Yes, you may take this chapter to signify that I have finally plotted out the actual ...plot. I know. Nine chapters in! Pretty good, for me. But, um, I'd reccommend going back a couple chapters and refresh your memory, otherwise this might not seem as cool as it should be. It's officially the beginning of the end.
~Star Mouse
&& && &&
Wesley looked up when the crypt door opened, setting his book aside.
"Daniel. Where have you been?"
Oz pushed the door shut behind him. "Hunting," he replied, aiming for emotionless, and doing a good job.
"You're rather late. Dawn's been nearly frantic with worry. We didn't want to leave you behind, after all."
"Stalking a kill, lost track of time. I should go apologize." He met the senior vampire's gaze for a moment before dropping his eyes in a show of submission, and quietly walked past him on the way to Dawn's room.
He was all too aware of Wesley's eyes on him as he retreated, and had to forcibly remind himself that the Englishman couldn't actually read his mind. Good thing, too. After what he'd heard tonight, Oz knew his thoughts would probably get him killed. Again.
@ @ @
The enemies regarded each other.
Assessing. Testing.
Searching for weakness.
Weighing options.
Spike's eyes narrowed as he made his choice, and his move.
"Sevens."
The vampire rolled her eyes. "For the third time, no."
There was a pause. He seemed to be waiting for something.
She sighed. "GO. FISH."
"Thank you." He snapped a card out of the messy pile on the counter. He brightened. "Got a seven," he gloated, laying down the set, one card at a time.
Buffy groaned, and threw down her hand. "Dammit. I fold."
"What?" he asked, astonished at her childishness. "You can't fold at Go Fish."
"Watch me."
He shot her his best sneer. "Brat."
She looked genuinely surprised. "Me? You're the brat. Don't you know any grown up games?"
Spike resigned the game to doom, and pulled the cards to him to shuffle. "Nuthin' wrong with Go Fish."
The vampire pushed herself off from the kitchen counter and wandered over to the fridge.
Spike looked up form his sortng. "More blood already?"
"What can I say? You make me hungry."
"That's not a compliment, is it?"
"Don't be silly. I love spending quality time with the Slayer. Playing cards," she said, voice dripping sarcasm like venom. "It takes me back to the good old days, when I was fifty." She took a swig from the last container of blood.
Spike jumped at the segueway, fighting down his absurd instinct to crab at her for drinking directly from the bottle. "That's another thing. How old are you?"
Buffy swiped the excess from her lips, missing a spot, and put the empty bottle back in the fridge. "19."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Right."
Buffy came back over to the counter, amused by the new game. "Someone's asking the wrong questions," she sing-songed. She leaned over the counter towards him and cocked her head to the side. "Doesn't that Watcher of yours ever teach you anything?"
Spike was too confused to anwer. She'd been a total bitch all night, and now... ....Is she flirting with me? I can't--. She's like, high or something. Is ther caffeine in blood? Oh, I guess I should probably say something... What should I say?
Off the Slayer's blank look, Buffy sighed. "You're hopeless. Your eyes are supposed to light up and then you say, 'Ah, but how long have you been nineteen?'."
After a second, Spike's eyes lit up. "Ah! But how long have you been nineteen?"
"Better. And I'm not telling." The vampire stretched, ignoring Spike's annoyed look. "I'm bored, and I'm all tight," she whined. Watching her turn and do a toe-touch, Spike couldn't help but agree with her on the 'tight' part. She suddenly bounced up and turned back around, making Spike whip his head up with lightning Slayer-powered speed. "Let's fight," she said seriously.
Spike sat back, trying to look innocent. "Why? What'd I do?"
She shook her head, bouncing in place, suddenly transformed into a ball of energy. "Nuthin'. I just wanna get some of this tension out. It's been a while since I've fought a Slayer, and you're here, and I'm here, and that indicates a possibility of fisticuffs of the exhilherating kind in my future."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "To me, it indicates the possibility of fangs of
the vampy kind in my neck."
`
"Don't be a poopyhead," Buffy commanded solomnly. "I need you for the
saving the world issue--"
"--which you're still being extremely vague about--"
"--and anyway, it would just be sparring."
Spike considered. He did like a good fight, and it was so rare that he had the opportunity to practice on a vampire that could actually match him. Mostly it was the newly~risen, around here. Which I guess is kind of a bad reflection of my job performance, he thought. During the 'training sessions' Jenny mainly acted as a mobile punching bag, bulking her slim frame up with stuffed leather pads, unless she made Angel do it. And she could weild a decent sword, but there was really no contest when it came to strength and speed.
"I suppose we could go to the library," he mused aloud. "There's space, and my Watcher will probably be there, so if you try anything, she can--"
"--watch?"
Spike shrugged. "Or shoot you with her crossbow."
Buffy considered. "Fair enough."
&& && &&
The trek to the library was made in silence --not.
Buffy had decided before they left that she needed a disguise, in case any of her 'family' happened to see her. Spike spent the next fifteen minutes on the sidewalks making such fun of her dark glasses and ski cap that she finally threw them at him, kicked him in the shin, and jogged ahead.
Stopping to grab Faith's sto--borrowed glasses and hat cost him time, and he arrived in the library almost a minute after Buffy. She had already pulled off her duster, and was standing in the pink dress he'd admired earlier that evening, looking irritated.
"Do you have any extra clothes here? I can't spar in this."
He pulled off his own, shorter leather coat. "Weapons closet. There's a grocery bag on the top shelf. No extra shoes though; we'll make it a barefoot fight."
She nodded and followed his instructions. Meanwhile, Spike went to investigate Ms. Calender's office. It was empty.
Huh. Must've actually gone home tonight. Weird.
He came back out and stumbled to a stop.
Elizabeth the black was standing in the middle of the floor, facing away from him, barefoot and apparently wearing nothing but one of his long, grungy shirts. It came just past the tops of her thighs.
And I thought the dress was good...
The spell broke when she pulled the shirt up, and started trying to tuck it into the soccer shorts that had been hidden underneath. She turned to face him.
"Oh! You ready?"
"Let's do it."
They both crouched into defensive stances.
After a few seconds, Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Well, go on. Attack me."
"Uhnuh. You're the vampire, you attack me."
"The first one to attack always ends up face up on the floor."
"That's why I'm not attacking, pet."
"Well, someone's got to attack."
Spike sighed. Fine. He lunged forward, leg scissoring out
...and was on his back in less than three seconds. Buffy leaned over him and giggled.
"Cool! Again." She held out her hand. He took it slowly, wary of a trap.
She pulled him to his feet and took her place in the impromptu ring.
Spike shook off the weird feeling he was getting and settled back into his own place.
"'Kay, luv. This time, you attack."
&& && &&
Cordelia looked up when Xander came into the room.
"Where've you been, baby?"
"Hunting."
"Find anything?"
"This." He set a folded letter on her lap.
Cordelia picked it up, and sniffed it. "Buffy."
"Read it."
Cordelia opened the letter and scanned the lines of her original French.
"This is so typical of her," she muttered after a while. She read on, then looked up at Xander. "She wants the book?"
"I'll take it." Xander crossed the room and opened the wardrobe in the corner.
Cordelia finished reading the message and stood up. "I'll go with you."
Xander turned, holding a molding book. "It'll be dangerous. If the inlaws see us leave..."
"I'd rather they see us both."
^& ^& ^&
When Jenny returned to the library, fresh pot of coffee in hand, the two were going at it with utter abandon. She stopped just inside the doors and watched them for a second. No killing blows. She relaxed, and clacked past them.
"Evening, Spike. Elizabeth."
"Watcher."
"'ello, Jen."
She went back into her office and put the pot on the warming tray. It was so irritating, those fire hazard rules. "No individual teacher, excluding the staff of the science department, may have in their possession a device which prepares food or drink with the use of a heat coil, including but not limited to bunsen burners, coffee makers, perculaters, hot plates..."
"'Ey! You can't do that!"
Jenny looked up at Spike's yelp, then back down again. It seems like something was supposed to happen tonight... What was it?
"Oh, I'm sorry, did you think there were rules?"
"You crazy... I'm done with this."
"Waah, You hurt my feelings, so I'm not playing any more! You're just looking for an excuse to quit because you're exhausted."
Jenny started pushing around the papers on her desk, looking for the memo she half remembered writing to herself. Now that she was thinking about it, she was definitely remembering something important on the schedule.
"Aren't you?"
"No breath to lose. Vampires don't feel exhaustion. I could go another ten rounds."
She checked the wall calender. Today was the third...
"The new moon," she muttered. "Tonight's the new moon."
Out in the main library, Spike eyed Buffy critically.
"Then why are you swaying like that?"
"I'm not ...woah! Maybe I should sit down..."
Jenny came out of her office. "Elizabeth! Tonight."
The vampire squinted. "Tonight what?"
Jenny glanced at Spike, who was looking confused, then back at Buffy. "Tonight is the new moon. The Orb is at it's most potent. If you're going to go through with ...whatever it was you were going to use it for, you have to do it tonight."
Buffy's face went slack. "The new moon? A-are you sure? But that's when..."
Spike looked between the two of them.
"Are we talking about the 'savin' the world' bit, or is this somethin' else?"
"No," Buffy said quietly. "It's to save the world."
"Well, great! What've we got to do? You said somethin' about an Orb, right? We need to do some oogly boogly chanting stuff?"
Jenny was still watching Buffy's face, and starting to get an idea. "There is some chanting involved, yes," she answered Spike.
"'Kay. I'll skip that part, as per usual. But there'll probably be some nasties conjured up and such, so I can defend the magic circle, right?"
"The Orb doesn't conjure up nasties," Buffy said, looking at her lap. "They make them go away."
Spike looked to Jenny for clarification.
She cleared her throat. "The Orb of Weelo is used in rituals to cleanse, or, or to purge unclean spirits. The Orb is given a sample of the identifier of the spirit, and it purges all spirits which bear that identifier."
Spike looked to Buffy for clarification.
"It can exterminate a vampire's demon. You identify the demon to be purged by a drop of blood from the vampire's bloodline. I'm going to use it to stop the Apocalypse."
Spike was starting to get bad, unhappy thoughts. "How?"
"By using it to prevent West, Anya, Dawn, and Oz from opening the Hellmouth."
"They're in your bloodline."
"All except Oz."
"You'll purge their demons."
"Yes."
"And it'll purge yours too."
Buffy nodded, still looking at her lap.
Spike sat down on the table. He had a feeling his ass would appreciate the forethought in the next couple minutes. "And that will do ...what?"
Neither woman spoke for a second. Finally, Jenny answered. "A vampire is a human form infected and animated by a demonic entity. Without the demon, all you have is a corpse."
Spike looked at Buffy. "This'll kill you."
"I'm already dead."
He jumped up. "Well, yeah! But not really. I mean, you walk and talk, and eat potroast and stuff. You're not just decayin' in the ground somewhere."
"It's the only way."
"It can't be the only way."
She finally looked up at him, and he staggered backwards at the tears in her eyes. No, no, no.
"It is the only way. I've researched this, you know! The spell they're going to use is very old, and is pretty much going to open the hellmouth by knocking on the door until somebody answers, or the door caves in. It is to the spells you're probably used to what a sledgehammer is to a toothpick. It's clunky and powerful, and no direct attack on the spell itself is going to do an ounce of good."
"So we attack the spellcasters. Physically," Spike offered.
Buffy shook her head. "You really have no idea what you're dealing with. West is six-hundred years old. Anyanka is his childe, as am I, but she was his first. His most powerful. Dawn," Buffy's face softened, "...she's almost innocent, and pretty green. She was the Slayer seventy or so years ago. The one before Cordelia, actually. She's a skilled figher--"
"I thnk she ran away from me last week."
"Then she was opting out of an unnecessary risk, soon before the real battle. Don't underestimate her."
"But what about you! You're just-just givin' up!"
Buffy jumped to her feet, eyes glinting gold. "I am not giving up, I'm doing what has to be done!"
"BUT YOU'LL DIE!" And I can't lose you yet.
The thought came as a whisper, but in the desolate silence of Spike's mind, it rang clearly. His eyes widened. I don't want to be in a world that doesn't have you in it.
He staggered back, away from the crying, determined face of his enemy. Enemy. The enemy you had for dinner. The enemy you've kissed. The enemy you let win at Go Fish twice.
"I." he started, and realized he had no idea what to say. So he just shook his head and ran for the library doors.
No one followed him.
Jenny let the vampire regain a bit of control over her tear ducts before approaching her.
"I'll help you. What do you need?"
Buffy managed a weak smile.
"I have almost everything ready. I've been fermenting the powders I'll need in the cemetary. My childer should be bringing those and the book you lent me as soon as they get my message. Uh, you were right; it has everything about the ritual itself."
"So you don't need anything else?"
Buffy turned to look at the door Spike had escaped through.
"One more thing."
## ## ##
I know you want to review.
~Star Mouse
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