Author's Notes are at the end of this one folks… Wahoo!! We're on the downward slide here folks… only a couple of more Chapters. I'm only going to allude to whatever happened during the Angel series in fairly vague terms as I never bothered watching it a whole lot. Sorry folks.
This Chapter has a couple of lines in it from the episode 'Chosen' of BTVS. They are included herein due to the storyline advancement.
For those wondering where Riley is: He already sent a group there to help out. Buffy had them de-chip Spike and then told them to go.
As always: Feedback Please!
Wahoo (Wa'hoo) vi. 1. An exclamation of intense feeling. 2 An ancient American Indian saying that roughly translates to: We're all going to die.
Previously on Buffy…
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"For telling me the truth. For treating me like an adult."
"Not a problem Dawn."
"What about... You know... Wood."
"Honestly?" At her small nod he continued. "I told Giles that if I ever see Wood again I'll shoot him."
"Really?"
"Really. I have had it so damned much with those damned Council pukes I think I'll just shoot the next one of them I see." As he said this Xander pulled the heavy pistol out of its holster and brandished it slightly as Buffy or Faith would a sword.
At just this moment a knock occurred at the door and Xander turned and opened it fully without regard to whom or what might be on the other side.
The pistol automatically came up into position as the startled visage of Wesley Windham–Price filled the sights.
Angel and Cordelia's faces could be seen looking over Wesley's shoulder as they stared open mouthed at Xander pointing the gun in the ex-Watcher's face.
"Uhmm... I say, did we come at an inopportune time?"
---------------- Darkness Calls: Chapter 15
Hey, Hey, the Fangs all here...
Roughly thirty seconds of silence later…
"Uhmm… Xander are you going to shoot the ex-Watcher or are you going to let them come in? 'Cause it's getting drafty just standing here in an open doorway like this.
Luckily for all involved, Dawn's voice managed to get thru to Xander and he reluctantly lowered the pistol and motioned for the newly arrived Fang Gang to enter the house.
Obviously sweating a bit Wesley audibly gulped and then put on his typical British face and quietly entered.
"Sorry bout that Wes… We've had some real problems the last few days, especially with Watcher types… Kind of like cockroaches around here."
Balking for a moment, Wesley looked at Xander in some shock but managed to reply with a simple "I see."
"No Wes, you don't. Yet. But you will."
Smack
"OW!"
"Doofus! What the hell you doing pointing a gun at us?"
"Not you Cordy, just Wes actually."
Smack
"Ow! Damn it Cordy, cut that out."
"Then don't point pistols at my friends you goof!"
"Are you done yet? 'Cause others want in ya know?"
"Whatever." That being said she traipsed in as well.
Angel paused for a moment as he entered, his head snapping around and sniffing at Xander suddenly. "What the…?"
"Hey! Quit checking out the neck Overbite!" As Angel started to puff up, Xander simply stared at him. "Go ahead Deadboy, just go in already. We'll explain everything all at once. Trust me, it gets real interesting."
Angel spared him a glance that spoke of many things but entered the house anyway with Gunn and Fred following close behind.
It was a moment frozen in time, Angel and his small band standing in the middle of the Living Room with everyone who'd been researching looking up from their respective books at them.
Various people's mouths opened a couple of times yet no one spoke until there came a voice from the kitchen doorway.
"Angel."
"Buffy."
"Angel…" (Said in a totally neutral tone of voice)
"Spike." The reply came with a bit of inflection at the end. Sort of a 'damn, you are here' feeling.
"Spike." Cordy's voice didn't have a lot of warmth to it.
"Daddy!" from a corner of the Living Room next to Willow.
"Dru!?!" Even though he'd scented her earlier the puzzlement in his voice was obvious Her scent had changed.
"Faith! Mousketeer Roll Call; Sound Off!"
Everyone turned to regard the wildly grinning dark haired Slayer while Xander did his damnedest to not fall over laughing.
"What? You all think only X can make with the funnies?
"Uhmm… it's not that Faith... It's just I never figured you for…"
"What? I'll have you know that my sense of humor is just as fuckin refined as my language."
Xander and Dawn all lost any pretense of composure and about collapsed onto each other in laughter.
A few moments later most of the rest of the room joined them.
If some of the laughter held a tinge (or more) of the hysterical in it, no one saw fit to comment on the fact.
Cordelia was of course was the one to finally get fed up and demand to know just what in the hell was going on and where in the hell was Giles?
Buffy, Willow and Faith all shared a look while Spike just rolled his eyes in a 'Here we go again' expression that was plain to see.
"Righto then… Buffy why don't you and Xander explain the… well explain anyways. I'm going to keep researching 'K?"
Drusilla immediately rose and took Xander's hand heading towards the Dinning Room while all the newcomers looked on in utter bafflement.
"Huh? What? But?"
"Three bloody excellent questions. Come on then… Let's play this again." Spike muttered in disgust as he and Buffy headed towards the Dinning Room as well. His obvious dislike of Angel was rapidly coming out and Buffy pulled him quickly around to the backside of the table where Xander and Dru were now sitting.
Cordelia stared at Wes and Angel for a moment until Wes finally elbowed him and Angel pulled out a chair for Cordelia to sit in.
Finally sitting down himself he waited until the others had sat down before eying the four people opposite him. "Well?"
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Dawn looked up at Willow as the yelling started in the Dining Room for the fourth time in an hour. "Uhmm… Willow, do you think we should…"
"No." Willow didn't even bother looking up from the ancient book she was reading. Of course she hadn't bothered looking up from it for the last two times either. "They're big boys and girls; they can sort it out…" She finally looked up and met Dawn's eyes for a moment. "It'll be okay Dawnie." She silently added an 'I hope' to the end of that statement not entirely sure of it herself.
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Angel, Gunn and Wes's mouths were currently hanging open as Cordelia went off on Xander, whose firm grip on Drusilla's arm seemed to be all that was stopping her from going over the table at the Seer.
Spike had leaned back in his chair, the front legs of which were off the floor, with a grin on his face. He had a lot more respect for the young man than he'd ever before, but he still didn't like him, so he getting the brunt end of Cordelia's tirade made him a happy Vampire.
"Are you done yet?" Cordy sputtered a bit more but finally ended her rant. "Good. Now that that's out of the way…"
"What? Didn't you listen to a word I said?"
"Yep. Sure did. Didn't mean a damn thing, but I listened…"
"What!?! Why you…"
Buffy slammed her hand down on the table hard enough to make a couple of glasses dance briefly.
"Enough Cordy! Whatever is between Dru and Xander is between them. We got enough other crap on our plate without making this worse than it has to be."
Dru had finally calmed down enough that Xander was able to release her arm as he leaned forward and Buffy continued.
"Not like any of you have a lot to say anyways… glad to see you're out of the coma, Cody." Buffy's head turned to face Angel and Wesley. "Kind of interesting that none of you bothered to let any of us know what had happened." Winces from the other side of the table proved to her that her point was valid. "Now she's out of her coma and you are here 'cause of a vision she had… let's hear it."
It had been a hectic last hour in which the Los Angeles crew had discovered quite a few things to their amazement and in several cases full out disbelief: Xander and Dru, Buffy and Spike. Giles.
Now it was their turn to talk…
"Shortly after I awoke, I had a vision. It was of all of us in a graveyard, fighting." Cordy's voice took on a slightly mechanical tone as if she was reciting the information from a distance. "Willow, Anya and Xander are standing near a gravesite. There's someone else there as well but I couldn't make out who it was other than it was a female." Her voice slowly regained its normal timber. "Another female, I'm going with Drusilla here, and some other younger girls are guarding them. Our group and Buffy are fighting a bunch of weirdo's with no eyes and a huge group of regular Vampires when some really freaking weird Vampires showed up. Oh, and Spike was there also." She added almost flippantly.
"And then?" Buffy's voice was more than a little strained at this time and Spike reached out to hold her hand briefly much to Angel's dislike.
"That was it… that's all I saw."
"Damn." Xander's expletive trailed off, voicing what just about everyone else at the table was thinking.
-----------------------
Meanwhile in the Living Room:
Anya squeaked a little and leaned in even closer to Andrew as they read through the tome.
"You two find anything or you just getting your kinks on?" Faith asked with a leer.
Anya glared at her for a moment before looking back down again. "We may have found something but we need to cross check it."
"Ok" Willow noted looking up for a moment. "Let me know soonest please."
Faith looked over at Willow and Dawn sitting in the corner with a huge pile of books between them. Making her way quietly over to them she perched on the armrest of Willow's chair and tried reading over her shoulder for a moment before the squiggles on the page hurt her eyes.
"Damn Red, you can read this shit?"
Willow sighed for a moment before flipping the page and scanning down its contents while absently answering Faith. "Yea, me, Anya and Dawn are working on all the real esoteric stuff. Demon languages and all that."
"Oh. Cool that…"
Dawn looked up and spared them both a brief smile before closing the book in her hands and flipping it negligently to the side as she pulled another one out of the stack. "One more down… several dozen to go…."
"Red…" Faith started hesitantly.
"Yes Faith?"
"Uhmmm…" She leaned in a little more towards the slender redhead, lowering her voice. "Have you given any thought to… you know, after?"
Willow looked up to the dark haired beauty sitting so very close to her and swallowed reflexively. "Which 'After' Faith? After this big-bad? After we die? Which after?" She asked just as quietly in return.
"Uhmm… After this battle."
Willow had started to read again but stopped and looked at Faith. Then she really 'looked' at her. "I'm going to take a looooong vacation. Somewhere with lots of sun. And then I'll do… Willowy things I guess."
"What about…?"
She turned a little and stared Faith in the eyes. "I don't know. I guess that's up to him. And her." She paused for moment. "You?"
"Don't know. Never been one to back-track before. Adding in her…"
Willow's face clouded for a moment. "I thought… well I could tell that you're not against girls when Drusilla sorta linked us."
"Huh? Oh no, that's not it. I'm 'five by five' with girls actually." She grinned a little and wiggled a hand suggestively. "Literally."
Willow promptly squeaked and blushed, obviously going visual.
"It's just… kind of hypocritical to be thinking like B after flipping her so much shit, see?"
Willow's blush disappeared instantly. "Yes, Faith. I do."
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A large folder sat in the middle of the table, the logo for Wolfram & Hart across the center.
"We could have Willow go through that, see if there's anything new or useful." Buffy finally said. "Reliable source?"
"Not remotely."
Xander and Spike both snorted at the same time at Angel's comment and then turned to glare at each other. Amazingly enough, Buffy, Cordelia and Drusilla all exchanged a knowing look between them at their antics.
"Any port in an apocalypse." Buffy finally supplied.
"I brought something else as well."
At this announcement everyone looked at Angel in expectation as he removed a silver amulet with a multi-faceted crystal at its center from his pocket and laid it on the table.
"I can already tell you, I have nothing that goes with that." Buffy quipped.
"I did… but I lost the dress in Prague." Dru added dreamily. Everyone spared her a glance for just a moment and then returned to the matter at hand.
"It's not for either of you."
"Splainy?"
"I don't know everything. It's very powerful and probably very dangerous. It has a purifying power… cleansing power… possibly scrubbing bubbles. The translation is… anyway, it bestows strength to the right person who wears it."
Xander started getting seriously nervous. Deadboy had actually cracked a joke. A lame one perhaps, but a joke none the less.
"And the right person is?" Spike finally decided to reenter the conversation that he'd stepped out of much earlier.
"Someone ensouled but stronger than human. A champion. As in me."
"Or me." Buffy supplied.
"Or me, Spike, Dru or even Willow." Xander stated calmly even as Angel was answering Buffy and Spike leaned forward to inspect the amulet a little closer.
"No. I don't know nearly enough about this to risk you wearing it. Besides, you've got that real cool axe-thing going for you."
Buffy winced even as he said the words. "Actually… that would be Faith's Axe-thingy."
"Oh…Yea."
The quiet grew for a few moments while everyone digested all of the information.
"Now what?"
"Now we have Willow double check the info. And the amulet."
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Willow put aside her book and shifted thru the papers quickly discarding several as being pure bullshit and focusing on a lone few pages sitting on the Living Room table.
Anya had aimed Andrew at Dawn in order to have her recheck what they'd found in an ancient codex, while she wandered over and started poking at the amulet. Where did you get this at?" she asked. "Hello! Anybody listening here? I asked where you got this at."
Angel finally turned to her "From Lilah Morgan."
Anya started muttering to herself and continued poking at the amulet.
"What you doing Ahn?"
"Huh? Oh, I've seen some pieces like this before… Nasty pieces of work they were. Kind of surprised that one would be used for the Good-guys."
Xander could feel the hairs on the back of his head start to rise. "Uhmm… Yo, Deadboy, who exactly gave this to you?"
Irritated, Angel looked up from where he'd been going over the papers with Willow. "I already told you Xander, Lilah Morgan."
"And she works with...? Xander asked leadingly while looking at Anya out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh, she used to be with Wolfram and Hart…" His voice trailed off as he watched Anya's face turn a pasty white. Slowly and methodically she got up, walked over to one of the Potentials and quietly asked her to borrow something.
The sound of the heavy mace smashing the amulet into pieces made everyone in the room jump as Anya brought it down in a vicious double hand blow.
Buffy started to go off but stopped almost immediately at the sheepish look on Angel's face.
"Was it really that bad a piece of jewelry?" She finally asked.
Anya drew herself up self consciously and just glared at Buffy for a moment, before replying in a snippy tone of voice. "Not if you like having your soul stuffed into storage for anyone to use as a personal power source or punching bag."
A collective 'Ouch' was heard thru the room almost but not quite drowning out the "But it would have looked lovely with the red gown" comment that came from Dru.
Buffy shook her head and looked around the room wondering out loud just what else could go wrong.
The silence that followed that question could have been cut with a knife.
"Tell me I didn't just say that out loud."
"Wish I could love." Spike answered as most of the people present glared at them both.
Just then Dawn and Andrew moved forward and flopped an oversized tome onto the table in front of Willow.
"And the answer to that question is…" Andrew started dramatically until Dawn elbowed him roughly.
"What the geek here means to say, is that we found the way to put all the Slayer stuff back into one package."
"Why do I get the feeling there's a 'BUT' coming in here right about now?" Gunn added from the sidelines.
"Well." Willow started. "According to this, all we need to do is perform this ritual at the scene of the Breaking of the Power, at the same time of day that the original breaking occurred with the same partici..." Her face became a deathly pale, as her voice trailed off and she looked like she might throw up.
Dawn looked at her in a mix of pity and pain "That would mean you, Anya, Xander…"
"And Tara." Anya and Xander said at the same time.
End of Chapter 15
Expect the next within around two weeks… we're almost done folks.
QSK/Patrick