Chapter Twenty-Four:
Willow Plots and Doyle Explains
The futile search was still going. It had been several hours since they had departed from what was left of the base for the second time to search fruitlessly for the missing sister of Buffy Summers. The sun had just been peeking over the edge of the Earth before, but at that point it was shining brightly at its peak in the sky.
Willow was no longer tending to Kennedy. She knew the situation with her and no more attention to the soulless being was necessary at the moment. Not to mention Willow was as worried about Dawn as Buffy was.
Buffy was in a state of denial. Willow was far too exhausted for denial… or mourning. She knew
that the search for Dawn was futile and she really, honestly didn't care. She had been through so much and all she wanted now was to live the rest of her life with a fully functioning Kennedy at her side. None of her Sunnydale friends were in that future that she wanted.
She wasn't certain of how she would kill Angel. She didn't care that Buffy would go into mourning not only for Dawn but for the first man she ever loved and might give up the will to fight. It sounded heartless, but she was far too tired to care.
Xander would be happy that the vampire was dead. The two of them had never really gotten around to liking each other. Neither had Spike and Xander for that matter.
Willow suddenly knew, not suspected, knew that Dawn was dead. It was her vague mental connection with Lindsey that allowed her this information. She also knew that something very big had happened because of Dawn's death. She said nothing to Buffy.
Ashley and Glen were ahead of the others, searching frantically through the dead city. Ashley had given up hope already. She had told Willow that not a single mental or physical trace of Dawn could be sensed by her.
Willow wondered how it must feel to be suddenly endowed with all that tremendous power. She didn't really care. She sensed pain and loss and depression in Ashley and still didn't give a rat's ass.
Willow had a spell that she thought would help her in her mission to destroy Angel. By using the spell she would make her own treachery known. She would be playing with matches and would get burned. She didn't care about that, either. As long as Kennedy was still a vegetable, the world would suffer.
Meanwhile…
Spike, Faith, Xander, Giles, Robin, Gunn, Lorne, and Oz were on the other side of the city searching their own area. Their area was proving to be no less empty than Buffy's. Their search was half-hearted. They were all very tired. It had been so long since any of them had slept well. It had been so long since any of them had experienced safety. It had been so long since any of them had experienced one single moment of being awake that wasn't spent in pain. They were scared and tired.
Spike was optimistic about Dawn's chances of still being alive; he hadn't seen her death yet. If anyone were to die soon it would be Buffy. Spike wasn't certain which one of the two he would prefer to survive.
Faith, Robin, Giles, and Xander were trying hard to be optimistic as well, but it was harder for them since they had no proof of her survival like Spike.
Lorne and Oz were the only two of the group who weren't well acquainted with the Slayer's sister, and thus they had no reason to be optimistic. They were negative and believed the search to be futile.
Silence was shared uncomfortably by all of them as they marched down the street full of dirt, dust, cement, bricks, and glass.
The silence was suddenly shattered as a group of five or six zombies poured into the street. The group spotted the living and charged forth. They were all almost immediately cut down by gun fire. Those without guns scrambled forth and confiscated the weapons from the two soldier zombies.
"Well, that was certainly unexpected," Xander muttered.
"Let's hope that's it for them," Spike stated. Then he noticed something. "They're not just soldiers are they?" The others then noticed the civilian zombies as well.
"Christ! These zombies are from out of town!" Xander exclaimed.
"Why are you surprised? Everything's all blown up and those killed rose. I'm surprised we haven't run into the civilians sooner." Oz limped to the group of dead zombies after saying this. "And, well, it's us. It's our luck. Things are about to get worse for us. We should go back. If Dawn is still alive she'd be near the base. Away from it isn't safe and I think even she knew that." It didn't matter to any of them that Oz had just suggested Dawn was dead. No one retorted angrily. No one became angry with Oz at all.
They didn't have the time to. Oz was right, things were about to get much worse for them.
Zombies poured into the street by the hundreds, surrounding the miniscule group. Spike had deja-vu as he thought of the fight in the alley back about a week beforehand.
Guns were raised in defense not at the zombies but the larger threats, the Zombie Commanders. The gigantic Zombie Commanders standing at various places in the groups of zombies. They were surrounded by an army of dead bodies and demons.
From atop the building to the direct right of the group watched Andrew, who was frightened and pumped full of dread. He knew he was about to watch his friends be torn apart by an army of zombies and he couldn't bear to watch. He closed his eyes and sat facing in the direction that the sun would set.
"What's the plan?" Lorne inquired. He was an amateur at aiming and he knew it. If there was a fight to ensue he would have the lowest death count of them all.
"We shoot till we're either dead or out of bullets," Giles replied. "Whichever comes first."
"Smartest plan to ever leave the mouth of an English fella," Spike stated sarcastically.
"How about we shoot those big, white things?" Xander said. "They probably pose a huge threat and we could help out the others by taking them out."
"It's likely they won't attack," Oz declared. He was preparing to turn over to his wolf form. His teeth were becoming fangs and his voice deepening to a growling.
"Let's just get it over with," Faith said.
"Yeah," Gunn agreed.
"Okay, ramblers," Robin began. "Let's get rambling." They then waited for the zombies to charge. They didn't have enough bullets to just waste on body parts and misses.
The zombies didn't charge. The ones close to the building that Andrew was on top of made way for the Zombie Emperor.
He strolled into the clearing in army slacks he had stolen from a zombie. He had hoped to see some of his old friends. Instead he was faced with strangers. Two of them seemed familiar, though.
Doyle then placed the two in his memory. Oz and Spike. They had both been in town, Oz to help Angel and Spike to hinder him. It had all revolved around a magic ring that Angel had smashed almost upon retrieval.
The commander of the Zombie Commanders grinned at Oz but was confused as to why Spike and the werewolf were on the same side. He decided to find that out later. At the moment he needed to find out how many deaths there had been in the team.
"Are Angel and Cordelia alright?" Doyle asked while looking at Oz. Oz was beginning to sprout fur. He raised a very thick eyebrow.
"What?" he growled.
Doyle smiled. "What? Don't remember me, Ozzy-boy?" Oz shook his growing head. It was now obvious that he was wolfing out and it was creeping Doyle out.
"It's me! Doyle!"
"Doyle?" The name sounded familiar, but Oz couldn't place it.
"Doyle?" Spike exclaimed. He had placed the name right away, surprised he hadn't placed the half-demon's look immediately. They didn't share a friendly relationship--that when without saying--but they didn't know each other. "Calm down, wolf-boy. This is Doyle."
"I don't know who that is."
"One of Angel's lackeys way back in the day. Remember? You and him were fighting against me for that ring."
Oz then remembered. "Oh! I thought he died."
Spike then looked at Doyle. He was confused as well. "He did. Are you corporeal?"
Doyle raised an eyebrow and shook his head no. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Just checking."
"What the hell is going on?" Faith demanded. "We're surrounded by zombies and white demons, and you're reminiscing with some guy who died however long ago?"
"Sounds crazy," Oz agreed.
The others then agreed as well, nodding their heads.
Doyle chuckled.
"None of you know how I died, do you?" Doyle inquired.
Some of them shook their heads. None of them knew.
"Don't have enough time to explain it all to you. Let's regroup with Angel, Cordelia, and whoever else has joined his little group." Gunn and Spike exchanged a glance. "I'd like for you to explain things now," Spike stated.
"Same here," Faith joined in.
"Why don't we hold off on the explanation until we get back to the base?" Oz suggested. "Then Doyle won't have to explain twice what's going on."
"Anyone forgetting about the zombies surrounding us?" Xander asked.
"Don't worry about them; I control 'em," Doyle informed the group.
There was a moment of silence.
"Yeah you're definitely gonna have to explain a lot," Gunn said.
"I know that," Doyle replied. "First let's get your buddy down from that roof." Doyle looked up to the tall building beside them that looked about to collapse.
"Huh?" several of them said simultaneously.
"Some geeky-looking kid the Zombie Commanders spotted spying on 'em. Figured he was with you." Faith couldn't think of a person in their group that whose whereabouts were unknown.
"You mean Andrew?" Spike suggested. "Very geeky. Possibly homosexual, too." Faith mentally slapped herself for failing to realize Andrew was missing.
"Who wants to go get him? We'll wait. All four-thousand and counting of us."
"I'll go get the bastard," Faith declared. She brushed past Oz, who was still half in his wolf form, and entered the building.
"So…" Doyle began. "Where's Angel, Cordelia, and everybody?"
Spike: "Angel's on the other side of this skeleton of Los Angeles. Me, Lorne--green demon there--and Gunn--big guy--here are new recruits to his group. Then there's this nice little tart with a hole in her stomach named Fred off somewhere. By the way, I've got a soul now."
"That so?" At least that was cleared up for now. "Cordelia?" Spike hesitated. Doyle understood and a pit formed in his half-demon stomach. The next five minutes were shared in complete silence. The silence was broken by Faith and a weathered Andrew came out of the building.
Introductions that were necessary were made and the group and its new army of zombies traveled back towards the base to wait for Angel and the others.
666
Hey, MorbidMan here. I guess this isn't technically a weekly update since it was two weeks ago that the last update was. Anyway, the time between updates should continue as weekly from now on. Sorry for the delay, but I had too much depressing stuff going on to write last weekend.
Sorry, Tariq, about the morbid ness of the story. It's how I write. I throw my characters into a very horrible situation, and then, well, you'll see. The rest of the story isn't going to be only morbid. There'll be some very bad moments, such as when Willow launches her attack on Angel, but just keep reading and you'll see some of the lightheartedness experienced in this chapter.
See you all next weekend.
"Everybody be cool. You be cool." - Seth Gecko "From Dusk Till Dawn"
Willow Plots and Doyle Explains
The futile search was still going. It had been several hours since they had departed from what was left of the base for the second time to search fruitlessly for the missing sister of Buffy Summers. The sun had just been peeking over the edge of the Earth before, but at that point it was shining brightly at its peak in the sky.
Willow was no longer tending to Kennedy. She knew the situation with her and no more attention to the soulless being was necessary at the moment. Not to mention Willow was as worried about Dawn as Buffy was.
Buffy was in a state of denial. Willow was far too exhausted for denial… or mourning. She knew
that the search for Dawn was futile and she really, honestly didn't care. She had been through so much and all she wanted now was to live the rest of her life with a fully functioning Kennedy at her side. None of her Sunnydale friends were in that future that she wanted.
She wasn't certain of how she would kill Angel. She didn't care that Buffy would go into mourning not only for Dawn but for the first man she ever loved and might give up the will to fight. It sounded heartless, but she was far too tired to care.
Xander would be happy that the vampire was dead. The two of them had never really gotten around to liking each other. Neither had Spike and Xander for that matter.
Willow suddenly knew, not suspected, knew that Dawn was dead. It was her vague mental connection with Lindsey that allowed her this information. She also knew that something very big had happened because of Dawn's death. She said nothing to Buffy.
Ashley and Glen were ahead of the others, searching frantically through the dead city. Ashley had given up hope already. She had told Willow that not a single mental or physical trace of Dawn could be sensed by her.
Willow wondered how it must feel to be suddenly endowed with all that tremendous power. She didn't really care. She sensed pain and loss and depression in Ashley and still didn't give a rat's ass.
Willow had a spell that she thought would help her in her mission to destroy Angel. By using the spell she would make her own treachery known. She would be playing with matches and would get burned. She didn't care about that, either. As long as Kennedy was still a vegetable, the world would suffer.
Meanwhile…
Spike, Faith, Xander, Giles, Robin, Gunn, Lorne, and Oz were on the other side of the city searching their own area. Their area was proving to be no less empty than Buffy's. Their search was half-hearted. They were all very tired. It had been so long since any of them had slept well. It had been so long since any of them had experienced safety. It had been so long since any of them had experienced one single moment of being awake that wasn't spent in pain. They were scared and tired.
Spike was optimistic about Dawn's chances of still being alive; he hadn't seen her death yet. If anyone were to die soon it would be Buffy. Spike wasn't certain which one of the two he would prefer to survive.
Faith, Robin, Giles, and Xander were trying hard to be optimistic as well, but it was harder for them since they had no proof of her survival like Spike.
Lorne and Oz were the only two of the group who weren't well acquainted with the Slayer's sister, and thus they had no reason to be optimistic. They were negative and believed the search to be futile.
Silence was shared uncomfortably by all of them as they marched down the street full of dirt, dust, cement, bricks, and glass.
The silence was suddenly shattered as a group of five or six zombies poured into the street. The group spotted the living and charged forth. They were all almost immediately cut down by gun fire. Those without guns scrambled forth and confiscated the weapons from the two soldier zombies.
"Well, that was certainly unexpected," Xander muttered.
"Let's hope that's it for them," Spike stated. Then he noticed something. "They're not just soldiers are they?" The others then noticed the civilian zombies as well.
"Christ! These zombies are from out of town!" Xander exclaimed.
"Why are you surprised? Everything's all blown up and those killed rose. I'm surprised we haven't run into the civilians sooner." Oz limped to the group of dead zombies after saying this. "And, well, it's us. It's our luck. Things are about to get worse for us. We should go back. If Dawn is still alive she'd be near the base. Away from it isn't safe and I think even she knew that." It didn't matter to any of them that Oz had just suggested Dawn was dead. No one retorted angrily. No one became angry with Oz at all.
They didn't have the time to. Oz was right, things were about to get much worse for them.
Zombies poured into the street by the hundreds, surrounding the miniscule group. Spike had deja-vu as he thought of the fight in the alley back about a week beforehand.
Guns were raised in defense not at the zombies but the larger threats, the Zombie Commanders. The gigantic Zombie Commanders standing at various places in the groups of zombies. They were surrounded by an army of dead bodies and demons.
From atop the building to the direct right of the group watched Andrew, who was frightened and pumped full of dread. He knew he was about to watch his friends be torn apart by an army of zombies and he couldn't bear to watch. He closed his eyes and sat facing in the direction that the sun would set.
"What's the plan?" Lorne inquired. He was an amateur at aiming and he knew it. If there was a fight to ensue he would have the lowest death count of them all.
"We shoot till we're either dead or out of bullets," Giles replied. "Whichever comes first."
"Smartest plan to ever leave the mouth of an English fella," Spike stated sarcastically.
"How about we shoot those big, white things?" Xander said. "They probably pose a huge threat and we could help out the others by taking them out."
"It's likely they won't attack," Oz declared. He was preparing to turn over to his wolf form. His teeth were becoming fangs and his voice deepening to a growling.
"Let's just get it over with," Faith said.
"Yeah," Gunn agreed.
"Okay, ramblers," Robin began. "Let's get rambling." They then waited for the zombies to charge. They didn't have enough bullets to just waste on body parts and misses.
The zombies didn't charge. The ones close to the building that Andrew was on top of made way for the Zombie Emperor.
He strolled into the clearing in army slacks he had stolen from a zombie. He had hoped to see some of his old friends. Instead he was faced with strangers. Two of them seemed familiar, though.
Doyle then placed the two in his memory. Oz and Spike. They had both been in town, Oz to help Angel and Spike to hinder him. It had all revolved around a magic ring that Angel had smashed almost upon retrieval.
The commander of the Zombie Commanders grinned at Oz but was confused as to why Spike and the werewolf were on the same side. He decided to find that out later. At the moment he needed to find out how many deaths there had been in the team.
"Are Angel and Cordelia alright?" Doyle asked while looking at Oz. Oz was beginning to sprout fur. He raised a very thick eyebrow.
"What?" he growled.
Doyle smiled. "What? Don't remember me, Ozzy-boy?" Oz shook his growing head. It was now obvious that he was wolfing out and it was creeping Doyle out.
"It's me! Doyle!"
"Doyle?" The name sounded familiar, but Oz couldn't place it.
"Doyle?" Spike exclaimed. He had placed the name right away, surprised he hadn't placed the half-demon's look immediately. They didn't share a friendly relationship--that when without saying--but they didn't know each other. "Calm down, wolf-boy. This is Doyle."
"I don't know who that is."
"One of Angel's lackeys way back in the day. Remember? You and him were fighting against me for that ring."
Oz then remembered. "Oh! I thought he died."
Spike then looked at Doyle. He was confused as well. "He did. Are you corporeal?"
Doyle raised an eyebrow and shook his head no. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Just checking."
"What the hell is going on?" Faith demanded. "We're surrounded by zombies and white demons, and you're reminiscing with some guy who died however long ago?"
"Sounds crazy," Oz agreed.
The others then agreed as well, nodding their heads.
Doyle chuckled.
"None of you know how I died, do you?" Doyle inquired.
Some of them shook their heads. None of them knew.
"Don't have enough time to explain it all to you. Let's regroup with Angel, Cordelia, and whoever else has joined his little group." Gunn and Spike exchanged a glance. "I'd like for you to explain things now," Spike stated.
"Same here," Faith joined in.
"Why don't we hold off on the explanation until we get back to the base?" Oz suggested. "Then Doyle won't have to explain twice what's going on."
"Anyone forgetting about the zombies surrounding us?" Xander asked.
"Don't worry about them; I control 'em," Doyle informed the group.
There was a moment of silence.
"Yeah you're definitely gonna have to explain a lot," Gunn said.
"I know that," Doyle replied. "First let's get your buddy down from that roof." Doyle looked up to the tall building beside them that looked about to collapse.
"Huh?" several of them said simultaneously.
"Some geeky-looking kid the Zombie Commanders spotted spying on 'em. Figured he was with you." Faith couldn't think of a person in their group that whose whereabouts were unknown.
"You mean Andrew?" Spike suggested. "Very geeky. Possibly homosexual, too." Faith mentally slapped herself for failing to realize Andrew was missing.
"Who wants to go get him? We'll wait. All four-thousand and counting of us."
"I'll go get the bastard," Faith declared. She brushed past Oz, who was still half in his wolf form, and entered the building.
"So…" Doyle began. "Where's Angel, Cordelia, and everybody?"
Spike: "Angel's on the other side of this skeleton of Los Angeles. Me, Lorne--green demon there--and Gunn--big guy--here are new recruits to his group. Then there's this nice little tart with a hole in her stomach named Fred off somewhere. By the way, I've got a soul now."
"That so?" At least that was cleared up for now. "Cordelia?" Spike hesitated. Doyle understood and a pit formed in his half-demon stomach. The next five minutes were shared in complete silence. The silence was broken by Faith and a weathered Andrew came out of the building.
Introductions that were necessary were made and the group and its new army of zombies traveled back towards the base to wait for Angel and the others.
666
Hey, MorbidMan here. I guess this isn't technically a weekly update since it was two weeks ago that the last update was. Anyway, the time between updates should continue as weekly from now on. Sorry for the delay, but I had too much depressing stuff going on to write last weekend.
Sorry, Tariq, about the morbid ness of the story. It's how I write. I throw my characters into a very horrible situation, and then, well, you'll see. The rest of the story isn't going to be only morbid. There'll be some very bad moments, such as when Willow launches her attack on Angel, but just keep reading and you'll see some of the lightheartedness experienced in this chapter.
See you all next weekend.
"Everybody be cool. You be cool." - Seth Gecko "From Dusk Till Dawn"