The Return, Chapter Eight ~ The
Ritual
From: "Little Slayer" <little_slayer@hotmail.com>
Author: Little Slayer
Email: little_slayer@hotmail.com or little_slayer@buffymail.com
Title: The Return
Distribution: Anyone can have it. Just ask.
Rating: PG.
Author’s Note: Sequel to The End.
Feedback: If you don’t send feedback, I’ll sick
Faith on you like a
dog on a bone. Or in her case a dog on a…okay, I’m
not going to
finish that, but you all get the point. Actually, no, I
can't sick
her on you because of one really important reason…
Disclaimer: I don’t own him! Uh, her. Or
Buffy, Angel, Giles,
Willow, Joyce, and everyone else. They’re all in here.
I don’t own
Angel’s nickname of Peaches. The only thing I own is
Mya. She’s
mine. I created her. And so I can easily destroy the
skanky little…
uh, oops. All the Buffyverse people belong to Joss Whedon
and anyone
else who legally owns them. Anybody who has been either A)
mentioned
on BtVS, or B) seen on BtVS, I don’t own. I do own a
few people but
am too tired to name them.
Dedication: Vanessa, Lady Raven. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
Chapter Eight, The Ritual
“Giles are you
done yet?” Angelus whined. “I’m so tired I
can barely keep my eyes open.” He set down the mug
that Drusilla had
handed him about an hour earlier and looked at Buffy, who also
looked
like she was about to pass out.
“Almost,”
Giles said. He finished setting up the candles and
Drusilla sprinkled some herbs around. “Okay, Spike,
when I tell you
to, I need you to light these candles. Drusilla, as he’s
doing that,
I need you to pour the mixed herbs onto the flames. Willow,
Whistler, and I will do the speaking. Everyone else needs
to be dead
quiet or it’ll ruin the ritual.” Everyone nodded.
“Okay, Buffy, you
lie down over here.” He gestured a spot where Angel
had poured white
sand around. “And Angelus, over there.”
They did as told. “Okay,
now close your eyes and go to sleep.” They nodded and
within minutes
were both in a deep sleep. Giles nodded to Willow.
“Consada debo
paradum est. Unaba brazo cabaña uds. Nadir
tocan la cuerpo,” Willow said in a loud, deep voice.
Buffy began to
cry out in her sleep. Frowning, Whistler blew some herbs
onto Buffy
and Angelus then began to speak.
“Dormir pierno
enfermo sien usted. Carabral manzana
anaranhado raja,” he said in an equally loud, deep voice.
Giles
nodded to Spike. He lit a candle and moved on. While
he was
lighting the next candle, Dru dropped a pinch of herbs onto the
flame. They did that until all of the candles were lit in a
circle
around Buffy, Giles, and Angelus. Giles began to speak.
“Dark spirits,
hear our call. We wish to bind these two
bodies, minds, and souls. May the wounds from human move to
demon,
nightmares from human to demon, and may the curse be lifted off
both.
I demand you do as we ask!” Giles called out. Smoke
began to swirl
around the room and the power went out in the apartment.
Flashes of
light and color mixed in with the smoke then everything stopped.
The
candles burned out, the smoke dissipated, the power turned back
on,
and Buffy and Angelus woke up.
“Did it work?”
Xander asked. Buffy pulled the upper collar
of shirt from her neck and peered down. Then she looked
over at
Angelus.
“Yup, it worked,”
she said. Buffy climbed to her feet and
yawned. “I feel like I haven’t slept in weeks.”
“I feel the same
way,” Angelus replied and struggled to his
feet. Buffy grabbed his hand and pulled him up. He
winced slightly
from the pulling then looked at the group. “Well, now
we can
concentrate on finding out when and where Kelvin will strike.”
*****
Buffy opened her
eyes and looked around. Frowning, she
looked at the décor of her room and recognized it as her room in
hell. Was her being in Sunnydale a dream? Quietly,
she crawled out
of bed and walked into the living room. Startled, she
watched an
exact replica of herself on the couch, Angelus massaging her
shoulders.
“That’s
feels nice,” she heard herself say and watched as
Angelus’s face lit up. Dipping one hand lower on her
back, Angelus
smiled.
“I’m glad,”
he said. “You’ve been so tense lately.”
Then he
turned and looked directly at her, still rubbing her dream body.
“Promise you’ll never forget me?”
“I promise,”
both Buffy’s said at the same time.
*****
Buffy again opened
her eyes and looked around. She was in
her room in Sunnydale and Angelus was asleep on the floor.
The
others had left earlier, despite their protests of her being
alone.
She ignored it with a wave of her hand and sent them on their way.
“I’m not
going to be harmed anymore,” she had said. “The
spell worked and I need to get my sleep.” They nodded
in agreement
and left. Buffy smiled at the memory of Angel leaning down
and
giving her a soft kiss on her cheek. Then she looked down
at the
floor and her mind continued the memory of her dream. The
night she
slept with Angelus. Well, one of the three or four or
twelve nights
she had slept with him.
“Oh boy,”
she murmured. Then the phone rang. Yawning, she
picked it up. “Hello?”
“Oh, good, Buffy,
you’re up,” Giles said on the other line.
Buffy smiled and stretched out her sleepy limbs.
“Yeah,” she
replied. “So, what’s the what?”
“We may have an
idea of when Kelvin is attacking,” Giles told
her. Immediately, Buffy was alert and she nudged Angelus
with her
foot.
“Really?
When?” she asked. Angelus looked up at her, and,
with a protesting growl, sat up.
“Tomorrow night.
The old burned down warehouse,” Giles said.
“Tomorrow night
at the old burned down warehouse. That’s
when they’re attacking? Are you sure?” Buffy
repeated. Angelus also
perked up.
“Yes, quite sure,”
Giles replied. Buffy glanced at her
clock.
“Well, it’s
daylight, so I’ll get dressed and drop by to
train. The other three can come after sunset and we can get
ready,”
Buffy said.
“Yes, yes that’ll
do quite well. See you soon, Buffy,” Giles
said and then the line went dead. Buffy hung up her phone.
“What’s up?”
Angelus asked.
“I’m heading
to the library. How do you feel?” Buffy looked
down at him and he glanced at his chest.
“Well, I had a
really weird dream that Angel and a clone of
myself were trying to grab me, but I threw them off and killed
them,”
Angelus replied. “And, vampiric healing is a blessing.
No more
tears and not even a scar to show that they were there.”
“Thanks for doing
that,” Buffy said to him.
“Hey, no problem.
Not anything out of the ordinary. My
having my life bonded to my mortal enemy,” Angelus replied
with a
shrug. She knelt down on the floor by him.
“C’mon,
admit it. You like me. You would’ve done it
anyway,” Buffy teased.
“I’d have
done a lot more, but we decided that we were just
friends, well, if you could call it that,” Angelus told her.
She
stood up and her face hardened.
“Yeah.
Well, when the others get up, tell them to get their
undead asses to the library. I expect you to be there too.
And no
feeding off of people, or I’ll experiment with my new
torture,” Buffy
threatened.
“And what would
that be, Slayer? Boring me to death?”
Angelus asked with a smirk.
“No. You
see, it involves candles, matches, and many, many
barbed daggers,” Buffy said. Angelus frowned with
confusion. “You
see, I use the matches to light the candles, use the candles to
heat
the daggers, and use the daggers to cut off the –”
“Okay, I get the
point,” Angelus said, cutting her off.
Buffy smirked at him then stood up to get dressed. Angelus
watched
as she pulled out a pair of black pants and a light blue tank top
from her closet, then settled down to go back to sleep as she
went
into the bathroom to change.
*****
THWACK! Buffy
did another high kick and Giles flew across
the room, landing on his butt. Buffy yawned at stretched
from
boredom and looked down at Giles pitifully.
“I still don’t
see why I can’t practice my magic,” she
complained. Angel looked up from his books and then down at
the
floor where Giles was, amused that she was still whining about
not
being able to practice her magic.
“Because, Buffy,
as you demonstrated the night you returned,
your magic takes away too much of your energy,” Giles
wheezed.
“But I know other
spells!” Buffy protested. “That was
probably one of the newest ones I had learned!”
“No,” Giles
said. Grumbling, Buffy plopped down next to
Angel and looked at his book.
“It’s in
Gaelic,” he said. She nodded.
“ ‘And they
will release the darkness of hell unto the
Earth,’ ” Buffy translated. Angel raised his
eyebrows.
“You know this?”
he asked. Buffy nodded.
“And Latin,
Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics…” She blushed from
his astonished look. “I was bored.”
“You must have
been,” Angel remarked.
“We bring snacks!”
Xander announced from the doorway. He
held up a twelve pack of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos.
“And for those of
us who don’t want to have a lot of zits,”
Cordelia remarked and held her paper bag close to her.
Buffy raised
an eyebrow.
“I know a good
way to get rid of zits,” Buffy said. Cordelia
looked at her flawless skin and then hurried over. “Well,
actually,
I know two.”
“What? WHAT!”
Cordelia demanded.
“Well, one way is
to peel off all of one’s skin…” Buffy
started but stopped at Cordelia’s horrified expression.
“The other’s
wash, rinse, repeat. Wait, no, that’s hair. Damn.
Sorry Cordy, I
don’t really worry about that stuff.” Cordelia
glared at Buffy then
huffed over to her chair.
“Buffy, training,”
Giles reminded. She sighed.
“I don’t
want to train with you. I like you. I want to
train against something that pisses me off,” Buffy mumbled.
“Hey, we’re
here,” Drusilla announced. She, Spike, and
Angelus walked into the library. Buffy smiled.
“Like Dead-Boy,”
she said. Angelus glared at her.
“What about me?”
he asked.
“You get to be my
sparring partner,” she said. “Think you
can survive.” He thought for a moment.
“Hide all sharp,
wooden objects,” he said. “And I’ll think
about it.”
“Well, if we do
that, then we’ll have to get rid of ALL
wooden objects. A table leg is what killed the Master,”
Buffy told
him.
“Fine, fine, can
we fight now?” he asked annoyed. Buffy
grinned and walked over to him, dropping into a fighting stance.
“This should be
interesting,” Xander said. “Ten bucks on
Dead-Boy.”
“Twenty on Buffy,”
Angel said and pulled out his wallet.
“Same here,”
Oz said.
“Hey, this isn’t
some cat fight,” Willow protested. “This is
our friend fighting a vampire. Who is also our friend…I
think.”
That raised some eyebrows, especially Angelus’s.
“The only reason
I’m here is ‘cause of little miss Slayer.
If it weren’t for her, I’d still be happy and in hell,”
Angelus said.
“I never actually
thought I’d meet someone who preferred hell
to here,” Giles muttered.
“Guys! Can
we quit with the remarks from the peanut
gallery?” Buffy asked. They shut up and watched
intently as Angelus
and Buffy began to circle one another as if it were a natural
thing
to do. “You’re going down.”
“Not if I beat
you first,” Angelus shot back.
“When exactly
have you beaten me?” Buffy asked.
“Well, there was
that one match in the main room of the
apartment…” Angelus said with a raised eyebrow.
“That was a draw,”
Buffy said quickly.
“Maybe to you,
but not to me. That was more like a good f–”
Angelus started but stopped as Buffy delivered a quick blow to
his
jaw.
“Training,”
she told him then looked at the others.
“Research.” They all grabbed some books and some
pop and began to
page through some books. All except Xander, who carved
stakes, and
Willow, who refilled the containers of holy water. Angelus
swung out
a fist and barely missed Buffy’s face. She jumped
back, then using
her momentum, leaned up and delivered a high kick to Angelus’s
chest.
He absorbed her blows and ducked down to knock her legs out from
under her. *I’ll show Giles I can use magic,* Buffy
thought and
latched onto Angelus’s shoulders, releasing a small electric
charge.
He jumped back, and the smell of burnt skin sunk into the air.
Cordelia started to cough, and Xander gasped for air. The
others
just wrinkled their noses.
“Hey, no magic,”
Angelus protested.
“You never said
that,” Buffy said slyly. “It was a training
session. I trained with my magic because I’ve spent
the past two
hours kicking Giles’s behind.”
“Then why didn’t
you do your magic stuff earlier?” Angelus
asked.
“Giles wouldn’t
let her,” Angel told him.
“So you fry my
skin?!” Angelus demanded of Buffy. She
shrugged.
“I’m bored,”
she said. “Magic’s more fun than fighting.”
Angelus nodded.
“Yeah, except the
part where I get my skin burned off!” he
said, his voice raising towards the end of his comment.
Buffy glared
at him.
“Well if you hadn’t
have mentioned that fight we had in the…”
Buffy stopped herself, realizing that all eyes were upon her and
then
her cheeks began to redden. “So, Giles, can I patrol
tonight?”
“Well, I’d
rather you not, but somehow I have the feeling
that you’re going to anyway,” Giles said. Buffy
nodded. “If you
take plenty of protection, Spike, Dru, and…Angelus, you may
go. The
rest of us will stay here and research.”
“Thank you Giles,”
Buffy said and pulled on her jacket. She
bounded out the door and the others followed.
“Nope, this is in
no way weird,” Angel muttered. Then he
continued to read his book. *And one the Slayer is
connected to
shall betray her and she shall die.* Angel frowned and
blinked.
*Wait a sec. Buffy’s gonna die?* “Uh,
Giles?”
“Yes Angel?”
Giles asked. He looked up at the frowning ex-
vampire.
“I think I found
something…important.” Giles walked over and
read the paragraph Angel indicated.
“Oh dear,”
Giles said. The others looked up at him. “Oh
dear, oh dear, oh dear. This is not good.”
“That’s what
I was thinking,” Angel muttered. *Oh Buffy.*