EXTINCTION

 

 

Name: Chris

E-mail: RealWorldHB@aol.com

Feedback: HELL YES!  Gimme feedback!!!!

Disclaimer: I own nothing here, but certainly if I find you with this story, bad things will happen...

Rating: R/NC-17

Content: Extreme violence, gore, sometimes language and minimal sexual scenes.  But mainly VIOLENCE AND GORE!

Spoiler Warning: Spoiler for all seasons (1-5), this collects pretty much most of the good stuff from those seasons and jams it down your throat.

Summary: This takes place in Season 7.  This is the last season, and in so its going to be big.  Buffy has a new foe on her hands in the shape of a dying vampire coven.  They are trying to raise something called Thamogron, and it is up to Buffy and the Scooby Gang to stop them, even though they have no clue who or what Thamogron is.  Also thrown into the mix of that battle are dozens of side stories, including a male Vampire Slayer (in with the mythology around Thamogron), a vampire/lizard hybrid thanks to the Initiative in Colorado (they moved), a certain Hell Goddess' return from the dead, Faith's return to Sunnydale, and a prophecy dating back to before the first season that Buffy will be the destroyer of the world.  Every storyline ties together eventually into the devastatingly evilness of Thamogron and what it plans on doing to our world and others...

Notes: I have written a 238 page screenplay based on this story (or well, the story is based on this screenplay), but it is just the Thamogron storyline and nothing else (cept the Faith and male Slayer ones).  But I must stress that this is my life's work, and I will be BEYOND pissed off if I see anyone using this.  It is mainly for entertainment value, not for someone to rip off and use it as your own.  If you have to use it, contact me and I just might let you use it but please, for the love of God don't just steal it!  Cuz if I see you've stolen this, hell will be unleashed!

 

Chapter 3

Start Of Something New

 

Dark and depressing was the music at the Bronze on a quiet Tuesday evening.  High School kids filled the dance floor to the brim, limiting the dancing to a simple turning of the hips and an arm movement or two.  On the stage, Desdemona played a twisted love song titled “My Bleeding Soul”.  It fit perfectly with the new generation of High Schoolers, at least the ones in Sunnydale.  The simple soft and punk rock era of the old days all seemed to either darken their magical music talents or break up horribly.  Sadly, most changed to fit in with the times.

Desdemona rocked on, the two guitarists plucking away at their instruments while the drummer lightly hit his as his head twisted back and forth, flowing to the music.  The group played along, setting the powerful mood with the blasting of lyrics from the lead singer’s mouth.  Her skin was pale but made a horrible white with the addition of make up as she tossed her long, straight black hair away from her face.  She closed her eyes tight as she strangled the microphone with her long, white fingers.  Moaning, sometimes screaming the Gothic lyrics, the lead singer had the kids eating out of the palm of her hand.  She knew it, they knew it; Desdemona, the punk equivalent to Marilyn Manson.

As the depression rolled along on the dance floor, Buffy watched from above in confusion.  In what seemed the college section of the Bronze, the second floor was home to the sitting college students.  With their coffee products in hand and liquor beverages next to them, they complained about the music and their lives.  But Buffy didn’t make conversation with Xander as he sat playing with his blue plastic cup, reduced to actually listening to Desdemona.  Buffy held one hand to the cold iron railing as she kept watch over the strange sight below.  She narrowed her gaze, confused but at the same time intrigued by the trance-like expressions on the High School kids’ faces.

Xander sighed, putting his empty blue cup to the side of their small circular table.  He turned his attention to Buffy as she kept an eye on the action below, “Do you want to dance?” he asked.

Buffy turned in shock, almost forgetting Xander was still there with her.  She shook her head with a pleasant smile, “No thanks Xander, it looks just a little too crowded down there… not to mention weird…”

Xander pulled back in his chair, “Ah yes, the kooky kids’ new “cool” thing.  Listening to a psychopathic pale chick and her band of equally crazy band/bed mates, what a great new genre of music we have on our hands here Buffy.”

Buffy laughed, “They have those kids in such a calm mood though, they all look like they’re going to drop to the floor asleep any second now.”  Buffy cocked an eyebrow, drawing closer to Xander and trying to keep her volume to a minimum.  “By being here… do you feel… old?” she whispered.

Xander nodded simply, “Face it Buffy, we are old.  Early and mid-twenties is ancient in this place, break out the dialysis machines!  We’ve got ourselves two geezers here.”  Xander laughed, but Buffy just moved back in her chair with a strange look on her face.  Xander sighed, “Sorry but it’s the truth Buffy, we’ve gotten older.  That’s the thing we humans do when we aren’t dead.  We’ve become the older, snobbier, boring grown-ups that think the music of the youngin’s is just noise and nothing more.”

Buffy gasped, “No!  Not those guys!  We can’t be them, we’re not that boring or old!”

Xander smiled with a brief sigh of defeat, “Face it Buffster, we are those guys.  Have been since Graduation.”

Buffy gave in, “All right… but hey, we still are in with it, or has it changed again?”

Xander moved closer, cupping his ear, “What’s that?  Forgot to charge the batteries in my hearing aid!” Xander shouted loudly.  Everyone turned to Buffy and him, and they burst out laughing.  Below them, Desdemona switched tracks from a slow to a hardcore style song called “Rape of God”.  Xander and Buffy both got up and went over the railing to check out the new insanity.  Smoke machines began filling the dance floor with a heavy fog as strobes flashed from all around.  The dancers rocked out, twisting and turning wildly to the song and knocking into eachother constantly.  It reminded Buffy of a rave, except less druggy and more crowded.  Whatever it was, she thought of it as pure chaos.  And the people to blame were Desdemona, using every last ounce of energy they had left to play as hardcore as they could.

Xander shook his head as the maddened kids as they rocked out to the demonically roaring lead singer of Desdemona.  “Crazy kids… what do you say we split?” Xander suggested.

Buffy checked her watch, it was only 8:13.  “In a few, lets just hang for now and then leave.  Besides, this party is actually getting too interesting to leave just yet…”

Xander nodded, sitting back down at the table with Buffy.  “Ok, so… any run-ins with our wacky new villain since Saturday?”

Buffy shook her head, “Nope.  He’s been hiding under a rock since last week.  Oh but I thought I could feel someone watching me in class yesterday, it was like when that bitch kept following me, that kind of watching.”

Xander waved his hand eagerly, “And?  Was there vampage at the school?”

Buffy smiled at Xander pathetically, “Just turned out to be a guy trying to look down my top.”

Xander sighed, “That’s a disturbing story Buffy, I think I’d rather hear about vampires then horny frat boys.  Well while I’m on vampires, Giles dig up anything?”

“A big nodda… we’ve exhausted all our resources here, two cram sessions with Willow and him have basically left us with no other resources, except what he has at home but lets not even go there.  Giles put in a request for information to the council yesterday, so hopefully they’ll have something on Blaine, his clan or Thamogron; preferably all of them.” Buffy said.

“So we’re facing another ‘unknown’ baddie again?  Man, you think with all the years the Watcher’s Council have been in business they’d have information on everything.” Xander complained.

                “Well Blaine does have a file, Giles found it but it was empty.” Buffy stated.

                Xander moved in closer, “You think when those thugs raided the magic shop he took this Blaine guys’ file with him?”

                Buffy shrugged, “Probably, but it doesn’t matter.  If he had a file then the council has records on him, and if they have something on him there HAS to be something on Thamogron there.  If they don’t, then I have nothing to go on except the fact Blaine isn’t happy with me and he’s going to raise something called Thamogron…”

                “Yeah, the whole ‘Slayer makes me mad’ and ‘I want to destroy the world’ thing comes around a lot in vampires here.” Xander joked.

                Buffy smiled, “That it does.  But this guy means business, so did you do the thing I asked?”

                Xander put up a hand to stop Buffy, “Yeah, yeah!  The crucifixes are on the doors, walls, ceilings, floors, you name it!  We’re all safe Buffy, no worries ok?”

                She nodded, “I’ll stop worrying when I stake this guy… and anything that belongs to this clan of his.” Buffy checked her watch again as Desdemona wrapped up their set, it was 8:30 now; time to Slay.  “Xander, I’m sorry but…”

                Xander interrupted her, “You need to go kill the undead, it’s cool.  Kill one for me, no make that two!  Ah hell why not a legion?”

                Buffy smiled, “You’ve got it.”

 

 

                Blaine clamped his hands to his head and twisted as hard as he could to the left and right, trying to crack his neck.  The neck finally gave way and cracked, the crack echoing throughout the cement walls of his lair.  He sat up in his large sarcophagus on the lair’s balcony, piecing together his plan of attack toward the Slayer.  The girl had killed the beauty that had been Ferris, that sin alone guaranteed her the death of all deaths.  His clan grew tiresome of waiting for Buffy’s demise, but they just couldn’t understand the piece of art that had to be her death.

                The others must have been out feeding, Blaine couldn’t hear or sense any of them near.  He forced himself to get up, jumping out of the giant granite casket and onto the cold concrete.  His bare feet sent the shock of the frigid floor throughout his body as Blaine searched for his shoes and trench coat.  “Next time I sleep with everything on…” Blaine sighed.

                Blaine’s lair was an impressive sight, the strangest place he put up shop in yet.  It was an abandoned sewage treatment plant, left unattended after his clan ate the workers.  By luck and nothing else, the city never noticed and the worker’s were mostly alone in life so there was no one to miss them.  Blaine couldn’t careless if they were alone or had large families, they would all follow in the worker’s footsteps in due time.  He grinned as his stomach growled, the thought of death gave him a great hunger that needed to be subdued soon.  His clan kept the plant working for the most part, just doing enough to keep the city from interfering in their immortal lives.  Blaine, of course, never helped them in any way.  He rather kept the work with the workers, while he as the boss did nothing but watch.

                The last rays of orange light from the setting sun barely touched Blaine as he put on his shoes.  A giant window hung above a small staircase leading to the outside, it was divided into eighths by iron rods.  It limited the natural light in the plant from its dirt encrusted glass panels, an accommodation made by nature and not his clan.  The door of the plant was boarded up a slight precaution taken for a worst-case scenario.  Blaine set his now clothed feet to the concrete once more and began walking toward the small staircase across the large, open floor.  Small monitoring machines and other instruments of no use cluttered the half-mile area, but he wanted an open space to wander so they were quickly disposed of.

                A machine kicked on in the distance of the giant sewage plant, the far off hiss of cascading sewage into the tunnels below made Blaine smile.  He always wanted something on the water.  As Blaine marched up the small staircase, he could hear Slash and Torn approaching, probably checking in on him he thought.  They were getting closer, moving through the Carr Avenue tunnel, which opened next to the staircase.  Originally it did not open there, but a few shock charges and some elbow grease later it did.  Blaine grabbed his fallen trench coat from the cold floor as Slash led Torn into the lair.

                Blaine slipped his arms through the coats’ sleeves, “Where is she?” he asked.

                Slash and Torn spun around in fright, but calmed themselves as Blaine came closer to them.  Slash took a breath to speak, “On patrol, going through the cemetery right now.”

                Blaine nodded in approval, “She’ll be waiting for my victims to arise… hope she likes a party…” Blaine snickered evilly, adjusting his long, polyester trench coat as he came down off the staircase.  “If things go accordingly to the plan, then it will take her twenty minutes, maybe more to reach the target after she gets done with my children… and the things I’ll be conjuring in moments time…” Blaine turned around, his milky white teeth gleaming as he flashed them at Slash and Torn, “But when does anything ever go accordingly to a plan around here?”

                Torn laughed slightly, the joke hit her as funny but the way Blaine told it disturbed her.  “Blaine, have you fed since you’ve risen?”

                Blaine scoffed, “Feeding is not of the importance now Torn, torturing the Slayer and finding the Book of Rathon Mah on the other hand is.”

                Torn folded her arms across her chest while stomping her foot firmly to the ground in protest.  “Feed, there is no way you could battle the Slayer if you haven’t fed Blaine!”

                “We aren’t facing the Slayer tonight Torn, that is what minions and lower demons are for!  We are facing the Watcher and whoever else is at that shop when we attack… but I know I won’t win here Torn.  I will feed and make you happy,” Blaine stated.  “I will feed right now…”

                Blaine threw his coat closed, frightening Torn as he flew past them and into the Carr Avenue tunnel.  Torn turned to Slash, “I’m worried about him, he’s loosing his mind!”

                Slash nodded, keeping his eyes focused on the tunnel.  “He’s taken Ferris’ Slaying hard… but he’ll come back to his senses soon enough.  He’ll be ok once the Slayer is paid back in full.”  Slash commented.

                Torn shook her head, making her way toward Blaine’s sarcophagus.  “All the more to worry Slash.”

 

 

                The stench of death clung to the newly risen vampire like a leech; Buffy could never get over the horrid aroma of these vampires.  Another somewhere around Buffy let out a gasp, struggling to climb from its dirt grave.  Their burial suits and gowns were stained with mud and grass as they rose by the dozen.  Growling, they sensed the presence of a human.  Buffy sighed, the night was young, and so were they.

                Pulling out a stake, Buffy delivered a roundhouse to the head of one of the new vampires.  A fine evening mist hung over the wet grass of the cemetery as a New Moon watched everything from the darkened Heavens.  Buffy flipped over the vampire she fought and kicked down another infront of her.  She turned, kicking back the vampire and then running forward as she ran the stake through it.  The dust dumped itself onto the wet grass, but Buffy knew the fight was far from over.

                She adjusted her coat as she swung back her blond hair to get a good look at the cemetery and her new opponents.  Twenty, maybe more came rushing at Buffy at a slow, mortal speed.  It was an army, Blaine’s army no doubt.  The vampire was creating vampires left and right; only these were not for any bigger picture.  These were apart of Buffy’s punishment, whatever that was.  Two came from behind her; she could hear their heavy breathing as she backed up and out of the crypt section.  She turned to kick down the two behind her then swung back around to jab and uppercut another infront of her as she made her way into the rows of gravestones.

                Buffy ran and jump kicked a young woman vampire down into a gravestone and tripping two other vampires.  She caught sight of a vampire to her left; quickly she grabbed another stake and flipped over the numbskull demon.  The stake swiftly punctured his unbeating heart, ending his short immortality and sending him back to Hell from which he was spawned.  Buffy shook her head, seeing three more sections of wet grass beginning to rise up near her.

                Snarling and cursing at her, the vampires flashed their fangs at Buffy with complete malice.  There were too many, they rose faster then Buffy could stake them.  It was an army after all, and Buffy couldn’t run away or wait for any help from anyone.  This was her job, and if she didn’t dust these vampires before they got the chase to feed and add to their supernatural abilities she would be doomed.  Buffy tensed up, clutching her stake so hard it almost busted in her grasp.  She sighed, “Looks like you’ll get your legion after all Xander…”

 

 

                Thoughts of friends and family members raced through Blaine’s victim as the final amount of blood entered his welcoming mouth.  He ripped his fangs from the black woman’s throat as his eyes scanned her dying face.  Blaine growled, loosening his grip and allowing the woman to fall to the dirt below them.  She hit with a shallow thud, her body face down next to the large pine tree next to the two of them.  Inhaling the sweat, wet air of Central Park, Blaine let the memories of his victim play in his head.  While he killed her he had read every piece of memory she had been recalling as she lost to his great power.  Sad it was, but Blaine didn’t like it any other way.

                A book lay open on the wet grass, its pages blowing back and forth with a slight costal breeze.  Blaine closed his eyes, severing the memories and opening them back again to regain focus on the current agenda.  His crystal blue eyes turned to the book below him as his body bent down to grab it.  Placing a pale digit into the blowing pages, Blaine snatched up the book and stood up.  “Wrong page…” he mumbled.  He searched the book calmly, glancing at every page with great immortal speed.  Waiting eagerly to find his lost spot, Blaine sighed.

                “Ah…” he gasped as his index finger pointed at the page, “There you are!”  Blaine bent down closer to the ground as his milky white hand reached inside his trench coat.  He withdrew a small brown felt pouch, which is opened by pulling the rope ties apart.  Blaine emptied the pouch’s contents into his hand, rolling the five onyx pieces with his clammy fingers.  With great pleasure, Blaine dropped the onyx pieces to the dirt and quickly got up to back away.  His eyes followed the pieces as they fell to the ground; Blaine took a breath, “From the dimension near the second star, I plead to you.  Father Hell, Mother Earth, allow my plea to reach you.”

                The onyx pieces sank into the ground, liquefying the dirt as they did.  Blaine sneered, “With exoskeletons black as these onyx shards, release them.  On this night of the New Moon, open the portals and give me my wish.  Give your child of darkness a toy… release… release… release!” Blaine chanted.  Ripples of movement spread across the dirt while squeals of something on the other side roared out to Blaine.  His face brightened with joy as his sneer transformed into a wicked grin.  “Boys and girls… it’s a WHOLE new ball game…” he gasped.

 

 

                Dawn sat with Anya and Willow at the table in the Magic box, fashion magazines scattered across the table.  Anya flipped through one on her own, reading gossip and staring at the skinny models while Willow and Dawn shared a magazine.  “See!” Dawn shouted, “I want a dress like that!  Simple and unique!”  Dawn pointed at a Jade dress worn by some model, it had small straps on the shoulders but other then that it was a one piece dark green dress.

                Willow laughed, “Unique and yet worn by every other celebrity huh Dawn?”

                Dawn shrugged, “They can’t help if they have good taste…” she joked as Willow turned back a few pages.

                “What about this one?  The silver one with the strappy things in the back, oh Dawn it would look SO good on you!” Willow got all antsy as she pointed to a long, tradition gown.

                “I don’t know Willow… isn’t that a little bit on the skank side of things?” Dawn said unsurely.

                “No, no way!  It’s totally hot believe me!  Anya?  Anya don’t you agree that this would look great on her?” Willow picked up the magazine and shoved it towards Anya.

                Anya waved her hand, agreeing without bothering to look away from her own magazine.  “Yeah, yeah, yeah!  Silver, strappy, skank, you.  Now let me read this!  This girl wants to know what this other girl thinks about sexual intercourse.”  Anya stopped herself, realizing what she said, “Sorry Willow, the girls aren’t wanting sexual intercourse with eachother.  They like boys.” Anya explained.

                Dawn and Willow shared a look of amazement with eachother, Anya always seemed to pull new appalling statements out of thin air in record time.  Dawn moved past Anya’s comment, “Willow what about this pink one?” she asked as she flipped back a few pages.  Anya sighed, noticing once again that she had failed in humanity.  She went back to reading, while two customers entered causing the annoying bell to chime.

                Giles came out from the back, dabbing away at his sweaty brow with a handkerchief.  He gave a look at Anya as he cleared his throat, scaring Anya.  She scrambled to her feet at once, going to help the new customers as they hovered near the front.  Anya stopped to glance back at Giles in a pouting attempt to clear her name, “I was helping them.  Dawn is going to a dance, she needs a dress to cover her misshapen hips and pale body,” she protested.  Giles just gave her the same, demanding look; Anya sighed and went back on course to the customers as Giles walked over to Willow and Dawn.

                Dawn sighed, tossing her magazine back onto the table with the rest of them.  “Anya’s right, my hips are misshapen!”

                Willow gasped, “No, no way Dawn you are perfect!  Anya wouldn’t know beauty if it got up and bit her in the butt!”

                “I heard that!” Anya yelled out from the other end of the shop, frightening the customers she was helping.  She glared at them, “What?”

                Giles rolled her eyes as he tucked away his handkerchief, “Willow is clearly right on this one.  You are a lovely, delightful, comely, delicate, beautiful, shall I go on?”

                Dawn blushed, a grin spreading across her face from ear to ear.  She pushed back her brown hair away from her face, “No, I get your point Giles and thank you.”

                Giles bowed his head slightly, “Anything to help Dawn… but may I ask who will be escorting you?”

                Dawn perked up, “Oh… just a boy,” she stated unsurely.  Giles and Willow both looked at her, waiting for more details.  Dawn gave in, “Ok, a boy from school.”

                Giles scoffed, “Well I gathered that much already Dawn.  Does this ‘boy from school’ have a name?”

                Dawn sighed, “Of course… his name is Luke,” she confessed.  “And its not a date or anything along those lines, so no ‘Dawn and Luke sitting in a tree’ jokes, got it?” she asked firmly, especially as she faced Willow.

                Willow smiled, “Give us some credit Dawn, we never do that kind of stuff.”

                Dawn folded her arms and gave Willow a cold look, “Oh really now?  What about Sadie’s last year?  With Dallas?”

                Willow looked away quickly, a slight hum coming from her.  “Oh yeah… ha, I forgot about that one…”

                Dawn laughed at the poor witch, “See, told you!  So please Willow, no jokes.  It isn’t a date.”

                “Ok Dawn, cross my heart and hope to… well, you know the rest.” Willow stated.  She leaned forward to get the magazine back as Giles stepped away from the table; his job of reassurance was done for the moment.  Willow opened the magazine back to the page they had been on, “Now let’s find you a dress style, and then tomorrow if Buffy says its ok then you, Tara and me can go shopping.”

                The word “shopping” gave Dawn her second wind, thrusting the teenager back into the dress mode.  “Ok, but I want to go to a big dress shop!  Like the one at the mall!  Oh, and I’ll need shoes and jewelry and all that fancy stuff!  Oh!  Make-up that matches my dress, I’ll need that too!” Dawn exclaimed with extreme giddiness.

                Willow raised her eyebrows in shock; “Sure this isn’t a date-thing after all Dawn?”

                Dawn smiled faintly, “Well just because its NOT a date thing doesn’t mean I can’t look all good.”

                Dawn and Willow went on with the dance plans as Giles began taking inventory for the night.  He reached for one of his few remaining texts, a book he rarely looked at called “Breeding Habits of Reigors”.  Giles sighed; he sure did miss his old library.  Picking up the book, Giles stumbled forward slightly, barely catching himself as his breath quickened.

                Willow turned and got to her feet in concern as Dawn’s eyes widened at the sight of the off centered Giles.  “Giles, a-are you all right?” Willow asked as she ran to his aid suddenly.

                Giles put up a hand to keep Willow away as his eyes burned with anger, “Willow… get Dawn out of here… uh, get out!”  Giles collapsed to the floor as sweat cascaded from his pores, scaring Willow and Dawn as they watched him fall. 

                Willow took hold of Dawn’s hand and led her to the entrance, “Come on!” she screamed as they ran.  Dawn looked back to Giles but then to the entrance as the door flew off its hinges and slid to a stop right infront of their feet.  Willow turned around, pulling Dawn toward the back room.  “We can get…” she tried to say, but as she ran her knees gave way to her body.  Dawn screamed as she dropped to her knees and trying to get Willow back up.

                The customers attempted to flee, but found their fates at the teeth of a pack of vampires entering the shop.  Anya let loose a deafening cry as she ran for shelter from the growling vampires, only finding Willow and Dawn on the floor.  “The customers are being eaten and Willow is sleeping!  What the hell is going on here Dawn!” she cried out.

                The sound of the customers blood gushing from their throats filled the shop as Anya grabbed Dawn’s hand and pulled her to her feet.  In the darkened entrance to the Magic Box, two white luminous eyes watched the fleeing girls.  Helious entered the light of the shop as his hypnotic gaze fell upon Anya and Dawn at once.  Dropping like flies, the two hit the wooden floor with a shallow thud as they slid to a stop.  Seeing the resistance was no more, Bella lead Slash and Torn into the shop while Helious still stood at the entrance, his glowing eyes receding at last.  The other pack of vampires still fed off the dead customers as Bella turned around and faced Slash and Torn, “Tie them up and put something sharp in the old man… we’ll need him screaming for later…”

                Slash and Torn bowed to their higher officer, Slash snapped his fingers to signal for the other vampires to follow.  He led the vampires to the victims, beginning to tie them up right then and there.  Bella slipped closer to Helious, “What if the Watcher doesn’t know about the book?  What if we’re just wasting more of our time?”

                Helious turned his head to look into Bella’s eyes, his own eyes narrowing into a wicked expression.  “If he doesn’t know he doesn’t know… but at least it will be a good time had by all when it comes to torturing him… and slaughtering the women…” he stated coldly, moving away from Bella and toward the counter to examine the book Giles had picked up.  Bella turned and watched the clan at work with an evil grin; this was going to be fun.

 

 

                Buffy dropped to the wet grass, allowing a vampire to jump right over her as another five charged across the headstone littered cemetery.  She gripped her stake and sprang up into the air, planning the stake deep into the vampire above her while spin kicking two others down.  Buffy landed but knew the other three were closing in; with a burst of strength, Buffy staked the two beneath her and flipped forward to kick a third right in its demonic face.  As she recovered, she couldn’t help but think that the battle was too much for her.  But then again, when was anything ever easy?

                Another of the undead roared out and came at Buffy with its fangs out and ready to maim her.  Buffy shook her head as she uppercutted the stupid vampire, “Get a new hobby kid.”  She staked that one too, turning back towards her last two with a sickened look.  There they were, just rushing at her with such contempt and little knowledge.  Born out of anger, the vampires had no idea what they were doing except defending their lives and even then they did not know the truth to the battle.  The truth being that they’d never win, none of them did.

                One cursed at her while the other snarled as they approached her, their fists swinging and their eyes raging in horrible malice.  Buffy caught one by the fist and pulled his arm around to snap it in half before she plunged the stake into his dead heart while the other managed to deliver a few jabs to her side.  Buffy pulled out the stake and let the vampire explode into dust as she roundhoused the last vampire.  It hit a gravestone and knocked itself out, but Buffy ran towards it emotionlessly and staked the demon.  It cried out, the last cry of pain it would ever manage to speak as its crumbling body drifted off with a slight breeze.

                Buffy sighed as she checked the area; empty.  She reached to put the stake in her coat but then stopped and looked at the death weapon in contempt.  Like it was diseased, Buffy tossed it away into the darkness.  Over forty vampires in total were destroyed in just a short while, and that didn’t bother Buffy at all.  She knew it had to be done, and especially at the moment of birth.  Even if she had wanted to call it a night, like she did when she was at the Bronze, she couldn’t just let them go.  But the fact that they were created in such a vast amount by Blaine no doubt, it just made Buffy’s skin crawl.  Blaine had it out for her and so all those people who she had “killed” just a few moments earlier were turned so he could have revenge.  They had lives, families, possibly little dogs too, and they would never see any of that again because of her.  It made Buffy feel dirty.

                Buffy found herself suddenly on the wet grass, pain pulsing like a constant shock from her back.  Her eyes teared as insect-like chirping and some animalistic growling called out to her from all around.  Her mind spun from the pain and the noises, what was going on?  Another surge of pain began in her upper shoulder, forcing Buffy to scream out in agony.  Her hands frantically groped her shoulder and back, she had to find what was causing the pain.

                Needles, Buffy ripped a pair of barbed needles from her neck.  “What the hell!” she bellowed, ripping more from her back.  The pain lessened with the removal of the barbed needles but it still came back to hit her with every heartbeat.  The growling and chirping turned to a definitely inhuman snarl as Buffy snapped, she threw herself to her feet in a painful movement and looked around desperately.  The tears in her eyes made it so she couldn’t see, everything was blurred and she only could make out a pack of shiny black images.  The blinding sting of a blow sent her backwards and into a gravestone.

                Buffy wailed, she couldn’t handle the pain as she rubbed her face where the blow occurred, trying to lessen the immensely painful stinging.  Trying to grab a stake, she felt more needles hit her chest.  That was it, she needed to run and she needed to do it now.  But the thought of fleeing went on the back burner as a familiar presence revealed itself.  Buffy sobbed, “Blaine… this… this is-is your doing!”

                A menacing laughter came out at Buffy, “Seeing that you’re blind now, I’ll call that a good guess!”  It was Blaine all right.

                Buffy lashed out, but found herself caught by Blaine’s icy grasp.  He slapped away her hand as she reached for a stake and squeezed on her neck.  The wind brushed against her raw and stinging flesh as Blaine turned around with her.  “My demons… my Vargos… FIRE AT WILL!” Blaine ordered.

                The needles flew at Buffy and Blaine in swarms, both cried out in horrible pain as the pointed objects inserted themselves into them.  Buffy quickly elbowed Blaine, freeing herself to roll onto the wet grass.  She welcomed the cold, moistness to ease her pain, but she forced herself to get up and run.  As she ran blindly across the grass of the cemetery she could hear Blaine roar an order to the demons he called Vargos.  The growling and chirping returned and with it the thundering and scampering of twelve pairs of feet.  Buffy was being chased by the Vargos, but she knew Blaine had stayed behind.  She couldn’t feel his gaze any longer, but she could feel the demons behind her grow with anger at her as she ran.

                Fear raced along with Buffy as her mind began mapping out her possibilities.  She couldn’t run for much longer, the needles were having an effect on her body; they were poison.  She already felt dizzy and the pain was enough to kill a mortal alone without the effects of the now occurring poison.  She needed to find shelter and fast, but it couldn’t be alone.  There had to be a lot of people where she was going.  There had to be the chance of someone defending her, even if innocence was at stake.  If luck was still with her, Xander would still be at the Bronze and it was only a few blocks away.  And so Buffy knew her plan; run to the Bronze and hope either Xander is there or hope to loose the demons along the way.  Buffy knew the plan was insane and a horrible insane one at that, but she had no other choice.  She had to live to fight Blaine, and if she didn’t do that she wouldn’t live to stop Thamogron.  The plan had to work.

 

 

                Pain, its presence let Giles know he was still alive, but certainly not well.  Something was in him, his abdomen to be exact.  The pain grew worse as he began to come to, he let out a moan of discomfort as he tried for the object in his stomach.  Giles struggled, they had him tied up; he fought with his binds with everything he had, but Giles resolved himself and gave up.  Of course they would tie him up, they wanted something from him.  Giles couldn’t wait to find out what.

                “Come on little Watcher, time to get up!” Bella snapped at him, smacking Giles across the face.  Giles’ eyes opened wide after the painful blow.  Giles gasped, struggling again with his binds as he grit his teeth together.  His shop was, once again, thrashed, but that wasn’t the main cause of his anger.  There ontop of his counter was Dawn, her limbs tied behind her back with heavy duty rope as she lay there unconscious.  Giles then remembered Anya and Willow, his eyes began searching the ruined shop franticly.

                Bella drew closer, placing her fingers up against Giles’ chin as she guided him to turn around.  He did so and found Anya and Willow hanging from the small second floor of the shop from their feet, both out like a light.  “Monsters!  Let them go, they’re innocent!” Giles raged on.

                Helious came in from the back room with Slash and Torn at his side.  He raised a hand and wiggled his fingers in delight, “Remember me?”

                Giles had no idea who the demon was, but he didn’t care at all really.  He was quickly shown exactly who Helious was as his eyes began to glow and images of Willow and Anya being gutted as they hung upside down from the second floor filled his mind.  The images made Giles gasp in horror, he shut his eyes but yet they were still there and even worse in the darkness of his closed eyes.  The images faded quickly as did Helious’ glowing eyes while Giles came out of his horror.  “You… what do you want from me!” he screamed out at Helious.

                Helious smiled as he leaned to the side toward Slash and Torn, “Take the others and dose the place in gasoline…” he whispered.  They nodded and disappeared into the back room as Helious came closer to Giles, his smile still present.  “You have something our leader wants Mr. Giles… something he craves!”

                “What is it that your leader thinks I have?” Giles shouted back in response, pulling at the ropes once more.

                Bella watched him struggle for freedom, and so she stepped forward and took a hold of the knife in Giles’ gut.  She twisted it, moving the blade back and forth as blood flowed freely from the now gaping wound.  Giles yelled, trying to subdue the pain with anger, “Just stop this and tell me for bloody sake!”

                Helious pushed back Bella, telling her to back off with his mind.  She did as told, but kept her angry gaze upon Giles as she backed away.  Helious drew even closer to Giles as he kneeled, moving into Giles’ point of view and narrowing his gaze to glare at the mortal.  Anger, almost resentment radiated from Helious’ eyes, “The Book of Rathon Mah, where is it Watcher!”

                Giles’ breathing slowed itself at the mention of the book’s title, “I don’t know what you’re talking about… I’ve never heard of it before!”

                Helious grabbed the knife in Giles and yanked it out slowly, the steel blade rubbing against Giles’ insides as it exited him.  Giles groaned in horrible pain, digging his nails into his hands and grinding his teeth as Helious just got up and stood there with the knife in hand.  “I know you won’t give a damn if I kill you right now, but…” Helious backed away from Giles and went to Dawn, the knife still in his hand.

                Giles tried to lunge forward as Helious grabbed Dawn by her long brown hair and pulled back to expose her neck.  Helious turned to look at Giles as he pressed the knife up against her throat, “Tell me where the book is and the child dies quickly!  Refuse, and I rip her organs out one by one as slowly as possible…”

                Giles’ eyes raged, “The last copy I saw was burned along with its owner, in England!  I swear to you, I don’t own a copy… I don’t know if there is even one left…”

                Helious stood there, his face like stone as his eyes scanned Giles’.  The stone broke away as Helious drew back the knife and let loose a sigh, “He’s telling the truth, he doesn’t know…”

                Bella vamped out with a low growl, “Then kill them all and let’s go find someone who actually does!”

                Helious turned toward Bella as she approached him, “We wait for Blaine to give the order, not you Bella.  It is, in fact, his party and not yours…” Helious glanced at Giles, “Let him unwrap his present.” Giles shivered as Helious’ gaze fell upon him again, penetrating him, making him fearful.  Giles relaxed as he slumped over, tired from the blood loss.  He didn’t know if the vampire was still reading his mind as he fought the unconsciousness but he really couldn’t care less.  All he cared about was saving the three women and dusting his captors; Giles gave up to the pain and the hopelessness as he realized he couldn’t do anything without Buffy.

 

 

                Silence filled the dark alleyway that led to the Bronze, but Buffy was too late.  Her body began to go over its limits, the chase weakening her already exhausted physical and mental state.  She let out a hopeless cry as she collapsed to the pavement, the fall to the warm pavement letting her know her extreme failure.  Gasping for air as the poison began to know her entire body, Buffy listened as the Vargos scampered toward her with caution.  There was no hope as she lost consciousness; this was the end.

                Crawling as low as they could, the Vargos approached the slumbering Buffy as silent as possible.  Hissing quiet warnings to eachother and to Buffy, they carefully checked to see if indeed the Slayer was out cold.  The insectoid demons crawled on all fours as they had in the cemetery, like the canines from hell.  Their black glossy exoskeletons shone in the moonlight and made them look more menacing then the trillions of barbed needles lining their bony outer structure.  The Vargos’ small skulls were shaped like diamonds, round ontop and coming to a point near the small, teeth filled mouth.  Their eyes could hardly be seen in the night, the color of blood blending in with the darkness that not even the New Moon could break in the alleyway.  Extending their skulls from their hulkish bodies, the Vargos reached forward to get a closer look at their target.  In the darkness, the Vargos looked remarkably like a pack of wild dogs sniffing a fallen animal as they checked Buffy.  Finally, one reared up on its long hind legs to expose its ribbed underside as it screeched out to the rest of the Vargos.  Taking the cry as the signal to attack, the demons leapt into the air to tackle Buffy; they never made it to the ground.

                A wave of blue energy surrounded the leaping insectoid demons, suspending them in a bubble above Buffy.  The power of the bubbles walls fried the Vargos as they hissed and cried out in agony.  Hiring out their needles and clawing at the energy bubble, the Vargos attempted for freedom but only resulted in injuring themselves even worse.  A shadow moved from behind a parked Astro van, it held its right arm up into the air as the figures’ hand glowed with the same blue light of the bubble.  “Alimenti che tiene le mie vittime al bey, pieghi I vostri bracci e me li sbrarzzi!” a strong, deep woman’s voice speaking Italian roared out.  The bubble quickly receded itself, the Vargos smashing together inside as they screeched out in pain.  The blue hand closed, motioning the bubble to seal up, squashing the twelve bugs in a gush of green goop. 

                The figure’s hand returned to normal as it ran to Buffy, gathering her in its arms.  “Hey!” a voice cried out, two blindingly bright headlights turned on to reveal the lead singer of Desdemona holding Buffy in her arms as she shielded her eyes to the light.  Xander stood next to his car as its lights shone onto Buffy and the singer, his eyes open wide with fear at the sight of the downed Buffy.  “Hold it right there crazy lady!” he warned.

                The singer shook her head, “You don’t understand, I didn’t do this!  But your friend here is badly injured!”  She laid Buffy back to the street and began running off as Xander came to Buffy’s aid. 

                Xander checked Buffy’s pulse then looked back up to watch the singer flee, “Hey, I’m not going to let you get away with this!  I saw you do that spell!”

                The singer turned back as she ran, but she didn’t stop.  She kept running until the darkness kept her from Xander’s sight.  He groaned in frustration, turning back to Buffy as he moved the loose strands of hair from her face.  “Hang in there Buffster… I… I’ll get you some help.”  Xander looked around, no one else was around to help him.  He sighed, standing up and scooping Buffy’s battered body into his arms and getting her into his car.

 

 

                A sigh left Blaine as he stepped into the Magic Box, pulling the last Vargos needle from his calf.  He glanced over at Helious as the vampire played with the small knick-knacks on the shelves.  Helious noticed Blaine but hadn’t cared enough to look at him as he sneered at a small glass ornament.  “You’re late…” Helious stated coldly.

                Blaine shook his head in disgust at Helious, “The point is I’m here… did the old man confess?”

                Helious turned back toward Blaine, “Why are you late?  What have you done?”

                Blaine groaned, rolling his head and his eyes in boredom.  “And I should give you an explanation why?  I was out, end of story!  Now did the old man confess!  Yes or no?”

                Helious’ sneer left his face, “No…” he stated simply enough.  He turned away from Blaine and walked back toward the captives while Blaine followed.

                The sight of the dying old man made Blaine laugh, “You didn’t even kill him yet?  Do I have to do everything for you?”

                Bella entered the room and gave Blaine a cold laugh to counter his own, “Helious wanted to wait for you, give you the honors of disemboweling them one by one… I for one would have rather had it over and done with.”  Bella turned and looked at Helious with a grin, “Just my opinion though…”

                Blaine snickered, “Ah yes, and a pointless one at that!”  Bella growled as her vampire face came out, warning Blaine to back off.  He shrugged and went for the knife on the desk near Dawn, his fingers took a hold of it as Willow let out a moan.  Paying no attention to her weak cry, Blaine approached Giles with hate surging from his pupils while his true face revealed itself.  Blaine grabbed Giles by the face and shook his head violently, awakening the dying Watcher.  “You can lie to these weak minded minions of mine, but you won’t have the chance to lie to me!” Blaine growled, inserting the tip of the blade into Giles’ forehead and pressing in on it. 

                Giles let out a scream, “I-I don’t kno-know where the bo-boo-book is!  I swea-swear…”

                Blaine snarled, “You can’t deceive me Watcher!  Your kind knows where the book is, and you will tell me or I start chopping off appendages!”

                As Blaine grilled Giles for information, Bella and Helious slipped into the backroom disgusted at their leaders strong will to proceed in torturing the mortal.  Leaving the room, Willow’s eyes opened to reveal their complete blackness.  Her lips curled into a snarling expression as she prepared to call upon her powers.  “I evoke and conjure thee, O spirit STOLAS by the Supreme Majesty - the true God to appear before me!” Willow whispered with extreme hate.  Blaine’s delicate hearing picked up on the Wicca’s faint words, he turned around and roared out at her, dropping the knife as he did.

                “Foolish witch!” he snapped as he rose his foot and stomped onto her stomach with all his might.

                Willow flung back and hit the top of the ceiling and came back down, suspended still by her legs as she rocked back and forth in pain.  Blaine’s lips curled at the ends as he glared at Willow with his demon eyes.  A loud squawk forced Blaine to turn around, his vampiric face receding as a large raven flies through the broken doorway of the Magic Box.  The raven’s eyes met with Blaine’s as it flew at him with its claws flexed out for attack.  Blaine screamed at the raven, stabbing at it with the knife.  The raven cried out, digging its talons into the vampire and throwing him back into the counter. 

                Bella ran out of the backroom with Helious, Slash and Torn following as Blaine got up and vamped out with a horrid snarl.  His fangs glistened with his saliva as his demonic eyes raged on at the raven.  The raven didn’t seem to care about the dangerous vampire as it flew and cut down Anya and Willow.  Blaine leaped into the air in attempt to catch the dark bird only to fall back to the floor as the raven swooped down to slice Blaine’s cheek with its talons.  Blaine threw his head toward his minions and bellowed out, “Kill them!”

                Helious grabbed the knife from the floor as Bella vamped out and grabbed onto Anya, but both flew backwards into Slash and Torn as the raven thwarted their plans.  Bella growled, “Everyone in here, NOW!”  The order brought in the pack of three vampires the group had brought with them.  The young, feeble-minded vampires attempted to grab the raven as it just hovered above them, watching them with its onyx eyes.  Bella got to her feet and pushed back Helious as he tried to help her, “Kill it!  Kill it now!”  The vampires leapt up into the air but collided with one another and fell to the floor as Blaine got back to his feet.

                He looked at the vampires and snarled, “Fools!  Burn this place down!” Blaine ordered.  The raven swooped down again, grabbing hold of Blaine’s cheek with its claws and flying upward with him in its grasp.  Blaine howled in pain from the wound as he slapped and punched the raven without even making the large bird flinch.  Willow got up from her traumatic fall, her eyes still blacker then nigh as she watched the raven and Blaine battle.  She turned quickly as Slash and Torn both lit two lighters and flung them into the backroom, causing an instant blaze of flames to engulf Buffy’s training area and Giles’ stock. 

                Bella watched Blaine battle the raven fearfully as she approached with a chair from the table.  She raised it and hit the raven with it, forcing the bird to release Blaine onto the floor.  Bella dropped the chair and helped Blaine to his feet as the raven screamed at the vampires in anger.  Blaine grabbed Bella by the hand while turning to Helious, “We’re leaving!”

                Helious hopped out from behind the counter, “What about the Watcher!” he screamed out, taking off after Bella and Blaine.

                Blaine yelled back at him as they took off out the door, “Leave him and the others to burn!  We’ll find the book somehow someway…”  With that, the vampires fled down the street, even the young pack.  Blaine’s mind attacked him for leaving the Watcher, but he didn’t care.  It was a stupid decision he realized but it needed to be done, whatever the raven was, it was power.

                Willow grabbed Anya and helped her up as the raven hovered over her, watching concernedly.  Willow looked up to it, her eyes still black but full of fear now, “O spirit STOLAS, deliver us from Hades with your wings!”  The raven squawked out a reply and opened up its wings suddenly.  Willow closed her eyes and grabbed onto Anya as she slipped from her grasp while the four of them turned into white energy.  The raven swooped down and gathered the energy in its wings as the flames stretched out into the main part of the store.  It flapped its wings, soaring up towards the ceiling as it headed out of the busted doorway and out into the evening sky.

                The raven landed in the middle of the street as the flames began to take more of the store.  Glowing from the energy, the raven released Willow, Anya, Dawn and the dying Giles to the street.  Willow got up quickly, brushed back her hair and stared in awe at the store as the flames grew bigger and brighter.  “Um, ancient Gods and Goddesses, I invoke thee. Waters from the sky, let it be.  I command thee now, to thee all.  Listen to my desire, rain fall!" Willow commanded.  Clouds brewed like waves above them, as heavy rain fell onto Sunnydale.  Willow whipped away the rain from her eyes, watching eagerly as the heavy rain began putting out the flames inside the Magic Box.

                “Willow!” Dawn screamed out as her and Anya attended Giles on the flooding street.

                Willow turned, the rain ceasing to fall as the flames extinguished.  She got to her knees and looked unsurely at Giles’ numerous wounds, “Oh god… oh god…” she repeated.

                “Willow, can’t you do something?  A healing spell, can you save him?” Anya shouted, sounding more human then usual.

                Willow shook her head unsurely, “I-I don’t know!  I mean, it could backfire and kill him!  Its risky!”

                Dawn grabbed onto Willow’s arm gently and looked deep into her black eyes as tears and water poured down her cheeks.  “Willow… try…” Dawn said.

                Willow looked at Dawn, her lips pouting as she put her hand to Dawn’s face and nodded.  “Ok Dawn… I’ll try it.” Willow confessed.  She glanced at Anya and the awaiting raven then back Giles as she held tight to his gushing stomach would with both her hands.  Her eyes glared off into space, “Rivers shall flow, be pure and crystalline. But red rivers must not, they must be trapped inside my being, this river so red must be stopped with a golden net stop. Now stop this bleed.” Willow chanted.  As she stopped the chant, she removed her hands to see the blood had stopped flowing from the wound. 

                Dawn cheered as she grabbed onto Willow and Anya clapped a few times with joy.  Willow pushed Dawn away slightly, “No, no he’s not automatically fixed Dawn.  We need to get him to a hospital, and fast!” Willow stated.  She looked at the awaiting raven once more with her black eyes and the raven opened up its wings.  The four once again turned into the white energy, which the raven scooped up and soared off into the sky with, into the darkness of the heavens.

 

 

                Animosity filled the sewage plant as the clan returned from their outing.  Blaine stormed out of the Carr Avenue tunnel and toward his sarcophagus as Helious and Bella went after him.  He felt them coming after him yet he kept going; he really didn’t feel like being bitched at again, not after another loss in his search for the Book of Rathon Mah.  “You two just stop where you are!  I’m not in the mood to fight with either of you…” Blaine stated as he kept on walking.

Helious wrapped his fingers around Blaine’s bicep suddenly, throwing the vampire backwards onto the freezing cement.  “You screwed us over again Blaine!  You let the only liable source of information we had burn to death without any logical explanation!  I won’t let you get away from this one, no way in hell Blaine!  You got away with killing us all in London but this time I’m going to say something!” Helious shouted.

Blaine pitched his head toward the angry Helious with his own anger, “Oh BIG mistake pal, and trust me this is one you won’t forget!”

                Blaine vanished from Helious’ view, throwing Helious into a fretful state of mind.  Helious swung his body around, searching for Blaine as he felt the vampire’s quick speed blow past him in every direction.  As the game of smoke and mirrors commenced, Bella folded her arms across her chest in boredom.  “Kill him Blaine and get it over with…” she sighed.

                He appeared finally, delivering a powerful uppercut to Helious, sending the vampire into the air.  Helious screamed out at Blaine as he fell from the balcony and toward the surging pools of sewage and treatment machines a good fifty-five feet below.  He waved around his arms franticly, finally grabbing onto a few pipes on the wall.  Blaine didn’t even care to watch Helious as he could have plummeted to either his death or to a very painful experience.  His ears could detect Helious beginning to make his way back up; Blaine smiled at the thought of a second round.  He walked toward Bella as she glared at him in a loathing manner, “It wasn’t his fault you’re such an arrogant leader Blaine… arrogant and down right stupid…”

                Blaine rolled his eyes, “I may be all that and more Bella, but I am still the leader here!”

                Bella turned to see Valentine and Lill enter the lair from a far off hallway to her right, she sneered at the lazy vampires but couldn’t bare to do anything more.  She returned her hate filled eyes back upon Blaine as Helious fell over the side of the balcony and back onto the cement.  Bella laughed as she raised her dainty hand to extend her index finger with a wicked grin, “He’s back.”

                Blaine rotated his stance to watch Helious stand there on the balcony, his eyes burning with resentment.  Blaine sighed as he waved Helious forward, “Come on…”

                Helious snarled as his demonic face showed itself, the vampire shifted from view and returned in seconds’ time right infront of Blaine.  Blaine swung his right fist at Helious, but the vampire ducked and returned an uppercut back to Blaine.  Not even allowing Blaine to fly up into the air, Helious leapt up into the air and stomped onto his leader.  Blaine’s head snapped back from the blow, smashing against the concrete with a numbing pain.  Blaine shook off any dazed feelings from the blow as Helious roared, sinking his fangs deep into Blaine’s neck.  Blaine let out a howl of pain, digging his sharp vampire nails into the sides of Helious’ head as Helious tore at Blaine’s neck with his fangs.  The pain of the digging nails threw Helious back in agony, allowing Blaine to get the upper hand.  Blaine rolled onto his back; with both his feet he kicked Helious away from him.

                Helious slammed and rolled onto the concrete floor; coming to a stop the vampire just laid there for a moment, dazed and confused.  Blaine got back to his feet, looking at Helious emotionlessly to see if the vampire would attack once more.  Blaine wiped away the blood gushing from the teeth holes in his throat as he sighed, “Truce?”

                Helious raised his head to give a look at Blaine, still trying to recover from the harsh fall.  Helious’ vampiric features melted away into his human face as he got to his feet, wiping away the dust and blood off his heavy leather coat.  Blood trickled down in neat little lines out of the deep scratches on the sides of his head, but Helious didn’t seem to notice.  He let out a sigh himself, “We can’t beat eachother… truce…”

                Blaine nodded in acceptance as Lill and Valentine approached them all.  Lill glanced at the testosterone filled vampires in disgust, “Grow up you two!” she exclaimed.

                Helious kept his eyes locked on Blaine as he addressed Lill, “It’s not that easy Lillian… our leader here, once again, has put a damper on our plans.”

                Lill’s eyes widened in shock, she turned to look at Blaine in clear amazement.  “Again?  There was another set back?” Lill asked.

                Blaine moaned in boredom of the constant nit picking of his failing plans, “I had nothing to do with it this time, it was all the witch!  She released some animal spirit or something,” Blaine explained poorly.

                Bella scoffed, “Yes and you did what Blaine?  Ah yes, that’s right… you burned the place down and with it went the Watcher!”

                Blaine turned and snarled at Bella, “He didn’t know anything, even Helious knows that is true!”

                Helious nodded in remembrance, “It’s right, he did not know the whereabouts of the book… but we still could have used him… the council…”

                Blaine interrupted Helious with a horrified look; “We do not bring the council into this search!  Do you hear me Helious?  Or do I have to beat your head in some more?”

                Helious stepped forward, but Valentine grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him back.  Helious looked back at Valentine then at Blaine in anger, “The council is our last bet Blaine.  You know it, I know it, and we all know it.  Now if only you’d get it through your head that we need their knowledge, we could raise this Thamogron and get on with our immortal lives!”  Helious stormed off, leaving Blaine a bit lost for words.

 

 

                Sick the smell was, Xander realized he was about to vomit from the sickening smell of cleanliness of the Emergency Room’s waiting area.  He missed the good old waiting lobbies of the higher levels of the hospital, the ones where there wasn’t so many sick people around.  Xander checked his watch again; only a minute had passed since he checked it last.  He let out a groan of the impatient kind as his foot tapped the floor uncontrollably.  Buffy had been in with the doctor for over twenty minutes now, usually around five a nurse would come out to say something, but not this time.  It made Xander worry, and that made him more impatient then ever.

                Xander looked at his watch again, it hadn’t even moved since the last time he had checked.  Desperately and almost in complete despair, he turned to check the clock hanging over the automatic sliding doors.  His brown eyes retreated behind the safety of Xander’s eyelids as a blindingly white flash of light shone from the doors.  Xander reached up and rubbed his eyes wildly, tears streaming down his cheeks while Willow entered with Dawn, Anya and a still wounded Giles.  “Need some help please!” Willow shouted out.

                Xander’s eyes widened as the last tears began to fall, “Willow?  Oh god, Giles!” he exclaimed, seeing the dried bloody shirt.

                Two nurses quickly grabbed Giles away from Dawn and Willow as Anya ran into Xander’s welcoming arms.  To his surprise, Anya was sobbing.  Xander rested his head against Anya’s as he rubbed her back, trying to bring some comfort to her.  “Shhh… it’s ok Anya, it’s ok.” Xander kept repeating, fully aware of its failure to work.

                Anya held onto Xander as she cried, “It-it was horrible Xander.  They were going to kill Giles, they were going to kill all of us!  If-if-if it wasn’t for Willow… we wouldn’t be here!” Anya bawled, pressing her face into Xander’s chest.

                Xander glanced at Willow as the nurses took Giles off in a wheelchair; she glanced back sadly as she helped Dawn take a seat in the blue plastic chairs.  Trying to calm Anya down more, Xander pushed Anya away to look into her running eyes.  “Anya, it’s ok.  You’re all fine now, they didn’t hurt you.” Xander told her.

                Anya nodded, “But, but they could have!  They hurt Giles, oh god Giles… oh god the store!  Xander they set fire to the store!”  Anya began crying harder at the realization of the burnt store. 

                Xander grabbed Anya and hugged her once more, “Anya I’m sure the shop can be repaired…”

                Dawn wiped away her tears and put on her resolve face as she got up and went to Anya.  “Anya, come on let’s go get some fresh air to help calm you down…” Dawn offered.

                Anya smiled while the tears still rolled down her cheeks, “Okay… that sounds somewhat like a good idea…” she said.  Dawn gave Anya a polite smile in return as she led her toward the automatic sliding doors.

                Xander grabbed onto the sides of his head while he let out a sigh of frustration, “These guys are SO going to pay now…”

                Willow sighed, “They will Xander… they aren’t that powerful or intelligent for that matter.  We can beat them.”  Willow smiled at Xander, “We have to.”

                Xander rolled his eyes as he sat down next to Willow, sinking into his seat as he did.  “Buffy…” he tried to say, but Willow snapped out of her calm mood into wild worry at the mention of Buffy.

                Her eyes blazed with fear, “Buffy?  Oh god, that’s not why you’re here is it?  You didn’t… she isn’t… oh no…”  The automatic doors slid open to allow the raven into the hospital, it flapped its wings as its feet grabbed onto the arm of the chair next to Willow.  Willow gasped in realization that she forgot to let the raven leave.  “Oh, sorry.  Go in peace and return to your sphere of origin, O Spirit STOLAS by the authority of the True God, I command thee to harm none as you depart, and to be ready to come quickly if called upon again.” Willow chanted, her eyes returning to normal finally.  The large black bird faded from sight, while Willow returned her attention to Xander.

                He took a breath, “Yes, Willow.  I’m here because I found her near the Bronze, something set loose a big swarm of demonic killer bees on her.”

                “Is she all right?” Willow asked, her body shaking from her extreme nervousness.

                Xander shrugged, “I don’t know, no ones been out here yet to tell me anything!  When I found her she was out cold, I don’t know if it was Blaine or that girl…”

                Willow’s face distorted in confusion, “Girl?  What girl?” Willow asked loudly.

                Xander put a hand on Willow’s shaking, white hands while his face softened as Willow looked into his eyes.  “Calm down Willow, she’ll be fine…” he said with a sad tone of voice.  Willow nodded as a single tear rolled down her cheek, Xander wiped it away before the tear made it to her chin.  “And as for this girl… she’s the singer of a new band called Desdemona.  She was near Buffy when I drove up, her hand was glowing blue like she was doing a spell, but I stopped her.  Or well, I might have gotten there just as she was finished…” Xander trailed off.

                Willow grabbed Xander’s hand this time as they met eyes, “You stopped her, I’m sure you got there just in time.”

                A nurse approached Willow and Xander now, the two pulled back their hands as the nurse came up to them.  She was middle-aged with graying brown hair and caked make-up on her face to hide her wrinkles.  The nurse took a breath, “You brought in the girl I was told?”  Xander gave her a quick yet nervous nod as the nurse continued, “And you brought in the man with the stab wound, correct?”  Willow nodded, her hand grabbing Xander’s hand once more as they awaited the news.  The nurse took another breath, “The girl’s fine, she’s just coming to now.  We pumped her system full of anti-venoms and other medicines common in severe bee stings.  But the man…”  Xander and Willow’s smiles from the good news on Buffy faded off, dropping into horrified grimaces.  The nurse sighed, “The bleeding stopped but his large intestine, or colon, was damaged severely.  I can’t understand why the blood stopped exiting the wound, but it must be an act of God because it saved his life.  He’ll be going in for surgery to repair his colon within the next hour or two, but I can’t allow visitors for him yet.  The girl on the other hand can take visitors, but not too many.”

                Willow let loose a sigh of relief as Xander stood up to shake the nurses hand, but instead found himself hugging the old nurse with great joy.  He let her go and backed away confusedly, “Uh, thanks.  Thank you very much!” Xander exclaimed.

                The nurse smiled with her eyebrow cocked at Xander as she turned away and back into the busy Emergency Room.  Xander shrugged off the awkward moment as he turned to Willow anxiously, “Oh man, thank god they’re all right!  For a minute there…”

                Willow laughed, “Yeah I know… and she said Buffy was awake.  That’s always a good sign of recovery.”

                “Exactly, and hey Will you can go see her, y’know.  I need to go check in on Anya anyway, so you go ahead.” Xander stated.

                Willow’s eyes widened in shock, “Really?  I mean, I could go check on Anya for you.”

                Xander shook his head, “Na, time for me to be the boyfriend.  You go see Buffy, tell her we’re all out here for her and everyone’s ok, ok?”

                Willow smiled, “Of course, I would never leave out the support line.”

 

 

                The insistently annoying bleep of the EKG machine kept Buffy from falling back into the nothingness of sleep.  She pulled the sterile bed sheets over her body, the movement straining her still aching body.  The poison hadn’t killed her, but it rid her of all energy.  She even dreaded breathing as a few of the Vargos needles had hit her in the chest, creating a painful soreness there.  Buffy sighed, she wanted out of her prison there in the ER and she wanted to find Blaine.  Find him and drive the splintery point of a stake into his evil, undead heart.

                Like a veil, the restless feelings within Buffy lifted from her as she caught sight of Willow entering the door.  She propped herself up as Willow entered her small cubicle of the room.  Willow grabbed a stool and pulled it toward Buffy’s bed, making the curtain dividers sway as she passed by.  Willow’s face brightened as she saw Buffy smile at her, “Hey…”

                Buffy’s mood brightened as well, her revenge-seeking urge taking the back burner as she rejoiced Willow was there with her.  “Hey Will… what brings you here?” Buffy asked jokingly, brushing back her hair to limit the look of death she knew she had.  Willow sighed, lowering her head to try to shield herself from Buffy’s emotions.  Buffy came into realizing that Willow wasn’t just there to see her, she now knew Willow was at the hospital for some other reason.  “Oh, no Willow… what’s the matter, why are you here?”

                Willow sighed, “The Magic Box, it was attacked.  We had to bring Giles here…”

                Buffy gasped, a pain in her chest threw her off guard, the pain of worry.  “Is he ok?  Are you ok?  What happened!”

                Willow put a hand on Buffy’s arm and narrowed her gaze into Buffy’s worrying and fearful eyes.  “We’re all fine, and by all I mean Giles.  He put up the usual resistance to Blaine and his thugs… they didn’t get anything for their troubles.  And Giles is going into surgery in about an hour, the nurse said he would be fine.” Willow assured Buffy.  Buffy let loose a mixed sigh; half of relief and half of frustration as the news of Blaine’s latest attack sunk into her mind.  Willow cleared her throat, “What about you?  What happened to you Buffy?”

                “Blaine, it was Blaine.  I don’t know what happened!  He came out of nowhere and well, he brought some friends.”  Buffy stated weakly.

                “By friends, do you mean a girl?  Because Xander…” Willow attempted to say, but Buffy’s eyes widened in horror.  “Buffy?  Are you ok?”

                Buffy shook her head, her eyes appearing to grow larger then her sockets as her mind replayed the events of the alleyway.  “She saved me… that girl saved me from them… she killed the demons.  I don’t know how, I don’t even remember her, but I remember feeling her there.  She was there and she saved me…” Buffy gasped.

                Willow looked puzzeledly at Buffy, “Well thank God she was there, she saved your life!”

                Buffy nodded slightly as she pulled her arm away from Willow’s touch to inspect her many tubes running from her hands.  One was the IV she knew was near by, the other must have been the anti-venom that was being fed to her system.  It sickened her to see the tubing going into her flesh, so Buffy looked away and back to Willow.  “They said I could go home tomorrow”, Buffy stated.  “But I’ve got to stay here over night tonight…”

                Willow nodded, “Its just to be safe Buffy.  Whatever attacked you was very poisonous, they need to be certain all of it is out of your system before they release you I guess.”  Buffy turned away from Willow, her thoughts overcoming her and making her fear.  Willow’s face contorted with worry as she watched Buffy express her fear, “I can say here if you want…”

                “No!” Buffy exclaimed, startling Willow.  Buffy took a breath to calm herself, “No Willow, you can’t.  I need you to protect Dawn, can you please take her home with you tonight?”

                Willow’s eyes lit up in surprise, “Oh… oh yeah, sure!  But isn’t she staying at Xander’s…?”

                Buffy nodded, “Yeah but I’d feel better if she was with you and Tara.  Xander’s strong and Anya’s… Anya, but you and Tara are powerful with your magic.  Dawn is better off with you if Blaine makes a move again.”

                “Ok, I’ll just get Xander to take us to his apartment to get Dawn’s stuff and then we’ll go to the campus.  But what about you?  I mean, what if Blaine decides to finish his work?”  Willow asked.

                Buffy shook her head as she pulled the sheets closer to her face.  “He’s too vicious to come and finish me off when I’m still weak.  The guy is a lunatic, he’ll want a good fight if it’s to be my last.  And besides… he wants me dead too much to do it while it’s so easy.”  Buffy stated solemnly.  She yawned suddenly, a slight squeal escaping her as she did.

                Willow smiled as she got to her feet and leaned over toward Buffy.  Willow planted a gentle kiss on Buffy’s forehead as she made a move toward the door, “I’ll let you get some sleep… but I’ll be by tomorrow with Dawn, ok?”

                Buffy accepted the plan, “All right, and Will… thank you, for everything… I know…”

                Willow interrupted by putting her index finger against her pink lips.  She  pulled the finger away as she opened the door, “We’re family Buffy… family takes care of family…”  With that, Willow exited the poorly lit room leaving Buffy with a smile on her face.  She closed her eyes quickly, snuggling up against her crunchy sounding pillow as the exhaustion of the night’s events overcame her.  But something stirred in her mind, something that began a chain reaction in Buffy.  It was a dream.

 

 

Total blackness, which was all Buffy saw as her eyes still rested behind her beautiful eyelids.  She felt the warmth of the newly risen sun on her legs, they must have been out of the covers she guessed.  Taking charge, Buffy forced herself to wake up from her peaceful sleep.  She yawned while her eyes caught sight of her cheery roommate as she grabbed her books for the day.  Buffy realized she was inside her dorm room.  She sighed, “Another day on the job…”

                Nicole giggled at Buffy, “But you know you don’t have one… you got your wish.”

Buffy cocked an eyebrow at Nicole as the girl began searching for something in her dresser.  “What do you mean?”

Nicole came toward Buffy and grabbed her pillow, causing Buffy to look at her very strangely.  Nicole withdrew a rather large pale brown leather bound book from under her pillow and titled “Book of Rathon Mah”.  Buffy did another double take, “I didn’t know I had that…” she trailed off, lost in thought.

                Nicole laughed, “We all have things we don’t know we have.  Those tend to be the worst surprises of all.”  Nicole flashed a smile at Buffy and cheerfully danced out of the room, leaving Buffy in her bed totally astounded at her current situation.  “Weird…” she stated.

 

 

                The door slammed shut behind her, slightly giving Buffy a jump as she adjusted her arm full of books.  She took a quick breath as she entered the rushing traffic of students making their way down the hallway.  Buffy kept her eyes low as usual as she made her way toward the staircase leading downstairs.  She glanced up to see a student next to her, one of the cheery girls Nicole had some sort of relationship with.  Buffy didn’t give her a second look as she kept going, but something struck her as odd.  The girl, she was… pale.  Buffy turned around and gasped, the hallway darkened as the students stood still in their vampire glory. 

                Her instincts kicked in but Buffy couldn’t do anything about the vampire students, she was trapped within her own schedule.  Buffy turned around and walked down the hallway once more, but she noticed the vampires walked in complete unison with her.  She stopped, turning around again to look at the fiends behind her.  They didn’t even look at her like a usual meal, more they looked at her with extreme dignity.  It gave Buffy the creeps as she sighed, “Look, stop following me!”

                The once cheery girl Buffy noticed first looked at Buffy with a face as hard as stone, “Then we won’t have anyone else to follow.”

                Buffy cocked an eyebrow and quickly turned around.  “Weird…” she said again, picking up her pace and running for the staircase with the vampires behind her.

 

 

                Bursting through the doorway, Buffy found herself in the Magic Box among many shoppers.  She looked at them, they were all human.  Letting loose sigh of relief, Buffy went on forward to find her friends.  Anya was at the counter, placing a magical trinket inside a bag.  She handed it to a small boy with deep blonde hair and brilliantly blue eyes.  “Good luck raising your Champion, please go.” Anya stated bluntly yet with a sense of joy.

                The boy left the store quickly and passed by Buffy, she turned to come face to face with her old rival, Glory.  Buffy gasped, “Run Dawn!” as Glory just looked at Buffy in confusion.

                Dawn got up from the table where Willow and Tara helped her with her Algebra 2 homework.  “Uh, Buffy?” she asked.

                Buffy turned around to face Dawn, horrified by her not running; she returned her gaze to deliver Glory a blow but stopped when she saw only the boy infront of her.  He just shrugged coldly at Buffy, returning his attention to leaving the jam-packed store.  Buffy shook her head, “Weird…”

                Giles came rushing out of the back room with a box of crosses and stakes, “Here we are!” he exclaimed.  The hoard of customers ran and gathered the items by the arm full as Anya cheered in delight.  Giles wiped his brow with a smile as the customers began purchasing the goods, “All stakes and cross at a ten percent price deduction during our Extinction sale!”  Giles caught sight of Buffy and leapt over the counter to get to her, “Oh excuse me, but we don’t allow your kind in here.” Giles snapped at Buffy politely.  

                Buffy looked at Giles like he was crazy, “Uh… are you feeling all right Giles?”

                Giles sighed and threw up his arms toward Buffy, “Do whatever you like miss… just don’t start trouble here.”

                Buffy took a step forward, hoping to provoke Giles into explaining why he was acting so strangely.  “Why do you keep calling me miss?”

                Giles scoffed, “Well if I knew your name then I’d call you by that!” he exclaimed.

                “But you do know my name… my name is Buffy… Giles what’s going on?” she concernedly asked.

                “I’m sorry… I don’t know you…” Giles stated.  “Oh, we’re running out of garlic!  Excuse me…” Giles said, running off back into the back room wildly, clearly having a hard time with the sale.

                Buffy slowly made her way toward the table where Tara, Dawn and Willow sat working hard on the problem at hand.  She sat down with them, “So, how’s the homework going guys?”

                Willow looked up at her with her usual smile, but as she tried to speak not a sound came out.  Buffy moved back in her chair, fearfully watching Willow’s mutely tell her something and then go back to helping Dawn.  Dawn said something to Willow, and she was also mute.  Buffy got to her feet in horror as she turned around quickly.  The customers were gone and Anya was the only one left as she sat there counting the money in a funeral dress.  Buffy approached the crying Anya as her black veil barely covered her sobbing face.  Anya looked up at Buffy; “I’m a widow… now some young, hot, hunky boy is going to marry me because of my money and fragile emotional state…” Buffy moved slowly away from Anya as she went back to counting the money.

 

 

                Buffy backed up and into a gravestone as the morning sun shined down on her in the cemetery.  She turned around to see the beautiful surroundings, it hit her that she had never really seen the cemetery in the morning sunlight in a long time.  Buffy began walking through the rows and rows of gravestones, apparently on a course she was planning in her head.  “The sun is bright today…” a British voice called out to Buffy from behind.  She turned around and caught sight of Spike in the shadow of his crypt, but he moved out of the shadows and into the direct sunlight.  His bleach blonde hair slicked back like usual, but his wardrobe of leather changed to a white T-shirt and jeans.

                “It is bright every day…” Buffy said, her head shaking as she did.  Spike approached her with a wicked grin, something was wrong with him she thought.

                “All us vamps now can walk in your human daylight… its Extinction now Slayer…” Spike stated.

                “What is this Extinction?” Buffy asked, folding her arms across her chest.

                Spike laughed at her as he walked forward, “You’re just so comical Slayer, what is Extinction?  Ha… bloody brilliant stuff, is stand up your second profession?  Oh wait… you quit your first…”

                Buffy began walking with Spike as they made their way through the cemetery.  “I quit?” Buffy asked him.

                Spike sighed, “Ok, the dumb blonde routine was funny the first time… now it’s just getting old now…”

                Buffy shook her head, “The blood on the sky… does it make you hungry?”

                Spike’s vampire face protruded and he sank his teeth into Buffy’s neck as she just stood there.  She pushed him off slightly, as if annoyed.  “Cool down Big Bad…” she warned.

                “Ah yeah, sorry…” he said like he wasn’t aware of what he was doing.  The two kept walking through the cemetery as Buffy caught sight of something infront of her and locked her gaze onto it.  Spike sighed, “He controls me… but my emotions are still there.  I would never hurt you if I could help it… the bloody chip in my head doesn’t stop shocking me just because he says I can kill.”

                Buffy nodded, “It’s just his will that I die...” Spike laughed as the two approached what Buffy was looking for.

She dropped to her knees on the wet grass as night fell on the cemetery suddenly.  Buffy turned back, Spike was gone and she was finally alone.  She sighed and returned her gaze to the gravestone infront of her.  Buffy put a hand on it as she knelt there on the grass.  The gravestone read Joyce Summers, and only gave her year of birth 1958 and no year of death.  Buffy’s face dropped as a tear began making its way down her cheek.

 

 

                The demonic voice of Desdemona’s lead singer brought Buffy back into focus as she rose to her feet in the middle of an empty dance floor.  Buffy looked around her, no one was there dancing and yet the weird band kept playing their insane music.  She began walking toward the exit when Desdemona shifted gears, the song “Wild Horses” by The Sundays being played.  Buffy turned around and caught sight of The Sundays on the stage softly playing their love-type song.  A feeling caught Buffy by the heart, he was there in the room.  Angel was there.

                Buffy turned around and was caught by the welcoming arms of Angel, instantly taken into a slow dance with him.  It was Prom all over again, and this time Buffy wouldn’t let it end.  She rested her head up against his shoulder and let loose a calming sigh, “I missed you…”

                Angel smiled as the two looked up into eachother’s eyes, “Same here… Buff.”  The words, they were the words of the evil Angelus.  Buffy moved back just as Angel’s vampire form appeared before her.  She tried to run, but found Angelus standing in back of her now.  Buffy threw a punch but Angelus caught the punch in his vice-like grip and snapped her wrist all the way back.  Buffy screamed in agony as Angelus kicked her down to the cold dance floor.  The pain pulsed through her entire body, as she lay there on the dance floor, unable to get up.  Angelus laughed in his usual wicked giggle type laughter, “Oh man Buff, it’s just been so hard without you.  I mean… there was no one that could take me on in LA.”  Angelus suddenly appeared infront of Buffy as he picked her up by her broken wrist and held her in his arms.  She punched and kicked the vampire as hard as she could, which would usually cripple him but this time found it had no effect on him.  Angelus laughed again, “Come to think of it… no one can take me on here either…” 

                He continued laughing as he let out a roar, Angelus leaned to puncture Buffy’s neck only to rear back in pain.  He let Buffy drop to the dance floor once more as his body exploded into dust, dropping a set of pearl white bones onto the floor.  Along with the bones was a sharpened cross, which Buffy looked at in confusion.  A figure stirred from the darkness that surrounded the dance floor as The Sundays disappeared from the stage.  “Are you all right?” a guy called to Buffy in a slight Italian accent.

                Buffy looked toward the shadowy figure, “Five by five…”

 

 

                Buffy rose off the floor to find herself in a giant castle-like place, some place she felt oddly comfortable in.  She was in a type of throne room, the walls bled like they were alive as she examined the room carefully.  “I know this place…” she said surely.  Buffy went closer to a giant “throne” in the middle of the gray stone block room, it was made complete out of obsidian in unbelievable figures.  The “throne” depicted the raising of a giant figure, in which Buffy could only tell was witnessed by someone.  She moved to the next carving on the chair, and she realized the carvings were actually hieroglyphics.  Buffy moved her fingers along the carvings as she read them in her head.

A priest of the Pharaoh killed the witness to the crime of raising the giant figure, which was probably a demon she thought.  The priest attempted a curse that was depicted to keep the dead from talking in the afterlife, but it went horribly wrong.  The witness was transformed into a living plague, someone who’s own soul was made up of evil, pure and untainted by human or demon evils.  The plague lifted from the dead witness and took over the priest, taking with it all the priest’s knowledge.  To keep the plague from spreading, the bodyguards to the priest sealed the tomb of the witness and buried it into the sands.

                “I was wrong…” the words of Genocide invaded Buffy’s mind as she read.  Buffy turned around to face Genocide there, her heart raced at the sight of the demigod.

                She shook her head, “I don’t understand… there must be a cure to the plague…”

                Genocide bowed his head in regret, “The plague can only be cured by another like it…”

                Buffy lowered her head, trying to take in the unbelievable things she just witnessed in the carvings.  She raised her head to confront Genocide but let out a gasp of great fear.  Her body shook uncontrollably as tears began to fall from her wide and terrified eyes.  Buffy’s lips trembled as she tried to make out a word but could not.  Infront of her stood a tall, strong built man with wild blonde hair and swirling black eyes.  His tight black leather attire complemented his pale skin as he stood there, staring back at the fearful Buffy.  His lips parted to reveal two long, milky white fangs as he prepared to speak.  “Buffy…”

                Buffy swallowed hard as she witnessed her body shaking violently now, the fear causing her to almost seizure there before the evil looking man.  Buffy’s lips parted, exposing her drying, cracking lips as the moisture left them in her moment of fear.  She finally spoke, “Thamogron…”

 

 

                Tick, tick went the clock hung over the door to the room.  The red second hand quickly ticked its way to the twelve; it was now four in the morning.  Sweat poured from Buffy’s body as she twisted in anguish within the white bed sheets.  The EKG machine bleeped on as the door to the room opened silently.  Buffy let out a moan, her head shaking as the dream kept on within her head.  The lights of the ER cubicle were all out, but as the large wooden door slowly opened the light from the hallway splashed into the darkness surrounding Buffy.  A figure entered the room as the dreams surged on, throwing Buffy back and forth on her bed.  In its hand, a syringes needle reflected the artificial light as the figure made its way toward Buffy.  The figure reached for Buffy with its free hand, but the dreams faded from Buffy’s mind, releasing her back into reality in complete shock.

“Uh… no!” she exclaimed, rising up from the sheets screaming at the top of her lungs.  Her eyes caught sight of the figure as it leapt forward, plunging the needle into her arm.  She screamed out, but the figure elbowed her on the top of the head.  The blow sent Buffy back into dream world as the figure pressed down on the syringe, injecting Buffy with something.  Buffy moaned once more as her slumbering body went limp in her sheets, giving in to whatever was given to her.  Its job done, the figure turned around toward the exit and began making its way to the door.  Grabbing the side of the wooden door, the figure slowly and quietly shut the door behind it. 

 

 

                “Oh god…” Buffy groaned as she tried to sit up in her hospital bed.  Her hand held fast to her bruised forehead as she examined her surroundings, making sure she was no longer dreaming.  A sigh escaped her as she realized she was back in the hospital, and by the lights already on it was day.  Buffy’s eyes hurt as she moved them around in their sockets, “Must have slept wrong…” she stated.  The EKG machine still kept up its annoying bleep as Buffy took a quick glance at it with a groan, “Couldn’t you shut up for one minute?  Think I even heard you in my sleep!” she complained.  Her eyes slowly moved to the clock above the door; it was already noon, almost one.  Man, she thought, I slept really late.

                Buffy tried getting up, but a quick dizzy spell shot that idea to hell.  She fell back into her bed with a combination yawn and groan; she already wasn’t having a good day.  The faint sound of footsteps seemed to fill Buffy’s ears as her mind filled itself with fear.  She didn’t know where it was coming from, this new fear.  The footsteps grew louder, and with it grew her fear to the point where Buffy almost began hyperventilating as someone grabbed the door’s handle.  She scrambled backward as the door opened, a memory seemed to break loose in her head but quickly recede to normal déjà vu.  Buffy let loose a sigh of relief as Dawn, Willow and Tara entered the room.

                Willow smiled at Buffy, “Wake up sleepy head… time to go home.” Willow stated.

                Buffy leaned over the side of her bed as Dawn came up to give her big sister a hug.  Buffy grinned as she held Dawn, another memory seemed to seep through her mind as she did.  Dawn stepped back and looked at Buffy in shock, “Oh my god, your head!  Willow, her head!” Dawn exclaimed.

                Willow gasped, “Buffy what happened to you!”  Willow came closer as Tara stood at the end of the bed in horror.

                Buffy glanced at them all as they looked at her in such surprise, “What?  What’s wrong with my head?”

                Tara quickly dropped her purse onto the bed and clumsily withdrew a compact.  She tossed it to Willow, still keeping her eyes on Buffy.  Willow opened the compact and handed it to Buffy silently; Buffy caught sight of what they had been gasping at, a giant purplish red bruise stretching from her eyebrows and a little ways into her hairline.  Buffy rolled her eyes and handed the compact back to Willow, “Big deal… man, I really thought my nose was missing or something.”

                Willow shook her head in confusion, “But you didn’t have that when I talked to you last night!” 

                Buffy shrugged, “Well I must have hit my head when I fell near the Bronze… it might have taken awhile for the bruise to surface.  I don’t know Willow, but it really is nothing.”

                Willow sighed as Dawn began checking the machines around Buffy, “Well the nurse is going to come and de-machine you soon.” 

                Buffy nodded and turned to Dawn, “Don’t touch anything!” she snapped, making Dawn step back away from the machines.  Buffy turned her attention to her hands, the tubes were gone.  “Huh…” she trailed off.

                “Huh?  Huh what?” Willow asked, looking at Buffy’s hands along with her.

                “The tubes… they’re gone.  And I don’t remember them coming in to take them off…”

                “Well, I guess they came in while you were sleeping, I mean they probably tried to wait for you to wake up but you’ve been out of it for so long… guess they got tired of waiting.” Willow stated.

                “Ya Buffy… I’d say that’s the best bet, they probably did come and you were still sleeping…” Tara added.

                Buffy nodded, “Okay I guess you’re right, but I wish I could have been awake when they came.  I’m starving.”

                Dawn butted in, “Oh, I can go down to the cafeteria and get you some breakfast.  Or well, lunch now…”

                Buffy turned to Dawn with a smile, “Scratch the cafeteria and get me something junky from the vending machine down the hall, ok?”

                Dawn nodded and quickly exited the room as Willow patted Buffy on the shoulder, getting her to sit up.  Buffy groaned and sat up as Willow adjusted her pillows, making it more comfortable for Buffy to be elevated in her bed.  Willow flashed Buffy her usual dopey smile, “So how did you sleep last night in this place?”

                Buffy’s face grew pale, her jaw almost dropping as she drew a blank.  “I don’t remember…”

               

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