Chapter Six
"What's going on?" Lilah shouted to Drusilla who was still licking blood from her fingers after killing the guard. Lilah was staring at the crystal that was shuddering and glowing.
"Uh oh," Drusilla said, "The stars have started dancing."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lilah snapped, grabbing for the crystal just as it exploded into dust. She stared at it in shock. "She's free? It didn't work?"
"Princess' soul is too strong to be confined." Drusilla sighed, then she turned to Lilah, her eyes strangely lucid. "Where's Daddy?"
Buffy gasped, her chest heaving. Rain poured down on to her, almost washing the black out of her hair. The wind whipped around her. Memories of the past few days flashing before her eyes and her breathing became ragged as she remembered what she had done.
She looked down at her trembling hands that were stained with blood. Other people's blood, and more people were about to be murdered by her doing. Buffy put her face in her hands as she tried to gather her thoughts together.
"Obeliss, I command thee to stop!" she screamed out into the night. The shuddering footsteps froze and then she heard them getting louder again as he came back to the school.
"You free me from years of being trapped underground, and you think I am just going to stop when you say so?" he mocked.
Buffy dragged herself up onto legs that felt like jelly and straightened herself to her full height. She didn't even come up to his knee.
"Get the fuck out of my face," The Slayer spat. She kicked her foot forward and made a gap in the blue circle. Immediately the demon started being dragged towards the split earth by invisible bonds. He shouted out, fighting as hard as he could before falling through it with a loud bang. Just as it had split open, it sealed itself back together like a zip.
Turning towards the exit, she knew she had to go home. No running away now, no curling up somewhere and dying like she wanted to. Suddenly a picture of Willow and Anya fighting off demons crossed her mind, and oh god Xander… She set off at a sprint towards the mansion.
Xander had not yet lost consciousness when she got there; he sat chained to the wall, his eyes glazed over.
"Xander?" she whispered.
He flinched when he saw her and turned his head as if he couldn't bear to look at her. She ran to him and knelt in front of him, pulling on the chains to release him, they snapped and he fell forward.
"W…we need to stop the blood," Buffy stammered, pulling her own top off to hold against his stab wound.
"You stabbed me," he stated.
"I'm so sorry," she replied, putting her shaking hand onto the deep gash. He suddenly looked up again, as if realising something for the first time.
"You're eyes. They aren't black," Xander said, his eyes filling with tears, "You're Buffy again."
"We gotta get you to hospital," she said, helping him to stand up, "And I have to get to Willow and Anya, I sent demons after them."
"Go," he commanded, "I'll find a phone and call 911."
"Vampires will smell your blood if you are wandering the streets like that, I'm not leaving you," she said shaking her head.
"Can you not zap us there then or something?" Xander queried.
Buffy thought for a moment before she said, "Okay. Close your eyes." A sharp pang went through her at those words, but she ignored it, as she always did. Xander did as he was told and he suddenly felt like he had just downed five shots in a row, a wave of nausea passed over him before he opened them again to find himself outside Sunnydale hospital.
"You go on now," he said to Buffy, "Help the others." She nodded and ran off as fast as she could. He walked through the door into the busy Accident and Emergency ward, waved to a nurse before collapsing to the ground. He heard someone calling for a doctor before losing consciousness.
Angel was getting very tired, every time he thought he was on top of killing one, another group would appear. Willow had slumped to the ground some time ago, exhausted through using too much magick, and Anya stood in front of her, fighting any that came near.
The door suddenly burst open and Angel could have cried to see Buffy standing there. He was beaten to a bloody pulp and on verge of collapse, now he had to fight her. He was very shocked as she picked up a stake and dusted three vampires that just came out of the wall.
"Stop!" she ordered. The demons all turned and walked back into the wall, disappearing as soon as they hit it.
Willow pulled herself up from the ground and Anya turned to look at her.
"Buffy?" Willow said hopefully.
"What did I do?" Buffy murmured, before looking up at Angel. He took a sharp intake of un-needed breath when he saw her large, haunted eyes. God…it was Buffy. She looked like she wanted to cry but instead seemed to shake it off. "There is going to be tons of clearing up around Sunnydale High…I did a hell of a lot of damage over there. I'm going to go help out." Before anyone could say anything she had gone, leaving them staring after her.
"Have you seen a woman, about this tall?" Angel asked a policeman, holding his hand out to show her height. "Blonde hair. She said she was coming to help out." Press swarmed about the scene, trying to find out how so many houses had collapsed and coming up with new colourful stories to what the giant so many people had seen really was.
"I know her…she has been helping all night free people from the wreckage. Saved a good few lives…a real hero," The policeman said with a smile. He was covered in dirt, a coffee in his hand, probably been working all night.
"Do you know where she is now?" Angel asked.
"I haven't seen her for a few hours. They are moving the crew to the next street, try there," he suggested.
Angel nodded his thanks and hurried down the street, checking his watch; he didn't have much longer until the sun rose. After Buffy had left they had gone to the mansion to find Xander. Finding him gone, but the chains broken, they guessed Buffy had gone to him first and taken him to hospital. They were proved right when they found him in intensive care having blood transfused into him. Anya had burst into tears and had to be taken away to calm down by doctors and a very exhausted Willow seemed to be in deep shock and was finally admitted to be kept in for observation. Angel had then gone looking for Buffy.
He finally spotted her, standing on a huge pile of bricks that was not long ago a house. She was only wearing a small spaghetti top after giving Xander her top and was shivering madly. She was covered head to toe in dust and seemed to be bleeding in a few places from getting hurt. She was trying to pull a door up, where Angel could clearly hear someone shouting from under it. He jogged over and began to help her to pull a large lamp post off of it.
"Thanks," she mumbled. She dragged the door off and peered down to see a young woman huddled under it.
Buffy stood up, "Need some medical assistance over here," she called.
"It came out of nowhere," the woman said, on verge of hysteria as two paramedics came running over.
"Thanks, we got her," one said to Buffy, as they worked to get her out safely.
Angel grabbed Buffy's bloody hand and pulled her away from the people. "Lets get you home, you must be about to collapse." He slid off his coat and wrapped it around her.
She tried to shrug it off. "There are still people trapped."
"And there are tons of people here to help them, and once it's morning I'm sure even more people will come when they hear about it," Angel said.
Buffy took a step towards him before her knees gave way and she fell into him. He caught her and he swept her up into his arms and started the journey home.
"Hey Willow," Tara said softly, slipping her hand into her pale girlfriend's who was lying in a hospital bed.
Willow smiled, "Where did you get to?"
"I had something to take care of," Tara replied.
Willow nodded. "Have you seen Buffy?"
"I went home, she collapsed in exhaustion and Angel put her in our bed. He also called the coroner to…get Dawn. The police have been round and we cleared everything up."
"And Xander?"
"He's recovering nicely; they said they will want to keep him in for another week or so. But you are being released any moment now, as soon as the doctor sees you. There are lots of people coming in and they need the bed," Tara explained.
Willow breathed a sigh of relief, a lot of Tara's words calming her fears.
"What's going to happen to Buffy?" Willow enquired quietly.
"Giles is returning from England. He called while I was at the house; he has been trying to get to America for the last few days but there have been no flights."
"He knows what happened?"
"Apparently they felt it…." Tara said, but was interrupted by a knock at the door and a doctor coming in. "I'll go and find Anya, okay?"
"Buffy? Are you awake?" Angel asked, as he entered Tara and Willow's room with a tray.
"Mmm," Buffy grunted, "What time is it?"
"It's two pm." Angel said, putting the tray down next to her. She looked at the slices of toast, bacon and eggs and glass of orange juice, before her stomach turned.
"I'm not hungry, thanks anyway."
Angel sat down next to her and took her slight hand in his large one. She stared down at it, her green eyes filling with tears.
"It's okay to let it out Buffy," he said softly.
She looked up at him, "I killed all those people Angel. Innocent people, who didn't deserve it. I tortured Xander and I tried to hurt everyone I love."
"I didn't exactly stop you from hurting Xander either," Angel said remorsefully.
"That was different!" Buffy exclaimed, "You weren't you." Angel raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a look.
"That's different," she muttered. Suddenly she froze, "Oh god…oh god…Dawnie." Her face contorted in pain.
"I'm so sorry Buffy," Angel said, a tear slipping from his eye as she lay her head down on his lap and began to sob.
"It hurts so much."
Giles cursed the aeroplanes for the hundredth time in so many days as he drove through Sunnydale. If only he could have got here sooner, he might have been able…been able to do something instead of sitting at Heathrow airport doing bloody nothing.
He pulled up at Revello Drive, outside Buffy's house. The curtains were all closed, he assumed by Angel. Giles got out the car and got his suitcase from the trunk.
In all his years he was trained as a Watcher…he had never taken the 101 on 'How to deal if your Slayer goes insane.' Of course...it wasn't her fault, but she still had the memories, the thoughts. He sighed and knocked sharply on the door.
"Hello Angel," he greeted the dark haired vampire, who stood a little way back from the door to avoid the sunlight.
"She's asleep. I gave her some Sominex which knocked her out," Angel said, taking Giles' suitcase from him.
"Giles!" came an excited squeal from behind him and he turned to be ambushed by Willow who flung herself at him. "I'm so glad you are here,"
"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner."
Giles put the phone down on the hook and turned to look at the anticipating faces.
"The Council will pull a few strings and get Faith out of jail. If things go as planned, she will be here in a week or so. As all the demons have fled Sunnydale currently, I think Buffy is safe to leave for Los Angeles tomorrow, don't you?"
Angel nodded. "Great, I'll go and tell her,"
"So, she is just going to leave?" Xander said, leaning forward onto his hands, wincing as it pulled at his stitches.
"What happened to her was against her will. We are looking into who did it, as much as we can. She was as much a victim in all this as…"
"The people I killed?" Buffy finished from the doorway.
"Yes," Giles said firmly. He walked over to her and put his arms around her small body. "You let Angel take care of you in LA and we will see you next week for Dawn's funeral."
Buffy gave him a wry smile. "Are you sure you have everything under control? I mean…what if Faith doesn't get out or what if…"
"Buffy," Angel's voice broke in, "We have been over this. It's all taken care of. Now have you got all your stuff you want to take?"
"Yes," she replied, walking back to the front door.
Willow, Xander stood up awkwardly, not knowing what to do.
"Are you going now?" Tara asked, coming in from the kitchen. "You take care of yourself." She smiled, giving her a warm hug.
"Thanks Tara," Buffy said, grabbing hold of Angel's hand as he opened the front door.
"Bye," Buffy said uncomfortably to Willow and Xander, as Angel led her out to the car. They got in the car and waved to the group in the doorway.
"Can I drive?" she asked Angel.
"Not a chance,"
End
"What's going on?" Lilah shouted to Drusilla who was still licking blood from her fingers after killing the guard. Lilah was staring at the crystal that was shuddering and glowing.
"Uh oh," Drusilla said, "The stars have started dancing."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lilah snapped, grabbing for the crystal just as it exploded into dust. She stared at it in shock. "She's free? It didn't work?"
"Princess' soul is too strong to be confined." Drusilla sighed, then she turned to Lilah, her eyes strangely lucid. "Where's Daddy?"
Buffy gasped, her chest heaving. Rain poured down on to her, almost washing the black out of her hair. The wind whipped around her. Memories of the past few days flashing before her eyes and her breathing became ragged as she remembered what she had done.
She looked down at her trembling hands that were stained with blood. Other people's blood, and more people were about to be murdered by her doing. Buffy put her face in her hands as she tried to gather her thoughts together.
"Obeliss, I command thee to stop!" she screamed out into the night. The shuddering footsteps froze and then she heard them getting louder again as he came back to the school.
"You free me from years of being trapped underground, and you think I am just going to stop when you say so?" he mocked.
Buffy dragged herself up onto legs that felt like jelly and straightened herself to her full height. She didn't even come up to his knee.
"Get the fuck out of my face," The Slayer spat. She kicked her foot forward and made a gap in the blue circle. Immediately the demon started being dragged towards the split earth by invisible bonds. He shouted out, fighting as hard as he could before falling through it with a loud bang. Just as it had split open, it sealed itself back together like a zip.
Turning towards the exit, she knew she had to go home. No running away now, no curling up somewhere and dying like she wanted to. Suddenly a picture of Willow and Anya fighting off demons crossed her mind, and oh god Xander… She set off at a sprint towards the mansion.
Xander had not yet lost consciousness when she got there; he sat chained to the wall, his eyes glazed over.
"Xander?" she whispered.
He flinched when he saw her and turned his head as if he couldn't bear to look at her. She ran to him and knelt in front of him, pulling on the chains to release him, they snapped and he fell forward.
"W…we need to stop the blood," Buffy stammered, pulling her own top off to hold against his stab wound.
"You stabbed me," he stated.
"I'm so sorry," she replied, putting her shaking hand onto the deep gash. He suddenly looked up again, as if realising something for the first time.
"You're eyes. They aren't black," Xander said, his eyes filling with tears, "You're Buffy again."
"We gotta get you to hospital," she said, helping him to stand up, "And I have to get to Willow and Anya, I sent demons after them."
"Go," he commanded, "I'll find a phone and call 911."
"Vampires will smell your blood if you are wandering the streets like that, I'm not leaving you," she said shaking her head.
"Can you not zap us there then or something?" Xander queried.
Buffy thought for a moment before she said, "Okay. Close your eyes." A sharp pang went through her at those words, but she ignored it, as she always did. Xander did as he was told and he suddenly felt like he had just downed five shots in a row, a wave of nausea passed over him before he opened them again to find himself outside Sunnydale hospital.
"You go on now," he said to Buffy, "Help the others." She nodded and ran off as fast as she could. He walked through the door into the busy Accident and Emergency ward, waved to a nurse before collapsing to the ground. He heard someone calling for a doctor before losing consciousness.
Angel was getting very tired, every time he thought he was on top of killing one, another group would appear. Willow had slumped to the ground some time ago, exhausted through using too much magick, and Anya stood in front of her, fighting any that came near.
The door suddenly burst open and Angel could have cried to see Buffy standing there. He was beaten to a bloody pulp and on verge of collapse, now he had to fight her. He was very shocked as she picked up a stake and dusted three vampires that just came out of the wall.
"Stop!" she ordered. The demons all turned and walked back into the wall, disappearing as soon as they hit it.
Willow pulled herself up from the ground and Anya turned to look at her.
"Buffy?" Willow said hopefully.
"What did I do?" Buffy murmured, before looking up at Angel. He took a sharp intake of un-needed breath when he saw her large, haunted eyes. God…it was Buffy. She looked like she wanted to cry but instead seemed to shake it off. "There is going to be tons of clearing up around Sunnydale High…I did a hell of a lot of damage over there. I'm going to go help out." Before anyone could say anything she had gone, leaving them staring after her.
"Have you seen a woman, about this tall?" Angel asked a policeman, holding his hand out to show her height. "Blonde hair. She said she was coming to help out." Press swarmed about the scene, trying to find out how so many houses had collapsed and coming up with new colourful stories to what the giant so many people had seen really was.
"I know her…she has been helping all night free people from the wreckage. Saved a good few lives…a real hero," The policeman said with a smile. He was covered in dirt, a coffee in his hand, probably been working all night.
"Do you know where she is now?" Angel asked.
"I haven't seen her for a few hours. They are moving the crew to the next street, try there," he suggested.
Angel nodded his thanks and hurried down the street, checking his watch; he didn't have much longer until the sun rose. After Buffy had left they had gone to the mansion to find Xander. Finding him gone, but the chains broken, they guessed Buffy had gone to him first and taken him to hospital. They were proved right when they found him in intensive care having blood transfused into him. Anya had burst into tears and had to be taken away to calm down by doctors and a very exhausted Willow seemed to be in deep shock and was finally admitted to be kept in for observation. Angel had then gone looking for Buffy.
He finally spotted her, standing on a huge pile of bricks that was not long ago a house. She was only wearing a small spaghetti top after giving Xander her top and was shivering madly. She was covered head to toe in dust and seemed to be bleeding in a few places from getting hurt. She was trying to pull a door up, where Angel could clearly hear someone shouting from under it. He jogged over and began to help her to pull a large lamp post off of it.
"Thanks," she mumbled. She dragged the door off and peered down to see a young woman huddled under it.
Buffy stood up, "Need some medical assistance over here," she called.
"It came out of nowhere," the woman said, on verge of hysteria as two paramedics came running over.
"Thanks, we got her," one said to Buffy, as they worked to get her out safely.
Angel grabbed Buffy's bloody hand and pulled her away from the people. "Lets get you home, you must be about to collapse." He slid off his coat and wrapped it around her.
She tried to shrug it off. "There are still people trapped."
"And there are tons of people here to help them, and once it's morning I'm sure even more people will come when they hear about it," Angel said.
Buffy took a step towards him before her knees gave way and she fell into him. He caught her and he swept her up into his arms and started the journey home.
"Hey Willow," Tara said softly, slipping her hand into her pale girlfriend's who was lying in a hospital bed.
Willow smiled, "Where did you get to?"
"I had something to take care of," Tara replied.
Willow nodded. "Have you seen Buffy?"
"I went home, she collapsed in exhaustion and Angel put her in our bed. He also called the coroner to…get Dawn. The police have been round and we cleared everything up."
"And Xander?"
"He's recovering nicely; they said they will want to keep him in for another week or so. But you are being released any moment now, as soon as the doctor sees you. There are lots of people coming in and they need the bed," Tara explained.
Willow breathed a sigh of relief, a lot of Tara's words calming her fears.
"What's going to happen to Buffy?" Willow enquired quietly.
"Giles is returning from England. He called while I was at the house; he has been trying to get to America for the last few days but there have been no flights."
"He knows what happened?"
"Apparently they felt it…." Tara said, but was interrupted by a knock at the door and a doctor coming in. "I'll go and find Anya, okay?"
"Buffy? Are you awake?" Angel asked, as he entered Tara and Willow's room with a tray.
"Mmm," Buffy grunted, "What time is it?"
"It's two pm." Angel said, putting the tray down next to her. She looked at the slices of toast, bacon and eggs and glass of orange juice, before her stomach turned.
"I'm not hungry, thanks anyway."
Angel sat down next to her and took her slight hand in his large one. She stared down at it, her green eyes filling with tears.
"It's okay to let it out Buffy," he said softly.
She looked up at him, "I killed all those people Angel. Innocent people, who didn't deserve it. I tortured Xander and I tried to hurt everyone I love."
"I didn't exactly stop you from hurting Xander either," Angel said remorsefully.
"That was different!" Buffy exclaimed, "You weren't you." Angel raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a look.
"That's different," she muttered. Suddenly she froze, "Oh god…oh god…Dawnie." Her face contorted in pain.
"I'm so sorry Buffy," Angel said, a tear slipping from his eye as she lay her head down on his lap and began to sob.
"It hurts so much."
Giles cursed the aeroplanes for the hundredth time in so many days as he drove through Sunnydale. If only he could have got here sooner, he might have been able…been able to do something instead of sitting at Heathrow airport doing bloody nothing.
He pulled up at Revello Drive, outside Buffy's house. The curtains were all closed, he assumed by Angel. Giles got out the car and got his suitcase from the trunk.
In all his years he was trained as a Watcher…he had never taken the 101 on 'How to deal if your Slayer goes insane.' Of course...it wasn't her fault, but she still had the memories, the thoughts. He sighed and knocked sharply on the door.
"Hello Angel," he greeted the dark haired vampire, who stood a little way back from the door to avoid the sunlight.
"She's asleep. I gave her some Sominex which knocked her out," Angel said, taking Giles' suitcase from him.
"Giles!" came an excited squeal from behind him and he turned to be ambushed by Willow who flung herself at him. "I'm so glad you are here,"
"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner."
Giles put the phone down on the hook and turned to look at the anticipating faces.
"The Council will pull a few strings and get Faith out of jail. If things go as planned, she will be here in a week or so. As all the demons have fled Sunnydale currently, I think Buffy is safe to leave for Los Angeles tomorrow, don't you?"
Angel nodded. "Great, I'll go and tell her,"
"So, she is just going to leave?" Xander said, leaning forward onto his hands, wincing as it pulled at his stitches.
"What happened to her was against her will. We are looking into who did it, as much as we can. She was as much a victim in all this as…"
"The people I killed?" Buffy finished from the doorway.
"Yes," Giles said firmly. He walked over to her and put his arms around her small body. "You let Angel take care of you in LA and we will see you next week for Dawn's funeral."
Buffy gave him a wry smile. "Are you sure you have everything under control? I mean…what if Faith doesn't get out or what if…"
"Buffy," Angel's voice broke in, "We have been over this. It's all taken care of. Now have you got all your stuff you want to take?"
"Yes," she replied, walking back to the front door.
Willow, Xander stood up awkwardly, not knowing what to do.
"Are you going now?" Tara asked, coming in from the kitchen. "You take care of yourself." She smiled, giving her a warm hug.
"Thanks Tara," Buffy said, grabbing hold of Angel's hand as he opened the front door.
"Bye," Buffy said uncomfortably to Willow and Xander, as Angel led her out to the car. They got in the car and waved to the group in the doorway.
"Can I drive?" she asked Angel.
"Not a chance,"
End