Act II
"He was lying," Buffy said as they rode home quickly in Xander's car.
"I think we all expected that," Giles responded, fiddling idly with his glasses. "The question is, to what end?"
"She's been there," Buffy said. "Or he went to her. He's a leech, h-he preys on people more powerful than he is."
"So that stuff about Will feeding off of darkness," Xander said, "just so much smokescreen, right?"
"That's something I'm not so sure about," Buffy replied. "It makes a lot of sense. Too much. She sucks the juice out of that guardian demon that killed Tara, and she slaughters the Trio. She drains Spike, and she's able to keep us guessing and then fight me to a draw."
"But if Rack is working for Willow, what incentive did he have a few minutes ago to tell us the truth?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised how convincing that little arm twist is," Buffy said with a melancholy smile. "But I think he thought he was being vague enough to throw us off."
"Why even throw the dart that close?" Xander shook his head. "Why not say she's tapped into some ancient Mayan coppertop or something?"
"At some point this second-guessing becomes pointless," Giles broke in. "I'm inclined to agree with Buffy's supposition about Willow's power source."
"Wow," Buffy breathed. "I almost forgot how cool it felt to have you agree with me."
"Hmm," Giles flashed her a brief smile before his expression turned serious again. "However, if you are correct, I cannot imagine a way to stop her."
Buffy was shaking her head.
"Her ability to drain must be finite. I mean, she weakened a lot towards the end of our fight at the hospital. If she's only able to drain one vamp at a time -"
"The problem is, we have no idea if she is constrained that way," Giles said. "She may very well be able to drain as much darkness as she desires at any given time. She may also have not yet discovered the extent of her abilities, in which case it is still imperative that we find her sooner rather than later."
"So if you wanted to juice a couple of vampires for some fresh-squeezed black mojo, where do you think you'd go?" Xander asked.
"The graveyard," Buffy replied, snapping her fingers. "I mean, there's a reason why I go there when I patrol."
"And the younger the vampire, the easier it probably is to drain," Giles agreed.
They pulled into the driveway of the Summers house.
"So what do we do?" Xander spoke up. "Round up every vamp in the graveyard and tell them to please not approach any redheads wearing black spandex?"
"I think we have to cut Willow away from her power source, not vice versa," Giles said as they climbed out of the car and started towards the front door. "The more we can narrow down the search area, the less time it will take to reach Willow."
"Weapons, Xander," Buffy said briskly. "Keep it covert. A shiny new battle axe in my hands doesn't exactly say 'I love you, why don't you stop sucking up dark power'."
Dawn met them at the front door. "What's the word? What did Rack say about Willow?"
"More than he wanted to," Buffy answered. "We may be on to something, Dawnie. Giles..."
"Yes?"
"Just in case...we can't talk her out doing this..."
"We'll need a contingency plan," Giles finished grimly. "I understand."
"Could it be the cemetery's even more quiet than usual?" Buffy remarked as she and Xander made the round.
"Silence being among the many things not so good about walking in a graveyard in Sunnydale at night."
Buffy nodded. "Funny, before tonight I wouldn't have been able to imagine the situation where I'd be trying to stop something that's draining the evil out of a bunch of vampires in the area."
"It's always something new, isn't it?" Xander said. "Leave it to the Big Bad to be horribly, horribly creative."
They walked for a few minutes in silence.
"What are we gonna say to her?" Xander said softly. "I mean...what can we say?"
"I pretty much ran out of words at the hospital," Buffy replied sadly. "I wasn't built to do that. Negotiate. It's not usually something I'm asked to do. Maybe it's the only thing Giles didn't train me to handle. Just to talk the problem away."
"But it's something the rest of us can do just as well," Xander said. "From where I'm sitting we're all in this for the count."
"So what are you going to say?"
"I was just thinking about when we were kids, in kindergarten," Xander said, looking down at his feet. "Will broke one of her crayons, yellow, I think it was. She was about to really lose it, but she wouldn't tell anybody."
"Come along way, hasn't she?" Buffy said.
"Yeah," Xander replied. "I was gonna tell her how much we all care about her. About how much I love her, how much I need her."
He kicked a rock off of the path as his nostalgic smile melted into a frown of frustration. "Yeah, then I suppose I was gonna watch her laugh maniacally and tear my arms off."
"Well, it might be a little late for the 'I love you so much' finale," Buffy said, patting him on the arm. "We don't know. But it's good to remind ourselves why we're doing this."
Something moved in the path ahead of them, moaning. Buffy brought the flashlight around to shine on it, and gaped in amazement.
"Spike!"
"But why here?" Rack said. "I mean...besides the obvious..."
"This is where it started," Willow answered flatly. "Why not?"
Rack opened his mouth, then shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just a shade to ruined for my taste. Maybe it's just me..."
They picked their way carefully through the burnt wreckage.
"This was before my time," Rack started again, motioning around at the blackened building. "Your handiwork? D'you get a B+ instead of an A in Calculus, and decide to get even?"
She turned toward him suddenly, so quickly that he stumbled back, shivering a bit.
"You just don't understand, do you?" she hissed, black eyes squinting dangerously. "None of you do. This is an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. When I'm finished with the boy, this will all melt away. I'm going to reshape the world the way it should be. The way she would've wanted it to be. No pain, no death. Just peace. It will be a paradise."
"S-sweet," Rack responded shakily. "Strawberry f-fields forever."
She stared at him for a long, silent moment, then cocked an eyebrow at him, smiling.
"Exactly," she agreed. "I'll be a goddess. And...if she's still alive after tonight...Buffy will be at my right hand. She's been the world's guardian long enough to have earned it. But her time is past due. Now it's my turn."
"The Slayer?" Rack said, shaking his head. "That self-righteous bitch? Why the hell do you want her -"
Willow made a motion with her hands, and before Rack could finish expressing the thought, he was flying bodily through the air. He slammed into the far wall and collapsed to the floor, burned plaster crumbling around him.
"Don't make the mistake of underestimating the Slayer," Willow said flatly. "I need you to hold her off until I finish the spell. Once things get going, she's going to catch on pretty quick. I think I can handle her regardless, but you'll be the first line of defense."
He stumbled to his feet, coughing, blood streaming from a gash in his forehead.
"You asked who was responsible for all this," Willow continued, turning back the way she had been going. "As a matter of fact it was Buffy, with a little help from her friends. We destroyed somebody trying to become something he wasn't."
She grinned up at the night's sky. "I'm going to pick up where he left off."
They walked on, past a sign that lay in tatters on the floor.
SUNNYDALE HIGH
GRADUATING CLASS OF '99
GOOD LUCK!
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