Fury by SLynn

Chapter 14: Tied in Knots

"Here is the problem as we know it." Zothos began to explain, "Constance has weaved together our lives. Each life is a thread; spun, measured and cut in accordance to what we have to accomplish. Constance had, at first, extended her natural life by tying herself to me. Bored, I can only assume, she began to toy with the idea of attaching others. Life force she no longer desired, she wanted power. Her first and only aim upon entering Sunnydale was you Buffy."

"But why…"

"I'm coming to that," he said gently, "She knew that you were a strong slayer. Powerful. And if she could entangle you as well, she would be that much stronger. So she watched you, we watched you – I was always with her. We watched all of you and after many weeks her focus changed. She became less interested in you Buffy and more with Xander. I can't be sure because I wasn't always privy to her thoughts as she was mine, but I think it was his ordinariness that drew her in. The rest of you have either special powers or training he does not, yet he was always with you. Always fighting and surviving, and for the first time I think she felt something like respect for him."

"She was watching us for weeks?" Willow asked disbelievingly.

"Many weeks. That is always her way. She is meticulous in her planning, but not enough this time. As I said she came her for Buffy, but that changed. She had decided to take you both. She wanted your power still, but I never could understand why she took him. I think at first it was just to break him, just to prove that he wasn't special. That he couldn't be, but she was wrong. He continuously fought her. More then she'd been use too."

He paused as if the memory troubled him.

"I'm sorry, I was still with her then. It is hard to recall, painful. I couldn't stop her. Early in our entanglement I had tried, very often, to fight her and stop her, but without ever succeeding. I'm sorry to admit that by the time your friend Xander became her prey, I'd given up trying. I wish I had."

Again he paused and collected himself.

"Eventually, she did succeed and took over him, and his thoughts became ours. His memories, all of it. That never leaves you. I was released from her, the details of which are not important, and I felt safe that she would not return. But still I imparted a warning with you both. I warned him to be watchful of Constance's return and you to be watchful of him. That was my mistake. I should have let you know as well that she would be back. I knew she would, but as it could no longer affect me, I simply didn't care. That is, until I found I couldn't leave."

Now he was up pacing the room obviously worried.

"At first I thought I stayed on my own accord. That I had grown use to your dimension and your way of life. Then, I found myself drawn to you. To all of you. I, like Constance before me, have been watching you all for weeks now. Watching you with his memories in my head and yet unable to act. I realized that I could not leave this place, that things were not right yet, not yet undone. Constance's removal to the dimension you sent her to should have freed me, I thought it would. But when it hadn't I knew then that she was no longer the force keeping me here. It was him."

"This is how you're doing it. These things are putting those thoughts in my head, aren't they? They're making me act like this." Xander said in a near frantic tone.

"I told you, I'm not making you do anything. Neither are 'these things' as you call them."

"No, you're lying," he said getting to his feet and stepping back a few paces, "I felt it, just now. Looking at them. They're…"

"They're just helping you along a bit. They can't make you feel things you don't already feel. Want to do things you've never thought of. They just amplify those feelings and emotions. Everyone is capable of doing evil Xander. Didn't you know that?"

"I don't believe you," he said somewhat unconvincingly.

"Don't you? Well then, how about we go and visit some of your friends. I'm sure they've never done anything to upset or hurt you, right?"

Xander didn't move.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Constance said smiling.

"No."

"You can't spend the rest of your life here. If 'these things' are making you do it, you could stop them if you tried. Let's go try."

"No."

"Not yet then, alright." She said after a few seconds, "You should go back and rest for awhile. We have things to do tonight and I have some friends coming over to help."

"Friends?" he asked his head still reeling.

"Yes, not like these," she said indicating the walls, "but just as useful."

Xander nodded once automatically and turned to go up the stairs.

"And sweetheart," she added, "don't go anywhere."

"I'm not sure I understand," Giles said after a more then a moments pause. It was getting late, nearly dusk.

"It all comes back to the fates and the threads of life. Constance had tied hers to mine, so to speak, and then to Xander. In doing so, she also tied my life force to his. Even when her pact with me was broken, that link back to him remained. As does yours Buffy. So now mine, yours, Xander's and Constance's lives are, shall we say, tied in knots."

"But if your lives are tied like that, won't killing Xander…" Willow said with comprehension draining the color of her face.

"Kill us all?" Zothos finished almost lightheartedly, "It's possible. I'm sure only the Fates know. They're fickle like that. They're idea of setting things right could be to eliminate us all, or not. They like their secrets. It may not even be possible to kill any of us. I am an immortal; sometimes that has its advantages."

"So tied to you, Xander could just stay trapped with Constance forever?" Buffy asked.

"It also has its disadvantages."

"But the Furies poison…" Giles started and trailed off.

"It would have driven him mad eventually, but it would not have killed him."

"Does she know this?" Buffy asked, "Any of it, do you know that?"

"I do not." Zothos answered, "I feel like she might have planned it, or at least part of it. I know she bound me to him for a specific reason. She needed him alive and strong if for some reason she was forced away, to ensure she had someone to come back too. But, I don't think…"

He stopped and looked at Buffy thoughtfully.

"I don't think she knows about you. She's never understood love."

Xander must have fallen asleep. He wasn't sure, time was getting harder and harder to keep up with. He knows that he went upstairs and back to his cell, but everything after that until this moment was fuzzy.

He hopes he's only been asleep.

He'd planned on fighting. He'd planned on making a break for the door. Something. Anything. But he hadn't. She was definitely doing something to him. Xander just found that he couldn't disobey her.

He sat up and stared at the door.

It was probably unlocked. Xander realized now he'd never even tried it. It was like back at the school all over again. The door was probably unlocked and he hadn't even thought about it.

How does she do it?

Xander slowly stood up and forced himself across the room.

Every step was a struggle but he made it. But even though he made it, he couldn't bring himself to get his hand onto the doorknob.

"Damn it," he cursed under his breath and made his way back, effortlessly, to the cot.

This wasn't going to work. He had to fight this. Xander knew he'd sat by too passive for the last few weeks. Forget that, he'd sat by too passive for his whole life. He'd gone with her so that she wouldn't hurt his friends, but he should have realized even then she was always planning on doing that.

He just had to try harder.

Xander blew out a breath and stood back up. Telling himself over and over that he was going out that door, he walked too it. It wasn't as hard as it had been the first time, but it was still a struggle. Xander took in a breath this time and grabbed the doorknob. He'd had his eyes shut so the first sign of success was the audible click of the door coming loose from the frame.

Xander looked quickly out into the hall, left then right, and then walked out towards where he thought the exit might be.

That's when the headache started. Xander's head started to throb loudly in his ears. He pushed past the pain and kept walking down the hall, but every step made it that much worse.

Xander made it down some steps to the ground floor, he wasn't even sure how. He was within sight of the front door, when he heard something. It sounded like people, lots of people, coming from the basement.

Curiosity got the best of him. He knew he shouldn't, knew he should just run while he had the chance, but the thought of people down there with those things made him uneasy.

Xander slowly cracked the door open and peeked down the steps. The basement was full. Constance was still standing where she'd been when he'd left, and she was talking to them all. He couldn't hear what she was saying to them, but they all seemed to be giving her their full attention. A few he recognized from around town. A few he'd gone to school with.

Slowly it dawned on him.

Those things. Those god damned things she'd brought back with her. She was going to wind all of these people up, feed them full of rage, and set them loose in town.

Xander backed up, trying not to panic. There were probably a hundred people down there. Maybe more. Maybe she'd already rounded up more before now. There was no telling. The town was going to be full of half-crazed axe-wielding maniacs in no time, he had to warn someone.

And Xander knew who.