Oz tried desperately to clear his head of Willow as the Summers house drew nearer. Not once, not even one of the times the world was ending, had he seen Willow that upset. There was some serious power around that he didn’t like the sound of. Even though he had no idea whatsoever about what was going on, he figured it probably wasn’t a good thing.
He noticed that Xander and Cordelia were both quieter than normal as well. Even the light bickering that usually occurred between the two of them was not making itself heard. Oz decided that it was welcome silence, under the circumstances.
The trio made their way to the porch and then stopped. It seemed that none of them knew exactly how to go about this. After a moment, Xander shrugged and brought his hand up as though he was about to knock. “Ms. Summers? Buffy? You guys here?” As his knuckles connected softly with the door, it opened a touch. It didn’t really seem to have been shut all the way.
“Okay, does this classify as ‘weird’ yet?” Cordelia asked.
“Yeah, I’d say so,” Xander said with a slight quaver in his voice. “Let’s scram.”
“No,” Oz said quietly. “Let’s just go in. If Joyce isn’t in danger yet and we leave…”
“Okay, but can I just say… gulp.” Xander pushed the door open further and spoke in a clear, unshaking voice that surprised him. “Hey, Ms. S, you around?” They all tiptoed into the house but left the door wide open in case a rapid escape was necessary.
“Listen,” Oz said, startling the other two quite effectively. “Maybe we should look upstairs. That’s where Buffy was when Will was on the phone with Joyce. If anything happened, that’s probably where…”
Xander interrupted Oz before he could finish. “Yeah, okay, we get it. Let’s just get this over with. I’m not really getting a happy being here.”
When none of them moved after a moment, Cordelia clucked her tongue and stormed up the stairs. “Oh, come on,” she said bossily. Xander and Oz exchanged looks with one another and crept up the stairs after her.
The two boys watched Cordelia round the corner. They heard someone gasp, and then Cordelia, looking much paler than she was a moment ago, was walking quite quickly towards them urging them to “getoutgetoutgetout” under her breath. Xander turned on his heels and scampered down the stairs. After a moment’s hesitation, he heard Oz follow with Cordelia behind him. Xander heard a deep voice speaking what sounded like Experienced Witchcraftspeak. He dove out the door in sudden fright and it slammed behind him.
Catching his breath, he turned to the other two. “Okay, that was too close for…” He trailed off as he noticed that it wasn’t Cordelia or even Oz who had closed the door.
The door seemed to have closed itself.
And Cordelia and Oz were still inside.
In a sudden flurry of panic, Xander ran at the door and turned the handle. The door didn’t open; in fact, the only anything that happened was that Xander got what seemed like a mild electrical shock and he was thrown onto the sidewalk off the property.
“Okay,” he said to himself. “This is bad.” He ran towards the house, but he hadn’t gotten two steps when he got mildly shocked again and thrown back onto the sidewalk. “Okay, really bad.” Xander got up and, after looking at the house for a second, broke into a scurrying jog and made his way back to the library.
***
“…Um…” Oz was visibly lacking reaction as the door shut right behind Xander and wouldn’t open again. “Okay, that’s new.”
Cordelia pushed past him and started pulling at the door. She was making this bizarre squeaking noise that Oz didn’t really understand until he turned around to try the back door. Then the sight that Oz saw caused him to start making the same noise.
Cordelia was snatched out of the air and thrown into the dining room. Oz found himself completely unable to move as noises of terror and pain escaped the girl.
And suddenly he knew nothing more.
***
Giles and Angel had finished asking Willow their questions. She was feeling calm now, but still not happy by any means. The two had retreated into the book cage again and were speaking in hushed voices. Willow sat still in her chair, not really moving. Just thinking, and worrying about Oz, Xander and Cordelia. They should have been back by now, she thought.
Xander burst through the library doors with very funny hair. Willow started to giggle until she saw the look on Xander’s face. Aside from being slightly red from the run, he wore an expression of uncharacteristic seriousness. “Okay, the house threw me out,” he said simply.
Giles and Angel looked up at Xander and said “what?” simultaneously. It was exactly the same action as when Xander had just finished speaking with Joyce over the phone. Xander smiled half-heartedly.
“Okay, before you go all Good Cop, Bad Cop on me, let me just tell you that Cordelia and Oz are still inside,” Xander started. “Or, they were when I left. Cordelia had gone upstairs and was telling us to bail. I was the first one out; the door slammed behind me and some electrical current was keeping me completely off the property.”
Angel and Giles looked at one another grimly, and Giles began with the questions. “Cordelia had gone upstairs. Where were you and Oz?”
“Right behind her, on the stairs. She charged up; Oz and I weren’t quite that… er… ready.”
Angel broke in. “Did you see Buffy?”
Xander furrowed his brow. “No. No Buffy, no Joyce. The door was already open when we got there, but Oz didn’t think that as weird enough. Then Cordelia went upstairs.” Xander trailed off.
After a short pause, Giles prompted, “And then…”
Xander jolted a little. “Oh, sorry. Then Oz and I were at the top of the stairs, and she came back into view, looking really pale, and was telling us to get out. I turned and ran, the door slammed, I got pounded into the sidewalk, and here I am.”
Angel and Giles were both staring at the floor, looking very worried, but when Xander finished they both strode back into the book cage. Xander looked after them, confused and exasperated, and said to Willow, “I don’t understand the older generation.” He looked closer and saw that his best friend had started to cry again, so he went over to her. “Oz and Buffy will be fine. We’ll get them out. We’ll probably have to save Cordelia, too, but for every action is an unfortunate reaction.” He gave her a little hug, and then shouted over to the pair in the book cage. “Hey, you two over there. I think you owe the Willster and I a little explanation.”
Giles’ head inclined slightly. He sighed, and walked over to the teenagers with Angel in tow. “You’re right, we do. But we don’t know everything. We can only tell you some of what we know.” Giles took off his glasses to clean them, and then started the explanation.
“Since Angel arrived at my apartment with Buffy and described the demon that attacked her, something at the back of my mind was intrigued. I’d thought I’d read the details someplace. Oz’s account of a scent and Buffy’s sluggish recovery made decreasing amounts of sense in my mind until her bizarre sleeping patterns were noted; the disease in question causes the carrier to suck sleep from everyone else so that they have the most rest. They need to rest to power up for their attack spree.” Giles stopped here and seemed to fight for words, so Angel jumped in.
“Willow became emotionally overwhelmed because she’s more in touch with the dark forces than you are. Oz didn’t react because he was too busy dealing with the smell; we should have confirmed that he smelled it all the time when he was here. I didn’t react because I’m dead, it doesn’t bother me. Giles only noticed the connections between each detail because of his watcher training.” Angel also went silent. For a few moments the only sound in the room was Willow sniffling before Xander piped up.
“That’s swell, fellas, but I gotta tell you, I don’t care much for the connections if we don’t know what the connection is.”
Giles blinked quite heavily and put his glasses back on. “Yes, sorry.” He sighed and sat down across from Willow. “Buffy has a disease. That’s the best way to explain it. It’s… it may be the demon equivalent of rabies.”
The room was completely silent for a few moments, and then Xander simply laughed. Angel glared. “This is a serious matter,” Giles said evenly. “It sounds absurd, but rabies is unfortunate enough as it is. Demon rabies is much, much worse, and we need to understand the gravity of the situation if we wish to save Joyce, Oz and Cordelia.”
“What about Buffy?” Willow said quietly, surprising all of them. Giles looked at the floor in response.
“Demon rabies is transmitted through biting, just the same as conventional rabies,” Angel explained. “It’s most common in Vampires, for obvious reasons. I think that’s what bit Buffy in the first place. Demons with the disease get stronger. They suddenly know dangerous spells and can cast a few of them without their proper rituals. They go after those with power. Commonly, the disease will only leave with death, but there is another way.”
Another silence fell until Xander said, “Well?”
Giles spoke again. “We don’t know what it is. We both know that there is another way, but neither of us can remember it.”
“So, are we the research brigade? I mean, now that we know what it is, we might be able to find information on it much faster,” Xander said.
“No,” Angel said immediately. “We couldn’t find rabies in the books because it isn’t listed as a valid disease. Lots of people don’t believe in demon rabies because it seems so ridiculous, but those that do also know that reading about the disease will give it to you in a minor dose so that you don’t notice it until you give it to someone else. What Giles knows about it was taught verbally by the Council, and I… just… know.” Angel glanced at the approaching sunlight nervously as though searching for a change of subject. “I think it’s time I retreated to the office. I’ll be there if you need anything more.” He turned and strode away.
The other three were quiet for a moment. Then Willow thought of something. “Why were you two in the book cage if nothing’s written down?”
Giles looked at the girl and raised his eyebrows. He cleaned his glasses and put them back on before continuing; it was almost as though he had just become aware of his surroundings. “Neither of us remembered anything about it. We recognized the symptoms and placed the disease, but it took a while for either of us to remember that it wasn’t written anywhere.” He paused. “How strange.”
“No, I don’t think it is,” Angel supplied from within. “I bet that if the disease hadn’t presented itself, we would have been able to place it instantly. I think that this is a side effect. The memories that we need are faded, but not completely. I bet we knew this, but we just don’t remember.” Xander got the impression that was he able to see Angel’s face, there might be a smile on it as though he thought the situation was quite amusing indeed.
“Well, okay, but, why did you ask me such weird questions? And how did you know I’d know the answers?” Willow asked, eyes wide.
“Well, I… we… remembered some things. My association with the symptoms as they were presented was my reminiscing of learning about it. I knew that you’d know even if you didn’t know that you’d know.”
“Well, just as long as that’s clear,” said Xander to Giles’ response.
“So… how can we find out what the other cure is?” Willow asked.
“That’s a good question I don’t, unfortunately, have the answer to. However, I do think that the best course of action is to go to the house and break the barrier. We’ll enter and fight off whatever we have to. We’ll get to Buffy and we’ll… figure it out from there,” Giles provided.
“Are we going to wait until sunset?” Angel’s voice came from the office. “Er… I just mean that if I remember correctly, Buffy’s going to be stronger than she already was, and I may be the only one able to… help in that matter.”
“Oh, but… the sooner the better, right? I mean, they have a better chance of getting better if it’s soon and now.” Willow looked a little panicked, but she seemed to have a clearer head than she did when they started the explanation.
Giles patted Willow’s arm reassuringly. “That may be true, Willow, but Angel’s right. We should wait until he can fight. We’ll go as soon as possible.” Giles got up from his chair and walked into the book cage once more, this time to the weapon cabinet. “In the interim, I suggest we prepare ourselves. We’ll need to find a spell to break the restriction charm, buy supplies for it, et cetera. We need to create our course of action.”
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