Chapter 11

After Giles and Cassia had helped everyone recover from Willow's outburst, they began to search the forest for her. The whole population of the settlement spread out in all directions from the centre of the small village. They were all in small groups of three or four. It had been Montague's idea to search in groups, just in case they found Willow and she was out of control again. While this was happening, Montague and Samantha were back in the main settlement trying to find out what had caused Willow to loose control. They had told Giles, Cassia and Michael that they had no idea why she had lost control and that the spell shouldn't have done that to her, no matter what. Cassia remembered what Willow had said earlier; that ''they' tried to take away the only thing that she has left of 'her''. Cassia had no idea what this meant, but she knew that Mr. Giles did, she could read it. She looked at him now as they walked through the forest. The concern that he carried for Willow was clear, but she could see that he was thinking about something else.

"Mr. Giles. W-what did Willow mean when she s-said that they tried to take the only thing that Willow had left of her?" Cassia asked Giles. By his initial reaction, she knew that Mr. Giles knew something.

"I-I don't really know. I have my suspicions, but I need to talk to Willow about it," Giles replied. Cassia looked at him, and then back at Michael, who was with them. Cassia liked Michael, he was always nice to her, no matter what.

"How do you know that she won't try and kill us or someth…" Michael started, but was cut off when Cassia held out her hand for him to stop.

"Shh," she said while looking around. Instantly, everything around Michael, Giles and Cassia was silent, even the crickets.

Giles watched as the young girl looked around the forest. It was obvious that she could hear something. Giles strained his ears to hear something, but he couldn't. He noticed Cassia's arm still outstretched behind her. He then noticed that there was nothing to be heard. There were no noises of animals in the forest, no noise of leaves bustling in the wind; nothing.

"Come on, this way," Cassia said quietly. Giles saw her hand fall back to her side, and he immediately noticed that the sounds of the forest started up again. He stood there, dumbfounded as Cassia started to walk away. He sensed Michael next to him.

"Don't ask her how she does it, she just does," Giles heard Michael say.

"What just happened?" Giles asked.

"She asked everything to be quiet, and it was so," Michael replied. "She's amazing like that."

"So it seems," Giles replied after starting to follow Michael.

He still didn't know where he was. He was still out in the middle of no where: a different middle of no where than he had been a few hours ago. Spike had walked for what seemed like a lifetime, but he knew it wasn't as the sun had only set an hour or so ago. Still, after all his walking, he was met by the same emptiness. Not a thing around him had changed. Spike was just about ready break down due to all the emotional stresses that had been put upon him in the last few days when he saw a movement on the horizon. It looked like there was a car or truck driving towards him in the distance.

"About bleedin' time."

Buffy returned home, glad that the meeting at the Double Meat Palace had gone well. It had taken her whole nine hour shift to convince them to find Buffy another job only if she didn't expose their secret ingredient. As she walked into the kitchen, she saw the red light on the answering machine flashing. She was just about to the machine when Xander came in through the back door, obviously depressed about something.

"What's up?" she asked.

"It's Anya… she got mad at me for how much it's going to cost to repair the Magic Box," Xander replied. "She screamed at me and then teleported away."

"She'll come 'round, eventually. She just needs to know that you know what you did was wrong, leaving her at the altar and all," Buffy replied.

"I've tried to tell her that I know that, but she just won't listen," Xander replied.

"Give it time," Buffy replied. There was a slight pause as each didn't know what to say to one another. Buffy turned back to the answering machine.

"This day can't get any worse," Xander said. He then instantly knew that what was going to happen next was going to make matters worse, much worse. He knew that there was a message on the answering machine about Willow. Buffy clicked the play button on the answering machine and listened.

"Hi Buffy… I-It's Giles. We've arrived at the Coven… C-could you please make sure that you're home at this time tomorrow. I need to talk to you about some things… I-it's Willow. She exploded again, as soon as the coven tried to get their power out of her…. she's alright now, j-just emotionally scarred… Could you please make sure that you're home tomorrow afternoon. We need to talk about her." Buffy and Xander sat after they heard the message.

"This is just too much," Xander said while staring at the answering machine.

The four vampires had just chased a young girl down into the sewers from a crypt in the graveyard, and were chasing her. They all knew that she had no chance against them. They were faster and stronger than her, and there were four of them. They had formed a 'close-knit' group weeks ago, and now they were the ultimate hunting partners. They saw the girl round a corner and chased after her. Just as they got to the corner, Joshua, one of the vampires heard the sound of a vampire de-combusting. He looked over to his right and saw that one of his friends had turned to dust. He and the others stopped and looked around for the cause of their friend's death. In an instant, another one of them turned to dust right in front of Joshua: there were now only two left. Joshua saw a figure emerge from the darkness, crossbow in one hand. He was tall and muscular, and what surprised Joshua the most was that he was a vampire. Joshua watched as his friend, Alec, charged at the vampire, only to be turned to dust by a steak that he was holding. Not knowing what to do, Joshua started to back away from the figure, who he could now see had a strange looking symbol on his forehead. In an instant, the stranger was in front of Joshua, and before he knew what had happened, the stranger had swept his legs out from under him. He lay on his back and looked up at the stranger, who was now holding a steak above his head as he bent down above him.

"In the name of the Master… DIE!" the stranger yelled before the steak was rammed through Joshua's chest.

He was concerned about the prisoner. She hadn't woken in a day and there was no possible way that she could have exhausted herself. He called out to her again, but still no movement from the prisoner.

"She's got to be dead or something," he whispered to himself. He made his way back down to the doctors quarters and knocked on the door. He heard the doctor say that it was alright for him to come in, and he entered. "Hey, I think there's something wrong with prisoner two-oh-six-seven-seven. She hasn't woken in a day and she shows no response. I don't think she's moved either," he said to the doctor.

"Two-oh-six-seven-seven? That's that super-bitch right?" the doctor asked. The warden knew that the doctor had been one of the first people the prisoner had attacked when she got here, and he also knew that the doctor didn't forgive easily.

"Yeah, it is," he replied.

"Well then, I'll be there in an hour, have a look at her. Hopefully, she's dead," the doctor replied while turning back to his paperwork.

She couldn't believe what she was holding right in front of her. She had opened her package at least ten minutes ago, and was still sitting there in shock.

"I can't believe this," she muttered under her breath. She read the letter again, still not believing what it said. Then, in a fit of rage she ripped it in half, again and again, and again. "Those bastards!" she yelled to no one. Now, she was facing the wall, and she felt as though she would be able to punch a hole right through it and escape but the logical part of her mind knew better. "Why are they doing this to me!" she yelled to the wall. She spun around as she heard the door open. In front of her was the doctor who she knew was a bastard. On either side of him stood two guards, both with batons ready.

"Calm down. Calm down, please. Tell me what's wrong," the doctor said in the most soothing voice he could, which didn't accomplish it's task too well. Before she knew what she was doing, she rushed towards the doctor and kicked his knees out. She knew that she'd broken one of them when she kicked it as she heard a loud crack. He fell to the floor clutching his knee.

"They aren't going to get me without a fight," she thought to herself. Before the guards had much time to process what was going on in front of them, she was on them. She took the first one out by slamming him head first into the wall, and the second by knocking him out with a high roundhouse kick. She stole the keys off of the guard and ran out the door. She was surprised that no one else had heard the fight. The woman rushed out and ran down the corridor, not noticing all the other similar doors that lined it. When the woman got to the end, she used the guard's key to open the door. Surprisingly, there was not a person in sight. Cautiously, she walked through the main entrance, wondering where everyone had gone. Just as she was almost at the exit, she knew that she had to do something, and she saw just the instrument to do it with: a telephone. She rushed towards it and spent a couple of seconds trying to remember the number that she needed to ring. Finally, when she did remember it, she dialled it at lightning speed and waited for an answer.

"Hey Buff… I need your help," Faith said into the phone.