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Strip Snap by Lilachigh
 
Chp 27 Not me - Us
 
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Strip Snap

Chp : Not me - Us.


They were walking in the dark, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder. Their feet made no sound, there was just a cool wind on their faces. She was them and they were her – love surrounded her, ran through her, consumed her, was her. What she felt for them, what they felt for her and each other, it flowed together in a swirling stream until she was unable to tell who was feeling what.

All she knew was that her blood called to theirs, sang the same song, whispered the same words of love, need and desire. The blood in her veins burnt like black honey and she knew if she tilted back her head she could feed on everyone, take what she wanted, and it would be good because they were no longer separate but one whole, the four of them fused, complete – happy –

“Buffy! Buffy! For god’s sake wake up!”

The words sounded a long way away and she shut them out, refused to listen, would not answer, could not hear, would not understand –

“Buffy! It’s Dawn. Please, please come back, Buffy. Please! The Master’s coming and I’m scared.”

Blood calling from the other side, blood they all acknowledged because they were one and shared everything. She felt the bonds loosening, just a fraction, and then the voice was closer, louder and she opened her eyes –

“Oh thank god! Willow, she’s conscious. Buffy, are you OK?“ Dawn was leaning over her. She seemed to be flat on the floor and struggled to sit up.

“Buffy! What happened? Spike – William – the Demon thing – they look – Buffy, I think they’re dead!”

Willow came hurtling down the stairs, followed by Xander and Anya. They stood, looking nervously down at her as she slowly got to her feet.

Buffy stared down at the bodies and swayed for a second. Dead? Spike dead? Then inside her she felt him stir, felt William and Demon swirling at his side and knew they were not dead. She was carrying whatever they were, whatever made them, inside her.

She remembered saying ‘Mine!’, being driven by the demon influence in her Slayer blood to take them and make them hers. And that was exactly what she had done.

“They’re not dead,” she muttered now, reaching out to stroke Dawn’s hair back from her anxious face. “How long have I been unconscious, Will?”

“About thirty minutes. We didn’t know what to do. The four of you were holding hands and we couldn‘t pull you apart. What happened?”

Buffy didn’t answer. She stared at the bodies lying, their heads together, Spike, William and Demon. Three hands still entwined and hers ached to join them, to go back, to be one again.

But she couldn’t because – she forced herself to concentrate, ignore the pull, the voices whispering in her head to come back to them, because they loved her.

“Buffy, how are we going to defeat the Master now? We can’t do the Charm without Spike and William.” Willow sounded almost angry, as if the fact that her magic was not able to do what the vampires could was scratching at her soul.

“Well, whatever we do, we need to do it fast.” Anya stared at Buffy and then down at the slack bodies on the floor. She had a very good idea what had happened. “The Master and his friends are gathering outside and I don’t think they’re in any mood to wait.”

“We’ll do the charm.” Buffy whispered. “Willow, bring everything down here – the glass globes, everything. Xander – Anya – keep the Master at bay as long as you can. But don’t get yourself killed. Let me deal with him if he gets down the stairs. Dawn – ”

“Don’t tell me to run away and hide!”

Buffy hesitated, the insistent pressure inside her saying, “Keep her safe. Blood of our blood.”

Dawn reached out, her eyes wide with wonder and touched her sister’s face. “They’re inside you!” she gasped suddenly and Buffy realised that of course she would understand in a way the others couldn’t. She’d been made from Buffy’s blood; the trace demon inside her was calling to the other three even now.

Buffy smiled. “We want you safe,” she said at last. “All of us. It’s important, Dawnie. We can’t – function – if you’re in danger. Go out the back way to Spike’s crypt. You’ll be OK there. We’ll come for you as soon as we can. We promise.”

The teenager hesitated; she didn’t fully understand what was happening, but knew this was the only thing she could do to help. She stared down at the bodies on the floor. “Keep them all safe,” she said and turning, hurried away.

Willow clattered down the stairs, clutching a box full of all the paraphernalia she needed to build another charm. “I’ve put a barrier up across the door and Xander and Anya will fight him off if they can. But Buffy, how can you do this? I don’t understand because hey, before we had to have the three parts of Spike – love, desire and need.”

Buffy watched as the redhead built the pyramid of white glass globes on the floor of the cage. “They’re not dead, Will,” she said softly. “I’m holding them.”

Willow looked up sharply, her hands jerking and almost sending the glass globes smashing to the floor. “They claimed you? No, OK, not big on the vampire lore here, but even if they did, you wouldn’t be able to harness their power – not unless you – ”

Her eyes grew darker and darker. “Buffy, you didn’t claim them back? You couldn’t have been so stupid!”

Buffy stared at her best friend, hearing her speak, but not bothered by what she said, wondering why she seemed so distant. Her words were unimportant, had nothing to do with the four of them; what was the point of trying to explain this sensation, this complete belonging. She had loved before, lusted before, but this was deeper, better, sweeter and sharper. Slayer, vampire, human and demon in every sort of combination, flowed through her body and she had never felt so safe, so loved, so strong in all her life.

Screams and crashes sounded from upstairs, then the door was flung open and Xander and Anya half fell down the steps into the basement.

“He’s coming, Buffy! Couldn’t stop him!” Xander gasped, waving an axe in front of him.

Willow was pouring the remainder of the charm mixture into the bowl but a vampire lunged down the steps, threw something across the basement that smashed into the bowl sending the mixture spilling out across the glass sphere pyramid.

Buffy dispatched the vamp casually with a back-hand swipe.

“Buffy! We can’t do the spell now. You have to kill The Master!” Willow shouted, backing away.

A freezing chill ran through the basement and Buffy looked up the stairway to where a small, wizened skull on a body that had been old for a very long time began to walk slowly down the steps. The yellow gaze swung round and pinned her like an insect on a board. She felt the endless evil, the delight of being free again, the knowledge that nothing this time could stop him

She retreated until she was standing astride the three bodies on the floor. One foot touched Spike’s head, the other William’s. She hesitated for a second then, inside her she felt the surge of power and knew she didn’t need Willow’s potions.

“Ah, Miss Summers. We meet again!”

Jeez, predictable much! she thought. “Not for long!” she snapped and threw back her head as the Mayan words of the charm poured out of her mouth. She hadn’t remembered them, but William had.

“Buffy! Kill him. You have to kill him! Forget sending him to another dimension. Just kill him!” Willow was yelling but they ignored her. They refused to die. Aurelians all. Never die.

But even as the weird words echoed round the basement, the Master still walked slowly, inexorably towards her, his skeletal hands outstretched but Demon and Spike held her body steady and they ignored him because the power they shared was growing and growing, love, desire, need, love, desire, need, and with a final scream of defiance they pointed at the globes and with a shattering crash the glass turned black and dissolved into shards.

The Master stopped, his fingers just inches from Buffy’s throat, his feet touching the blanket still lying across Demon’s twisted body.

The yellow eyes blazed with killing hate, then slowly the expression changed. Fear, anger, disbelief – all slid across his face and then, with a popping sound that was purely anti-climactic, he vanished.

The other vamps turned and ran, pursued by Xander and Anya with enthusiasm rather than any great hope of catching them.

Buffy sank to the floor, her legs unable to hold her up any longer. She could feel Spike cheering, William laughing and Demon – puzzled but happy his loved ones were pleased.

She reached out a trembling hand and stroked the three heads close to her – one with platinum hair that made her fingers long to linger, one with slightly softer curls and the third – dirty, greasy but loved, just the same.

They were her and she was them and that was all that mattered.

“Buffy, you did it!” Willow whispered, stepping forward out of the shadows. “You’ve banished the Master! And you didn’t use the potion! How did you do that?” She sounded almost jealous.

“Not me. Us.”

She glanced up at Willow, her eyes suddenly fearful, because she suddenly realised with a sick sensation in her stomach that she had no idea at all how to get her family back into their bodies.

To be continued







 
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