Thanks for the reviews, they always give me warm fuzzies. :) Apologies again for the slow updates. The good news is that I've worked out a possible ending and I'm confident I'll be finishing this fic. Eventually.
The sun was approaching its zenith. Buffy sat at the bottom of the front steps using a knife to sharpen stakes. Considering how often she kept glancing at the road, it was a wonder her thumb was still attached.
Other than the always present armed guards, she was the only one not attending the town meeting inside. Judging from the shouts Buffy could hear even through the closed doors, things weren't going so well. Not that she was surprised since she knew all too well that Faith couldn't tell them what they wanted to hear. The slayers had pounded out several plans, all variations on the same theme -- racing to the city's outskirts as fast as humanly possible -- but in the end everything depended on Willow and her ability to break through the barrier. They couldn't make any final decisions without consulting the witch.
Which left Buffy with nothing to do but take stock of the weapons supply and...brood. She couldn't rid herself of the nagging feeling that she'd failed Angel and Spike. What she needed was the reassurance of her best friend...
A momentary swell of voices alerted Buffy that someone was coming out. Over her shoulder she observed Jean trudge down the steps.
"Hi Buffy."
"Hey."
After a moment's hesitation Jean sat beside Buffy, linking her hands beneath her knees. "I needed some air. It's getting a little heated in there."
"Yeah, that tends to happen when people are in headless chicken mode."
Jean gave her a curious look. "You don't think they have good reason to panic?"
"They have the best reason ever. But it still number one on the list of Least Helpful Things to Do When Demons Attack."
"Not everyone has your strength and experience."
Buffy looked her up and down. "I don't see you screaming and hollering."
"I don't have that luxury," Jean said with a rueful shrug. "I have to look out for Melissa and Abby."
"Some would say that's an even better reason to panic." She waved the knife towards the auditorium. "Are the girls okay in there?"
"Sure. They're playing in the dressing rooms with the other kids."
Hesitating, Buffy lay down her knife. "Hey, I'm sorry about your husband. I wanted to tell you that before, but we kinda got interrupted."
Jean nodded, mouth pursed into something halfway between a smile and a grimace. She stared into the distance. "It's just hard, you know. Losing someone you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with."
"Yeah," Buffy said around the lump in her throat. Again she found herself thinking of Angel. It'd been a long time since she'd believed they had a future together, yet she was feeling his loss as acutely as the night she'd sent him to hell.
A minute passed in silence.
Jean cleared her throat. "I haven't told anyone what Willow said, about no one being able to get out -- everyone's freaked out as it is -- but I have to know: Are we going to survive this?"
Buffy traced her fingertips along the stake she held, testing its sharpness, taking comfort in the solid strength of the pinewood. She felt she owed Jean an honest answer, but the last thing they needed was another Chicken Little running around the auditorium.
"It's not for me to say," Buffy said. "All I can tell you is that I've been in worse situations...and I'm still standing."
"Because you're a slayer."
"Because I didn't fight alone." Buffy smiled at the surprise in Jean's eyes. "I had Willow and Faith. And there were others..." Disjointed memories of friends and lovers whirled through her mind. She inhaled a deep breath. "Our best chance of surviving is to work together. Fighting amongst ourselves is a sure ticket to a horrible painful death."
Jean made a face. "Thanks for not sugar coating it...I think." She cocked her head towards the auditorium. "Maybe you should be making your point in there."
Buffy shook her head. "Those people don't know me. But they trust Faith; if anyone can hold them together, it'll be her."
Stretching her arms, Jean stood. "I should go check on the girls." She looked down at Buffy. "You have the strangest life."
"You haven't heard my best stories yet."
Jean paused, shook her head in a bemused fashion, and moved away, leaving Buffy to return to her contemplation. She picked up the knife.
"Buffy!" The shout came from the road.
Buffy stood, relief surging through her at the sight of Willow and Connor hurtling down the road. They were moving so fast, she thought they were being chased at first, but nothing appeared behind them.
Willow came off the bike without braking properly and nearly introduced her face to the concrete paving. Buffy cringed, but Willow stumbled on, unfazed, her face glowing as if from a caffeine-induced high.
Meeting her halfway, Buffy reached out to steady her friend. "Will, slow down. What's got you all--"
"Buffy, I know how to find Angel!"
She felt the blood drain from her face. "But Angel's..."
"Angel's what?" Connor joined them, dragging both bikes. "Did you find him already?"
"No, I..." Buffy saw his bandaged shoulder and bloodied t-shirt. "What happened?" Her alarm grew as she noticed how dusty and scratched up they both were. She grabbed Willow's arm to inspect her injuries.
"Buffy, I'm fine," Willow said, yanking her arm away. "We just ran into some...feral cats, that's all."
"Cats did this?"
"Well, they were cat-like. But that doesn't matter now." Willow bounced on her toes. "Didn't you hear me? I found a way to locate Angel."
"I heard you. Are...are you sure about this, Will?"
"Absolutely. Okay, not a hundred percent cause no magic is a hundred percent, but pretty sure. It's just a variation on your standard locator spell. I don't know why I didn't think of it before...kinda obvious with the vampire-blood connection. But I guess not all the brain cells are firing..." Willow finally noticed Buffy's lack of enthusiasm. "Why so down in the dumpy, Buffy? I thought you'd be happy."
"I am." Buffy forced a smile. "See, happy face."
"Yeesh, you look like the Joker," Connor said.
Buffy dropped the smile. "And you oughta spend more time reading books instead of comics."
"Hey, Batman is a classic!"
"Cut it out," said Willow, also losing her smile.
"He started it," Buffy said, glaring at Connor.
He glared back. "And you've been on my case ever since you got here."
"That's enough!" Willow said. "God, you two are worse than...than Sylvester and Tweety. Well, I don't need your negative vibes screwing up my spell. And neither does Angel."
With a toss of her head, she stomped off. Sneaking a sheepish glance at Buffy, Connor slunk away, the bikes rattling in his wake.
A part of Buffy knew she should call Willow back and tell her to start working on a way to break through the barrier. Yet she couldn't help nurturing the tiny hope that Angel and his gang were still alive somewhere in the city. Surely it wouldn't hurt to let Willow perform one teensy locator spell.
Faith exited the auditorium and paused to chat with Willow. Wrestling with her conscience, Buffy observed the pair, sure that the dark-haired slayer would take the decision out of her hands and put the whammy on Willow's plan. But after a minute witch and slayer parted without any apparent discord, Willow entering the foyer and Faith skipping down the steps towards Buffy.
"You didn't tell her, did you?" Buffy said as soon as Faith was within earshot.
Looking a little too nonchalant, Faith shrugged. "Figured it couldn't hurt to let her try."
"Okay, what's with the 180? You said Angel was--"
"I know what I said." Faith glanced over at the stacked bicycles, where Connor was fiddling with the seat on one. "You wanna tell the kid his dad's blowing in the wind? Cause I sure as hell don't."
Buffy gritted her teeth. "What do we do when the spell doesn't work?"
"Nothing. We let Willow explain it."
"She'll think it's her fault."
Averting her eyes, Faith raked a hand through her hair. "Right now, Connor needs to believe Angel's still alive."
Buffy watched Connor take the front steps two at a time and disappear into the foyer. "You can't protect him forever."
"I can try. For Angel's sake."
With a dramatic finger-point worthy of Nancy Drew, Buffy said, "So you do believe Connor's his son."
Faith rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like I wanted to get into that discussion with you. Don't we have enough issues?"
Buffy could hardly argue with that. "You're right. Issues galore." She sighed; she didn't feel quite as old as Methuselah, but she was getting there. "Did you tell her about the plan?"
"Was I supposed to?"
Buffy sighed again, and trotted up the steps.
After wandering through the packed auditorium for ten minutes, Buffy found Willow sitting cross-legged in a corner of the foyer, almost hidden among the piles of cardboard boxes. She wore a clean blue t-shirt, but the lustre of her bright red hair remained muted by a fine coating of dust. As Willow daubed her arms with stinky herbal cream, Buffy insinuated herself into the small space. The witch looked up.
"Buffy, hey. Um, I'm not ready yet. It's gonna take me at least a couple of hours to prepare the spell."
"That long?" As she sank to the floor Buffy's misgivings returned with a vengeance. They were running low on time as it was, and she was well aware that a couple of hours could make all the difference.
"I have to tweak the spell," Willow said, oblivious to Buffy's mental struggles. "Find a way to incorporate Connor's blood into the mix. And I'll have to make Connor invisible to the spell or it might fixate on him. That's going to take time."
Buffy opened her mouth intending to tell Willow to forget about the locator spell, but the words stuck in her throat. She couldn't do it; she couldn't shut the door on Angel and Spike and the others.
"Buffy?" Willow was staring at her.
She swallowed. "It's nothing."
"Uh huh," Willow said, arching an eyebrow. "Well, why don't you humour me and get "nothing" off your chest."
Leaning her elbows on her knees, Buffy hunched forward. "The natives are getting restless, that's all. They know this protection spell is about to go kaput and they want out."
"Oh," Willow said, frowning.
"Look, Faith has got some gas stockpiled. Now we figure if we shuttle the injured and young'uns in the car and everyone else double times it, we should make it to the barrier in a few hours. So I need you to work on making a hole in it as soon as you're done here."
"That's the plan?" Willow gulped. "The...only plan?"
"The only one that doesn't involve death and dismemberment. It's not fancy, I'll grant you, but it'll get the job done."
"It's a good plan, really...except for the actual escaping part." As if searching for a way out, her eyes darted around the foyer before finally landing on Buffy. "I can't break through the shield," Willow confessed.
"Huh." Buffy waited for Willow to grin and yell "Psych", but as the seconds ticked by it dawned on her that Willow wasn't joking. "Okay, I know I didn't mention the part where all our lives depend on you, but I kinda thought it was screamingly obvious. Emphasis on the screaming."
Willow winced. "Oh goody. More pressure."
Buffy felt a stab of remorse. "Will, I'm sorry." She squeezed Willow's knee. "But...I don't get it. Yesterday you were all confident wicca gal. What's changed?"
"Nothing's changed." Willow busied herself with packing up her first-aid kit. "We were outside then."
"What's the diff?"
"We weren't inside," Willow said, as if that explained everything.
Buffy clenched her jaw. "Will, remember how I'm the village idiot when it comes to magic stuff?"
Willow quirked her mouth. "Buffy, the barrier was made to keep the demons in. It's like prison -- harder to break out than it is to break in." She thought for a second. "Unless you're Faith."
"You're leaving me with zero options here." Closing her eyes, Buffy massaged her scalp with her fingers.
"I know. I know the clock is ticking, but...right now I don't know how to get us out of L.A. I do know how to find Angel."
Buffy felt as if she was standing before a set of giant scales levering up and down. On one side -- several hundred innocent lives. On the other -- Angel, Spike, Wesley... In theory, it was no contest. Angel himself would've said so. But her need to know, once and for all, whether Angel was still alive overwhelmed all other considerations. Hoping she wouldn't come to regret her decision, Buffy nodded.
"Okay. We'll do this the Willow way."
Willow smiled, but she seemed oddly subdued. Taking a closer look at her friend, Buffy was startled to realise how pale and washed out Willow looked. She couldn't possibly have lost weight just in the last day, yet she appeared frighteningly stick figury.
"When was the last time you ate?" Buffy demanded in her best mom voice.
Willow started. "What? Oh, er..." Evading Buffy's gaze, she began rummaging inside her bag as if she was trying to dive right in.
Buffy crossed her arms. "If you have to think about it, I'm not gonna like the answer."
Giving up, Willow came up for air. "Last night. But I'm good, really. I'll eat something as soon as I've--"
"Angel can wait five minutes. You're not going to do him much good if you pass out."
"You sound like Giles," Willow said with a wistful smile. She looked down, fingering the amethyst set in her silver bangle. "I wish he was here."
"Given the direness of our situation, I'm kinda glad he's not," Buffy said as she shifted to her knees to forage in several of the cardboard boxes. She held up a can. "How do you feel about pickled herrings?"
Willow blanched.
"Relax," Buffy said, suppressing a grin. "I saved you some cookies."
Three hours later Buffy, Faith, Connor and Willow gathered at the side of the auditorium, where the rental car was parked in the shade of an oak tree. A map of L.A. was laid out on the bonnet, anchored in each corner with a pebble, and dotted with patches of sunlight filtering through the branches.
Connor stood beside the car, clutching a clear quartz crystal ball as if it were a grenade. Buffy watched Willow prick his finger and collect several drops of blood in a vial. If this spell worked there would be no denying Connor was who he claimed to be. She felt a momentary ache, like a splinter in her heart, a longing for something she could never have.
Willow inhaled a deep breath and emptied a small bowl of fine powder into her hand. Facing Connor, she began chanting in Latin. Buffy had no idea if it was in fact Latin, but it was all Latin to her. The witch blew the powder over Connor, who sneezed. The crystal ball glowed for a second and faded.
Nodding in satisfaction, Willow turned to the map. Holding another clear crystal in her palm, this one faceted like a diamond, Willow began another chant, dripping Connor's blood onto the crystal. As she finished the incantation she cast the crystal into the air. It stopped in mid-air above the centre of the map and started spinning.
Buffy caught her breath; she'd never lost her awe for Willow's abilities. The crystal began emitting golden rays which swept over each quadrant of the map and finally coalesced into a single beam which zeroed in on the L.A. zoo.
They watched the beam fade away in silence, absorbing the revelation. Buffy was torn between jumping for joy and not wanting to get her hopes up. She looked up and saw Faith staring at the map, sheer disbelief on her face.
"What would they be doing at the zoo?" Willow said.
"I'm thinking smorgasbord," Faith said, tearing her eyes from the map. Everyone stared at her. "What? They need blood, right?"
Willow's eyes widened. "You mean like koala bears and orang-utans?"
Buffy patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Will. I'm sure Angel and Spike'll eat the ugly animals first."
Willow moaned.
"Oops," Buffy said. "Did I say first? I meant only."
Mouth curved downward, Willow looked unconvinced.
"What're we waiting for? Let's go," Connor said, shaking powder off his head.
Buffy hesitated. With morale on the downslide she didn't think it a good idea for both Connor and Faith to leave the troops. And when it came down to it she preferred Faith at her side.
Connor had a mutinous look in his eye, as if he knew what she was thinking. About to speak, Buffy was pre-empted by a flare of purple light. She snapped her head round to see a purple glow emanating from her best friend.
Lifting her arm, Willow stared at the pulsating amethyst in her bangle.
"What the hell?" Faith said, falling back a step.
"Willow?" Buffy stretched out a hand, but stopped short of touching her friend.
Luminous, Willow smiled at Buffy. "It's Xander."
Buffy blinked. "Xander? How? Where?"
"I don't know." Willow bit her lip. "I'll have to teleport to wherever he is."
"Hey. Whoa." Afraid Willow would literally disappear, Buffy grasped her hand. "No premature teleportations. We'll go find him together."
"There's no time, Buffy. You know that." Gently she disengaged her hand. "It's okay. You go get Angel. I'll bring Xander back." Before Buffy could respond, Willow vanished in a tornado of sparkly light.
After a moment Buffy closed her mouth and looked at Faith and Connor.
"I'm coming with you," Connor said, his hands clenched.
She so did not have time for this. "Fine. Get in the car, Junior."
His eyes boggled, then he bolted to the car, throwing his axe in before him.
Buffy snickered. "Looks like you drew the short straw," she said to Faith.
"Huh?"
"Someone's gotta stay here and babysit."
"Oh no. No way."
Buffy clapped a hand on Faith's shoulder. "It sucks to be the responsible one, but I know you're up to the challenge, grasshopper," Buffy said in tones of mock superiority. The dark-haired slayer looked from Buffy to Connor and back.
"Why does he get to go?" whined Faith, though her expression was already resigned.
"Because I'm driving and he's expendable."
"Hmm, good point," Faith said, way too quickly.
Buffy frowned. "I was kidding. My driving's not that bad."
"It's not that good either," Faith said, flashing a grin. Her mood seemed to have improved -- at Buffy's expense.
Scowling, Buffy grabbed the map and rounded the car. "Everyone's a comedian," she muttered. As she opened the door, Faith called her name and she looked up.
"Good luck," Faith said. "Tell Angel I'm gonna kick his ass."
Buffy snorted. "Get in line."
For those of you who've been wondering when Angel shows up, he pops up in the next chapter.