Chapter Nine:



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“Get in the cage!” Buffy said and kicked Darla inside. She retaliated by vamping out, but leapt inside before Buffy could punish her for her defiance. Spike was the last. His eyes were clear, but tonight, his voice was dangerously low. Not from the threats he swore in his mind, but because of his fear, echoing in his tones.

“I will obtain my vengeance.” And disappeared into the dark cage. Buffy sighed and looked at Giles.

“I need to chain them to the cage walls until we get to Los Angeles.”

“No. You will not.” Giles’ voice was crisp. “Jonathon and I will keep them apart.”

Jonathon looked horrified at the prospect.

“Giles…” Buffy began, but she was cut off by his hard tone.

“No, Buffy. I told you to keep anything from happening to them and you failed to do that. I will meet you back at the house and we will begin to research. I have some theories.” He looked at her crestfallen face and his tone softened a bit. “We want to ensure that Willow is safe. Tara is quite hysterical at the moment, poor girl.”

“But she’s back to normal, right?”

“Yes,” He looked at her torn shirt and saw her stiffness, “Buffy… you need to clean up. Go back and rest for a moment. I’ll take care of the vampires.”

“Fine,” she replied, “but like you said, we will find out what’s going on.”


* * *

Buffy returned to the house and entered like a stranger.

Everyone was in the kitchen, tending to Willow’s every need. Anya was wiping her brow, while Joyce was creating hundreds of icepacks. Dawn was sitting with Xander, talking about possibilities. They all looked so organized and ready for anything, that Buffy suddenly had a sinking feeling that she was an odd one out. She had brought them all together, but the machine now ran independent of the conductor. It all felt so strange and different but she couldn’t put her finger on anything particular. Was it that they were different, or that she was different?

“It’s like I can’t talk to her anymore.” And Buffy whirled around towards Tara, who had softly crept up to meet her. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“That’s alright.” Buffy breathed a sigh. She then looked closer at the slightly pale girl, threatening to fall over at any second. She grabbed her arm, as Tara swayed to the right. “Woah there. Okay, why don’t you sit down, huh?”

“I j-just… y-you’re bleeding.” She pointed at the bloodstained shirt and Buffy swore as she realized her wounds had reopened. Buffy helped Tara walk towards the couch, where the nauseous girl lay upon the large cushions. Tara tried to explain what exactly happened.

“The smell just came over me and I felt light headed. As if I was weightless… I’ll sit here. You get bandaged up.” Tara looked over at the kitchen, where Willow was sitting.

“I have some bandages upstairs.” Buffy watched the redhead laugh at Xander’s funny expression. “I’m not ready either, but you need someone to look after you and I can't do that if I am going to make you faint. Anya!” Buffy waved the girl down and pointed at Tara.

“What are you doing down here?” Anya demanded as Buffy looked sharply at Tara, “You weren’t supposed to get up!"

“I… I couldn’t sleep.” Tara stuttered. “With everything that happened. I k—kept closing my eyes and s—seeing...”

“Alright, alright.” Anya sighed and then looked particularly gracious. “I am in a giving mood and I understand that Willow was freaky as hell. If you go back upstairs, I won’t tell—“


“Tara! What are you doing downstairs?” Willow asked, in a worried voice. Her eyes scanned the company and the worry changed to hurt. “I thought you didn’t want to talk to anybody.”

“I—I…” She attempted, but Buffy was quicker.

“She was having some nightmares about the vampires. So I rushed upstairs and that calmed her down. You know, being Vampire Slayer and all. So I brought her down to pick out a stake, to feel safer with, before she went back to bed.”

Buffy was surprised how easily the lie rolled off her tongue… and how willing Willow was to believe it. Willow took a deep sigh, looking more relieved.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight, to make sure the vampires don’t come back? As you saw tonight, I can definitely take care of myself.” She laughed hollowly and was the only one who dared joke. Tara shrank back as if she had been hit.

“I’ve already told her that I am going to watch over her until she gets to sleep. And then I think it would be best if we all talked about what is going on in Sunnydale. So that something like this doesn’t happen again. That’s when Tara will feel the safest. To know that we are finding an answer.”

Everyone nodded their heads. Willow less so than others.

“Alright. I’m going to get bandaged up. Willow, you are the best at Research, so why don’t you go in the dining room and start cracking. Giles, you help. Xander, get the cookie jar and the gallon of milk and meet them there. Anya, why don’t you take Tara upstairs and get her settled.”

“But, I can…”

“No Willow, Tara knows that you are the best at research and if you go upstairs, well, it would be wasting time. Anyways, Giles can’t start without you.” Buffy gave him a pointed glare.

“Yes I need you to look up possession spells on that infernal box… thing.” Willow looked torn, “Immediately.”

She didn’t get the entire message, but she got enough to know to go on the infernal box thing.

“Alright, baby. Sweet dreams. Tomorrow, I will make you a charm to ward away bad ones.”

“Goodnight.” And Anya led her upstairs, chattering away about Bill Gates selling his soul for a mechanical box of endless information.

Buffy watched the group filter into the kitchen, while she followed the others to bandage herself. But not too close to Tara, who had become unusually squeamish about blood.




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Spike didn’t dare weep. He didn’t dare blink, even. He had to find a way to punish Angelus for killing Drusilla. It was the only thing on his mind. And it was the only thing that mattered.

He could kill Angelus, but it would be too simple. One moment of blinding agony, then death. Nevermore. It was too much like a temper tantrum. He had to work something out that would take everything away from him and leave him to suffer.

He could kill Darla. It would be just as easy and just as childish. And truly, it wouldn’t matter. They were fucking conversation partners. Angelus would be too vain to care. And worse, he would take his sexual frustration out on Spike. He shivered at how bad it could be and then how good it could feel. But if he killed Darla, it would most assuredly be bad. Therefore, Darla unlived.

He thought about all the things that Angelus cared about and then realized that he could destroy him with only one act. Darla would respect him and Angelus would hate him, but he would not hurt him. It was so perfect.

Spike had to kill the Slayer.

He remembered the horror that the Slayer influenced and wondered why he hadn’t thought of it sooner.


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“So can we blame this on the vampires yet?” Xander shut the dusty book so hard, that a cloud of dust shot out of the pages and onto Anya. She slapped him hard, causing another cloud of dust to rise, but this time, off her clothing.

“They didn’t do anything out of normal. Besides killing Drusilla, that is.” Willow stated simply then sneezed onto one of the ancient books. Her sudden motion caused soda to topple over some of the pages. Giles looked horrified and Willow wiped it off, quickly, while muttering apologies to the ancient one-of-a-kind scripts.

“And that’s practically foreplay gone wrong. Hardly out of their norm.” Anya smiled. No one batted an eye.

“Yes, we must discount the verity of Drusilla’s death as a motivation for Willow’s transformation into, well, her malevolent alter-ego.” Giles added to Willow’s theory, though looking disgustedly at the page where little dots, had appeared from Willow’s blunder.

“Speak funny words.” Xander quipped.

“No go, on Drusilla stakage.” Anya patted his back. “Don’t worry, honey. One of these days, we’ll get you up to six letter words.”

“But doesn’t cheesalicious count?”

“In more ways than one.” Willow smiled, “Buffy, what do you think about the theory that the vampire death is irrelevant to my… er… evilness?”

“The vampires didn’t do it, but the same thing that went after you is going after them.” She said pensively, looking off into the distance. “It’s not possession, because Angelus could have done it any time, but why now? And something definitely triggered you… and Spike’s been acting so weird. So could this thing be airborne? Like a magical airborne bring out the evil in me kind of thing?”

“Buffy, you never said anything about Spike.” Giles frowned.

“It wasn’t important.”

“Well, I haven’t felt anything lately…” Willow started, but then Buffy snapped her head around to look at Giles.

“Drusilla! She’s been extra sensitive to everything since I gave her that drug, weeks ago. So if we go by her mood swings, she started acting strangely the moment we got into Sunnydale.”

“Sunnydale, could be the cause of much of our troubles.” Giles leaned against the bookshelf, “As you know, there isn’t another town quite like it. It is like the last of all the magic left in the Americas reside here.”

“But they can’t be both good and bad, right?” Buffy said, anxiously, “I mean, there’s nothing that has both good and bad in them, right? They are either one or the other.”

“Correct.” Giles then realized what Buffy was saying. His face brightened, “Especially with magic! Because Willow grew up in Sunnydale, she was born with magic. And when she’s here, she’s more susceptible to the evil forces. Especially when she’s mad. So if we get out of Sunnydale, she should go back to her normal self.”

“Everything should go back to its normal self.”

Buffy was extraordinarily relieved. Spike’s visions, her own dreams and the evil Willow, would all be gone, the sooner they get out of Sunnydale. She kept thinking of Spike touching her, but that would soon be gone the moment they left.

“We have to leave, immediately.” She said quickly, “I won’t risk anymore lives.”

“But we aren’t due in Los Angeles for a while.” Xander replied.

“Here, let me see the map,” Anya grabbed for Willow’s book, “You see, we will be in Los Angeles, early by a week, but on the way up, we can visit a few towns and surprise them with a show. We can make some extra money!” She looked very excited.

“Let me see that,” Buffy took the book, but then looked at Anya and Willow, “Why are the pages sticky?”


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