Chapter 11
Author’s Note: Some of the dialogue in the following scene is a direct quote from the transcript Becoming Part II (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season 2 episode 22) written by Joss Whedon himself. To make the scene fit into this universe, I had to change some of the dialogue. The parts that are in red, are from the transcript that Joss Whedon wrote.
Thanks to the BETA TEAM: SerenityAngel44, Michebabyblue, CarlyJx, Ekimmuh, and Pheonix Evans. CarlyJx wrote the last fight scene between Devlin and Buffy. The whole beta team contributed and had some ideas that I kept. I could not have done this chapter with out you, ladies! And that goes for anyone who has ever beta’d this story!
A couple of weeks
after Jenny Calendar was buried, Kendra came back into town. Her watcher had
sent her to Sunnydale because he thought that there was a great evil about to
arise. During one of Buffy’s tests, Devlin sent a minion on a suicide
mission. The newly created vamp was to walk into Buffy’s classroom and tell her
to meet him at the graveyard at sundown or more will die. As soon as she
finished her rather dramatic smokey entrance and short threatening message, she
burst into flames and then she was nothing but ashes.
However, in the
library, Kendra, Angel, and Giles were researching Acathla. They had learned
that Devlin had stolen the demon statue and was planning on awaking him to bring
Hell on Earth. They were trying to find a way to stop Hell coming to Earth.
Angel looked over to the door that had just swung open; a man with a filthy
suit had swayed into the room. Unlike Giles and Kendra who were engrossed in
books and notes, Angel took full notice of the new man, especially when he
showed his demonic face. With two punches and a kick to the face, Angel had the
vampire pinned down on the table with a stake hovering above his head. Giles
frowned as the result of the fight left all his books on the ground.
“Wait! Wait! I have news! Her father is in danger! Master Devlin sent some others to L.A. to kill him,” the vampire said quickly hoping that his life would be spared.
Great! Just great! Divide and conquer. You know this is a trap, Angelus said inside Angel’s head.
Yep.
But we still have to make sure her father is protected.
Yep.
“Why are you telling us this?” Giles was automatically suspicious of the vamp.
But Giles was too late in asking his question because Kendra threw Angel out of the way to stake the newly risen vampire. Angel only looked at the other vampire slayer before walking out of the door.
“Where are you going, Angel?” Kendra asked. She was mystified as to why he would be leaving at a time like this.
“To L.A.”
“It could be a trap,” she said astonished that the souled vampire believed the soulless vampire that was now dust.
“Probably is,” Angel shrugged. He didn’t care if it was, just as long as Buffy’s father was alright, because he knew it would kill her if anything happened to him or any other member of her family.
“Then why are you going?” Kendra asked perplexed.
Giles rolled his eyes at the second slayer. He understood exactly where and why Angel was going. As a Master Vampire, it was his duty to see to it that his family was protected and that included the family of his Mate.
“We can’t take the chance that he was telling the truth. I have to go and make sure. I’ll be back in a few hours,” Angel said as left the library. As soon as he got into the underground tunnels, he was hit over the head and knocked unconscious.
“That was too easy,” Devlin said as he had two of his minions carry his old friend back to his lair.
When Buffy got out of class, she went to the library to let her husband and watcher know about her “visitor”. “Where’s Angel?” she asked after looking around and finding that he was nowhere to be seen.
“We got word that someone was in danger and he went to protect them,” Giles said cryptically purposely leaving out crucial information and glaring at Kendra. She understood the silent command to not tell Buffy just who was threatened.
“Oh. Well, I got a ‘word’ too. My ‘word’ said that I was to meet Devlin in the cemetery at sundown or more will die. So, I’m going to the cemetery tonight at sundown and I’m going to finish this! Kendra, if everyone stays here in the library, would you stay here and protect them? Just in case this is some kind of trap.”
“Of course.”
“Buffy are you sure this is wise?” Giles asked.
“I won’t let him kill anymore innocent people,” Buffy said before taking her crossbow and leaving. Giles knew when to fight with Buffy and when not to and this was one of those times where she wouldn’t listen to anyone but maybe Angel.
At sundown, Buffy went to meet Devlin in the cemetery. During the fight with Devlin, he let on that she fell for the trap and that the real fight wasn’t between them right then. A light bulb went off in her head and she realized that the trap wasn’t for her, but for her friends. There were no other vamps around. They were all at the school killing her friends. Panic-stricken, she ran full speed back to the school.
While she was gone, Dru and her gang of minions, walked into the library and put Willow in a coma, broke Xander’s arm, kidnapped Giles and killed Kendra. When Buffy got back to the library, she took in everything that she saw. She was kneeling next to Kendra when the police arrived. They tried to arrest her, but she ran.
Angel came to and looked around the room he was in. He saw Dru and Devlin talking to Giles. Giles didn’t look too good. He looked as if he was being tortured, though knowing Devlin and Dru that was probably true. He didn’t have any idea how long he had been out, but he could sense that the sun was down. How had he been knocked out for so long? He didn’t know and right now it didn’t matter. The important thing was to get Giles and get him to a hospital. He watched in horror as he saw Giles call Dru “Jenny”. He wanted to tell Giles it was a trick. Dru was playing mind games with him. That’s when he realized that he was chained up and gagged. The chains he found were too strong for him to break. They must’ve been magically enhanced. The gag he found had left a slight odor to it, that’s must’ve been what kept him knocked out for so long. It had been drenched in some type of knock out fluid. Weather it was magic or just human chemicals didn’t matter. If he was breathing, then even human chemicals, such as chloroform, would have affected him.
He then heard Devlin ask Giles what was the key to opening the stone statue. And in Giles’ exhausted, hypnotized haze, he gave the answer, Angel’s blood. It had to be the blood of Angel. He and Giles knew all it would take was a drop of his blood to open the stone statue. The stone statue needed the real thing, not a copycat. Angelus’ intentions had been truly evil, while Devlin wanted nothing but recognition and to be like someone else. Upon hearing that he needed Angelus’ blood, Devlin, went ballistic and started to destroy things that were within reach. He then turned on Angel and realized that his old friend was awake.
“If it weren’t for the fact that I want you to see the death of the Slayer, I would dust you right now!” he irrationally yelled out. Then he calmed down, “Then, again, I couldn’t wake up our buddy, Acathla, here, now could I?” He smirked, looked at some of his minions, and then commanded, “Get him cleaned up and ready for the ritual!”
Angel watched in horror as Dru continued to use her mind control trick against Giles, he couldn’t help but feel responsible, after all, Dru was like she was because of him.
Devlin found pleasure in the horror on Angel’s face, it was what he had been waiting to see for more than a century and a half – ever since he realized that he could never live up to their sire’s expectations because Angelus always seemed to surpass those same expectations.
Let me at ‘em, Angel! Come on! Angelus begged.
NO! You and Devlin together again? I can’t take the chance that the temptation would be too much for you.
Angelus laughed inside Angel’s head, You’ve got to be kidding me! He wants to kill my Mate and you think I'd join him?
If you can convince him to let you turn her or keep her, then yes, you would. And I can’t take that chance.
Angelus pictured himself rolling his eyes at Angel’s comment. He had tried to take over, but whatever was making the soul weak, was making him weak as well. He just couldn’t forcibly take over. The last time it had been so weird the way it happened, and he knew that Angel wouldn’t be caught off guard again. They had yet voluntarily given control to the other one. Angel took control when Angelus was in a sex induced exhausted deep sleep. And Angel had not let himself get into that deep of sleep since. Except for this time, but he had been drugged and that affected the demon as well.
Angel knew his demon, and even though Angelus said that he wouldn’t join Devlin, he knew that given the right incentive, he would. Sure, Buffy would be upset with him, and he knew it, but he would turn her or something to convince her that it was alright for them to be with Devlin. Just as he knew if they could ensoul Devlin he would do it. Just to have his oldest friend back. The soul wanted his childhood best friend back and the demon wanted his best friend back as well. They just happened to be the same person. One with a soul and one a demon. Angel just couldn’t take the chance that an opportunity would present itself for the two demons to wreck havoc on the world once again.
While Buffy was trying to escape a police officer, Spike came up from behind and knocked the officer out and then said, “Slayer, I came to make a truce with you.”
“Truce?” Buffy asked disbelievingly.
“Yeah. I’ll tell you where Devlin is holding your Watcher if you let me and Dru
go.”
“Yeah because your just going to tell me aren’t you,” Buffy said sarcastically. She had been tricked before, she wasn’t about to be tricked again. Spike only shrugged. “Why should I trust you?”
“Right now you don’t have any other choice. He’s torturing him right now to get
the information he needs to awaken Acathla.”
“I thought you wanted the world to end,” she raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh we
talk big. Vampires I mean. But truth is, I like this world. It’s got lots of
people, walking around like happy meals on legs. The truth is, I want Dru back.
The way that she acts around, him …
He’s so much like Angel. I was glad when Angel left, I had Dru all to myself.
Now, Devlin is trying to be Angel and Dru is going along with it.
I want her back the way she was before
Devlin
came around.”
“You're pathetic.” He punched her in the face. She punched him right back. “I
lost a friend tonight!”
“I wasn't in on that raiding party.”
“And I may lose more! The whole earth may be sucked into Hell, and you want my
help 'cause your girlfriend's a big ho? Well, let me take this opportunity to
*not* care.”
“I
can't fight them both alone, and neither can you!
And Devlin kidnapped your Mate this afternoon.”
Spike looked
Buffy’s disbelieving face, “Yeah he’s got Angel and he
knows that he can’t take the both of you. Angel is the one he wants to hurt the
most, so he arranged to have him think that your father was in danger and when
Angel did what was expected and left, Devlin, knocked him out and had him
carried back to the lair so that he could kill you and make Angel watch.
Found a magical
chloroform to keep him asleep and weak.”
Buffy
punched him hard in the jaw, making him flinch. He straightened back up and felt
his jaw, checking for blood.
“I hate you.” Buffy said venomously.
“And I'm all you've got.”
The police officer begins to stir on the hood of the car. Buffy looked down
briefly, “All right. Talk.”
Spike turned to the officer, “I'm just gonna kill this guy.”
Buffy cleared her throat loudly. Spike faced her. “Oh. Right.”
Buffy saw her mom’s car in the driveway and knew that her mom would be waiting
for her inside, “Mom, I need you to call the hospital and see how Willow and the
others are. They got hurt tonight.”
“Buffy are you alright? The police were here and at my house. They think you
killed someone.”
“No, I didn’t. But she was a friend of mine. She was killed by a vampire, Mom.
And they have Angel and Giles. I’ve got to go save them.”
Buffy
turned to Spike “All right, talk. What's the deal?”
“Simple. You let me and Dru skip town, I help you kill
Devlin.”
“Forget about Drusilla. She doesn't walk.”
“There's no deal without Dru.”
“She killed Kendra.”
Spike was surprised, “Dru bagged a Slayer?” He chuckled, “She didn't tell me!”
He turned to Joyce, smiled and said, “Hey, good for her!” Buffy gave him a look
and he lost the smile.
“Though not from your perspective, I suppose.”
Buffy didn’t like having to let Dru go, but what other choice did she have to get Angel and Giles back. One was her husband and her marked and bonded Mate; the other her watcher, but he was much more than just a watcher. He was like a father to her. Just as much or more than a father than her biological father had been in the past couple of years. Buffy, with contempt said, “I can't believe I invited you into my house. Be ready to back me up when I make my move.” Spike walked around her toward the door. “If Angel or Giles dies ...” Spike stopped and faced her and Buffy continued, “she dies.”
“I told you, Angel’s not gonna die. Devlin wants to make Angel watch as he tortures and kills you.” Buffy just stared at him and he gave her a final stare and headed out the door.
“Buffy, Xander says Willow’s awake.”
“Let me talk to him,” Buffy said as she took the phone from her mother.
Devlin
had several vamps holding Angel down. He took out a syringe and evilly grinned
at Angel, “This will keep you calm, so that I can perform the ritual. You were
always stronger than me. Even as a human. I have to make sure that I can do
this without you overpowering us.” He then stuck the syringe into Angel’s
bicep. Angel then slumped in his captives’ arms as the world went dark.
Buffy strutted into the factory with a sword in hand, she was more then ready. The first thing the young slayer did was slice the sword through a vampire’s neck, capturing the full attention of Devlin. Angel was being held by several minions, each using all of their strength to keep the vampire with a soul down. Devlin smiled as he reached for the knife and cut Angel’s hand and forced it around the sword hilt and pulled it out of the statue. Angel tried to refuse but Buffy could see he wasn’t as strong as his usual self, they must have given him something. Buffy ran at Devlin with her sword whipping the air as Spike quickly knocked an unsuspecting Dru out and then took off.
Devlin was an experienced fighter with a lot of strength and knowledge but Buffy was the slayer, the vampire slayer. Devlin threw numerous punches at Buffy but she blocked them all until he threw one last punch that she caught in her fist. Not letting go of the vampire’s hand she swung her sword around and cut his head of, making his body turn to dust.
“That’s what you get for messing with my husband!” Buffy spat at the pile of dust. “Let that be lesson for the rest of you,” she shouted to what was left of the minions who were running to the exit.
Xander walked in right as she was swinging the sword to take off Devlin’s head.
He saw Giles and went over to him and got him to his feet. He half carried, half
walked Giles out of the factory.
Angel saw it first; the small vortex, that opened as the stone statue opened his mouth. Buffy then saw it a split second later. “How do we stop it?”
“We don’t. I do. It needs my blood. Just like it needed my blood to open, it needs my blood to close.” Before Buffy could stop him, he picked up the sword that Devlin used and sliced his healed hand, coated the blade with his blood, and then stabbed Acathla where a human heart would be. The statue turned back to stone and the vortex disappeared. Angel and Buffy then kicked the statue over and it shattered into dust. Angel held Buffy to his side as they walked out of the factory.
While they were taking Giles to the hospital, Buffy told Angel what all had happened, “Angel, Snyder expelled me. I didn’t do anything wrong and I got expelled.”
“Don’t worry about it, Muirnín. We’ll figure something out. Once the police find
out that it wasn’t you, then Snyder will have no choice but to let you back in.”
“Yeah, but I’m going to miss my last two exams.”
“I’m sure they’ll let you make them up, once all of this is cleared up.” Angel
tried to reassure her.
After they had dropped Giles off at the hospital and found out that he was going to be ok, Angel took Buffy home. On the way home, Buffy remarked, “There, for a minute, when I saw the portal open, I thought I had been too late. I’m just glad that you were able to stop Acathla.”
“I didn’t stop Acathla.” Angel confessed in a confused tone, he was still trying to get his head around what had happened.
“What do you mean, Angel? I was there, I saw you.”
“I wasn’t in control. Devlin, drugged me, and somehow, Angelus was strong enough to push through. It was Angelus who stopped Acathla. After the portal was closed, he just stepped back.”
“Stepped back? As in voluntarily let you have control again?” Buffy raised her brow, this wasn’t like Angelus at all.
Angel nodded, “Yeah. I don’t understand it. But I thought you should know. I just didn’t want the others to know.”
“I understand. They wouldn’t understand this. Better to not let them know that Angelus can take control. They might go over react and stake you and then where would I be?”
It would drive her insane if she didn’t take her own life and you know it. I’ve seen it happen. That mad man back in 1800, who begged for death, but couldn’t do it himself…Darla, had said that a vamp had Marked him as a Mate and she was killed by a slayer and because he refused to take his own life, he went mad. Angelus replayed the memory for Angel. When Angelus had asked Darla how she knew that the man’s Mate was dust by a slayer’s hand, she had told him that she knew the vamp and that she had recognized the Mark on the man’s neck. It was another vamp that the Master had sired, one of her sisters by the name of Tamar. Tamar had crossed paths with a slayer two years prior and had been dusted.
Angel remembered that Darla wouldn’t have mercy on the man. She thought him too weak and thought he should wallow in his misery. Angelus just didn’t see the point in taking the man’s life. It was too easy. No fun or art in it at all.
“Angel?” Buffy asked as they walked into the mansion.
“Yes?”
“What does this mean?” Buffy asked quietly.
It took a few minuets for Angel to reply, “To be honest with you Buffy, I really don’t know.”
“Can we trust him?”
“I want to say yes, I want to be able to say that he won’t do anything wrong, he’ll act like a good little soldier, but it’s Angelus, he’s not very predictable.”
“But he saved us, he saved the world. He could have done nothing but he didn’t.”
“Can I tell you something?” Angel bowed his head, not knowing if he really wanted to tell his love this.
“You can tell me anything, you know that.”
“I…He… I don’t know which one of us did but one of us for a split second wanted the world to go to Hell, we didn’t give a damn about saving the world or anyone in it….”
Angel was cut off by Buffy who pressed her lips to his. “Shh, it doesn’t matter if you wanted to; the point is that you did do something. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and wonder what I’m fighting for; I wonder why I’m out risking my life for people who don’t know anything about vampires or demons.”
“But I don’t know which one of us was thinking that. What if it was me, Buffy? I’m meant to be the one with the soul, the good of the bad.”
“It doesn’t matter Angel, we all wake up and think ‘What’s the point?’”
“Buffy?” Buffy looked up at Angel’s dark sad eyes, “What’s the answer?”
“To why we fight? Because there are some things worth fighting for,” Buffy smiled, so did Angel and for that night they both forgot about demons and vampires, about the creatures that live in the shadows, for one night they forgot about everything except each other.
“Are you sure this was the woman that killed Kendra?” The DA asked Xander, Willow, Cordelia, and Giles as he handed them a drawing of someone who looked similar to Drusilla, but with noticeable differences.
“No. That’s not her. The nose is too big,” Xander said.
“And the eyes are too close together,” Cordelia said.
“And the hair longer,” Willow said.
“And the chin needs to be more rounded,” Giles said.
The police officer put down a drawing of Buffy and asked, “Is this her?”
“No. That’s not her,” Giles said angrily.
“What about this one?” He asked as he put down a drawing of Drusilla.
“That’s her,” Xander said as the others agreed with him.
“But this girl here, had something to do with it, right?” the DA said as he
pointed to Buffy’s picture.
“No. She wasn’t even there,” Giles said exasperated.
“But the police found her standing over the body!” the DA insisted.
“She must’ve come in after they kidnapped me then!” Giles insisted.
“Kendra was a friend of hers. If you found your friend dead would you not kneel
down beside them?” Cordelia inquired annoyed.
“I know that this girl is guilty of something. The principal of the school even
said that she was guilty,” the DA persisted.
“Snyder wasn’t even there!” Giles said.
“Snyder has a personal vendetta against Buffy,” Xander said.
“Snyder is always looking for some way to expel Buffy. If he thought he could
get away with it, he would make something up and expel her for that,” Willow
said.
“You’re saying that this woman here, was the one who organized everything?” the
DA pointed to the picture of Dru this time.
“Yes. She seemed to be in control,” Giles sighed.
“If you are absolutely certain that this girl here, had nothing to do with the
attack then, I’ll have no choice but to drop the charges,” the DA said.
“I’m absolutely certain that she had nothing to do with it,” they all said in their separate interviews.
That afternoon, the charges against Buffy Anne Summers MacKenzie were dropped. Angel and Buffy filed a petition with the school board for her to be let back in school. While the school board was reviewing the case, Buffy had to go to summer school to make up the classes that she had failed from being expelled.
While Willow and Oz were cleaning out the computer lab, they found a computer disk that had fallen between the teacher’s desk and a filing cabinet. When Willow put the disk into the computer, she saw that Miss Calendar had been working on the Soul Restoration Spell. She took the disk out and put it in her purse. It would be a nice keepsake to remember her favorite teacher by. It was too late to use it now.
True to his word, the retired Watcher was able to get Buffy readmitted to school. He was even able to make Snyder administer Buffy’s final exams to her. And Snyder received a reprimand for wrongfully jumping to a conclusion and expelling a student based on personal feelings and not facts. After all, there was no evidence that Buffy had ever fought on school grounds. Sure she had skipped a few classes, but overall, Buffy had been a good student the past semester; her grades had even come up considerably.
Buffy passed all of her exams with grades of eighty-eight percent and above. Thanks to tutoring sessions with Willow and Angel, she had all A’s and B’s on her report card for the second semester of her 11th grade year as Angel and Willow could put the material in terms where she could understand it.
A/N End Notes: Ok, I'm about to send off the first chapter of Book 2 to my new Beta Team who did such a wonderful job getting this chapter back to me so quickly. Hopefully, the updates to Book 2 will be a lot quicker than Book 1 was, but here we are finally at the end of Book 1. I have a lot things that are already written up and I can't wait to get feedback on them! And then there are also things that I'm having problems with. The re-write of Band Candy for one! (I think it's Chapter 5 of Book 2) But funny thing, I already have some of the chapters after that written up. But, there are things in Band Candy that have to take place. So I'm taking the lazy way out and using the script but changing it up a bit to fit my universe.
Thank you to all my reviewers and please don't for get leave feedback for this last chapter of Book 1. Book 2 will pick up where this Book ends.
Background for this page is from http://www.grsites.com/ I just made it lighter.
Hugs,
Mac
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