The Return, Chapter One ~ The Truth
From: "Little Slayer" <little_slayer@hotmail.com>
Author: Little Slayer
Email: little_slayer@hotmail.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.
Chapter One, The Truth
Angel paced back
and forth in his house. The dream he had the previous
night had thoughts going through his mind a mile a minute.
And what
bothered him the most, is that it made more sense to think Buffy
had
been sucked into hell than that she had died. He shook his
head. No.
She was dead and it had been six months. He had finally
started acting
normal again. Everyone was glad. Well, everyone but
Whistler. He had
left right away after Buffy died. That was something that
puzzled him
too, but it wasn’t unusual that Whistler disappeared for a
while. He’d
done it before. But then Drusilla had shown up and told him
not to get
over Buffy, not to forget her. And specifically, not to
trust Mya. And
after that, nobody had seen the two vampires again. He
remembered it
clearly.
*****
It had been a week
since Buffy’s death and Angel hadn’t left his house
at all in that time. A few people, namely Joyce, Giles, and
Mya had
shown up to comfort him, but he didn’t respond to them much.
When Mya
had last visited, she said she’d be over that night, so when
he heard
the knock on the door, he thought it was her.
“Come in,”
he called out lifelessly. Drusilla opened the door and
walked in with a painful smirk on her face.
“You should be
careful who you invite in Angel. I would think you’d
know that the best,” she whispered. “How have you
been?”
“How the hell do
you think?” he shot at her angrily. She raised an
eyebrow.
“Well, with how
much Mya’s been dropping by…” she said slowly.
Angel
glared at her and sunk lower into his chair.
“What’s that
supposed to mean?”
“What do you
think?” Dru asked. He huffed out an exasperated breath.
Dru was playing head games and he wasn’t interested.
“Do you have a
reason to be here in specific?” he growled out.
“Yes. As a
matter of fact, I do. Whistler left for England. I’m
not
sure when he’ll be back. In fact, he’s requested
that Spike and I join
him.” Angel looked up confused.
“And I care
because?” he asked annoyed.
“Don’t get
over her,” Dru said suddenly. Angel blinked as if he
didn’t
hear right.
“What?”
“Buffy. Don’t
get over her. I can’t go into details, I just can’t.
I
don’t even know them myself. But don’t get over
her. And if you ever
cared about her at all, don’t forget that she loves you.”
“Loved. She’s
dead,” Angel said bitterly.
“Loves,”
Drusilla repeated. “Loves.”
“Mya said she
died. Buffy is unable to love anymore. She’s
dead.”
“Well, that’s
your problem. Don’t trust Mya. All she’s
doing with any
of you is screwing with your minds. Don’t trust her,
because if you do,
well, it’ll turn around and bite you in the ass.”
With that, Drusilla
got up and left, leaving Angel extremely confused and deep in
thought.
*****
Angel sat down in
his chair in an angry huff. *What the hell did she
mean?* he thought. *But maybe that’s just it.
Hell.* Angel stood up
and went over to his closet as fast as he could. He pulled
on his boots
and then his leather trench coat. He had a watcher to see.
*****
“Are you sure?”
Giles asked. He looked at Whistler, who had
disappeared months ago, hopefully. The little demon nodded
his head.
“As sure as she’s
not a natural blonde,” Whistler said. “Buffy’s
alive.”
“But if she’s
alive, then Mya lied to us,” Giles said slowly.
“Yup. As a
matter of fact, Mya is responsible for Buffy’s death.”
Giles’s eyes opened wide and he sat, slowly, in a nearby
chair.
“What?” he
asked softly.
“I’m sorry
Watcher, but I have proof. I knew something was up as soon
as Dru called me and told me she was having visions about Mya
killing
Buffy. Add Buffy’s dream that Mya pushed her into a
vortex into hell,
well, I decided to do something. I got a video camera, a
small one,
from a demon who owed me big. I gave it to Spike, ‘cause
he’s good at
hiding things, and they set it up.”
“They?”
Giles asked, barely staying focused. Buffy, she was alive.
“Spike and Dru.
They set it up and I got it right after the battle.”
Giles looked up confused.
“How?”
“Well, as soon as
Mya came out and told us that Buffy died, I forgot
about the camera. But then everyone started crying and
Angel looked
like…”
*****
Whistler felt sorry
for Angel. He looked down on the poor guy who
looked like his heart was just dug out of his chest with a spoon.
*With
a spoon?* Whistler thought. *I’ve been spending way
too much time with
Buffy.*
“Uh, well, I’ll
stick around and clean up. You guys should probably
go, get some rest,” Whistler said quietly. “Spike,
get Dru home. I’ll
see you two in a while.” They nodded and Spike led
Drusilla down the
hall. Oz slowly guided the sobbing Willow after them,
followed by
Xander and Cordelia. Giles and Whistler stared down at
Angel for a
moment.
“Maybe you ought
to bring him with you,” Whistler suggested. “You
never know what he might try to do.” Giles nodded and
knelt down by
Angel.
“Angel?”
Giles asked quietly. “Come on, Angel, it’s time
to leave.”
Angel barely heard him, but stood and continued to stare into
space.
Giles walked down the hall, Angel following silently behind him.
“I’ll help
clean up,” Mya said cheerfully.
“For someone who
just watched her sister in battle die you seem awfully
cheerful,” Whistler said slowly.
*****
“That was my
first clue that Mya had lied through her teeth,” Whistler
said. Giles nodded, he remembered that night clearly.
He remembered
the unsettling feeling that had twisted around in his stomach
when he
saw Mya come out with a barely contained look of glee on her face.
He
had just thought she was happy that she had managed to save the
world.
“Yes, she did
seem a bit…off,” Giles said slowly.
“That was only
the beginning…” Whistler said, continuing his story.
*****
Whistler walked in
and looked around the place. He saw, at the base of
each stair case, smoky remains of a vortex into hell.
Puzzled, he took
a step closer to the one on the left to investigate. Yellow
slime and
bits of green flesh were on the ground by that one. The
only thing that
was by the other vortex was a hair clip with bits of blonde hair
in it.
Buffy’s hair clip. He remembered his conversation with
Spike while they
waited for the battle to be over.
“I hid it up in
the stacks. In the second row, there’s a shelf of blue
books. It’s the only brown one. The title is I
Spy With My Little
Eye,” Spike had said. Whistler walked up the right
stair case and
looked closely at the bookshelf that had a great view of the
library.
Just as Spike had said, there was a shelf with all blue books.
All
except the small brown book in the middle with the title I Spy
With My
Little Eye. He peered closely at it and saw the small lens
protruding a
bit from the word Spy. He pulled it out and opened the
book, revealing
a small camera and a small screen to play the tape on. He
hit a button
to rewind the tape and watched as his figure walked around then
Mya’s
re-entered and then, out of nowhere, the battle scene erupted
onto the
screen. He pushed another button and looked closely at the
screen with
wide eyes as the demon was slain by Buffy, as the two vortex’s
opened,
as one swallowed the demon, and as Buffy stood in front of the
other.
He found himself willing with all of his might, that what he saw
next,
he hadn’t. Mya stepped behind Buffy and raised her
hands to push the
petite blonde. At the last possible second, Buffy whirled
around, only
to be shoved into hell. Whistler watched, dumbfounded as
Mya smirked
victoriously and as she walked out of the library. He
continued to
stare as his own image walked across the screen then as it faded
into
black. Mya had broken one of the most cherished rules of
being a
Slayer. Not to abuse your powers for anything other than
the good of
the world. She had just done it. She had just pushed
the world’s only
hope for survival into hell. Detached, he hurried around
the library
and cleaned it with unnatural speed. He had to get to the
council as
soon as possible, and didn’t need to be waiting around there
forever
cleaning up after a battle.
*****
Giles took in
everything that Whistler had just said to him. Buffy was
alive. Mya had pushed her into hell. The Council knew
about it.
“Why didn’t
you tell us?” Giles asked after a while when he found his
voice.
“I couldn’t.
My orders were direct from the Council. I had gotten a
hold of them when I had first suspected Mya may have been up to
something. They told me that if my fears were realized, to
get to
England as soon as possible. It wasn’t until after I
had gotten there
had I even thought about Spike or Drusilla. We’ve been
working for a
while, looking for the spell to get Buffy out of hell. We
finally found
it about a week ago. We know she isn’t in any danger,
we’ve gotten a
hold of a demon named Crenshaw. He’s in charge of the
section Buffy had
gotten pulled into. He said she’s gotten adjusted
pretty well, trains
every day, has been learning magic –”
“This is all very
nice, but I don’t care what she’s doing there.
What
I do care about, sir, is why the hell she isn’t here!”
Giles exploded.
Whistler smiled.
“We need your
help with the spell. We’re getting out two bodies, and
we need your knowledge of the occult.” Giles nodded a
small nod.
“What does the
Council plan to do about Mya?” he asked carefully.
Whistler sighed and looked away for a moment.
“All they are
going to do, is take away her powers,” Whistler said.
“Well, that, and then give Buffy full options on what to do.
Half of
them wouldn’t mind if Buffy killed her. They’ve
already done the spell.
It should be going into effect soon.” Giles nodded.
“When do we do
the spell?” he asked.
“Sunset,”
Whistler said. “Here’s the stuff we need you to
take care
of.” Whistler handed him a sheet of paper and got up
to walk out the
doors. “Oh, and Watcher?” Giles looked up
at him. “Don’t tell
anybody, not even Angel. That’s not up to us.
That’s up to her.”
Giles nodded and the demon once again disappeared into the
crowded halls
of Sunnydale High.