Part 12: The Light
Oz watched as Tara and Giles prepare for the spell, and his mind momentarily wondered back to poor Marie. This was what she had been doing moments before Willow came. This had been what the witch was doing before the red-head killed her. His heart dropped at the thought of the young women. Marie might have died physically, but he knew that once Willow was Willow again, she would die from the knowledge of what she had done.
"I think that's everything," Tara said softly, looking around at the changed surroundings.
Giles nodded his head in agreement as he looked down at the circle they had drawn on the floor with the black pot that rested in the middle. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before handing her the ingredients, which included some of Willow's hair that they had found in Tara's brush in her purse.
Anya was watching from the counter she was leaning on, and Oz could already see her trying to think up a way to clean up that circle on the ground before they opened on Monday.
Van was still at the table, but his head was down on his crossed arms and he had eventually drifted off to sleep. The ball that he had been playing with earlier that evening was resting gently beside his feet as the boy slept. Though he had wanted his own toys earlier, he had pretty much claimed the ball as his own. Oz couldn't help but wonder if Buffy or Anya would be able to tear their child's toy away from the kid.
"Are you sure you'll be able to do this?" Giles asked as Tara stepped into the circle, sat down, and he handed her the book Marie had been using earlier.
"I'll do it," she said with a strange confidence for Tara. "For Willow."
"Besides, if you can't bind her magic, I'm sure Buffy and the others will be able to destroy her before she does any real damage," Anya offered, which earned her a glare from Giles. "What?"
Oz shook his head and looked around the store once more. That was funny, he didn't see Eric anywhere. The werewolf walked over to the back entrance, and glanced into the training room as Tara and Giles began to mix the ingredients. He wasn't there either.
Growing more worried by the moment as to where his friend could have gone, Oz went over to the sleeping boy, and gently shook his shoulder. Van drew in a deep breath as his sleepy eyes opened and looked at the young man before him.
"Hey, Van. Where's your dad?"
The boy's eyes fell closed again while he made a showing of shrugging his shoulders before he made himself more comfortable. "Don't know," the boy mumbled into his arms. "Told me to give you this."
The kid sat up a little, and produced a folded piece of paper that he had been hiding under his arms. Oz took it and the kid was asleep before he had a chance to even open it. He frowned when he saw what it said.
Oz,
Take care of Van for me.
Eric
The werewolf crumpled the piece of paper in his hand, knowing full well that his friend indeed had gone off after Buffy and the others. As Tara prepared to read from the book, Oz thought to himself, Damn it, Eric. I hope you know what you're doing.
**********
Buffy and Spike crept along the hallway towards the new principal's office. Spike had made a good point about how, if Willow was holed up in the school, she'd probably want to be near the Hellmouth. No place closer than the room that was built directly over it. This all had been way too easy so far. She hadn't set any traps for them or tried to stop them in anyway. It was almost as if she wanted them to come. That scared Buffy more than anything. Traps she could handle, direct invitations meant that Willow wasn't worried about them being able to stop her.
The two stood on either side of the door, silently waiting for the other to give the singal to go. This was why she always liked working with Spike. He could just look at her and know what had to be done. Their priorities were Dawn and Dylan and keeping them safe until Tara could do the spell. They didn't want to hurt Willow, but, if it came down to her or their family, they would.
Buffy paused at the thought. Since when had it become their family? As in belonging to both of them together. Yeah, Dylan was theirs, she understood that, but she had included Dawn in that last thought. Did that mean that he had become a member of her family?
Who are you kidding, Buffy? He's been a member of the family since before Dylan was born, she thought.
He smiled at her wearily, silently reassuring her that it was going to be alright. There was no mistaking the concern and love in those eyes. When this was over, they really were going to have a very long talk.
She sighed deeply, looked towards the door, then nodded her head. He copied her movement, reached for the door, and the two walked in ready for a fight.
The room was rather dark, even with the artificial overhead light, but Buffy could make out the broken desk off to the side. The oak furniture had been basically broken in half with sharp ends sticking out, waiting like long knives that wished to stab anyone unfortunate enough wonder to close. She would have to remember to keep Spike away from that side of the room.
But a small movement from the middle of the floor was what drew Buffy's attention. Sitting there quietly was Dylan, smiling at her parents as if they had just showed up to pick her up from Giles' apartment or Xander and Anya's, instead of saving her from mortal danger.
"Daddy! Swayer!" she smiled happily, holding her arms out for them.
Buffy rushed forward to her daughter, only to be thrown back hard by some sort of barrier. She hit the ground hard and slid back a few feet to Spike, who bent down to help her.
"You alright, love?" he asked, helping her up, all the while scanning the room.
Before she could answer, a small voice whimpered, "Buffy."
The slayer and vampire turned and saw Dawn standing off in a dark corner, her body stiff as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," the teenager said. "I thought if she got what she wanted, then she would let Dylan go. I didn't mean to make things worse."
"Funny how people who never mean to make things worse always manage too," another woman's voice answered from their other side.
Buffy jerked her head over and watched as Willow shimmered – yeah, that's a good word for it – in from the shadows. A childish, insane grin played on her lips as she looked at the parents before her. Buffy heard Spike growl lowly as his body tensed; that was when she noticed the rather large dagger that her friend was holding in her crossed arms.
"Now, come, come, Spikey," Willow laughed. "Is that anyway to greet an old friend?"
"No," he bit back, Buffy feeling his body coil up like a cat does before it pounces on its prey. "But you're no friend of mine. Are you, Red?"
"Oh, looks and a brain," Willow said, jerking her eyebrows up before turning to Buffy. "Look's like you got a smart one this time."
Spike leapt at the red head. Buffy watched as the witch's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, then jerked her arm around like she was swatting away a pesky fly. Spike was knocked off course by the motion, and sent crashing into an opposite wall. The slayer jumped to her feet while her friend was temporarily distracted, but Willow just jerked her head towards her old friend. It felt like someone had knocked her in the head with a sledgehammer and sent the blonde flying back. Buffy landed with a hard thud back on the ground, and slid across the floor until she hit the bookcase set up beside the door.
An evil grin grew on the witch's face as she slowly started to walk towards a dazed Buffy. The slayer blinked several times, trying to clear her slightly blurred vision. Willow bent down in front of her old friend, and said, "Now you want to see what I can really do?"
Willow spread her hands wide and a black fog engulfed Buffy, an electrical current causing her whole body to tense in pain. When Buffy refused to scream, the witch increased the voltage, knowing if it went up much more it would kill her.
A cold growl was let out, distracting the witch from what she was doing for a moment. Spike was coming after her again, but Willow rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Down, boy," Willow said. The witch once again swung her free hand, and sent him sailing directly at the sharp ends of the desk before he crashed into it.
"NO!!"
**********
Tara sat in the middle of the circle, concentrating on the picture of Willow in her mind. She was helping her, that's all. She was trying to take Willow's magic for good reason. Willow would understand once she got back to normal.
Giles held the book open, and she began to read from it and do as it said.
"Child of light, cannot be dead.
The darkness within, has been fed."
*********
Buffy looked in horror as he hung there mid-air, her own pain temporally forgotten, as the sharp end of the desk began to dig into his skin. Spike's face contorted in pain as he groaned lowly. The slayer tried to get to her feet to help him, but found that some invisible force held her in place. She couldn't even move her arms that rested on the ground. It felt like she was glued there.
Willow grinned as she stood, forgetting about the slayer in favor of her new toy. She walked across the room slowly, switching the dagger from hand to hand until she reached him. He was leaning forward on the desk. If he took in a breath, he would be dust. She bent down low to his face, and studied him for a moment.
"Does it hurt?" Willow asked like a small child. "I bet it does."
"Go to hell," he bit at her coldly through his teeth.
"Been there, done that, looks a lot like Jersey," she said. "But maybe you'll like it better than me."
"NO!" Dawn screamed as Willow moved her hand over to his back to push him down.
Buffy struggled for all she was worth, but whatever Willow had done to her was holding fast. Her eyes were wet as she looked up and found that he was looking back at her with apologetic eyes. She couldn't lose him! Not now! Not when she finally realized that she-
Buffy felt something move past her, brushing her slightly while it leapt through the air with a loud growl. Willow turned at the sound, temporarily forgetting about Spike and what she was about to do, when the thing rammed into her and knocked her to the ground.
**********
Tara crumpled up the maple root and let it fall into the pot.
"Her spirit is strong, her flesh is weak.
A demon control, through her it does speak."
*********
Buffy watched as Willow and the half transformed werewolf struggled on the ground; the sandy blond on top of the witch, snapping at her viciously. The red-heads eyes became jet black as she fought with him, and a build up of energy exploded around her, sending him flying in the opposite direction of her. He crashed hard into the wall, breaking it upon impact.
Willow pushed herself up, wiped the side of her mouth that had a thin trickle of blood running down it, and locked her insane eyes on the panting creature.
"Oh, another puppy to play with," she laughed, bringing the dagger up and slowly walking towards him.
*********
Tara held up the few red hairs they had gathered and looked at them for a long moment. This was it, the moment of truth. Willow, please forgive me for what I am about to do, but you're more then your magic, Tara thought. She just hoped Willow realized that.
"Bind her magic, so she may do no harm,
So that the demon cannot be armed."
She dropped the hair into the pot, and the room exploded with a blinding white light.
*********
Willow was halfway to her destination when Buffy saw her stop dead in her tracks with a jerk. Her eyes were wide as if in pain, and she dropped the dagger to grab her head.
"No," Willow said lowly, stumbling backwards. "No! Not now!!"
A white light began to build around Buffy's friend, very dim at first, but soon it was almost blinding. The slayer pulled at her arms to try and cover her eyes, but the magic held, so she squeezed her eyes into thin slits when it became over-powering. She could barely make out the figure that was standing in the middle of the room, near Buffy's strangely quiet daughter, as Willow turned her head up towards the sky and began to scream an ungodly scream.
The light seemed to stop for a split second before exploding like a firework and spreading throughout the whole school. For all Buffy knew, it could have been through all of Sunnydale.
The slayer shut her eyes tight for a moment, but opened them just enough to watch as Willow's body began to spasm before an entire separate entity was pulled forward from her. The ugly beast continued to scream as Willow began to quiet, before the creature was engulfed in the white light. A second later, the light was gone, its only memory the spots that where before Buffy's eyes.
She watched as Willow gave out a sigh, then slumped to her knees and fell forward completely unconscious.
**********
Xander brought his arm away from his face as the light died and blinked several times to get his sight back. The others were doing the same while the carpenter tried to decided exactly what happened. He glanced towards the entrance where all the demons were coming, and felt his face jerk in surprise when he saw that they were all gone. There was nothing out there except the cloudy sky that was starting to welcome sunrise.
"Okay, now that was just cool."
**********
Tara slumped backward from the circle, giving out a deep sigh of exhaustion. Giles dropped the book he had been holding for her to read, and went to her side, cradling the weakened girl. That spell had taken a lot out of her. Hell, it had taken a lot out of him and he hadn't even done it. He couldn't imagine what it must be doing to her.
Anya and Oz walked over to the two, concern on their faces as Oz bent down next to her.
"So, you think it worked?" Anya asked.
*********
The first thing Dawn was aware of once the light was gone was that Willow was lying on the ground. The second thing she realized was that she could move again. True, it was stiff movements, like when she had ridden to long in the car, but she could move nonetheless.
Buffy pushed herself up off the ground as Dawn ran across the room and scooped her niece up into her arms. The two women quickly checked the child over, and were pleasantly surprised to find her unharmed. Buffy let out a sigh of relief, before giving her sister a quick once over. Dawn too was unharmed for the most part.
Spike groaned loudly as the invisible force that held him against the broken desk let go and allowed him to fall away from it. He landed hard on the ground, and Dawn watched her sister hurry to his side. The baby clung to her aunt as she slowly approached the couple.
"You okay?" Buffy asked gently touching the wound on his chest.
"Nothin' a few pints of the 'red stuff' won't cure," he told her with a weak smile, that she returned. He rolled his head slightly, and looked up at Dawn. "What about the poppet? She alright?"
"Yeah," Dawn said, swaying with the little girl. "She's…sleeping?"
The parents exchanged a confused look before getting up off the ground and inspecting the child for themselves. As her aunt had said, the eleven-month-old was fast asleep in her arms, her little fist near her mouth that was hanging slightly open. Buffy smiled sweetly at the little girl, touched the side of her head, and then placed a small kiss on her forehead.
"So, can we go home now?" the teenager asked wearily.
Buffy smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah. Demon gone, you and Dylan are safe. I say we get the others to help with Willow and Eric and get-"
"Wait," Spike spoke up. He moved between Buffy and Dawn, and began to study the slayer.
"Spike, what are you doing?" Buffy asked.
"Wolf Boy said that thing will jump into a supernatural host, right?"
"Yeah," she answered, still not following his line of thought.
"Well, slayers aren't exactly normal, now are they, love?" he asked.
Her eyes widened at the suggestion. "You think it could be in me?!"
"I don't think it just disappeared."
"Spike, you idiot. I would never hurt Dylan or Dawn!"
"No, I don't think you would. But you wouldn't know if you were infected," he pointed out.
"I'm not!" she bit back.
"How do you know, pet?"
"Because I do!"
Dawn pulled Dylan closer to her as the parents continued to argue. There was a demon that could jump into a different host? That wasn't good. And if it did jump into Buffy, that would be even worse.
"Just want to be sure the poppet's safe here, slayer," he told her.
"She is! It's gone!"
"Buffy-"
A blood curdling scream rang through the room and Dawn turned just in time to see the werewolf charging at her and Dylan, the knife that Willow had planned on using in hand. Dawn screamed as the knife cut through the air, and pierced through soft skin.
**********
Buffy didn't think, she reacted. She saw Eric coming after her baby and her sister, and she moved. That simple step would change everything - she knew that - but she had to protect them. They were hers, and she wouldn't let them be harmed.
Her body moved in front of the other two just as Eric prepared to slam it into Dawn's stomach. Buffy's face jerked from the sharp pain that came with the impact, and the two beings stood there looking at one another, connected by the weapon in his hand and in her stomach.
Eric smiled a toothy grin at her, his eyes yellow from halfway being changed, and his blond hair covering more then half his face. "You might have saved the angel from this fate, but you sealed yours," he told her lowly, a glint of insanity behind his eyes; the same insanity that Willow had possessed moments before. Looks like Oz had been right about that demon.
Buffy heard a roar and then watched as Spike wrapped his hands around Eric's head and popped his neck, killing both the demon and the man. As the werewolf's body fell to the ground, the knife slipped out of her stomach, and Buffy was quick to cover the wound. She looked up and saw Spike growl once more at the body at his feet, then look up at her, his eyes wide when he saw what had been done to her. She managed to shake her head to not alarm Dawn who she had her back to.
"Dawn," she pushed, barely turning her head back to her sister. "Get Dylan out of here."
"Buffy? Are you okay?" Dawn asked, moving closer to her sister.
The slayer forced a smile and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. "Now, please, get Dylan out of here."
Dawn didn't believe her, she could feel she didn't. The teenager looked to Spike, but the vampire simply agreed with her sister. "Please, Niblet. We'll take care of Red."
The young girl bit down onto her lip, not liking that they were obviously hiding something from her, but turned and left like she was asked. Buffy was barely managing to stand by the time the door shut, and she slumped to the ground in pain. Spike went down with her, holding her to him as he sat on the ground and kept her elevated slightly on his bent up knees.
He reached down and gently pushed her hand away to survey the injury. She watched as his eyes grew wide and scared, but he tried to mask it when he looked at her again when she yawned. She was so tired.
"Hey, come on, Slayer," Spike said nervously as she lay there, all anger gone from the argument they were having just moments before. "Can't let you get too comfortable here. Got to get back to the others and all."
She smiled weakly at him, her own hostility forgotten. "That good, huh?"
He laughed, but it didn't reach his frightened eyes, as he shook his head. "Na, just a scratch. You'll be up and about, threatenin' to kick my sorry ass before you know it."
Buffy laughed softly at him. "Don't lie to me, Spike," she warned. "You're not any good at it anymore."
It was funny, the wound suddenly didn't hurt so bad anymore. In fact, she didn't feel it at all. Something in the back of her mind screamed that this was a bad thing, but it didn't feel like it. It felt…right, like this was how it was supposed to work out. She had saved her daughter and her sister, but it was going to cost her. Strange thing was, she didn't mind. Still, there were things to be taken care of.
"Spike, do you remember your promise?" she asked him, her voice sounding soft even to her. He blinked, and she could clearly see how shiny his eyes were. "Keep her safe. Raise her right."
"We'll raise her right," he told her firmly.
Buffy shook her head. "No, but you will."
She felt her strength leaving her. It wouldn't be long now. She was actually looking forward to it.
He pulled her a little closer to him, and pressed his forehead against hers. "I love you," he said, as if that simple statement would make her stay.
It was getting darker fast, and she felt as weak as she ever had. Still, a small smile crossed her face and she managed to push herself up and kiss him lightly.
"I love you," she told him in a hushed voice before falling into that eternal slumber she had always dreamed of, leaving him there to cry for her.
**********
AN: Okay, going to tell you know, this is not the end of the series, so don't be too upset with me. More to come soon, I promise.