Part 10: Where You Learn
Buffy sat in the passenger seat of her mother's SUV watching through the dark, rain streaked window as houses and business went by. It had started to rain again soon after they discovered the kid's disappearance. The slayer had been frantic at first, along with Angel, insisting that they go out and find them. Giles had been the one to point out that they did not have time to go in search of the teenagers, not with Willow in her current state of mind. Reluctantly, both Angel and Buffy had agreed that getting rid of the demon was the top priority at the moment. Still, she was worried.
Spike glanced over at her for a moment, then turned the utility vehicle to go down Main Street to Giles' shop. "Don't worry, love. Niblet's fine."
"But what if Willow finds her?" she asked quietly. A spark lit behind Buffy's eyes as another thought crossed her mind. "I mean, doesn't Dawn know better then go running off when there's a crazy demon running around?"
"One, she's got the Poof Part Two with her if she does run into trouble," he told her as he pulled into an empty parking space outside the Magic Box. Killing the engine, he went on, "And two, Red doesn't know that Dawn is this Key, so she won't be lookin' for her."
Buffy sat back in her seat and sighed. He might have been right, but that still didn't make her feel any better about leaving her sister out there.
Damn it, Dawn. We had enough to deal with without you running off and getting yourself killed, she thought bitterly as she continued to stare out the window into the dark night.
He frowned while he studied her. She seemed so lost at the moment, and he felt helpless to do anything. He didn't know where Dylan and Red where, and Dawn had basically disappeared without a trace.
"I shouldn't have been selfish," she said lowly in the dark. "I shouldn't have wanted her."
"What?" he asked lost from her line of thought.
"Dylan," Buffy answered quietly. "If I hadn't been selfish about wanting her, none of this would have happened. This is all my fault."
"Love, look at me," he told her firmly. When she refused, he reached over and gently turned her face to see his. He fought back a deep frown when he saw she was near tears again; he hated seeing her in so much pain. "This is not your fault."
"But if I wouldn't have had Dylan, Willow-"
"Would have found someone else to take to get her Key," he cut her off still using a soft voice, though he had felt an angry pang when she had even suggested that she should have not had their child. "And it probably would've been Dawn herself."
"But she has our baby, Spike. Something she knows that we would both do anything to get back," she told him. "And now Dawn's missing with Connor. And I don't know what to do here. I can't give Willow the Key, and she won't give Dylan back if I don't."
He sighed as he regarded their dilemma. Red wouldn't give up Dylan without a fight, even if they did give her Dawn, but Buffy didn't seem to want to believe that. It was hard for the petite blonde to accept that her one-time best friend had crossed over to the 'dark side,' even if it was with the help of a demon. No, they both had to realize that this was the demon they were dealing with, not Willow, and, like all good demons, it would double-cross them in a second flat. But he couldn't tell her this, though he was sure she already knew it in the back of her mind.
"We'll, think of something, pet," Spike chose to say instead.
Buffy leaned into his hand that was still touching the side of her face. "Say it for me," she told him. "Tell me we're going to make it through this."
"We will make it through this, like we always do," he swore.
That made her smile a little, even though she knew it was a lie.
**********
It felt like someone was drowning him, his lungs were tight, as the ice-cold liquid continued to pour down his throat. A moment of panic passed through him when the memory of what he had done to his father over the summer came rushing back. Oh, God, what if this was revenge? What if his penitence for doing that to Angel was for him to suffer the same fate? It would be an appropriate punishment for dishonoring his real father in such a way.
His world was hazy enough as he came to and found himself being held underwater, a murky face barely visible above him. Steven gripped at the invisible arms that held him down in vain. This was where he was going to die, he just knew it.
There was a muffled cry of terror – was that Dawn? - but the figure refused to let him up. Blackness was threatening again as gasps of air started to escape from his painfully tight lung and up to the surface. He felt his body starting to give up when the invisible hands stopped pushing him down, and lifted him upward out of the water.
Steven gasped and coughed at the same time, spitting out the gallon of water he had taken in and trying to give his lungs the air they so desperately wanted. The action made his head hurt, and his body still ached from what Willow had done to him earlier. His whole body screamed in agony, but he wouldn't show it. He was strong, not weak, and he could handle anything this witch could deal out.
"Please, stop," a girl whimpered from nearby.
Steven coughed once more, then lifted his head to see both Dawn and Willow standing at the edge of the swimming pool he had just been emerged in. The witch was using her magic to hold him above the water right then, but he knew it wouldn't be long before he was below the surface again. She looked as if she was enjoying the pain she was causing him, but Dawn just looked on horrified and helpless from behind.
"Stop?" Willow mocked, slowly turning her head to see the teenage girl out of the corner of her eye. "Why? I'm just having some fun until it's time to send you on your way."
"He doesn't deserve this!" the brown-haired girl exclaimed, her body frozen in place.
Willow chuckled lowly to herself before turning her gaze back to the boy that hung above the swimming pool. She slowly began to pace along its edge, her eyes locked with his as an insane grin played on her lips. Her boot heels echoed through the large room that had an over powering smell of chlorine from the indoor swimming pool, with the only other sound being his continuous deep breathing.
"Doesn't deserve this," she repeated lowly. "He doesn't deserve this. Angel might disagree with that. What do you say, Connor? Do you deserve this?" She pause mid-stride, and said, "Or do you prefer Steven?"
The boy lowered his head, and then lifted it with a hot fire burning behind his eyes. At that moment, he definitely looked as if he were the son of Angelus. "I've made mistakes. I'm trying to pay my penitence for them."
"Pay your penitence?" Willow laughed. "How? By helping your father 'help the hopeless?' That's a laugh."
The invisible arms dropped him again, making him land with a huge splash in the pool. They then began to push him down again as Dawn's muffled screams filtered through the water. Willow walked to the edge of the pool and looked down at the boy below.
'At least Angelus had an excuse,' he heard her voice say in his head. 'He didn't have a soul when he did evil. He didn't choose to be a monster like his own son.'
Steven ground his teeth together as he focused in on the woman over him. 'You mean like you are now?' he thought back, not sure if she heard him or not, but not really caring either.
Willow's smile was replaced by a deadly frown before the arms jerked Steven out of the pool and swung him into the wall behind Dawn. The teenage girl screamed loudly as the boy groaned in pain. The world was spinning now, and his body wouldn't allow him to push himself up on his own. The red-headed woman walked over to him, reached down, grabbed him by the throat, and then slammed him against the wall again, causing the already large hole he had made to become even bigger.
His hands vainly wrapped around her arms that held him, while she looked at him with the coldest eyes he had ever seen in his life. There was no goodness there, no life, no humanity - only death. Death and darkness.
"No, boy," she hissed at him, tightening her grip on his throat to where she was about to break his neck. "Thanks to Buffy and Dawn, I never had a choice."
His head was hurting again, the pressure building up from the circulation that she had cut off. He felt so tired, so tired and weak. He wanted to stop her, he needed to stop her, but he was so tired.
When darkness started to come again, she released his throat and let his body fall to the ground with a loud thud. Steven couldn't move; his body refused to even allow his mind to have such a thought. What it wanted was the one thing he didn't have time for right at the moment. It wanted rest.
Willow smirked again at the teenage boy that lay at her feet, then turned to girl who had watched the whole act in terror.
"Well, then. Guess that means it's time for the real fun to begin, huh, Dawnie." She walked over to the frozen girl, and pinched her cheek like she was a little child. "Come on. Let's go see that pretty little niece of yours. Now, I believe you know the way to the principal's office."
**********
The whole store had a silent tension about it as the other members of the Scooby Gang slowly came to thanks to the help of Giles' two hour old, cold coffee. None of them had particularly enjoyed being forced to drink it, but it had done the trick, and now they had three more Scoobies and one Fang Gang member on the case.
Cordelia frowned as she looked around the room at the other members of the group, all of whom looked like this was the worst night of their lives. Buffy and Spike had trailed in shortly after the seer awoke from her impromptu nap. They both looked awful, and, from the explanation that Giles had given them about what had happened that night, she could understand why.
Xander had refused to believe it at first, that Willow would do anything to hurt them. Oz had tried to explain, even had Giles back him up on it and Anya agreed, but Cordy's ex had simply shook his head and kept repeating that it had to be some sort of mistake. This was no mistake, though. Cordy could feel that Willow was no longer herself, and this demon or whatever had taken her over completely; it only allowed her to think that they were her own thoughts.
Oz's friend, Eric, stood over in a corner, his arms crossed and a deep frown embedded on his face. Cordy hadn't liked him before, with thinking that he was trying to hurt them and all, but now she was really worried about him. Before, he had no intension of hurting any of them, even if they didn't know that, but he did now. Even without her visions, Cordy could easily see that if he got to Willow before the rest of them, that spell that Oz was trying to explain wouldn't matter too much.
Angel was leaning on the counter, only half listening to what was being said among the Scoobies. He was lost too deep in his own thoughts, worry with whether Connor was alright or not. They both knew the kid could take good care of himself, he had proven that time and time again, but the not knowing is always a killer. She would have to remember to yell at the kid when they got home.
"So, you think you can do this?" Oz asked Tara, handing a thick, old book over to her.
The young wicca frowned as she looked at it; blood from the pervious young witch still smeared on the cover. Ignoring it, Tara opened the book to the marked page, and began to read over what was needed. "Yeah, I can do it. I'll just-I'll just need a few things."
"This won't...hurt Willow. Will it?" Xander asked cautiously, looking from Tara to Giles, back to Tara.
"From what I understand, it won't," Giles reassured.
"Does it really matter?" Eric bit bitterly from his corner.
"Hey man! That's my friend you're talking about!"
"Who killed mine," he pointed out coldly.
Xander shrunk back painfully as Anya laid a hand on his shoulder. The poor guy looked as if he were losing Willow all over again. Of course, Cordelia supposed he sort of was. Damn the Hellmouth. Always has to go screwing up people's lives. That's why she moved to LA, where people screw up their own lives without any demonic help...most of the time.
The ex-cheerleader sighed and glanced over to the large table that sat in the middle of the shop. That little boy of Eric's was sitting there, quietly playing with some of Dylan and Jessie's toys. They hadn't even bothered to try and wake the infant. Chances are she would have just made things more difficult at the moment.
Poor kid. He's had it rough. To think he had been in the room next door when his aunt was killed. She shuttered at the thought of him hearing her scream as Willow tortured and then killed her. Swallowing hard, Cordy walked over to the table and sat down next to the kid.
"Hi," she said with a small smile. "Whatch'ya doin'?"
The three-year-old glanced up at the strange woman beside him, then went back to the rolling the little ball back and forth on the table. "Playing ball."
"I can see that," she said, nodding her head. "So, what's your name again? Car? Truck?"
The little boy laughed slightly at the playful teasing. "Van," he told her.
"I knew it was some kind of vehicle."
He gave a childish giggle, and Cordy laughed softly as well. Good, then maybe the kid will feel a little better.
Eric had stopped listening to what the others were saying to watch the stranger speak with his son. She really did seem to have a way with kids, and he was glad she was trying to make Van feel better, but they had more important things to worry about at the moment.
"Van," he said softly, bringing the two's attention to him. "Stop bothering the nice lady."
"Oh, he's not bothering-"
Cordy took in a sharp breath as the whole room changed from the Magic Box to the swimming pool in the new high school. She saw Willow standing there, at the edge, looking down into the water as Dawn cried behind her. Her old friend's face suddenly fell before she jerked her sight to the wall behind her, as the witch pulled a figure out of the water and slammed him into wall. Cordelia gasped when she saw who the figure that lay crumpled on the ground was.
"Connor?" she said in a weak voice, stumbling out of the chair and trying to move closer to them.
She watched in horror as Willow bent down and lifted the young boy up by the throat and slammed him against the wall again.
"Cordy?" she heard Angel's voice say from beside her.
The seer turned from the vision to look at her boss who was now standing at her side. The others were looking at her strangely, but she didn't care. The seer turned back to the side of the room where she had seen the vision, only to find that it was now gone and replaced with the back area of the Magic Box.
"Cordy," Angel said to her again. "Cordy, what did you see? Where's Connor?"
"She has him," she told him. Cordelia watched a wave of terror run over his face, but she looked past him to Buffy, which was standing at the counter next to Spike. "She has Dawn too."
"Oh, God," Buffy said in a low whisper, her face paling before Cordelia's eyes.
"Well, where is she?" Spike demanded. "Do you know?"
The seer shook her head yes. "The high school," she told them, choosing to leave out the part that she had been torturing Connor for the moment. If Angel knew, he would have been more gung-ho about killing her then this Eric guy was at the moment.
"Right then," Spike nodded, heading over to the weapons case. "Glenda can get to work on the spell while the rest of us try and keep Red busy."
"Me and Eric can't go," Oz informed them quietly.
As the rest of the group looked at him curiously, Eric exclaimed in hot temper, "Of course we can go!"
"No, we can't," he repeated, slowly shaking his head. "You said it yourself, Eric. This demon can survive in supernatural host. Once Tara's able to bind Willow's magic, it'll be looking for the first supernatural host it can find. Thanks to our more primal nature, that means me and you."
"What about Spike and Angel?" Anya spoke up. "Won't they be worse then you two if Willow's demon decides to make one of them its new home?"
"No," Xander said, shaking his head. "They both already have demons in them. There can only be one demon in a body at a time."
Spike looked at him for a long moment, blinked, then said, "Congratulations, Whelp. You just added savant to your title."
"He didn't come up with that by himself," Cordy bit out. "We found that out when Giles' dope demon came to town in high school."
"Guess it's back to bein' just an idiot then, Harris," Spike shrugged before another thought struck him. "Giles' dope demon?"
"Wait a minute. If she has Dawn, will it be able to jump into her?" Buffy asked; fear etched on her face.
Giles frowned for a moment, considering the questions as the others, besides Spike, looked on in confusion. Dawn is human, why would she be worried about the demon being able to jump into her?
"I don't believe so," Giles finally said. "From what I understand, the Key is pure energy, which means that it's neither good nor bad. The demon needs the hate just as much as the supernatural to survive and the Key doesn't have this. Dawn might, but the Key is just energy that's in her. Think of it like an aura, it's part of what she is, but she's just human."
Buffy slowly nodded her head, as if she understood, but the rest of them were completely lost. Cordy frowned. So Dawn was this Key. No wonder Buffy looks horrible.
"Wait," Xander spoke up finally. "The Dawnster is the mystical keyie thing? Um, hello. Kinda of like to know how that happened?"
"Later," Buffy told him in her take charge kind of voice. "Oz, you and Eric can help Tara with the spell. You too, Giles."
"Me?" the Watcher spoke up, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you've wielded some pretty heavy mojo in your day, Watcher," Spike agreed. "Might not be as powerful as Red, but, if Wolf Boy's right, then it'll be more than enough to keep this thing alive."
"I suppose so," he said lowly.
"I'm staying too," Anya told them. "Someone has to keep an eye on the kids."
"The rest of you are with me," Buffy said. "Remember, we don't want to hurt Willow, just keep her busy for a while."
Cordy sighed as the group went about gathering their things. No, they didn't want to hurt Willow if they didn't have too. But if what she saw was any indication of her old friend's state of mind, not hurting her didn't look as if it would be an option.
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