Cataluna: Part 4
by Anikka
Disclaimers : Check back to part one for full disclaims and what not



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Part Four

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Cordelia examined her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her hair was perfect, as usual, but her lipstick was a little worn. She reached into the depths of her purse to pull out a cosmetic tube. As she reapplied the make-up, she found her mind wandering.

*Why Xander* she asked herself. I mean, through her normal perspective, Xander Harris was one of the biggest losers in the entire high school. He had the worst fashion sense and he is the biggest dork ever to walk the Hell Mouth and live to be teased about it.

Of course, since Cordelia had learned of the existence of this Hell Mouth, and Vampires, she was beginning to see him in a different light. I mean, Buffy had to fight the demons, because it was a birth right or destiny or something. But Xander and Willow helped her voluntarily. He had saved Cordelia's life on a few occasions. Its not that she wasn't grateful or anything, but he did have a tendency to remind her of those occasions, repeatedly. Which was really annoying.

So why? Why did she find herself in the utility closet with him? It was one of many questions she had been asking herself lately.

As she replaced her lipstick to her purse, the oddest feeling overcame her. It was like she was being watched or something. She looked slowly around the bathroom. There was silence. It was a little too silent.

Suddenly, the door of one of the stalls splintered into a thousand pieces, creating a massive crashing noise. Cordelia screamed. It seemed like the right thing to do. The door had been kicked down. Standing in the splintered remains of the door - was Cataluna herself.

Cordelia started to panic. "Oh my god, oh my god. Y-you ..."

"Yes me - very good Cordelia. You keeps practicing those pronouns," replied Cataluna as she smiled venomously. "Guess what Cordy? I've got a surprise for Buffy," her face changed from a evilly delighted look to dead serious. She reached for her boot and pulled out her knife. Cordelia gasped. She was no good with pressure situations by herself. Where was Buffy when you needed her?

Catherine approached Cordelia, who backed against the wall like a terrified rabbit.

"Relax Cordy - I'm not going to kill you - yet."

Cordelia managed to work up the nerve to say something. "What are you going to do?"

"Oh I'm not going to tell. It's a surprise! But I'll give you a hint : Things are going to get very messy. And when the killing starts, you'll want to be as far away as humanly possible."

Catherine just started laughing madly outloud. Cordelia was glad she was in a bathroom because she was going to wet her pants any minute now. Catherine moved in closer to Cordelia, so she was nose to nose with her.

"You're not going to get away with anything," said Cordy, in a sort of 'mock confidence'

"Oh but that's the beauty of it," Catherine said in a tone you might use to address a small child, "I all ready have. See, there's one thing I have that Callista and Buffy don't."

"Bad breath?" accused Cordelia, turning her nose up.

"No - connections. You see, any minute now, several vampires are going to be ... oh, I'll let you figure it out yourself."

Cataluna turned and looked like she was going to leave for a moment, but then whirled back around and landed a sucker punch right square in Cordelia's face. Cordy slumped down to the ground as a black wave of dizziness overtook her and she passed out.

For extra insurance, Catherine took her knife and suck it through Cordelia's shirt and into the wall, pinning her there.

"If you'll excuse me," she laughed as she left the room.


* * *
Callista was thoroughly confused with the state of affairs in the library. For some unknown cause, Buffy and Willow seemed to really be mad at Xander about something. She decided it was time to investigate.

"Is something going on?" she asked them when Xander was talking to Giles and Angel about something.

"No offense but it's not really your business," said Willow as she sulked.

"Okay fine. But what ever it is I'm sure it's not worth fighting over. I'm not stupid. I can see you two are miffed at him and Cordelia about something."

Buffy and willow exchanged glances that seemed to speak volumes. Buffy caved.

"Well, before you came in here, we caught them kissing," she said quickly.

Callista raised an eyebrow. "That's it? That's what you're so mad about? It's not like it's ..."

Callista was sharply interrupted by an ear-shattering crash, as all of the library windows were smashed at once. Willow screamed. Callista and Buffy took defensive positions as they moved to Giles, Xander, and Angel. Cormerik concealed himself on Giles' desk. Several vampires entered through the windows. Including Spike and Drusilla.

There were several moments of mayhem as books were thrown about, chairs and tables were destroyed, and so on and so forth.

"ENOUGH!" yelled Spike after the library was a total war zone. "Darius," he called. A vampire stepped forward and stood behind Spike. Something was concealed in his hand.

"Kill her," ordered Spike as he waved his hand.

Darius revealed the object as a revolver. He pointed it at Callista and fired several shots. They struck her skull. She dropped to the ground.

"Callista!" gasped Buffy. She raced to her side and attempted to find a pulse. There was none. She looked back at her friends, then over at Spike. "She's dead," she pronounced sullenly.

"If only she were," chimed a familiar voice behind them. It was Catherine. She stood in the library's entrance with a look of pure delight on her face.

"Brittany!" cried Willow, "Oh - I mean Catherine!"

Catherine smiled seductively and moved to Spike and Drusilla's position.

"She's not so pretty now, is she Spike?" exclaimed Dru excitedly.

"Well guys, It's a long time no see, eh?" teased Catherine.

Angel was getting quite pissed off, as was everybody else. "The longer the better," he spat in reply.

"Oh now Angel, I'm hurt," responded Catherine, "I would think you'd all be glad to see me. After all, I am all alone in a strange country, and I need some friends." She began to laugh menacingly.

"Aw man, I can't believe we fell for that foreign exchange student trick," exclaimed Xander, "I should have known something was wrong with you. You liked Curly. I mean, who likes Curly nowadays? Moe is more than just a comic relief."

"Xander ... you are such a twit. Perhaps even more than that Cordelia your so fond of these days," commented Catherine.

Xander stared indignantly at the floor. If there was one thing he hated it was being called stupider than Cordelia.

Buffy watched Callista's still form with a curious eye. Catherine caught her looking. "She's not dead. Well ... she is and she isn't."

"Because you didn't kill her," added Buffy, "She can only die from you, so you had her killed temporarily. If you weren't such a baddy I'd say it was brilliant."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Enough with the small talk," said Spike impatiently, "Here's what's going down. We're taking you captive. If there are any complaints, you can take it up with them." He pointed to some heavily muscled vampires.

"Oh - I have objections," replied Buffy.

"You keep hurting poor Spike," said Drusilla to Buffy as she walked slowly towards her. She had her game face on. "I don't like you. You're a bad girl."

"Look who's talking," responded Buffy.

Spike was starting to get antsy. Far too much talking than he would have liked. "Oh god. JUST GAS THEM!" he ordered.

Willows eyes lit up in panic. "GAS THEM?!" she yelled, "Oh my God, that can't be good."

Darius, the same vampire who had shot Callista, pulled something out of his pocket. It appeared to be a hand grenade. He threw it into the middle of the room.

Buffy and her friends watched in horror as gas seeped out of it's shell and filled the room. They began choking on it as they breathed it in and filled their lungs. It had no effect on the vampires or Catherine. Or Angel.

He couldn't see through the dense cloud that the gas had created. But he heard as one by one, Buffy and her friends fell to the ground. The gas wasn't meant to kill them - just knock them out. Since Angel couldn't even see three feet in front of him, he certainly wasn't going to see the vampire that snuck up behind him. He didn't see the club, or when it came down just before it connected with the back of his skull. Within five minutes, everybody was out of commission.

As the gas cleared, six bodies were in a heap on the floor. Spike surveyed the scene with pride.

"Good job everybody," he announced, "Pick a body and bring it back with you."

Drusilla tugged at Spikes sleeve like a small child. "Spike. When are we going to eat? I'm hungry."

"Soon luv. But first, we're going to get some dinner theater."


* * *
Twenty five minutes later, Cordelia was starting to come around in the bathroom. She groaned as the world of consciousness greeted her with a headache. She tried to stand up, but something was stopping her. Like she was ... stuck to the wall.

"Oh no! This is my favorite sweater!" She cursed Catherine as she attempted to wedge the knife out of the wall. She eventually got it. Cordelia examined the knife-hole in her sweater.

"This was a one of a kind! UH! I am going to kill that bitch!" she exclaimed as she stood up.

A thought dawned on her. Catherine had been at the school. If she was here - that would mean she would more than likely be going after Callista. And Callista was in ...

"The library!" she concluded outloud.

Another thought dawned on her. She could have been out for a long time. They could all be dead or something, which would put a major bummer on her day. Which was an odd feeling for her, considering a few months ago she considered them all total losers. Well, there was only one thing to do. Go to the library. She was well aware of the fact she might be walking into a huge evil fight thing ... but she was going to make Catherine pay for ruining her sweater. She decided to bring the knife with her - just in case.


* * *
Cordelia tentatively approached the big double doors that cut off the library from the rest of the school. She was approaching with caution, because a chair and several tables lay strewn out in the hall. No doubt a fight had taken place. Also, there was a strange smell in the air.

Cordelia drew in a deep breath, and opened the doors just a crack. She poked her head in and looked around. Nobody was there. When she was sure she was alone (which was not a great thing in itself) she entered the room.

"Oh my God!" she said outloud as she surveyed the scene before her. The library was totally trashed. More tables and chairs were broken and crushed everywhere. The windows had been completely smashed, and broken glass covered the ground. Books were everywhere. The air was thick, and a fog had settled in the room.

The glass crunched under her feet as she moved over to Giles' desk. There on the desk, was Callista's bird. He looked like he was dead or something. Cordelia considered poking him to see if he was just unconscious, but ultimately decided against it.

Now Cordelia was really starting to panic. There was no Slayer around or no immortal girl. It was just her and an unconscious bird. This was a little too creepy for her liking. But what could she do?

"Okay Cordelia think. There has to be someone who - " she thought for a second, and then suddenly she had it, "MS. CALENDAR!!"

Ms. Calendar hadn't been there tonight. She was probably at home. If only she knew her phone number. Giles would probably have it.

Cordelia moved around to the other side of Giles' desk. She went searching through his cabinet. Most of them contained Watcher books, stakes, holy water, and typical librarian stuff. But in the bottom left hand cabinet was a small date book. She picked it up and leafed through it's pages to the "C" section. Her name wasn't there. So she tried "J" for Jenny. And there it was. Cordelia noted that for a librarian he sure did have a lot of phone numbers.


* * *
Buffy slowly regained consciousness. She never did like the whole concept of being unconscious. It had happened many times before and it was always unpleasant, something like having one's teeth drilled. She was instantly aware of the fact the she was in a sitting position and she was tied to something. It was a chair.

Beside her, Callista was also tied to a chair, though she was still out cold. temporary death was not something Buffy would like to have happen to her. It would have to be uncomfortable.

To her immediate right, Xander, Angel, Willow, and Giles were being confined in a large metal cage that had been left in the factory by it's previous owners.

"Buffy? Are you all right?" asked a concerned Angel when he saw her awake.

"Yeah," she replied, "But I'm a little dizzy."

"I knew there was a reason why I never liked the tilt-a-whirl," commented Xander sarcastically.

Giles frowned. "This is no time for joking Xander. We are in serious trouble here."

"How right you are!" exclaimed a voice. It was Catherine. "Rise and shine Buffy! Did you enjoy your little sleep?"

"Hardly," responded Buffy sourly.

Buffy began struggling in her chair. The ropes she was bound with were made out of thick thick nylon. She briefly attempted to loosen them but it was giving her rug burn.

From another room of the factory, Drusilla wandered in, clutching a doll in one hand. She approached the cage.

"Hello Daddy," she said seductively to Angel, "Did you bring me anything?"

Angel just stared back at her indignantly.

"What's wrong daddy? I feel all better today. And it's all thanks to you."

When Angel wouldn't answer her, she slinked off towards Spike.

"Man, she is creepy," said Xander when Drusilla was out of earshot.

"She's beyond creepy," added Willow.

"People, we have to focus. Now ... how are we going to get out?" asked Giles.

Everyone thought for a few moments. Unfortunately, none of them could come up with a decent escape plan. Suddenly, everyone was distracted by groaning sound coming from Callista's direction. She was starting to come around.

"Oh ... what happened?" she asked hazily.

Her eyes gradually fluttered open, but she squinted a bit from the light that the single bulb cast into the factory. However, she quickly snapped into reality when she became aware of the knife at her throat.

"Go ahead Catherine," she sputtered, "End it now - kill me."

Catherine appeared out of the shadows. She pulled the knife away from Callista's throat.

"Oh no sweetie. It would be too easy to kill you when your tied up. Magic just doesn't have the same fun to it , and it's not nearly as satisfying as doing it the old fashion way. But don't worry. You won't have to wait to long. It'll all be over soon."

She smiled evilly and then turned and walked away.

"How are you feeling Callista?" asked Giles.

"Not bad. What exactly happened?"

"One of the vampires shot you," explained Buffy.

" ... Killing me temporarily," finished Callista.

"The question is 'How are we going to get out of this?" repeated Giles, hoping someone was paying attention to him this time.

"Cormerik is out there," replied Callista, "and so is Cordelia."

"Cordelia?" commented Angel speculatively, "I don't know. She couldn't find her way out of a paper bag - no offense Xander."

"Hey," protested Xander in response, "She could get out of a bag ... well, maybe she'll find help or something."

"Oh yeah? Like who?" replied Buffy.


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