~Star Mouse
@ @ @
"Willow. Are you sure you're alright?"
Willow nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. I'll just keep looking for more spells and stuff. Do you guys need anything?"
Marion and Spike looked at each other. "'S all set up?" he asked.
The Watcher nodded. "We're doing the same spell, so we'll just use what we've already prepared."
Willow started. "Oh! Did you get the sachet back from Giles before he left for the bar? I can make another one, really quick. It's just some herbs and a focusing crys--"
"Willow. We have the sachet. You do have it, right, Spike?"
"'S in my pocket. Let's get on. See ya, Red." He left the store, but Marion hung back. She hesitantly put a hand to Willow's face.
"You're sure you're alright?"
Willow scoffed. "Oh, yeah! It happens all the time. Really." She met Marion's eyes, and bit her lip. "It's just, ah, that's the closest I've come in a while. To letting it take me. Or letting me take me, as the case may be. I'm still trying to figure that one out," she admitted, her confident tone gradually fading. "I'm just sorry I can't help any more than this." After a brief pause, she put her own hand to Marion's cheek.
Marion smiled. "This should only take an hour or two. When we get back, we'll need to start working on protection spells for the houses and apartments. In the meantime, do you think you can handle a surface scrye, or a demonic activity reading? Good, clean magic."
Willow smiled brightly. "Oh, definitely! I can start right now. It's convenient being in a magic shop, and all. Everything's right here. Y'know, I usually use the Etia pattern, but I've been hearing good things about the Clau from my online wicca groups, so I think I'll try that one--" She stopped babbling suddenly, because it was hard to talk with Marion kissing her like that.
After a few busy seconds, the Brit pulled back. "I'll see you later."
"Uh huh," Willow nodded dumbly. "Later."
@ @ @
Foreign currency was slapped down on the counter. Giles blinked at it., then looked blandly up at the vampire attached to it.
"I'm afraid we don't take pesantos here," he said.
"Qúe? No hablas español?"
"Quiero volver a españa," the wiry one beside him muttered.
"Estamos resistiendo," The one to the right said, reaching over the one with the money to shove the dissenter back from the bar.
As more of what he realised were members of a large group joined in the debate, Giles felt a sinking in his stomach. One name was repeated several times. Vadas. These were the Spanish vampires. There were twenty at least in the bar, and Xander and Anya had said there were many more.
And they were here.
@ @ @
When it rains, it comes in buckets.
@ @ @
Spike watched the flickering flame for any signs of 'an eldrich blue glow'. He glanced at the chanting Watcher across from him.
"'S it working?"
She shook her head. "...be repelled from the vessel you have taken, begone from this stolen sanctuary..."
Spike rolled his eyes. "If it's not working, then why the hell are we still doing it?"
Marion drew her brows together. "Because, jackass, it might star--Oh, bleedin' nora!" She realizes she'd stopped chanting to insult him when the flame in the cinnamon went out like a little light. "You arse! You've botched it all up!"
"I did?? 'S not like it was even working!"
"Oh, damn." She threw down the crystal she'd been holding. "We'll have to start over now."
"Oh, come on." Spike stood, brushing cherry dust from his jeans. "You know damn well this isn't going to do any good. We may as well try our luck at a different spell."
Marion sighed. "I suppose you're right," she admitted. She surveyed the supplies they had brought. "It looks like we have most of the things we need for that one in ...uh, the big blue book with the bloodstain on the cover." She weighed the baggie of herbs. "Except we'll need more of these thorny ones with the spiky leaves."
"Gosh, all that big Watcher talk's got me all confused. Could you bring that down to laymen's terms?"
"Bite me, Spike."
He smirked, grabbing his duster off the floor. "If only, Punkass. I'll go fetch the bloody book and the spiky plants. Just be a mo."
"Thank you," she called. With a sigh, she set about cleaning up and cleansing the area, so there wouldn't be any residue to interfere with the next spell.
"Fancy seeing you here."
She froze.
Oh, God, no.
Marion turned slowly, trying not to shake. Trying to hide the fact that she was shaking.
The Slayer smiled. "Hey!" she said brightly.
Marion dumbly nodded acknowledgement. Oh, no. I'm panicking. I'm not panicking. Why aren't I panicking? This is the perfect time to panic.
Buffy craned her head to take in the whole setup. The candles, the bowl, the chalked markings on the floor.
"Wow. Pretty elaborate for a dabbler, huh?" She raised an eyebrow at the watcher. "Planning on a party?"
Marion silently shook her head. Speech had escaped her. She just kept thinking of that amazing strength. That terrible strength. She'd seen Buffy snap the heads off Bailae twice her size. More importantly, she'd seen her come this close to snapping the head off a musician who now had a date with Birdie scheduled for next Friday.
Buffy crossed her arms in front of her. "So what exactly are you trying to do here?" she asked, all polite curiosity.
Marion found her voice. "I'm trying to save you," she whispered.
Like blonde lightning, Buffy was suddenly at her throat, gripping much more tightly than could be called comfortable.
"No," she hissed back, abandoning all pretence. "You're trying to trap me. Trying to kill everything about me that they don't like. Trying to kill me again."
Marion just stared, wide-eyed, back into the terrifyingly bright mad hazel eyes mere inches from her own. Buffy sneered. It was an ugly thing. It had no place on that face. The happy grins fit better.
"You really don't have any idea, do you? None of you people do. You can't.
"What I've lived with," she continued, in full-on villain rant mode, still with a choke hold around Marion's neck. "You Watchers are playing with fire-- no. You think you're playing with fire. You're messing with fucking dynamite! You're stupid to think Slayers can be pure. We're not light, sweetheart. We're--" a strange smile twisted her lips, "--we're it's antithesis. Light isn't the opposite of darkness. Light's just the absence of darkness. Slayer's-- we're the opposite. And to truly be something's opposite, you have to be way closer to it that you want to be."
She tightened her grip, and Marion started seeing black edges. "But you don't care. The Council sits on its ass and lets its good little supersoldiers fight the war. You know what?"
She got even closer, so Marion had trouble focusing on her face. Or maybe that was the getting oxygen cut off doing it. The Slayer's grip was getting tighter by the second. She weakly tried to bat away a hand like iron. Buffy smiled, slipping back into the endearing demeanor of earlier.
"It's okay. Honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way. Just making a few observations. Might want to think about them, when you wake up."
And then everything in Marion's world went the absence of light.
@ @ @
And then the buckets turn to tubs, and the torrents go on.
@ @ @
"Hello?"
"Red? Somethin's happened. I need you to focus for me."
@ @ @
'Ungh..." Dark. Wait, blindfold. Oh, dear Lord, my head feels like it's in a vice. Oh, bugger, I think it is in a vice. What the bloody--?
"Oh, good. You're awake." Marion felt steel at her throat, and a groan caught in her trachea.
"Buffy?" she whispered, trying not to move her neck.
"Very good deduction. But can you guess how quickly I can kill you dead?" The knife pinched a touch deeper, and Marion could feel nicked skin sting. "Or more accurately, how slowly?"
The Watcher gulped. This couldn't be happening. This was not a good way for a Watcher to die. ...Despite how terribly poetically just it was. Killed by a Slayer. Not even her Slayer.
"You want me for something," she shook out.
"Gee, you are smart." The knife slid along the exposed front of her throat, just barely slicing the first thin layers of skin over her Adam's apple. The kind of shallow cut that leaves a raised welt, but doesn't bleed. But the knife's proximity had Marion breathing shallowly, at the edge of hyperventaliating.
"But actually you're wrong. I don't want you for anything. I couldn't care less if you were dead right now." Her voice turned thoughtful. "...It'd be so easy, you know. Just one slice, leave you bleeding on the floor... One less manipulative rat in the world. But my new boss, he would like your assistance..."
"Vadas."
"Ding ding ding." The knife slid up near her ear, and she gasped when it sliced down into the skin at her jaw. That would draw blood. I'm going to end up looking like Birdie...Heh. We'll match. "Vadas would kindly like you to share with us any information you might have on interdimensional portals. I know you want to assist him in any way possible. Or, on the other hand, maybe you just want one nostril."
And that was when Marion realised that she wouldn't talk. That she really would rather die than betray the world to these people. That she could hold out as long as she had to, no matter how terrified she was.
"Well, it would make for more efficient respiration," she said, turning her head in the direction of Buffy's voice.
There was a pause. The knife moved away from her ear.
Then: "Well, if you're so eager..." And she felt the blade at her {what's the piece between the nostrils called? ---Star Mouse}
Marion bit her lip. And then she screamed.
@ @ @
And then the rain turns to shit, and we're all knee deep in it.
@ @ @
"I'm not panicking. I'm just, I'm thinking strongly about the fact that we have no way to locate her!"
"Petchra and I can go beat some people up. Surely something will talk."
"No point, Shredder. If the locals knew anything, I would have heard it by now. Trust me."
"Well we have to do something!"
"Red, breathe. Punkass's a tough nut. She won't crack easy."
"But what's Buffy doing to her?"
"Willow! It's not Buffy!"
"I can't take this! I'm doing the spec-locator."
"Damn it, Red, siddown! That could push you over the edge, state of mind you're in. Marion does not want you to do that! Giles is on his way over. She can damn well wait six minutes!"
"How do you know?! How the hell can you possibly know that!?"
"I'm off. I can't take all this bloody screaming!"
"Spike! Where are you going??"
"Hospital. Tell the Bit what's going on. Let the new girl off vigil for a bit. 'S probably okay to bring the Bit home anyway. You: stay with 'er 'til the Watcher gets here. And do not let her near those books!"
@ @ @
"Hey there, Nirat. You're off Dawn~duty. Get your ass over to the Magic Box. Now."
"What--?"
"Buffy took Marion. Now get."
@ @ @
"I'm here!"
"Thank God, Giles! Everything's set up. Hurry!"
"Willow, do not panic."
"Why the hell does everyone keep telling me that?!"
"I don't want that kind of negative energy influencing the casting. As for ever--wait. This isn't a location spell setup..." He said, looking over the materials arranged on the floor.
"No. You're going to summon her here before that bitch can touch her. And I'm going to help."
@ @ @
"Home sweet home."
"Ugh. I hate hospitals. Have I mentioned that?"
Spike smirked. "That you have. I hope you don't mind, but I've got to go back to the store, check on--Red? What are you doing here?"
Willow scowled. "Giles kicked me out. He and Birdie are doing the spell. He said he'd call..." she waved the phone --basepiece included-- clutched in a white-knuckled grip.
"Uh huh. Bit, how're ya feeling?"
"Trashed. Take me to bed."
"Yes, princess. Red, I'll be right back."
"I'm not going anywhere."
He glanced at the phone in her hands. It looked about ready to crack open.
"I really believe that."
@ @ @ @ @
Insert pleas for feedback here.
~Star Mouse