Where Angels Fear to Tread, p5
###
"First order of business," Giles said, "is the spells. Darla knows the summoning spell that will bring the Knight forth from your body. It would be prudent for us to know the spell that will bury him once more, just in case."
Angel nodded.
"I will give you the incantation. I am not sure, though, whether it will work if someone else speaks it."
Giles handed him a piece of paper and Buffy watched as he wrote down the words that would change a demon back into a man.
Be gone Angelus, Butcher Knight Be banished back into the Night The new Day's Dawn shall be your Ban Return once more in form of Man
Giles took back the note, looked at it for a moment, and then handed it to Willow.
"Willow here is an accomplished witch," Giles told Angel. "If anyone can invoke the spell, should it become necessary, I'm confident she can do it."
"I should," Willow said. "Though I hope I don't have to. No offence, Mr. Fitzpatrick, but I'm not too keen on meeting your alter ego."
"Welcome to the club," Angel mumbled.
"Does anyone beside Darla know the spell that summons the Knight?" Buffy asked.
"Some of her minions maybe," Angel said. "I don't think it would work for them, though. Darla's blood flows inside my veins and she was the one that originally summoned the Knight into the world."
"So if we kill her you'll be safe," Buffy said confidently.
"I've lost count on how often I tried to do that," Angel sighed.
"Well," Buffy smirked, "she can't turn me into a demon with just a few words. Just let her turn up and I'll dust her for you."
Angel couldn't help but smile at that. Seeing the optimism in this young girl made him want to believe that he might finally find some peace in this world. Darla gone, the Knight forever caged, it would be as close to paradise as he could ever get.
Maybe even closer, he thought as he continued to look at her.
Buffy looked into Angel's dark eyes and thought she would melt into a puddle of goo. His eyes shone with a light that seemed to reach right down into her soul. There was so much pain in there, but also a strength the likes she had never seen before. A thousand years, she reminded herself. For a thousand years he had battled a demon that shared his body, kept it imprisoned for most of that time.
"Darla is injured," Giles continued, not oblivious to the looks exchanged between his Slayer and the thousand year old man, "so she will probably wait until she is fully healed before forcing another confrontation."
"She can't very well invoke the spell with a stake in her throat." Buffy grinned.
"Yes. Depending on her strength, she will probably be able to heal that wound in two to three days. It would be prudent to find her before that."
Buffy stood, wincing just a little bit as her injured arm reminded her of its presence.
"I'll go beat up Willy, maybe he knows something."
"Are you sure you should go?" Angel asked, rising as well. "You took some beating at my ... the Knight's hands. You look like you could use some rest yourself."
Buffy wanted to grin like an idiot. He was so sweet, being worried about her with everything that he himself had gone through.
"He is right, Buff," Xander said. "I'll go visit Willy. You rest so you'll be back in top shape to kick that Vampire's ass!"
She looked at Giles, who nodded, and she sank back into the couch with a sigh.
"You're treating me like an invalid, people. It ain't that bad."
Her protests were ignored and so Buffy sank back into the pillows. Xander left for Willy's and Giles returned to his books, at the same time softly talking with Angel. Buffy tried to keep track of the conversation, details about the Butcher Knight, Darla, Angel's long past, but she found that she was more tired than she had thought.
A few minutes later she was asleep.
#
"It's too dangerous," he said, his eyes filled with worry.
"I know that it is dangerous, my Angel," she replied. "It is my duty, though. I am the Chosen One."
"It is true that ...," the old man standing to her right began.
"You stay out of this, Watcher," the Earl of Angel's Haven thundered. "To you and your order she is nothing but a weapon. I will not allow you to sacrifice her on the altar of your crusade!"
She saw how he was trembling with fury and her heart went out to him.
"This monster must be stopped," she told him in a soft voice. "And it falls to me. I would not have it slaughter more innocents while I am hiding here in the castle."
"I have a thousand men ready to march into battle, my heart," he said, armoured fist clutching his own sword. "God willing this monster will not see another sunrise."
She sighed, glancing at her Watcher, motioning for him to leave them be for a moment. The old man grumbled, but complied.
"I know your heart is filled with fear for me, my Angel," she said once the Watcher was out of earshot, "but I have long accepted my calling. I do not want to die and lose you, either, but I can not stand idly by."
He looked down, his long hair hanging over his face. She walked up to him and brushed the strands away from his features.
"You always understood my duty before."
"I did my best, beloved," he answered, softly taking her hand into his, "yet this is not like other times. This monster has killed hundreds and, if your Watcher is to be believed, it has also killed two Chosen Ones before you."
He pressed a soft kiss to her brow.
"So if I can not convince you to stay, my heart, let us at least ride into battle together. Where is it written that Chosen One must face every challenge alone? Let this monster beware the swords of a thousand knights. Let my sword guard your back so that we will both return home safe and sound."
She smiled up at him.
"You are my strength, my Angel."
#
In her sleep Buffy mumbled these words and Angel looked at her with wide eyes. Almost without conscious effort his hand reached out to hers, fingers interlacing, and his lips moved to form his reply, the same words he had said to his beloved a thousand times before.
"I am stronger for having you by my side, beloved." Was it true? Was she by his side once more?
Giles did not miss this quiet interchange and his brow furrowed. Quietly he rose from his chair and collected a book from one of the stands. He flipped through the pages and stopped only when he found the chapter he had been looking for.
"Reincarnation." He mumbled to himself as he started reading.
###
The man crumbled to the ground, pale and drained of blood, and Darla sighed contentedly. Her throat was starting to heal and soon she would be at full strength once more. Strength enough to pay a certain blonde bitch back for putting a stake through her neck.
She slumped into her chair, thinking. How had he done it? She was almost used to the cycle between her and Angel by now. She would find him, raise the Knight, they would wreck havoc, then Angel would regain control and she would have to track him down again. She had almost come to enjoy it, this game of cat and mouse.
Now everything was different, though. A single night. Just a single night and Angel had regained control. Something must have changed, but Darla just couldn't figure out what. Was it because the Slayer had reminded him of his past? No, couldn't be. She had taunted Angel about his past for years without end and he had never been stronger for it.
Magic? Had the Slayer - with that thrice-damned prophetic power they sometimes had - somehow known that the Knight would come and prepared a counter spell? No, Angelus had spoken the words. Somehow Angel had found the strength to overwhelm her glorious Knight and she had to know how.
She started making a plan. Even an immortal Vampire didn't get to be over a thousand years old by being a fool and rushing into things. Right now Angel was probably with the Slayer, telling her everything. The Slayer would probably figure that killing her was the safest course of action. Angel couldn't be killed, so taking out the only one who could turn him into a monster was the best way to lock the Butcher Knight away forever.
Darla had no intention of getting herself killed. She wanted her Knight back, not just for a single night, but longer. They hadn't even had the opportunity to embrace the passion that united them. Angelus was the most magnificent lover she had met in a thousand years and she had had quite a few. He was great at everything he did - not that he did much outside murder, torture, and sex - and she wanted him back.
First order of business: Kill the Slayer. She couldn't afford to have Angelus kill her, not if there was something about her that made Angel stronger. Magic, words, pretty eyes, Darla didn't care what it was, she just wanted to see her dead. Preferably with a lot of pain over an extended period of time.
She was still not able to speak properly, so she motioned to one of her minions. He understood her without words. All of them would go out tonight. Go out and capture the Slayer for her. Kill her if necessary, but if in any way possible Darla wanted that pleasure reserved for herself.
She was looking forward to it.
#
Buffy woke after some deep sleep, feeling rested and relaxed. She found that she was no longer lying on the couch in Giles' living room, but rather in the bed of his guest room. She must have really been out of it if she hadn't even noticed being carried up here.
She rose from the bed, stretching, and started to walk down the stairs. There were voices sounding from below.
"Something like that is actually possible?" She heard Angel's voice and it made her feel all fuzzy inside.
"There are few precedents," Giles answered him. "Cases where people remember earlier lives. There is, of course, no reliable means to prove that those memories are more than fiction or lies, but ..."
"Hi, guys," she greeted them, coming down the steps. Both Angel and Giles looked at her, falling silent.
"What were you just talking about?" she asked.
"Buffy," Giles flustered. "We were ... in fact we were ..."
"Discussing how to find Darla," Angel finished the sentence.
"What does finding Darla have to do with people remembering earlier lives?" she asked, confused.
Angel and Giles looked at each other for a long moment, then Angel motioned for her to sit down on the couch and sat down beside her.
"The truth is we ... you said some things in your sleep, Buffy."
"I'm talking in my sleep?" she asked, blushing. "It was not about ... I mean, did I say anything about a guy with cheese?"
"Cheese?" Giles asked.
"Forget it!"
"No," Angel said. "Actually you were ... you were talking like ... Damn, I don't know how to explain this."
"Just tell me, okay?"
"You were having a conversation in your dreams, Buffy," Giles said. "A conversation that, as insane as it sounds, is one that Mr. Fitzpatrick remembers having held about a thousand years ago."
"What? Why should I ... I mean, why should I recite conversations from Angel's memories?"
"Not exactly my memories," Angel said, looking at her with searching eyes. "You ... your part in this conversation was that of someone else. Someone I had this very same conversation with."
"Who?" Buffy asked. "And why should I know what you talked about with someone who lived more than a thousand years ago?"
"It was ... it was Elia," Angel said, his eyes filling with pain.
Buffy was speechless for a moment.
"Elia? You mean ... the woman you loved? The Slayer that the Butcher Knight killed?"
"Yes!" He clenched his fists.
"Buffy," Giles intervened, "you told me that, the very moment you first saw Mr. Fitzpatrick, you felt some kind of connection to him, right?"
"I wouldn't go as far as saying there was a connection, Giles. It was more like ... you know, really handsome guy, single girl ..." Buffy blushed deeply.
"And when Angel had been turned into the Butcher Knight," Giles continued, "you spoke to him of his past, a past you had seen in your dreams, and it was enough to allow Angel regain control of the Knight."
"Yes, but ..." Angel was looking at her again with those intense eyes of his.
"Buffy, I believe it is possible, thought it might sound quite mad, that were are dealing with a case of reincarnation here."
"Reincarwhat?"
"Reincarnation. The rebirth of someone who has already lived one or more lives into a new body. There is a theory that there are only a limited number of souls and that each soul is continuously reborn without retaining any memory of earlier lives, at least that is how it normally works. There have been documented cases of people remembering events from earlier lives, yet there was never any conclusive proof that ..."
"So what you're telling me," Buffy interrupted Giles, "is that, what? I'm not Buffy, but really Elia?"
Angel almost flinched when she said the name of the woman he had loved more than life itself.
"No, Buffy," Giles said. "I'm saying that you are Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers, who might have been, in an earlier life, a woman called Elia."
Buffy looked into Angel's eyes, which had never wavered from her face. She saw the desperate hope inside them. The hope that, after a thousand years, he might finally be reunited with someone he had believed forever out of his reach.
Buffy herself, though, she was scared.
"It would explain your dreams, that knowledge of events in times past," Giles continued. "It would explain why Angel was able to gain control of the Knight so quickly."
Buffy stood, moving a few steps across the living room.
"Look, no offense people, but I don't particular like the idea that I'm a recycled piece of soul, okay? And I'm certainly not hot about remembering having died a few dozen times already. I'm Buffy and I like being Buffy. Most of the times. I don't want any ghosts in my head."
"We're not dealing with a ghost here, Buffy."
"No, just a woman that died over a thousand years ago worming her memories into my head."
As soon as she spoke those words she wanted to take them back. She saw Angel flinch, his eyes filled with so much pain that she wanted nothing better than to go to him and comfort him. Yet that impulse filled her with dread. Was it her or someone else that wanted to do this?
"Angel, I ...," she began.
"Is there a way to be certain?" Angel asked Giles, looking away from her.
"Well, yes. Maybe. If my theory is correct then Buffy carries all the memories of Elia inside her head. We could use hypnosis and try to unlock them."
"Hey, I'm still here," Buffy yelled. "And I don't like this idea at all."
"Buffy, we need to be certain," Giles tried to calm her. "Right now you are seeming to remember bits and pieces without having any kind of conscious control over it. If such were to happen in the midst of battle ..."
Buffy remembered how, in the middle of fighting the Butcher Knight, she had suddenly seen an image of herself and Angel in a large, really old-looking bedroom. It had almost cost her life, even though it had been but a moment's distraction.
She looked at Angel, who was looking her way with an intensity that made her want to run away. She sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Okay, Giles! Get out the hypno gear!"
###
Buffy sat on a chair and her eyes followed the golden pendant Giles was swinging in front of them. His voice had taken on a strange timbre, something that washed over her and seemed to wrap her brain in cotton. She had a brief image of Angel, who was sitting on the couch nearby, watching her intently. Having him this close felt good.
Her lids started to grow heavy and a moment later she realized that her eyes had closed. Darkness surrounded her, but she wasn't afraid of it. Everything seemed unreal to her, one step removed from reality. She could still see things, even though her eyes were closed. Fancy that.
"Can you hear me, Buffy?" she heard Giles voice hailing from somewhere out of sight.
"Yes."
"I want you to go back. Do you remember the dream you had last night?"
"Yes."
"I want you to go back to that dream, Buffy. Go back into the world you saw in your dreams and tell me when you arrive there."
The darkness moved and parted around her as she made her way back. She didn't quite know where to go, but moments later she was there. She recognized the room, stone walls adorned with hangings and large paintings, candle light flickering in the corners, a large fireplace the only place of warmth. This was the place, she was sure, the place from her dreams. The place that felt so very much like home, though she was not sure how that could be. Wasn't home some place else?
"I am here," she said, certain that Giles could hear her.
"Tell me who you are," Giles voice sounded from the distance.
She had to think about that for a moment, her thoughts hazy and unfocused. Who was she? It was a tricky question and she tried to find some clue to the answer. This place held the answer, she was sure. She looked around until she found a mirror of polished metal standing in the corner. She saw herself in that mirror and wondered why her features appeared so unfamiliar for a moment. Hadn't she always looked like this?
"Tell me who you are," Giles repeated.
"I am me," she said. "I am the Chosen One."
"What is your name?"
"My name?" Hadn't he called her by a name earlier? Why was he asking about her name? She looked at herself in the mirror again and tried to remember what her name was. It shouldn't be so hard to remember one's own name, should it?
She looked at her own face, a pale face surrounded by long hair coloured a dark blonde, curling at the edges. Somehow the colour seemed off, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her own face reminded her of another face she knew, or thought she knew.
She remembered a woman, an older woman in a hut near the town that had always read stories to her when she was little. She remembered the soft and compassionate eyes of that woman, set in a face that looked so very much like her own, the beautiful way her silver hair shimmered in the sunlight. She remembered calling that woman Grandmother and she remembered what the woman had called her in turn.
"I am Elia," she said.
#
Angel had to keep himself from jumping to his feet when she said those words. Could it really be true? Was she really Elia? He couldn't quite believe it yet, wouldn't allow himself to believe it. Giles had told her to go into the dream and maybe that was all she saw, a dream. A dream conjured up by her prophetic abilities, nothing more.
He had to be certain.
"May I ...?" he asked Giles, who was sitting in front of Buffy.
"Elia," Giles said. "There is someone else who wants to ask you some questions, all right?"
She nodded, not opening her eyes, and Angel knelt down in front of her, searching her face for answers.
"Hello, Elia," he began, saying her name almost more than he could bare.
"Hello."
"Do you know who I am?"
Her lips curved into a smile. "My Angel," she whispered.
Hearing the old endearment from her mouth almost drove tears to his eyes. He balled his fists, wrenching himself back to the task at hand with every erg of willpower he had. He had to be sure before he allowed himself hope. He had to be sure.
"Tell me how we met, Elia," he said, trying to think of something Buffy had not seen in one of her dreams. "Tell me of our first meeting!"
#
The world around her shifted and wavered, solid shapes becoming fluent and reforming into something else. Another place, yet one that seemed familiar as well. So very familiar.
Dark stone walls rose on one side of her, the gray walls of a castle. She was standing in a dirty street, several buildings close by, the only light hailing from the moon hanging high overhead. The ground was cold beneath her feet, the temperature was close to freezing. An icy wind ruffled her hair.
She was not alone.
There was a man there. A young man, just a few years older than she herself was, dressed in fine noble clothing, a sword clutched in one hand. He was staring at her with wild eyes and she remembered why he seemed so afraid.
It had to do with the heaps of dust at her feet.
"Fear not, good Sir," she told him. "No more harm shall come to you tonight."
There were two bodies close to him on the ground, torn throats bleeding, eyes staring into the night without seeing a thing. They had been his companions, guards tasked with keeping the young noble safe from the night. Neither of them had been prepared for the terrors, though. Things that wouldn't stay dead when you ran them through with a sword.
She had come too late to save his guards, but the two Vampires had paid with their lives. They crumbled into dust before the eyes of the frightened man, which now rested on the strange saviour that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
She looked at the young noble and had to suppress a smile. She knew now who he was. The son of the Earl, she had seen him from a distance at a feast at the Earl's castle a few weeks ago. He had a reputation as a foolish womaniser, always chasing after the girls, driving his poor father crazy.
"I am no one important, Sir," she told him. "You should probably return home now, the streets are not safe at night."
She turned away from him, but moments later he started after her.
"Please, my Lady, tell me your name! You saved my life this night and I would not see you go without expressing my gratitude."
She looked into his face and his dark brown eyes seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. She could not help but smile at him, he was a very handsome man. For a moment she entertained the notion ... but no, it could not be. She was the Chosen One, her life held no room for such feelings.
"My name is Elia," she told him, "and there is no need for gratitude. It is my sacred duty to destroy the demons of night. Think nothing of it!"
#
Angel listened as Buffy described their first encounter in vivid detail. He remembered that night well. He had been out to chase girls, as he had done so often in his foolish youth, and the Vampires had almost killed him before this strange girl appeared to save him. A girl that dressed like a man and fought like a demon. Never had he seen someone move like that, so fast and strong.
She had disappeared into the night shortly afterwards, but he had already fallen for her by that time. He had found her within the week, the daughter of a minor nobleman in the town below his father's castle. She was even more beautiful in the sunlight than at night and from that moment on there had been no room for anyone else in his heart or his thoughts.
His parents had been anything but pleased when he started to court her, but even his father had not been able to miss the love that soon developed between them. He finally gave them his permission. Elia's parents did not need much convincing when the son of the Earl asked for the hand of their daughter.
Angel looked at Buffy. There was no way she could have known all these details from one of her dreams. She knew everything. She talked of the special smiles they had had, of the secrets they had shared. It left him with no other conclusion.
She was Elia.
He motioned to Giles to bring her out of the trance when he caught a glimpse of something behind one of the windows.
Vampire faces.
"Giles," he shouted a warning, then the windows exploded inward.
TO BE CONTINUED
###
"First order of business," Giles said, "is the spells. Darla knows the summoning spell that will bring the Knight forth from your body. It would be prudent for us to know the spell that will bury him once more, just in case."
Angel nodded.
"I will give you the incantation. I am not sure, though, whether it will work if someone else speaks it."
Giles handed him a piece of paper and Buffy watched as he wrote down the words that would change a demon back into a man.
Be gone Angelus, Butcher Knight Be banished back into the Night The new Day's Dawn shall be your Ban Return once more in form of Man
Giles took back the note, looked at it for a moment, and then handed it to Willow.
"Willow here is an accomplished witch," Giles told Angel. "If anyone can invoke the spell, should it become necessary, I'm confident she can do it."
"I should," Willow said. "Though I hope I don't have to. No offence, Mr. Fitzpatrick, but I'm not too keen on meeting your alter ego."
"Welcome to the club," Angel mumbled.
"Does anyone beside Darla know the spell that summons the Knight?" Buffy asked.
"Some of her minions maybe," Angel said. "I don't think it would work for them, though. Darla's blood flows inside my veins and she was the one that originally summoned the Knight into the world."
"So if we kill her you'll be safe," Buffy said confidently.
"I've lost count on how often I tried to do that," Angel sighed.
"Well," Buffy smirked, "she can't turn me into a demon with just a few words. Just let her turn up and I'll dust her for you."
Angel couldn't help but smile at that. Seeing the optimism in this young girl made him want to believe that he might finally find some peace in this world. Darla gone, the Knight forever caged, it would be as close to paradise as he could ever get.
Maybe even closer, he thought as he continued to look at her.
Buffy looked into Angel's dark eyes and thought she would melt into a puddle of goo. His eyes shone with a light that seemed to reach right down into her soul. There was so much pain in there, but also a strength the likes she had never seen before. A thousand years, she reminded herself. For a thousand years he had battled a demon that shared his body, kept it imprisoned for most of that time.
"Darla is injured," Giles continued, not oblivious to the looks exchanged between his Slayer and the thousand year old man, "so she will probably wait until she is fully healed before forcing another confrontation."
"She can't very well invoke the spell with a stake in her throat." Buffy grinned.
"Yes. Depending on her strength, she will probably be able to heal that wound in two to three days. It would be prudent to find her before that."
Buffy stood, wincing just a little bit as her injured arm reminded her of its presence.
"I'll go beat up Willy, maybe he knows something."
"Are you sure you should go?" Angel asked, rising as well. "You took some beating at my ... the Knight's hands. You look like you could use some rest yourself."
Buffy wanted to grin like an idiot. He was so sweet, being worried about her with everything that he himself had gone through.
"He is right, Buff," Xander said. "I'll go visit Willy. You rest so you'll be back in top shape to kick that Vampire's ass!"
She looked at Giles, who nodded, and she sank back into the couch with a sigh.
"You're treating me like an invalid, people. It ain't that bad."
Her protests were ignored and so Buffy sank back into the pillows. Xander left for Willy's and Giles returned to his books, at the same time softly talking with Angel. Buffy tried to keep track of the conversation, details about the Butcher Knight, Darla, Angel's long past, but she found that she was more tired than she had thought.
A few minutes later she was asleep.
#
"It's too dangerous," he said, his eyes filled with worry.
"I know that it is dangerous, my Angel," she replied. "It is my duty, though. I am the Chosen One."
"It is true that ...," the old man standing to her right began.
"You stay out of this, Watcher," the Earl of Angel's Haven thundered. "To you and your order she is nothing but a weapon. I will not allow you to sacrifice her on the altar of your crusade!"
She saw how he was trembling with fury and her heart went out to him.
"This monster must be stopped," she told him in a soft voice. "And it falls to me. I would not have it slaughter more innocents while I am hiding here in the castle."
"I have a thousand men ready to march into battle, my heart," he said, armoured fist clutching his own sword. "God willing this monster will not see another sunrise."
She sighed, glancing at her Watcher, motioning for him to leave them be for a moment. The old man grumbled, but complied.
"I know your heart is filled with fear for me, my Angel," she said once the Watcher was out of earshot, "but I have long accepted my calling. I do not want to die and lose you, either, but I can not stand idly by."
He looked down, his long hair hanging over his face. She walked up to him and brushed the strands away from his features.
"You always understood my duty before."
"I did my best, beloved," he answered, softly taking her hand into his, "yet this is not like other times. This monster has killed hundreds and, if your Watcher is to be believed, it has also killed two Chosen Ones before you."
He pressed a soft kiss to her brow.
"So if I can not convince you to stay, my heart, let us at least ride into battle together. Where is it written that Chosen One must face every challenge alone? Let this monster beware the swords of a thousand knights. Let my sword guard your back so that we will both return home safe and sound."
She smiled up at him.
"You are my strength, my Angel."
#
In her sleep Buffy mumbled these words and Angel looked at her with wide eyes. Almost without conscious effort his hand reached out to hers, fingers interlacing, and his lips moved to form his reply, the same words he had said to his beloved a thousand times before.
"I am stronger for having you by my side, beloved." Was it true? Was she by his side once more?
Giles did not miss this quiet interchange and his brow furrowed. Quietly he rose from his chair and collected a book from one of the stands. He flipped through the pages and stopped only when he found the chapter he had been looking for.
"Reincarnation." He mumbled to himself as he started reading.
###
The man crumbled to the ground, pale and drained of blood, and Darla sighed contentedly. Her throat was starting to heal and soon she would be at full strength once more. Strength enough to pay a certain blonde bitch back for putting a stake through her neck.
She slumped into her chair, thinking. How had he done it? She was almost used to the cycle between her and Angel by now. She would find him, raise the Knight, they would wreck havoc, then Angel would regain control and she would have to track him down again. She had almost come to enjoy it, this game of cat and mouse.
Now everything was different, though. A single night. Just a single night and Angel had regained control. Something must have changed, but Darla just couldn't figure out what. Was it because the Slayer had reminded him of his past? No, couldn't be. She had taunted Angel about his past for years without end and he had never been stronger for it.
Magic? Had the Slayer - with that thrice-damned prophetic power they sometimes had - somehow known that the Knight would come and prepared a counter spell? No, Angelus had spoken the words. Somehow Angel had found the strength to overwhelm her glorious Knight and she had to know how.
She started making a plan. Even an immortal Vampire didn't get to be over a thousand years old by being a fool and rushing into things. Right now Angel was probably with the Slayer, telling her everything. The Slayer would probably figure that killing her was the safest course of action. Angel couldn't be killed, so taking out the only one who could turn him into a monster was the best way to lock the Butcher Knight away forever.
Darla had no intention of getting herself killed. She wanted her Knight back, not just for a single night, but longer. They hadn't even had the opportunity to embrace the passion that united them. Angelus was the most magnificent lover she had met in a thousand years and she had had quite a few. He was great at everything he did - not that he did much outside murder, torture, and sex - and she wanted him back.
First order of business: Kill the Slayer. She couldn't afford to have Angelus kill her, not if there was something about her that made Angel stronger. Magic, words, pretty eyes, Darla didn't care what it was, she just wanted to see her dead. Preferably with a lot of pain over an extended period of time.
She was still not able to speak properly, so she motioned to one of her minions. He understood her without words. All of them would go out tonight. Go out and capture the Slayer for her. Kill her if necessary, but if in any way possible Darla wanted that pleasure reserved for herself.
She was looking forward to it.
#
Buffy woke after some deep sleep, feeling rested and relaxed. She found that she was no longer lying on the couch in Giles' living room, but rather in the bed of his guest room. She must have really been out of it if she hadn't even noticed being carried up here.
She rose from the bed, stretching, and started to walk down the stairs. There were voices sounding from below.
"Something like that is actually possible?" She heard Angel's voice and it made her feel all fuzzy inside.
"There are few precedents," Giles answered him. "Cases where people remember earlier lives. There is, of course, no reliable means to prove that those memories are more than fiction or lies, but ..."
"Hi, guys," she greeted them, coming down the steps. Both Angel and Giles looked at her, falling silent.
"What were you just talking about?" she asked.
"Buffy," Giles flustered. "We were ... in fact we were ..."
"Discussing how to find Darla," Angel finished the sentence.
"What does finding Darla have to do with people remembering earlier lives?" she asked, confused.
Angel and Giles looked at each other for a long moment, then Angel motioned for her to sit down on the couch and sat down beside her.
"The truth is we ... you said some things in your sleep, Buffy."
"I'm talking in my sleep?" she asked, blushing. "It was not about ... I mean, did I say anything about a guy with cheese?"
"Cheese?" Giles asked.
"Forget it!"
"No," Angel said. "Actually you were ... you were talking like ... Damn, I don't know how to explain this."
"Just tell me, okay?"
"You were having a conversation in your dreams, Buffy," Giles said. "A conversation that, as insane as it sounds, is one that Mr. Fitzpatrick remembers having held about a thousand years ago."
"What? Why should I ... I mean, why should I recite conversations from Angel's memories?"
"Not exactly my memories," Angel said, looking at her with searching eyes. "You ... your part in this conversation was that of someone else. Someone I had this very same conversation with."
"Who?" Buffy asked. "And why should I know what you talked about with someone who lived more than a thousand years ago?"
"It was ... it was Elia," Angel said, his eyes filling with pain.
Buffy was speechless for a moment.
"Elia? You mean ... the woman you loved? The Slayer that the Butcher Knight killed?"
"Yes!" He clenched his fists.
"Buffy," Giles intervened, "you told me that, the very moment you first saw Mr. Fitzpatrick, you felt some kind of connection to him, right?"
"I wouldn't go as far as saying there was a connection, Giles. It was more like ... you know, really handsome guy, single girl ..." Buffy blushed deeply.
"And when Angel had been turned into the Butcher Knight," Giles continued, "you spoke to him of his past, a past you had seen in your dreams, and it was enough to allow Angel regain control of the Knight."
"Yes, but ..." Angel was looking at her again with those intense eyes of his.
"Buffy, I believe it is possible, thought it might sound quite mad, that were are dealing with a case of reincarnation here."
"Reincarwhat?"
"Reincarnation. The rebirth of someone who has already lived one or more lives into a new body. There is a theory that there are only a limited number of souls and that each soul is continuously reborn without retaining any memory of earlier lives, at least that is how it normally works. There have been documented cases of people remembering events from earlier lives, yet there was never any conclusive proof that ..."
"So what you're telling me," Buffy interrupted Giles, "is that, what? I'm not Buffy, but really Elia?"
Angel almost flinched when she said the name of the woman he had loved more than life itself.
"No, Buffy," Giles said. "I'm saying that you are Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers, who might have been, in an earlier life, a woman called Elia."
Buffy looked into Angel's eyes, which had never wavered from her face. She saw the desperate hope inside them. The hope that, after a thousand years, he might finally be reunited with someone he had believed forever out of his reach.
Buffy herself, though, she was scared.
"It would explain your dreams, that knowledge of events in times past," Giles continued. "It would explain why Angel was able to gain control of the Knight so quickly."
Buffy stood, moving a few steps across the living room.
"Look, no offense people, but I don't particular like the idea that I'm a recycled piece of soul, okay? And I'm certainly not hot about remembering having died a few dozen times already. I'm Buffy and I like being Buffy. Most of the times. I don't want any ghosts in my head."
"We're not dealing with a ghost here, Buffy."
"No, just a woman that died over a thousand years ago worming her memories into my head."
As soon as she spoke those words she wanted to take them back. She saw Angel flinch, his eyes filled with so much pain that she wanted nothing better than to go to him and comfort him. Yet that impulse filled her with dread. Was it her or someone else that wanted to do this?
"Angel, I ...," she began.
"Is there a way to be certain?" Angel asked Giles, looking away from her.
"Well, yes. Maybe. If my theory is correct then Buffy carries all the memories of Elia inside her head. We could use hypnosis and try to unlock them."
"Hey, I'm still here," Buffy yelled. "And I don't like this idea at all."
"Buffy, we need to be certain," Giles tried to calm her. "Right now you are seeming to remember bits and pieces without having any kind of conscious control over it. If such were to happen in the midst of battle ..."
Buffy remembered how, in the middle of fighting the Butcher Knight, she had suddenly seen an image of herself and Angel in a large, really old-looking bedroom. It had almost cost her life, even though it had been but a moment's distraction.
She looked at Angel, who was looking her way with an intensity that made her want to run away. She sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Okay, Giles! Get out the hypno gear!"
###
Buffy sat on a chair and her eyes followed the golden pendant Giles was swinging in front of them. His voice had taken on a strange timbre, something that washed over her and seemed to wrap her brain in cotton. She had a brief image of Angel, who was sitting on the couch nearby, watching her intently. Having him this close felt good.
Her lids started to grow heavy and a moment later she realized that her eyes had closed. Darkness surrounded her, but she wasn't afraid of it. Everything seemed unreal to her, one step removed from reality. She could still see things, even though her eyes were closed. Fancy that.
"Can you hear me, Buffy?" she heard Giles voice hailing from somewhere out of sight.
"Yes."
"I want you to go back. Do you remember the dream you had last night?"
"Yes."
"I want you to go back to that dream, Buffy. Go back into the world you saw in your dreams and tell me when you arrive there."
The darkness moved and parted around her as she made her way back. She didn't quite know where to go, but moments later she was there. She recognized the room, stone walls adorned with hangings and large paintings, candle light flickering in the corners, a large fireplace the only place of warmth. This was the place, she was sure, the place from her dreams. The place that felt so very much like home, though she was not sure how that could be. Wasn't home some place else?
"I am here," she said, certain that Giles could hear her.
"Tell me who you are," Giles voice sounded from the distance.
She had to think about that for a moment, her thoughts hazy and unfocused. Who was she? It was a tricky question and she tried to find some clue to the answer. This place held the answer, she was sure. She looked around until she found a mirror of polished metal standing in the corner. She saw herself in that mirror and wondered why her features appeared so unfamiliar for a moment. Hadn't she always looked like this?
"Tell me who you are," Giles repeated.
"I am me," she said. "I am the Chosen One."
"What is your name?"
"My name?" Hadn't he called her by a name earlier? Why was he asking about her name? She looked at herself in the mirror again and tried to remember what her name was. It shouldn't be so hard to remember one's own name, should it?
She looked at her own face, a pale face surrounded by long hair coloured a dark blonde, curling at the edges. Somehow the colour seemed off, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her own face reminded her of another face she knew, or thought she knew.
She remembered a woman, an older woman in a hut near the town that had always read stories to her when she was little. She remembered the soft and compassionate eyes of that woman, set in a face that looked so very much like her own, the beautiful way her silver hair shimmered in the sunlight. She remembered calling that woman Grandmother and she remembered what the woman had called her in turn.
"I am Elia," she said.
#
Angel had to keep himself from jumping to his feet when she said those words. Could it really be true? Was she really Elia? He couldn't quite believe it yet, wouldn't allow himself to believe it. Giles had told her to go into the dream and maybe that was all she saw, a dream. A dream conjured up by her prophetic abilities, nothing more.
He had to be certain.
"May I ...?" he asked Giles, who was sitting in front of Buffy.
"Elia," Giles said. "There is someone else who wants to ask you some questions, all right?"
She nodded, not opening her eyes, and Angel knelt down in front of her, searching her face for answers.
"Hello, Elia," he began, saying her name almost more than he could bare.
"Hello."
"Do you know who I am?"
Her lips curved into a smile. "My Angel," she whispered.
Hearing the old endearment from her mouth almost drove tears to his eyes. He balled his fists, wrenching himself back to the task at hand with every erg of willpower he had. He had to be sure before he allowed himself hope. He had to be sure.
"Tell me how we met, Elia," he said, trying to think of something Buffy had not seen in one of her dreams. "Tell me of our first meeting!"
#
The world around her shifted and wavered, solid shapes becoming fluent and reforming into something else. Another place, yet one that seemed familiar as well. So very familiar.
Dark stone walls rose on one side of her, the gray walls of a castle. She was standing in a dirty street, several buildings close by, the only light hailing from the moon hanging high overhead. The ground was cold beneath her feet, the temperature was close to freezing. An icy wind ruffled her hair.
She was not alone.
There was a man there. A young man, just a few years older than she herself was, dressed in fine noble clothing, a sword clutched in one hand. He was staring at her with wild eyes and she remembered why he seemed so afraid.
It had to do with the heaps of dust at her feet.
"Fear not, good Sir," she told him. "No more harm shall come to you tonight."
There were two bodies close to him on the ground, torn throats bleeding, eyes staring into the night without seeing a thing. They had been his companions, guards tasked with keeping the young noble safe from the night. Neither of them had been prepared for the terrors, though. Things that wouldn't stay dead when you ran them through with a sword.
She had come too late to save his guards, but the two Vampires had paid with their lives. They crumbled into dust before the eyes of the frightened man, which now rested on the strange saviour that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
She looked at the young noble and had to suppress a smile. She knew now who he was. The son of the Earl, she had seen him from a distance at a feast at the Earl's castle a few weeks ago. He had a reputation as a foolish womaniser, always chasing after the girls, driving his poor father crazy.
"I am no one important, Sir," she told him. "You should probably return home now, the streets are not safe at night."
She turned away from him, but moments later he started after her.
"Please, my Lady, tell me your name! You saved my life this night and I would not see you go without expressing my gratitude."
She looked into his face and his dark brown eyes seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. She could not help but smile at him, he was a very handsome man. For a moment she entertained the notion ... but no, it could not be. She was the Chosen One, her life held no room for such feelings.
"My name is Elia," she told him, "and there is no need for gratitude. It is my sacred duty to destroy the demons of night. Think nothing of it!"
#
Angel listened as Buffy described their first encounter in vivid detail. He remembered that night well. He had been out to chase girls, as he had done so often in his foolish youth, and the Vampires had almost killed him before this strange girl appeared to save him. A girl that dressed like a man and fought like a demon. Never had he seen someone move like that, so fast and strong.
She had disappeared into the night shortly afterwards, but he had already fallen for her by that time. He had found her within the week, the daughter of a minor nobleman in the town below his father's castle. She was even more beautiful in the sunlight than at night and from that moment on there had been no room for anyone else in his heart or his thoughts.
His parents had been anything but pleased when he started to court her, but even his father had not been able to miss the love that soon developed between them. He finally gave them his permission. Elia's parents did not need much convincing when the son of the Earl asked for the hand of their daughter.
Angel looked at Buffy. There was no way she could have known all these details from one of her dreams. She knew everything. She talked of the special smiles they had had, of the secrets they had shared. It left him with no other conclusion.
She was Elia.
He motioned to Giles to bring her out of the trance when he caught a glimpse of something behind one of the windows.
Vampire faces.
"Giles," he shouted a warning, then the windows exploded inward.
TO BE CONTINUED