Part Thirteen
I end up beating the living crap out of the undead until 4:30. I guess you could say I was a little aggravated. Or you could say I was pissed off. Whatever it was, it kept me up all night. So, I just kept on a-pummeling.
Then, I was confronted.
By a demon.
Or a few demons.
I guess you could say I was a little bit outnumbered. Oh, there were maybe 25 demons there. Roughly.
Eh.
I can handle anything.
At least that's what I thought…
"Girl…" One hissed.
The others followed, growling.
My adrenaline shot up and my eyes went golden, letting me see everything as if one was wearing those cool night vision goggles. I could feel my teeth growing, protruding.
Yeeech!
I will never get used to that.
"Get out of my way." I growled.
They all stared at me for the longest moment then, row by row, the bowed.
Wait a minute?
Bowed?!
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, low, my voice coming out as a growl.
"You are the One. The new leader. We serve you." He said.
My eyes were so wide I'm surprised they didn't just roll out.
"Hold on and back up the proverbial bandwagon. New leader? Serve me? Hello? I could kill you in 2 seconds flat! While I'm sleeping!" I exclaim.
They blink.
"If that is what you wish." He finally said.
"Oh my God…" I laughed.
This was totally unreal.
"I smell sorrow on you, is there anyone you wish us to kill?" A meek looking troll thing asked.
"Kill? No. No killing. At all." I babbled.
They all nodded.
Good little demonic foot-soldiers.
"I'm going to…go. You all do what you need to do…ok?" I left in a daze and went to the only person I could talk to.
Let me guess…
You thinking Angel?
Well, you've won our Grand Prize on Get A Clue!
No, not Angel you romantics.
My two favorite Watchers.
Err…ex-Watchers.
Whatever.
Wes and Giles.
*
No one's in when I get there so I let myself in and start to open it. I clean the whole thing, restock, and even count the money. It was pretty fun.
"What are you doing?" A shrill voice asked.
I whirled around and found Anya glaring at me.
"Um, cleaning?"
"No. No, you were fondling the money!" She cried.
"What? I was not!" I cried back.
"Yes you were, I saw you." She paused, "Don't you just love the feel of the crisp dollars? Its that best part of the job. It reminds me when I was in France, say…oh maybe 400 years ago, this young girl made a wish that a swarm of locusts would nest on her boyfriends pen-"
I slapped my hand over her mouth.
'Please don't finish that." I pleaded.
She looked at me blankly, the shrugged disgustedly, "I don't know what it is
with you humans. You get so embarrassed and turn an interesting shade of red."
I shook my head, "Um, thanks, I guess."
We don't really talk much more but I swear to God I hear her talking to the money. But, hey, I guess everyone has their own quirks.
Giles and Wesley come in shortly after and seem surprised to see me sitting there.
"Did you even go to sleep tonight?" Wes asks me.
"No, I couldn't." I answered, then saw the reason they were shocked.
I was still wearing my sluttish club clothes.
"Heh heh, whoops." I mutter.
Wesley throws me a shirt. I look over to make sure he's still wearing his.
He is.
Whew.
I put it on and button the middle button.
"Did something happen?" Giles asks.
"Kind of." I mutter.
"Care to elaborate?" Giles asks impatiently.
"Um yeah. I got ambushed by a bunch of demons this morning." I say.
God, how do I explain this?
"They all told me I am supposed to be their leader or something, their mistress." I say disgustedly and very quickly.
They're silent.
"Um, this is where you tell me how stupid that is and how I must have been drunk?" I say weakly.
Wes and Giles share a glance.
"We were afraid of this." Wesley finally says.
"No." I whisper.
"Buffy, because of your…status, many people will be after you. To some you are an abomination. To others you are almost God-like." Giles explains in a gentle voice.
"When you say others, you mean demons don't you." I state.
He nods.
"Then what am I?" I ask.
They don't answer.
They don't know.
No one does.
Except my Father.
*
I fall asleep sometime after the rest of the gang gets here. I had taken the Codex and started to read it but no sleep takes a toll on you and the excess energy soon wears off.
I have a dream.
No.
Not a dream.
A nightmare.
The sky is burning. People are panicking and screaming. I can smell blood.
Oh God, so much blood.
There's a high hill, darkened with hundreds of demons crowding the surface.
And there's someone standing in front.
A girl.
Her face is deadly pale, her hair golden, and whipping around her face. Her teeth are long, pearly white…stained with blood. Her eyes are glowing red, evil flooding them.
Her mouth opens to speak.
"Kill them all."
Spoken with deadly force, driven resolve.
I know this girl.
She's me.
*
I awake gasping for breath, but thankfully I don't scream. As if I'm not already embarrassed, everyone is staring at me.
Take a damn picture why don't you.
"Sorry." I mumble and get up to get a drink.
"Are you alright, pet?" Spike asks me.
"Peachy." I say shortly.
Everyone gets the message that I don't want to talk about it.
They leave me alone.
I yawn and stretch, and take a sip of Spike's mocha.
He had a weird fascination with them. But, hey, I don't mind. He's always got an extra in the fridge for me.
I see Cordelia gag out of the corner of my eyes.
Hopefully, she chokes on a fur-ball and dies.
"Have it, pet." Spike says.
I smile gratefully and nod.
"Thanks."
"Buffy, we found something." Giles said.
I turned to look at him.
"Tell me."
"She walks alone. Picked to fight, destined to die. Crossing the line twice and caught in-between. She gives in to her dark side, her need for evil. It draws her in and takes hold of her, never letting go. It will change her." Giles reads out of a book.
I freeze.
"They, uh, they're talking about me." I said.
Giles nods.
I look down.
I don't know what to say. What am I supposed to say? I need to go talk to my Father. But, I really don't want too.
Sigh.
"Buffy? Are you ok?" Willow asks me, breaking me out of my reverie.
I look up, almost startled, then smile a little and nod, "Yeah. I-I need to go."
I started to turn and leave when Angel grabbed my wrist.
It wasn't tight or painful, it was light, and his cool fingers burned me like dry ice. I stopped and looked up at him. His eyes were searching, looking for any hidden pain or sorrow.
"Where?" He asked.
"To see my Father." I answered quietly.
"I'll go with you." Spike volunteers.
Angel glares at him, "No, I'll go."
"No, I-"
"Stop it. If you two really feel the need to baby-sit me, then fine, come along. I'll pull the car around." I say tiredly.
I turn and walk outside. The bright sun takes me by surprise. It's quite uncomfortable. Like a billion little needles pricking my skin. I shudder and then get my car. I go around the back entrance and see Angel and Cordelia arguing. I lean against the steering wheel, amused. Spike gets in back and leans foreword.
"She's mad at him for goin' with ya."
"Terrific." I mumbled.
Spike puts up the curtains around the windows. It gets pretty dark, when you add my heavily tinted windshield. I get irritated when Angel and Cordelia have no intention of calling a truce so I honk the horn, making them both jump.
"Come on!" I bellow out the window.
Cordelia glares at me, "I'm coming with you." She states.
Oh kill me, kill me now!
"The hell you are!" I shot at her, then look at Angel, "You coming or not? This train's a-leaving…right now."
He nods and climbs in, next to Spike. Well, at least Cordelia isn't coming.
Ha. This will be entertaining.
*
It's been 45 minutes, of nothing except arguing between my both my vampire ex-lovers in the back.
"No! It was NOT in 1836!" Spike hissed.
"Yes it was, Childe." Angel growled.
Oh my God…
I am going to shove the car keys down my throat if they do not stop!
"You stupid pansy ass. God! Think you're right just because you're older." Spike
grumbled.
I slammed on the break and they both smashed into the seats. Cars honked and swerved around me.
"What the hell?!"
"Buffy-!"
I let out a slow sigh and rubbed my temples.
"Alright. Here's the deal. I have a pounding headache. I'm tired and I really don't want to talk to my Dad. You won't stop fighting and we're not even halfway there yet. You two zip it for the rest of the ride and I won't kill us all.
Got it?"
They both let out an angered grunt.
"I'm taking that as a yes." I sighed and started to drive again.
It gets too silent and I flip on the radio.
"Cry me a river… Oh. Cry me a river…"
The sorrowful words of Justin Timberlake fill the car.
Ok. How about not?
Depressing pop songs not on the agenda.
I switch it and find a decent rock station.
Terrific.
I reach blindly for my sunglasses, finding them on the floor. The car swerves a
little, but hey, no big. I rub my temple.
God, this headache.
"How can you listen to this?" Angel asks.
"Hey, just because you like pansies like Mozart and Chopin doesn't mean all other music is bad." Spike snorted.
"These people are just screaming and strumming guitars singing about how bad life is." Angel says.
"Maybe they're right." I sigh.
Spike leans foreword as much as he can without getting in the sun.
"Thought you were rid of those depressing feelings." He asked quietly.
"They creep up on you sometimes." I say quietly.
The rest of the ride is driven in silence.
And then we reach my Dad's house.
I don' know how we're going to get my vamp-y pals inside.
I don't know what I'm going to say.
Did I mention that I don't want to do this?