____________________________________________________________________

Part 43

The gang of would-be heroes stared dejectedly at the park from the
windows of the beat-up old Citroen.   After having discovered that
the address they had led to the wrong person, Willow was at a loss.
The only thing she could think of was that Blayne was going to die
like Dr. Gregory.  "Now what are we going to do?"

"Abject prayer and supplication spring to mind," muttered Giles.

Buffy ignored Giles's muttering and turned to look at the redhead
perched on Angel's lap in the backseat.  "I saw her walking past this
park with her grocery bags," she told Willow.   "She lives in this
neighborhood."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Willow asked,  "We can't just start
banging on people's doors.  It's the middle of the night.  We don't
have that kind of time!"

"We have to start somewhere, do something!" exclaimed Xander.

"We will," Buffy said as confidently as she could, getting out of the
car.  She wiped the palms of her hands down her jeans.  (Why do
people's lives always have to depend on me?)  A voice rose out of her
memory to answer, "You are the Chosen One, the one girl..." Buffy cut
off the frequently recited speech, shouting in her mind.  (Shut up,
Merrick! You're dead! Stop telling me what to do.)  "I'm doing my
best," she whispered, "leave me alone!"

She was quiet as the others got out and came around to stand by her.

(Well, Slayer, what are you going to do?)

   *****

Giles and Sydney waited with the car, but the others had followed
Buffy when she ran through the park, a specific destination in mind.
They caught up with her, gasping for air, as she stopped at a
manhole - a sewer entrance - in the middle of a clump of bushes.  It
was the same one the Slayer had seen the vampire disappear into a
couple of nights ago.

She bent down and lifted the metal cover, shoving it out of the way,
then looked up at her new friends, at their worried expressions.  She
closed her eyes for a moment as faces rolled into view out of the
darkness of memory, of old enemies and dead friends.  It was hard to
tell which hurt worse, the losses already endured or those yet to
come.  Buffy opened her eyes almost immediately and did her best to
reassure them, radiating a facade of determination and
confidence.  "I won't be long, guys."  She smiled up at them, then
dropped herself headlong into the darkness below without another
thought.

   *****

"Come on, Buffy!"

Willow paced back and forth across the grass. It had been almost an
hour since the blonde had gone, and there wasn't any sign of her
yet.  She knew the blonde could fight.  Boy, could she fight! But
what if she ran into the Master's minions down there? She'd be all
alone against them...  (Grrr!  I guess it's official now.  Buffy's my
friend.  And if any of those dunder-headed idiots run into her,
they'd better watch out!)  She stopped the babbling inside her head
and sighed.

"She'll be here, Wills."

"Have faith in your friend, little one."

"I do." She walked over to the tree Xander was leaning against and
slumped down to sit beside him. "I do," she repeated.  (I just wish
she'd hurry.)

   *****

Angel heard growls and snarls before he saw the Slayer. She burst out
of the bushes, pushing Zachary along in front of her, using his
dislocated arm to force him to go where she wanted.

Willow and Xander jumped to their feet, but the first one Zachary saw
was Angel.  "You!"

Angel smirked, "Me!"

Buffy grinned fiercely and twisted the vampire's arm a little
more. "At last, a man of little words! Who's gonna have even _less_
to say if you don't show me where she is," the girl threatened,
pushing him ahead of her.

The Slayer moved out of the park, planning on going in the same
direction the Bug Lady had been heading the night she saw the vamp
run away from Miss Well Proportioned. She didn't know why the other
vamp had been scared, but she was hoping for a repeat performance.

Buffy waved Giles back as they passed him, ignoring his
stuttered, "W...Buffy?" as she marched the vampire down the street.
Giles joined the others as they trailed behind her, in what the
slayer felt may as well be a parade down Main. But, really, what's a
parade without a few fireworks?

"Come on! Come on, where is she? Which house is it?" she demanded.

It became increasingly harder to force the vampire to go further,
until he finally simply refused to walk anymore.

"Come on! What? What is it? This is it, isn't it, this is her house?"
Buffy took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "This is it, guys!
Better than radar!" The Slayer released the vampire and turned to her
friends, motioning for them to hurry.

"Buffy!" Willow screamed just in time.

Zachary swung at the blonde, his unhurt hand balled up into a hard
fist. She leaned back, avoiding the blow, but tripped, falling
backward over the miniature picket fence that bordered the lawn.
Zachary jumped to follow, but was caught by an unbreakable vice that
clamped around the back of his neck.  It lifted him off the ground
until his feet dangled in the air, while another found his wrist,
holding the clawed hand immobile.

"I've got him, Slayer.  Go get the boy," Angel ordered.

The girl stood up slowly, catching his gaze, considering him with
eyes that were suddenly older than her years.  Somewhere in her eyes
lurked the death of innocence, and rested all the weight of the
world.

She rubbed her wrist, an unconscious habit, not even realizing what
she was doing until she saw him staring.  She stopped abruptly, but
it was too late to hide the scars.  They looked at one another for a
timeless moment, one in which they both recognized what was in each
other's eyes: a soul stained through and through, marked by blood and
tainted by shadows, a knowledge that, no matter how hard they rubbed,
it would never come out.  Then as if she had turned on a switch,
Buffy smiled at him, bright and confident again.

"Wish me luck?" she asked.

"Good luck...Buffy," he called softly to her.

She left, knowing full well that when she came back,  there would no
longer be any such thing as a vampire named Zachary.
____________________________________________________

Part 44

"That was so cool!"  Willow exclaimed as she danced down the street
ahead of the others, still high from all the excitement.  After the
battle, the four of them - her, Angel, Xander, and Sydney - had opted
to walk home.  Although there were plenty of reasons, the main one
had been that Buffy...smelled.  Badly.  Her hack-it-into-itty-bitty-
pieces approach had worked wonderfully well, except for one tiny
problem.  By getting that close, by the time the Slayer had finished,
she had been completely covered in sticky, stinky, _gunk_.  And,
well, besides that, there was the little problem of the librarian's
car.  Seven people?   That'd never work...unless you were someone who
thought Xander's whispered idea - of Buffy riding outside, on _top_
of the car - had merit.  And, judging by Sydney's smile, she
obviously did.  But Giles, wrinkling his nose, had insisted on
driving the poor girl home. It had been fun though, actually having
someone else share in the work.  Fighting all the demons of Sunnydale
was a tough job.  It looked like Buffy was going to be a good friend
to have.

"That was just so cool!"  Willow said again, turning around.  She
continued to walk backwards, grinning at Angel and Sydney as her
mouth completely took control.  "You guys took way too long with that
vamp.  You shoulda been there!  It started off kinda bad, what with
Giles getting slammed against a wall and everything.  I really hope
he's okay to drive!

I guess things would've gone smoother if that bat sonar tape had been
on the right side.  I thought for a minute that I'd have to set the
bug on fire myself, or something...'cuz that's all she really was,
Angel!  Nothin' but a big ol' bug!  She looked kinda like a giant
grasshopper.  A big grasshopper who couldn't make up its mind who to
attack first.  She went after Giles, smacked him really hard, but
Buffy started clobbering her and it just went on and on.  Buffy has
some really good moves...

And Blaine!  He screamed the whole time.  He kept saying  'How do you
like your eggs?' over and over.  He was acting so weird!  I think he
snapped.

And then, Giles finally got up and fixed the tape, and as soon as he
did...piece of cake!  It did  just what Buffy said it would!  Miss
French, the bug, _it_ was just helpless after that.

Poor Giles.  I wonder if he really is gonna get Blaine drunk before
he let's him go home?  Hmm....I wonder what his parent's are gonna
think?  He'll be one football player who'll never drink again!
That's for sure!

I didn't get to do much except open Blaine's cell, but I was so proud
of Xander.  He whacked Miss French over the head with a shovel! "
She beamed at Xander, quiet for a moment as he smiled tiredly in
return.  "And, gee!  Did that sound as bad as I think it did?"

Sydney laughed and clapped Xander on the back, "Good job, kid!"

"Thanks, oh ancient one," Xander said, sticking out his tongue, "but
I was distracting her from Buffy."

Willow stopped walking and bounced in place, looking at Angel while
she waited for them to catch up.  "So!  How'd things go with
Zachary?" she asked him, going completely still as she paused and
waited for him to answer.

The souled vampire looked straight into his witch's eyes as he
spoke.  "Things went fine.  We dusted him."  He smiled before looking
away.

Sydney watched her Mistress study Angel.  She got the feeling that
the girl didn't quite believe him, and Sydney didn't blame her a
bit.  Both statements were true, but both of them left a whole _ton_
of  things out.  The redhead just smiled sadly to herself, leaving
both vampires wondering just what was going on inside her head.

They continued walking home, but Willow no longer bounced.

   *****

(Secrets!  I am so sick and tired of them!  Especially Angel's!
Darla, William, Drusilla, who this Master is that we've been fighting
against for so long...and even himself!  He never tells me anything
any more.  OK, yeah, he told me about how he used to kill people.
But that doesn't count!  'cuz I kinda already figured that out.  I
mean, gee!  Just how stupid does he think I am?!  Why won't he talk
to me??  He just makes me sooooo mad sometimes!)  Willow sniffed
softly.  Her head was down; her eyes watching her feet as one kept
moving in front of the other.  They were almost home.  She could
hardly wait to stomp up the stairs to her room and slam the door on
the whole world.  Unfortunately, this was just not her night.

"David?"

Willow looked up at the sound of Sydney's voice and saw David.  He
was sitting, slumped on the front porch steps, his head bowed and
cradled in his hands.  His clothes were in disarray, and he looked
worse than she felt.  He didn't even acknowledge Sydney, just buried
his head in his arms.

(What is David doing here?  There's only three hours left 'til dawn.
Something must have happened.  Something bad.)  Willow quickened her
pace and was standing in front of him in seconds.  "David.  Tell me
what happened," she ordered softly.

For a moment he hesitated, seeming to shrink in on himself, then
wearily raised his head to gaze at her, his face streaked with blood,
and tears, and...dirt?  "Tell me," she repeated.

Resignation dulled his eyes as he gave in.  He began to speak.

*****

"I'm going with you."  Angel said the sentence as if it were an
irrefutable fact, as if he'd said the sky is blue, as if it were the
simplest truth and impossible to argue with.  He was going, and that
was that.

Willow disagreed.  "No. You aren't. You're staying here with Xander,"
she answered, packing a change of clothes into her schoolbag.  She
moved around the room, making sure she hadn't forgotten anything.  It
was unlikely that she'd be back that night.  He most likely wouldn't
see her again until after school, if even then, and he didn't like
the idea, not one bit.

"You may need me."

She whirled to face him, her face set into one of the most stubborn
expressions he'd ever seen.  "No!" she snapped, probably harsher than
intended, and he flinched at the tone, at the look in her eyes.  She
looked as if she didn't trust him, and it _hurt_.  More than he
thought possible.

"Willow, please?"

Her eyes softened briefly, but she didn't relent.  "I'll take Sydney
with me," she said, then turned her back on him and walked out the
door.

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