Angel glared down at Buffy. Standing slightly crouched with her stake in hand, the Slayer sought for an opening to plunge the stake into the vampire's heart. It wasn't an act she looked forward to, and she knew that the destruction of this vampire would grieve her in a way that could handicap her job as Slayer.
Xander, Giles and Willow's lives all depended on this, though. The former ally had the Amulet in his hand, and was trying to give it to the perpetrator of all this chaos. Carmilla stood confined, for now, within her invisible prison. Angel's willing hand-over of the Amulet, the key to that prison, would change everything. And Buffy knew she had no chance against a angel fallen from heaven's grace.
Shifting her weight for a lunge, she suddenly sensed the air fill with a feeling of static. Angel's free hand shot up, a ominous red glow enveloping his fist. A shattering crack of thunder ripped through the room. The earth erupted in a violent shower of stone fragments beneath Buffy's feet as a storm of unholy bolts of pure force issued from Angel's hand.
Reacting without a second to spare, Buffy tumbled forward in a somersault. Hastily pulling out of the roll she found herself inches away from Angel. Regrouping, she reached deep within herself for all the power of a Slayer, and moved with a supernatural speed to plunge her stake at Angel.
Angel kicked forward, his foot striking powerfully into Buffy's face, while her lunge only scored a simple flesh wound along his left leg, falling short of the its intended target..
Buffy's world went momentarily dark, her head slamming into the ground. Seconds that felt like hours passed before the Slayer regained awareness. The metallic taste of blood in her mouth, startled her. She could feel her split lip with her tongue and from the pounding agony from her nose, and the sticky stream of blood indicated a likely broken nose.
Angel proceeded to try and cross over Buffy on his path toward the locket which held Carmela in place. "That's it!" The Slayer growled. She grabbed his foot and pushed upwards in a sudden vicious motion, putting all her strength behind her shove. Angel to tumble backwards, hitting the ground hard. "All this rolling about on the ground would be considered rather kinky, if I wasn't trying so hard to slay him," Buffy realized absently. With little effort
Buffy pounced onto the vampires prone body, snatching her stake from the ground beside him in a blurring motion. The vampire's face shifted back to it's normal angelic form and a faint "Buffy" escaped his lips. His eyes seemed to change colour, before her eyes. "I'm sorry..I can't... mhhhhggg...." And then the eyes hardened again.
Surprised, Buffy hesitated for the fraction of a second, but a pause long enough for Carmilla to reclaim control of Angel's body and strength and pry the stake from the Slayer's hand. The possessed vampire within tried to fight her, but Carmilla directed the enslaved body to roll into a position where the wretched human girl obstructing her freedom was pined down. Two cold large hands clenched onto Buffy's throat, tightening restrictively. Buffy struggled frantically beneath Angel, desperate to get out of his choking grip. Panic raced through her, as gasps and struggles increased ebbing into feeble shudders as her world became fuzzy, and her lungs began to burn from lack of oxygen. Her hands on his forearms dropped away in a loose motion as her consciousness fled.
Impatient for her freedom, Carmilla directed Angel to rise. Buffy was breathing, faintly. Livid bruises lined her throat, and the rise and fall of her chest was not strong. The Slayer could still die without further intervention, but Carmilla did not anticipate that happening...not yet. The natural gifts of the Slayer would sustain the feebled body, long enough for Carmilla to finish the kill with her own hands.
Anticipating the thrill of freedom, followed immediately with the delight of a kill, Carmilla let a small pleased smile cross her lips as she watched Angel approach her, her thoughts in complete control of that handsome body.
* * *
In a far off chamber, the Seal gave a tremendous flare of power, and a young woman directed her will and thoughts to both her enemy and her friends.
In a sudden burst of energy, Willow stood as nothing more than an apparition in the altar room. Her physical body still inside the Seal's wards, she had let her soul leave the confine of it's mortal body to find her opponent.
The Seal was stabilized now, no longer did it require Willow's conscious defense. Now the young girl wielding the Seal's power was taking an offensive position to end all this misery. Tracking the rapidly dissipating threads of energy back to the source, she had found herself in the same chamber as her friends.
Surveying the room with a cold eye, and a steeled heart, Willow was drawn immediately to the imprisoned creature that had attacked the Seal. Carmilla radiated the very same energy that had so ferociously battered at the Seal. She was not an immediate threat to Willow, not as long as she remained imprisoned. Turning to look for her friends, Willow was horrified to see Buffy battling Angel.
*That's NOT Angel!* Horror ripped through Willow. Carmilla, while confined, had still seized control of Angel's body. It wasn't Angel, Buffy fought, just his body. The mind and soul of the man Buffy knew was struggling for control against the monster that held him, even as his body betrayed his heart.
*Buffy won't be able to slay him! And he isn't strong enough to resist that witch!* Willow was vividly aware of her friends limitations. From the destruction and devastation she could see, their struggles had been just as difficult as her own. Eyes sweeping around the room, starting with Carmilla, she spotted Giles unconscious. His head rested on Xander's blue jacket, tilted in such a way that Willow could see had been hurt on his head. His pulse was still strong, and his aura showed no indications of permanent harm.
Looking further, she found Xander sprawled on the cold stone floor, his head lolling to the side to show the matted hair and blood. *Xander? XANDER!?!?* The slightest thought, and she was kneeling down beside him.
Willow let her mind touch him with a feather light caress, relieved to feel his essence still inside his body. He didn't look good, at all. Whatever or whoever had hurt him and come within an inch of killing him outright. Running a ghostly hand along his cheek, Willow struggled not to cry.
Despair rushed through her, and she flung her gaze away from Xander, as if to deny what her eyes told her. Stone-gray rubble cradled the body of a gnarled little man Even in her distressed state, Willow instinctively knew that he was a Guardian. It was strange, but she felt she _knew_ him. His mismatched and filthy clothing aside, there was a shining honorable personality within, one with a dark grief to it. She blinked a few times, uncertain as to how she could feel or think these things, but trusting her senses anyway.
Buffy's strangled scream drew Willow back to the present reality. The Slayer had a stake raised, but stopped suddenly. Willow saw Angel's lips move, watching from across the room, a spectral voyeur.
Willow jerked power from the Seal, ready to level it at Angel even as his hands closed around Buffy's neck. Her own bad angled position, and Buffy's struggles against Angel's grip stayed Willow's hand. So violently did the Slayer's body heave against her assailant, that a blast from the Seal's conduit would likely hit her.
Agony and horror nearly overwhelmed Willow. Xander lay dying beside her, Giles was out cold..the Guardian could not help her, and now she was paralyzed watching as Buffy faded to unconsciousness. Angel rose from his victim's still living body.
Silently screaming, Willow watched Angel walk towards Carmilla. The evil one stood with clear anticipation marked on her beautiful cold face. Her eyes were somewhat glassy, her mind focused entirely on controlling Angel's body and responses.
Willow somehow forced herself to focus, stroking Xander's face with one last tender gesture, Willow rose. The Seal's past Guardian's had left their marks on the Seal's awareness, and the Seal now fed her with the knowledge she needed.. Unless Angel was freed from Carmilla's control, none of them had a chance.
Carmilla's arm lay outstretched, palm upwards and closed. Looking quickly at that arm, Willow turned sharply realizing that Angel mimicked her pose the golden talisman cradled in that closed hand.
Willow opened herself up completely to the Seal, letting it mold her into what it wanted, and reached to touch Angel gently from behind. Her hand made contact with his neck, and she flooded her power into him, helping the soul regain footing in the body. Instinctively, Willow masked her personality from Angel.
*Follow what she wants...* Willow whispered directly to his soul. *Let her think you will surrender the Amulet to her* Her other hand slipped down to his outreached hand, slipping into the closed fist with intangible fingers. The Amulet, in response to her touch, pulsed, practically leaping into Willow's hand. Power shielded the talisman from physical sight, and Willow pulled away.
Angel walked on, covering the short distance to Carmilla. His facial expression had not changed, nor the momentum of his movements. Control, had, though. Carmilla still felt that she was controlling him, such was the illusion the Seal's power created with Willow's mind setting up the framework.
Inside the vampire was grieving for the actions his body had committed. He couldn't move his head to look at her, nor allow his personal guilt show, but he knew he had hurt Buffy terribly. His mind, now truly his own again, replayed the scene again and again. Each time that he envisioned Buffy's collapse, his hatred for Carmilla increased, as did his resolve.
"Come to me, my little Angel.." Carmilla crooned sweetly, oblivious to the vampire's hidden rage. A delighted smile crossed her face. "I think I shall spare your body, little Angelus...after I destroy your immortal soul! You shall sit at my right hand when I acquire dominance over the Seal and loose the Hellmouth!"
Angel snarled silently, the soft presence that gave him strength the only thing that restrained him. He wanted to wrap his hands around HER neck and show her the selfsame treatment she had forced him to hand to Buffy.
*No. We will not act as she does. Hold her still!* The voice commanded.
Carmilla's fingers beckoned his to extend his own hand, the one that had held the amulet. He reached through her prison easily, it had not been designed to contain anyone but Carmilla, his hand hovered above and parallel to Carmilla's. Her fingers stretched out, palm bared to receive the key to her freedom.
*NOW!*
A dark smile ripped across the enraged vampire's face. His two arms shot to either side of the fallen angel, locking her body into a rigid position.
"What are you doing!" Carmilla screeched, unable to raise a hand. Her release of a physical manifestation of power depended on have a focus point, a hand or something to direct the power through. Angel having pined her arms down had stayed that avenue of protest.
Willow stood behind the woman, speaking aloud for all to hear for the first time, the words coming from the Seal's awareness. "I abjure thee, foul one. Be enjoined with those that you would free. Be imprisoned within the Hellmouth!"
Carmilla screamed as the Amulet she had lusted the destruction of instead was wrapped around her neck. As the Amulet itself touched her chest, it's power was loosed.
Angel's hands dropped away, he drew back from the intense radiance that consumed Carmilla. Raising an arm to block the light, he turned partially. For a brief fraction of a second, he saw a feminine outline in the light, behind the vanquished Carmilla. Thin, and very slight, his eyes widened, and then closed in response to the incandescence. Forcing them open again, the silhouette was gone.
And so was Carmilla.
Stumbling he approached Buffy. Dropping to his knees, he gathered her close. "I'm sorry.....I'm so sorry!" He would have cried if he could, but instead, he rocked her in a gentle embrace.
Unseen, Willow leaned down beside him. Her own personal grief was intense. Thoughtlessly, she reached out to touch Buffy's hand where it rested on Angel's thigh. *This isn't right! THEY SHOULDN'T DIE!!!*
The hand that rested on top of Buffy's felt flooded with heat, jerking Willow from her grief. **Heal them, young Protector...Heal them with the Power**
And power cascaded from her being, a intense solid pulse originating from her soul and spiraling outside in a giant circle. It was a benign wave, gentle, caressing, and full of healing energy.
It touched Buffy instantly, and then Angel. Buffy's broken bones mended, bruises faded and her breathing eased immediately. The Slayer's own natural healing gifts kicked in, and Buffy began to stir.
Angel found himself drifting for a moment, memories and guilt fading to distant impressions. He looked down in wonder, for the sudden surge of joy, relief and atonement his soul experienced, as much as pleasure at Buffy's whispered call of his name.
Across the room, Xander was pulling himself up from the ground, looking around in confusion. Beside him knelt the creepy gnome they'd been fighting..except no one was hitting anyone anymore. "Did I miss something?" He asked.
Cai grinned tightly at the kid. "What haven't ya missed, kid? Ya got to learn to duck, or get outta the way. Your gray matter's shaky enough without rattling it around all the time!"
Xander's expression grew even more confused. Turning, he looked at Buffy curled into Angel's embrace. "Why isn't anyone hitting him? Isn't he the bad guy?"
Buffy laughed openly, pulling away from Angel to hug Xander. "Nope! He's the Guardian."
"Was the Guardian." Cai corrected mildly. He wandered away to retrieve his stave. Picking up the rune wood staff, he thunked one end down on the ground. "I'm retired, now."
"What happened?" Three voices chorused the words to Angel.
The vampire shrugged. "I really don't remember!"
A shadow dropped over Buffy and Xander. "I find this conversation fascinating, given that I'm completely in the dark. Do you suppose we could continue this after joining Ms. Calendar and Willow?" Giles straightened his glasses, frowning at the new crack in the lenses.
* * *
End Part 10
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