Dies Irae

By Medea

Chapter Four

2012

A long and beautiful friendship...

As they had so many times in the past decade, Willow and Spike strolled through one of the many Sunnydale parks to meet Buffy.

Willow enjoyed her bi-weekly visits to the old gang, whether to fight the latest supernatural threat churned out by the Hellmouth, or to make Xander and Anya's children, Jesse and Julie, squeal with glee at Halloween when she wore her demon face openly to take them Trick-or-Treating.

The kids never failed to return home in triumph with grossly-swollen bags of candy.

Of course, it hadn't all been easy. Willow's remembered the persistent demands from the Watchers Council to sever all ties with "the vampire element". Those demands had finally backfired on the Council. They had refused to listen to Buffy's account of the numerous battles she might have lost, and the times she might have died, had it not been for the assistance of Willow, Spike, and Angel.

And so, three years ago, Buffy had simply stopped communicating with them.

She dismissed their tirades about how "unnatural" her association with vampires was.

She even ignored a stern warning from the Head of the Council himself, Henry Lloyd, that she should think seriously about the consequences of "betraying" her calling as a Slayer.

Giles had continued to send reports on her activities for another few months, but he, too, grew so exasperated by his colleagues that he formally broke with them. Perceiving this as an opportunity to reassert their control over the renegade Slayer, the Council had sent a new Watcher to supervise Buffy.

They felt the cold slap of reality when they discovered that Willow had cast a bliss spell on him and locked him in his apartment with a regular supply of food, wine, and chocolates. He was recalled immediately, and afterward the Council left Buffy to her own.

So, the Council had learned its lesson.

Demons, however, had a far *flatter* learning-curve.

Willow smiled and shook her head in amusement at the familiar sight of Buffy standing, slightly out of breath, over yet another vanquished demon. Would they ever learn? She supposed that she shouldn't be surprised that a Vanteri demon would have attacked the legendary Slayer. They might exhale poison fumes, but they were stupid as dirt.

"Ow!" Buffy yelped, wincing slightly as she clapped her hand over her neck. Willow's smile instantly faded. She had felt the stinging pain as if her own neck had been pricked, thanks to her peculiar sensitivity to the Slayer. In horror, she watched Buffy stagger and drop to her knees. The Slayer's agony seared Willow's own body, and Willow fought to control her reaction.

"Buffy!" Willow screamed as she darted toward her fallen friend. Spike followed fast at her heels.

As Willow reached Buffy's side and dropped down to examine her, the Slayer looked at her with groggy, disoriented eyes and pulled a fine-stainless-steel needle out of her neck. A sickly-pale-blue tint was already spreading around the microscopic puncture wound, signaling the onset of necrosis.

A cold rage swept through Willow and she plucked the needle from Buffy's shaking hand. Focusing her powers on the needle, Willow spoke a single word, "venite", sending out a magical snare to capture and draw back the one who had fired the poison dart at Buffy. Whoever it was couldn't have fled beyond the range of Willow's powers.

Sure enough, the desperate shrieks of the assassin echoed from fifty yards away. They grew louder as the hapless man was pulled inexorably toward the clearing, until he came into view, clawing desperately at the ground and bucking in vain against the invisible force that held him.

"Spike!" Willow hissed, "Immobilize him, but don't kill him."

With a cold, predatory sneer Spike strode forward and seized the panicked human, who looked no more than twenty-five years old. Planting his booted foot on the young man's tail bone, the blond vampire pressed down until he heard the satisfying sound of snapping bone and agonized screams. Certain that he had damaged the man's lower back enough to render him paralyzed, Spike rested his boot menacingly against one of the man's shoulder blades and demanded coolly, "What poison'd you use?"

The man panted, his body wracked with pain, but refused to answer. His silence broke into a tormented howl when Spike stomped down and shattered his shoulder.

"Care to give it another go, mate?" He so enjoyed torturing humans, and normally couldn't do it in Willow's presence.

The man shuddered with dry heaves as his body went into shock from the pain. When his gagging ceased, he gloated weakly, "Doesn't matter if you know now. She's dead. There's no stopping it."

Losing patience, Spike grasped the man's right hand and snapped his index finger. Over the renewed shrieks, Spike growled, "Name. The. Poison. Or I'll rip this off and feed it to you."

"A-ambergris...Th-thalax venom," the man gasped. "No...known... antidote."

Willow felt a tear slide down her cheek. He was right. Even her faroe stone was useless, its power effective against magic but not ordinary human physiological reactions to a poison. And one of the very few spells it couldn't work was the reversal of time. So much power in her hands, and yet she was helpless!

Buffy was as good as dead.

And it would be painful. The Ambergris Thalax was a species of demonic viper. While harmless to vampires, its venom was lethal to mortals, even a Slayer, and it ravaged the body with a particularly gruesome death.

"No," Willow whispered in defeat, as she looked upon the painful grimace on Buffy's face.

"Willow..." Buffy rasped, "It's too late...I can feel it...but you can still help me."

"What?" Willow murmured.

"Let me die quickly...don't wait for the poison..."

"No!" Willow exclaimed, horrified. "Buffy, no...God, anything but that! I can't..."

"You'd be sparing me...Willow, please..."

Spike left the young man quivering beneath a gnarled oak tree and returned to Willow and the fatally-stricken Slayer. Stooping beside her, he fixed Buffy with a resolute gaze and said, "I'll do it. You've been a worthy opponent, Slayer. Not fit you should die at the hand of a coward."

Buffy smiled faintly before a fit of coughing wracked her weakened form. The blue tinge had spread over her neck and down one arm. Trying to steel her nerves, Buffy replied, "You did promise to make it quick for me, once."

"This wasn't what I had in mind...but I'm a man of my word," Spike answered grimly.

The blond vampire gently cradled the dying Slayer against his chest. Buffy looked to Willow one last time and grasped her friend's hand.

"Tell Angel...I love him..." Buffy implored, as tears glistened in her eyes.

Willow nodded, weeping openly and covering her mouth with one hand to prevent her despair from screaming forth.

Buffy looked up at the vampire who was about to make good on a fifteen-year-old offer. Summoning her last reserves of stoicism, she said calmly, "Thank you, Spike."

"It's an honor," he stated with conviction.

Letting his demon come to the fore, Spike tilted her neck to the side and caressed it with the reverence of a lover. He lowered his mouth to her vulnerable flesh and bit down swiftly, draining her life's essence. When her heartbeat faltered he pulled away, and both vampires stilled momentarily as they felt death settle over her body.

A second later, Willow exploded.

She surged to her feet and let out a cry of pure anguish. She staggered blindly away from Buffy and Spike, as if by turning her back on the scene she could undo everything that had happened. Her heartfelt rage manifested itself in a sudden, devastating transformation of the surrounding environment.

Trees shuddered and tossed from the wind that raged in the night. Dark clouds rumbled across the blackened sky and swallowed up the cold light of the full moon. Dust and debris danced in the howling storm, illuminated at sharp intervals by sudden flashes of lightning.

The heavens wept.

Rage coursed through the redheaded vampire's veins, and her body tensed with the desire to wreak bloody vengeance on her friend's murderer. She advanced slowly, yet with lethal determination. Spike released the dead Slayer and rose at her approach.

When she reached him, the blond vampire turned and walked in solidarity beside her toward the broken young man who lay paralyzed on the ground. He cowered up at them, knowing that he looked into the face of his own death.

Willow glared down at him and hissed coldly.

"You!"

The man shivered, numb with fear, yet he said nothing. Willow shoved him with her foot, flipping him onto his back like a helpless tortoise. She stared down at him and growled through clenched teeth, "Who sent you?"

He shook his head, silently hoping for a quick death.

His hopes were sorely misguided.

Willow crouched over him and sneered contemptuously, "You're obviously too stupid to plan something like this on your own. So...Who. Sent. You?...Do you need me to spell it out for you?"

She grasped the thin, navy cotton of the man's shirt and ripped it down the center. Placing a clawed finger on his exposed abdomen, the redheaded vampire made a torturously-slow incision. Blood welled up in the W-shaped cut, and Willow calmly sounded out each letter as she inscribed it in his flesh, ignoring the man's blood-curdling screams for her to stop.

"W....h....o....s....e...n...t...y...o...u...!...Oh, damn," Willow remarked coldly. "That last one was supposed to be a question mark. Didn't come out quite right. Oh, well...are you ready to talk yet?"

"Maybe he can't read from that angle, luv," Spike suggested, "Want me to pluck out one of his eyes and hold it closer so he can see the writing?"

"Be my guest," Willow agreed smoothly, narrowing her eyes at the look of abject terror that flashed across the man's face. She had a hunch that she was about to learn what she wanted to know.

"God, no! Please! Please just kill me!" he begged.

"Not bloody likely. Been too long since I've had this much fun maiming someone. 'Course, I could be persuaded to make a deal if you cooperate with the lady," Spike observed.

"The Council..." the man stammered as tremors shook him violently.

"What, the bloody Watchers? Slayer's one of their own..." the blond vampire retorted.

"No...not *theirs*...not since *she* came along..." the man wheezed painfully, glancing furtively at Willow.

Willow stiffened. Her eyes dulled as the guilt hit her. She should have anticipated this. How could she have been so *stupid* as to believe the Watchers Council would simply let Buffy go?!

For the love of mercy...she had been the cause of Buffy's death...

"Fuck it!" Spike snapped the man's neck in disgust, shoved the corpse aside and gathered Willow into his arms.

"It's all my fault..." Willow whimpered.

"Like hell it is," Spike countered sternly, "You're the best thing that ever happened to that girl, and you bloody well know it. Don't give them a victory over you, too...Deal with your grief in the time-honored tradition."

Willow looked up at him, tear-filled eyes questioning. He rested his forehead against hers and growled seductively, "Revenge."

Taking solace in Spike's strong embrace, Willow confessed bitterly, "I've never wanted so badly to kill humans. I want to get every last one of the bastards responsible for this."

"That's the spirit, luv," Spike chuckled.

A horrible realization settled in, and Willow pulled back slightly. "Spike...Angel doesn't know..."

Her companion nodded soberly. "I don't fancy telling him, but we've no choice--"

"No, that's not what I mean," Willow interrupted. "I mean that Angel wasn't warned about this by the Powers. Cordelia would have seen this coming in one of her visions, and Angel would have broken land-speed records to get here in time. Something is wrong..."

*****

"Cordy? Cordy! What's wrong?" Angel shouted in alarm as his Seer let out an unearthly scream and collapsed on the floor. "Wesley! Gunn! Dammit, get in here now!"

Angel's co-workers came running and found the dark vampire trying to soothe Cordelia as she lay curled in a fetal position, clutching her head in agony. None of her visions had ever been this painful.

"What happened?" Wesley asked.

"One minute we were talking, and the next she doubled over. She's been having trouble with her visions lately," Angel explained as he rocked Cordelia gently in his arms.

"I thought she hadn't been getting them," Gunn observed.

"No, they've been coming, but she said it felt like they were suspended just before she could see them," Angel clarified.

"Oh God!" Cordelia moaned, grimacing in pain.

"Sshh...shh....it's okay, Cordy...take your time," Angel reassured her.

"No! No, it's not okay! Angel, you have to go right away," Cordelia insisted in a near panic.

"Where, Cordy? What did you see?"

A sense of dread washed over Cordelia, and the blood drained from her face. "Oh no...it's too late..." she whispered.

"What is it?" Angel coaxed her to respond.

Cordelia looked at him mournfully, and her lower lip trembled as she said, "Angel...it's Buffy..."

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