Chapter 1. Prologue.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss, WB, UPN etc own everything. My life sucks.
Rating: Brit: 15 US of A: R (I think).
Author: Paradigm Shifter.
Feedback: Please, I beg.
Notes: British spelling and grammar. I have no experience of decent hospitals, as the NHS is, frankly, shit. Thought of the day: Go in a British hospital; come out worse than you went in.
Pairing: Unsure as yet. Might be B/X maybe D/X (leaning toward this, Buffy's getting on my nerves of late. One word: Spuffy {shudders})
Continuity: Diverges from "Becoming" Season 2 of Buffy. However, Dawn is around.
Starts in the Athcatla room before Angelus can open the portal.
Thoughts in Italics*
Buffy had finally cornered Angel (she still hoped that his soul could be restored, and until proved otherwise, refused to call him Angelus) in the room that housed Athcatla. Tossing a blade in his direction, she readied her own, and was not prepared for him to refuse to pick it up.
"Very well, Angel, if you insist on not defending yourself." Her love for the vampire showing in her words. Angelus remained stubbornly silent. Buffy lunged, though the long-sword she was using had greater reach than the short-sword she was used to using, the weight of the blade made her lunge off target, and Angelus sidestepped the attack, replying with a quick swipe of his own from his clawed hands.
Dropping to the floor and rolling, Buffy managed to avoid the blow aimed at her neck and got back to her feet, preparing for a further assault.
It never came.
In the few second that Angel had been out of her sight when she was rolling, the vampire had disappeared. Lowering the blade, Buffy stepped forward, allowing Angelus to drop behind her and wrench the sword out of her hand, simultaneously pinning her to the floor.
Buffy was scared. Scared because her lover was pinning her to the floor without a hint of mercy in his eyes. She could only hope that he would kill her outright, rather than turn her. No. Don't even think that. Start thinking like that and he will do it, just because he can see the fear in your eyes.
It hurt the most because it was a bloodthirsty killer wearing the face of the one man she had loved since becoming the Slayer. Although, she reflected, I probably haven't given very many a chance. Smiling evilly all the time, Angelus pressed down on Buffy's neck, quickly making her vision spin and as she finally blacked out from lack of oxygen, the last thing she heard was "Goodbye, lover. I'll call ya."
Smiling down at the prone form of the Slayer, Angelus kissed her on the lips and stood, then as the demon raged at not killing the Slayer, he spat on her face and stalked out, to get the final preparations for Athcatla, the bringer of Hell on Earth.
*
Xander was panic-stricken. He was waiting outside for Buffy to finish and call him in to help tidy up the mess, never something he was very happy about, but with the soldier spirit inside him begging to get in the battle, he was being torn with need to join the battle and want to follow his friends advice and to stay alive.
But enough is enough. Thought Xander, as he crept toward the entrance Buffy had gone into, almost half an hour ago. As he crept forward, he reviewed the last few minutes, there had been no sound of battle after the first 10 minutes, and wandered if Buffy had won and wanted to be alone in her grief, never a good idea, or if she had lost and even now Angelus had drained her and was waiting for her "White Knight" to show before her snapped her neck, or even worse, turned her.
Xander got to the room containing Athcatla, easily the largest room in the mansion, and peeked in. Not seeing any vampires he looked round properly, and gasped as he saw Buffy lying in the middle of the room, out cold. Throwing caution to the winds, as Buffy lay hurt, possibly dying, Xander raced across the room. Getting to Buffy just in time to hear her groan, Xander fell on his knees beside her. When Buffy made it obvious that she was trying to stand, or at least sit up, despite the fact that she still looked very groggy, he put an arm under hers and helped her to lever herself upright.
The first word out of Buffy's mouth as she came round froze Xander's heart to the core. "Angel" mumbled Buffy. Then more clearly: "Angel, did it work?" "Sorry Buff, no Angelus here," said Xander as he helped her to her feet. "What happened?" asked Buffy. "I would imagine that Angelus beat you and went looking for you friends and family to put you off the Athcatla thing." "Oh my God," replied Buffy, "the Library!"
Xander and Buffy raced off to see if everyone was all right.
*
As Buffy and Xander raced back to the Library, Angelus had got there first. Strolling through the doors of the School, into the Library, full game face on display, he ducked as a bolt came flying from over by the office, signalling that Giles had seen him.
Angelus vaulted the desk and landed in front of Giles, batting away the cross that the Watcher held up in front of him, and grabbed his arm, bending it to an unnatural angle, hearing bone snap under the pressure as Giles screamed in agony. This alerted Willow and Oz, who had not seen or heard Angelus come in as they were looking for a book in the stacks. The two came running out of the stacks; Willow preparing a spell and Oz leaping on the attack.
Dropping Giles, who was in too much pain to do anything other than moan in torment, Angelus swivelled in time to elbow Oz full in the face, knocking him out cold.
Willow cried out as she saw Oz collapse in a heap on the floor, disrupting the spell that she had almost finished preparing. Willow had other tricks up her sleeve however, as she pointed at Angelus and cried "Ignis."
Angelus barely had time to turn as he heard Willow, that insufferable little Wiccan-wannabe Hacker bitch scream out the Latin for 'Fire' before the air around him ignited and his coat caught fire. Flailing around trying to get the burning Duster off before it ignited him, Angelus still headed in Willow general direction, and as soon as his duster was on the floor smouldering, lunged toward her, and grabbing her by the hair, bit her neck and started to suck her dry.
Yet, something else appealed to the demon this time, thinking that both his 'beloved' Buffy, and her White Knight would be distraught at finding their best friend badly hurt and almost dying, and would spend most of their time blaming each other. Then another thought occurred. If, and when, Willow wakes up, won't it just be the icing on the cake if her 'girls best friend' is a vampire. Yes, I like that idea. And. Oz will want to have revenge on the one person other than him who holds Willows heart, and the one person who has broken it. Xander. Yes. This idea has merit.
Dropping Willow, who was on the verge of critical blood loss, Angelus moved over to Oz, and picking him up, quickly drained him. Nicking his wrist to let blood flow, Angelus held it up to Oz' mouth, who greedily gulped down the fluid. Angelus reflected: It takes a very strong willed person, who at the verge of death chooses to die rather than to continue living, even if continued existence means to be a vampire. Such a pity. Slinging the prostrate form of Oz over his shoulder, Angelus jumped out the window to watch the show when Buffy and Xander arrived.
*
Buffy powered through the door of the Library, expecting Willow and Oz to say Hi, and possibly Giles to say something other than "How did Patrol go?" but it wasn't going to happen. Instead of three people alive and well around a table all Buffy saw was chaos. A desk smashed, blood all over the floor, and all three people missing.
Xander, in contrast, when he walked in he didn't see the mess, all he saw was the body of his best friend since, well, ever lying in a pool of blood, but a pool piteously small for the wound on her neck, which his soldier-boy experiences from Halloween told him should be much larger for the size of the wound, even if only just caused.
After phoning for an ambulance, Xander immediately jumped to one conclusion, despite the fact that easy conclusions often caused problems: Angelus did this. Glancing to Buffy, seeing her dong nothing he decided that something had to be done, and so headed into the office to see if he could find blankets or something to cover Willow with. He practically tore the door to the office off its hinges with the rage that was building, which in turn drew Buffy's wrath down on him for being "uncaring." As soon as that word slipped out of her mouth he exploded. He screamed in anger and turned to Buffy "Who do you think did this? Spike? He's too busy fussing after Drusilla. Dru herself? No. She's too weak to pull something like this off. One of Angelus' other henchmen? No! He'd save this honour for himself. Angelus! Your precious 'Angel' did this! The only thing he is an Angel of is Death. Buffy!" "You're wrong Xander, Angel couldn't of done this." Buffy said quietly. "Well, Buffy, what else could he have done? He beats you in a fight, knocks you out! You're lucky you aren't dead now, or even better turned and now trying to help him, and after he beats you he spits on you and splits to remove the one person that could return his 'soul' and stop this mess with Athcatla! And you say that Angelus couldn't do any of this, well, he's done a lot worse than this when he was, and I quote "the scourge of Europe" and more is gonna come if we aren't very careful." As soon as Buffy was coherent and after the verbal savaging she just received, she went on the offensive. "You bastard Xander, blaming everything on Angel. I know Angel; he would never spit on me. Get out of the hormone streak you're in, get a life and a girlfriend and stop trying to force me away from the person I love." Those comments got Xander even more enraged. "You know Buffy, you're right, absolutely right. You do know Angel, or at least you did, because, newsflash; but Angelus ain't the sweet little adorable Deadboy that you apparently fell in 'love' with. And! The other things you mentioned: I do have a girlfriend, and also, I'm all breathing, all the time. I don't burst into flames when the sun touches me and I have a heartbeat. That kind of advertises the fact that I do have a life." Xander finished the tirade with venomous anger and short of breath.
Just then they heard a moan from the corner where Giles had landed when he had been attacked. But they didn't know that. Buffy got into a classic defensive stance and held her ground. Xander snorted and went to investigate. He discovered Giles in enough of a state to warrant ambulance treatment as well. They just had to wait until they arrived…
*
At the Hospital.
~
Buffy and Xander are sitting on opposite sides of the seating area for emergency room cases, Buffy staring angrily at Xander, and Xander staring adamantly at the wall, with an equally fierce look on his face. Both were thinking: We've been here hours…
Both looked up as a doctor walked into the room. "Are either of you with the two that came in from the High School?" asked the doctor tiredly. "Yes" they both replied simultaneously. "OK, well, the man you brought in has a cast on his arm due to it being broken. Quite a bit of work we had getting the bone fragments back in the right places, but its fixed, with only minor loss of motor control. The girl however…" the doctor faded out worriedly. "What about the girl, I mean, Willow?" said Xander both angry and anxious at the same time. Buffy kept quiet. The doctor continued "Well. When she was brought in she had suffered severe loss of blood from the wound on her neck and was entering shock, if the ambulance had taken 10 minutes more she would be dead. We have sealed up the wound on her neck, and taken her blood level back up to normal levels, but there's something else…" again the doctor faded out. "What?" said Xander, his body language clearly saying: tell me or I'll rip off your arms and give you an enema with them. The doctor took the hint. "Well, she's in a coma. In it deep. She won't come out of it any time soon, if ever, and only if she wants to." As the first syllable of 'coma' started out of the doctors mouth, Xander sank to his knee's on the hard marble floor of the hospital mumbling 'Willow' incoherently. The doctor looked pointedly at Buffy as his eyes said "get him home." Buffy nodded and knelt down next to Xander. As Buffy reached out to put her arms round his shoulders, however, he recoiled violently, screaming, "don't touch me!" at the top of his voice. He pushed his face in the doctors, and said "Let me see her!" backing down slightly, then continued, "and then I want to talk to Giles." The doctor, obviously perturbed agreed thinking that disagreeing could be a bad career move at this point. Xander stormed off to Willow's room.
*
The walk served to calm Xander down somewhat, but was very surprised when he walked in the room to see Oz already there. "Hi" was all Oz said. Xander spotted a cross on the wall, at reached up to remove it, looking back he saw Oz watching him quizzically and he said "Willow won't like this, she's Jewish" Oz nodded in comprehension. However, as he was getting it down, it slipped, and smacked Oz on the head on the way to the floor. Oz snarled and looked away, and as he looked back, Xander was shocked to see it was the game face of a vampire. "Buffy!" Xander called, causing Oz to run out the room at top speed. Xander followed to the doorway, to see Oz disappear round one corner and Buffy to arrive from the other. "Was that Oz I just saw leave?" asked Buffy. "Yeah. But news, Oz has been turned by Angelus."
Which, of course, started the whole argument again.
*
When Buffy and Xander reached Giles' room, they had stopped bickering for the time being. Giles greeted them with a small smile and a request; "Buffy, could I talk to Xander alone for a few minutes. You can wait outside." "What?" spat Buffy "what can you possibly want to say to Xander that you can't say to me as well?" "Humour me, Buffy." Replied Giles "remember I am your Watcher, and you should obey an order I give you." Almost to himself Giles continued, "but you never have been very good at following instructions" "What is that supposed to mean?" asked Buffy angrily. "Enough, Buffy, Giles and I need to talk." Said Xander, "you can grill him in a few minutes. Now, leave." Buffy left the room, but both men new it was under protest.
"Now, Giles, could you tell me what you have to say that got Buffy more pissed with me than she already is?" said Xander quietly. "Yes, certainly" replied Giles, "you know who attacked us don't you?" It was more a statement than a question. "I have an idea" said Xander "and if it was I'll make him wish he was never even born. Let me take a wild guess: Angelus." Giles winced at hearing the name of the Scourge of Europe but nodded his head in agreement slowly. "I don't want you to do anything foolish, Xander, which is why I asked to talk to you alone so that Buffy wouldn't get involved. Now, tell me what happened on your end tonight." Xander quickly gave Giles the Cliff Notes version of events, about finding Buffy unconscious and everything. "Angelus not killing a defeated opponent, even one who not long before his body remembers loving dearly speaks badly about what he is planning. It may involve Buffy in one form or another." "So what you're saying is that Angelus needs to be removed." Stated Xander. "Well, yes," said Giles, "but if you're thinking of trying anything stupid, don't." "I never told you that I kept my soldier memories from Halloween, did I Giles?" "No." replied Giles "Did you? That could have been dangerous." "Well, I did, and it wasn't, I don't know why I kept the memories when the rest of us lost them after the spell was broken, but it is certainly about to come in handy. I'll get rid of Angelus." "I counsel against it," said Giles, "but, being in a hospital bed, I'm hardly in a position to stop you. Just don't do anything stupid and get killed or turned, because I'll make sure that when I find your soul, I'll stick it in the nastiest demon dimension I can think of." "Thanks, G-Man." Said Xander sarcastically, "I'll remember this pep-talk as the one to end all pep-talks" "Be careful, Xander, don't run into Buffy, and good luck." As Xander turned to walk out the door, Giles called after him "Xander, I forgot to give you something, there will be a small key in my jacket, take it, and use it to open a lock on the floor behind my desk in the library, there's a hidden basement down there, and I stashed some of Ripper's old kit down there. It may come in handy. Again, be careful, come back alive." Xander felt around the pocket, found the key, nodded to Giles, and left.
*
Boy, would I get in some serious shit if the US army found that I had been raiding their Sunnydale base for the past few months. Thought Xander, although the likelihood of them finding out, let alone catching me, is quite slim.
Xander had strewn around his room all the equipment that he had 'liberated' from the base. Pistols, Assault Rifles, Combat knives, Fatigues, Camo gear, body armour and seven different types of ammo, all in nice boxes were laid out on the bed, next to what Xander considered useful from Ripper's Stash. Those items included vials of Holy Water, stakes, a flare gun, a flak jacket and a few antiquated grenades, which Xander fervently hoped would work properly and not blow up in his hand, along with the piece de resistance, a claymore mine, complete with 'front toward enemy' motif. What Xander had further gotten tonight was nothing short of amazing, the bigwigs must have moved a Special Forces Unit here thought Xander, as what was gathered was only ever supplied to Special Operations Command troops. An M4 rifle, an MP5 SD3, some flash-bangs and smoke grenades and a silenced SOCOM pistol, which had some sort of special new round developed for it, illegal as hell on the streets, and banned by almost every military international treaty, phosphor coated hollow points. But, reflected Xander if I get caught with any of this stuff by the police the least of my worries is explaining the bullets.
With that thought, he started to prepare. Poking his head out of his door, he double checked that his parents were snoring soundly from the alcohol haze, shut and locked the door to his room. The soldier personality took over. Quickly fieldstripping each weapon, unsure which yet to use, he oiled the slide, magazine springs and trigger assembly, and put each weapon back together. Weapon maintenance taken care of, he stripped out of his usual clothes and began pulling on the Special Forces Urban Warfare gear that he had collected, bullet proof vest and another urban camo top over it. Xander then prepared the weapons, running through the checklist in his head; take the SOCOM, its light, accurate and a good deal quieter than the other pistols, with the new rounds it should be quite a treat. Xander quickly prepared 3 clips of the phosphor bullets, and 2 of standard sub-sonic hollow points, as a second thought he added a clip of magnesium tipped tracer rounds, reasoning that they would probably burn like unholy (or Holy) blazes if they hit while burning. Take the MP5 rather than the M4, the M4 is too big and, again, makes too much noise, I don't want every damn vamp from here to San Fran knowing where I am when I open up. On went the MP5 with a shoulder strap and 5 clips of hollow points for it. I need something for close fighting other than stakes, I'll take the knives. On went a carbonised Combat knife into a calf sheath on the left, another into a thigh sheath on his right thigh, and a smaller knife as a holdout on the inside of his left arm. Now, grenades. This bit I like. Xander hooked the fragmentation and smoke grenades and the flash-bangs onto the uniform, and lightly strapped them down so they didn't make a sound when he walked. The claymore went into a rucksack.
Slipping on a long coat, to disguise all the weapons, and picking up the rucksack, he exited the house by way of the window.
*
Oz liked his new power, true it was a bit of a downer to have to loose his soul to get it, but he reflected, now I can do things I could never, would never, do before. Get Xander for hurting my Willow's feelings, make Buffy scream my name like she screamed Angelus' in the throes of passion. And then kill her, of course. But, best of all, as far as Oz was concerned, I don't have to wolf out every full moon any more! I can control that part of me. As vampires went, Oz was odd. He still had the emotional connection to his friends that he had when alive, weak added his demon, his soul may be gone but it had affected the demon controlling his body, to the point where he was almost the same Oz, just now he had the added bonus of a severe allergy to sunlight and Blessed items.
He had been standing in the corridor for an hour or more, contemplating, and the other vampires had not dared to come near him. The amalgamation of the Wolf and the Demon had made his stronger than Spike, and almost as strong as Angelus. He was nearly as strong as a 240-year-old vampire master. This made the other vampires, especially the 'newborns' as Angelus called them, extremely wary of him.
Oz stalked off to the feeding chamber.
*
Willow opened her eyes to total darkness. Not the sort of total darkness where you can still make out the area around you, but the sort that quite firmly, says, there is absolutely nothing. It wasn't exactly black, just a total absence of colour. Willow had been a witch for too long to be freaked by something so simple as nothingness, now, she thought if it had been a weird dimension where I had a hundred leering demons around me, then I'd be freaked. Well, if they were male, anyway. However, there was something slightly unnerving about being totally alone. Looking down, Willow realised that she couldn't see herself, no hands or arms, or legs and feet, as if her mind was free in the thing, surrounding her.
Then, Willow heard a voice in her head, realising there was no sound either. The voice sounded like two speaking at once, both male and female, with a touch of anxiety in the male and amusement in the female.
It said; 'bout time you woke up, kid.
Yeah, kid, you fair gave us a scare when you went into a coma like that, but there is nothing we can do about that now, is there? Said a second voice, similar to the first, but totally female and extremely sensual.
I'm sorry. Willow instantly replied. Hang on…I'm apologising to you. Why am I doing that? I didn't want to be here and…
What you want matters not at all, little one. What Angelus has done is upset the balance of power between good and evil. He, as Angel, was meant to fight for the cause of good not do the horizontal mambo with the 'Slayer' and go all tall, dark and fangy. Cut in the first voice viciously.
Willow, instead of being insulted, answered with another question. Why are you talking partly in the style that Xander uses? I mean, its half olde speech and half modern slang.
The second voice replied, we have seen inside your mind, little one, while you were unconscious in this realm as well as your own. We are using speech mannerisms from your memories to attempt to put you at ease. If you so wish we will cease.
No, it's OK. Thought Willow. You could have warned me about the mind read thing though.
Child, we cannot keep you here much longer without drawing unwanted attention down on your empty shell. We must tell you what you must do and then leave you to carry them out. Do not, however, ever tell the Slayer about your mission. She will try to stop you. The second voice echoed in Willow's mind.
But she's my friend. Said Willow, I don't like keeping secrets from my friends. It bad for trust, you know? Anyway, what is this thing I can't tell Buffy, and can I tell anyone else?
You may tell Xander, as he is carrying out the first part of the plan, even as we speak, he is closing on Angelus to remove the imbalance. This was said without emotion by the first voice. You will forever have a connection to us. It is inseparable. However, do not call upon us too often, child, or your mind will be vulnerable to creatures from the thirteen hell planes. Other than this, if the one named Xander survives his plan, aid him in preference to aiding Buffy. Pray he does not fail.
Go back now, child, before your body is possessed. The second voice added.
No…started Willow, but then her mind was shunted back into her body.
In the hospital, Willow sat up violently, screaming her head off.
*
Xander knelt over one of the skylights in the warehouse Angelus was using as his base after being run out of his Mansion.
Checking over his equipment one last time before going in, he nodded and carefully opened the window of the skylight. Looking in quickly, Xander saw several vampires sucking blood out of some prisoners chained in the corner. Pulling the pin of a flash bang, he dropped it into the room, and before it had landed, dropped a second flash bang and had a smoke grenade and a fragmentation grenade ready to drop.
He let go of both as the flash bangs detonated.
*
Oz was just walking into the feeding chamber as he saw something drop from the ceiling. While human, he had spent quite a bit of time talking to Xander about his Halloween experience, and knew a flash bang when he saw one, his demon did not know what to do but the remnants of his human mind told him: "Down! Eye's closed turn away, and run once it's detonated!"
Turning quickly as the flash bang number one went off, Oz ran out of the room toward his own. The fledgling vampires would have to deal with what this turn of events dealt them themselves. Not once did running to Angelus cross his mind only to prepare to escape.
*