Bewitched, Chapter 16
Jul. 18th, 2009 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thismazTitle: Bewitched, Chapter 16
Pairing: S/X. I promise it will get back there... eventually.
Rating: This chapter PG-13
Summary: When Valentine's Day arrives, Dru dips her finger in the brew and gives it a stir.
Word Count: 3,860
Betaed by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sparrow2000 and DJ, for which, many thanks. Thanks also to Sparrow for her help, conflabbing on plot twists and forms.
Comments: Are greatly appreciated, loved and cherished.
Disclaimer: here.
Note: Parts of this chapter follows canon fairly closely, so I have drawn on the episode script, courtesy of http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/
Prologue here, with a link to the other chapters, or you can find the whole thing, in reverse order, in tags, or in the correct order, in memories. There's a menu of links on the right hand side of my main journal page.
mwrgana made me a beautiful banner for this story, as a birthday present. Above the cut, just this once. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you, hon. So very much.
Chapter 16
Xander ran. It had all come apart. Giles was kidnapped. Kendra was dead. Willow was in hospital. Buffy was on the run and wanted by the police. And Xander was running, running towards certain danger.
When he'd regained consciousness, properly, back in the library, he'd been pretty fuzzy as to recent events. A couple of paramedics were crouched over him, checking his neck and back, then they helped him to his feet. At first, all he could see was the group of police gathered around Kendra's body. He couldn't see anyone else and he’d entertained the faint hope that Giles had got Willow out. But they found her under a fallen bookcase and there was still no sign of Giles.
Once they'd got him up, the paramedics insisted on him sitting down again and it was then that the memories began to reform.
Dru had been as scary the second time around, as the first. He remembered her entering the library in the middle of the fight. Then he'd been knocked down by the vampire he was trying to stake with the handle of the library broom and his head had crashed into a bookcase. He’d hit the ground expecting the vampire to pounce, but Dru’s voice had cut through the general mêlée. “Enough!” she said, clapping her hands together, once.
The vampire had left him and he remembered being vaguely aware that the fighting had stopped. It was during that moment of false reassurance, he supposed, that he'd lost consciousness.
He’d come to, briefly, to the sound of Buffy arguing with someone but he had no memory of what happened next, because when the paramedics got him up, she was gone. After that he'd stayed awake, while he and Willow were loaded into an ambulance. Lying on the stretcher, he'd watched as they worked on Willow, until they arrived at the hospital and were separated.
Now Willow was determined to do the spell and Buffy was on her way, finally, to fight Angelus. And Xander was running to meet her at a mansion on Crawford Street.
When he got there, there was still no sign of Buffy, so he decided to scout around. The mansion was built into the side of the hill, with the back rooms on the first floor almost underground. Skirting the building, to the right, Xander pushed his way through the underbrush, up the slope along the side of the house, searching for any way in. The windows were above his head, until he got half way up, when he saw one he could reach. Clambering through to it, he peered in. It was too dark to see anything inside and putting his ear to the pane, he could hear nothing. He tried to open it, but the lock held and it wouldn't budge.
Further along the wall, he saw another window, this one set low, as the ground rose. There was a faint yellow light coming from inside so he pushed his way through the bushes until he got close. Crawling up to it on his hands and knees, he looked in. Giles was below him, tied to a chair, and Angelus was crouching in front of him. Xander couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the way Giles’s head lolled spoke of rough treatment.
The window was too small to climb through, even if Angelus left and Xander could get it open. He looked around. The mansion towered above him. Further up the slope, to his right, the thick brush and undergrowth stopped, where a footpath from the road reached the house and carried on alongside. The wall of the building continued for about another ten yards, but there were no more windows. After that, a lower wall ran beside the path up to a gate.
Xander crawled out from under the bushes, intending to investigate, but he'd only just reached the path when Spike rounded the corner.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Spike asked. “A spy?” Xander scrambled to his feet. “Suppose eating you is off the menu, too,” Spike mused, strolling casually towards him. He sounded regretful and Xander knew he should be scared, but it was difficult to be scared of a guy who’d spent weeks moping in your backyard.
Falling back on the old tried and tested technique of attacking first, Xander asked, "What's up with you? You spend weeks haunting my back yard and now you can't even say, 'Hi'?"
It certainly seemed to work. Spike stopped short and frowned, but after a moment he shook his head, apparently dismissing the accusation. Before he could say anything, Xander cut him off. “You’ve got Giles!” he accused.
Spike held up his hands. “Not me, pet. I’m out of this one.”
“Sure you are,” Xander replied, imbuing the words with as much sarcasm as he could manage.
“I am! I want nothing to do with it.” He sounded sincere, but, Xander reminded himself, he was a vampire so he could probably fake it.
“And why would that be?”
Spike shrugged. “Don’t fancy the end of the world. Too many people get invited to that kind of party. Ends up with the place trashed and nothing in the pantry. Not my cup of tea, that’s all. I just want Dru safe and Angelus stopped.”
“And I say again, why should I believe you?”
With a grin, Spike relaxed and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of a pocket in his coat. “Not got much choice, have you?" he asked. He fumbled for a lighter and stuck a cigarette in his mouth, speaking around it. "But you could always ask the slayer." Lighting his smoke, he took a deep drag. "I was round her house when she phoned you at the hospital. Who do'ya think told her where to come?" He craned his neck, as if he was trying to spot Buffy in the bushes behind Xander. "I heard her tell you she was negotiating a deal. Well guess what? She did.”
Xander stuck his hands behind his back, trying to appear relaxed, but using the movement to grab hold of the stake from his waistband. “What did she say?” he asked.
“We did a deal." Spike shrugged again and took another drag on his cigarette, flicking the ash off onto the path when he was done. "Drives a hard bargain, that one." There was a hint of admiration in his voice. "Demanded a phial of my blood and the life of a cop. In return, she gets Angelus, however she wants him.”
“What does that mean?”
“Means, she can take him alive and shove a soul back in him, for all I care. Or, if she’s feeling merciful, she can just stake him. Doesn’t matter to me. But Dru and I get a free pass out of town." He dropped his half finished smoke and ground it out under the ball of his foot. "Now," he said casually, "I’ve got to go and stop Angelus from killing the watcher in his enthusiasm. I’ll leave the gate unlocked, so you stay alive to show her how to get in, there's a good boy. There’s steps. Takes you down to the courtyard and in through the French doors, to the main hall. That’s where they’ll all be. Got it?”
Feeling thoroughly disconcerted by Spike's strange attitude, Xander nodded. “Uh, yeah, got it!”
“Good.” Spike turned on his heel and walked up to the gate, without a backwards glance.
Xander made his way back to the front of the building, to wait for Buffy, wondering if schizophrenia was a vampire trait. Spike had spoken to him as if he'd never met him before. And while that was a relief, it was also decidedly odd.
Once he got to the street, he went back down the hill for about a hundred yards and crouched in the shelter of a large rock, to wait. He didn’t have to wait long. Buffy came marching up the road, just as the sun began to clear the rise behind the mansion. She was carrying a long, cloth covered package under her arm. He scrambled out of the bushes to intercept her.
“Xander," she said, stopping and squinting up at him. He realised that the sun must be directly behind him and she couldn't see him clearly. "What are you doing here?”
“I’m the cavalry,” he announced.
“The cavalry?”
“Yeah, sorta. Listen, I went and spied out the mansion. I know where they’re holding Giles." He paused and looked her in the eye. "And I met your new partner.”
She might not have been able to see him clearly, but she could obviously read his voice. "My? Oh, you mean Spike." She frowned. "I’m sorry, Xander, but we need him if we’re going to get Giles out.”
Xander shrugged awkwardly. “I know," he agreed. "It’s okay. He said something about souling Angelus again. Did you tell him about that?”
“It came up. It doesn’t matter now." She didn't move and he took a few steps forward so that he was standing in the sunlight. She relaxed. "I wasn’t sure he’d hold to the deal,” she admitted.
“There’s a gate. He said he’ll leave it unlocked. Um...”
“Okay," she said, "let’s go, then." She took the package from under her arm and started undoing the ties that held the cloth in place. “You have a weapon?" Xander pulled his stake out of his back pocket and held it up. She nodded. "Stay back,” she said. “You get in, you get Giles out. I won't be able to protect you.” The final tie fell to the ground and she pulled the cloth aside, revealing a long and very sharp looking sword. “I'm gonna be too busy killing,” she added, lifting the blade and sighting along it.
“Whoa, that's a new look for you.”
“It's a present for Angel.”
She started up the hill, but Xander stayed where he was. “Buffy.”
“Yeah?” she asked, turning around. Now it was he who was blinded by the sun.
“Willow...”
“What? She’s okay, isn’t she?”
“Yeah. She's fine. Don't worry. She says...”
“What?”
Xander closed his eyes for a moment, weighing his choice. “Kick his ass,” he said.
Buffy turned away. "Don't worry, I will.”
Xander led Buffy through the bushes to the path and then to the gate in the wall behind the mansion. On the way he indicated the window where he'd seen Giles and Buffy paused to look. Her expression was grim when she caught up with him.
At the gate, she stopped. “You're not here to fight,” she said. “You get Giles out, and you run like hell, understood?”
"Understood."
Buffy eased the catch and pushed the gate ajar, peering through the gap before she slipped around the jam. Xander followed.
They tiptoed down the stone steps into a sunken courtyard with access to the house through a pair of large glass doors which stood open but obscured by heavy drapes. The ground was paved in old stone flags and the whole space was cool and green, with plants around the edges and in a central bed. A small fountain, to the left of the doors, tricked water from a spout in the wall into a stone bowl. The sound added to the air of tranquillity. On any other day it would have been beautiful.
Buffy kept close to the wall as she skirted the fountain and stopped next to the doors. She lifted the edge of the curtain aside to take a look. Xander couldn't see past her, but he could just hear the sound of Angelus's voice. He seemed to be chanting but Xander couldn't make out the words.
After a moment, Buffy eased the curtain back into place and turned to push Xander away, along the wall. Once they reached the fountain, she whispered, "They're in there. It looks like Angelus is about to do something. I'll go in and distract them. Wait until I lower the odds, then keep to the left and you should get past. Okay?"
Xander nodded.
Buffy turned back, slipped around the corner and through the door. Xander edged after her and peered through the curtains in time to see her swing her sword and a vampire turn to dust.
She stepped forward into the middle of the room and announced her arrival, saying, "Hello, lover."
Angelus had been advancing on the stone demon, but he paused at the sound of her voice. "I don't have time for you," he said.
Xander couldn't see Buffy's face, but he knew the expression she'd be wearing when she replied, "You don't have a lot of time left."
Angelus smiled. "Coming on kind of strong, don't you think? You're playing some deep odds here. Do you really think you can take us all on?"
Shrugging, Buffy replied, "No. I don't."
Angelus frowned. He never saw Spike rise from his chair behind him and slam a crowbar into the back of his head. He fell to the floor and lay still, but Spike didn't stop. He kept hitting Angelus across the back, shouting words that Xander couldn't hear, because the whole place was suddenly in chaos. A second vampire rushed across the room and attacked Buffy. Drusilla screamed and ran at Spike. Buffy took a punch to the head as she turned to face her attacker and went down, but managed to trip him with her feet as he closed in for the kill. Spike and Drusilla were a tangled mass of arms, legs and red velvet skirts, rolling across the floor.
Xander decided that the odds had been lowered enough and rushed into the room, getting himself slightly tangled in the drapes and colliding with Buffy's opponent, who was careening backwards towards him, as if he'd been shoved, which Xander guessed he had. Xander's back hit the wall. He shook his head to clear it and pushed the vampire back at Buffy, who kicked him in the face as he stumbled forward. He went down. She seemed to have lost her sword, but she grabbed a bit of wood from a broken chair and closed on him. "Find Giles," she yelled over her shoulder and Xander ran, not wanting to distract her from her fight.
He made his way around the edge of the room. Spike and Drusilla were still on the floor, neither apparently able to hold a dominant position on the other. Angelus was flat on his face at the feet of the statue, a dark, wet patch of matted hair visible on the back of his head. Xander considered taking a detour and staking him before he could regain consciousness, but Spike and Drusilla were in the way and he knew he would never get past them, if they noticed him. Even occupied as they were, they couldn't miss him if he tried to jump over them. He looked around, taking his bearings from the doors they'd come in by and judging the position of the room where he'd seen Giles. An arch to his left appeared to lead in the right direction so he made his way to that. Again it was hung with heavy drapes, but when he pushed them aside, he saw a small room, with a chair in the middle of the floor and Giles tied up, his head hanging forward on his chest.
Pushing through the curtain he went in. "Giles!"
Giles lifted his head and Xander crouched down behind him, picking at the ropes that bound his hands. He hardly heard Giles' voice, over the noise from next door, it was so weak. "Xander?" he asked.
Xander got the ropes around Giles' wrists undone and moved his arms so his hands rested in his lap, before starting on the ropes around his ankles.
"Can you walk?" Xander asked. One foot free, he shuffled around in front of Giles and reached for the other.
"You're not real," Giles whispered.
"Sure, I'm real." The knot on Giles' left foot was stubborn and Xander was wishing he'd thought to bring a knife. Giles muttered something else, something about seeing things. As the knot finally gave and he pulled the ropes away, Xander looked up into Giles' face. "Why would you see me?" he asked, trying to sound reasonable.
Giles grunted. "You're right. Let's go."
Grinning, in spite of the circumstances, Xander got his shoulder under Giles' right arm and helped him to his feet. Holding tight to Giles' right hand, he got his left arm around Giles' back, supporting him. Slowly they staggered out through the arch.
In the main room the fight was still going on. With a quick look around, Xander saw Buffy on the floor. She was in the process of rolling away from her opponent and for a moment he didn't understand why, until he spotted her sword lying by the door and realised that she was trying to reach it. Drusilla and Spike were on their feet again, but still fighting and Xander saw Drusilla take a swipe at Spike's face, tearing four parallel scratches down his cheek with her fingernails. While he was still reeling from that blow, she followed up with a punch that knocked him to the floor. Over by the statue, Angelus began to stir. The vampire Buffy had been fighting when Xander left the room was scrambling to his feet and just as Buffy's hand touched the pommel of her sword, he launched himself towards her, kicking it aside. Buffy pulled her hand back and did some sort of fancy scissor thing with her legs, rolling up onto her feet. She still had the table leg in her left hand and she tossed it across to her right. As the vampire swung around, she threw it like a knife. It spun through the air, turning end over end and buried itself in the vampire's chest. Buffy took a step back as he exploded into dust and her shoulders seemed to sag.
Angelus was using the statue to pull himself to his feet and Xander opened his mouth to shout a warning to Buffy, but she was already turning around. She spotted Xander and Giles. "Get out!" she yelled. "Get him safe."
Xander realised, again, that their continued presence would only be a distraction to her, so he nodded and although he continued to watch, he began to pull Giles around the edge of the room, towards the big front doors onto the street. Giles was hardly conscious and Xander was carrying most of his weight. There was no way he could manage the steps up to the back gate, even if they could reach the courtyard.
Angelus had regained his feet and he reached out, grabbing the hilt of the sword sticking through Acathla's chest. There was a burst of blinding light and everything froze for an instant.
When his eyes cleared from the flash, Xander saw that Angelus had pulled the sword free. He whipped it around in his hand and held it up to look at. Buffy scrambled across the room to her own sword. Drusilla had also paused to watch and while she was distracted, Spike came up behind her. He grabbed her around the throat and it seemed that he did something to her neck because, quite abruptly, she slumped. With one arm around her back, he dipped her and scooped his other arm under her legs, picking her up.
Buffy reached her sword and turned to attack Angelus. He parried her first blow, the action appearing almost lazy, even to Xander's untutored eyes. She thrust again and again he blocked, following with a swing of his own, which she managed to parry in turn. Then they were fighting in earnest, blades clashing, over and over, as they danced back and forth across the room.
Xander continued to edge Giles along the wall, while keeping one eye on the fight. A fast series of swings and parries ended with Buffy reeling backwards. Angelus closed but Buffy managed to hit him in the face with the pommel of her sword, causing him to duck away. She jumped into the air to avoid a low swing from Angelus's blade and Angelus regained his feet.
Xander and Giles had reached the front door when Xander became aware of Spike and Drusilla nearby. Spike was watching the fight with an expression of awe. "God, he's gonna kill her," he breathed. Xander wanted to shout something, to contradict his apparent certainty, but he was afraid of distracting Buffy. Then Spike shrugged and turned around. His eyes met Xander's and Xander wondered if he was going to say something. Spike frowned at him with a puzzled expression, but Drusilla gave a low moan and Spike looked down at her, his face softening into an expression Xander recognised from the crazy night of the spell. Spike shrugged again. "Best get him to a hospital," he said, nodding towards Giles. "Angelus wasn't gentle." He hitched Drusilla's limp body closer to his chest and walked away, down a short side corridor, disappearing through an arch at the far end.
Xander opened the front door, but paused, unable to leave Buffy fighting for her life. Buffy's eyes met his. "Get out, Xander!" she shouted, barely managing to block another vicious swing of Angelus's sword.
"Don't go far," Angelus added, and Xander realised that if Buffy was to have a hope of winning, he couldn't stay. He pulled Giles though the door and out into the brightening dawn.
The sun had cleared the hill behind the mansion and the street was already sunlit, but the mansion cast a long shadow. He staggered down the steps, almost buckling under Giles' dead weight, and they had just got out of the shade when a crash behind them was followed by a big black car bursting through the doors of the mansion's garage. The windows were painted black on the inside. It screeched out into the road and, with a roar, tore away down the hill towards the highway.
Xander watched it go, then laid Giles down on a patch of sunlit grass and set off at a run in its wake, to find a phone from where he could call 911.
Giles was kept overnight and interviewed by the police. Xander didn't know what he said, but when he went to visit Giles assured him that Buffy was no longer a suspect.
Xander borrowed his mom's car to collect Giles from the hospital and get him settled at home. Then they waited. Willow and Oz arrived in the late afternoon, once Willow was also released. But still Buffy didn't come. Xander tried calling her house, pretending that he wanted to borrow a book for his homework, but Mrs Summers wouldn't tell him anything, except that Buffy wasn't home. He spent the night at Giles' apartment, with strict instructions to call Willow as soon as Buffy showed. There was no need.
The next day, at Giles' request, he went up to the mansion. Acathla stood frozen in place and the sword was back through his chest, but of Buffy, or Angel, there was no sign.
Next Chapter
Pairing: S/X. I promise it will get back there... eventually.
Rating: This chapter PG-13
Summary: When Valentine's Day arrives, Dru dips her finger in the brew and gives it a stir.
Word Count: 3,860
Betaed by
sparrow2000 and DJ, for which, many thanks. Thanks also to Sparrow for her help, conflabbing on plot twists and forms.Comments: Are greatly appreciated, loved and cherished.
Disclaimer: here.
Note: Parts of this chapter follows canon fairly closely, so I have drawn on the episode script, courtesy of http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/
Prologue here, with a link to the other chapters, or you can find the whole thing, in reverse order, in tags, or in the correct order, in memories. There's a menu of links on the right hand side of my main journal page.
mwrgana made me a beautiful banner for this story, as a birthday present. Above the cut, just this once. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you, hon. So very much.Chapter 16
Xander ran. It had all come apart. Giles was kidnapped. Kendra was dead. Willow was in hospital. Buffy was on the run and wanted by the police. And Xander was running, running towards certain danger.
When he'd regained consciousness, properly, back in the library, he'd been pretty fuzzy as to recent events. A couple of paramedics were crouched over him, checking his neck and back, then they helped him to his feet. At first, all he could see was the group of police gathered around Kendra's body. He couldn't see anyone else and he’d entertained the faint hope that Giles had got Willow out. But they found her under a fallen bookcase and there was still no sign of Giles.
Once they'd got him up, the paramedics insisted on him sitting down again and it was then that the memories began to reform.
Dru had been as scary the second time around, as the first. He remembered her entering the library in the middle of the fight. Then he'd been knocked down by the vampire he was trying to stake with the handle of the library broom and his head had crashed into a bookcase. He’d hit the ground expecting the vampire to pounce, but Dru’s voice had cut through the general mêlée. “Enough!” she said, clapping her hands together, once.
The vampire had left him and he remembered being vaguely aware that the fighting had stopped. It was during that moment of false reassurance, he supposed, that he'd lost consciousness.
He’d come to, briefly, to the sound of Buffy arguing with someone but he had no memory of what happened next, because when the paramedics got him up, she was gone. After that he'd stayed awake, while he and Willow were loaded into an ambulance. Lying on the stretcher, he'd watched as they worked on Willow, until they arrived at the hospital and were separated.
Now Willow was determined to do the spell and Buffy was on her way, finally, to fight Angelus. And Xander was running to meet her at a mansion on Crawford Street.
When he got there, there was still no sign of Buffy, so he decided to scout around. The mansion was built into the side of the hill, with the back rooms on the first floor almost underground. Skirting the building, to the right, Xander pushed his way through the underbrush, up the slope along the side of the house, searching for any way in. The windows were above his head, until he got half way up, when he saw one he could reach. Clambering through to it, he peered in. It was too dark to see anything inside and putting his ear to the pane, he could hear nothing. He tried to open it, but the lock held and it wouldn't budge.
Further along the wall, he saw another window, this one set low, as the ground rose. There was a faint yellow light coming from inside so he pushed his way through the bushes until he got close. Crawling up to it on his hands and knees, he looked in. Giles was below him, tied to a chair, and Angelus was crouching in front of him. Xander couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the way Giles’s head lolled spoke of rough treatment.
The window was too small to climb through, even if Angelus left and Xander could get it open. He looked around. The mansion towered above him. Further up the slope, to his right, the thick brush and undergrowth stopped, where a footpath from the road reached the house and carried on alongside. The wall of the building continued for about another ten yards, but there were no more windows. After that, a lower wall ran beside the path up to a gate.
Xander crawled out from under the bushes, intending to investigate, but he'd only just reached the path when Spike rounded the corner.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Spike asked. “A spy?” Xander scrambled to his feet. “Suppose eating you is off the menu, too,” Spike mused, strolling casually towards him. He sounded regretful and Xander knew he should be scared, but it was difficult to be scared of a guy who’d spent weeks moping in your backyard.
Falling back on the old tried and tested technique of attacking first, Xander asked, "What's up with you? You spend weeks haunting my back yard and now you can't even say, 'Hi'?"
It certainly seemed to work. Spike stopped short and frowned, but after a moment he shook his head, apparently dismissing the accusation. Before he could say anything, Xander cut him off. “You’ve got Giles!” he accused.
Spike held up his hands. “Not me, pet. I’m out of this one.”
“Sure you are,” Xander replied, imbuing the words with as much sarcasm as he could manage.
“I am! I want nothing to do with it.” He sounded sincere, but, Xander reminded himself, he was a vampire so he could probably fake it.
“And why would that be?”
Spike shrugged. “Don’t fancy the end of the world. Too many people get invited to that kind of party. Ends up with the place trashed and nothing in the pantry. Not my cup of tea, that’s all. I just want Dru safe and Angelus stopped.”
“And I say again, why should I believe you?”
With a grin, Spike relaxed and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of a pocket in his coat. “Not got much choice, have you?" he asked. He fumbled for a lighter and stuck a cigarette in his mouth, speaking around it. "But you could always ask the slayer." Lighting his smoke, he took a deep drag. "I was round her house when she phoned you at the hospital. Who do'ya think told her where to come?" He craned his neck, as if he was trying to spot Buffy in the bushes behind Xander. "I heard her tell you she was negotiating a deal. Well guess what? She did.”
Xander stuck his hands behind his back, trying to appear relaxed, but using the movement to grab hold of the stake from his waistband. “What did she say?” he asked.
“We did a deal." Spike shrugged again and took another drag on his cigarette, flicking the ash off onto the path when he was done. "Drives a hard bargain, that one." There was a hint of admiration in his voice. "Demanded a phial of my blood and the life of a cop. In return, she gets Angelus, however she wants him.”
“What does that mean?”
“Means, she can take him alive and shove a soul back in him, for all I care. Or, if she’s feeling merciful, she can just stake him. Doesn’t matter to me. But Dru and I get a free pass out of town." He dropped his half finished smoke and ground it out under the ball of his foot. "Now," he said casually, "I’ve got to go and stop Angelus from killing the watcher in his enthusiasm. I’ll leave the gate unlocked, so you stay alive to show her how to get in, there's a good boy. There’s steps. Takes you down to the courtyard and in through the French doors, to the main hall. That’s where they’ll all be. Got it?”
Feeling thoroughly disconcerted by Spike's strange attitude, Xander nodded. “Uh, yeah, got it!”
“Good.” Spike turned on his heel and walked up to the gate, without a backwards glance.
Xander made his way back to the front of the building, to wait for Buffy, wondering if schizophrenia was a vampire trait. Spike had spoken to him as if he'd never met him before. And while that was a relief, it was also decidedly odd.
Once he got to the street, he went back down the hill for about a hundred yards and crouched in the shelter of a large rock, to wait. He didn’t have to wait long. Buffy came marching up the road, just as the sun began to clear the rise behind the mansion. She was carrying a long, cloth covered package under her arm. He scrambled out of the bushes to intercept her.
“Xander," she said, stopping and squinting up at him. He realised that the sun must be directly behind him and she couldn't see him clearly. "What are you doing here?”
“I’m the cavalry,” he announced.
“The cavalry?”
“Yeah, sorta. Listen, I went and spied out the mansion. I know where they’re holding Giles." He paused and looked her in the eye. "And I met your new partner.”
She might not have been able to see him clearly, but she could obviously read his voice. "My? Oh, you mean Spike." She frowned. "I’m sorry, Xander, but we need him if we’re going to get Giles out.”
Xander shrugged awkwardly. “I know," he agreed. "It’s okay. He said something about souling Angelus again. Did you tell him about that?”
“It came up. It doesn’t matter now." She didn't move and he took a few steps forward so that he was standing in the sunlight. She relaxed. "I wasn’t sure he’d hold to the deal,” she admitted.
“There’s a gate. He said he’ll leave it unlocked. Um...”
“Okay," she said, "let’s go, then." She took the package from under her arm and started undoing the ties that held the cloth in place. “You have a weapon?" Xander pulled his stake out of his back pocket and held it up. She nodded. "Stay back,” she said. “You get in, you get Giles out. I won't be able to protect you.” The final tie fell to the ground and she pulled the cloth aside, revealing a long and very sharp looking sword. “I'm gonna be too busy killing,” she added, lifting the blade and sighting along it.
“Whoa, that's a new look for you.”
“It's a present for Angel.”
She started up the hill, but Xander stayed where he was. “Buffy.”
“Yeah?” she asked, turning around. Now it was he who was blinded by the sun.
“Willow...”
“What? She’s okay, isn’t she?”
“Yeah. She's fine. Don't worry. She says...”
“What?”
Xander closed his eyes for a moment, weighing his choice. “Kick his ass,” he said.
Buffy turned away. "Don't worry, I will.”
Xander led Buffy through the bushes to the path and then to the gate in the wall behind the mansion. On the way he indicated the window where he'd seen Giles and Buffy paused to look. Her expression was grim when she caught up with him.
At the gate, she stopped. “You're not here to fight,” she said. “You get Giles out, and you run like hell, understood?”
"Understood."
Buffy eased the catch and pushed the gate ajar, peering through the gap before she slipped around the jam. Xander followed.
They tiptoed down the stone steps into a sunken courtyard with access to the house through a pair of large glass doors which stood open but obscured by heavy drapes. The ground was paved in old stone flags and the whole space was cool and green, with plants around the edges and in a central bed. A small fountain, to the left of the doors, tricked water from a spout in the wall into a stone bowl. The sound added to the air of tranquillity. On any other day it would have been beautiful.
Buffy kept close to the wall as she skirted the fountain and stopped next to the doors. She lifted the edge of the curtain aside to take a look. Xander couldn't see past her, but he could just hear the sound of Angelus's voice. He seemed to be chanting but Xander couldn't make out the words.
After a moment, Buffy eased the curtain back into place and turned to push Xander away, along the wall. Once they reached the fountain, she whispered, "They're in there. It looks like Angelus is about to do something. I'll go in and distract them. Wait until I lower the odds, then keep to the left and you should get past. Okay?"
Xander nodded.
Buffy turned back, slipped around the corner and through the door. Xander edged after her and peered through the curtains in time to see her swing her sword and a vampire turn to dust.
She stepped forward into the middle of the room and announced her arrival, saying, "Hello, lover."
Angelus had been advancing on the stone demon, but he paused at the sound of her voice. "I don't have time for you," he said.
Xander couldn't see Buffy's face, but he knew the expression she'd be wearing when she replied, "You don't have a lot of time left."
Angelus smiled. "Coming on kind of strong, don't you think? You're playing some deep odds here. Do you really think you can take us all on?"
Shrugging, Buffy replied, "No. I don't."
Angelus frowned. He never saw Spike rise from his chair behind him and slam a crowbar into the back of his head. He fell to the floor and lay still, but Spike didn't stop. He kept hitting Angelus across the back, shouting words that Xander couldn't hear, because the whole place was suddenly in chaos. A second vampire rushed across the room and attacked Buffy. Drusilla screamed and ran at Spike. Buffy took a punch to the head as she turned to face her attacker and went down, but managed to trip him with her feet as he closed in for the kill. Spike and Drusilla were a tangled mass of arms, legs and red velvet skirts, rolling across the floor.
Xander decided that the odds had been lowered enough and rushed into the room, getting himself slightly tangled in the drapes and colliding with Buffy's opponent, who was careening backwards towards him, as if he'd been shoved, which Xander guessed he had. Xander's back hit the wall. He shook his head to clear it and pushed the vampire back at Buffy, who kicked him in the face as he stumbled forward. He went down. She seemed to have lost her sword, but she grabbed a bit of wood from a broken chair and closed on him. "Find Giles," she yelled over her shoulder and Xander ran, not wanting to distract her from her fight.
He made his way around the edge of the room. Spike and Drusilla were still on the floor, neither apparently able to hold a dominant position on the other. Angelus was flat on his face at the feet of the statue, a dark, wet patch of matted hair visible on the back of his head. Xander considered taking a detour and staking him before he could regain consciousness, but Spike and Drusilla were in the way and he knew he would never get past them, if they noticed him. Even occupied as they were, they couldn't miss him if he tried to jump over them. He looked around, taking his bearings from the doors they'd come in by and judging the position of the room where he'd seen Giles. An arch to his left appeared to lead in the right direction so he made his way to that. Again it was hung with heavy drapes, but when he pushed them aside, he saw a small room, with a chair in the middle of the floor and Giles tied up, his head hanging forward on his chest.
Pushing through the curtain he went in. "Giles!"
Giles lifted his head and Xander crouched down behind him, picking at the ropes that bound his hands. He hardly heard Giles' voice, over the noise from next door, it was so weak. "Xander?" he asked.
Xander got the ropes around Giles' wrists undone and moved his arms so his hands rested in his lap, before starting on the ropes around his ankles.
"Can you walk?" Xander asked. One foot free, he shuffled around in front of Giles and reached for the other.
"You're not real," Giles whispered.
"Sure, I'm real." The knot on Giles' left foot was stubborn and Xander was wishing he'd thought to bring a knife. Giles muttered something else, something about seeing things. As the knot finally gave and he pulled the ropes away, Xander looked up into Giles' face. "Why would you see me?" he asked, trying to sound reasonable.
Giles grunted. "You're right. Let's go."
Grinning, in spite of the circumstances, Xander got his shoulder under Giles' right arm and helped him to his feet. Holding tight to Giles' right hand, he got his left arm around Giles' back, supporting him. Slowly they staggered out through the arch.
In the main room the fight was still going on. With a quick look around, Xander saw Buffy on the floor. She was in the process of rolling away from her opponent and for a moment he didn't understand why, until he spotted her sword lying by the door and realised that she was trying to reach it. Drusilla and Spike were on their feet again, but still fighting and Xander saw Drusilla take a swipe at Spike's face, tearing four parallel scratches down his cheek with her fingernails. While he was still reeling from that blow, she followed up with a punch that knocked him to the floor. Over by the statue, Angelus began to stir. The vampire Buffy had been fighting when Xander left the room was scrambling to his feet and just as Buffy's hand touched the pommel of her sword, he launched himself towards her, kicking it aside. Buffy pulled her hand back and did some sort of fancy scissor thing with her legs, rolling up onto her feet. She still had the table leg in her left hand and she tossed it across to her right. As the vampire swung around, she threw it like a knife. It spun through the air, turning end over end and buried itself in the vampire's chest. Buffy took a step back as he exploded into dust and her shoulders seemed to sag.
Angelus was using the statue to pull himself to his feet and Xander opened his mouth to shout a warning to Buffy, but she was already turning around. She spotted Xander and Giles. "Get out!" she yelled. "Get him safe."
Xander realised, again, that their continued presence would only be a distraction to her, so he nodded and although he continued to watch, he began to pull Giles around the edge of the room, towards the big front doors onto the street. Giles was hardly conscious and Xander was carrying most of his weight. There was no way he could manage the steps up to the back gate, even if they could reach the courtyard.
Angelus had regained his feet and he reached out, grabbing the hilt of the sword sticking through Acathla's chest. There was a burst of blinding light and everything froze for an instant.
When his eyes cleared from the flash, Xander saw that Angelus had pulled the sword free. He whipped it around in his hand and held it up to look at. Buffy scrambled across the room to her own sword. Drusilla had also paused to watch and while she was distracted, Spike came up behind her. He grabbed her around the throat and it seemed that he did something to her neck because, quite abruptly, she slumped. With one arm around her back, he dipped her and scooped his other arm under her legs, picking her up.
Buffy reached her sword and turned to attack Angelus. He parried her first blow, the action appearing almost lazy, even to Xander's untutored eyes. She thrust again and again he blocked, following with a swing of his own, which she managed to parry in turn. Then they were fighting in earnest, blades clashing, over and over, as they danced back and forth across the room.
Xander continued to edge Giles along the wall, while keeping one eye on the fight. A fast series of swings and parries ended with Buffy reeling backwards. Angelus closed but Buffy managed to hit him in the face with the pommel of her sword, causing him to duck away. She jumped into the air to avoid a low swing from Angelus's blade and Angelus regained his feet.
Xander and Giles had reached the front door when Xander became aware of Spike and Drusilla nearby. Spike was watching the fight with an expression of awe. "God, he's gonna kill her," he breathed. Xander wanted to shout something, to contradict his apparent certainty, but he was afraid of distracting Buffy. Then Spike shrugged and turned around. His eyes met Xander's and Xander wondered if he was going to say something. Spike frowned at him with a puzzled expression, but Drusilla gave a low moan and Spike looked down at her, his face softening into an expression Xander recognised from the crazy night of the spell. Spike shrugged again. "Best get him to a hospital," he said, nodding towards Giles. "Angelus wasn't gentle." He hitched Drusilla's limp body closer to his chest and walked away, down a short side corridor, disappearing through an arch at the far end.
Xander opened the front door, but paused, unable to leave Buffy fighting for her life. Buffy's eyes met his. "Get out, Xander!" she shouted, barely managing to block another vicious swing of Angelus's sword.
"Don't go far," Angelus added, and Xander realised that if Buffy was to have a hope of winning, he couldn't stay. He pulled Giles though the door and out into the brightening dawn.
The sun had cleared the hill behind the mansion and the street was already sunlit, but the mansion cast a long shadow. He staggered down the steps, almost buckling under Giles' dead weight, and they had just got out of the shade when a crash behind them was followed by a big black car bursting through the doors of the mansion's garage. The windows were painted black on the inside. It screeched out into the road and, with a roar, tore away down the hill towards the highway.
Xander watched it go, then laid Giles down on a patch of sunlit grass and set off at a run in its wake, to find a phone from where he could call 911.
Giles was kept overnight and interviewed by the police. Xander didn't know what he said, but when he went to visit Giles assured him that Buffy was no longer a suspect.
Xander borrowed his mom's car to collect Giles from the hospital and get him settled at home. Then they waited. Willow and Oz arrived in the late afternoon, once Willow was also released. But still Buffy didn't come. Xander tried calling her house, pretending that he wanted to borrow a book for his homework, but Mrs Summers wouldn't tell him anything, except that Buffy wasn't home. He spent the night at Giles' apartment, with strict instructions to call Willow as soon as Buffy showed. There was no need.
The next day, at Giles' request, he went up to the mansion. Acathla stood frozen in place and the sword was back through his chest, but of Buffy, or Angel, there was no sign.
Next Chapter
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 04:25 pm (UTC)Shakatany
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Date: 2009-07-18 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 04:34 pm (UTC)I know, but Xander just would not bend his principles and co-operate. *g*
I promise, I'll get them there in the end.
Four chapter story? Who ever thought this would be a four chapter story? Put you hand down, Maz, you never really believed that.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 04:39 pm (UTC)Xander recognising the expression on Spike's face as he looks down at Dru just made my heart ache.
Lovely stuff, hon. Oh and
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Date: 2009-07-18 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 06:29 pm (UTC)The fight scene was vivid and brutal and very entertaining, and I enjoyed watching it through Xander's eyes. His constant worry about getting out so Buffy could just get her head in the fight was stellar.
This story always makes me very happy.
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Date: 2009-07-18 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 07:15 pm (UTC)"Demanded a phial of my blood and the life of a cop. In return, she gets Angelus, however she wants him.”
Is that supposed to be vial?
What an excellent and long chapter this was. A great use of what happened in canon while being subtly twisted into a total AU. The battle scene was fantastic and action packed!
And just how pray tell are Spike & Xander gonna to get back together again? I really look forward to finding out.
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Date: 2009-07-18 07:55 pm (UTC)You did a wonderful job of describing the action from a bystander viewpoint. I really enjoyed.
You've got me wondering what will happen when they use that phial of blood. Will it break what Dru did?
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Date: 2009-07-18 08:19 pm (UTC)Too many wonderful things going on here to list, but I'll try.
First, I really like that we're left not knowing what if anything comes of Willow's spell.
The chat b/t Xander and Spike on the lawn is fabulous, as is the one b/t Xander and Buffy pre-fight. Getting the entire (or most of it) fight b/t Buffy and Angelus from Xander's perspective is very refreshing and puts new light on all what happened, and I echo Sparrow: Xander recongising "the look" Spike gives Dru was very touching.
Really superb storytelling. I trust you to take us where we need to go from here.
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Date: 2009-07-19 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 07:28 am (UTC)It is a gorgeous banner, isn't it? I was so surprised and pleased when she sent it to me.
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Date: 2009-07-19 07:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 07:34 am (UTC)The dangers of assumptions, eh? *g* Luckily for Xander, Spike had made a deal and although at some point in season 4, Buffy accuses him of always lying, I think he had some sort of sense of honour... as long as it didn't cost him too much *g*
Thank you. I'm glad you liked that line. It is Spike sort of summing up my own feelings about the whole Acathla plan.
And I'm very glad you enjoyed the fight. Xander's head was talking all sorts of sense there, but his heart didn't want to play, until he realised he really did have to get out, for all their sakes.
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Date: 2009-07-19 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 07:45 am (UTC)Is that supposed to be vial?
Um, no. Apparently they are alternative spellings of the same word, although I have only ever seen it as ph. Maybe the v version is more common in America, while the ph version is more common in the UK? I do use British spelling, as you have probably noticed.
Thank you. I'm so glad you enjoyed the fight. It did end up as a long chapter, because I really couldn't break the action.
I promise, the question that just about everybody is asking this week, will be answered, eventually.
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Date: 2009-07-19 07:51 am (UTC)Will it break what Dru did?
Well, it will break the last vestige of what Amy did, but Dru's spell was something else. *g*
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Date: 2009-07-19 07:53 am (UTC)Thank you for commenting on every chapter. It really wasn't necessary, but it was a lovely surprise.
You put your trust in me? That may be foolish of you *g* but I will do my best not to let you down. Thank you again. *hugs*
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Date: 2009-07-19 07:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 01:01 pm (UTC)If you do, you've got a rather large following that will hunt you down, woman!
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Date: 2009-07-19 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-20 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-20 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-20 03:53 pm (UTC)