Willow rings the doorbell to Buffy's house, she thinks it's Buffy's house. Her chest hurts, her head hurts, and she sort of feels good and dirty at the same time. While she's waiting, she rests her head against the doorframe as she shakes.
A couple of minutes later, the Chinese woman from the other night answers the door before recoiling.
"You stink!"
Just as she's closing the door, Willow manages to say, "I need help. I…"
The Chinese woman looks at her, "Not through the house, I won't subject Dawn to that stink. Go round to the Yard, and I'll wake Tara."
As she gets into the yard, she stumbles and collapses on the floor. The world around her blurring slightly. Before she's got back to her feet, someone's crouched beside her.
"It's ok, she's just exhausted. She's still barely got enough essence left to live."
Willow recognises Tara's voice as she says, "What happened to her?"
"An incubus. An older one by the smell of things, his scent is all over her."
Willow manages to say, "He said I taste of strawberries."
The voice calmly says, "He was lying, he doesn't know what strawberries taste like."
Tara's voice firms up, "What do you need me to do?"
"A cleansing ritual, we need to get his taint out of her before she's allowed anywhere near Dawn."
"I-I'll do it, what do you need?"
"Crushed quartz, finer the better. If not, coarse salt will do, but we may have to do the ritual multiple times. It will be physically hard enough on her doing it once."
"There's a large quartz in our bedroom, can we use that?"
"If you don't use magic on it directly."
Willow pushes herself to her hands and knees, "White bag in chest, silica sand. Is quartz sand."
A succubus turns Willow over, and she vaguely recognises her, Vhesta… Vhesti… something, "Willow, where did you find an incubus?"
Willow mumbles, "Amy, said she knew someone who could make magic last for days. I didn't know, I didn't know."
Vhesthine strokes her hair softly, "I know you didn't, mortals never do. What was his name?"
"Rack, had this apartment, it was hidden."
Vhesthine nods, "Of course it was, I'd have killed him if it wasn't."
Tara comes back, "I've got it."
Buffy comes out wearing another robe and rubbing her eyes, "You've got what? Willow?"
Vhesthine looks up, "Don't come too close Buffy, she's a victim of an Incubus. Do you know if you have any coarse salt in the house?" Buffy shakes her head, "Tara, save a cup of that for me."
Willow watches as Buffy processes that, and then the concern appearing on her face as she asks, "What's going on, and why is it a problem we're dealing with out here?"
Willow mumbles, "Amy said he was warlock. Chest hurts."
Vhesthine shakes her head, "I said she was a victim of an Incubus. They come from the same hell we do, and they're parasitic rapists. They can feed, and be fed, the same way we did last night, and Saturday, but they only ever feed by taking. This one is preying on magic users, preying on their dependency on magic, while others will prey on the lusts of mostly women. Either way, the basic method is the same, take some of the victims essence, and feed it back to them with some of their own essence and either lust or magic. The victim is then caught in a cycle where they are drained to just before the point of death. But the incubus' taint inside them won't fade for a few days, and will leave them wanting more.
"Not only does it smell foul to succubus, but they can track their own taint. If he finds Dawn… I said they were parasitic didn't I?"
Buffy kneels down next to Vhesthine, and reaches out to touch her, only to stop at the shake of her head, "What about you?"
"I'm her matriarch, and far more experienced. I'm no easy target, and if he does subdue me, it will take him long enough to recover that I should either be found or escape." Left unsaid is the real possibility that neither would happen, "Tara, I need you to pour a circle of sand around Willow. Buffy, we need to be outside the circle."
Once the circle has been lain, Vhesthine starts to talk Tara through the ritual, "Tara, this is a quick and dirty purification ritual. There's no incantation to it, just injecting magic, and then managing the flow of magic inside the circle. Before you begin, I'm going to teach you a demonic spell that will allow you to see taint, not just magic. When the ritual starts, it will be removing the easiest taint to start with, which should be a green colour. The taint from the hell my species comes from is red in colour, so you should be able to tell when it's done. You need to keep the ritual going until you can't see any red in magic. Willow will scream, as this is a physically demanding ritual."
Tara swallows hard, "How do I do the ritual?"
"You push magic into the circle until it starts trying to leave. Then you take that leaving magic and push it into the quartz. Don't worry if it takes a while to get the cycle going. But once it's started you need to see the ritual through, as the quartz can't be reused again."
Buffy nods from the side-lines, "What about you?"
Vhesthine has a grim look on her face, "I'll do my own ritual once this one is finished."
As Tara starts the ritual, she can see that the magic coming from here is a light green in colour that's slowly darkening. Even so, it's a struggle not to tap into that new energy inside her, even more so now she knows just how large a part of her life it is becoming. Because of this, she feels like it takes her far longer than it should to get the cycle started, and then the screaming starts, as the magic fountaining up from inside the circle comes out a deep, almost black green as it passes through Willow before returning to the light green that she started with. When the green start to turn orange and then brown, Tara is vaguely aware that Dawn has come out, and been caught by Buffy.
By the time the magic is flowing the same light green colour it started, Willow has stopped screaming because she's succumbed to unconsciousness. Tara cuts off the magic and collapses to the floor, crying with great renting sobs. Only vaguely aware of someone hugging her, and enfolding her in something. As that person picks her up and carries her inside, she's vaguely aware of Vhesthine grunting in pain as she starts her own ritual.
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It's mid-afternoon by the time Willow wakes up long enough to be coherent. When she does, she looks around, slightly confused to find herself asleep on Buffy's couch.
From the room where the phone is, Vhesthine's voice carries clearly into the lounge, "Is Razial there?... Yes, I'll wait... Master Razial, I have news about your apprentice... She was brought into contact with an incubus... I have, I talked Tara through the process... I did it myself too... Quartz sand... Clear light green... I understand... Thank you Master Razial."
As the phone clicks, Tara hands her a mug of hot chocolate, "How are you doing?"
Willow looks up, "Weak and confused. How did I get here?"
Vhesthine walks out of the study, "That's what I'd like to know too. But first, no magic for the next two days. It will take you that long to recover from the cleansing ritual Tara did last night. We're lucky her magic is so pure, otherwise you may have still been carrying incubus taint."
Willow looks upset for a moment, before leaning back in resignation, "I can do that. I think I can anyway."
Vhesthine nods, "Razial told me to say, 'nightmare stables' to you."
Willow shrinks back, "I'll be good, no magic for two days. Where's Buffy?"
"She's getting ready to pick Dawn up from school, I'll let her know Razial has given her the evening off when she comes downstairs. Now this is important, where did you come in contact with an incubus?"
Willow takes a sip of her hot chocolate, "I don't know, is it important?"
Vhesthine leans forward, "Yes it's important. If he gets hold of Dawn, he'll feed from her for weeks, then, when she's almost used up, he'll implant his young inside her and let her go. While it's growing, she will become attached to it, and then feed it while it grows until finally it's strong enough to drain her dry."
Leaning against the banister, Buffy says in no uncertain terms, "Yeah, that's not going to happen."
Vhesthine looks up at Buffy, "Razial has given you time off until this incubus has been found, and either eliminated, or driven off."
Buffy nods, "I'll get Dawn, and meet you back here, or at the Magic Box."
As the door closed, Tara and Vhesthine look back at Willow. Tara asks, "What happened Willow?"
Willow stares into her mug, "I guess I should start with yesterday morning, Amy woke me up because she didn't believe she was human again. She seemed to be OK for a bit. Then started talking about asking Larry to the prom, so I had to tell her it has been 3 years since she turned herself into a rat."
Willow drains the last of her hot chocolate, "Throughout the rest of the day, she kept asking me about the intervening time. You know, things like her crush, who was gay, and is dead. Or the school that was destroyed by the mayor. Once it started to get dark, she suggested going out to the Bronze. So we did."
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Willow winced as she took another shot with her levitated pool cue. Rubbing her chest, she frowns when the spot ball hits the edge of the pocket rather than going in.
"Are you ok?" Amy asked, as she crouched down beside the table, before firing off a blast of magic that felt, hot.
["You know why you were feeling that pain, don't you Willow?" "Yes, now do you want to hear what happened?"]
Willow leaned on her pool cue, "Yeah, I'm just not feeling it, you know?"
Amy straightened up, "Yeah, look, let's go dancing for a bit."
Willow nodded, and put the pool cue on the table for the next player, then they both moved into the crowd on the dance floor. After a while, Willow started feeling lost, and so she bought herself a drink from the bar, and started sipping it while watching the crowd. She'd barely touched the drink when Amy came out of the crowd with two burly men.
"Hey Willow, look at what I found."
Willow forced a smile, "So I see."
After a brief conversation where Willow turned down Amy's offer of enchanting a lesbian to be her 'dance partner', the two men ended up dancing in cages while Willow and Amy made their way to the balcony.
["Hey, you can't just skip that bit, were they hot, did you kiss?" "Vhesthine, Willow's telling this story, and if she wants to skip that bit, then let her."]
Once on the balcony, the two of them started to enjoy themselves by throwing magic around in creative ways. Well, Amy did, Willow just rubbed her chest and enjoyed it vicariously. That lasted for half an hour or so, until Amy looked at Willow, "Not feeling it?"
Willow shook her head, "Not really, no. I think I'd like to call it a night."
Amy looked at Willow critically, "What's the matter, is magic not hitting like it used to?" Willow shook her head, which Amy took to mean agreement, "Hey, I know a place where there's a guy who can make the feeling last for hours. Let's ditch this joint and I'll show you."
"No, I'm fine."
Amy grabbed her hand, "Look, I can see the desire in your eyes. Rack is great, he'll give you everything you want."
As Amy dragged her off, Willow cast a counter spell over the Bronze, undoing all of the magic that Amy had used.
As Amy dragged her deeper into Downtown Sunnydale, Willow asked her, "Amy, where are we going?"
Amy shrugged, "Not sure, the entrance moves around. We'll know it when we find it."
"How?"
Amy looked at Willow strangely, "Can't you feel it?"
Willow raised her hand and closed her eyes. Once she had, she felt a heat in front of her, "Hot."
Amy smiled at her while walking backwards, "I know right, come on, he's great."
Right before Willows eyes, Amy disappeared though an invisible portal. Curiously, Willow followed into a drab seating room, with a single coffee table and an ashtray half full of cigarette butts. Sitting on one of the couches were a man and a woman arguing about who would go next.
The two of them were only standing there for a couple of minutes before a tall man with wild eyes and unkempt hair, came out of the only other door in the room. Behind him came a young woman, who swayed a little as she walked out through the portal. As soon as they noticed the man, the people on the couch stood up and started claiming that they were next.
Rack, looked at me, I mean, Rack looked Willow in the eyes and said, "No, I think they're next."
Then his gaze turned to Amy, "Amy, I haven't seen you for a long while."
Amy twitched her nose and said "Rat."
Rack nodded before leading the way through the door. Once inside, he turned toward Willow and reached out a hand to touch her chest. Willow stepped back warily, but Amy put a hand on her shoulder, "You need to give a little to get, you know what I mean?"
Willow nodded, so Rack reached out and put his hand on my, on Willow's chest and then there was a warm feeling. That's when Rack said, "You taste like Strawberries."
Willow smiled at him, and then she started to feel wonderful. At one point she was lying on the ceiling, the pain in her chest a distant thing. Below her, the floor was a forest that changed and shifted. Then she saw a figure moving through a forest and the pain in her chest turned into a stab, and she fell to the floor with a scream.
When she looked up, Amy was still in the grips of whatever happened, and Rack was lying back on a leather couch.
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"He then smiled at me, and said, 'Pleasure doing business with you.' After that I have vague memories of walking the streets, and ending up at Buffy's house."
Vhesthine looks at Willow sternly, "you are lucky to be alive young lady. If you had been more out of it, your heart would have exploded."
Willow nods sadly, "I didn't know, what he was going to do, not what could happen if I pushed using magic."
Vhesthine nods, "That may be all that saved you. That being said, I need you to show me the area Amy took you too."
Willow looks confused, "Why?"
"Because I know incubus, and you didn't pay him nearly enough for it to be a pleasure. If Buffy returns with Dawn, then we can look at leisure. If not, the closer we are to his lair, the less likely he will escape before we've found Dawn." Vhesthine scribbles a phone number on a piece of paper, "Tara, this is my cell phone number. Give me a call when Buffy gets home regardless."
Tara looks at the number, "I'm just going to call Dawn and see if she's ok."
Vhesthine lurches to her feet, "No! No, Tara don't. If he has her, and he thinks someone's checking in on her, then he might just leave everything and run. We need to be as close to his lair as possible before he decides to leave."
Tara sits down morosely as Vhesthine drags the still convalescing Willow off to her car.
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Buffy slams open the door to her home in a panic, accidentally breaking the lock, "Dawn! Dawn!"
Tara jumps at the sudden entrance, then falls off the couch while trying to stand, "Buffy, Vhesthine's taken Willow to where the entrance was before. She wants to call her cell phone before we do anything else."
Buffy nods, "You do that, I'm getting my weapons. Anything you need from upstairs?"
Tara squeaks, "Me?"
Halfway up the stairs, Buffy leans back, "Yes you. You're the only other magic expert we have. I'm getting Spike too, as there's anything he knows, it's the crappy side of the city. As he fits right in."
With slightly shaky hands, Tara punches in the number for Vhesthine's cell. After a couple of misdials, Vhesthine answers on the first ring, "Vhesthine."
"It's Tara Buffy's home, no Dawn."
"I'm parked near 10th and Fairview, I'm not sure that Willow will be able to sense anything. But the stink of incubus is everywhere around here."
"I'll let Buffy know, apparently we're getting spike on the way."
From behind her, Buffy says, "On the way where?"
"One mo, Buffy's talking. Vhesthine says that they're near 10th and Fairview, and the place stinks of incubus."
Buffy nods, "I grabbed your coat. Can you call Magic Box on the way, just in case."
"Uh, sure. Sorry, gotta go."
Tara hurries out of the house after Buffy, "Buffy, slow down!"
Buffy slows down just enough for Tara to get her coat on, and dial Magic Box long enough to confirm that they're looking into frost demons, and there's no Dawn there either. Once she's hung up and put her phone away, Buffy leans down midstride and picks her up bridal style, "Buffy! No I'm not ready for this."
As her objection rings out across the street, Buffy disappears into a series of 7 void jumps, before she jogs for a few seconds before repeating it again. To start with, Tara's fingers start turning blue, along with her lips, and she's shivering like mad. But after the third or fourth set, something inside seems to snap, and it no longer feels like she's freezing, or something is being leeched from her.
[AN: in game, operators start with 100 energy. Void dash/sling costs 25/jump and travels around 12m. With maxed out Focus schools, that energy increases to 190, and subsequent slings cost 12.5 energy allowing for 13 jumps on one full charge of energy. For a total of 158m in a couple of seconds. Buffy is doing less jumps, but keeping half her pool available for other stuff.]
Far sooner than she thought possible, Tara finds herself being put down outside a crypt.
As Tara is getting her bearings back, Buffy opens the door to the crypt, and disappears inside. As the door starts to swing closed, Tara hurries over, and heaves it open enough for her to go inside. Once inside, she almost slips down the stairs, as her eyes haven't adjusted and she misses the first step. More cautiously, she makes her way down the stairs to hear a heated conversation. Pushing her way through the door at the bottom of the stairs, the conversation becomes clear as Buffy is tapping her foot impatiently.
"No Spike, this has nothing to do with my non-existent attraction towards you. If you need me to prove how little I'm attracted to you arrange for a spar with me after we've found Rack, and rescued Dawn."
"What do you want with Rack, he's seriously bad news."
Tara speaks up, "W-Willow visited him last night, and he might have kidnapped Dawn."
"So the little witch can speak. Given up on other witches and looking for some vampire fun?"
Tara shakes her head, while Buffy punches Spike around the jaw, "Spike, stop thinking with your bits, and start thinking with your brain. Dawn, is, missing. You know how to find Rack. So, are you helping, or do I have to drag a demon from Willy's to help, and explain that it's because the big bad Spike didn't want to get close to Rack?"
Spike growls as he grabs his coat, "One day Buffy. One day I'm going to hit you back."
Buffy laughs as she heads for the door, "Spike, I have been inviting you to spar for months. It's not like you can blame your chip, as I'm not even human. You've just never been willing to put your money where your mouth is."
Spike stomps after her, "I'll show you where your mouth should be Slayer. I bet you're nothing without your fancy abilities."
Tara rolls her eyes as she follows behind, Buffy's words floating down the stairs, "What? Like you're nothing without your vampiric abilities?"
As they leave the crypt, the sun has just dipped below the horizon, leaving the three of them keeping to the more shaded areas, as Spike has a distressing tendency to smoke lightly in the brightest of the twilight. Though, by the time they've reached 10th and Fairview, it is now dark enough for him to walk around unfettered.
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Spike spins around when Willow's tired voice calls, "Buffy, Spike, Tara, you're here." As he does, the Chinese woman from the other night catches his eye and smiles broadly at Buffy.
Vhesthine saunters over to Buffy and kisses her full on the lips, feeding a small amount of energy to her, which is quickly reciprocated, "Buffy, you've brought a happy meal on legs. Can we take him home with us?"
Buffy looks Spike up and down slowly, "Only if you remember you need to clean up after yourself, before bed."
Spike shuffles uncomfortably as the two woman look at him like that. He's Spike, the god damn Slayer slayer, so instead he scoffs, "As if you could handle me."
Buffy gives him a syrupy smile that she has to have copied from Dawn, "Well, if you find Rack for us, you might just find out."
As he stalks off into downtown, Buffy whispers to Vhesthine, "What are you doing to me? I'm never that… I don't know what that was, I just know I'm never like that."
Vhesthine trails her hand down Buffy's cheek and gives her a quick kiss that's just a kiss, "I'll explain it later."
After what seems like hours walking backwards and forwards through the back alleyways, Spike suddenly spins around. "There, I can feel it."
Buffy looks at Willow and Tara, who both shake their heads, "Ok, lead on McDuff."
Spike groans, "It's lay on McDuff, if you're going to quote at me, at least get it right."
Spike walks through down the alleyway before disappearing into nothing. A moment later he reappears, flying backwards as red lightning plays over his chest.
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Activating Guardian Shell, Buffy charges forward into the portal swiftly followed by Vhesthine as Tara hurries over to pick Spike up off the floor.
Willow starts to shake as she looks towards the portal as Buffy and Vhesthine disappear through it. The memory of the rush of magic warring with the feeling of violation she's felt since Vhesthine explained what happened.
When the two of the don't reappear for a nearly a minute, Tara pulls a small bag of salt from a pocket, "Willow, what's that binding spell we tried last year?"
Willow frowns, "The one that's supposed to imprison someone in a circle?"
"That's the one."
Willow frowns, "Tara, that didn't work because we weren't strong enough, and I can't help you."
Tara smiles softly at Willow, "Don't worry, I think I have the power aspect sorted, I just need the incantation."
"Don't kill yourself, you hear. I love you, even if I do stupid shit. Δέστε αυτό το ον, δυναμώστε τον κύκλο, αλυσίδες θα σας κρατήσουν μέχρι να σπάσει ο κύκλος." [an: Déste aftó to on, dynamóste ton kýklo, alysídes tha sas kratísoun méchri na spásei o kýklos. – or in English Bind this being, strengthen the circle, chains shall hold you till the circle breaks]
Tara smiles as she reaches for that power that's inside her and tugs it out while she lays out a very thin, unbroken, line of salt just in front of the portal while chanting the spell repeatedly.
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Buffy runs straight into a hail of lightning, that scatters off of her still forming shield and strengthening it. Stopping a couple of paces inside, she looks past Rack to an insensate Dawn, who is floating behind him, moaning incoherently.
With only a trace of the anger she's feeling, Buffy somewhat conversationally says, "If you hand over my sister now, I will give you a 30 minute head start on getting out of Sunnydale."
Rack smiles, "You smell of power, and succubus, I have another deal. You sleep and I take you both."
While Buffy's got the incubus' attention, Vhesthine tries to slip around the room unnoticed, only for Buffy to slump to the floor as Racks spell hits her.
Rack's smile widens as he spots Vhesthine try to cast a spell, "So the Matriarch reveals herself. While you would be a magnificent prize, I think I shall keep the prize I already have. As humans say, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' Oh, and don't bother with any magic, I warded this place against your kind when I moved in." As he finishes speaking, he clicks his fingers and the inner door spills open to allow a large mass of writhing tentacles to spill out into the room, searching out Vhesthine and Buffy.
Vhesthine finds herself in a fight for her life as a tentacle latches onto first her leg, and then her arm.
Pushing Dawn through the portal, Rack looks back once, "Don't worry, those tentacles should only be around for a couple of…" He turns around to look at Dawn, who has stopped moving.
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Tara watches as Dawn is pushed out of the portal first, instead of Rack stepping out first. As the spell activates around Dawn, Tara swallows hard and looks around. Spike is only just coming round, and Willow is shaking like a leaf.
When Rack cautiously steps out and around the barrier formed by the circle, Tara steps forward, "I-I'm n-not going to let you take Dawn."
Rack smirks at her, "And what is the widdle white witch going to do to stop me? Cover me with roses?"
Tara brings up her hand to deflect a dark red spell sent her way, "You've made a poor assumption." She sends a basic conjuring hex at him that creates a fall of roses, "You're assuming that I'm only a witch."
Rack contemptuously dispels the roses as they fall around him, ignoring the ones that fall to the floor, as Tara steps forward, her eyes starting to glow, "You see I am also Tenno. And you kidnapped someone I consider to be my child."
Tara's hand slashes out as Rack sends a blast of lightning at her. As it does, one of the roses at his feet turns into a towering bush with spikes as thick as her thumb. Rack steps back, only for Tara to slash her hand upward, and another rose sprouts underneath him, "The second thing you forgot, roses have thorns."
Rack dodges to the side again and again as every spell he tries is intercepted by a rose bush, and every move he makes interrupted by another bush. Once he's got nowhere else to go, Tara reaches out and touches one of the thorns, and looks at him sadly, "I'm sorry to have to do this, but now you die."
Rack desperately reaches into a pocket and grasps a talisman a supplicant gave him decades ago, and snaps it as the roses spiral inward, their thorns moving against each other like a buzz saw. Screaming in pain, Rack disappears in a flash of green fire leaving rivulets of blood flowing down the trunks of the roses.
Tara turns around to look at Willow and pushes the excess void energy into the magic around her, causing it to become a visible corona. As the last of it dissipates she smiles, "See, power, not a problem." Then collapses to the street.