Future Imperfect   by  Lilachigh

 

 

 

Chapter 24:  Darkness

 

 

 

Kendra!  The tension in the basement soared to new heights and Buffy choked back a shout of success as the shimmering figure in the silver circle faded, grew strong, then faded again, wreathed in smoke.  “No! She’s going!” she yelled. “Willow - do something - stop her!”

 

Giles started to chant but with an imperious gesture, Willow waved him to silence, threw a handful of twigs and dust into the diminishing circle of light and stretching out her hands, shouted words that Buffy’s brain couldn’t process.  She leant forward, her fingers sliding into the silver smoke, seeming to pull it apart until it grew and swirled once more and Kendra’s figure took shape again.

 

Buffy stared at the girl she had known for such a short time.  Her eyes were open but she didn’t seem to see those who’d called her back from the dead.  She was holding a stake in one hand and a wicked looking knife in the other and Buffy had the strongest feeling that at the slightest sound, she would burst into deadly action.

 

“Kendra!”  Giles spoke sharply. “This is Rupert Giles.  I’m sure you remember me.  Kendra - we need to talk to you.  This is urgent.  Please, speak to me.”

 

There was no reply.  Not by a twitch or flicker of an eyelash did the ex-Slayer show that she’d heard him.

 

Willow frowned with the concentration of holding the silver smoke circle open.  “Kendra - this is about the twins. Buffy’s grandchildren. Why do you and the other Slayers want them?  Where have you taken them?  Please, bring them back.”

 

Angel stood up suddenly.  “She can’t hear you!”

 

“I don’t think she can see us, either.”  Spike leapt to his feet and peered through the smoke at Kendra’s face.

 

“Willow!”  Shanny’s voice cracked with anguish. “Make her hear!”

 

Buffy glanced at her friend: her face was white, deep lines scoring down from the corners of the mouth. She’d bitten her bottom lip and blood trickled down her chin.  Trembling, she swayed from side to side with the effort of keeping the silver smoke circle open.  She was failing and knew it and the surge of bitterness that swept over her made her hold on the magic weaken even more. And what was worse was that she knew that if Joyce had been here, she’d have effortlessly held the circle open and wonder what all the fuss was about.

 

“I....I....can’t....do any more....sorry, Buffy....I...can’t....”

 

“Slayer!”  Spike’s voice cut through the mist of despair that was beginning to surround her and his hand was cold on the back of her neck. “Kendra can’t hear them, but she’ll hear you.  Slayer to Slayer.  It’s our only chance to save the twins.”

 

“Listen, that could be extremely dangerous,” Angel spun round to her but before he could say any more, Buffy was moving. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and walked calmly into the smoke, through the surrounding wreaths of silver, feeling the electricity of the magic shudder over her skin, her hair crackle and heat scorch her with icy fingers.

 

Then all was quiet - the faces outside the smoke faded away and there was just her and Kendra, close enough to touch.  Then the young Slayer blinked and her eyes focussed on Buffy. For a long second she looked puzzled and Buffy realised she was taking in the fact that this Buffy was much older than the girl she’d known all those years ago.

 

“Buffy?”  Her voice sounded uncertain, hoarse, as if it had been a long, long time since she’d spoken.

 

“Kendra!  Listen, I don’t know how long we can keep you here. I’m sorry...I’m sure you didn’t want to come back. I’ve been dragged out of heaven once myself...I know how it feels, but Kendra, why do you Slayers want the twins?  Where have you taken them?  You must let them come home.”

 

“Buffy?”

 

“Yes!  Concentrate, Kendra.  I know this is hard for you, but we haven’t much time. I must know about the twins. Why do the ex-Slayers want Joyce? Or is it Billy?  Spike thinks it’s Billy.”

 

The puzzled expression deepened and the expression in her eyes changed, as if she were looking a long way into the distance. “Buffy....” she shook her head as if to shake away cobwebs....”Listen - whatever has happened to your grandchildren, it has nothing to do with me or any Slayer.”

 

“What?”  The roaring in her head was from the blood pounding through her veins. Her skin burnt, hot with panic against the cold of the silver smoke.  Even the magic could do nothing to cool her.  “You’re lying!”

 

Dark eyes gazed at her with cool compassion.  “No,  I am not. I do not lie. You know that. I never lied to you.”

 

“So - who’s taken the twins?”

 

Once again Kendra’s gaze left Buffy and travelled somewhere far away. “I cannot see them,” she said at last. “Just darkness - great darkness - and sorrow and pain and guilt.  Follow the darkness and you will find your kin.” 

 

The silver smoke started to thicken as she spoke and instinctively Buffy reached out to grab her arm, stop her from leaving. But it was no use. Kendra grew smaller and fainter and as the last wisp of mist vanished from the basement, it took her with it, leaving Buffy standing, hand outstretched, pleading, begging for her to come back.

 

.......Joyce Summers Green chewed at her thumbnail and gazed consideringly at the circle of women surrounding her and Billy.  “They haven’t moved for ages,” she said. “Perhaps they’re asleep.”

 

Her twin frowned.  They had tried to do what Joyce called “their big think thing” ten minutes ago but it hadn’t worked.  She’d tried to magic them home, using the power of his thoughts to amplify the charm, but nothing had happened.  Well, that wasn’t really true, he thought, uneasily.  They’d both felt a sort of shifting feeling in the air around them. There were no words to describe it but, as Joyce had said, it made them both feel sick and she didn’t want to do that again.

 

“I don’t think they’re asleep; their eyes are open.”

 

Joyce jumped up from the hot rocks they were sitting on and clapped her hands loudly, shouting “Go away!” at the top of her voice.  Billy sighed; he was quite sure that would do no good, but he also felt that his twin was very tired and getting more and more unhappy as the minutes ticked past and she couldn’t get them home.  He knew, more by instinct that anything else, that this was one of the first times when her use of magic hadn’t worked out as she wanted and he could feel that she was scared.

 

“Mom’s going to be so angry when we get home,” she said now.  “I bet I get grounded for weeks, perhaps months. Oh, I do wish Daddy was here.”

 

Privately, although Billy adored his father, he wished that Grandad Spike or even that odd Angel man were here with them.  He didn’t think his dad would be a lot of help with this problem.

 

Suddenly, with a flash of purple light, a small metal key appeared on the ground in front of them.

 

“Did you do that?” Billy asked.

 

“No, but  - ” she was reaching for it when she yelled and grabbed at her head where a flashing pain had scorched through her brain. “Ouch!  You beast, Billy! That hurt.”

 

“Sorry, I couldn’t get the words out fast enough.  We mustn’t touch it, Twin.”  

 

Grinning, Joyce waved a hand casually at the key and it vanished.

 

“Where did you send it?”

 

“I don’t know.”  She frowned. “I was thinking how hungry I was and that if we were home Mom might be cooking fried chicken and then - that was odd - there was like a sort of path, a track, oh, I don’t know how to explain. It appeared and I threw the key down it as hard as I could. But it’s gone now.  Hey, what do you think will arrive next?  It might be puppies or kittens.  Or - shall I send a big tiger?  That would tell whoever it is not to mess with us.”

 

Billy sighed. He hadn’t meant Joyce to vanish the key.  After all, if someone sent them a key, that probably meant there was a lock somewhere that it would open. And perhaps that was the way home.  But it was too late now. The key had gone.

 

They needed a plan. Just sitting here, waiting wasn’t right: he decided to send his thoughts out to the women surrounding them. Surely one of them would reply. He shut his eyes and concentrated, expecting to hear a jumble of confused sounds. Then he shuddered, suddenly scared.  There was nothing out there!  No thoughts, no brain patterns, no minds to read, just a dreadful sort of darkness that took his thoughts and swallowed them so they disappeared without a trace.

 

.......... 

 

 

“Tell us again, Buffy, exactly what Kendra said.”  Giles was sipping coffee, his expression saying quite plainly that he wished it was tea. He looked and sounded exhausted.

 

Buffy took a deep breath. She must have repeated the words a hundred times but there was no point in getting irritated. They were all in a sort of shock.  And Rupert Giles was a very elderly man now. She was scared the stress would damage him.

 

“Mom, I can’t believe the Slayers haven’t got the twins,” Shanny had said the same sentence every thirty seconds since Buffy walked back out of the smoke. Her voice was hoarse and scratchy. “That was bad enough, but at least, being Slayers, I thought the kids would be safe, in some weird way. No Slayer would let anything bad happen to them.  But if those women weren’t Slayers, what were they?”

 

Buffy could sense the horror and bewildered pain in her daughter and felt she would have cut off her arm to be able to give her some hope, some support. Instinctively she reached out a hand and felt Spike grasp it. Even if he was still furious with her for wanting to die, he was still there, at her back.  “I have no idea.  Kendra talked about darkness, sorrow, pain and guilt.  So Giles, where does that take us?”

 

Giles glanced across the family room to where Willow was lying, curled up on the sofa, fast asleep, her face paper white under the hair that had been dyed back to its original redness. He envied her: he’d give everything to climb into bed, pull the covers over his head and sleep for a million years.   This call to action after so many years had seemed like such and adventure when it started.  He’d thought that together, he and Willow would soon sort out Buffy’s problems and she’d be grateful, want him back in her life, even if not advising, at least in some sort of elderly statesman role.  But they’d failed and he could see no way forward.

 

“Demons.”  Spike threw the word into the conversation like a well aimed bomb.  “Come on, luv,  no one else is being brave enough to say it.  If they’re not Slayers, they must be demons of some sort.”

 

“Shape-changing ones?  We’ve come across several of those over the years.”  Angel was the only one in the room who didn’t look or sound tired.

 

Buffy felt the first faint flicker of hope. “OK, demons. I can cope with demons. Been doing that for years. We find them, fight them, kill them and bring the twins home.”

 

“But how?  Mom, it’s great saying you’ll kill everything as usual, but we still don’t know what demon is doing this or where it lives!  That Kendra was our only hope and all she’s given us is a lot of words and nothing sensible. Oh, I hate your world so much. I hate all this magic and weirdness, I always have. I just want my children back!”

 

Buffy stood up abruptly. Angry words tried to force their way out  “Listen, Shanny. Getting upset isn’t going to help anyone. Look, I think we all need to get some sleep. We’re not thinking straight.”  But the look on her daughter’s face tore at her heart.  She cupped the pale face between her hands, pushing back the soft brown hair that fell into Shanny’s eyes as soon as it escaped from its clips.  

 

“Listen - I know this is terrible for you but your Dad and me will get them back. I realise you’re still angry with me but please, please, just this one last  time, trust me. I’ve never lied to you. We will find the twins, wherever they are.”

 

.......Billy Summers Green woke up with a start.  He hadn’t meant to fall asleep but it had been such a long day and he’d run out of helpful things to say to his twin.  Joyce was still sleeping, her head pillowed on his shoulder.  

 

He lifted his head, aware that the brightness of day had vanished and that a soft darkness was creeping over the sky, covering the rocky ground with vast shadows.

 

“Joyce - Twin - wake up!” he commanded inside her head, pushing aside the jumble of dancing kittens, honey popcorn and ideas for swimming deep down to the bottom of the ocean to talk to fish.

 

“What?”

 

“They’ve gone!  Look, the weird women have gone.  We’re alone.”

 

Joyce struggled to her feet, rubbing her eyes. “It’s almost dark.  Gee, we’ve been here all day? Mom will go crazy.”

 

“Quick - let’s try the thinky going home spell again, before something else happens.”

 

Joyce bit her lip. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to get home to mom and Granny Buffy and Grandad Spike, but she’d hated that horrible falling sensation that had happened the last time she tried.  And what if she couldn’t do it?  Twin was relying on her and for the first time in her nine years, Joyce began to doubt her own abilities.  She’d never thought about the witchy thing in detail before, she’d just done it.  But every time Billy asked her how, it seemed to get vaguer and harder to explain.

 

But she clasped his extremely grubby hand and shutting her eyes, remembered with a sudden pulse of pleasure that she’d sent that key spinning away down some sort of mental pathway, so obviously she could still do whatever she wanted as long as she tried hard enough.  So she did.

 

And without a sound, the darkness flowed up and over the rocky hillside that now echoed with emptiness.

 

tbc