The Return, Prologue A
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.
Prologue
Buffy opened her
eyes and stretched lazily on her new bed. She had the
most wonderful dream that night; she had gotten out of hell,
killed Mya,
and then made passionate love to Angel. She smiled at the
thought of
all three then looked at her surroundings. She was in a
dark gray room
with black and red furnishings. It was a very nice looking
place that
she stayed in, and if it weren’t for the screams of torture
victims, she
almost could’ve believed she wasn’t in hell. But
she was, and because
of Mya, it had been for almost three hundred years. And to
top it off,
she was with Angelus. Buffy rolled her eyes at the thought
of the
annoying demon and thought back to when she first arrived.
*****
Buffy fell through the vortex. Patches of color
surrounded her. One
moment, she was in pitch black and then next was surrounded by
bright
orange and green. She closed her eyes and then hit the
ground in a
painful thud. Taking in a deep breath, she lay still with
her eyes
still closed. She stayed like that for a moment until a
familiar voice
rang through the air.
“Okay, I know
this is hell and all, but this, this is too mean,”
Angelus muttered. Buffy looked up at him in all of his
leather panted
glory.
“Oh, shit,”
Buffy hissed. “I’m so going to kill that bitch.”
“Nice language,
Slayer,” Angelus commented. “And by the way,
welcome
to hell.”
“Hell?”
Buffy repeated. “How did I get here?”
“I’m
guessing it had something to do with Kelvac there,” Angelus
said
and gestured towards the demon’s carcass. Buffy looked
with a raised
eyebrow. “He wasn’t the smartest demon, but he
did know a little magic.
Which is very surprising for a giant worm.”
“He knew magic?”
Buffy repeated. Angelus nodded and extended a hand to
help Buffy up. Warily, she looked at him, then took his
hand and pulled
herself onto her feet.
“Yeah,”
Angelus replied, then looked Buffy over. “Like the
outfit, but
the way.” Buffy looked down at her white tank-top,
black leather pants,
and tall boots.
“Well, you
inspired it,” she tossed at him.
“Hmmm, I’m
not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” he said as if
talking to himself. “Well, Kelvac had it so if he
died, two vortex’s
would open. I’m not exactly sure how you managed to
sucked in the
second one.”
“Mya pushed me,
the stupid little bitch,” Buffy hissed.
“Mya?”
Angelus asked.
“Why the hell do
you care?” Buffy asked all of a sudden. He chuckled
and began to walk down what seemed to be a sidewalk. After
noticing
Buffy wasn’t following him, he stopped and motioned for her
to follow.
She started to walk and was soon at his side.
“When Angel was
down here, and we were still one body, there was a
demon named Schlep. He had been the gatekeeper for many
decades and was
getting bored. So he arranged for Angel to be released and
separate the
two of us. I’m not sure why, but he chose me to
replace him.”
“Okay, you kinda
lost me with the whole gatekeeper thing,” Buffy said.
“Um, the
gatekeeper is the demon in charge of all who enter hell. I
decide where they go, how much their tortured, and for how long.
Schlep
was the gatekeeper before me. He separated Angel and me and
then passed
it down to me.” They stopped in front of a door and
Angelus knocked.
“You entered through magic, and you’re a Slayer.
What I’m supposed to
do with you is beyond me.”
“Don’t you
hate me or something?” Buffy asked. He shrugged and
the
door opened. A female vampire looked at him then at Buffy.
“Gatekeeper.
Nice to see you. It’s been a while,” she said.
“Yes it has,
Asja,” Angelus replied. “Is Crenshaw in?”
“Don’t know
what to do with this one?” Asja asked, mocking him.
“She entered
through a magic vortex,” Angelus replied.
“So, hasn’t
stopped you before.”
“She’s a
Slayer,” Angelus said. Asja’s eyes widened and
she looked at
Buffy.
“I’ll inform
Crenshaw of your arrival. Please, enter,” Asja said
and
opened the door. Angelus entered followed by Buffy and Asja
then closed
the door. She bustled off to a room and went in.
“Funny, doesn’t
fit my vision of hell,” Buffy said. A series of
pitiful, painful screams erupted from down the street.
“Okay, now it
does.”
“He’s ready,”
Asja said, suddenly coming out of the room. “He said
to
leave the Slayer in here and go in alone.” Buffy sat
down in a chair
and crossed her legs, waiting for Angelus to reappear and to
figure out
what she was going to do. After about ten or so minutes,
Angelus exited
with a scowl plastered on his face.
“He wants to see
you, Buffy,” Angelus muttered unhappily and sat down
in a chair by Buffy’s. Buffy stood up and walked into
the office. A
young looking man with pale blue skin and bright blue eyes sat at
a desk
in a black suit. His short white hair was clean and he had
a friendly
smile.
“Hello Buffy,”
the man said. “I’m Cryack Crenshaw. You can
call me
Crenshaw.” He stood and extended a long fingered hand.
Buffy stood
tall and eyed him carefully, in full Slayer mode. “Do
not be afraid
Slayer. Please, sit, relax.” He sat back down
and gestured to a
comfortable looking chair.
“I’ll sit,
but I won’t relax. This place is making my Slayer
sense go
off the charts,” she muttered and sat down.
“If you were any
other person, mortal person, you would have a reason
to be afraid. But you did not come here because of your own
actions,”
Crenshaw started. “We’re working on getting you
out as we speak.”
“How long?”
Buffy asked.
“Six months,”
Crenshaw said. “There, in your world. Here,
well, it’ll
be a little longer.”
“Why not earlier?”
she asked.
“Your people need
to find the right spell. It’s been misplace and will
take some time to locate.” Buffy thought for a moment.
“Why not just let
me out?” she asked.
“Not possible.
Unless we want to disturb the balance between good and
evil, we cannot open a vortex out of hell. That would not
only release
you, but half of the population of hell.” Buffy
frowned.
“That wouldn’t
be a good thing,” she said slowly.
“No, it wouldn’t,”
Crenshaw agreed. “Which brings us to your current
situation.”
“Yeah, and why my
mortal enemy is acting really, really…odd,” Buffy
said.
“You mean
Angelus? That one’s easy. When we released
Angel, we
separated the two. But Schlep wanted him to have a little
good in him,
so we left some of Angel’s humanity in him. Still
evil, but he has a
good side two. It helps him think more rationally.”
“When you
released Angel,” Buffy repeated.
“When we did
that, your Watcher and that redhead were performing a
spell to bring him back. All we had to do was do the second
part of it
and separate the two,” Crenshaw explained. “It
was, unfortunately, a
totally different spell than the one needed to retrieve you.”
“Oh, joy,”
Buffy muttered dryly.
“So, you can
either a, be Angelus’s assistant of sorts. Help keep
demons in line, learn some magic, that sort of stuff. Or we
can find
something else for you.”
“Be his…as
in work with him?” Buffy asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Do I have to?”
Buffy whined.
“Well, no, but
what do you want to do?”