Creative Works   

The Return (Page 7)
By Little Slayer
little_slayer(at)hotmail.com

Disclaimer: I don’t own him! Uh, her. Or Buffy, Angel, Giles, Willow, Joyce, and everyone else. They’re all in here. I don’t own Angel’s nickname of Peaches. The only thing I own is Mya. She’s mine. I created her. And so I can easily destroy the skanky little…uh, oops. All the Buffyverse people belong to Joss Whedon and anyone else who legally owns them. Anybody who has been either A) mentioned on BtVS, or B) seen on BtVS, I don’t own. I do own a few people but am too tired to name them.

. . .

Chapter Seven, The Preparations

“Buffy?” Drusilla asked. Buffy’s eyes glazed over as a side effect of the spell that had been done on her and she looked almost through Drusilla. “Buffy, you need to stay awake.”

“I’m awake,” she mumbled. Angel walked in the room and sat down on the edge of her bed. “Hi Angel,” Buffy greeted.

“How did you know it was me?” Angel asked. Buffy smiled.

“Spend three hundred years with someone, and you’ll know every detail of them,” she muttered. “Besides, it’s in the eyes.” Angel moved closer to Buffy then motioned for Drusilla to leave the room. “Buffy,” he started and took her hand. “They’ve figured out a way to take away the spell. But, it means…they’re going to…what I’m trying to say is…”

“Angel, spit it out,” Buffy said with a raised eyebrow. The sweatshirt that Dru gave her to wear covered her chest and hid the split skin. With a lot of patience, Buffy was able to keep herself awake and help stop the bleeding. She still felt a bit woozy though.

“The ritual is going to bind Angelus to you for as long as he lives,” Angel murmured. At Buffy’s questioning look, he continued. “If you die, which you won’t, he dies. If he dies, you go on with your life.”

“We’ve already made a pact like that, in hell,” Buffy told him quietly. Angel suppressed the urge to question how close Buffy was with his alter ego. Something told him he didn’t want to know. It wasn’t like Buffy to sleep with someone else after proclaiming her love to him, but it was like Angelus. “Angel?”

“I know,” Angel said, withdrawing from his thoughts. “But this will just help to keep your mind free of these types of spells…in the future.”

“I know it will, but I’m so tired,” Buffy said. “We need to get this done now, because we don’t know when Kelvin will strike. I don’t want to be in bed when that happens.” Her eyes met his and all he could do was nod. “Angel, I’m scared. What if I’m not better by then? What if…they should’ve left me there in hell.”

“No, don’t say that,” Angel protested. “You’ll be better by then. I know it. And we’ll win, we always do. I mean, look at our team. Three vampires, a human with the strength of a vampire, the strongest Slayer in history, a Watcher, a witch, a werewolf, and two humans who are good with crossbows. Of all of us, six know magic. And two are psychic. We are going to win.”

“And on the other hand, Mya’s betrayed me before, what if she does it again?” Buffy asked. “What if we’re not enough?”

“Then we’ll know we did everything we could do,” Angel said.

“I can’t accept that. I cannot loose. If I do, we die. If I do, we instantly loose two members of the team, two of the strongest. No matter how skilled everyone else is, we need everyone at full strength.”

“Buffy, try to be positive. You aren’t going to –”

“My dreams were prophetic.”

“What?”

“What happened in them, I know it’s a prophecy,” Buffy said.

“So you’re saying that me and someone else are going to pull you apart, literally?” Angel asked. She sighed and looked away from him.

“No, what I mean, is, someone I know is going to betray me. Again.” They were silent for a moment and Angelus walked into the bedroom.

“Hey, how’s my favorite Slayer?” he asked.

“I’m the only Slayer who you haven’t killed, dumbass,” Buffy retorted. Angel frowned as he saw her attitude change as soon as Angelus entered.

“Details, details,” Angelus muttered with a dismissive wave of his hand. He held up a bowl like a priest would a sacrifice. “I bring you…” He sniffed and frowned. “Chicken noodle soup. Although, I’m not sure if is really chicken. Dru made it.” Buffy raised an eyebrow as their eyes met. Angelus looked out the door. “Uh, Dru?”

“What?” the female vampire called out.

“Are you sure this is…chicken?” Angelus asked.

“Yes!”

“Okay then, I guess we take her word on it,” Angelus said with a smirk and then set the bowl down on the nightstand. “Here you my lady,” he said with a fake English accent.

“Thanks,” Buffy said. She sniffed at the soup and then ate a bite of it. “Not bad.”

“And it’s really chicken?” Angelus asked.

“What is your obsession with it being chicken or not?” Angel asked. Angelus looked at him with a smirk.

“Why do you want to know?” Angelus asked.

“Hey, stop doing whatever you two are doing,” Buffy said.

“They’re competing,” Willow said from the door. The trio looked up at her.

“For what?” Buffy asked.

“You,” Willow told her. She blinked and then chewed on another piece of chicken. “Here, put some of this in it.” Willow walked over and held out a glass container of a clear liquid.

“What is it?” Buffy asked.

“Something that Giles and I put together. We’re hoping it’ll tell us exactly what kind of spell was put on you,” Willow explained.

“And how’s it supposed to do that?” Angelus asked.

“Yeah, it’s not going to turn my skin colors or anything will it?” Buffy asked.

“I’m not sure. All I know is Giles said for you to somehow consume it. So, drink up,” Willow said. Buffy frowned and sniffed the liquid.

“Smells minty,” she said.

“Peppermint extract,” Willow told her. Buffy took a deep breath, opened her mouth, and drank all of the liquid. After she swallowed it, she shuddered and made a face.

“Ick. That’s nasty,” Buffy muttered. Then something occurred to her. Angel and Angelus were competing for her. *Just like in my dream,* she thought. “Oh my god.”

“What?” the others in the room asked.

“Part of my dream, it just came true.” Her eyes met Willow’s and then she sipped at the chicken broth distractedly.

“Oh boy,” Willow said. “What was it?”

“It was…” Buffy stopped and looked between Angel and Angelus. “Just, go get Giles. He should know.” Willow nodded.

“Is there anything in can get you?” Angel asked.

“No, that’s okay. Can you two go in the living room please?” Buffy asked.

“You can’t be left alone. If you loose any more blood…you might not live,” Angelus told her. “We’ll leave as soon as Giles gets in here.” They sat in silence and Buffy slurped up her soup. Giles walked in.

“Willow said part of your dream came true,” Giles said. Buffy nodded and the ‘twins’ left the room.

“Giles, in my dream, Angel is on one side and Angelus on the other. They’re both competing with each other to see who can pull me over,” Buffy said.

“I don’t see the connection,” Giles stated.

“They were just doing that in here before Willow came in here,” Buffy told him. “There’s more. In my dreams, someone warns me that I can’t trust someone I know.”

“Well, it could simply be that the person who put the spell on you knows that you love Angel but have some sort of…relationship with Angelus, so they did that. Also, maybe in warning you about being betrayed, it might be that they are playing with your mind.”

“Well how can we tell who did the spell? I mean, Willow said that when I drank that minty stuff that you’d be able to tell.”

“No, that was only to see what type of spell. I needed to know so I did the right spell.” Buffy nodded then sighed.

“Well, I drank it. Get on with the spell.” Giles nodded and stood up, walking to the door.

“Uh, Drusilla?” he called out into the living room. “Could you bring that paste? She’s drunken the potion and I want to do this as soon as possible.” Drusilla nodded, stood, and walked over to Giles carrying a bowl of blue sandy stuff.

“Oooh, smelly sand,” Buffy commented with a raised eyebrow. “What does it do? You put in on my skin and it says what kind of spell has been put on me?”

“Well, basically, yes,” Giles said. Buffy chuckled and pulled up her sleeve. He took a finger full of the paste and rubbed it on Buffy’s arm. Slowly, as they watched, it turned green then black. “Hmmm, looks like two spells were put on you.”

“It says here that if it’s green then it’s a tracking spell. If it’s black then it’s a dream spell,” Drusilla said. “If it turns two or more colors, then both have been put on.”

“Well, then, we counter-act the spells and everything goes on all happy daisy, right?” Buffy asked.

“I’m not sure if it’s that simple,” Giles said.

“Nothing’s every easy,” Buffy complained.

“Well, no, it’s not that,” Dru started. “Because it’s a dream spell, both you and the one you choose to bond to will have to be asleep. And that could be dangerous for you.” Drusilla skimmed the page. “But…”

“I like buts. Buts are good,” Buffy said.

“It says that if we do the spell right, the wounds from the original person are transferred to the person they bond with.” Drusilla and Buffy both looked at Giles.

“Which means that my wounds will go POOF to Angelus,” Buffy said. “And he can heal much faster than I can.”

“That is, if the sleeping part doesn’t kill you first,” Giles said.

“Well, I’m being optimistic and saying I’m gonna live,” Buffy said. “C’mon, we’ll do this in the living room.” She pushed back the blood stained covers and lowered her legs to the floor. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she frowned. “Boy do I look horrible. Oh well.” They walked into the living room and Buffy situated herself between Oz and Spike. This was going to be a long night.

. . .

Page 7 of 7
To be continued...?

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