(Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Buffyverse. I am just a devoted fan!)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season 8, Episode 7
Uninvited Guests
[-] Chapter 1
Buffy remained in the library chair as Xander sped off at breakneck speed back in the direction he had just come. He expected her to use every ounce of her Slayer speed to get from the library to Willow's' room, but was shocked as he didn't see nor hear her pass him anywhere. Instead she kept her gaze at the libraries, now swinging violently, doors. Her mind was overpowered by the voice in her head that told her to get up but she couldn't make her legs, arms, chest or head move at all. Giles didn't wait a moment longer and ran out the library leaving his cup of tea perched on top of A Watchers Guide to a Succubus' seduction. Her mind wouldn't allow her to concentrate on one single thought and so she was left in the dull buzz of her own subconscious.
She was numb.
"She's awake," Buffy mimed without realising. Her gaze dropped from the doors and into her own lap. Buffy worried that the Willow she knew, the girl who packed her own lunches, wore weird shirts and kissed girls would not be waiting for her when she got to her room. She feared this more than any demon she would ever find in any graveyard...but she knew she had to see if her best friend was still in that shell somewhere. She found the power to shakily get up from the library chair and put one foot in front of the other. Slowly and steadily Buffy made her way across the ocean of books that dominated the library floor and into the main hall. The usual clang of pots and pans from behind the closed door because of Andrew's cooking was just a low buzz, the T.V's were off and not a soul was in sight. The manor was also colder than Buffy remembered it, freezing even. Buffy put that down to the fact that she felt like she was going to pass out with the worry. Of course she'd try to hide her worry to anybody who innocently passed by...but not a soul was found on the first floor, and the second floor or the third floor. Where is everybody? She thought. As she began ascending the staircase onto the fourth floor where Willow and Kennedy chose their room she could hear in-coherent whispering. She got to the fourth floor and took a deep breath to ready herself. Of course, they're girls, they feed on gossip and Willow I guess is the big news around here she thought as she turned the corner into the long corridor of rooms, bathrooms and the balcony at the end.
Girls lined up in small and large groups outside the room each with their mouths in another's ears. Buffy tried to open her mouth to speak, told her mind to make her voice the tone of a leaders and told her body to make itself appear strong...but instead her voice decided to come out like a baby's sigh, her mouth quivered and her body felt like an ice pool in a cave. Even though her voice was low, those Slayer ears of theirs picked up on the sound and the corridor fell silent...all eyes on the blonde woman wearing somebody else's jeans. The girls hadn't seen Buffy for days, and on that Saturday night they looked at her like an intruder, some girls sniggered at Buffy's attempt at controlling them, some waited for the leader she made them see while others continued to whisper in their friends' ears.
Dawn had heard the news too. She popped her head around her door at the sound of Xanders boots colliding with the rug that spread across the corridor.
Since the watchers council made their announcement that they were rebuilding but this manor had to play ground zero to the slayers for a week or two Dawn was forced to give up her room and move in with her sister on the third floor. After slapping Buffy in the library she left quickly and headed to her sisters room. She realised the slap wasn't such a good idea now that they were going to sleep in the same bed for a while.
When Dawn realised she wasn't the only girl with her body hidden behind a door she pulled her brunette haired head back around the door and sat on the bed. She resisted the urge to look back out into the corridor when she heard more footsteps flying down the corridor. Buffy being back can't be that exciting can it? Dawn thought. After all the footsteps had stopped Dawn gave into the temptation of joining the fray of girls upstairs when she too noticed the Manors drop in temperature, she assumed somebody had left the windows that faced the cliff side open and passed it off as an innocent annoyance. She stepped out into the corridor but hid behind the frame at the sight of her sister heading up the stairs after the girls.
Dawn saw the vulnerability in her sister's walk and so quietly followed behind her. She stopped abruptly at the sound of a door slamming to her south. It appeared that Alicia had paired up with Kate in Kate's room on the second floor near Buffy's and they too were going to see what all the fuss was about. "Kate, right?" Dawn asked as the two girls over took her in the hallway.
"Yeah," Kate said as she stopped and turned to face Dawn.
"What's with the stampede?" Dawn asked.
"That witch chick that went with your sister? Some Puerto Rican girl mentioned something about her being awake," Kate said.
"Willow. When Buffy brought me here she was in a coma, now I guess she woke up?" Alicia added.
"A coma!" Dawn asked wide-eyed. The two girls shrugged before Dawn set off at incredible speed in the direction of her sister with the two slayers following behind her. Dawn caught up to her sister just as Buffy was about to tell the girls to go back to bed. She watched from around the corner as the girls rudely responded to her. We can argue later Dawn thought as she stepped out from behind her sister.
"Anybody who doesn't know ' the red-head-witch-chick's ' middle name better get the hell away from that door and back to their rooms or ill cut off the hot water supply to each and every bathroom in this place for month!" Dawn asserted loudly grabbing the attention of every bystander in the hallway. The girls exhaled heavily and, as though they had weights tied to their shoulders, left the corridor into the direction of the most convenient staircase. Buffy turned to her taller and younger sister and smiled at the woman she was becoming. Dawn wouldn't make eye contact and instead exchanged looks with the other five people that remained in the hallway.
Giles, Xander, Faith, Wood and Andrew.
Dawn shot Andrew a look.
"What!" he said in reply, "I wanna be included, all you guys let me do around here is make waffles and wash your dishes," he sighed. Dawn spotted Faith roll her eyes behind Giles. Buffy kept her gaze on her sister.
"You know you can't actually turn off the hot water supply," Buffy said with a smile in an attempt to get her sister to make eye contact.
"Yeah well it got them to move didn't it?" Dawn said icily with her eyes facing a direction that was not her sisters. Dawn walked towards the door and knocked but got no reply.
"We tried that, Kennedy says Willow insisted on getting cleaned up and she'll come get us when she's ready," Xander added. Dawn made no response to this and instead got within ankle to torso distance. "Dawnie what're you doing? You can't just break the door down," Xander advised.
"I've got three-inch designer heels on that say otherwise," Dawn said. Dawn leaned back and began to raise her foot at the door. Her heels collided with the door but instead it was Dawn who was knocked back instead of the wood she had just collided with. Dawn was sent on her backside with her brown her covering her face.
"Okay, enough with the Charlie's Angels act Cameron Díaz," Faith said as she walked in front of Dawn and knocked on the door too. "Hey, Ken. Open up!"
Immediately the golden door knob twirled to the right and Kennedy's head peered around the door.
"Alright alright, now need for the property damage Faith," Kennedy scolded.
"Blame the kid," Faith said as she rudely passed Kennedy and into Willow's room. Buffy decided she would have the hard heart to heart with Dawn later on now that they were sharing a room and so followed Faith into Willow's room leaving Dawn with her butt on the floor rug. Xander offered to help her up but Dawn shrugged him off and they two entered the room with everyone else until it was only Andrew outside. He was about to follow into the room too when Xander shut the door right in his face. Andrew sighed to himself as his nose was within millimetres of the door.
"Right...I guess I'll just...go make...something," he said as he turned from the door and continued down the corridor.
Buffy placed herself near the bedside-table lamp whilst everyone else spread out around the room.
"She's in the shower," Kennedy announced timidly in response the expression on Buffy's face and the faces of everyone else in the room.
Xander began, "Is she-"
"She hasn't said much...but she's Willow," Kennedy replied. Buffy let out a sigh of relief, but she would only be completely convinced when she had a moment alone with her best friend. Nobody even noticed the noisy shower until Kennedy brought their attention to it. The atmosphere was almost as cold as the temperature in the manor. With Kennedy sat on top of the bed looking everyone in the eye and praying for them to look back but instead everybody contemplated the shade of brown that covered the wooden floor boards underneath their shoes.
The squeak of the shower tap and the drowning sound of the last drops of water crashing against the tiled floor caught the attention of everyone in the small bedroom. The door to the bathroom opened and a streak of light spread across the wooden floor of the main room. A red-headed woman in a white and fuzzy bath gown stepped into the room.
"Greeaaaaatt...everybody's here to see me," Willow said with a false but convincing smile. "But It's kinda' late so if you guys wanna come back in the morning?"
"Will...how are you? How're you feelin'?" Xander asked.
"You just asked the same question twice," Willow replied.
"You just tried to change the subject," Xander countered. Willow sighed and sat on the left side of the bed near Buffy and Faith. Xander and Dawn sat at the foot of the bed; Kennedy sat on the right side of the bed near Willow while Robin and Giles paced around the room.
"Look, guys...I'm awake...I'm fine, can't we just leave it at that? Willow said with the same false smile.
"Will, you were kidnapped by gods, stripped of your memory and sent into a supernatural coma...it's safe to say you've got some explaining to do," Buffy said. The next few moments were a blur for Willow, everybody through their questions at her like she was a criminal at the FBI. It was impossible for her to pick one to answer out of the abyss.
"Shut up!" she shouted with her head bowed and her hands around her ears. She began rocking forward and back. Buffy should have known better, she knew from experience that when going through something like a supernatural coma or y'know...being dead...the last thing you want is to be interrogated. At least Buffy was offered pizza.
A few minutes later Kennedy began, "I think Willow needs her rest, if you guys could-"
"Actually" Willow said interrupting her, "If I could have a few minutes with Xander and Buffy..." Kennedy looked at her scrutinizingly, as if to ask why not me?
But what her Willow wanted, her Willow got.
Faith, Robin, Kennedy, Dawn and Giles began leaving the room in a clean single file. Faith was last out and was about to shut the door behind her when,
"Faith!" Willow said loudly. Faith just turned her head to look at Willow and remained silent. "Could you..." Willow finished the rest of her sentence with a hand gesture.
"I'll uh...see you upstairs then," Robin said. Faith nodded and paced back into Willow's room.
After a few moments Faith opened her mouth to speak, "Can't say I get it red I mean I ain't one of the four founding scoobies."
"I just think you should hear it from instead of somebody else," Willow replied.
"Well, hear what?" she asked.
"Will start from the beginning, what happened back at Sunnydale?" Buffy asked.
Willow began, "Well I got there and I was ready to do my spell when-" Willow abruptly stopped talking when she noticed the expression on Buffy's and Xander's face. She'd forgotten that they didn't know who she planned to bring back and although Willow planned to avoid the question she'd basically just walked up to the door and knocked. But nobody asked, they all knew why she'd stopped but neither could gather up the courage to ask. She took this to mean that they didn't want to know and so carried on with her tale. "...when I was taken to the white room by Hecate and Osiris. They told me it was purgatory...I don't know why, maybe to scare me or something? I don't know. They said I'd done something and that I had to be shown."
"Shown like a cool slide show?" Xander added with a smile.
"More like a cab journey through time," Willow replied knocking Xanders smile away. "To cut a story short I met my grandmother, learned my magic is rooted to the demon Alvoki and I fought a Turok-Han."
"You what? Will, are you okay?" Buffy asked frantically.
"I'm fine, I was pulled out just in time,"
"Pulled out?"
"Back to the white room. But there's something you guys should know," she announced. The room fell silent. "Back when I was with my grandmother...in her coven there was a seer, prophesier whatever you wanna call it. S-she saw something in me, something I thought I'd beaten a long time ago but apparently its right at the surface. S-s-she said that it's gunna happen again...soon."
"What's going to happen again?" Faith asked confused. Faith guessed it was something bad from the expression on everybody's face in the room. "Oh...big bad Willow? Gotta say I was kinda down I didn't get to see that, something I'd almost like to see-"
"No you wouldn't," Xander and Buffy said in unison with their eyes on the floor.
"Said almost," Faith replied. The room was quiet for a while, the coldness of the manor seemed to freeze over every pour in Buffy's cheeks and her fingers felt like they had been jabbed with anaesthetic.
"We won't let that happen again, I promise you," Buffy said taking Willow's hands in hers.
"You don't get it," Willow said violently taking her hands back, "I saw it Buffy. I mean I watched as I through you off the first floor landing and down into the main hall. I killed you," Willow said with a single streaming tear.
"Now you listen to me," Xander announced. "I will not let that happen. I saved you once and I'll do it a thousand times more. So what's just one more time?" He argued. Moments passed where three of the four original scoobies shared a beautiful moment...that made Faith want to barf.
"It's a good story red, but I don't see what it's got to do with me?" Faith asked.
"I was told that my friends would turn on me, when I needed them that Xander wouldn't be around, Buffy would save Dawn and that you would leave altogether," Willow replied. "Obviously I didn't believe them and so they showed something from your past..." Faith knew exactly what Willow was talking about. She'd still to that day wake up in a cold sweat from a nightmare of Kakistos and her first watcher. "I saw what he did to her Faith, what you had to go through-"
"Stop," Faith whispered. Willows mouth zipped shut. Faith shook her head from side to side before bolting from the room.
Confusion could have been written across the foreheads of Buffy and Xander. They looked at Willow for some explanation but Willow thought it best to say nothing.
Meanwhile downstairs in the kitchen behind the ancient closed door Andrew was making the usual feast for the hundred plus girls that now lived in the manor. Some of them were on patrol with Vi while others rested in bed for the new 'daylight patrol' scheme around town for those 'new special monster things' as Andrew thought of them. "Andrew's just the cook, well I could be more than a cook...I was evil, not just like Rosenberg or The First evil but like...Lex Luther evil," Andrew mumbled as he topped the syrup onto his signature pancakes. Andrew stopped whisking his pancake mixture when he smelled a strong stench of burning wood and smoke. He put the huge bowl down on the counter and headed towards the stove to look for the fire.
"Argh!" he exclaimed at the small pale little boy in a plaid uniform with a black cap hat and shorts stood in front of the stove. "What the hell man! You scared the bejeezes outa me! It's about time we got us a guy slayer though-"
"Get out!" the boy exclaimed in a demonically deep voice. Andrew fell back with shock and knocked right into the emergency fire evacuation alarm. Water splattered everywhere from the metal fire taps on the ceiling. Screaming girls echoed throughout the manor.
Andrew looked back to the spot where the boy stood but all that was left in that spot was a small pile of yellow powder.
[-] Chapter 2
A Plague of cold water was unleashed onto the manor. The carpeted hallways became waterlogged and soggy, the lounge areas' wallpaper ripped and drooped, the ever burning entrance hall fireplace fire was extinguished, bed sheets, towels, kitchen appliances, books...all simply destroyed and pouring. Then what came next was something the girls wished was a demon. A deafeningly strong and stunning screech echoed throughout the manor from one single speaker on the entrance hall ceiling. It clawed its way into every working ear in the manor and sent one single message to every working brain.
'Get out.'
Only Andrew himself and what Andrew believed was either a ghost or the result of too many hours of World of Warcraft knew that their actually wasn't any fire to speak of.
Just a clumsy accident.
He squabbled to his feet, putting his hand in the yellow powder to help himself up. Pain coursed through his ankle as he got up, he'd felt it once before after an obese boy pushed him down in the 3rd grade. It felt like a sprain. Nevertheless he awkwardly got himself out of the kitchen and into the corridor behind the old closed door.
Buffy, Xander and Willow were still sitting in Willow's room when they were attacked with water. The girl's hair and even Xander's was wet through in no time. Xander began, "what the-"
"Fire," Buffy informed in a hard tone. Then came the Banshee's screech. Three of the four original scoobies placed their hands over their ears in a desperate attempt to drown the noise out.
"I don't smell smoke!" Xander cried over the alarm.
"I'm guessing that's because we're four floors up Xand," Buffy replied loudly. Xander scoffed.
"Never a dull moment huh?" Willow smiled through her wet strings of red hair. "I'm still kinda' weak...but I can make it," Willow struggled to say as she tossed the blankets off of her. Buffy immediately went to grab Willow into her arms to carry her out of the manor but Xander quickly bolted in front of her.
"I got her, go get Dawn. We'll meet you out front!" he shouted. Buffy nodded.
Buffy fled the room so quickly she seemed like a blur. As she entered the hallway she felt like she'd interrupted and angry stampede. Maybe eighteen girls ran down the hall screaming and adding to the scream of the alarm. When they spotted Buffy they slowed down and waited for her instructions. "Careful on your way down. Make your way to the iron gates out front. Go, now!" she instructed. The girls picked up their primal pace and headed for the stairway. Buffy grabbed the last girl by the arm. "Where's Dawn?" she asked.
"No sé lo que estás diciendo!" the girl replied. Buffy just smiled and released the girl who then followed the others downstairs. Buffy and Dawn's room was downstairs on the third floor now that the other slayers occupied Dawn's old room on the fifth floor. Buffy passed the girls on the stairway and headed to her room.
Buffy had known Dawn all her life –technically three years- but by now she knew her younger sibling pretty well. In case of a fire there was one thing she knew her sister would save above anything else. Before Joyce Summers, Buffy and Dawn's Mom passed away Joyce and Dawn took part in a book club, with just two members. When the tumour was found and with Joyce's schedule, the hospital and her medication she simply had no time anymore.
They never finished that last book.
Through the looking glass by Lewis Carroll. They managed to get just before that halfway chapter before Joyce was diagnosed with the tumour. Every night Dawn reads that chapter of the book, reliving how it felt to read with her mother. Remembering the smell of her perfume and the shampoo her mom used. For about an hour every night Dawn got to feel fourteen again and still living in 1623 Revelow Drive, Sunnydale, California.
Buffy was frozen in her tracks at the memory of her mother (and also kinda' frozen from the water.) Even with the chaos around her she suddenly felt...at peace. The drops of ice water felt warm and welcoming. But Buffy tried never to be greedy. She allowed her peaceful mirage to fade and the water stung once again. She headed for the bedside-table where she suspected Dawn had placed some of her things when she took over Buffy's room while she was in L.A. She slid the solid and soaking wooden draw open and found a few pyjama's still relatively dry, Dawn's laptop and a bag of change.
No book. Dawn was safe.
Buffy left the room at break-neck speed and headed downstairs, into the main hallway and slipping on the wet wooden floor and out into the front yard.
It looked like the class of Sunnydale High 1999 was standing on the front lawn after having a pool party/pyjama party. A Fire truck was parked just in front of the rusted Iron gates and the siren lights flashed. Girls were huddled together in warm blankets and Giles was standing in his black dressing gown and green and grey plaid pyjama pants. The Manor was bathed in flashing red light. Buffy examined the scene. Faith was amongst the crowd along with Nicholas, Willow and Xander who were standing side by side talking to a member of the fire brigade, Andrew was sitting alone on a dead patch of grass clutching at the joint between his foot and leg and Dawn was huddled in a dark blanket next to Giles's car clutching a wet copy of Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Buffy descended the few stairs separating the Manor's porch from the ground.
The chief fireman was speaking to Giles in hushed tones next to a small shrub by the wall. "Well with your permission Mr. Giles, my team and I would like to search the Manor for any faulty wiring or something else that may have caused the alarm to go off in your..."
"Boarding School," Buffy added, "His uh Boarding school. Hi I'm Miss -Mrs- Summers." Buffy said in a false tone of sophistication while shaking the gentlemen's hand.
Buffy released the gentleman's hand after she spotted him wincing and realised she was clutching at his wrist and shaking it vigorously. She told the man a pack of lies like how she was Deputy Head Master who teaches English to which Giles gave her a surveying look as if to mock Buffy's intelligence. Shortly afterwards a group of fireman searched the manor for signs of a fire.
Everybody waited on the front Lawn for the firemen to exit the house again. 1,000,000 thoughts went through the mind of everyone standing on that section of gravel, grass and earth.
'I wonder who started the Fire?'
'Gee, where do you think it is?'
'My god I'm hungry!'
'Je ne sais toujours pas ce qui se passe!'
Buffy too experienced these thoughts as she watched Dawn in the centre of the crowd clutching at her beloved children's novel.
It was as Buffy scanned the crowd she noticed her. Standing alone. On the furthest corner of the gathering. Since Buffy returned to Cleveland she hadn't seen her but in all honesty, she wasn't looking for her.
Rona. She was wearing a pair of aged denim overalls and a slightly off-coloured white t-shirt. Her hands drooped by her sides in complete stillness, considering how soaking wet everybody was, it made Buffy's eyebrows furrow. Rona's feet were bare and bathed in mud from the waterlogged grass. Her hair was life-less and tattered which mirrored the look in her eyes. They stayed engaged on the floor but Buffy could see them quiver like she was reliving something unnerving. Her mouth lay parted like she was trapped in a breath.
Buffy suddenly felt her eyes quiver to and she was trapped within a memory.
"Rona, what's wrong, what happened, where are the girls? Buffy asked sleepily. Rona just looked at Buffy, the fear in her eyes and the guilt was the only thing Buffy needed to know what happened. Faith saw it too.
"How many?" Faith asked.
"Ni-nin-nine of, of us, t-twenty five of the-them. Maybe more." Rona stuttered. Willow took her blanket off of her and wrapped it around Amalia. Buffy dragged Rona over to the sofa and sat her down. Everybody else either took a vacant seat or crowded around. Faith sat next Rona on the sofa while Buffy sat on the other side, Willow sat with Amalia and Giles sat next to them. Andrew perched himself on the coffee table and everybody else crowded around.
"What happened Rona, I mean when I left you and Vi in the field everything seemed fine. Did something? Is the first back?" Faith asked worried.
"No, the first is gone, well he wasn't there anyway..." Rona began. She told the story from were Vi had called and said she was going home. She informed Buffy about the man and how that the killing of the seven Slayers was a message for her and how he referred to her as the slayer. After she finished the room fell silent, almost as though an invisible force kept their lips together. Giles broke the silence,
"Yes, well, I, um" Buffy cut him off before he could form his sentence.
"You let them go off alone?" she said angrily.
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I thought that" Buffy cut her off just like she did Giles.
"No Rona you didn't think, and it's cost seven innocent girls their lives!" she exclaimed.
"Chill it B!" Faith said shocked at how angry Buffy was. Rona's tears began to well up in her eyes. Buffy ignored Faith's comment.
"Get upstairs." Buffy ordered Rona.
"Buffy I"-
"Now, Rona!"
Buffy came back to reality. That was the last thing she'd said to Rona before Leaving for Sunnydale to find Willow after Rona first encountered this mystery Vampire king man. Buffy caught Faith's eye and signalled her over. Buffy began and with a nod in Rona's direction she said, "is she-"
"Is she what B? After what you said to her it's a wonder she hasn't fell apart by now," Faith replied cutting Buffy off mid-sentence.
"Faith, she got seven girls killed," Buffy argued.
"No B, she made a tragic mistake all be it a big one but haven't we all, sometimes I think you're to on your high horse to see that we're all just people," Faith retaliated.
"How dare you," Buffy said with a sting in her fists.
"How dare I? How dare you! Not so long ago it was me that got a couple girls killed and what I got is roll in the sack with Robin and pizza served at my beckoned call," Faith replied.
"I don't want to hear this," Buffy said and made a break away from Faith. Faith grabbed Buffy by the arm and pulled her back.
"Yeah well maybe y'don't want to hear this but 'chu need to. The girl's barely left her room for the last three days, she won't train, won't patrol and barely even eats!" she said. Faith saw Buffy's eyes drop to her shoes. Faith loosed her grip around Buffy's forearm. "B, I think you two need a serious female bonding moment so you can both move on. We buried the girl's bodies in the back yard while you were away and people have moved on. You're anger is the only thing keeping Rona and yourself from doing the same." Faith decided to leave Buffy with that. She completely released Buffy's arm and turned to return to Robin in the crowd.
Buffy decided Faith was right, Buffy realised she did sometimes act like she was the superior being, the leader, the one everyone looked to. But only because her friends had made her that way. She'd kept them safe for seven years doing exactly that.
But not anymore.
She wasn't the only Slayer anymore.
She was a Slayer for the longest that's for sure.
But she was one of many now.
Buffy let out a sigh of relaxation, she felt good about thinking she could take a step back, but she also knew she'd had the same thought before and it didn't last very long. It was just a matter of time before the relaxation period left her again. But for now it was with her and she made her way over to Rona, stride by stride through the crowd.
"False Alarm!" cried the chief fireman. Buffy stopped dead and turned to the African American gentlemen she'd met earlier. "You can all go back inside now, watch your step...it's still slippery." Dawn, Rona and the rest of the girl's hoarded back into the manor and left Faith, Robin, Giles, Xander, Willow, Kennedy, Nicholas, Buffy and a whimpering Andrew still outside. They huddled around the chief fireman as the rest of the fire crew got back into the fire truck and waited. "Looks like somebody knocked one of the emergency alarms," the chief said addressing the crowd.
"Where?" Giles pondered.
"Kitchen...any ideas?" the chief replied.
"Three guesses who," Xander said. Every head turned to face Andrew who was sitting on the ground still clutching his ankle. He refused to meet the gaze of his fellow housemates.
"Andrew, did you have something to do with this?" Buffy asked with a glare but she received no reply or eye contact. "Andrew!" she repeated loudly.
"Alright!" he replied turning to his onlookers. "But it wasn't my fault," he said in a quieter tone.
"Just how is you pressing the kitchen alarm not your fault?" Xander asked in a mocking tone.
"You guys kicked me out so I bailed to the kitchen when I smelled smoke, I go to the stove and BAM, scary ghost kid," he argued with vigorous hand gestures. Everybody looked at Andrew and he quickly realised he was in the presence of a normal everyday person and crying 'ghost kid' would get him locked up in the chief's reality.
The chief began, "did he just say-"
"It's the stress of cooking for over two-hundred girls day after day," Robin said in an attempt to save the situation.
"... in the future you folks be more careful you hear?" he advised.
"We will officer, sorry to have wasted your time," Giles said as he escorted the chief back to the truck. They watched as the truck pulled out of the iron gates and Giles shut them tight.
"Let me get this straight...you think the mansion's haunted?" Robin asked.
"I guess," Andrew replied.
"I don't have time for this," Buffy said while heading in the direction of the manor.
"Buffy you can't just assume the tweeb is lying," Faith said. Buffy stopped and reluctantly turned to Andrew.
"I can prove it, the spook thing left a weird yellow powder on the floor, I'd bet it's still there!" Andrew persuaded. He tried to get up to lead the cavalry towards the scene of the crime when he fell down again with an aching pain in his ankle.
"Xander help tweedle dumb upstairs to his room, his ankle is pretty banged up, Kennedy get red back in bed and hand out towels warm sheets and whatever else will help get rid of the water damage," Faith ordered. "B, you can-"
"Can't, I have a hormonal and angry teenage sister in my room," Buffy replied.
"And Faith what about day patrol, it'll be daylight soon and the girls who left earlier tonight will be back soon," Kennedy reminded Faith.
"Day patrol goes as planned, I'll take lead and get everybody scheduled dried and rounded up," Faith asserted.
"Hey, I'm up for a little patrol," Robin said with a wink in Faith's direction which she winked back to as a sign of reply.
"B, check out the kid's yellow crack stuff on the kitchen floor on your way up yeah?" Faith asked. Buffy nodded. She realised she'd left the manor and her friends in safe hands when she left for Sunnydale. Faith took the leadership role naturally and it felt easier on Buffy to just have Dawn and the mystery powder as her only priorities for now.
Before heading up the wet stairs Buffy took a detour into the kitchen where she found no powder to speak of.
While Xander and Robin carried Andrew through the threshold of the manor they spotted several girls including Amalia and Kate with mops and towels from the supply closet trying to clear up the water damage in the entrance hall. Xander shot a glance up the main staircase leading to the first floor and spotted Buffy turning the corner and down the hall.
Through the bright light of the chandelier (which remarkably survived the in-house tsunami) Andrew saw the faint silhouette of a tall boy around 14 years old with sever burn marks all over his face and plaid uniform. "There!" Andrew cried pointing at the spot where the boy stood. Wood stopped instantly and looked at the spot to find nothing.
"Were?" Wood asked.
"He was right there," Andrew said in a defeated tone.
"Don't encourage him," Xander said mockingly.
Buffy reached the third floor. She stared down the long corridor to where her room was located and Dawn was inside. She was actually nervous. Dawn and Buffy had had fights before but not like this. Buffy had left Dawn worried, scared and alone for three days and sent just the one single phone call. There was much begging and grovelling to be had. She knocked on the door and opened it.
Dawn was clearing the wet bed sheets off of the bed at the time, book still in hand. Buffy raised her hand as a sign of hello. "Hey," she added as she crossed the threshold and closed the door. Dawn looked at her sister, made eye contact but didn't reply. "Can we talk?" Buffy asked.
[-] Chapter 3
Dawn looked to her sister and spotted the sincerity in her eyes. But she was still pissed as hell and wasn't ready to just abandon how she'd been feeling. She thought a shrug might be an appropriate response; short and sweet, not so polite but not to offensive. She hoped. And so as Dawn ripped off the last sheet from Buffy's double bed and threw it into a wash basket in the corner she did the dirty deed.
"A shrug?" Buffy scoffed with a tilted eyebrow.
"Crap" Dawn thought. She looked down at the bare mattress. It was a little off-coloured from the water but it was thick enough to suspect that the other side was bone dry. She slid her fingers under the huge mattress and tried to flip it. Alas it was too heavy for non-slayer Dawn Summers.
"Here," Buffy said as she began towards the mattress.
"I got it," Dawn scowled. Buffy ignored this and placed her fingers under the mattress too and between the two of them they flipped it on its side and then down again and to their surprise the bottom side of the mattress had remained dry. The sisters smiled at the mattress and then up at each other. After an awkward moment or two the sisters let their smiles fade. Buffy missed those moments with Dawn, when they forgot that dangerous evil creatures where roaming the city around them and instead flowers where able to grow properly in the cemetery without a Vampire, and more commonly than she would like, Buffy being thrown onto them. Dawn hastily grabbed the wet sheets and said, "I'll uh...just hang these over the radiator." Dawn made a swift brake past Buffy and towards the door to the third floor corridor where the radiator hung by the wall closest to a small bathroom.
"Dawn wait," Buffy asked as she turned to Dawn who had just got her grip around the doorknob.
"Buffy I can't do this right now," Dawn said in the calmest voice she could manage. Dawn elegantly bailed into the corridor where seven girls still in pyjamas were still mopping the wet wooden floor. Dawn hung the sheets over the large radiator and found that it wasn't working. She'd messed with the controls for a second or two when she noticed how cold the manor was. She had labelled the fact that she was chilled to the bone to the fact that she was soaking wet. But when she took the time to check, her hair was only damp and so where her clothes. What's going on? She thought. However she didn't have the time to fully jump onto her train of thought because as she turned around to walk away from the radiator she found an also damp Buffy standing in front of her with her arms folded and shoulders tense.
"Well we're gunna do this now," Buffy said in response to Dawn's last statement. Dawn placed her hands on her hips and let her shoulders tense up too. Suddenly Dawn spotted Buffy's shoulders relax and she watched as Buffy's arms recoiled down to her sides. "What do you want from me Dawn? I know I messed up and I know I made you mad but...I've said I'm sorry," Buffy said.
"You've said sorry. Great. Do you want a reward? Why not a medal to go with it because lest we forget...you're sorry," Dawn spat.
Buffy began, "Dawn,-"
"No Buffy. You don't get to say sorry and expect everything to be okay," Dawn cried. Xander, Willow and Faith where on their way back up to their rooms when they stepped foot on the third floor corridor and heard the commotion. With Willow still wrapped in a towel, Faith in a dark vest top and jeans and Xander in his usual shirt and combats the three made their way down to the echo of voices.
"Guys?" Xander began.
"And I'm not the only one Buffy! Tell her Faith," Dawn said upon the arrival of the three. Faith's eyes widened and for once she was speechless.
"Whoa, hey hold on, just a passerby here," Faith said with her palms raised.
"You abandoned us Buffy. Xander was a wreck, Slayers were pouring in from the corners of the walls, money's been tight, Giles was passing out because he couldn't sleep for fear you were lying dead in a ditch somewhere...again," Dawn continued.
"Okay Dawnie I think we all need to take a step back here," Xander interrupted with an arm on Dawn's shoulder.
"Get your hands off of me or I swear I will kill you," Dawn growled at Xander. Xander took a step back and quickly removed his hand. He could have sworn he'd seen the iris of Dawn's eyes turn a shade of yellow.
Faith began, "Kid-"
"No let her finish!" Buffy interrupted loudly. "She clearly isn't finished talking about things that don't concern her!" Buffy exclaimed.
Buffy took a swift step towards Dawn and refolded her arms.
Dawn did exactly as Buffy did and they were now within nose touching distance.
Buffy's eyes made the same quick yellow flash as Dawn's did.
The lights in the corridor began to flash quickly. Buffy and Dawn remained completely transfixed upon each other. Willow's head lifted quickly. "Red, what's going on?" Faith asked.
"Are you doing that?" Xander asked.
"No. They are," Willow said with a quick glance at Buffy and Dawn.
"You think you can take me?" Buffy whispered aggressively.
"I know I could reduce you to dust," Dawn growled. Willow then began to watch everything in slow motion. Buffy's shoulder jerked in a way that showed she was about to make her first blow at her sister. Dawn's thigh muscles rippled through her jeans which showed she was about to take a step back so she could get a clean high kick at her sister.
"Saypsay Impedimentum!" Willow exclaimed. A flashing blue barrier was conjured in the tight space between Dawn and Buffy. The barrier acted as a shield for both girls. When Buffy's fist collided with the barrier it flashed a brighter shade of blue and sent her sprawling off of her feet and she made a heavy collision with the wall behind her. The same happened for Dawn except when the sole of her boot made contact with the barrier it deflected her attack and she was sent into a sort of spinning form until she collided with the wooden floor beneath her. Xander watched as his friends hit the floor and made a dusty yellow handprint on the spot where they had landed in an attempt to cushion their fall.
The girl's eyes flashed that yellow shade once again. Buffy placed her palms on her forehead while Dawn shook her head from side to side.
Buffy began to stutter, "Dawnie- I-I-I-" But before Buffy could finish Dawn had already picked herself up and locked herself in the bathroom with extra force on the slamming of the door.
"Buffy what the hell, you were about to go all Xena on your sister!" Xander said.
"That wasn't me," Buffy murmured. "I mean it was me but, something was controlling me...making me angry. Kinda' like I was taken over by that dead guy ghost back in High School."
"James and Miss Newman," Xander said.
"Exactly," Buffy agreed.
Faith began, "Okay, that was a little before my generation you guys are gunna have to catch me up-"
"Reveal" Willow commanded. Willow's iris became black and cold for a mere moment before returning back to their usual shade of brown. Everybody followed Willow's gaze down the corridor. They ended up with palms over mouths at the small boy, no older the five or six, standing in a plaid uniform and hat with yellow eyes and raw burn marks. Buffy got to her feet. The boy shared the same yellow eyes the group had become all too familiar with.
With all the commotion every minute another group of girls had entered the hallway of the third floor to bear witness to the conflict that had taken place. By now there were no more than fourteen girls, some properly dressed, others still dripping wet.
The image of the small boy began to fade from the view of the gathering in the corridor. Willow's eyes turned black again. "Wait!" she commanded. The small boy became angry that Willow was keeping him there. "We just want to talk," Willow said calmly.
"No!" the boy exclaimed. His face became disfigured and his voice was demonically deep. Even the fine hairs on Faith's arms were lifted on end. The boy raised his hand in Willow's direction and she was sent sprawling off of her feat towards the gathering of girls behind her. Xander and Buffy ran to Willow's aid while Faith stayed in eye contact with the small boy. The spot on Faith's back where she had gotten her newest addition to her tattoos began to itch just as the boy began to raise his hand at her. The boy was engulfed in purple light, much like that of the pentagram on the tomb about a week ago, and then he just vanished. All that was left was the same yellow pile of dust like the hand prints on the wall and floor.
Meanwhile Dawn was sat on the lid of the toilet with her head in her hands. She was no longer angry at her sister. She wasn't in the first place but something made her so angry when Buffy walked through those library doors about two hours earlier. The same thing that had happened out in the hall except she was ashamed that she'd allowed what happened in the hallway to escalate. She got up from the toilet and placed both hands sturdily on the sides of the sink. She used her right hand to run the cold water tap. She cupped her hands together under the running water and placed her face within the small pool she'd collected. She grabbed the nearest towel and dried herself. She used the towel to wipe the mist off of the mirror in front of her and then threw it to the ground. She gave a second look to the flowing water as she went to turn off the tap.
However she didn't get that far.
Instead of crystal clear water pouring into the sink, thick red liquid pooled around the rim of the plug hole.
Blood.
Dawn took a quick step back and glanced up at the mirror. Her reflection was accompanied by that of an aged bald man in a suit. He quite literally had half a face. One side was completely normal while the other was black and charred. Dawn let out a scream. She flung her body at the door but the handle was jammed. She began to panic. Her fists collided with the door in a harmony with her pleas for help. "HELP ME!"
Just as the boy disintegrated Buffy heard loud banging from the bathroom. "Dawn," she said. Buffy heavily kicked her boots at the door and it flung open instantly taking some of the soggy wooden border around it off of the walls with the force of her kick. Dawn fled the bathroom in a blur and wrapped herself around her sister. She began to cry. Buffy put her arms around Dawn.
"I'm so sorry," Dawn managed to say through her sobs.
"Me too," Buffy replied.
After a few minutes Buffy asked Willow to take Dawn back to her room. Xander told the girls to quickly grab dry clothes from their rooms and head to the entrance hall. Buffy asked Faith to find Giles, Nicholas, Robin, Kennedy and Andrew so they could properly get to work on the manors blatant infestation. When Dawn had calmed down Buffy asked her to find Alicia, the newest Slayer, and look after her and that they would all meet up in the entrance hall later. She also asked that Dawn would take a head count of everybody she could find. Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Faith, Robin, Kennedy, Andrew and Nicholas gathered in the library. Buffy and Andrew talked about their experiences with the spirits and Buffy reluctantly apologised to Andrew for passing his story off as fiction.
Daylight creaked through the windows of the Manor.
"I took a sample of the yellow icky stuff that keeps being left behind but no dice," Willow said in a disappointed tone.
"It's sulphur," Andrew added.
"Are you sure?" Giles asked. Everybody was dry by now, some people had showered, and others simply put on clean clothes. The gang had cleared the tables in the library as they were full of wrecked and now useless books.
"Uh-huh," Andrew beamed.
"We're going to need a little more than that Andrew," Wood said.
"It's kind of a cliché actually. Some people think ghosts leave behind only ectoplasm but ectoplasm is what makes ghosts visible to the human eye, whereas sulphur is how you know you have a ghost even If you haven't seen it," Faith added. Everybody's head turned to Faith. "What? Am I the only one who's seen the bonus features of Ghostbusters?"
"Yes well seeing as we have nothing else to go on," Giles said with a hand gesture at the wreckage of the library. "What do you suppose we do?" Nobody spoke. Instead everybody but one took their glance from Giles and put it onto the tips of their shoes.
Willow began, "Well I could do a spell-"
"No!" Kennedy argued. "No more spells. Haven't you learned your lesson by now?"
"Do you have any better ideas?" Willow snapped. Kennedy's expression changed. "Besides, my supply closet of books and potion ingredients doesn't have a sprinkler in it. And unless you guys have housed a slayer in it in my...absence-"
"No no. It's still very much...well vacant," Giles added.
"Good I'll start there," Willow replied.
"I'm going with you," Kennedy said in a way that told Willow there was no point in arguing. By the way Willow and Kennedy spoke about the subject of Willow and her magic it was obvious to the group it wasn't the first row they'd had about it.
"What about the girls?" Faith asked. "We can't just leave them here it's too dangerous. You guys were there," Faith said as she pointed to Xander and Willow. "You know how uptight B is and these little phantoms or whatever made her almost go all Rambo on the kid. Imagine what they could do to two-hundred+ newbie Slayers. No offense."
"Offense taken," Buffy said. "But Faith's right its way too dangerous for them here."
"But Buff it's not like we have a spare castle down the street," Xander said.
"That's not exactly true," Nicholas said.
"Meaning?" Buffy replied.
This is so cool Andrew thought.
Nicholas began, "Well as your liaison to the Senior Partners I have authorisation-"
"Yada yada yada. Get to the part where you have a second crib like this on hold," Faith said.
"I could take them to the Cleveland branch of Wolfram and Hart," Nicholas said. "It's not the safest place for a Slayer but right now...it's safer than here." Buffy contemplated his proposal. Her last trip to Wolfram and Hart ended with her being beaten up by a bunch of fully grown Kunari Demons. But she had to admit, the Sunnydale crater was safer than the manor at that point.
"I agree," Buffy said. "Go do it now before anything else happens."
Just as Buffy finished her last syllable Dawn flew into the Library. "Y'had to jinx it," Willow said. Buffy raised an eyebrow.
"Dawn what's wrong?" Buffy asked.
"We can't find Rona and Kate's gone," Dawn announced.
"Gone? Like poof?" Xander asked.
"No, gone like dragged through the corridor leading to here but when we followed her into the corridor she was just...gone," Dawn said saddened.
"What about Rona?" Faith asked.
"Nobody can find her," Dawn said worried.
"Faith, Wood, search the manor. Find Kate, break walls, do whatever you have to. Find her," Buffy said. "Xander and Kennedy go with Willow and help her prepare for her spell. Giles you're with me, we'll find Rona."
"What about me?" Dawn asked.
"Dawn I need you and Andrew to go with Nicholas to Wolfram and Hart," Buffy said. She knew Dawn wouldn't be happy about this but after much persuasion Dawn and Andrew obliged. Nicholas pressed a speed dial button on his cell and within minutes cars and Busses were on the front lawn. Within the next half-hour the only people still occupying the manor were Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Faith, Robin and Kennedy.
Faith and Robin began exploring the first floor for evidence of where to find Kate. Willow's store cupboard was next to hers and Kennedy's room on the fourth floor while Buffy and Giles thought they'd start looking for Rona by trying her room on the third floor.
"So you say it was Faith's tattoo that got rid of the boy before?" Giles asked as they slowly walked down the third floor corridor.
"Yep. Right here, we'd all just been knocked on our asses and Faith just somehow made it go...poof. Nicholas seems to think it's the spirits of the kids who died in the manor when it was a boarding school," Buffy explained.
"My assumption exactly and how odd" Giles said. "When this is all taken care of I'd love to further study-"
"Shushhh!" Buffy interrupted. "Can you hear that?"
"No."
"I think it's coming from Rona's room."
Buffy and Giles each placed their ear on the wood of Rona's door. Giles could hear it now. Hushed whispering echoed through the door. Giles gave Buffy a nod which indicated that she should look at the doorknob. It was covered in sulphur. Buffy got herself a firm grip around it and tried her hardest to make it turn. No joy. It was locked by what seemed like a bank vault lock. Buffy shrugged her shoulders at Giles.
"Oh when has a locked door ever stopped you?" he complained with a smile. She smiled too. Buffy took a step back and tried her hardest to kick the door down. Alas, no joy.
"Now what?" Buffy asked. Giles awkwardly moved closer to the door and knocked twice.
"Rona? Are you in there?" he asked.
You're so British Buffy thought. After more attempts at kicking the door down Buffy and Giles decided to search the other floors for any sign of Rona or Kate. Sadly they failed on both accounts and returned to Willow on the fourth floor.
The closet was just big enough for the six of them to sit in a circle on the floor. Faith and Robin had also had no luck finding either of the girls.
Willow had arranged a small alter with a single candle on the top. It was surrounded by what smelled like burning sage and car exhausts. Everybody sat around the small alter. Willow passed around six similar yet small candles to that of the one on the altar.
"So Will, what exactly are we doing here?" Xander asked.
"Oh...um well I speak this Latin incantation which should hopefully make the big candle make a cool purple flame, then we're all going to take turns in lighting our own candle from the purple flame. Once we all have our candle lit we concentrate on drawing the unwanted supernatural energy from the area around us, the spooks, and the circle acts as a binding field. Hopefully once we have them trapped we should be able to talk to em' and find out what they want," Willow explained excitedly.
"But red the last time you trapped one of these things with your black eye mojo you were knocked on your ass. What's so different about this time?" Faith wondered.
"I guess we'll just have to hope they're in a better mood," Willow said with her excited tone fading.
"What happens if the circle gets broken?" Wood asked.
"Don't know. Let's not find out," Willow replied. "Everybody ready?"
Willow began her incantation from a book in front of her. The candle let out a purple spark before igniting. "The spell's started, once I light my candle, don't break the circle."
Meanwhile on the floor beneath the group Rona was sitting on her bed with her head buried in her lap and her long hair flowing lazily around her thighs. Sunlight seemed to be repelled by her window even though she didn't have the curtains drawn. Her eyes were wide as they stared at the bed sheets below her. Her room was filled with the spirits of the boys from the old boarding school. They whispered things to her like:
it's all your fault.
You got them Killed.
They died because of you.
They'll never forgive you, they hate you too much.
You're better off dead.
Rona could feel the heat of fire and the intensity of the smoke that was produced from it but she knew it was just an illusion. She was frozen in pain and in fear. She couldn't even manage to think to cry for help.
"M-m-maybe I am b-better off dead," Rona stuttered. The boy's smiled slyly.
Back up stairs everybody had their candles lit with a purple flame. Willow chanted quietly to herself before the room suddenly became cold as ice. Everybody's breath could be seen in the air. A wind blew around the room which caused the main candle on the alter to go out.
"Here we go," Willow announced.
[-] Chapter 4
Everybody exchanged a look with each other and then with Willow. Xander wondered whether Willow had done the spell correctly. They had been sitting on the damp carpet of Willow's supply closet for a minute or two and nothing had happened.
Meanwhile downstairs in Rona's room, the ghosts of the boys were exchanging worried glances at each other. They felt the pull of Willow's spell and had no choice to oblige. Some held on a bit longer than others but in the end the only being left in Rona's room, was Rona. The voices stopped and the quietness set in. She was too afraid to lift her head for fear that the silence was some sort of trickery. But she was a Slayer. And Slayer meant bravery in the face of danger. Looking up was easier than she'd expected it to be. She felt more at ease. Still completely terrified, but in a relaxed kind of way. She made a break for the door.
At the same time upstairs the gang was still sitting in a circle holding their candles carefully in case the same rush of wind came blowing through the small room again. "I don't get it," Willow announced, "I did everything right." Before anybody could reply a shimmering solid silver ring erected around the circle of friends, it blurred the vision of everybody present and wind blew into everybody's ears and echoed loudly. So loudly that it seemed you had to shout to hear your own voice.
"Willow?" Giles asked loudly and worriedly.
"Where shifting," Willow answered.
"We're whating?" Xander shouted over the wind.
"Everybody relax, this is what's supposed to happen. The spirits are pulling us into their plane of existence. As long as the circle stays intact we're safe," Willow exclaimed as her hair flowed freely around her face.
"Easy for you to say," Faith mumbled. After a few more moments of the deafening wind the group found themselves sitting on the old wooden floor of a classroom. A very old classroom that was burnt and decaying faster than a cremating corpse.
"Where are we?" Buffy asked as she looked around.
"It's the school right? The boarding school only...extra crispy," Faith replied. Before anybody could say anything else a group of boys, no younger than eleven and no older than fourteen gathered behind Buffy, Willow, Xander, Kennedy, Giles, Faith and Robin. Each boy with his own unique wound or scar. They stood glaring at our heroes with desperation of longing.
"What now?" Buffy whispered now that the wind had stopped.
"Why are you here?" Willow asked the spirits.
"They're here for Andrews cooking; why d'you think they're here?" Faith said sarcastically. "Listen what's it gonna' take to get you to clear out you supernatural asses out this house?"
"Faith!" Giles warned. "What is it that you hope to gain from being here?" Giles asked the ghosts. A small convergence seemed to occur between the group of boys.
"We were here. We are here. We will always be here," the spirits hummed together.
"If you've always been here, then why show yourselves now?" Willow queried.
"What's changed?" Robin added. The sound of Robins voice seemed to send the ghosts into a rage. Their faces became distorted and they spoke in demonic tongues that sent Giles' head spinning as he attempted to translate. "What I do?" Robin asked in a panic.
"Giles?" Buffy asked.
Giles began, "uhh, it seems the boys blame their teacher for the fire. And I'm afraid Wood was-"
"A teacher," Faith announced. "We're stopping this now. Red? Get us outa' here!"
"Wait!" Kennedy exclaimed. "You took something from us!" Kennedy exclaimed again this time at the spirits. The ghosts continued to speak in demonic tongues and ignored Kennedy. "Give us back Kate and Rona!" The mention of Rona's name caught the attention of the boys.
"She is ours now," a boy of thirteen announced.
"Like hell!" Kennedy replied.
"Hold on," Giles said. That's it isn't it. That's what's different now." Giles spotted the confusion on his colleagues' faces. "Rona, her pain, h-her suffering. Its fuelling them. Her pain is their power. They feed from it," Giles said. "Kate too for some reason. Maybe she's masking her pain."
"Aw man, we need to find them," Xander announced.
"NO!" the spectrums cried simultaneously. The solid silver circle around the group began getting smaller and smaller and panic spread across the faces of the group. As the boundary line got closer and closer a strange purple light emanated from Faith's back. It bushed Willow's feeble barrier back and dispelled the spirits.
"Will, what're you doing?" Buffy cried.
"It's not me," Willow replied.
It was like, if you blinked, you missed it. She was gone so fast. Faith was caught in a swirl of electric pink light and the next thing anybody knew, she was gone. They watched as her candle collided with the burnt brown ash wooden floor and distinguished itself.
The circle was broken.
The spirits charged for the remaining six. Everybody's reaction was different. But their escape was the same. They saw the spirits fade away and fell into a blinding white trance. Buffy was terrified she was being pulled back into the white room but instead she found herself face down in a small pool of water on the entrance hall floor. "What the?-" she began but before she could finish she spotted a boy, older than the ones she'd seen before standing in front of the old closed door. His burns where the worst she'd seen and he gave her a devilish smirk. Buffy began to pick herself up when she spotted the boys line of vision change to the chandelier directly above her. She heard the screws come lose and watched in slow motion as the golden chain snapped and the golden iron death-trap came tumbling down towards her. She bolted out the way and crashed into a mop and broom just in time. The boys smile dwindled and he raised his hand towards the sofa in the corner. It lifted into the air and came hurtling in Buffy's direction. She darted for the grand staircase and heard the sofa crash into the dining room table. It didn't take a genius to work out that the ghost were now permanently on this plane because the circle was broken back on their plane. She pleaded with god that it wasn't just her that saw the white light and that her friends were together and safe somewhere else within the manor. But she didn't have time to search for them. She also pleaded that the ghost's may still have some connection to Rona. And so that's where she headed. She blurred up the staircases to the third floor as more and more spirits tried to block her path with hellish illusions and flying objects. A candle holder had unfortunately caught Buffy in the forehead as a ghost magically plucked it from its holder on the wall and flung it at her. Her forehead was bleeding openly and the pain was intense even for a Slayer.
Buffy reached the third floor and gazed down the corridor. She'd hoped to find that maybe Faith had beaten her to the punch and was saving Rona and Kate while she was off evading the supernatural murder attempts of 1800's school boys. Unfortunately she found no Faith, no gang but was she did find was a struggling Rona on her back being dragged down the hallway. Buffy ran as fast as her legs would carry her. The lights on the ceiling and walls where exploding violently as Buffy passed them, her blonde hair flickering like fire behind her.
Meanwhile, Robin Wood was waking up after the spell in the garage that housed Nicholas' and Giles' cars. The room was bone dry and cardboard crates that contained rubber hoses to emergency plumbing tools stood on shelves nailed to the walls. Robin took a look around the garage and found the exit which lead to the kitchen. In his last glance back at the room he spotted a long black haired figure lying face down on the concrete floor. "Kate," Robin hissed. He rushed to her side put her onto her back while holding her head. He seemed to have startled her awake and her green eyes shimmered in the light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling. "You're okay, you're okay!" Robin announced as Kate began to struggle. She settled down and they both got to their feet.
"Thanks for y'know, finding me," Kate acknowledged.
"Hey no worries. So what happened to you anyway?" Robin asked.
"It's all kinda' fuzzy really. At least it's over now,"
"Ah well, that remains to be seen, we all got separated after one of Willow's spells went wrong.,"
"How wrong?"
"Wrong in the sense that Faith is missing and the ghosts are probably a lot stronger now."
"Oh goodie. We should probably go find the others right?"
"That was next on the agenda," Robin said. Kate and Wood headed for the door when it flung open and hit the wall behind it causing a huge white rubber pipe to fall from one of the boxes on the walls. A yellow dusty wind entered the room and began swirling around Kate. Wood tried to protect her but the wind just went through him and into her. He nervously and cautiously turned around to find Kate's usually leafy green eyes to have a murky yellow tint. Kate's hand became a fist, her fist raised to the height of Robin's jaw and she sent him hurtling into a shelved wall. He hit the ground with a loud thud before falling unconscious. The yellow tint left Kate's eyes and entered Wood. His body seemed to reactivate. Kate fell to the ground and completely petrified she staggered under a desk and watched as yellow-eyed Robin found Nicholas's keys and turned the ignition in his car. Black smut shot out the back pipe of the shiny, slick car. Wood fumbled around the floor and picked up the large rubber white pipe that lay next to the desk where a cowering Kate took refuge. A possessed Wood gave an evil wink to Kate. She couldn't find the energy to respond, or even move. Wood put one end of the white rubber pipe around the back car exhaust pipe. He then wound down the driver's seat window and placed the other end of the pipe through that.
Black smoke filled the car.
Wood gave another look to Kate but found her passed out under the desk. He climbed into the car, slammed the door shut and locked it. He then tossed the keys out of the window and...waited.
At the same time on the third floor. Buffy had dodged the glass that shot out from the exploding light bulbs and dived to grab Rona's hand. Surprised, Buffy got dragged down the corridor with her. Buffy couldn't see the boys who were dragging Rona but from the expression on Rona's face, the parts of it that could be seen through her messy black hair, she defiantly could. "Rona I need you to listen to me," Buffy said loudly over Rona's screaming.
"Buffy! Help me!" Rona cried.
"I'm trying but you have to listen to me!" Buffy replied. The ghosts dragging Rona became visible to Buffy. The corridor was full of them and they were all muttering the same thing.
It's all your fault.
You got them Killed.
They died because of you.
They'll never forgive you, they hate you too much.
You're better off dead.
The ghosts stopped pulling Buffy and Rona.
"I-I'm b-better off dead," Rona echoed.
"No Rona you have to ignore it. These ghosts, they're nothing. You're a Slayer, you've saved the world once and you're gonna let this beat you? Fight this!"
"B-Buffy?" Rona stuttered.
"I forgive you!" Buffy said loudly.
The spirits throughout the manor where frozen in their attacks on Buffy's friends. They didn't simply disappear however. They were trapped in a ferocious ring of fire before evaporating completely. The damage left by the spirits repaired itself. Light bulbs collected their shards of glass, ripped wallpaper mended itself, the chandelier attached itself to its golden chain and hung from the ceiling once more. Broken sofa's and smashed picture frames all repaired.
"What?" Rona asked with a trickling tear down her cheek.
"I'm sorry for the way I treated you," Buffy replied. "I think 'I forgive you' is what you needed to hear to beat those stupid evil ghost things."
"Yeahh, I-I-I guess so."
"Lets find the others," Buffy said as she got up and offered Rona her hand. Rona took it gladly and followed Buffy back down the hallway.
Down in the garage Kate was still passed out on the floor and Wood began to take back control of his body. He found himself amongst a black cloud of death and dust. He began to panic when he realised what was happening. He pushed as hard as he could to get the car door open but he just didn't have it in him, the keys to the car could be seen though the small gap in the window that the pipe was coming in through. He pushed on the pipe to try and get it out of the window but it was wedged in to tight. He tried to open his mouth to scream for help but the black mist rushed into every open space within the vehicle.
There was nothing he could do.
Buffy and Rona found Xander, Willow, Kennedy and Giles on the second floor corridor. They had a few nicks and scrapes of their own but nothing too major. Giles was concerned about the gash on Buffy's head but she assured him she'd be fine. The topic of conversation for the group was Willow's spell. "I'm just glad our uninvited guests have now realised how rude it is to overstay their welcome, Giles said.
They reached the first floor landing that looked over the entrance hall when Xander said, "yeah Will, unfortunately I didn't have a chance to ask you this while I was being beaten to death with a candle stick by a twelve year old boy, by the way that never leaves the group, but how did you do that white light thing that got us outa the other plane?"
"I think I can answer that one for ya'," Faith called from the bottom of the main staircase. "Looky who I ran into on the front lawn," Faith laughed.
"Speaking of uninvited guests..." Buffy mumbled. Standing next to Faith was an average height beautiful short haired brunette woman wearing a white shirt and brown canvas pants.
"Cordelia?" Willow announced in a shocked tone.
"At least somebody's glad to see me," Cordie replied.