Warning: Rated T for now, but may change later to M for darker subject matter.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel belong to their copyright holders, I own nothing.

Chapter 8: Silence and Anger

Willow arrived in England first in the late afternoon. She was thankful for that, at least. If it was dark outside she'd be in much more fear. The thought of actually seeing Buffy as a vampire…it was too much to bear. So in the late afternoon, with the sun still up, Willow made her way to the apartment.

At the apartment, she didn't even have to knock. It was like Giles was sitting in front of the door inside, waiting for her. The door opened up as she was nearing.

Wordlessly, Willow and Giles fell into a hug. Tears were starting to come back to her eyes again, but she managed to blink them away before they fell down in streams. She didn't want to do that to Giles. Giles was visibly shaken. She wished she could comfort him in some way. They all could use some comforting.

Finally pulling apart, Giles cleared his throat. "Please, you should come inside."

She started following him in. "Where's Dawn? Is she okay? Oh, gosh, she must be so heartbroken." She looked down at the floor, happening to see a few drops of blood that were from Giles's neck wound. For the first time, she really noticed the bandage on his neck. "What happened?"

"Yes, well, that's how we know about Buffy. She showed up here. Drank from me. I should be thankful she decided to let me live."

Willow placed her hands over her mouth in a gasp. "Oh no! Giles, are you okay? Oh my gosh, I should have been here, tried to do something."

"Willow, it's perfectly alright. You didn't even know yet."

"I know, I just…" She trailed off. "I take it Dawn saw her too?"

Giles nodded.

"Is she okay?"

The truth was, Giles didn't even know. When Dawn finally woke up earlier today, she didn't say anything. She looked around, as if confused, and then got up and went and sat at the table they usually used for eating dinner. Since then, she'd just been staring out the window, looking out into space, as if there was something spectacularly interesting out there. She hadn't said a single word. Giles attempted to talk to her, to ask her a couple questions, but she remained silent. He figured it was best to just leave her alone until she was to snap out of it on her own. What else could he really do?

He told all that to Willow. Naturally, Willow gave a distressed look on her face, clearly concerned. "Maybe I should talk to her?" she suggested.

"You can try."

Willow walked towards the room where the table was. She was taken aback by the pure stillness of Dawn's figure. If she hadn't known any better, she'd say Dawn was a statue. Everything that Giles had said seemed right. Dawn was sitting, leaned forward against the table, staring out the window.

"Hey, Dawnie," Willow spoke lightly, pulling up a chair to sit next to Dawn. Dawn didn't even glance at her. There were dark rings under her eyes so she mustn't have slept well. "I'm…I'm so sorry. I know that's probably the last thing you want to hear, but I am. I know how it feels. Buffy's my best friend. That's why I'm going to do every-everything I can to give her her soul back."

Still there was no response. Willow reached over to touch Dawn's shoulder.

She got a lot more of a reaction than she was expecting. Willow was thinking maybe Dawn would flinch, but that wasn't what happened. At her touch, Dawn jumped up so suddenly, knocking the chair she was sitting on down. She spun and looked at Willow.

"Fine!" Dawn yelled. "Restore Buffy's soul! Just leave me alone!"

Then before Willow could move she was running off, presumably to her room. Giles came to where Willow was shortly after there was a loud bang of the slam of a door.

"Didn't go so well?" Giles observed, pulling off his glasses and cleaning them.

"She just freaked out on me," Willow stood up. "Giles, I'm worried about her. Maybe I should go talk to her again."

"Or just leave her be," Giles told Willow, putting the glasses back on. "She'll come out of it when she's ready, we shouldn't force her. That could traumatize her even further." Giles didn't mention the fact that if Dawn wasn't going to be talking, that worked well enough into his plan, for now. Now he wouldn't have Dawn telling Willow and then Xander about the fight between Giles and Buffy and about Fred dying just yet.

"Yeah," Willow sighed. She shook her head. "Okay, tell me what happened. How did this happen to Buffy?"

"We should really wait until Xander is here to explain, that way you both know."

It was nighttime when Xander arrived. They greeted with hugs of somberness. Willow held onto Xander tightly and he held on to her, partly for comfort, partly the fact that it was just so great to get to see each other, seeing as they were pretty much best friends since kindergarten. It was unfortunate they had to reunite under these circumstances.

"It's good to see you, Will," Xander said quietly as they pulled apart.

"Yeah. You too," Willow told him. She also told him about Dawn.

"Now that we're here, I should explain what happened," Giles started. "Of course, I don't know the full extent of what happened, but I-I believe I know the gist of it."

"Alright, lay it on us," Xander said.

"You know of this new supposed Vampire Master rising? Vampires all over the place looking up to him like he's some kind of king, worshipping and following him?" Willow and Xander nodded. "Well, when Buffy came here, she was accompanied by this Vamp Master. I can only assume he was the one to turn her last night, when she was out just doing a normal patrol."

"But I don't understand!" Willow cried. "What would he want with Buffy?"

"It doesn't matter," Xander spoke. "All that matters is that he has her and is probably using her and making her do a bunch of evil things. We need to restore her soul."

"Yes," Giles concluded. "Willow, we should get started with the spell right away."

"B-but I don't know how long it'll take. I mean, first we have to find Buffy's soul long before we can even think about putting it back inside of her and then we can do the spell but who knows how long that could take and I can't do it all at once because you know I can't use too much magic or-"

"Will," Xander put an arm on her shoulder. "Let's just get started. We can worry about other things later."

Willow nodded to his words. He was right. They just had to take things one step at a time.

Wesley wasn't sure what he expected to happen when he landed in Rome. Maybe, at least, he expected a smile from Faith or anybody, but Faith actually looked rather caught up in the thoughts inside her head. He saw her standing there in the airport, waiting for him, but she didn't see him until he was standing in front of her.

"Faith," Wes spoke, grabbing her attention.

"Hey, Wes!" she tried to say as excitedly as she could. She and Wes hugged. "I didn't see you," she said as they pulled apart. "How are you?"

"Good, I suppose."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about Fred. I heard what happened and I just…I know how you felt about her. It must be rough."

"It was," Wes admitted. "But I'm here now to forget about that. For a while, anyway."

"Dealing with Kennedy, there'll be no time to even think about anything from before. Trust me, she's a lot of work," Faith said as they started walking away. "She's kind of not herself today, though, just because of what happened, so don't take anything she says too personal."

"What happened?"

Faith frowned. "You…you didn't hear? About Buffy?"

Wes shook his head.

"Wesley, Buffy has…" Faith looked around at the people around them. "Joined the ranks of the not-quite-alive-but-not-dead-either membership," she finished in a whisper.

"Oh my," Wes stopped, clearly surprised. So many thoughts began running through his head about the entire last week, about Angel and Spike being so upset with her because of her apparently just letting Fred die. Hell, Wes was even angry about that too, but he never wished Buffy would become a vampire. Despite the void between Angel and Spike and Buffy right now, they needed to know about her. "I need to call Angel," Wes said.

Faith shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Wes. Giles was calling everybody, I'm sure he called them too. They already must know."

"Yes," Wes scratched his head. "I guess you're right."

"Now come on. It's time for you to meet your new trainee."

The thing was, back in L.A., no one knew about Buffy's death. Angel and Spike were oblivious to the fact, thinking everything was the same as it had been, with the minor exception of both of them being incredibly angry because of the decision Buffy made. Giles wasn't going to call them, Willow and Xander were too occupied to think of them, and Wesley, Faith, and everyone else were under the impression someone else would tell them about Buffy.

But no one did.

"So, what do you think?" Buffy questioned with a grin. She ran a hand through her new hair style and color. There was something about it that felt right.

"I like it," Vamp Master told her. "It's very different. Sexy, even."

"That's what I was going for."

"Very well." He got up and kissed Buffy right on the mouth. Again she was appalled by how much he seemed to like her.

Shame I'll have to kill him soon, she thought to herself. Actually; no, killing him won't be a shame. It'll be a blessing. Then I can run things on my own the way that they need to be ran. Oh, I can't wait. Patience, though, patience. It'll all become reality soon enough.

"News of your turning seemed to go over rather well."

"Yeah, the first vampire Vampire Slayer really went over well. You, mister, definitely made the right call when you were drinking out of me."

"Yes, I did," he stated openly. "And the fact that you are now known as Buffy my beloved Queen doesn't hurt a bit."

"I guess not," Buffy shrugged.

"And you really are the Queen," he continued, beginning to annoy Buffy. She wished he would just shut up, shut up, shut up! Oh, she couldn't wait until he was dead and gone. "I care for you a great deal. I think we could really make this work, now that you've moved on past those two vampires with souls."

Buffy contained herself from smiling at the thought of Angel and Spike. She couldn't wait to get her hands on them. She didn't necessarily agree with the statement of having "moved on past" Angel and Spike. No, she was still indeed very caught up on them and couldn't wait until she met them again face to face. Except this time, there would be no happy reunion. There would be death. She'd pay them back for not even listening to her, not bothering to hear her side of the story about what really happened.

"To prove my loyalty and faith to us, I have something very exciting to show you, Buffy. It's revolutionary and surprising and I know you'll love it."

Buffy was, needless to say, intrigued. "Okay, what is it?"

He grabbed her hand. "Come with me and I'll show you."

He led her down the hallway and up some stairs. They went all the way to the top floor (the house was three stories) and then up into an attic. The attic was dimly lit and generally empty except a single stand that was lit up with a suspicious blue light. On the stand was something that appeared to be a small metal box, maybe the size of Buffy's hand.

Vamp Master slowly led her towards it. It was so shiny that, had they been alive, they would've been able to see their own reflections in it.

"What is it?" Buffy asked, no longer amused. It looked like an ordinary tiny metal box.

"It's one of the most powerful objects in the world."

"Hm. You'd think it'd be bigger."

"This isn't a joke, Buffy," he turned serious. "This is completely real. This device has the power to do something so realistic it's almost unreal. What do you know about time travel?"

"Not really possible," Buffy said. "Unless you made a wish to a vengeance demon, I suppose."

"More or less. But this device is very special."

"No," Buffy shook her head. "Don't tell me it's a… A time travel device?"

"More or less," he repeated. "It claims to own the power to travel through time twice. Once to go wherever you want to go—the past, future, whenever—and another time to bring you back to your original time. After those two times are used, the device is dead."

"I take it you haven't used it yet?"

He shook his head.

"Where did you find this?" Buffy exasperated, staring at the box, having a new appreciation for it.

"I read through many, many ancient books written by one of the most powerful witches in the world. Being more powerful than anyone before her, she created this box with the power of time. Unfortunately, after a certain amount of time, I believe it's what got her killed. Luckily, it hasn't been used yet. And it was created hundreds and hundreds of years ago."

"Then how come I've never heard of it?" Buffy was a bit skeptical, still.

"There is only one copy to the book which holds the location to this device. It fell into the right hands, which led to my hands. And now, here we are. One of the most powerful devices in the world right in front of us, Buffy."

She could tell he wasn't giving her anything truly specific about where this device came from. How suspicious. Oh well, that was fine. She didn't need to know. All she needed to know was that it was here for her to get if she ever needed it. Because once Vamp Master was dead, surely this device would belong to no one else but her.

Illyria's hands wrapped around Spike's throat as she swiftly picked him up and threw him across the training room in one fluid motion. He hit the wall—hard—and fell to the floor with a moan. Apparently Illyria still wasn't done. Using her time warp she suddenly appeared right in front of Spike, her hand in a fist, getting ready to punch down.

"Stop!" Spike yelled at her, not for the first time. This time, something seemed to click. Illyria froze in place, looking down at Spike menacingly. "What the bloody hell are you doing? This is training, not beat Spike to a bloody pulp." He stood up.

"I do not need to train," Illyria spoke. "I've been trained and you've already assessed my powers."

"So what? I thought we would come here and get some anger out, not actually hurt each other."

"You need to specify your desires next time."

"Oh, believe me, there will be no next time."

Illyria turned and started walking away. Near the door, though, she stopped. Without turning to Spike she said: "How do you know I have anger?"

"A human could smell it off you, Blue. Besides, it doesn't take a genius to figure out you didn't want Wes to leave."

"And why are you angry?"

Spike's initial thought was shock. Did Illyria actually care about someone else's feelings?

And then his thoughts ran to Buffy. The reason he was angry. The reason behind so many other things. He still couldn't get over what happened. It was just so un-Buffy like, to let someone die. And because of him? What did he ever do to her? Okay, maybe try to kill her a few times, but that was all in the past. The worst part was that she wouldn't even get on the phone and tell Spike why she wouldn't help. She had Giles do it.

Then there was Angel's phone call to her, which Spike knew about. She tried to deny what she did, like she didn't do anything wrong. It was horrible.

Because of that, Spike hated thinking of Buffy. He hated that a part of him still missed her, because it shouldn't. All Buffy ever did was cause him pain anyway. If there was ever a sign to let go of Buffy forever, this was it. He was trying to let go of her, too. But lately, the last couple days, he'd felt…odd. Like he was missing something.

Or maybe he was just being melodramatic.

He didn't answer Illyria's question because he didn't know what to say.