Spike's body became completely limp and he toppled forward, falling over the balcony railing and down to the ground below him.
"Spike!" cried Buffy as his body hit the floor. She rushed forward along with the others, but Giles beat her to it.
He flipped Spike over and planted a hand on his chest, chanting a strange language in a guttural accent. He had done so for about twenty seconds when Spike screamed in agony, writhing on the ground beneath Giles' commanding palm.
Then, the wraith that had attacked him flew upwards and out through the roof of the building. Spike slumped flat against the floor, unconscious.
"What the hell was that?" asked Lorne.
"I'm not sure, but I'm familiar with the type of possession the creature was enforcing on Spike. It's a fallen spirit, and it aggressively seeks hosts in whatever environment – however, the only catch for the wraith is that the host has to be dead. You have to catch the wraith quickly, or it's more difficult to displace them the longer they have to adjust to their new habitat."
"Good job you caught it then," approved Buffy.
"He should be fine in about an hour, the shock to his nervous system knocked him unconscious – that's how the wraiths gain control of their bodies, to negate any resistance."
"Cool," said Buffy, and started to pick up Spike to carry him to a more comfortable area to rest up in.
Not one person in the hall succeeded in remembering that there was in fact another corpse in the room.
Angel sat slumped against the same place he had questioned Spike, hidden from view of the others, dead eyes staring into space.
Then they focused and he smiled.
The furry animal raced along the streets of Sunnydale, snuffling along the ground. Now and then it would pause and raise its head, listening, but always it would carry on.
Until it reached the gates to a cemetery. This was not what it was looking for, however something made it stop and sniff at the air.
Cautiously, it picked its way forward until it was actually inside the grounds.
Something unnatural resided here.
Then, it froze.
The source of its discomfort soon became apparent – bodies staggered towards the gates, arms raised, moaning softly.
The creature growled, its hackles going up, and backed out of the gates slowly.
Then it ran from the cemetery, its objective temporarily forgotten.
The figure picked its way through the remains of the building, not stumbling over anything but not moving anything out of its way. There was a malignant air around the figure, yet a twisted kind of gracefulness.
The Erus Veneficus finally found what he was looking for.
He stooped down and plucked the tattered envelope from the floor of Buffy's abandoned house.
He examined it closely before letting it drop to the ground. Then he actually seemed to sigh in resignation.
"What's up, V?"
He stared coldly at the form of the Slayer standing before him.
"Do not aggravate me, lesser one."
"It's not my fault if you're not making progress with the witch."
"Actually – it is."
"No, it's not. You're just incapable of accepting blame is all. If you want the amulet that badly why don't you go incinerate the lot of them and take it? They're even all holed up at the school for you !"
He looked away. "I cannot. Like my opposite before me, there are certain rules I must abide by in order to remain in this dimension. Unfortunately, my masters would not be as lenient upon me as my opposite's masters were to her if these rules were broken."
"God, what is it with you?" demanded the First. "You give me Angelus and now you won't even commit mass murder!"
The Erus Veneficus suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the First by the throat.
"Do not think for one instant that you can demand anything of me. I could snap your neck like a twig and you would cease to exist. Remember that I am above you, and act accordingly."
The First's eyes bulged, and then it gasped as the Erus Veneficus released it.
"How did you do that?"
"I can do many things. However, I cannot stem the flow of this plague the humans have unleashed upon this dimension."
"Oh yeah…what are we going to do about that little problem?"
"Little does not begin to cover it. They must be contained and then expelled from this dimension."
"So, who's my priority here?"
"The wraiths – somehow they have found a way to break the bonds which have contained them for all this time and the human Pryce has inadvertently released them from their prison. We must contain them quickly before they overrun this dimension as well."
"Yeah, I can remember the last time…"
"You remember hearing of it – I was there, fighting them back. This time I am alone to combat them. I may need to draw others into this."
"But won't that mean more of the good guys can join the party?"
"Indeed. It may not be avoidable however – if the wraiths gain a foothold then it won't matter who is present here; in fact, it may be necessary to ally ourselves with our opposites in order to fight them back."
"Unthinkable!"
"Such is the threat the wraiths present. However, they are still relatively few in number. I will hunt now for the first few to have found their way into this world. The more I dispatch of now, the fewer will stand against us later."
"Fine. I'm not gonna put my plans on hold though. I've been killing Slayers for too long to stop now."
"You will," reiterated the Erus Veneficus. Then his eyes narrowed. "In fact…Yes, I have a much more unpleasant fate in mind for young Ms. Summers."
The First's face scrunched up in confusion. "You do?"
The Erus Veneficus just smirked.
Chao-Ann managed to whimper before her body went limp. Cold fingers squeezed her neck until bruises appeared on the young Slayer's skin.
"Hey!" screamed a voice from behind.
The figure turned and released the girl, letting her tumble to the ground, lifeless. Another girl was standing, horrified.
Then others joined the new girl. Also looked shocked, betrayed.
"Angel…?" asked one of the girls.
"My God…" said a man.
"Kill him," said the girl who first appeared.
"No!" cried Buffy, tackling Jenny to the ground, but it was too late. The other Slayers snapped at the sight of their companion falling lifeless to the floor and hurtled towards the apparently unconcerned vampire.
Just as one of the girls reached him, he snapped his fist up and buried it into her stomach, making her double over. Another Slayer jumped onto his back and wrapped her legs around his ribs, making one of them crack.
He threw himself backwards into the wall, making the girl let go. He spun onto the downed Slayer and grabbed her head to twist it, but Giles was there, bringing a sports bag onto his back. Angel fell onto the floor and Buffy threw a chain across his chest, pinning him to the ground. She and Giles quickly and very efficiently wrapped the chain around his body then found a second to tie his legs. Both chains were then padlocked. He stared numbly at them, as if he himself was dead – the good old fashioned type of dead, not the vampire kind of dead.
Giles panted. "We should've remembered Angel would be susceptible to these…wraiths."
Buffy stared blankly at Angel, no emotion crossing her face. "Yeah. We should've."
She abruptly turned and started to haul his body along the floor, Giles scrambling to help her.
He was propped up against the seating blocks and a third chain appeared, locking him to the metal pole running through the blocks.
"If I find him dead, one of you will be," she said simply to the assembled Slayers. Then, grabbing Giles by the shoulder, she pulled him and Father Duncan into a private conference.
"How do we get it out?" she said to Giles.
"We can't," he replied.
"I can attempt an exorcism," said the priest, "But I can't guarantee anything."
"No, we'd best avoid stuff like that," said Buffy. "Vampire."
"Ah, yes."
She sighed and closed her eyes, thinking.
"Perhaps I can offer my assistance," said an uncomfortably familiar voice.
She whirled and came face to face with the Erus Veneficus. She slammed her fist into his chest within a second but it felt like hitting steel. Three Slayers went to leap on the wizard but he raised a hand, knocking everyone away. However, Buffy was only knocked back a few feet and she knew he was capable of much more power.
"Alright!" she called, indicating the other Slayers not attack. Then she eyeballed the obviously amused Erus Veneficus. "What's going on, V?"
"You're aware of the wraith presence here." It wasn't a question. "I'm here to announce a cease fire, if you will. A temporary lull in the fighting between us while this threat is dealt with."
"I know what a cease fire is," retorted Buffy hotly. "What if we don't wanna play?"
He looked slightly annoyed. "You can't possibly hope to hurt me, and if I wanted you dead you'd be incinerated days ago. You also can't hope to understand my intentions here."
"So you're here to say you won't be openly attacking us anymore," reasoned Giles.
"Temporarily, while I hunt down the wraith presence."
"What about the First?"
The Erus Veneficus considered before answering. "It has been instructed to leave you alone, but I cannot speak for it."
"And why show up here? You've obviously made it clear you're so much more superior than us, why bother to even tell us about the situation?"
"Because one of the wraiths is here."
Buffy's eyes flashed to Angel's chained up body for a split second, but the Erus Veneficus saw.
"Yes. Him."
"No way. Take it out of him."
"That is a very complicated spell, and has no guarantee it will work."
"Take it out of him," Buffy reiterated slowly.
The Erus Veneficus breathed in, then thought for a long couple of moments. "Very well," he said at last. "I'll remove the wraith from the vampire."
Giles eyed him suspiciously, but said nothing.
The Erus Veneficus seemed to glide over to Angel and knelt down beside him. They abruptly turned to shadow and almost vanished from sight.
Buffy set her jaw and prepared to wait.
A hand grabbed at the earth above the buried window and clawed forward, dragging the body attached to it along through the narrow gap between packed soil and the window frame.
Wes hauled his legs through the gap and rolled onto the ground outside. He breathed once and then crawled back to the opening, reaching through the gap to lift another body.
The wraiths had caused some kind of landslide around the mansion – that or the mansion itself had actually sunk into the ground – and this window was the only one with access to the world above. They were lucky to be escaping the mansion at all; in fact they'd just discussed a plan involving knocking through the slates in the roof when Faith had spotted the window.
He hauled Xander through the gap and together they managed to pull the others with greater efficiency until they were all safely outside.
In relative safety, at least.
"All right," said Xander. "So what's the plan?"
They all glanced at each other, in all truthfulness not having this far ahead.
"The others seemed to be in direct conflict with the First, so that suggests to me that we go after the Erus Veneficus," said Wes, receiving several nods of assent.
"Sounds like a plan," confirmed Gunn. "He's probably behind all this mess."
"Well that's what we're going to find out. However, I doubt we'll accomplish much before the sun goes down. We need shelter."
Fred grinned. "Well, I kinda thought ahead, seeing how we didn't know where we'd appear and all…well, I brought some supplies."
"Cool," said Faith. "Whatcha got?"
Buffy lost track of time while she watched the patch of shadow that the Erus Veneficus had cast around Angel and himself, and then as abruptly as they had vanished, they reappeared. Angel had his eyes closed.
"It is done," said the Erus Veneficus. "The wraith has been removed, and I have placed a glyph on this creature's aura which will ward wraiths away. It cannot ensure no wraith will possess him again, but it will help."
Buffy glared at him. "Anything else?"
He smiled. "I believe that concludes our business. You'll be hearing from me again."
Then he vanished.
Buffy ran to Angel's side and knelt next to him.
"He'll probably be out for a while," warned Giles, and sure enough Angel didn't rouse when Buffy shook him.
She sighed and sat back from the vampire. "I guess we wait then," she mumbled.
"Lot of that going on lately," commented Lorne from beside her. Anyone else might have earned a reprimand from Buffy, but the demon's infectious personality made her reconsider and she snorted in wry amusement instead. Lorne regarded her with surprise, and she smiled faintly at him.
"Well, what do you suggest?"
"Uhm…not good with the planning there, Buff. Just making an observation."
"You're right, though. We need to get back on the offensive. There's probably a thousand Turok-Han through that rubble, just waiting to swarm around us and kill us all. We need to either fortify or get the hell out of Dodge."
"I'm all for fortifying," said Dawn. Buffy started; Dawn has been as quiet as a mouse lately. In fact, Buffy remembered, it was Dawn who had led them to this hall when escaping from the Turok-Han horde and decided on the spur of the moment to listen to any tactical advice she made.
"Well let's fort this place up," suggested Lorne, and Buffy nodded. They went to work.
Xander hammered the last tent peg into place and the small hamlet of canvas was complete. Fred stood back and nodded once in approval, and the others set about preparing food for consumption.
"Finally, a good night's sleep," said Xander. "Seems like I haven't had one of those in…well, I guess since I've lived in Sunnydale, but these past few days have been especially…uh, busy."
"I heard that," said Gunn. "We haven't exactly had a year of R and R back in L.A."
"That's an understatement if I ever heard one," muttered Wes, and Gunn grinned lopsidedly at him.
"Well, take your pick guys, but dibs on this one," said Faith, walking towards the largest tent.
Connor sighed and sat down on one of the bags of supplies. After a moment, Katie joined him and they started muttering together.
"Best leave a two man free, too," observed Xander, earning a smile from Gunn. Wes shot a glance at Fred, but didn't say anything.
"Hey, I never told you good job for taking care of that big ass wraith thing," said Gunn suddenly to Xander.
"Oh, yeah. It was nothing, I guess. Just made it's momentum work against it, it's nothing Buffy hasn't done a million times before."
"But Buffy's a Slayer," noted Wes.
"Yeah, us mere mortals have to make do without super strength and all that jazz," said Fred, walking over to join them.
"Well…I guess," said Xander, actually seeming to take some credit for something.
"I might have suspected I'd find you here," whispered a chilling voice.
Everyone leaped to their feet ready to fight, but nothing was there to fight.
"Tell me, how did you do it? I find it suspect in the least that the resurgence of the wraiths directly coincides with your close proximity," continued the voice.
"It wasn't us!" cried Fred.
"Lies!" roared the voice. A shimmering suddenly appeared, and with a flash of light the Erus Veneficus appeared. "Tell me what you have done!"
Wind suddenly whirled around their little encampment, sending canvas and clothing whirling.
"The wraiths were already freed when we arrived!" called Wes. "One attacked us and in retaliation some of us travelled to their plane of existence!"
The wind suddenly stopped. The Erus Veneficus glided closer to Wes.
"Already there?"
"Yes. It set a trap using the body of one of our companions to lure us away. It kidnapped someone else, and ultimately sent me and one other to another planar. Only I returned."
"It possessed your body?"
"Yes. It attacked the others using me as a vessel."
The Erus Veneficus looked away in thought for a moment while Wes regarded him warily.
"There are two types of wraith. Reavers, and Drones. Reavers are few in number but massively powerful. They are so named because they tear souls from living bodies and vacate them for Drones to occupy. The Drones make up approximately ninety percent of the wraith population and are, in comparison to the Reavers, relatively weak and slow witted. However, it is almost impossible to destroy them unless they occupy a vessel – destroy the vessel, and you destroy the wraith most of the time. There are exceptions, but we won't delve into that matter here.
" Souls separated from their bodies are not destroyed; instead, they travel to the wraith's dimension, a place of total chaos. The only way to return is to jump dimensions in an attempt to find the right one, and it is a very difficult method of transportation to accomplish."
The Erus Veneficus leaned closer to Wes. "So, bearing all this in mind, you expect me to believe you not only survived in the wraith's dimension, but you found a way back within several hours?"
Wes was now leaning backwards due to the proximity to the Erus Veneficus. "Yes. The wraith's dimension was not that dissimilar to our own in my experience; granted my senses felt like they were telling me different extremes at the same time like intense noise and silence, but not with the intensity you just described."
"Intriguing."
"I travelled back by entering what I assume was a portal of some kind; I found myself in yet another dimension, one in which I could see my possessed self, and in coming into contact with it, found myself back here."
"Describe this portal."
"Like…like a plume of smoke made of white light."
The Erus Veneficus looked away, obviously deep in thought. Gunn eyed Wes, asking what was going on. Wes gave a slight shrug and a helpless expression.
"Here is what I hypothesise happened. Somehow the barriers between this dimension and the wraith's have been weakened, and this has allowed them passage here."
"Woah, déjà vu," muttered Xander, and the Erus Veneficus glared at him.
"Speak."
"Oh…uh, there was an incident a few years back where a God called Glory tried to break down the barriers between dimensions with something called the Key."
"What was the resolution of this occurrence?"
"Glory was killed, and Buffy sacrificed herself so the energy breaking the barriers would restore everything. Everything went back to normal."
"Clearly not everything. The Slayer's sacrifice restored the barriers, but obviously this one was weakened to the point that the wraiths can now enter this dimension." He looked away for a moment. "This works in our favour."
"It does?" asked Xander, completely lost.
"Of course. It means the wraiths can only enter this dimension from their own, and no other."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I sealed the wraith's dimension away several centuries ago. I wondered how a lowly human could have broken my barriers, but now I know what has occurred here."
"Wait – you said any living thing. What about dead ones?"
"A wraith may enter any dead body and control it without the need of a Reaver removing the soul, because the soul has already departed. I would advise you avoid cemeteries and other places of burial."
"And vampires."
"Yes, vampires are susceptible to wraith possession."
"Angel," said Fred.
"And Spike," added Xander.
"I have placed a ward on Angelus' aura which should drive wraiths away, and the human Giles successfully drove away a possession on the vampire Spike."
"You placed a ward?" asked Wes. "That seems very generous of you, considering."
"Considering?"
"Considering you want to destroy the world."
The Erus Veneficus said nothing.
"So, the only reason you'd do something like this is if you had an ulterior motive for it…"
"Like what?" asked Gunn, seeming to forget the wizard standing several feet away from him.
"Well, according to his information the wraiths can possess any dead body like vampires, so I doubt it's to reduce the number of potential hosts here because it'd take too much time…also, he'd have put an aura on Spike, too."
"So what's he up to?"
"Hang on – Reavers have to remove a soul in order for a lesser wraith to possess a body, right?"
"Yeah."
"But presumably there wasn't a Reaver because nothing got mentioned about having to kill any of the others due to possession."
"That follows."
"And what's the Erus Veneficus' primary role here?"
"To make the Apocalypse happen."
"And the prophecy tells us that a being with a soul but more than human can stand for or against it, right?" He turned to face the Erus Veneficus. "So what happens to a being's soul if their attacked by a wraith and they're already dead?"
The wizard stood with an amused expression. "I like to see lesser beings figure it all out."
"What's going on?" asked Connor.
"He took out the wraith but in order for the possession to take place Angel's soul had to come out, too."
"So now the wraith isn't there…" Fred trailed off in mid-sentence.
"We have to warn the others," said Faith suddenly, whirling for the radio lying nearby.
She flew backwards, collapsing a tent. The Erus Veneficus' hand was outstretched.
"I can't allow you to do that."
The group stood, paralysed for a moment, then Connor leaped forward at the wizard, but he too was driven back.
Collectively everyone flew forward except for Fred, who dived for the radio. The Erus Veneficus failed to notice her as he continued to fight the others.
"Buffy, anyone – it's Angel, don't - "
She shrieked in pain as a telekinetic force closed around her hand, crushing the radio and her bones to pulp.
"You son of a bitch!" shouted Gunn, and he threw himself at the Erus Veneficus in retribution.
"Buffy, anyone – it's Angel, don't - "
The radio buzzed once and died.
"Buffy?" shouted Dawn as she heard the radio's message.
"What is it?" she asked, just as the windows around the top of the hall started to shake.
"Low cloud cover," said Giles. "They can move about before the sun sets."
"Dammit," said Buffy. "Defensive positions!"
The Slayers scrambled to various strategic locations about the hall. Dawn tagged along behind Buffy.
"It's something about Angel, Fred sounded pretty - "
" – Dawn, later. Bit busy."
Dawn sighed in frustration and picked up a small axe, following her sister to the upstairs balcony.
The front line was established milliseconds before the first window smashed, then a second. The remainder seemed to smash together, and the small group of pinned fighters came face to face with the snarling visages of the horde of Turok-Han climbing into the hall.
Unnoticed on the ground, a vampire stirred. Angelus' eyes flickered open, and he smirked.
Sorry about the long update time. Tariq gets credit for the Angelus thing, even if I had to think up loads of backstory to make it happen, heh. Please R/R, seeya soon.