Chapter Five
THE FIRES ALL AROUND SUNNYDALE SLOWLY began to die down as dawn slowly began to approach. Xander sped down Main Street in the direction of the cemetery where the crypt that once housed the werewolf and now entrapped the crazed Slayer was. Tara sat quietly next to Xander in the passenger's seat, arm with a small axe in cause any trouble found them.
Silence had been something deeply discomforting that night for Xander, so he continued to try his hardest to try to break it. "It's getting light out." A slightly pathetic attempt on Xander's part, but an attempt none the less.
Tara just gave him a tired little smile, trying to play along. "I like sunrise better when I'm getting up early than when I'm staying up late, you know? It's like I'm seeing it from the wrong side."
"Um, okay," said Xander, obviously not understanding, but still willing to listen. He waited a moment before he started to speak again, just because he couldn't truly believe what he was about to suggest. "Hey, Tara. This is probably crazy, but I was talking to Spike…"
"Whoa, really?" He glanced over to see her giving him a joking grin. "You two mix about as well as Satyrion seed and powdered turtledove."
"Again I say, okay," said Xander. "But, thing is, Spike made me think. The spell we did. It's having consequences, isn't it? I mean, it sure seems like it. And I was wondering… did you know this might happen?"
"No," said Tara slowly, slightly hurt by the accusation.
"Do you think… could someone have know?" asked Xander softly.
"Willow's a talented witch and she'd never do anything to hurt anyone purposely," reassured Tara.
"I know, I know," said Xander. "Backing off quickly, see, hands in the air." He then glanced back on the road, and quickly gasped a hold on the steering wheel. "Well, they were in the air, so that counts for something right? I just mean that Willow could have seen the possible outcome as a possibility. It's not as if it wasn't possible because… well, as we can see, it's possible."
"But Willow said that if we give it a little time, we can start to make things right," said Tara. "Beginning with Buffy, and for that to happen we need to stop the demon from killing her."
"But if this is the way things were going to happen with Buffy," said Xander, "if Willow had known what would have happened, why didn't she give us some kind of warning or something? It feels like she's… leading us blindly into this. Like she's lost the control she might have on the situation."
Tara nodded slightly. "I… I think I understand. But that still doesn't mean I don't trust Willow with fixing this situation. If there's a safe way to make everything right again, then we'll make it right."
"Starting with Buffy?"
"Starting with Buffy."
* * * *
"Spike… Spike… Spike… " Spike had watched the Slayer fall back into the world of dreams. Oz's cage proved to have held itself together pretty well, and after Buffy had eventually given up trying to escape, she had become warn out and fell back asleep. Spike had closed the doorway to the crypt and fallen asleep himself, though ready at any moment to awaken if trouble started to walk down the steps of the crypt.
Vampires rarely dreamed, and if they did it was generally of memories of the past or dreams created from their primal desires and obsessions vampires would create. But Spike could only hear words flow into his mind, the actual dream itself was devoured by darkness.
Something was wrong.
The voice—Buffy's voice—was beginning to get louder and louder. In an instant, Spike understood what was happening. His eyes snapped open and saw the Slayer, crouched in a fighting position inside the cage, watching as a strange, cloudy, white transparent creature hovering closer and closer towards the cage. Buffy was crying out for the vampire's help, her voice slowly beginning to escalate.
"You don't belong here," hissed the creature at Buffy.
Spike lunged at the creature, but passed right through the demon's misty body and slammed into the gate. Before Spike could even react to what had happened, the demon grabbed Spike by the neck and hurled him across the room and slamming him into the wall, knocking him out.
* * * *
"So, how exactly is this going to work?" asked Anya, while Willow continued to collect the ingredients for the spell. "I mean, how is it that this spell won't send Buffy back?"
Willow walked into the living room and placed the ingredients in front of Anya. "Even though this thing is out of phase with this plane, it's beginning to have a stronger grasp on it—meaning that although it can hurt us and inflict damage, we can't actually hurt it. So this spell won't send the demon back to where it came from, it'll just make it solid—corporeal—so when it goes after Buffy, Xander, Tara and Spike will all be able to fight it."
"And killing it won't send her back, right?" asked Anya.
"In theory, yeah." Willow began to create a circle with a powder around herself and Anya.
"Glad you're so sure of yourself."
* * * *
"Spike… Spike… Spike… Spike…" The Slayer watched as the only person who had really tried to help and comfort her that night, fall into the darkness of unconsciousness when the misty demon hurled Spike against the wall of the crypt. The translucent demon then turned away from the helpless vampire to the feral Vampire Slayer. The demon cackled softly as it passed through the bars of the cage.
Buffy instantly swung a punch at the demon when it reached the other side of the cage, but her punch passed right through the head of the demon.
"Did they tell you you belonged here?" hissed the demon, as Buffy threw a series of punches and kicks at it, but the demon then sent Buffy flying across the tiny cell with a single strike. "Did they say this was your world again? Did they say there would be room for you?"
As Buffy began to rise, the misty demon appeared before her and shot another punch at the Slayer. This time, Buffy managed to catch the punch, but just as soon as she had caught the punch did the fist quickly dissolve away.
"Were you offered pretty lies little girl?" snarled the demon, batting Buffy away once again and slamming her into the bars of the cage. "Or did they even give you a choice?" Before Buffy could rise again, the demon swooped in and grabbed Buffy from the other side of the cage by the neck, lifting her up into the air almost as if to hang her.
* * * *
Inside of the darkened Summers' living room, Willow and Anya sat across from each other inside the circle of powder, quietly chanting the spell. Together, they chanted, "Child of words, hear thy makers. Child of words, we entreat. With our actions did we make thee, to our voices wilt thou bend." Slowly energies began to rise from the circle surrounding them, as well as energies from both the witch and the ex-demon.
* * * *
Across Sunnydale, Willow and Anya's spell began to take effect. The misty demon began to solidify slightly, giving Buffy something physical to grab onto. Buffy's hands gripped the demon's cold white solid hands and finally broke the creature's grasp. The Slayer then held on to the white hand and pulled the creature through the bars and back into the cage.
The demon now had taken the form of a thin, frail, white, still misty female. Although her limbs had become solid, its head and torso remained cloudy and misty and unbreakable. And Buffy knew that either one would be essential in killing the demon.
Before she could attempt to strike the creature again, it swung another punch at Buffy, nailing her in the stomach and slamming her against the wall of the crypt once again. But now that the spell had taken affect, the creature's attacks were just that much stronger.
The demon slowly walked towards the broken Buffy, with its feet on the ground, preparing to finish off the Slayer.
* * * *
The energies around Willow and Anya continued to brighten as their chanting commenced. It was almost like the magicks were opening something. "With our potions thou took motive, with out motions came to pass. We rescind no past devotions, give thee substance, give thee mass." Though more energies were being taken from Anya, she could also feel a new and stronger force beginning to rise from Willow as they began to repeat the chanting.
* * * *
The demon swiftly heaved Buffy up into the air, grasping her by the neck again but only with one firm hand. The creature's grasp on Buffy quickly tightened, and as it did mist from the creature's mouth slowly trailed away from the demon and passed into Buffy.
"You're the one who's barely here," cackled the creature softly, dropping Buffy from midair. But the creature's voice had begun to change. "Set on this earth like a bubble." Buffy attempted to lift herself from the floor, but the demon-woman kicked Buffy in the face.
"You won't even disturb the air when you go." Buffy finally looked up at the demon, as the creature shifted forms for the last time…
* * * *
"Child of words, hear thy makers," chanted Anya softly, entrapped in the circle of magicks energies. She continued to tightly grasp onto Willow's hands, but her energies were quickly depleting. "Child of words… we entreat…" Anya quickly broke the connection with Willow, gasping for breath and energies, and opened her eyes to see a nimbus of light shining down onto Willow as new magicks began to enter the witch's system.
Anya instantly recognized what was happening, as Willow tapped into a darker power inside of her. The witch's eyes then snapped open, and Anya say the dark magicks that now plagued Willow Rosenberg.
"Solid!" Willow said with ease.
* * * *
Xander and Tara came bursting into Oz's old crypt just in time. Buffy was staring up at the ghastly, woman-like demon—the creature that had been haunting them that entire night. Willow and Anya's spell began to complete itself as the misty creature quickly solidified. But what the two Scoobies didn't see was what the demon had done to Buffy's mind
Standing before Buffy was the only person who knew what had truly set Buffy off the deep end and away from sanity.
"You're the one who's barely here," snarled the demon again. Triumphantly, it growled, "I am here."
"Buffy!" shouted Xander, heaving the axe in her direction. The weapon passed through the bars of the cage and landed right next to the fallen, feral Vampire Slayer. Buffy's eyes never tore away from the demonic create, but somewhere inside the Slayer's mind, her instincts knew what that was and what she would have to do.
Buffy grabbed the axe and swiftly flung it at the demon. As a beat passed and the axe hit the ground, the womanly demon reverted back to her natural form as its head fell to the ground next to Buffy and the axe. For the second time that night, Buffy had killed and attacked Dawn Summers, her little sister. The one thing that nearly pulled her back away from returning to the dead, yet in turn the one thing she lost that drove her to insanity.
In that moment, the Vampire Slayer within Buffy Summers just seemed to dissolve when she realized that she killed her sister again, and that actualization was almost too much for her to handle as she began to break down. But only seconds later, the pain that was surging through Buffy just seemed to stop. Her cries fell silent and the pain in her eyes just disappeared. As the sun slowly began to rise off in the distance, the solemn darkness began settling back into the Slayer's mind.
"Buffy?" Xander called out to her hesitantly. He slowly began to move closer to the cage, but when he did Buffy lunged at the bars again just as she had done early.
"We lost her," whispered Tara softly, "again."
Xander sighed heavily, and cringed as he watched Buffy struggling again to get out of the cage. Slowly his eyes wandered to the body of the Scoobies' deadly creation and then fell upon the axe that Xander had brought the Slayer. "Other than the obvious need for hygiene in a hygieneless place like this…" Tara's eyes slowly fell upon the weapon as well. "Is there anything you can do to calm her?"
"A tranquil spell that I learned when I was younger," replied Tara. "But I'm not entirely sure how long it will last and the effects that it may have on her if we're forced to uses it repeatedly." All Tara could do in that moment was watch. Watch what she had helped bring back into this world. And what the magick Willow had within her had been able to do to a once great warrior. Before she could even respond, the reawakened Spike murmured the only thought that crossed the two Scoobies' minds.
"But what else can we do?"
* * * *
Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara, and Spike all stood inside of Daniel Osborne's past dwelling as the legendary Vampire Slayer slumbered inside of the werewolf's cage. The early morning dawn had begun to settle in and they all knew that they wouldn't have long before their seemingly normal lives would have to attempt to resume again.
"…But things will never be the same again," said Willow to the others. "Buffy died and we don't know where she went." The witch glanced back at her slumbering best friend and sighed. "But wherever she went, it was horrid enough for her not to be stable during her return to this reality, and that isn't just bad for her, it's bad for us, it's bad for Sunnydale and the people she was meant to protect—hell, this could even compromise the whole Vampire Slayer line somehow.
"What you all may be thinking is, why don't we just reverse all this? Send Buffy back, right?" Willow sighed. "It would correct the wrong doing that happened tonight: The death of Dawn Summers. But then, there would never be a chance for Buffy to return and the Hellmouth itself could be put into jeopardy."
"Whereas a crazed Slayer makes SunnyD just… nifty doesn't it?" snarled Spike.
"But that's where things could change," said Willow. "We all may have not been together from the start, and all who were with us to begin with may have not made it to this point, but we have to continue to protect Sunnydale and the responsibility Buffy had to leave behind. And as we do so, we'll find a way to restore Buffy back to her original state, like it was before all this. She may not accept everything at first, but this is for the greater good."
"And the death of an innocent girl just balances it all out, right?" growled Spike softly. But the other four didn't even seem to take note of the vampire's comments.
"We've brought Buffy back, and now we must make sure she's fully restore, or else things may never be right again," said Willow. "We need the Slayer… back. And we can do whatever it takes to get her back, but we'll get Buffy back nonetheless and protect Sunnydale. We stopped the biker gang, right? And the group has faced worse. We can handle what's to come…"
* * * *
Not too far outside of Sunnydale, the female vampire staggered into the dark bar, filled with demons and vampires. A number of them looked pretty roughed up, after their brief stay at the Sunnydale Hellmouth and being attacked by the Slayer, witches, and demons alike. The Slayer, which was rumored to have been replaced by a machine—and it was never explained why a young woman who looked just like the robot had torn apart half their crew.
But the young vampire girl knew otherwise. And news of the crazed and feral Vampire Slayer would begin the downfall of Sunnydale California and those who live in the…
Shadow of the Slayer
Buffy Summers—the legendary of the Powers that Be who took down the Master, defeated the Judge, sent boyfriend to hell, graduated from Sunnydale High, took on the Initiative as well as a Hell God, and a long list of various other fiends—is gone. But her friends won't let go of her that easily. Though they've resurrected her actual body, the Slayer's mind is gone. Now, Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, Tara Maclay, Anya Jenkins, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Cordelia Chase, Faith, Spike, Angel, and Rupert Giles will reunite in order to attempt to restore their fallen comrade. But in order to do so, Willow will force herself down a path that will bury her in darkness…
…and along with the revival of the Vampire Slayer, they all must defend the Hellmouth from demons, witches, beasts, and nerds alike as the town that was once guarded by Buffy Summers has been left out in the open. And along with the deadly events occurring in Los Angeles, the group must undergo tests that may ultimately lead to each of their downfalls. And it won't be the Slayer who must defend them through it all. It'll be the vile, soulless creature that was meant to kill each and every one of them…
Follow the inevitable end of Buffy, the Scoobies, and even Sunnydale itself, all captured in the rewritten sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, entitled Shadow of the Slayer.
