The Return, Chapter Six ~ The Pact
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 Six, The Pact
Angel walked into
the library and looked around. Willow and
Oz were at the computer, Cordelia and Xander were on the stairs
near
the stacks, Giles was in his office; you could barely tell that
it
was Saturday, Buffy and his evil twin had returned to earth the
night
before, or that they had found out that Mya lied to them all.
Angel
shook his head; it seemed as if the density of the townspeople of
Sunnydale were rubbing off on the Slayerettes.
“Hey guys,”
Angel said quietly. He received his usual
greetings: a ‘hey’ from Xander and Oz, a ‘hello’
from Willow, a ‘hi
Angel’ from Cordelia, and a ‘please do not sneak up
like that!’ from
Giles. He suppressed a smirk for his smirk was far to close
to
Angelus’s. “What’s up?”
“We’re
researching,” Xander replied as if it were obvious.
And if Angel had taken the time to look around more, he would’ve
realized that was right. There were soda cans, empty and
full,
everywhere along with stack after stack of books and a few boxes
of
Twinkies and ho-hoes for Xander.
“Researching
what, exactly?” Angel pressed.
“You were there
last night,” Cordelia said. “We’re looking
for a way to see when and where the gateway to hell’s gonna
open up
and swallow us whole.” Angel frowned.
“Thanks for the
visual. You’re almost as good as Buffy,” he
muttered. He jumped slightly at the sound of the phone
ringing, and
from Giles’s cursing about his nerves, Angel knew it had
startled
Giles too. The British man leaned over and picked up the
receiver in
his office.
“Hello?”
Giles answered. “Sunnydale High School Library,
Rupert Giles speaking.” Giles was quiet for a moment.
“What?” His
voice was so shaken that all the heads in the library turned to
look
at Giles as one. “Are you sure?” A frown
then a ‘hmmm’. “Yes, yes,
I suppose you’re right. They would ask too many
questions. I’m
still not clear on how it happened.” *Three, two, one,*
Angel
counted in his head. As if on cue, Giles pulled of his
glasses and
wiped them with his handkerchief. “He what?”
Not even the obvious
concern Giles had for the person the phone call was about, he
couldn’t hide the amusement in his voice. “Yes, I
know this is
serious. I shall be right over…yes, with supplies.”
He grabbed a
sheet of paper and a pen. “Can you give me some
directions from the
school?” Giles scribbled down whatever the person on
the other line
said then gave a grim nod. “I shall be there shortly.”
Giles hung
up the receiver and then slid his glasses back on, looking around
at
all the faces in the room. “What?”
“Who was that?”
Angel asked.
“It was Drusilla,”
Giles answered. “It seems that when Buffy
awoke this morning, she was having a terrible nightmare. It
scared
Angelus so much that he woke her up. But I guess, because
he was so
groggy, he didn’t notice that she was bleeding.”
“That does tend
to happen,” Cordelia said. “Especially to
females.” Giles blinked then raised an eyebrow.
“That’s not
what I mean. What I mean is, when she got into
the bathroom and saw her reflection, she saw that she was
bleeding
around her neck,” Giles explained.
“She was sleeping
in a room with Angelus,” Xander said. “Why
was she so surprised?”
“Because,”
Giles said, his voice stern. “It seemed as if her
flesh itself had been pulled so hard from each side until it
began to
split.” Nobody said anything. “Buffy passed
out and Angelus caught
her before she fell to the ground. The next details I were
told are
a bit fuzzy. Angelus put Buffy back in bed, panicked, then
called
for Drusilla. Just as she got in there and he explained
what he
knew, he fainted also.”
“Angelus isn’t
easily shaken,” Angel murmured. “It must have
been bad.” Giles nodded.
“Drusilla said
she called for me as soon she stopped the
bleeding,” Giles said and looked up at the clock above the
cage.
“Buffy woke around noon, and it’s now almost 1:30.
There must have
been a lot of blood.”
“We need to get
her to a hospital,” Willow said.
“But how are we
going to explain that Buffy woke up with her
flesh ripped in half?” Giles asked. Nobody answered.
“I promised
I’d be there as soon as I could and I fear I’ve wasted
too much time
already.”
“I’m going
with,” Angel said.
“Me too,”
Willow said.
“So am I,”
Xander announced.
“And I go where
Willow goes,” Oz told the room quietly.
“I’ll go
just ‘cause I’m worried about Buffy,” Cordelia
said.
Everyone looked at her. “What? I’m not
aloud to be human once and a
while?” Not saying another word, Giles began to pack
his supplies
and then they left.
*****
“Where is he?”
Drusilla demanded. “He said he’d be here.
What are we going to do? What if she’s not okay?”
Dru stopped in
her tracks in the living room and looked at the covered window.
Spike and Angelus sat on the couch watching her.
“Ducks,”
Spike started. “The Slayer’s lost more blood that
this before. Whistler’s in there making her more
comfortable. I’m
sure the watcher’s going to be here any minute.”
He gave a glance to
Angelus from the corner of his eye. “Any more pacing
and *I’m* going
to go stark raving mad,” he whispered.
“I know the
feeling,” Angelus said. “Dru, why don’t you
sit
down for a moment. That much momentum can’t be good
for you.”
“I don’t
want to sit down,” Drusilla protested. “I want
–” A
loud knock at the door stopped her in the middle of her sentence
and
Dru raced for the door.
“Ducks!
Wait!” Spike yelled. She stopped. “The sun.”
Blinking once, then nodding, Drusilla carefully opened the door
and
stood out of the way of the sun. Giles walked in, followed
by Angel,
Willow, Oz, Xander, and Cordelia. The group stood and
looked at the
three vampires.
“Okay, this is
too weird,” Xander said. “Three vampires
sitting around, worried about the Slayer.” Angel
nodded in agreement
then looked at Angelus.
“Although I hear
sitting is good when you faint,” Angel said
with a smirk.
“I’m just
really tired,” Angelus explained with a sly grin.
“With how late Buffy kept me up and all.” All
eyes in the room but
Angelus’s went wide and he just sat there, smirking.
Mission
accomplished for him. Whistler walked into the room
carrying a towel
soaked with water and blood.
“Is that all from
Buffy?” Angel asked.
“Yeah,”
Whistler said.
“I thought you
said you stopped the bleeding!” Giles accused
Drusilla.
“She did,”
Whistler explained. “While I was in there looking
at the wounds, she started calling out in her sleep. I sat
there and
right before my eyes her skin ripped more. It’s like
because of her
dreams, her body’s being pulled in half.”
“Yeah, but by
what?” Willow asked quietly. Whistler
shrugged.
“I don’t
know, kid, I don’t know. All I know is we need to
get her up and keep her up if we’re going to save her.
She’s loosing
more blood than she can afford to.” Whistler looked
sadly at the
room then went to the kitchen to throw away the once white towel.
“No!” a loud
voice yelled. All heads turned towards Buffy’s
room as her voice rang out again. “Stop it! You’re
hurting me! Let
go you two! Angel! Let me GO!” Everyone’s
gaze turned from the
room and to Angel who was as wide eyed as the rest. Giles
shook his
head to clear his thoughts and pulled something out of his bag.
“This should wake
her up,” he said and held up a small vile
of liquid. Giles went towards Buffy’s room, followed
by Angel and
Angelus. He froze when he saw the petite figure on the bed
with
blood oozing from her chest.
“My god,”
Angel whispered.
“I thought you
would’ve learned by now,” Angelus muttered
absently. “Even if there is a god, he doesn’t
care about her.
Everything terrible that could happen to her has and as far as I
can
see, it’s gonna take nothing short of a miracle to get it to
stop.”
The two looked at each other and Giles walked over to Buffy.
“What is that
stuff?” Angel asked as he finally stopped
looking at his live reflection.
“A potion, not
too difficult to put together. It’ll help
keep her up,” Giles told them then opened Buffy’s
mouth, emptying the
contents of the vile down her throat. “C’mon,
work, damnit,” Giles
prayed. Buffy opened one eye then the other.
“Giles?
What are you doing here?” Buffy asked weakly. Her
eyes settled on the two twin figures standing in the door.
“Tell
them to stop pulling on me.”
“What?”
Giles asked. Then his lightning quick brain put two
and two together. “Buffy, do they pull on you in your
dreams? One
on each arm?”
“Yes,” Buffy
said. “But it’s just a dream. Although, in
some, it’s my mom and my dad or Willow and Xander, or you
and
Whistler. Always, someone pulling. It hurts.”
“Buffy, I don’t
want to scare you, but for some reason your
body thinks it’s real,” Giles said softly.
“Huh?” Buffy
asked. Giles gestured her chest and she looked
down with wide eyes.
“Your skin is
indeed ripping, Buffy. Just like in your
dreams,” Giles explained. “I’m not sure why.
It could be your need
to choose one over the other.”
“Or it could be
magic,” Buffy said. “Do you think Kelvin is
doing this to me so I can’t fight him?” Buffy asked.
Giles could
only nod. “What am I going to do? Not sleep?”
“We might be able
to do a protection spell, one that seals
her mind from anyone else,” Angelus suggested. Giles
looked up at
him then nodded.
“That might work,
but we would need a lot of magic power,”
Giles said.
“Well, we’ve
got Whistler, Drusilla, Willow, you, me, Angel,
Buffy…” Angelus said. “Okay, not Buffy.
She’s too weak.”
“What do you mean
‘too weak’?” Buffy demanded.
“Sorry Slayer,
but you couldn’t go three rounds with a fruit
fly,” Angelus said. “Guess you’ll have to
sit this one out.”
“Fine,”
Buffy muttered defeatedly.
“Good,”
Giles said. He picked up another clean towel from
the floor and pressed against the bleeding wounds to Buffy’s
chest.
“This might work.”
*****
Giles knocked again
on the door to where Buffy was staying.
It had taken two hours to do it, but Giles finally found the book
that he was looking for. After hearing many shouts warning
about the
sun, Giles smiled as Willow opened the door. He walked in
and held
up the book.
“Found it,”
he said.
“Took you long
enough,” Spike snapped. “It took us
everything we had to keep her awake!”
“Yes, well, I
needed to make sure to get the correct
supplies,” Giles said and then handed the book to Whistler.
“There’s
just one glitch in the spell.”
“What’s
that?” the little demon asked.
“We need someone
to bind their life to Buffy,” Giles said.
Before Angel could say anything, Angelus was already volunteering.
“I’ll do it,”
Angelus said.
“There’s
more to it than that,” Giles said.
“Like what?”
he asked. Giles blinked.
“Well…there’s…and
there’s…” Giles sighed. “The one
bound to
her must be someone she agrees to have bound. Also, if she
dies, the
one bound to her dies, but not the other way around.”
Angelus
shrugged.
“I’ve
already made a pact with her,” he said. “She dies
I
die, I die she goes on with her life. At least this will be
to save
her life.” With a defeated sigh similar to the one
Buffy made
earlier, Giles nodded.
“Fine,”
Giles agreed. “We’ll set up then do the ritual.”
“Oh, fun,”
Angelus muttered beneath his breath. “Another
ritual.”