All the Things That Are Lost, Ch. 6 (S/B)
Title: All the Things That Are Lost
Chapter: 6
Pairing: S/B
Summary: Post-NFA. When Buffy discovers that Spike survived the destruction of Sunnydale, she heads to LA looking for answers; however, her search will eventually lead her to a strange place that is more than a world away.
Previous chapters here
Disclaimer: The characters of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The original characters are my fault. No copyright infringement intended, and as this is posted for free, and read for free, nobody is losing any money. Suing me won’t make you any money either (haha! see my puny bank account!), so let’s just not.
All the Things That Are Lost
Chapter 6 : Harm & Happenstance
Buffy was momentarily at a loss for words.
It was definitely Harmony who stood before her, blocking the entrance of the alleyway and stylishly turned out in the latest of fashions - not a bad dress, actually, but the shade of pink was a mistake, as it only accentuated her burn-victim appearance. Nearly all of the visible skin of her face and neck and arms was reddened and wrinkled and pockmarked by livid scars. Adding to that, the glowing yellow eyes and the sharply threatening teeth… For possibly the very first time in her vampire unlife, Harmony actually looked fearsome. If you didn’t know better, anyway.
“Harmony… you’ve been sun-tanning? Gotta say, it’s not a good look on you.”
“Oh, ha ha, Buffy,” Harmony sneered, her hands on her hips as her high-heeled foot tap-tapped her annoyance. “Ha-fricking-ha. Very funny. Nice to see you too. Aged a bit, though, haven’t you. Did you decide to get those frown lines permanently engraved?”
Buffy frowned. Then tried not to.
“She’s not alone,” Connor murmured in an undertone, obviously setting aside his misgivings as he moved to take a defensive position alongside Buffy. “More vampires coming up on the sidelines.”
“I see them.” A little late, but she saw them only too well. They were scaling the fences in daunting numbers, and leaping down into the alleyway, their eyes glittering a telltale golden in the gloom. Must have been a vamp nest in one of the adjacent warehouses… or maybe they’d all just wandered over here while she’d been too busy arguing with Connor to notice.
Damn it. So stupid, to be boxed in and caught here like such an amateur. And by the likes of Harmony. That really rankled. She must be losing her edge - spending her time only on training slayers, and not nearly enough spent in the field. However, if Harmony was the leader here, then that meant the rest of the vamps were most likely fledglings, or stupid, or probably both - which substantially evened the odds.
She glanced over her shoulder, making sure Andrew and Dawn were safely behind her.
Andrew let out a smothered little gasp as she turned, his ‘emergency’ stake clutched in his white-knuckled grasp. “I’ve had training,” he mumbled to himself in an encouraging mantra. “I can do this. I just have to visualize victory…” At least Dawn was stoically calm, holding her stake defensively before her.
Buffy threw them both the standard stay-back-and-let-me-handle-this look.
“So what - you’ve got minions again, Harmony, and that makes you brave enough to come after me?” Buffy asked loudly, hoping to hold Harmony’s attention until an opening appeared. “What makes you think this’ll turn out any better than it did last time?”
“Well, duh, Buffy. Because this isn’t last time. And - gawd! - you’re so conceited! Why do you always think everything is all about you?”
“Okay,” Buffy said slowly, slightly taken aback, “if you weren’t coming after me, then what are you doing here?”
“What do you think?!” she screeched, waving her arms in irritation. “I’ve got a score to settle with the Worst. Boss. Ever.” Harmony paused, as if expecting some kind of reaction to that dramatic statement, then rolled her eyes. “Angel, you dimwits. I’m getting back at Angel.”
Buffy tried to make sense of the last few sentences. “Boss…? Angel…? I don’t get it. Is that some kind of vampire slang?”
“Actually, I think he really was her boss,” Connor said. “When I was in his office, I saw her working there. She was Angel’s secretary.”
“Not even,” Harmony disputed, with an annoyed huff. “I was his Executive Assistant. There’s a big difference, you know.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Harmony shrugged. “It’s okay - it just bugs me sometimes. You wouldn’t believe how many people get it mixed up.”
Gaping in disbelief, Buffy finally recovered her voice. “You mean… you really worked for Angel?! He actually… hired you… for a real job…? My god,” she breathed, swallowing hard as she tried not to laugh out loud. “He really was evil… or crazy, anyway.”
“Oh, don’t even start trying to act all superior - it’s not like anyone would ever actually hire you for a real job.”
“I was a guidance counsellor,” Buffy pointed out.
“At Sunnydale High? No wonder the student suicide rate tripled.”
“That so wasn’t my faul-” Buffy paused. Was she actually arguing with Harmony? That was just all kinds of disturbing. “So, anyway - Angel gave you a job… and now you want revenge.” Buffy shrugged. “I don’t get it.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of things you don’t get, Buffy. I worked my butt off for that self-righteous, soul-having bastard!” Harmony fumed. “Letters and memos and otters blood and conference calls - all of that stuff! - but did he care? No. There’s only one thing he cares about, and he thinks it makes him so great and special - his precious little soul - thinks it makes him better than everybody. Better than me. And then he can go and do something awful like… like this!!!” She drew her hands gingerly over her ruined face as if it pained her on many levels. “What kind of person would do something so mean? He told me he was writing me a letter of reference,” she wailed. “So that I could get another job. And then, when I opened the envelope…”
“The reference was just a little too glowing?” Buffy guessed, recalling some of Willow’s ball-of-sunlight spells, and unable to keep the smirk out of her voice.
Harmony’s baleful eyes settled upon her. “Yeah, you know what, Buffy? Shut your big fat mouth. You’re only alive right now because I want you to be, got it? I overheard you and your bratty little pukey-green kid sister - which is a very weird colour choice, by the way, and don’t think I didn’t notice that - but anyway, the important thing is, the two of you seem to have figured out some way to get to Angel, and now you’re going to-” Her somewhat rambling, vaguely menacing speech came to an abrupt halt, a sudden flicker in her demon-gold eyes as if she’d only just realized something. Her mouth dropped open. “And Spike,” she shrilled at a much higher pitch. “That’s it, isn’t it?! I don’t believe it! You’re so evil!”
Buffy blinked with surprise. “Excuse me?” Harmony, all vamped out and soulless and demony, was calling her evil?
“All that time, and he finally worked his way out of your greedy, grasping clutches and now… now I’ll bet you think you can get him to come crawling back after you the way he always does, you… you… insatiable vampire layer!”
Buffy wasn’t sure which offended her more - the atrocious pun, or the way that some of Harmony’s ‘minions’ pricked up with prurient interest at that comment. She even caught Connor giving her a curious sideways glance, and glowered at him until he looked away.
“What’s the matter with you, anyway?” Harmony screeched, obviously way caught up in her rant, flinging her arms around in fuming disbelief as she went on and on. “I mean, vampires and slayers - can you get more totally wrong for each other? And why can’t either one of you figure it out already? It’s not like it worked - not like it’s ever going to work! Ugh - it’s so sick and selfish, and it’s… it’s just wrong!” Maybe running out of breath, Harmony sputtered to a halt. Slowly, the look of utter loathing on her face changed. “But did you notice, he didn’t come after you this time, did he?” Harmony said, her voice soaring up into outright gloating. “Not this time. You wonder about that? Well, let me tell you a thing or two, Buffy, he learned from his mistakes. Oh yeah, believe it. No more moping around after you. My Spikey came back a changed man; he was so over you, and moving on to bigger and better things-”
Not only was Harmony’s blathering getting a little too pointed for Buffy’s liking, it was also too much to expect anyone to sit through yet another speech. Buffy decided to make her move. “Harmony,” she interrupted. And then had to raise her voice to a near shout to be heard, “Harmony!”
“Uh, rude!” Harmony sang under her breath, and with a heavy sigh of exasperation, demanded, “What? What now?”
Having noted that some of the vamps - definitely fledglings, she decided - had unwittingly moved into range, Buffy nudged Connor beside her. He nodded, almost imperceptibly. “Just wanted to say that it’s been really great catching up with you, Harmony,” Buffy said, using her sweetest smile while unobtrusively shifting into a fighting stance. “I’d say we should do it again sometime, but I think it’s way past time for you to go. Permanently.”
Predictably, Harmony was a bit slow on the uptake. “What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere; you’re the one who-”
With a step forward and a sweep of her sword, the nearest vamp was already screaming his way into dust as Buffy lopped off his head. Beside her, Connor also struck out with deadly force, knocking another vampire to the ground and staking it with surprising efficiency. As she’d suspected, there was more to him than met the eye.
Pausing only briefly, Buffy spared a glance behind her - Dawn and Andrew were working together, managing to hold their own defensively.
“Oh! Get them! Stop them!” Harmony was ineffectually shouting out orders, even as she was turning on her heel in a frilly whirl of pink, and starting to move back from the fray, “You crappy minions - you’re supposed to be tough! Fight harder, or I’ll tell on you- Oh!” She shrieked as Buffy’s sword swung dangerously close, decapitating one of the fledglings she’d been yelling at.
“You had to hit up rent-a-vamp to get your little posse here? That’s really kind of… pathetic.”
“Kill her, you morons!” Harmony screamed, shoving random vamps between her and Buffy, while backing away as quickly as she could. “Kill her! But get me the other one - I want that little green one!”
A few of the more foolhardy vampires tried to comply. Buffy immediately blocked their path, backed up by Connor. “Over my dead body,” Buffy growled.
Harmony giggled, all sharp teeth and sparkling eyes. “Know what, Buffy? I’m really okay with that.”
Furious, Buffy lunged towards Harmony, but too many of her low-rent ‘minions’ were getting underfoot and in the way, effectively blocking her path with little more than their bared fangs and sheer numbers. Well, if that was the way they wanted it, she could cut those numbers easily enough.
Without hesitating, Buffy threw herself into the fight, the long reach of her sword taking out several fledgling vampires at once. This was what she was made for. These moments. Spin, parry, thrust, kick, decapitate. She’d done it a thousand times before - had tried to distil this lethal performance into the lessons that she now taught to young slayers - and yet, the real thing was different. It always was. And somehow, it never quite lost its appeal.
Though the vampires outnumbered them, too many were raw and inexperienced; and, without leadership, as the dust began to fly around them, most of them simply turned and tried to run away. Those that didn’t found themselves dusting on the fatal end of a stake, or the keen edge of the sword.
But it was close-quarter fighting, and Buffy couldn’t look everywhere at once. From behind her, there was a high-pitched shriek from Dawn as one of the few remaining vampires leapt past their defenses and seized her. Buffy spun around, fighting her way back to defend her sister - “Dawn!” - even as it was leaning in to bite her, and Buffy was still too far away, wasn’t going to be able to get there in time…
Connor was much closer, and the snarling vampire scattered into dust as he staked it.
“Thanks,” Dawn coughed, waving her hands to dispel the dust. “Oh gross. I hate it,” she sneezed, “when they get up your nose.”
“Guys,” Andrew wheezed uncertainly in the abrupt hush, still pivoting back and forth with a spastic twitching of the stake in his hand, “I think that’s the last of them. They’re gone. I think we did it! We defeated The Vampire Horde.”
“Gone? All of them?” Buffy whirled around. “They can’t be. What about Harmony? I didn’t kill Harmony yet. Where did she go?”
“Back there, I guess.” Andrew pointed imprecisely back towards the dark shape of the hotel. “I… was actually kind of busy defending my life, and all that. I didn’t really see.”
“She so needs to be dusted-” Buffy started after her, but Connor stepped in front of her.
“Are you crazy?! Well… maybe you are, I can see that,” he amended, “but still - that place is a mess, and the basement is riddled with tunnels,” he warned. “I’ve seen it. Take my word for it: if she’s gone down there, you’re not going to have any way of knowing which direction she went. Or how many more of them might be down there, waiting for us to do something that stupid.”
Buffy shook her head. Too many times already, Harmony had escaped dusting. Like a cockroach, scuttling away again and again, only to eventually reappear and cause more trouble. And now, she knew - or at least suspected - something about Dawn. That put her way over the ‘annoyance’ category and well into the ‘dangerous.’ It was definitely past time to put an end to her. “I know how to handle vamps,” Buffy said with certainty.
“But - Buffy… That’s not what you came here for,” Dawn reminded her. “Is it?”
“She saw you, Dawn! You heard what she said! I can’t just let her go - I have to kill her!” And yet, she couldn’t just run off and leave Dawn and Andrew undefended either… and there was also the portal, still plaguing her with the inexplicable sense of time running out…
“I’ll be okay. See? I have my own sharp stake to protect me. And there’s Andrew and Connor,” Dawn said reassuringly.
Connor seemed puzzled by Buffy’s agitation, and was peering at Dawn in an almost equal level of confusion. “She’s just one vamp,” he reminded Buffy, “and not all that smart from what I could tell. Hunt her down and take her out on your terms - it doesn’t make any sense to go blindly running after her right now, when she’s got the advantage. Besides,” he added, “she’s not likely to get far if she sticks her head above ground. After all, you’re not the only slayer in town-”
That caught her attention. “I’m not?”
“No.” He seemed a little taken aback by the vehemence of her question. “There was a group of them downtown, hanging around the old Wolfram & Hart site.”
“And how would you know they were slayers?” Andrew quizzed, ever so slightly petulant as if he were jealous with that knowledge.
“Well, let’s see: It’s hard to say exactly what it was that tipped me off, but it might have been when the vampires that I’d been tailing were suddenly jumped on and dusted by three girls,” Connor retorted. “I mean, come on - a bunch of teenage girls standing around with stakes? What else would they be?”
“Could have been well-prepared girl scouts,” Andrew muttered peevishly.
Connor ignored that. “That’s actually why I headed back out here. Seemed like nothing was likely to happen there with that many slayers around.” He paused, noticing the wordless glance that passed between Dawn and Buffy. “So… these other slayers… I’m guessing you aren’t with them, are you?”
“I don’t know,” Buffy replied honestly. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Buffy,” Dawn said gently. “Have you decided what you want to do?”
Yes. No. Buffy glanced once again at Connor. “What are you doing here, really?” Asking the question this time, not demanding. After all, even though he’d got dragged into her fight, he’d still fought alongside her - and had saved Dawn - she owed him at least that much respect.
Connor paused, and Buffy could sense him weighing his options. Not surprising since they’d known each other for all of twenty minutes, and she knew that it was asking a lot to be expecting trust at this point.
“I wasn’t here during the battle,” he said at last, shaking his head as he spoke. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this - I don’t know why you care so much - but if you’re looking for information, I don’t have much. Yes, I was at Wolfram & Hart that night, but Angel wouldn’t let me stay. He told me to get out.” He was frowning at his feet, and there was still the niggling sense of something left unsaid. “So, anyway, I left. Went home. When I came back the next day, everything was destroyed, and everyone was gone. I only found my way to this place afterward… I know it sounds weird, but, somehow, I can tell that this is where it ended. In the alley, here. I keep coming back here, because…” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I keep expecting something to happen. Nothing ever has, though.”
“Keep your eyes open,” Buffy said dryly. “It might yet.”
His eyebrow quirked upward in a wary question.
“There’s something I have to do,” she started to explain, “and I need to do it myself. But I don’t want to just leave them here - Dawn and Andrew. Can I trust you?”
Connor had already told her once that he wasn’t going to take orders from her, but this time he seemed to understand what and why she was asking. Something flickered in his gaze - an intensity that seemed almost familiar - and she realized she knew the answer before he spoke it aloud. “Don’t worry; I’ll get them out of here safely,” he promised, nodding towards Dawn and Andrew, and she believed him. “I won’t let anyone hurt them.”
Andrew chose that moment to lurch and leap about like a crazed leprechaun. “Aaiiieeee!!!” he wailed, grabbing at his neck and careening headlong down the alleyway away from them. “Witchcraft! The Coven! They’ve found us - they see us-!”
Only then did Buffy realize that the stones at the center of both their amulets were now glowing from within with a bright yellow flame. “Dawn-!”
The crystal at the center of Buffy’s necklace imploded, shattering into a puff of golden dust. “Too late,” Dawn murmured speculatively. “But I wonder if…?” Reaching out, she touched her finger to the stone within her own amulet, and the burning yellow light faltered, changing to a glistening green shade as it subsided. Dawn grinned happily. “Hey, I think that worked.”
“How did you-?”
“Like riding a bike, I guess,” Dawn replied. “You never really forget, right?” Removing the now green-stoned amulet, she placed it carefully around Buffy’s neck. “Keep it with you - hopefully I can use it to find you later. When you’re ready to come back. So, are you ready to go?”
“What just happened? And what’s wrong with him?” Connor asked, looking after Andrew. “What’s going on?”
Buffy’s head was whirling as she tried to decide what to focus on. The now-green stone ensconced in her amulet; Andrew running in circles at the end of the alleyway, stomping on his amulet; Connor’s rapid-fire questions; and the all-important question that Dawn was asking her…
“Long story,” Dawn threw back over her shoulder at Connor, taking Buffy’s hand and pulling her down the alleyway as they retraced their steps to the portal. “Tell you later.”
“Is that going to be the answer to every question I ask?” He sounded annoyed.
Dawn smirked. “It’ll depend on what you ask me. Buffy-” Dawn turned her attention back to her, and her eyes were already faintly tinged with an otherworldly green. “-we’ve only got a few minutes. The Coven’s probably already got slayers on the way - but I’m betting they don’t realize I can open the portal. We can stay here and wait for them, try to talk it out. Or we can go, come back later, and try another time. Or we can do this right now. It’s up to you. Tell me what you want to do.”
Buffy touched Dawn’s face. She knew the answer she wanted to give, but a part of herself was afraid to give it. The part of her that belonged to Dawn. “I… Dawn, how can I be sure? Glory,” she whispered. “Glory needed your blood to open-”
“Glory was an idiot,” Dawn retorted. “Evil, yes; genius, no. I didn’t know what I was then,” she explained. “Everything was too new… and Glory probably figured that the quickest and easiest way to make it work was to pull it all apart. Maybe it was, then. But I’m aware, now. I can’t explain how, but I know. I’m starting to feel what I really am, what I’m capable of. And I can do this. If you want me to, I can do this for you.”
“Then… yes…” Yes, I want to go. Yes, I want a second chance. “But only if you’re sure-” she began, but her own voice was so uncertain.
“Don’t be stupid, Buffy,” Dawn said, and with a flicker of movement she was suddenly engulfed by iridescent green flame. Beside her, Connor gave a startled cry, stumbling backwards in wide-eyed astonishment. “After all, this is what we came here to do.” She seemed to concentrate for a moment, and a startling blue-white beacon opened up from the ground, illuminating the surrounding area with a brilliance that was brighter than daylight. A wall of wind whipped around them, and Dawn laughed exultantly. “You see? I told you I could open it!”
Buffy stared into the dazzling column of light, an undeniable note of apprehension resounding inside of her. “Nothing can get out…?” she shouted in a terribly belated question, watching it spill up into the night sky. “They were afraid - Willow said they couldn’t risk opening it-”
“I’m not a witch, I’m a Key!” Dawn shouted back. “I know what I’m doing! I’ve only unlocked the way through to the other side - nothing can come back this way. Now, go on. The door’s way heavier than it looks!”
His mouth agape, Connor stood nearby, also caught up with them in the eye of the storm, his face reflecting ever-changing moments of alarm, uncertainty and wonderment. Seeming to feel Buffy’s imploring gaze fixed upon him, he turned to meet her eyes. “I’ll get her to safety. I’ll look after her,” Connor said, shouting to be heard over the tumult, “I promise.”
“Hey, Buffy,” Dawn called out, “Tell Spike I said ‘hi.’ Now, get your butt in gear. And be careful. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Buffy almost laughed at that. “I’ll be back… as soon as I can,” she said, realizing that she really had no idea when that would be.
Dawn was unfazed. “I’ll be waiting,” she promised.
Taking a deep breath, Buffy took a step forward into the blinding light…
Chapter: 6
Pairing: S/B
Summary: Post-NFA. When Buffy discovers that Spike survived the destruction of Sunnydale, she heads to LA looking for answers; however, her search will eventually lead her to a strange place that is more than a world away.
Previous chapters here
Disclaimer: The characters of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The original characters are my fault. No copyright infringement intended, and as this is posted for free, and read for free, nobody is losing any money. Suing me won’t make you any money either (haha! see my puny bank account!), so let’s just not.
All the Things That Are Lost
Chapter 6 : Harm & Happenstance
Buffy was momentarily at a loss for words.
It was definitely Harmony who stood before her, blocking the entrance of the alleyway and stylishly turned out in the latest of fashions - not a bad dress, actually, but the shade of pink was a mistake, as it only accentuated her burn-victim appearance. Nearly all of the visible skin of her face and neck and arms was reddened and wrinkled and pockmarked by livid scars. Adding to that, the glowing yellow eyes and the sharply threatening teeth… For possibly the very first time in her vampire unlife, Harmony actually looked fearsome. If you didn’t know better, anyway.
“Harmony… you’ve been sun-tanning? Gotta say, it’s not a good look on you.”
“Oh, ha ha, Buffy,” Harmony sneered, her hands on her hips as her high-heeled foot tap-tapped her annoyance. “Ha-fricking-ha. Very funny. Nice to see you too. Aged a bit, though, haven’t you. Did you decide to get those frown lines permanently engraved?”
Buffy frowned. Then tried not to.
“She’s not alone,” Connor murmured in an undertone, obviously setting aside his misgivings as he moved to take a defensive position alongside Buffy. “More vampires coming up on the sidelines.”
“I see them.” A little late, but she saw them only too well. They were scaling the fences in daunting numbers, and leaping down into the alleyway, their eyes glittering a telltale golden in the gloom. Must have been a vamp nest in one of the adjacent warehouses… or maybe they’d all just wandered over here while she’d been too busy arguing with Connor to notice.
Damn it. So stupid, to be boxed in and caught here like such an amateur. And by the likes of Harmony. That really rankled. She must be losing her edge - spending her time only on training slayers, and not nearly enough spent in the field. However, if Harmony was the leader here, then that meant the rest of the vamps were most likely fledglings, or stupid, or probably both - which substantially evened the odds.
She glanced over her shoulder, making sure Andrew and Dawn were safely behind her.
Andrew let out a smothered little gasp as she turned, his ‘emergency’ stake clutched in his white-knuckled grasp. “I’ve had training,” he mumbled to himself in an encouraging mantra. “I can do this. I just have to visualize victory…” At least Dawn was stoically calm, holding her stake defensively before her.
Buffy threw them both the standard stay-back-and-let-me-handle-this look.
“So what - you’ve got minions again, Harmony, and that makes you brave enough to come after me?” Buffy asked loudly, hoping to hold Harmony’s attention until an opening appeared. “What makes you think this’ll turn out any better than it did last time?”
“Well, duh, Buffy. Because this isn’t last time. And - gawd! - you’re so conceited! Why do you always think everything is all about you?”
“Okay,” Buffy said slowly, slightly taken aback, “if you weren’t coming after me, then what are you doing here?”
“What do you think?!” she screeched, waving her arms in irritation. “I’ve got a score to settle with the Worst. Boss. Ever.” Harmony paused, as if expecting some kind of reaction to that dramatic statement, then rolled her eyes. “Angel, you dimwits. I’m getting back at Angel.”
Buffy tried to make sense of the last few sentences. “Boss…? Angel…? I don’t get it. Is that some kind of vampire slang?”
“Actually, I think he really was her boss,” Connor said. “When I was in his office, I saw her working there. She was Angel’s secretary.”
“Not even,” Harmony disputed, with an annoyed huff. “I was his Executive Assistant. There’s a big difference, you know.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Harmony shrugged. “It’s okay - it just bugs me sometimes. You wouldn’t believe how many people get it mixed up.”
Gaping in disbelief, Buffy finally recovered her voice. “You mean… you really worked for Angel?! He actually… hired you… for a real job…? My god,” she breathed, swallowing hard as she tried not to laugh out loud. “He really was evil… or crazy, anyway.”
“Oh, don’t even start trying to act all superior - it’s not like anyone would ever actually hire you for a real job.”
“I was a guidance counsellor,” Buffy pointed out.
“At Sunnydale High? No wonder the student suicide rate tripled.”
“That so wasn’t my faul-” Buffy paused. Was she actually arguing with Harmony? That was just all kinds of disturbing. “So, anyway - Angel gave you a job… and now you want revenge.” Buffy shrugged. “I don’t get it.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of things you don’t get, Buffy. I worked my butt off for that self-righteous, soul-having bastard!” Harmony fumed. “Letters and memos and otters blood and conference calls - all of that stuff! - but did he care? No. There’s only one thing he cares about, and he thinks it makes him so great and special - his precious little soul - thinks it makes him better than everybody. Better than me. And then he can go and do something awful like… like this!!!” She drew her hands gingerly over her ruined face as if it pained her on many levels. “What kind of person would do something so mean? He told me he was writing me a letter of reference,” she wailed. “So that I could get another job. And then, when I opened the envelope…”
“The reference was just a little too glowing?” Buffy guessed, recalling some of Willow’s ball-of-sunlight spells, and unable to keep the smirk out of her voice.
Harmony’s baleful eyes settled upon her. “Yeah, you know what, Buffy? Shut your big fat mouth. You’re only alive right now because I want you to be, got it? I overheard you and your bratty little pukey-green kid sister - which is a very weird colour choice, by the way, and don’t think I didn’t notice that - but anyway, the important thing is, the two of you seem to have figured out some way to get to Angel, and now you’re going to-” Her somewhat rambling, vaguely menacing speech came to an abrupt halt, a sudden flicker in her demon-gold eyes as if she’d only just realized something. Her mouth dropped open. “And Spike,” she shrilled at a much higher pitch. “That’s it, isn’t it?! I don’t believe it! You’re so evil!”
Buffy blinked with surprise. “Excuse me?” Harmony, all vamped out and soulless and demony, was calling her evil?
“All that time, and he finally worked his way out of your greedy, grasping clutches and now… now I’ll bet you think you can get him to come crawling back after you the way he always does, you… you… insatiable vampire layer!”
Buffy wasn’t sure which offended her more - the atrocious pun, or the way that some of Harmony’s ‘minions’ pricked up with prurient interest at that comment. She even caught Connor giving her a curious sideways glance, and glowered at him until he looked away.
“What’s the matter with you, anyway?” Harmony screeched, obviously way caught up in her rant, flinging her arms around in fuming disbelief as she went on and on. “I mean, vampires and slayers - can you get more totally wrong for each other? And why can’t either one of you figure it out already? It’s not like it worked - not like it’s ever going to work! Ugh - it’s so sick and selfish, and it’s… it’s just wrong!” Maybe running out of breath, Harmony sputtered to a halt. Slowly, the look of utter loathing on her face changed. “But did you notice, he didn’t come after you this time, did he?” Harmony said, her voice soaring up into outright gloating. “Not this time. You wonder about that? Well, let me tell you a thing or two, Buffy, he learned from his mistakes. Oh yeah, believe it. No more moping around after you. My Spikey came back a changed man; he was so over you, and moving on to bigger and better things-”
Not only was Harmony’s blathering getting a little too pointed for Buffy’s liking, it was also too much to expect anyone to sit through yet another speech. Buffy decided to make her move. “Harmony,” she interrupted. And then had to raise her voice to a near shout to be heard, “Harmony!”
“Uh, rude!” Harmony sang under her breath, and with a heavy sigh of exasperation, demanded, “What? What now?”
Having noted that some of the vamps - definitely fledglings, she decided - had unwittingly moved into range, Buffy nudged Connor beside her. He nodded, almost imperceptibly. “Just wanted to say that it’s been really great catching up with you, Harmony,” Buffy said, using her sweetest smile while unobtrusively shifting into a fighting stance. “I’d say we should do it again sometime, but I think it’s way past time for you to go. Permanently.”
Predictably, Harmony was a bit slow on the uptake. “What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere; you’re the one who-”
With a step forward and a sweep of her sword, the nearest vamp was already screaming his way into dust as Buffy lopped off his head. Beside her, Connor also struck out with deadly force, knocking another vampire to the ground and staking it with surprising efficiency. As she’d suspected, there was more to him than met the eye.
Pausing only briefly, Buffy spared a glance behind her - Dawn and Andrew were working together, managing to hold their own defensively.
“Oh! Get them! Stop them!” Harmony was ineffectually shouting out orders, even as she was turning on her heel in a frilly whirl of pink, and starting to move back from the fray, “You crappy minions - you’re supposed to be tough! Fight harder, or I’ll tell on you- Oh!” She shrieked as Buffy’s sword swung dangerously close, decapitating one of the fledglings she’d been yelling at.
“You had to hit up rent-a-vamp to get your little posse here? That’s really kind of… pathetic.”
“Kill her, you morons!” Harmony screamed, shoving random vamps between her and Buffy, while backing away as quickly as she could. “Kill her! But get me the other one - I want that little green one!”
A few of the more foolhardy vampires tried to comply. Buffy immediately blocked their path, backed up by Connor. “Over my dead body,” Buffy growled.
Harmony giggled, all sharp teeth and sparkling eyes. “Know what, Buffy? I’m really okay with that.”
Furious, Buffy lunged towards Harmony, but too many of her low-rent ‘minions’ were getting underfoot and in the way, effectively blocking her path with little more than their bared fangs and sheer numbers. Well, if that was the way they wanted it, she could cut those numbers easily enough.
Without hesitating, Buffy threw herself into the fight, the long reach of her sword taking out several fledgling vampires at once. This was what she was made for. These moments. Spin, parry, thrust, kick, decapitate. She’d done it a thousand times before - had tried to distil this lethal performance into the lessons that she now taught to young slayers - and yet, the real thing was different. It always was. And somehow, it never quite lost its appeal.
Though the vampires outnumbered them, too many were raw and inexperienced; and, without leadership, as the dust began to fly around them, most of them simply turned and tried to run away. Those that didn’t found themselves dusting on the fatal end of a stake, or the keen edge of the sword.
But it was close-quarter fighting, and Buffy couldn’t look everywhere at once. From behind her, there was a high-pitched shriek from Dawn as one of the few remaining vampires leapt past their defenses and seized her. Buffy spun around, fighting her way back to defend her sister - “Dawn!” - even as it was leaning in to bite her, and Buffy was still too far away, wasn’t going to be able to get there in time…
Connor was much closer, and the snarling vampire scattered into dust as he staked it.
“Thanks,” Dawn coughed, waving her hands to dispel the dust. “Oh gross. I hate it,” she sneezed, “when they get up your nose.”
“Guys,” Andrew wheezed uncertainly in the abrupt hush, still pivoting back and forth with a spastic twitching of the stake in his hand, “I think that’s the last of them. They’re gone. I think we did it! We defeated The Vampire Horde.”
“Gone? All of them?” Buffy whirled around. “They can’t be. What about Harmony? I didn’t kill Harmony yet. Where did she go?”
“Back there, I guess.” Andrew pointed imprecisely back towards the dark shape of the hotel. “I… was actually kind of busy defending my life, and all that. I didn’t really see.”
“She so needs to be dusted-” Buffy started after her, but Connor stepped in front of her.
“Are you crazy?! Well… maybe you are, I can see that,” he amended, “but still - that place is a mess, and the basement is riddled with tunnels,” he warned. “I’ve seen it. Take my word for it: if she’s gone down there, you’re not going to have any way of knowing which direction she went. Or how many more of them might be down there, waiting for us to do something that stupid.”
Buffy shook her head. Too many times already, Harmony had escaped dusting. Like a cockroach, scuttling away again and again, only to eventually reappear and cause more trouble. And now, she knew - or at least suspected - something about Dawn. That put her way over the ‘annoyance’ category and well into the ‘dangerous.’ It was definitely past time to put an end to her. “I know how to handle vamps,” Buffy said with certainty.
“But - Buffy… That’s not what you came here for,” Dawn reminded her. “Is it?”
“She saw you, Dawn! You heard what she said! I can’t just let her go - I have to kill her!” And yet, she couldn’t just run off and leave Dawn and Andrew undefended either… and there was also the portal, still plaguing her with the inexplicable sense of time running out…
“I’ll be okay. See? I have my own sharp stake to protect me. And there’s Andrew and Connor,” Dawn said reassuringly.
Connor seemed puzzled by Buffy’s agitation, and was peering at Dawn in an almost equal level of confusion. “She’s just one vamp,” he reminded Buffy, “and not all that smart from what I could tell. Hunt her down and take her out on your terms - it doesn’t make any sense to go blindly running after her right now, when she’s got the advantage. Besides,” he added, “she’s not likely to get far if she sticks her head above ground. After all, you’re not the only slayer in town-”
That caught her attention. “I’m not?”
“No.” He seemed a little taken aback by the vehemence of her question. “There was a group of them downtown, hanging around the old Wolfram & Hart site.”
“And how would you know they were slayers?” Andrew quizzed, ever so slightly petulant as if he were jealous with that knowledge.
“Well, let’s see: It’s hard to say exactly what it was that tipped me off, but it might have been when the vampires that I’d been tailing were suddenly jumped on and dusted by three girls,” Connor retorted. “I mean, come on - a bunch of teenage girls standing around with stakes? What else would they be?”
“Could have been well-prepared girl scouts,” Andrew muttered peevishly.
Connor ignored that. “That’s actually why I headed back out here. Seemed like nothing was likely to happen there with that many slayers around.” He paused, noticing the wordless glance that passed between Dawn and Buffy. “So… these other slayers… I’m guessing you aren’t with them, are you?”
“I don’t know,” Buffy replied honestly. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Buffy,” Dawn said gently. “Have you decided what you want to do?”
Yes. No. Buffy glanced once again at Connor. “What are you doing here, really?” Asking the question this time, not demanding. After all, even though he’d got dragged into her fight, he’d still fought alongside her - and had saved Dawn - she owed him at least that much respect.
Connor paused, and Buffy could sense him weighing his options. Not surprising since they’d known each other for all of twenty minutes, and she knew that it was asking a lot to be expecting trust at this point.
“I wasn’t here during the battle,” he said at last, shaking his head as he spoke. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this - I don’t know why you care so much - but if you’re looking for information, I don’t have much. Yes, I was at Wolfram & Hart that night, but Angel wouldn’t let me stay. He told me to get out.” He was frowning at his feet, and there was still the niggling sense of something left unsaid. “So, anyway, I left. Went home. When I came back the next day, everything was destroyed, and everyone was gone. I only found my way to this place afterward… I know it sounds weird, but, somehow, I can tell that this is where it ended. In the alley, here. I keep coming back here, because…” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I keep expecting something to happen. Nothing ever has, though.”
“Keep your eyes open,” Buffy said dryly. “It might yet.”
His eyebrow quirked upward in a wary question.
“There’s something I have to do,” she started to explain, “and I need to do it myself. But I don’t want to just leave them here - Dawn and Andrew. Can I trust you?”
Connor had already told her once that he wasn’t going to take orders from her, but this time he seemed to understand what and why she was asking. Something flickered in his gaze - an intensity that seemed almost familiar - and she realized she knew the answer before he spoke it aloud. “Don’t worry; I’ll get them out of here safely,” he promised, nodding towards Dawn and Andrew, and she believed him. “I won’t let anyone hurt them.”
Andrew chose that moment to lurch and leap about like a crazed leprechaun. “Aaiiieeee!!!” he wailed, grabbing at his neck and careening headlong down the alleyway away from them. “Witchcraft! The Coven! They’ve found us - they see us-!”
Only then did Buffy realize that the stones at the center of both their amulets were now glowing from within with a bright yellow flame. “Dawn-!”
The crystal at the center of Buffy’s necklace imploded, shattering into a puff of golden dust. “Too late,” Dawn murmured speculatively. “But I wonder if…?” Reaching out, she touched her finger to the stone within her own amulet, and the burning yellow light faltered, changing to a glistening green shade as it subsided. Dawn grinned happily. “Hey, I think that worked.”
“How did you-?”
“Like riding a bike, I guess,” Dawn replied. “You never really forget, right?” Removing the now green-stoned amulet, she placed it carefully around Buffy’s neck. “Keep it with you - hopefully I can use it to find you later. When you’re ready to come back. So, are you ready to go?”
“What just happened? And what’s wrong with him?” Connor asked, looking after Andrew. “What’s going on?”
Buffy’s head was whirling as she tried to decide what to focus on. The now-green stone ensconced in her amulet; Andrew running in circles at the end of the alleyway, stomping on his amulet; Connor’s rapid-fire questions; and the all-important question that Dawn was asking her…
“Long story,” Dawn threw back over her shoulder at Connor, taking Buffy’s hand and pulling her down the alleyway as they retraced their steps to the portal. “Tell you later.”
“Is that going to be the answer to every question I ask?” He sounded annoyed.
Dawn smirked. “It’ll depend on what you ask me. Buffy-” Dawn turned her attention back to her, and her eyes were already faintly tinged with an otherworldly green. “-we’ve only got a few minutes. The Coven’s probably already got slayers on the way - but I’m betting they don’t realize I can open the portal. We can stay here and wait for them, try to talk it out. Or we can go, come back later, and try another time. Or we can do this right now. It’s up to you. Tell me what you want to do.”
Buffy touched Dawn’s face. She knew the answer she wanted to give, but a part of herself was afraid to give it. The part of her that belonged to Dawn. “I… Dawn, how can I be sure? Glory,” she whispered. “Glory needed your blood to open-”
“Glory was an idiot,” Dawn retorted. “Evil, yes; genius, no. I didn’t know what I was then,” she explained. “Everything was too new… and Glory probably figured that the quickest and easiest way to make it work was to pull it all apart. Maybe it was, then. But I’m aware, now. I can’t explain how, but I know. I’m starting to feel what I really am, what I’m capable of. And I can do this. If you want me to, I can do this for you.”
“Then… yes…” Yes, I want to go. Yes, I want a second chance. “But only if you’re sure-” she began, but her own voice was so uncertain.
“Don’t be stupid, Buffy,” Dawn said, and with a flicker of movement she was suddenly engulfed by iridescent green flame. Beside her, Connor gave a startled cry, stumbling backwards in wide-eyed astonishment. “After all, this is what we came here to do.” She seemed to concentrate for a moment, and a startling blue-white beacon opened up from the ground, illuminating the surrounding area with a brilliance that was brighter than daylight. A wall of wind whipped around them, and Dawn laughed exultantly. “You see? I told you I could open it!”
Buffy stared into the dazzling column of light, an undeniable note of apprehension resounding inside of her. “Nothing can get out…?” she shouted in a terribly belated question, watching it spill up into the night sky. “They were afraid - Willow said they couldn’t risk opening it-”
“I’m not a witch, I’m a Key!” Dawn shouted back. “I know what I’m doing! I’ve only unlocked the way through to the other side - nothing can come back this way. Now, go on. The door’s way heavier than it looks!”
His mouth agape, Connor stood nearby, also caught up with them in the eye of the storm, his face reflecting ever-changing moments of alarm, uncertainty and wonderment. Seeming to feel Buffy’s imploring gaze fixed upon him, he turned to meet her eyes. “I’ll get her to safety. I’ll look after her,” Connor said, shouting to be heard over the tumult, “I promise.”
“Hey, Buffy,” Dawn called out, “Tell Spike I said ‘hi.’ Now, get your butt in gear. And be careful. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Buffy almost laughed at that. “I’ll be back… as soon as I can,” she said, realizing that she really had no idea when that would be.
Dawn was unfazed. “I’ll be waiting,” she promised.
Taking a deep breath, Buffy took a step forward into the blinding light…