(The awakening)

(The opposite of a lobotomy)

Drusilla felt the triumph flow through her body. Making the taste of Slayer blood even sweeter. She could feel the blood flow through her veins and fill her with pure power. It was like nothing she had ever experienced. It felt as if every single molecule in her body were charged with power to the point of bursting. The eternal voices in her head quieted down until they were no more than a whisper. And then they left nothing more than a deafening silence. Everything became so clear.

The stars stopped singing, and still the power continued to flow into her and drew away the fog that had been over her thoughts for as long as she could remember. She felt ready to conquer the world. Nothing or no one could stop her. She would be the undisputed queen of the undead. She felt an almost erotic pleasure by the thought of all the wonderful havoc she would wreak.

Then suddenly her feet disappeared under her as a searing pain ran through her brain.

"No!!!" She screamed, as she stumbled to her feet. Steadying to the wall, she started climbing the stairs.

"Nooooo!!!!!!!" Something broke its way up from the very depths of her being.

"NO, no, no!!" It couldn't be true. It couldn't be!!! But it was!!! The pain ripping her apart, far preceded what she thought to be possible.

"No, No, NO, NO!!!"

Through the pain, she realised what she had to do. What had to be done. She walked back to the still form of the Slayer. She was barely alive. Drusilla could hear her heartbeats getting weaker and more irregular by the second. She picked up the Slayer, walked past the shocked vampires and carried the Vampire Slayer out into the night.   

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At the Sunnydale Hospital, the waiting room at the emergency were filled with a group of very concerned people.

Pacing back and forth was the Slayers mother, seemingly on the verge of going postal in her concern for her daughter.

Sitting in a chair by the corridor was Giles. Badly bruised and with traces of blood on his now wrinkled and torn tweed suit.

Xander sat at his right, looking as dishevelled as the Watcher. And his left hand was bandaged after a knife cut.

Willow sat in a corner with her boyfriend. The right side of her face was swollen and already beginning to turn blue. Almost black. Her dress was torn and bloodstained there she sat curled together on Oz's lap.

Oz had a bandage on his forehead. Covering six stitches. And his nose was bloodied and swollen.

In another corner Cordelia sat. Her beautiful face was bruised and blackened. And blood seeped from a bandage at the back of her head.

But none of them cared about their injuries.

The only thing on their mind was Buffy. They were at the hospital getting their injuries taken care of. When suddenly there were doctors and nurses running left and right, as Buffy were brought in. Badly battered and bruised, and still bleeding from twin puncture marks on her neck. Shortly after, Joyce had arrived, and they had all settled down in the waiting room.

That was over an hour ago. And now Joyce was about to go nuts. Here they were worrying their minds out, and not a single nurse would tell them what happened.

She saw a doctor hasting down the corridor towards the room where her daughter was. She stepped over to him, and asked how Buffy was. But he quite rudely told her off.

"I don't have time for this. Can't you see I'm busy"?

She grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. "No, I want some answers. I have been waiting for an hour. But none of you are telling me anything. How is my daughter? Tell me or by God, I wont be responsible for what I do."

"Chill out woman," he snorted as he tried to push her aside.

"I don't have time for this. Now let me go so that I can do my job."

Joyce lifted her hand to punch him straight in the face. But Giles caught her fist. The doctor tore himself loose and hasted down the corridor, muttering: "Crazy bitch."

"Oh God!" Joyce cried against Giles shoulder. "How can people like that work at a hospital."

"I don't know Joyce. It has to be the work of the Hellmouth."

She nodded. "I want so badly to beat the crap out of him. Here I am worrying myself sick, and he is directly rude."

"Yes. I know what you mean," Giles said. Barely keeping the Ripper within at bay. "I'm willing to bet my last dollar that he is related to that wretched ugly toad Snyder. People like that shouldn't be aloud to walk freely around. Now come here."

He led her to a chair and sat down by her side. Comforting her as best as he could. But he was just as worried as she. To him, Buffy was like the daughter he never had.

A few minutes later an Asian looking nurse came in. "Which one of you is Joyce Summers?"

Before she could take another breath the blonde woman in her late thirties, forced her up against the wall. The nurse found herself surrounded by the others.

"How is she? Please tell me she is going to be well."

"Well, actually, yes, she is – but to say it frankly, she shouldn't. She should be dead. By God!! She should be long time dead!"

The Nurse stopped for a moment. Seeming almost in shock. Then she continued.

"The amount of blood left in her system wasn't enough to feed a mosquito. Luckily she had stashed some of her own blood at the blood bank from earlier. If she hadn't, we couldn't have helped her. 'Cause her blood type is like nothing we have ever encountered."

"We haven't had time to study it thoroughly, but what we have found so far is an extreme capacity for oxygen transportation, and a very quick coagulation. And it's probably that oxygen transportation thing that is saving her. We gave her all the blood we had. But still none of the doctors at this hospital have seen or heard of anyone that have survived half the blood loss she is suffering at the moment."

"Lady! If your daughter is practising some sort of belief, then please tell me. 'Cause it works. By God it works!!! Not only is she out of the woods. She is conscious and asking for you." She stopped to draw her breath, and was suddenly left alone in the room, as the rest of them raced out in the corridor.

As they entered Buffy's room, they were shocked to see how she looked. She was almost as pale as a vampire, and her lips were blue. Her eyes lay deep in her head and were surrounded by dark rings. And every part of skin they could see was covered with cuts and bruises. She opened her eyes as they came inn.

"Hello guys, mom, Giles. Nice of you to visit."

Her voice was weak and hoarse, and completed the image. If anyone looked like a living dead, it had to be her, Giles thought.

She hugged them in turn, as tears ran down her cheeks, tears of joy. She never thought she would see anyone of them again.

"What happened," Giles asked. "How did you manage to get out of there?

"That's it, O supreme Watcher of mine. I didn't," she said with a faint try for a smile.

"The last I remember, was fighting Drusilla, and loosing badly. She is much stronger than we ever thought, maybe even stronger than Angelus. She pulled this hypnotic act on me, and suddenly I couldn't move. And into my mind came pictures. Pictures she sent there. I saw the fight between Kendra and Drusilla. I saw when Drusilla slit her throat. And then she bit me. The very last I registered were the immense sadistic pleasure on her face as she drained me. After that, my guess is as good as anyone's. The only thing that I know is that someone brought me here. But no one seems to know who it was. I should really like to know, cause that person saved my life." with that said, she fell back against the pillows, sleeping with a little smile on her lips. Like a child that felt safe.

End of chapter two