Fates Uncertain: Part 3
by Arymede
Three weeks later — New York

Buffy had been tracking down one of the names Willow had given her. The guy didn't know anything that might help, but he was able to give her another name, one Gabriela Carney, in New York. The woman was supposed to be some famous medium, who was actually for real, not a fraud like most of them. Buffy was on her way to the woman's "studio."

A growl startled her Slayer senses awake. A vampire was nearby. Feeding. She turned and ran towards the vamp, and was surprised to see what she came upon. "Well, well, well, look who we have here. You know, this doesn't exactly qualify as out of the country, Spike."

The blond vampire dropped his meal, his face smoothing back into a human semblance. "Damn you, Slayer, what is your bloody problems? Why are you always spoiling my fun?" With that, he attacked. She countered his first lunge with a right kick to his jaw, and then dropped him to the ground by sweeping her leg under his. She tackled him before he could roll out of the way, her knees pinning his shoulders to the ground. She whipped a stake from one of her many hideyholes, poising it directly over his heart. "Truce?" Spike asked, hopefully.

"Truce is over. You broke it. And I have no reason to make a new one." Buffy plunged the stake through his heart. "I should have done that a long time ago." She got up a brushed herself off, and walked off in the direction of Ms. Carney's studio.


* * *
"Damn you, Mr. Giles, where is she? I know you know." Joyce Summers was back in the library. She had been in every few days since Buffy had left, and it looked like the time she spent elsewhere was taken up by drinking. In short, she looked like hell.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Summers, but I don't know." At least that wasn't a lie. The last time he had heard from Buffy, she'd been checking out one of Willow's contacts in Montreal. But that had been days ago. She could be anywhere by now.

"Mr. Giles, I want my baby back." Joyce's eyes burned insanely, and she pulled a gun out of her purse. "You took her away from me, and now you have to give her back." She looked like a child whose favourite toy has been taken away. In fact, she reminded Giles of Drusilla, and the thought of it made him shudder. She aimed the gun at his head. At this point blank range, the shot would send gore all over the library. Giles thought.

All of a sudden, Willow and Xander burst into the room. "Any word from Bu—" Xander stopped as he saw the scene before him. Willow almost ran into him before she realized the he'd stopped. Her eyes widened as she saw what was going on.

"No. No word," Giles answered, weakly.

"Mrs. Summers! What are you doing!?" Willow ran to the woman and put a hand on the gun, carefully. "Mrs. Summers? Give me the gun. Please? You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?"

"He took my baby, Willow. Make him give her back."

"It's okay, Mrs. Summers. He'll give her back right away, but you have to give me the gun, first." She looked expectantly at the librarian, until he nodded in agreement. Joyce reluctantly let the little redhead take the gun from her hand. Willow led her to a chair, and pushed her down into it. "Just wait, Mrs. Summers. The people who're going to get Buffy are coming." Giles, breathing hard, called the police.


* * *
"Ms. Carney?" Buffy asked as she knocked on the door. A man opened the door just as Buffy went to knock again. "You would not be Ms. Carney."

"Correct. Do you have an appointment?" He had a British accent that reminded her of Giles.

"Appointment? I wasn't told I needed one. How do I get one?"

"You call this number," he said, handing her a card. "And then you pay—"

"Pay?" Buffy interrupted, panicking slightly. "I have no money. Jean never said anything about paying!" She looked desperate. "I don't want a séance or anything, I just want to talk to her."

"Alright," the man answered, wearily. "Who may I say is calling upon her?" He looked like he was just looking for an excuse to get rid of Buffy. Still, she took the chance.

"The Slayer. Tell her Buffy, the Slayer is here, referred to her by Jean Mondoux." He nodded, once, and closed the door in her face. She sat down on the steps to wait. Even if he didn't tell her, she'd have to come out sometime. Buffy could accost her then.

Not five minutes had passed before the door was flung open again, and a short, plump woman came bustling out. "Get in here, child, and don't mind Eric." Eric, the man she had spoken with before, glared at her. "He's just here to keep away those annoying people with questions about inheritances for dead uncles." Buffy bristled a bit at being called "child," but followed the woman inside. "So you're the Slayer, are you? Can't imagine what you're doing away from your Hellhole, or whatever you call it, but I'm sure you have a reason. Now, Jean sent you to me? Dear man, isn't he? Don't know what I can do to help the Slayer, but by God, I'll do everything I can."

Buffy was amazed at the woman's apparent un-need for breath. "Uh... Ms. Carney—"

"Gabriela. Call me Gabriela."

"Gabriela. What I need is a spell. To get something out of Hell."

"Oh, you rhymed! Hell, you say? Well, I don't deal in the black arts, just speaking to the dead." Suddenly, she looked suspicious. "Why do you want something from Hell? I warn you, even if you are the Slayer, if you're trying to raise some demon, I'll stop you." Buffy sighed. She gotten this a lot.

"No demon raising," she said, firmly. "OK, Cliff Notes version, to prevent Acathla from sucking the entire world into Hell, I sent my boyfriend there to suffer eternal torment, which he *doesn't* deserve, and I've sworn to get him out."

"Oh." Gabriela was taken slightly aback. "Oh, dear. I see you have got a problem." She thought for a moment. "Well, I don't know of anything that might help. You see, anything dealing with Hell is black magic, and people who practice that, well, let's just say that none of them would help a Slayer." She fretted awhile to herself.

"Black magic... I'm sure I know *someone* who does black magic..." murmured Buffy. "That's it! Ethan Rayne. As black of magic as *I* know, and he owes me bigtime. I think it's time for him to pay up. Ms. C— uh... Gabriela?" she asked, interrupting the woman's fretting. The plump woman looked up. "Do you have a phone? I need to make a collect call to California."

"Collect? Don't bother, I'll pay." She led Buffy to tjhe phone in the office.

"I'll keep it short. Thanks." Buffy quickly dialed the library at Sunnydale High. "Willow?"

"Bu— Brenda! Hi!" came Willow's voice on the other end of the line, followed by a whisper. "Just play along. People."

"People? In the library?! There's a first. Uh... nevermind, I'll call back later." She hung up before she could hear Willow's response.

* * *

After the police had left, Willow, Giles, and Xander sat, trying to calm their nerves. Xander looked up, suddenly. "Will, who's Brenda?" he asked.

"Brenda?" Willow repeated, confusedly.

"Yeah, you know, the girl who called while Mrs. Summers was here. The one who you promised to meet tonight to help her with her math."

"Oh, that Brenda. That was Buffy. I thought it might not be a good idea to say the B name around her mom. She said she'd call back later," Willow explained. Xander and Giles both nodded, and they sat again in silence, waiting for Buffy to call. Soon, Giles brought out a book, and immersed himself in it, still trying to find a spell for Buffy. Willow, seeing his recovery, started up the computer, and began to search the net, Xander looking over her shoulder.

About an hour of this anxious silence passed before the phone rang again. The trio all jumped in unison, Giles snatching up the receiver before it got through the first ring. "H— Hello?... Buffy. I—"

Buffy's voice came over the phone. "Giles. Um, do you have any books of black magic?"

"I— I believe I have a few regarding what sorts of spells exist, and what one would need to accomplish them, but no, I do not have any actual spell books. Slayers don't practice black magic."

"Damn. OK, look through whatever you have for my spell, and get Willow on the phone." Giles handed the receiver to the redhead at his side.

"Buffy?" she said, excitedly.

"Yeah. Will, I need you to track down Ethan Rayne for me. I need his current location."

"Ethan Rayne? As in nasty guy wreaks havoc on Hallowe'en? Who possesses people with demons? Who—"

"Yeah, Will. That Ethan. He owes me bigtime, and he might have the spell I'm looking for. If nothing else, he can give me the names of other people who might know."

"OK, Buffy, I'm on it." A click sounded from the other end of the line. Willow looked at the


* * *
receiver in her hand before putting it down. She looked at Giles and Xander. "Well, you heard her. Research party."
* * *

After her first call, Gabriela had refused to let Buffy go before feeding her the first good meal she'd had since before leaving Sunnydale. They'd talked for a while, and then Buffy had called again from Gabriela's phone. The plump medium had offered her a place to stay for the night, but Buffy had refused, saying that it would be too dangerous for the medium. Besides, she no longer slept at night, but rather during the day. Then she had lefdt, going to patrol the streets of New York for vampires.

It was now close to dawn, and Buffy had reduced five vampires to dust. She no longer just patrolled, but now went actively searching for vampires. Every vampire she killed made her feel better, as if she was taking revenge for Angel. But even then, the guilt she felt for Angel never really went away.

But now she was tired, and on her way to her cheap room, to sleep her nightmarish sleep. Suddenly, she felt a vampire, very close. She whirled about to find a face she's hoped never to see again. Drusilla.

"You know, I killed blond-boy already, I should have known you'd be nearby." Buffy had a stake ready in her right hand.

"I've been hunting him," Dru said, as if dreaming. "‘E took me away from my Angel, and I wanted to kill him." She took a step forward. "But you... you took my Angel away from me. Far, far away where no one can find him." Her face twisted to her game face. "But I want him back." Her insane yellow eyes burned into Buffy's The Slayer found herself feeling the guilt full force. But she felt another strange feeling. Pity. For the poor girl who had once been Drusilla, who had been hurt by Angelus as much as she, herself, had. And suddenly, she could kill her. She was as much a victim as Angel had been. But she couldn't let her loose on the world, either.

"I'm sorry, Dru. Sorrier than you could ever imagine. I want him back, too. But he's not mine. I gave him up when I betrayed him." She didn't know why she was telling all this to Drusilla, her mortal enemy, but the whispers just came out, heavy with sadness and sorrow. "I'm sorry."

"Oh!" exclaimed Drusilla. "Miss Edith says you'll help me. I wanted to kill you, but Miss Edith says that if I do, I wont ever get him back." Buffy looked confused for a couple moments, and then the stake dropped out of her hand as she rushed forward, hugging Dru. And Dru hugged her back, surprised, careful of her cross. And they cried together, for Angel.

But only for a short while. "The stars are running. They run away from the nasty sun. The sun is coming." Buffy looked up and realized that it was very close to dawn.

"Oh, shit, we've got to get you someplace safe." Dru smiled slightly, and led her to an abandoned warehouse nearby. Once inside, the vampiress went to sleep quickly and deeply, leaving Buffy to try and figure out what exactly she thought she was doing.


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