike who found the spell which would get Amy out of the trophy.
Amy, who had been forgotten, was intensely grateful to be remembered. Finally.
The set up for the spell was simple. A little rue and black alder burning in a bowl with the trophy in it, and a couple drops of a witch's blood added during the casting. The whole was to take place in a circle drawn with chalk on the library floor, while Willow recited the incantation.
When everything was set up, Buffy got ready by pricking Willow's body with a pin and getting ready to drop it into the bowl. Then Willow began to read.
"Korsheth feed of mine energy and be sated, release the unworthy from the confines of your spell! Heed your servant! Return her soul from the dark place! Release the unworthy! Release!" Willows voice grew louder with each word until she was shouting, "Buffy! Now!"
Buffy dropped the blood into the bowl and there was a flash. The bowl and everything in it had disappeared. There stood a woman with red-tinted brown hair who appeared to be in her forties. For a moment everyone just stood there, and then Amy said "Listen we just have to switch me and my mom and everything should be okay."
At Amy's house the blonde girl had just staggered as she felt her daughter get loose of the spell. *No! Not now! Not when I'm so close!* "We have to hurry, she's found out." She said in response to questioning glances.
Giles immediately began to read his portion of the spell while Ms. Calender sat and waited for her turn. Something had been nagging at the edges of her consciousness ever since that girl had started to outline her plans. Something about the spell wasn't right. *Maybe it's the construction?* She thought to herself, *What am I missing?* It was just as she was about to read her part that she realised what it was. The spell was going to disrupt the loop that was causing the Hellmouth's overload and dump all the power into the girl. She would become the Hellmouth! Jenny leaped up "Rupert stop-"
It was too late. The spell had already taken hold and there was nothing she could do except try to disrupt the spell, hope that it wouldn't blow anything up and that it would reduce the amount of power added to the witch's own. Janna of the Kalderash Romany began to read her portion, only altering some words and dropping into the language of her ancestors as she did so, "Release the power Korsheth and Hecate I implore return it to its place and let it be moved no more,"
Willow stood there and plunged her hands into the seething liquid before her shouting "Drink of mine energy and be sated! Korsheth release the unworthy!" Amy staggered and found herself in a room with Giles and Ms. Calender, and heard Ms. Calender shouting in foreign language. Then she was back in the library feeling so dizzy and sick, *This didn't happen the last time Mom and I were switched!*
Katherine staggered as she returned to her house. The Calender woman wasn't speaking English anymore, and she felt so dizzy. *That girl isn't going to stop me! Not again!* She thought, unsure whether she was thinking of her daughter or Buffy. Then she saw the shape the spell was forming. The Calender bitch must have caught on to what she was doing, *If I have to finish the spell on my own so be it!* "And I shall look upon my enemy, and I shall-" She was interrupted by another flash which had her in the library again, being held by that rotten child who had ruined her plans before.
Giles heard the beginnings of Katherine's spell and was briefly frightened "What is going on?!" He shouted over the din in the room. "Jenny, what did you mean by-" Then he saw her eyes. They were dark and as they concentrated for a moment on his face he felt he couldn't breathe. Then she refocussed on the spell and continued.
Amy staggered. She was back in her body, and the spell was continuing anyway. As she looked around, she realised that it was because Ms. Calender had started to disrupt Katherine's plans at this end and the spell was flying out of control, because some of the Hellmouth's power had already been dumped into her mother and she was now capable of maintaining the spell over a distance. A wind had started, and there was lightning flashing down from the ceiling. Amy did the only thing possible and went with her instincts, and began to recite another version of the release spell: "Drink of this energy, the Hellmouth's energy within her and be sated-"
Buffy didn't have time to react as the woman she had been holding up whirled around and slammed her into the wall. Angel started forward, "Buffy!" And he too was thrown violently to the side and slumped to the ground unconscious. That moment of distraction was all that was needed, however, for Buffy to tackle Katherine.
"Spike! Help me here!" Buffy shouted. Dimly in the background she could hear Willow finishing the chant.
"You bitch!" The woman shrieked "You've ruined it all again! Hecate I conjure thee-"
Suddenly, it all stopped. Amy, Giles and Ms. Calender looked at each other and slowly took a deep breath. Everything was calm again. The two women looked at each other and smiled, "Well that was . . . uh . . . certainly," He paused, unsure of what to say.
"Interesting," Jenny supplied.
At the library not all was calm. Drusilla had broken free and was attacking Angel who was only just holding her off. Spike had been knocked out in the process of trying to get Dru to go home, and Willow was only just waking up from the spot on the floor where her body had been left. All the spells had been reversed, but Katherine was still there and it was taking everyone's efforts to not get hit by a random blast.
Surprisingly, it was Cordelia who solved the problem. She came running into the midst of all this chaos. She had gotten her vision back and had rushed over as soon as it happened to find out if everything was alright, or if this was just a harbinger of the Apocalypse. She vaguely recalled something she had read during one of the research sessions conducted about a week before this latest incident. *The way to kill a witch is to cut her head off.* She saw the weapons which had fallen all over the floor and picked up a large double-headed axe. Running on adrenaline and panic, she came up behind the woman, and brought the axe around and chopped Katherine's head off.
Utter silence.
Then, "Cordy, when did you become Xena?" Xander said staring at his girlfriend, impressed.
It was a week later. Everything was kinda back to normal, well, as normal as things on the Hellmouth ever got. Xander and Cordelia had more than made up for their missed date, Jenny had made plans to drag Giles to see more monster trucks, and Willow and Oz were deeply involved in being cute together. Buffy and Angel made up for months of lost time.
And to quote Lex, "AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER DAMMIT!"
The End
