Loving Eternally: Chapter 8
by Lisette
Legalese: See Chapter 1 for disclaimers and ratings.
Groaning, Riley slowly stirred as he felt soft hands gently smooth the hair on his forehead. "Ow..." he hissed, finally becoming aware of himself once more as he felt the rough grit of dirt press against his cheek. His eyes blinking open, Riley noted that he was lying on a hard, craggy stone surface, as he brought a heavy hand to his aching head. "What's going on?" he murmured, his eyes finally settling on Alex's worried frown, a dim halo of light illuminating her dark, mussed hair as he slowly tried to push himself up and against a wall, his head pounding.
"Thank God you're awake," was Alex's whispered reply as she scooted closer to him.
"We were starting to think that you were never going to wake up," Will whispered from Riley's other side. Turning, Riley took in the crusted blood that originated from a nasty cut on Will's forehead, almost hidden by his wild, spiked red hair. Quickly, Will reached to his side and pulled out Riley's thin, wire-rimmed glasses that were only slightly bent from the earlier scuffle, and passed them to their rightful owner.
"Where are we?" Riley asked again, adjusting his glasses as he craned his head, taking in their enclosure. Frowning, he saw that they were sitting in a large metal cage, the kind seen in circuses that held dangerous lions or tigers. Beyond the bars, he watched in curiosity as various dark shapes moved in the large cavern that they occupied, roaring torches providing the only illumination. "What's going on?" he repeated, tensing sore muscles.
"Why, you're my guests."
Surprised, Riley felt his friends jerk back and crowd closer to him against the wall, the other three walls of bars open to the cave as one of the shadows finally broke away from the rest and approached them. As it drew closer, Riley saw that it was a young woman, so thin that her arms looked like muscled bones attached to her sockets, a wispy black dress floating around her very pale form as long black hair cascaded down her shoulders.
"Well, who in the hell are you?" Alex asked, her voice filled with angry sarcasm as she eyed the woman skeptically, even as she received a sharp elbow from Riley beside her.
But her words only caused their captor to laugh gleefully, clapping her hands together as though she were a child that was presented with a new, enchanting toy. "Oh, I think I like you!" she laughed, smiling as she bent down and peered at the beautiful young woman, gently running her long, sharp nails across the bars that separated them. "So spirited like your father..."
"Well, if you know who my father is," Alex cut in stubbornly, her eyes narrowing, "then you know that he's captain of the police force here in Sunnydale and that you're in deep-"
"Not always," the woman interrupted, her smile growing chilly. "When I knew him, when he was your own age and younger, he was nothing more than a scared little boy, Xander was - all of them were," she smiled, chilling the three friends to the bone. "They were nothing more than sidekicks to the Slayer - little dolls to play with."
At this, Riley felt his own eyes narrow as he slowly shook his head. The lady was obviously not all there - she acted as though she knew their parents when they were younger, but she couldn't be more than a few years older than he was. But one thing she said had captured his attention, heightened his curiosity despite the situation. "That's the second time tonight that someone has mentioned this 'Slayer,'" he stated quietly, meeting the woman's cold eyes. "What is it?"
Smiling, Drusilla felt her laugh bubble out of her as she danced back and forth before the iron bars. "You don't know what the Slayer is?" she laughed, grabbing one of the bars and slowly sliding down its length until she was eye level with her captives. "They didn't tell you who your sister was?" she asked, her voice dropping low as shock registered on the boy's features.
Yawning, Buffy stretched out leisurely in her bed, the last remnants of sleep slowly drifting away. Smiling sleepily, she shifted under her familiar, plump comforter as she watched her bedroom sparkle with early morning light. Sighing, she slowly pushed herself up until she was sitting in her large bed, adjusting the old tee-shirt that she was wearing as she aimlessly scratched at one bandaged hand, her eyes locking on her best friend's sleeping form in the chair beside her.
Grinning, Buffy swept her long blonde hair over her shoulder before gently reaching out and shaking her friend, her smile broadening as Willow's eyes instantly snapped open, shifting so quickly that she almost slid from the chair. Laughing, Buffy quickly shook her head. "Willow, what are you doing here?" she asked, stretching out her stiff muscles, idly trying to remember why she was so stiff and sore.
"Buffy?" Willow asked, her eyes growing wide as she took in her friend's bright grin. Instantly, tears sprang to her eyes as she realized once more all that she had lost when Buffy had disappeared all of those years ago, all that they had missed out on together. Without another thought, Willow quickly sprang forward and crushed her petite friend to her.
"Willow?" Buffy asked once more, this time concern coloring her voice as she returned the fierce hug. "Are you okay?" she asked as her friend drew away before slowly settling on the large bed beside her. "And what are you wearing?" she continued, wrinkling her nose as her friend's clothes finally registered in her mind. Instead of the usual billowing hippie skirt and assorted fun shirts that her friend usually wore, she was wearing a more conservative pair of dress pants and a wrinkled blouse that reminded her of something her mom would wear.
But Willow seemed not to hear her as she instead quickly searched Buffy's eyes with her own, the tears still dripping down her pale cheeks. "Are you okay?" she asked, gently reaching forward to brush her hand against a small cut that seemed to be shrinking before her eyes.
"Huh?" Buffy asked as she finally took the opportunity to take stock of herself. Looking down, she saw that one hand was topped with a white pad of gauze while the flimsy material was wrapped heavily around her wrists. Confused, she quickly reached forward and peeled the gauze away, slightly surprised and confused by the fading red lines that circled her wrists - obviously some pretty deep cuts at one point. Then, she lifted her hand and gently fingered the spot that Willow had touched, wincing at the small flare of pain. Moving further back, she noted a slight throbbing that was emanating from the back of her head, and reaching further, she found a small bump hidden amongst her golden tresses. Smiling wryly, she could feel various other places in her body where there were slight twinges of pain, like around her neck, but all in all, nothing serious. "Some hell of a fight, huh?" she asked absently, not really remembering where all of the bumps had come from. "But no biggie," she quickly finished, brushing her friend's concern away as Willow gently took Buffy's hand in her own, surprising the small blonde.
"Oh Buffy, you don't know how good it is to see you again," Willow murmured, the tears streaking even quicker down her pale cheeks as she squeezed the hand that she held. "We thought that we had lost you..."
Confused, Buffy quickly shook her head. "Will, I'm fine," she quickly protested, starting to grow uncomfortable as the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something pretty dang important pulled at her mind.
"Why did you do it?" Willow continued, her frown turning into a look of betrayal and hurt, causing Buffy to pull back even further. "Why did you leave?"
And then, as Buffy quickly pulled her hand free from Willow's and hopped from her bed, all of her memories came rushing back. "Oh God," she whispered, turning, swaying on her feet as her oversized tee-shirt swished against her bare legs as she quickly backed away from her friend until her back ran painfully into her closed bedroom door with such force that a framed picture fell from her bedroom wall and shattered on the floor. Turning her head quickly, she took in her bedroom, noting that not a thing had changed since she had left - all exactly as she had left it. And then, as she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs behind her, she watched as her friend hesitantly climbed to her feet, looking exactly as she did all twenty-five years ago.
"Buffy!" someone called frantically from outside her door as the handle was turned and pushed against Buffy's back.
Stumbling away, Buffy swiveled and stopped dead in her tracks as she met her mom's beautiful hazel eyes - the same hazel eyes that had watched over her during her first twenty-two years of growing up - and the same hazel eyes that now stared at her with such a fierce love that Buffy nearly drowned beneath it. And then, as Giles crowded into the room beside her mother, Buffy took another step back, feeling as though an ocean wave was going to swallow her whole: they looked exactly the same as when she left them all, twenty-five years ago.
"Buffy," Giles quickly repeated as he saw the girl's eyes roll back in her head. Moving quickly with an agility that he had lost many years ago, up until the previous evening, the ex-watcher caught the small girl before she hit the floor, turning to the others in surprise. "Um," he stuttered as he tried to balance Buffy with one hand and reach down with the other to pull her tee-shirt back down around her legs where it had inched up during her fall. "You may want to fetch the others," he grunted as he lifted Buffy and gently placed her back on the bed. "I don't suppose that this will last long," he finished, pulling the covers back up as he waited for his Slayer to awaken.
"My sister?" Riley asked, his voice low as he met the woman's dark eyes. "What do you know about my sister?"
"Only that I wanted to skewer her very, very slowly," Drusilla laughed, her eyes gleaming as she slowly brandished her long, pointed fingernails.
"But why?" Alex asked, unable to stop the quiver in her voice.
"Because she was the Slayer," the woman said, humming quietly as her eyes slid shut, slowly swaying back and forth as though caught in a dream. "She was the one girl, born in every generation," she chanted quietly, "to fight against the evil in the world... to fight me," she hissed, her face changing before their eyes until they were looking into the eyes of a monster.
"Buffy," Giles whispered quietly, patiently as his eyes slipped back to all those gathered in the darkened bedroom, the shades keeping out the powerful sunlight. "Buffy," he tried again, gently waving the small capsule of smelling salts beneath her tiny nose. This time, he was awarded with a sharp gasp as Buffy finally awoke, her eyes flying open as she lashed out in reflex, sitting up quickly in the bed.
"Easy, easy," Angel quickly soothed from beside her, firmly wrapping his arms around her and pinning her hands to her side as her chest heaved, her eyes wide as she took in her audience. Everyone was gathered in her small bedroom, Giles and her mother standing beside her bed, the former having quickly vacated his seat beside her in hopes of avoiding her thrashing. Beside them were Willow, Oz, Xander, and Anya, all looking on curiously as Angel patiently worked to calm the startled Slayer. "It's okay Buffy - you're fine," he soothed as her struggles finally stopped, ignoring Giles' glare at his protective hold as her eyes slipped from face to face.
"Heh, and I thought that Slayers didn't faint," Xander joked, breaking the tense silence that had fallen over the room.
Instantly, Buffy felt herself relax a little more as she half-glared at the young man. "Yeah, well we're usually not shoved into a room with people that are way younger than they should be," she shot back, pulling away from Angel as she surveyed the group warily.
"Sorry Buffy," Willow whispered with a small smile. "That one's my fault," she explained as she gestured to the others. "We couldn't let you go off on your own to find our kids - so I used a spell that I had found a long time ago to make us younger again. So that we could help."
"Some spell," Buffy muttered, showing a small grin as she shook her head slowly - and then the grin slipped as her eyes locked on a shadow, leaning against the far wall of her bedroom. "Spike?" she asked, surprise filling her voice as the shape slowly moved, stepping forward into the light to reveal the bleached vampire. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come!"
"And miss the party?" Spike replied, arching his eyebrow at the girl. "I bloody well don't think so," he laughed shortly, straightening his long, leather jacket as all eyes turned towards him. He had received much the same question when he had arrived during the night, entering the house to find it empty save Joyce and Anya. Then, chaos had erupted as the little group arrived with the Slayer all unconscious and bleeding in his sire's arms. "And besides," he added quietly, his expression turning serious, "I think that I found out some more information that might be helpful - may explain why Dru grabbed the little ones."
Instantly, the room filled with a deadly silence as once more Buffy slowly nodded at the bleached vamp. "I'm listening."