I, YOURS...YOU, MINE

Part 2

Xander looked around the Bronze as he approached the table where Buffy sat alone. It was obvious to him that Willow was not present, but what was also painfully obvious to him was how solemn Buffy was. She was even avoiding eye contact with him and this gave him reason to be concerned.

"Okay, I'll bite. Did I walk into the Bronze just now, or is this really the Sunnydale Funeral Home?" Xander asked as he sat at the table across from her. "'Cause I gotta tell you, this feels like dirge to me."

Buffy looked at him. "'I'll bite'?"

"Okay. Bad choice of words considering your job description. Let me try something else..." He paused as he regarded her with his dark eyes. "What did you say to Willow that made her run off?"

Buffy looked startled. But she also looked guilty. "What do you mean by that, Xander? I haven't said anything!"

"You did. I can tell. What did you tell her?"

"Xander, I didn't tell her anything. I..." She opened her mouth and then closed it. Then, she tried again. "Willow and I had girl talk. That's all. It didn't involve you."

Xander frowned. "Girl talk is just another way of saying, 'We're talking about boys'. My guess is you were talking about Moloch and you said something and Willow booked on out of here. Is that the way it went?"

Buffy didn't answer. She looked at him as if she wanted to say what she and Willow had talked about, but she didn't want to bring him into it.

"You talked about me." Xander nodded his head slowly. "Willow's hurting...and it's my fault?"

Buffy shook her head. "Willow will be fine, Xander. Just let her have her space for awhile."

Xander looked at her as if she were insane. "Wait a minute! Willow left here and you didn't walk her home?"

"She didn't want me to--"

"She didn't want!! Since when do you let that stop you from seeing your friends home safely?" He rose from the table.

Buffy did, too. "Xander! Willow's safe. Angel followed her home. He'll make sure that--"

Xander pointed angrily at her. "That's another thing I don't understand about you, Slayer. Willow is your friend and you entrust her life to a blood-sucking vampire. You're even in love with him, aren't you?" He shook his head. "Well, it's wrong. One day you'll see that. Too bad it isn't tonight...unless he takes Willow now."

"He won't--"

"Don't follow after me. I'm a big boy and I can take care of myself." With that, Xander spun away from her and stormed out of the Bronze.

Not willing to let Xander go alone, Buffy did follow him. But as she saw Xander walking off down the street in the direction of Willow's house, two dark figures stepped out of the shadows in front of her. From the way they began to approach her and from the hissing sounds they made, she knew that they were vampires. She knew it even before then.

"I am NOT in the mood for you fiends tonight!" Buffy declared as a stake appeared in her hand from within the folds of her coat. "You want a piece of me? Come and get it!"

They attacked together and Buffy's feet were suddenly spinning through the air. Her fighting skills had managed to separate the two from each other and she thrust the stake through the heart of one. As it turned to dust, the remaining vampire leapt onto her back and they both fell to the sidewalk. Buffy managed to roll away and she was on her feet as the vampire was on his.

Unfortunately, he was facing the other way.

She tapped him on the shoulder.

"Huh?" the vampire inquired as he began to turn around.

"Not very bright, are you?" she asked. She staked him through the heart before he could answer.

Then she looked down the street. Xander was nowhere in sight, but that didn't mean she couldn't catch up to him.

That's when she heard the growl from behind. She turned around and discovered two more blood-sucking fiends.

"My my...aren't I the popular one," Buffy said to no one in particular. Then she launched herself at them.

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Xander never made it to Willow's house himself. He had meant to get there. He had wanted to. But he saw something that disturbed him so on a wild hunch, he went away from Willow's house as he trailed the four figures he saw moving down the street. They had come from the direction of Willow's house and Xander was almost certain that they could have been from one of the neighboring houses.

But his gut told him that wasn't right. There was something very sinister about them and as he watched them, he was more than certain that he knew who they were. There was something very familiar about them. What was even more distressing was that he had a very bad feeling the four dark figures he was now following had meant to do something to Willow.

Did they see Angel and back off? If that was the case, Xander silently thanked Angel and continued to follow the four.

They stopped beneath a streetlight and were laughing and talking together. For a while, they just stood there.

It was enough.

Xander saw them.

And he did know who they were.

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Willow's eyes were open. They had been open for a while now, staring at the ceiling above. She was still on the floor at the foot of the bed, her back on the floor and her eyes simply staring. She had had a terrible dream...a nightmare. It was the worst dream she had ever had.

In the dream, she saw Xander. Everywhere she went in the dream, he was there. In class, in the gym, in the library, at the Bronze. He was always so nice to her and he was always asking her out. He was telling her that he wanted to be with her and no one else.

But in the dream, Willow turned him down every time. Told him to go away. To get lost. To even drop dead. In the dream, she told him that she hated him. Never wanted to see him again. That he should be with Buffy.

Buffy...

*** "Tell me, Will...Before Buffy came along, our lives didn't need that much saving, did they?...When we were alone." ***

Willow blinked her eyes.

She just wanted to lie there and fade away, but that wouldn't happen. There would be a tomorrow. There was one more school day before the weekend. "I'm not going," she said softly to herself. "My parents don't care anyway and...and neither does Xander."

She brought her hands to her face and rubbed her tear stained eyes. She had been on the floor for quite a few hours so she was stiff. She sat up and stretched. The light was still on and she looked at the clock on her desk.

4:48 am.

Slowly, she rose to her feet and sat on her bed. For a while, she simply sat there as if she were trying to wake up from a deep slumber, but didn't want to. She looked at her desk and her eyes fell onto the books she had brought home from school. One of them was open and on the pages of the book was a disc.

She remembered that someone had put it in her locker at school. With nothing else to do besides stew in self-despair, she decided to find out what was on the disc. She picked it up and read the writing out loud.

"'Tell No One.'" She frowned. "Oh, great...an X-File on floppy."

She sat down at her desk, turned her computer on, and waited. She twirled her hair around her finger while she waited. Her eyes spied a picture of Xander and absently, she reached over, grabbed it, and laid it face down. She continued to wait for the computer. Then, she went through her login and finally her desktop arrived.

She put in the floppy.

She opened the Word Document and began to read what was in the disc. It was a letter addressed to her.

___



DEAR WILLOW, IF YOU ARE READING THIS LETTER THAN IT MEANS THE WORST HAS HAPPENED, AS I FEARED THAT IT WOULD. IT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE BETRAYED ME. IT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE STAYED TRUE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND HELPED THEM RETURN ME TO THE DREADED PRISON THAT HAS BEEN MINE FOR SO LONG. AH, WELL. THERE WILL BE ANOTHER TIME. SOONER THAN YOU EXPECT. FOR I HAD THE FORESIGHT TO SEE WHAT YOU WOULD EVENTUALLY DO. I HAVE MADE PREPARATIONS, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM. NOW OBEY MY WORDS VERY CAREFULLY, MY LOVE, FOR WE SHALL BE REUNITED ONCE AGAIN.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO GO TO YOUR FRIENDS, THEY WILL DIE HORRIBLY. I HAVE ALREADY SET THINGS IN MOTION. XANDER WILL DIE, BUFFY, YOUR VAMPIRE SLAYING FRIEND WILL DIE, GILES, YOUR FAVORITE BRIT, WILL DIE. PERHAPS WE'LL ADD JOYCE SUMMERS AND JENNY CALENDAR AS WELL. THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE BESIDES THE ONES I MENTIONED THAT WILL SUFFER IF YOU DO NOT DO AS INSTRUCTED. SO YOU CAN TELL NO ONE AND DO AS EXPECTED OR YOU CAN TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND REAP THE CONSEQUENCES. THE CHOICE, MY LOVE, IS YOURS. I TRUST THAT YOU WILL USE WISDOM IN THIS AND DO THE RIGHT THING.

ONCE WE ARE TOGETHER AGAIN, WE WILL NEVER BE SEPARATED. FOR I BELONG TO YOU AND YOU BELONG TO ME. IT IS DESTINY NOW. IT WAS DESTINY WHEN YOU FIRST RELEASED ME. IT IS IRONIC DESTINY THAT YOU WILL RELEASE ME ONCE AGAIN.

FORGET YOUR FRIENDS, FOR THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW THE REAL YOU. THEY DO NOT KNOW YOU AS I DO.

WILLOW, I LOVE YOU.

GO ABOUT YOUR DAYS AS YOU NORMALLY WOULD, MY LOVE. YOU WILL BE APPROACHED SOON BY SOME OF MY MOST DEVOTED FOLLOWERS. WHEN YOU SEE THEM, THEY WILL TELL YOU WHAT TO DO.

BUT YOU MUST STAY AWAY FROM THOSE WHOM YOU THOUGHT WERE YOUR FRIENDS. STAY AWAY! OR THEY DIE.

SO UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN, MY LOVE...

I, YOURS...YOU, MINE.

______

Willow was horrified. Could this really be happening? She read the note over again and realized that this was very real. Somehow, Moloch the Corruptor had prepared a plan in the event that he was returned to the Book or something else had happened to him. That plan was now in action and if she told anyone, they would be killed. Horribly killed. How could she tell anyone when she didn't know who Moloch's followers were or how many there were? Could they really kill the ones she loved? Were they watching her house?

She took the disc out of her computer and looked at it in fear.

She felt so alone. She didn't know what to do.

But she had no choice now. She had to go to school, avoid her friends, and wait until the devoted followers to come to her.

"But, then what?" she asked herself softly.

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TO BE CONTINUED