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 9: The Time is Now

Even though she was a vampire, Buffy still always carried a stake around. She wasn't sure if it was because she still had some Slayer tendencies or if it was just a habit. Either way, there was always a stake in her back pocket. It was such a deadly object—especially to her now—but she couldn't seem to let go.

It had been days. Days since Buffy's turning, days since Willow and Xander arrived in England (although Buffy didn't know it), and days since she'd seen that time travel box thing. In those days, she hadn't slain a single vampire. The stake was almost useless, burning a hole in her back pocket. But every night she kept it close to her, closer than anything in her life. More or less, she was always prepared.

This night should've been an exciting one, or so Vamp Master said. Apparently there was going to be some "ground-breaking" news. They were going to a special meeting place where many of his followers would be and he was to announce a new plan. What that new plan would be surrounding, nobody (not even Buffy) knew. It could be something viciously evil, continuing his plan to take over all of vampire kind, or it could be something else, something simple. Buffy was excited to hear it. It didn't matter because Buffy would be killing him soon, she just didn't know how far in the future.

The day had yet to officially end. It was about sunset, and soon the moon would be up high in the sky and Buffy and Vamp Master and everyone else would be leaving. Buffy couldn't wait. She was feeling quite puckish tonight.

She'd killed. There was no denying that. Most of the humans she'd drunken out of she'd drunk to the point where there was no hope of survival for them. She just couldn't bring herself to stop drinking, the blood was so good. Plus, the feeling of a life draining in your arms was breathtaking. Buffy couldn't wait to kill again.

She sat patiently, waiting for the night to come.

Xander searched through the cabinets in the kitchen. With every passing second, he was getting more and more agitated. There had to be some here, somewhere, because they couldn't go any longer without it.

Coffee. Giles, Willow, and Xander had only slept in little increments of time. Either they were too nervous to sleep or too into the long, grueling process of finding Buffy's soul. They drunk a lot of coffee to keep them awake and energized, but eventually all of the coffee was gone. Xander was looking for more. So far, no luck.

Over the course of the past few days, Dawn only came out of her room to go to the bathroom or eat something. When she came out, she didn't speak to anyone, despite them attempting to speak with her. Then she'd go back to her room.

It was sad to Xander. Losing Buffy really took a number on Dawn. It was okay, though. Buffy's soul would be back soon.

Not too long ago, Willow finally found Buffy's soul, lost and trapped with all the other souls. That was what took her so long to find it. It wasn't cursed, like Angel's, so it wasn't easy to find. Thankfully she found it and did some magic and brought it down where it was now being held in a magical jar from which it could not escape from. The next step was to put it back inside Buffy, but Willow insisted she take a break from all the magic.

The break caused exhaustion to come over them. Thus leading to the mad hunt for coffee.

"Are you sure you don't have more?" Xander questioned Giles, still searching through the cabinet.

"Yes," Giles said simply. "I didn't realize I was to stock up when you guys came."

"Well, you should've known," Xander scolded jokingly.

"I'll go pick some up," Willow offered, walking in to the kitchen. She didn't look too well. She looked pale and tired, and her hair was a bit of a mess. Too much magic, Xander supposed. If it wasn't absolutely necessary, Xander would feel bad for Willow, but they both understood that it was what needed to be done.

"No, I'll go," Xander stopped her. "You rest, Will. You've had a rough couple of days."

Willow gave a small sigh and smile. "Xander, I'll be fine. Back before you know it! I just really feel like I need to get out of here for a short period of time, you know?"

"Be careful," Giles warned her, looking out the window and shaking his head. "It-it's almost dark."

They all knew what that meant. Vampires, including Buffy. Along with finding Buffy's soul, they also did the quick little ritual that made it so Buffy couldn't come in again without being invited. They all felt safer that way, at least for now.

Willow grabbed some money and left.

Giles and Xander followed behind her until they were in the living room. They both sat on the couch with a sigh. Sitting on the table in front of the couch was the jar. It looked ordinary enough, aside from the glowing white light inside of it. Buffy's soul. If they were to open the jar it would go flying away.

Xander stared inside of the jar, at the soul. It appeared just as a bright white light that eventually became blinding. Still, he couldn't pull his eyes away. All he could think of was Buffy. He was thankful he wouldn't have to see her in her evil vampire form. She would be back soon, a vampire with a soul. A vampire with a soul…

Slowly his eyes began closing as he started drifting off to sleep.

Giles saw and thought he should wake Xander, but then thought better of it. Let him sleep. Then, when Willow returned they'd wake up and do the spell. Then, if everything went right, Buffy would be back with them.

Willow went to a little coffee shop nearby, prepared to buy very large cups of coffee for her and Xander and Giles. She was sure they'd take the largest cup they had.

While she waited in line, her mind wandered. Actually, her mind stayed in one place, in one frame. Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. What else could she think? The pressure was really on her. She knew she'd be able to restore Buffy's soul (she'd done it to Angel twice), but that didn't stop her from being nervous. Every few seconds she'd glance out the window and saw it getting darker and darker outside.

She shut her eyes and told herself it was all okay. She didn't have to worry. Buffy was a vampire searching for blood, it wasn't like she was going to come in a coffee shop looking for coffee anyway.

Finally, she was next in line. She ordered her drinks and then waited for them to be ready. They gave her a tray which had slots where the drinks were held. It was the largest they had. The containers the coffee came in almost didn't fit in the slots, and they were pretty tall and heavy.

Willow paid and then turned around with her coffee. Giles and Xander would be happy with this. She walked to the door. About halfway there, the door opened. Willow happened to look in that direction rather than at the coffee to make sure it didn't fall. Her eyes met someone's she hadn't seen in such a long time that she nearly dropped the coffee. Thankfully, she didn't. That wouldn't have been good.

They stared at each other for a few seconds until finally he walked over to her. Willow felt glued to the floor.

"Oz," she said quietly, with a smile.

"Willow," he said back with a little grin of his own. He glanced at her hands. "Got enough coffee?"

"Oh," she laughed, probably harder than she should have. When she almost dropped the coffee again, she stopped laughing, got control over herself. "These-these are for, um, Giles and Xander. And me. The third one's mine. I mean, I didn't pick mine out or anything weird. We'll just-just drink them…randomly." She paused. "What are you doing in England?"

"Just traveling," he said casually. Willow noted that he looked good, hadn't gained a lot of weight or anything. Despite everything, he still made her nervous. Unbelievable. "What about you?"

Willow remembered why she was here. Buffy. She needed to get back to the apartment immediately and do the spell and then Buffy would be back.

"Well, um…" Willow didn't want to explain everything right now, right here, but she didn't want to just cut him off either. It was good to see him, the old friend. He was an old friend of everyone's, not just hers, so she should tell him about Buffy, right? He deserved to know. "Do you want to come back to Giles's?"

Oz frowned. He looked down at the floor, avoiding her gaze. "I don't know."

"Oh," Willow giggled. "Not like that or anything. It's just that there's kind of this, uh, emergency with Buffy. I-I figured you'd want to know about it? If not it's okay, I understand, sorry for making things awkward. I should just go."

"No, wait." He stopped her. "Emergency?" he raised an eyebrow.

She nodded.

"Alright…alright. I'll come. Giles will be okay with it?"

"Sure," Willow spoke, feeling a little nervous, although she wasn't entirely sure why.

Night finally fell. While Willow and Oz were arriving back at Giles's (a bit awkwardly), Vamp Master and his followers were waking up, ready to go out. Buffy, of course, had been up for a while, and was just looking forward to going out. In fact, when the night came it was hard for her to contain herself to wait for anyone else.

She did wait, though. She did.

It seemed to take forever for everyone to get ready. Eventually, though, they started leaving. Vamp Master came to Buffy.

"We should be leaving," he said, extending an arm for Buffy to wrap hers around. "Tonight will be a very special night."

They left, arms linked together. It felt so…weird to Buffy. She shouldn't be this close to him. It almost felt wrong in a way that was kind of hard to explain. Oh well. They kept making their way to their destination. It was an old, rundown warehouse in a seemingly isolated part of England, seemingly crawling with other vampires. Or maybe they were just here tonight for the sole purpose of Vamp Master's announcement, whatever that may be.

The old warehouse was extremely dark, but they all could see perfectly fine. There was an extra story on it with a balcony-typed thing where someone on the top floor could look down at the people on the bottom. It reminded Buffy of some fancy palace or something rather than a warehouse. Maybe the building had more of a story then it seemed.

Vamp Master began making his way up the steps. Buffy stayed behind.

"Aren't you coming?" he called, looking back at her, surprising her.

"Do you want me to?"

"Well, you are the Queen, correct?"

With a grin that was sort of fake, she made her way up the stairs with him.

At the top, on the balcony-like thing, they watched as vampires filled the building and saw some standing outside, still being able to hear what was going on inside. It was a full house. The vampires (Buffy looked around and saw there weren't only vampires here, but various other demons as well) were talking noisily, waiting. Buffy could feel the excitement, it was almost tangible. Her stomach growled, the excitement getting to her, making her hungry.

"Everybody," Vamp Master uttered, not even very loudly. Yet it was enough to cause everyone to immediately quiet down. He flashed an evil grin. "Please welcome the astounding Queen, Buffy."

Rounds of applause followed. Buffy smiled. Everyone was looking up at her, almost admiringly. Everything was going pretty wonderful.

And then it happened.

Willow bringing Oz back was a bit of a shock to everybody, but they didn't let it get to them too much. Giles and Xander explained the situation to him as Willow prepared for the spell. With seemingly perfect timing, they finished explaining just as she was ready to do the spell.

She began. It all went well, no dark hair, no veins on face, what could go wrong?

She got further into the spell and when it was time to release Buffy's soul, they did. Then the next thing they knew it was flying off and Willow sighed heavily. It should be heading towards Buffy now, ready to enter her and get rid of the evilness that was vampire Buffy. All they could do now was patiently sit and wait for her to return.

The light that was Buffy's soul seemed to enter her so quickly, without any warning. Suddenly Buffy was falling to her knees and feeling like her insides were being torn apart, like they were at war. The new lightness inside of her was fighting the darkness that had just started, just started, to come out. It was painful.

It wasn't the same type of situation like Angel's, cursed with a soul rather than just having his soul put back inside of him. It wasn't the same situation as Spike's, either. He won his soul back, wanted it back.

Not Buffy. She didn't want the soul and was not specifically cursed with it, causing the darkness in her to fight the soul. She wasn't sure who or what was winning, but the war inside of her hurt and the darkness was fighting, fighting with all its might but all Buffy wanted was for one part to win so this pain could be over and she wouldn't have to endure this battle of light versus dark.

The darkness inside of her was stronger, more determined than the soul. It was starting to come out on top, enveloping the soul, causing it to become darker, losing its light, losing its goodness. Buffy's soul was losing, overcome by all the inner darkness.

Evilness was rising in Buffy, higher than it ever had before.

And then…

It was over. All the pain, all the fighting inside of her, it was all over just…like…that. The darkness had won, corrupting what was left of Buffy's soul.

All the vampires and demons below her were silent, looking up with shock, wondering what was happening.

Vamp Master was extremely concerned. "Are you alright?" he asked frantically.

Buffy looked around, a bit confused. She felt the stake burning a hole in her back pocket.

The time is now, she thought.

Suddenly, as swift as a Slayer who was also coincidentally a vampire could manage; she jumped up, kicking Vamp Master in the face and doing a back flip. He stumbled backwards. She grabbed the stake out of her back pocket, ran forward, and hit him right in the chest, right in the heart. He looked genuinely surprised. And then he turned to dust.

The slayage wasn't a result of goodness inside Buffy. It was a result of darkness.

Buffy turned towards the crowd, who were also shocked.

Buffy grinned widely. "Now, you all belong to me."