Chapter 16
Amy walked to the far side of the anti-chamber to the main hall. Morgana had left instructions for her to do all she could to delay the Entwined, but Amy had no intention of sticking to the plan. She saw this as her opportunity to kill Willow, and she was determined to take it.
As she heard the footsteps approaching Amy could feel her adrenaline flowing within her. Her heart raced faster than it had ever done before. The excitement was reaching delirium, and she hoped for the briefest of moments, that it would stay just like this forever.
Willow and Tara entered the room from the far left side, their gaze fixed upon the doorway ahead of them. For the briefest of moments, Willow allowed her eyesight to flick to her right hand side, and she reacted on instinct.
"Tara down!!" Willow pulled her lover down to the ground with her. Flames shot out above them for a moment before the ball of flame impacted on the near wall and spread it's fiery tongues along the stonework.
Tara saw the next ball of flame hurtle towards them and saw Amy smiling as she mouthed her words and another ball of flame appeared in her hands. Tara pointed at the oncoming fireball with a single finger of her left hand, stopping it dead in its tracks. The flames began to die as, with the aid of Tara's incantation, a slow breeze enveloped it and turned the fire in on itself.
Amy paused. She had not expected such a show of power, and such a calm demeanour. She had assumed that Willow was the greater threat, and that Tara was merely a minor irritant, but now she sensed that Tara may be as strong as her lover. Amy relished the challenge. Killing Tara would not only be rewarding as a kill, but would shatter Willow.
Willow regained her feet, and looked directly into Amy's eyes. "Why?"
"Why not? You ruined my life, any chance I had, and you got away with it for too long. Well no more."
"Any ruining you did to your life you did to yourself. Willow did what she could to help you but you wanted to drag her down to your pain and when she wouldn't play ball you got petty. Well, payback's a bitch, Amy, and I'm just the bitch you need." Tara could barely control the anger within, her tone was venomous but she knew that Amy had to be talked down, if there was any hope of settling this without the bloodshed Amy was seeking.
Willow was shocked at the tone in Tara's voice, but she saw that her anger came from her love for Willow and her anger over what had happened to Willow during that dark time they were away from each other in Sunnydale.
"Tara. Are you going to be okay to deal with her?"
"Go, take care of Morgana. Leave Amy with me. She won't be a problem."
Buffy pushed on, determined to press home her advantage that she had gained on Philippe. At her left side, she saw Gabriel swinging his sword, Giles to her right. Their efforts were no more than distractions, she knew, but she appreciated the help nonetheless.
Philippe swung his sword, crouching as he turned, slicing at Giles, hitting him in the thigh and spraying blood as the wound opened.
Giles screamed, the pain almost too much to bear. He dropped, unable to keep balance or even take a tactical retreat. He crawled back, determined to get out of harm's way as fast as possible.
Buffy lunged at Philippe, anger darkening her vision. All thoughts now focused on pressing her strength on him. Every thrust, every swipe, clinical and precise in its targeting. But yet, for all the hits she placed upon him, she could not force things through. Buffy saw that Philippe, although beaten back, was not sustaining any injury from her blows. Worse yet, she could feel herself tiring, her anger having sapped at her strength more than she had intended.
Gabriel pulled Buffy back. "Remember, Miss Summers, Defence! Justice! Nobility! You cannot use Excalibur in any other way! Mister Giles will live but if you intend to ensure the rest of us do you have to focus. Move!!!" Gabriel swung in to block Philippe's head bound blow, metal clanging against metal as the two swordsman locked eyes. Gabriel, felt the surge of power within him, and gave into it. His eyes turned black, as did his hair and nails, and he smiled cruelly.
Buffy saw the transformation, and saw the change in style. Instead of the cautious and defensive attacks that had been his style until that moment, now he attacked with inhuman ferocity. Every movement tinged with determination. To her astonishment, she saw Philippe grimace under some of the blows, which only seemed to increase the speed and accuracy of the attacks. With every strike that hit home, it appeared as if Gabriel let out a little sigh, such as those she had often done under physical assertion of a very different kind. Is he getting off on the pain he is inflicting, she thought to herself.
Allowing herself one more glance back to see that Giles was indeed fine, Buffy settled her breathing, and focused her mind only on the task at hand. She thought about the three words, defence, justice and nobility, and allowed those words to enter her thoughts and her soul.
Willow walked through the doorway, and entered the chamber that lay beyond. It was bare, save for the tapestries that lined the walls. Images of legendary women, strong women, powerful women and, unlike the cheesy art of many a fantasy scribe, they were tastefully and properly armoured and clothed for the period. No chain mail bikinis to be seen.
"They were the great warriors of their age. I could have given you such power, Willow. You could have been a tapestry to rival these great figures." Morgana's voice seemed oddly sad, as if her offer had been at some level genuine, but the layer of venom that coated her words seemed more telling of her priorities.
"I have enough power. Enough to do this!" Willow thrust her hand forward, Ancient words following them as she pointed them towards Morgana.
Morgana could feel the choking vapours that engulfed her, felt the lack of air and for a brief moment, felt a little death escape her. She smiled. "So, you've come to show me 'a little death'. Well, this could be more fun than I had anticipated. Ready to dance, lover?"
With a nonchalant wave of her hand, Morgana cleared the vapours from around her and focused back on Willow. Now Willow could feel the ground before her shake, the very stones that she stood upon felt soft, and she could feel herself sink, slowly.
Amy launched her fireball, determined to keep Tara on the ropes. She had underestimated the witch's power, and found herself in a battle she realised that she could not win without devious tactics.
Focusing her attention completely on Amy, Tara cut the distance between them in moments. Catching Amy off-guard with the speed of her movement, Tara clenched her fist and lashed out. Her punch caught Amy across the left cheek, knocking her to the ground.
Amy felt the sting on her cheek, the warmth in her mouth from the blood. She stared at Tara, malice her only thought. With a swipe of her hand in the air, Amy ripped through Tara's flesh at her knee, knocking the witch to the ground. "Bitch. Eh? I'll show you what a witch can really do when she's pissed!"
Amy's eyes blackened as she thrust both her hands towards Tara. The force threw Tara across the room, hitting the far wall and dropping her to the ground like a rag doll thrown by a child in a tantrum.
Tara tried to stand up, tried to gain her footing, but the gash in her knee was bleeding profusely, and she could feel her strength leaving her. She heard sounds from the through the doorway and saw Willow, attempting to pull herself from the quicksand floor that was forming beneath her. She knew that Willow was capable of levitation but saw that her lover couldn't rise, couldn't escape.
Willow struggled, unable to grasp any hand or foothold that would allow her to escape from the quicksand.
"You have two choices, Willow. You can sink here into this mud and drown, or you can join with me and I will add your power to my own. You die, either way, but at least the latter one allows you to die with some pleasure. You could even bring your lover. A little ménage e trois never hurt anyone."
"You disgust me! You won't touch me, or Tara. Not while we are alive!"
"Have it your way! But you may want to turn your head and say your goodbyes. Parting can be such a sweet sorrow, I hear!"
Willow looked to her right, out of the door she had entered and saw Tara there. She could see the blood from Tara's leg, and the weakened look in her eyes. Eyes fixed upon the blonde, Willow saw Tara mouth the words "Don't worry! I'll be okay!"
She saw the wall above Tara begin to shake and buckle. Tara, instinctively, was attempting to place a shield around herself. The wall broke, large boulders rained down upon Tara, knocking her down, and knocking her out.
Willow screamed out, her heart breaking with every crash of rubble. As the dust settled, she saw Tara lying there, blood trickling from her head. Tears rolled down Willow's cheeks, and it felt as if her very soul was escaping through her tear ducts.
Gabriel was enjoying himself, more than probably the Coven or the Avalon survivors would allow but here and now, he was in ecstasy. He knew that Buffy would soon take over, and Philippe would be defeated, but until then he could have his fun, and what fun it was.
Philippe tried his best to counter the ferocious flurry of attacks that came at him, but knew he was being hit time and again. Whilst his armoured skin protected him from cuts, he could still feel the blows, and they stung. This mortal man was hurting him, and he did not like that.
Buffy moved in now, her demeanour calm and focused upon Philippe. She swung Excalibur with a renewed sense of purpose. Raising the sword above her head, Buffy swung down onto Philippe. She saw Philippe's sword break from the strength of the blow, and the look of shock and fear in his eyes and expression. The tide was turning, she thought, and now is the time to finish this.
Dawn felt a sense of relief, the battle with Morgana's guards had taken a lot out of her and the magic used by the witch's followers had tested her as well but here she stood, still strong, still in one piece. She now accompanied Althanea and Michelle as they wandered the rooms of the castle, hoping that somewhere there would be something to give the Entwined an added edge. They had said Willow and Tara needed no edge, but as they were not yet the Entwined, they were leaving nothing to chance.
The castle corridors felt cold, no warmth emanated from the walls or even from the candles that intermittently lit the halls. Dawn felt the chill, but let it go. Plenty of time to get cold later, she thought.
They had climbed a set of stairs and now found themselves in the main bedchamber of Morgana. For a few instances, they saw no movement, and then they heard the slight and muffled breathing from the bed.
Michelle pulled back the bed covers, revealing an old woman, looking drained and dying. "What is your name, child?" Asked Michelle, her voice full of warm concern.
"Kerry." The response was weary and raspy.
"What's wrong with her?" Dawn asked.
"Morgana has fed from her. We are fortunate. We can save her life and help the Entwined." Althanea wandered around the room as she spoke, collecting items. "We can reverse the effects. Give Kerry her life force back and weaken Morgana in doing so."
"So how does she feed or don't I want to know?"
"Let me put it this way, there is an awful lot of energy that the body gives out during lovemaking. Morgana harnesses it, like a Succubus, keeping her young and powerful. Reducing her victims to hollowed-out corpses. We must have interrupted her in feeding." Michelle had a playful inflection to her voice, seeing the embarrassment that it was causing Dawn.
"Dawn, Michelle and I will require your assistance here in the circle. If we act now, we can give Morgana a real fright."
Gabriel opened his eyes. He was always grateful for the white magic that purged his system but it always left him feeling drained. He turned his head to the right, and saw a bemused Giles staring at him.
"So, is that how they keep you under control? Dosing you with the pure essence of magic."
"Worked on Miss Rosenberg."
"Willow was different. She was erratic. You knew what you were doing. Don't dare try and compare the two of you."
"I would disagree, Mister Giles, as do the Coven. And if we want to talk about willingly dabbling in black magic, I can think of a far better example." Gabriel stared directly into Giles' eyes, accusation in his gaze.
"Touché." Giles wanted to continue the argument, but knew that at some level at least, the young Watcher was right. Besides, the gash on his leg wouldn't heal by itself.
"Now, let me help you with that wound, Mister Giles. That is, if you don't feel I might get off on not helping you."
Philippe retreated. He could feel the inevitable road he was now on and was determined to keep his fate off until it was unavoidable. But he wanted to take the Slayer down with him. At his feet he saw a sword. Not runic, but whole. In one majestic, athletic move he back-flipped, grabbing the sword en route and landed in a defensive posture.
Buffy was impressed at the athletic skill, and secretly glad. As much as she knew the danger this man posed, she still had a hard time with the concept of killing an unarmed foe. But now he was armed, and that meant she could clear her conscience and take the only action left to her.
Buffy swung, once more slicing across the mid rift. She saw Philippe swing the sword down to block the approaching blade, and twisted in the air. With blinding speed and precision Buffy changed the attack to an overhead downward slice. Philippe was unable to move, unable to block.
The blade cleaved Philippe's head in two down the centre. Excalibur continued its downward force, Buffy unaware of the fact that her blow had succeeded. The blade continued, cutting through Philippe's organs and ribs as it followed its downward course.
Buffy could feel it stop, and looked down to se what had stopped it, and saw another blade there, halting its progress. She recognised the blade, and turned to see Gabriel standing beside her.
"I couldn't stop it. It just went through. Everything happened so fast. One second the sword was above my head, the next you've got your blade on it."
"Never seen it used quite so successfully, Miss Summers. You truly are noble of spirit. No wonder you took on all comers in Sunnydale. But you've done your duty. The rest is up to the Entwined."
Willow felt the quicksand around her waist, pulling her further down. She wiped the tears from her eyes. She knew that any struggling would cause her to sink even lower. So Willow kept still, praying to the Goddesses if they wanted to listen to send her help, or at least speed her demise. The waiting was the most terrifying.
Willow glanced once more at Tara's body, with Amy standing over her. It wasn't meant to be this way. Weren't they meant to be together forever?
"Poor, poor Willow. And the sad part is, you will die and go wherever your kind go and Tara will be in the Veil and you will never again meet. As punishments go, it is a truly fitting one. You have Amy to thank for that." Morgana couldn't help her cold, callous chuckle at the cruelty of it all.
Willow closed her eyes. For her the light had gone, and now she wished to see nothing. She felt cold, a gnawing emptiness that filled her. The emptiness that had once caused her to nearly fry the world in retribution's flames.
Willow breathed out, and felt a warmth within her, a warmth that grew to embrace her. She knew who it was, could feel it within her. Tara?
I'm here. Nice thing about a light show, it can hide what you are doing.
Is this one goodbye before you go?
Only place I am going is back in my body once we have defeated Morgana.
You're not dead?
Hope not! Not planning on it anytime soon!
Willow opened her eyes, which dazzled white and clear. She spread her arms out and raised herself out of the quicksand by thought alone.
Morgana retreated, this was not going as she had expected. She signalled to Amy to come to her side, to aid her.
Willow threw her right arm out, pushing Amy back through the void. "Deal with you in a moment!" Her voice was that of the Entwined. Willow and Tara spoke the words in unison, the voices coming together as a harmonious symphony.
"Together? How? It's not possible!"
"I told Willow long ago, without knowledge, power becomes dangerous. You have power, Morgana, but no knowledge of its source or its potential. Instead you use it for petty thrills and power plays. All so mighty, yet so weak. And you are about to get a lot weaker."
Morgana could feel it, her strength waning, her body crippling in front of their eyes. She tried to hold on to the energy that was leaving her, but could not.
"It is working. I can feel the young girl's energy returning to its rightful vessel." Althanea kept her eyes closed, allowing the energy to wash over her, towards Kerry.
"Feeling faint, Morgana?" The Entwined asked.
"What have you done to me?" Morgana could see small lines across her hands and arms, the lines of wrinkled age.
"Your last victim. You didn't drain them completely did you? They have their life force back again now. And that makes you just a little easier to deal with."
"I will not allow you to take Wyngarde from me. There will be no happy ending for the Court of Dreams. The New World will not be protected from our forces. We have our stronghold and you will not break it."
The Entwined smiled, her eyes burned white, black and then red. She raised her arms, arcane words and phrases uttered from a dark and deep voice.
Morgana tried to run, tried to shield herself, from the end. She felt the pain, the sphere of light that surrounded her, cutting her off from all around her. She could feel her life ebbing away from her as the sphere tightened around her. It gripped her, choking her, squeezing her as the energy of a thousand other lives were wrestled from her, taking to the air like fireflies.
The Entwined watched the light in Morgana's eyes dim as she fell limply to the floor. She looked at her prey impassively. She felt at peace, whole once more.
Amy appeared, shrieking as she attacked. The shock of the bolt was enough to knock the Entwined off balance. Her eyes became human once more.
Willow stood up, she felt calmer now. She looked at Amy, and smiled. "You know you can't take me. You saw what I did to Morgana and you know I can do that and worse to you. You have one chance, Amy. Back down or go down!"
"She was weak. Besides, I killed your girlfriend, I can easily kill you." Amy's eyes were cold, her voice unfeeling.
"Take more than you to kill me" said a voice from behind Amy.
Amy turned and saw Tara standing there. "How? What? How?"
"You will never know! Willow, get out of here. Tell them Morgana is dead and all is well. Don't worry about me sweetie, Amy won't hurt me."
"I'm not leaving you again." Willow could barely hide the breaking of her voice.
Tara relented. "Okay, but just make sure she can't leave."
Amy had wondered why she did not attack whilst the couple talked. Truth was she couldn't believe the calmness on their voices, the way in which she was being seen as a mere irritant, rather than a serious threat. Amy felt her anger renew itself. How dare they treat me like a fly in their soup!
"Amy, Willow is giving you the chance to back down, to walk away from all of this and it is a reasonable offer. Me, on the other hand, I'm not so inclined. I won't kill you, I don't agree with that, but I will make your life more 'comfortable' for you. So I suggest you take her offer. She still wants to help you, as she always has, and always did. Me, I want to see you get what's coming to you. Make your choice".
"If you won't kill me, then you don't have any leverage." Amy launched her fireball at Tara. She watched it as Tara gently blew on it as it approached, watching it snuff itself out.
"Very well. Vermin you are, vermin you once were, vermin you will be once more".
Amy struggled but could feel her body morph and change. She knew that to the outside observer the change would seem instantaneous, but to her it seemed to go for minutes. And in those minutes she felt every change, every bone break, every growth of knew appendages, every shift of organs within her.
Willow stared at Amy the Rat, as she appeared in a blinding flash, complete with cage.. "Guess she won't cause any trouble now. Did you have to do that, Tara?"
"Willow, she is rotten through and through. There could have been hope for her at some stage. Maybe the Coven could have worked with her as they did with you but whilst the change was happening you would be in danger, and I won't have that. This way we can keep an eye on her. I won't have her drag you down and hurt you again, Will."
"I don't want anyone dragging me down again." Willow embraced her girl. Right now, she felt the luckiest woman alive.
"C'mon. We better tell them all its all over."
Giles was lifted into a more comfortable seating position by Gabriel and Buffy, watching as from one doorway Dawn, Michelle and Althanea entered and from the other Willow, Tara and a caged rat appeared.
"All is well, I assume for the looks on your faces." He said, as much to himself as to the gathered throng.
"Morgana is gone. She said something about the New World, and that we wouldn't stop them."
"We will deal with that all in good time, Miss Rosenberg, Miss Maclay. Well done on your first victory. I am impressed. Joseph was right about you both." Gabriel gave as much of a smile as he could.
"I would really like to get out of here. Place gives me the creeps." Buffy said in her usual light manner.
Giles always enjoyed the fact that post-battle, his Slayer and her friends seemed to be able to lighten the mood with a simple remark.
"Votes for getting out of here then?" Asked Dawn, trying to sound authoritarian. She saw all hands rise up, and smiled. "I think that was safely unanimous."
Willow and Tara led the way back to the bus. Walking hand in hand, enjoying the peace of just being together. They glanced at each other, allowing themselves a relaxed smile.
Buffy walked up beside them. "Not that I'm complaining too much, but if you guys were going to get back together, couldn't you have come up with a slightly less angsty way of doing it?"
They laughed, it was the relaxed laugh of friends who had seen death up close and lived to talk about it. For those moments they always felt invincible.
"What do you think, Gabriel?" Asked Michelle.
"I think if they accept the offer we have work to do but they are very good. I never saw the rat thing coming at all."
"Masterson won't allow any mercy to shine through."
"I know, but it appears they won't allow the coldness to define their humanity. Now that is strength."
"You admire them, don't you?"
"Getting there. I can see why Joseph put his faith in them."
"They will need you. Masterson has a lot of danger."
"I'll look after them. I promise."
END OF CHAPTER