FIC: Shakespeare Be Damned! (1/3 Reposted in segments)
Lyle F. Padilla
(Reposted in segments for those whose mail servers might not be able
to handle the full story in one piece.)
Part 1 of 3
SUMMARY:
Fred and Wesley deserved a better fate. Dawn and Andrew help give it
to them!
SETTING:
Post-Angel: "Not Fade Away", slightly AU per the Author's Notes
following.
SPOILERS
for both BtVS and Angel through both series
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
This is another excerpt from my larger work-in-progress "The Family
that Slays Together". Slightly AU in the following particulars:
The complete work is a followup to my BtVS/Kolchak: The Night Stalker
crossover script "Blood of the Night Stalker", which was posted on
alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative in the Spring of 2003 and is archived
on my own website at
http://www.users.voicenet.com/~lpadilla/BOTNS.html
*****
Summary of "Blood of the Night Stalker":
If you can't take the time to read it, that story takes place during
Buffy Season 7 sometime between "The Killer in Me" and "Lies My
Parents Told Me". An eccentric old man, calling himself Carl Kohl and
wearing a seersucker suit and straw homburg hat, shows up at the
Summers home looking for Joyce, and is shaken to learn from Dawn that
she's been dead for two years. He explains to the Summers sisters that
he's an old friend of their mother's family, particularly their
grandmother. Buffy's and Dawn's suspicions are raised: despite his
eccentricities, he's obviously much richer, based on his car and the
hotel where he's staying, than any of their grandmother's friends.
Dawn tries to call their grandmother to check out Carl's story but
ends up leaving a message on her answering machine. Later, Buffy, Dawn
and Xander are involved in a fight in a cemetery with a nest of
vampires, who to their surprise pounce on Carl, who has been following
them around. To their shock, the old man quickly dusts his three
attackers with ease and reveals to them that his real name is Carl
Kolchak. Although Xander initially dismisses him as a crackpot
assuming the identity of a fictional TV character, Buffy and Dawn
immediately recognize him as the legendary vampire hunter, sometime
consultant to the Council of Watchers, and author of The Kolchak
Papers, a valuable document in their literature. Giles was actually
one of his closest friends among the Watchers. Carl "cried all the way
to the bank" when the TV network bought the movie rights to his papers
while assuming it was fiction. He'd been to Sunnydale decades before
and had narrowly escaped becoming a blood sacrifice for The First and
the Bringers to open the Seal over the Hellmouth. He has reluctantly
returned to Sunnydale because he knew his daughter and granddaughters
lived there, and had heard about the new rumblings with The First, and
he came to get them out. He then reveals that the woman who had been
depicted as his fiancee Gail in the original Kolchak TV Movie, and who
had been run out of town by the Las Vegas police when he'd embarrassed
them after killing his first vampire, was actually his wife Joan and
was the mother of his two daughters, Pauline and Joyce. (NOTE:
Canonical purists are welcome to substitute "Arlene" or "Darlene" for
the name of Joyce's sister, per the conflicting shooting scripts and
episodes.) Joan had actually run off with them and changed their
family name out of fear that Carl's killing of a vampire would unleash
untold evils upon the family; Joyce and Pauline grew up believing that
their father was dead.
Dawn quickly bonds to her newfound grandfather, but Buffy is skeptical
of his claim until he offers to pay for DNA testing of the three of
them. In addition to establishing that Carl is indeed their
grandfather, the testing reveals that Buffy and Dawn have nearly
identical DNA. Carl quickly realizes and informs them that he is aware
that Dawn is some mystical entity given human form from the blood of
the Slayer and turned into her sister for protection; she's not the
first entity that this has happened to, but the now-deceased Council
had withheld that information from Buffy, Dawn and Giles. Carl then
gives the rest of the story: Dawn is also developing Slayer-like
powers as had the other mystical entities; with a Slayer's short life
expectancy, none of them could depend on their older sisters for
protection indefinitely. Dawn and Buffy decide to keep this
information to themselves for fear that The First will zero in on Dawn
if it knows.
Carl throws a party for Buffy, Dawn, the Scoobies and the Potentials
to celebrate the DNA results, and they are suddenly interrupted by the
appearance of Joan and Pauline: Joan is furious after returning Dawn's
earlier call, having a strange boy named Andrew answer the phone and
then his letting it slip that Carl Kolchak has entered the lives of
her granddaughters. Still fearful of the evils and dangers that have
accompanied the life of Kolchak the Night Stalker, she and Pauline
have arrived determined to take Buffy and Dawn away from him. Buffy
has barely started to explain to her grandmother that she is the
Chosen One who guards the Hellmouth, when several Bringers attack.
They attempt to drag away Carl, Buffy and Dawn, who fight them off,
but they succeed in dragging away Pauline; Dawn sees this and lets
herself get taken in order to protect her Aunt Pauline.
After realizing that the Bringers had tried to take him and his direct
descendants, Carl realizes that the Bringers must be after people with
his blood and are trying to reopen the Seal that they had started to
open with his blood decades earlier. Buffy, Spike and Xander go off to
rescue Pauline and Dawn, with both Carl and Joan insisting on coming
along. After some confusion over the Seal of Danzalthar, Carl realizes
that the one that was nearly opened with his blood was a second seal,
later blocked off with an explosion, in an underground chamber several
feet below the Seal in the school basement. As they head there,
Pauline and Dawn are brought there by the Bringers, who tie up Pauline
and prepare bleed her, but Dawn grabs for the knives of the Bringers
holding her. Dawn kills several of the Bringers and cuts Pauline free,
but is in turn cut in the abdomen during the struggle. She passes out
on top of the seal while bleeding onto it.
Dawn regains consciousness just as Buffy, Carl and the others reach
her. She is badly weakened by the loss of blood, although her wound
has almost healed immediately and the seal is completely gone. They
realize that, by a fluke of her being both the Key and a descendant of
the last person whose blood was used in an attempt to open that seal,
she has caused the seal to be "locked up".
The next morning, Carl leaves with Joan and Pauline for Pauline's home
in the LA suburbs. Buffy and Dawn decline an invitation to join them,
pointing out that Carl needs to get to know his other grandchildren
without them tagging along. It is clear that a reconciliation between
Carl and Joan is in the offing.
I believe that there is nothing in this story that contradicts Canon
for the remainder of the series. Dawn and Buffy continue to not talk
about Dawn having Slayer-like powers out of fear of The First, and the
powers appear to have disappeared because of her severe bleeding.
*****
Salient points about this storyline Post-"Chosen" and with regard to
Angel Season 5:
Dawn reveals to Buffy that her Slayer-like powers returned during the
fight over the Hellmouth. Buffy reveals that she knew they were back
when Dawn kicked her in the shin; she had teamed Dawn with Xander so
she could protect him rather than the other way around. With The First
in remission, they and Carl tell the rest of the new Council of
Watchers (Giles, Willow, Xander and Andrew) about Dawn's powers, and
Giles decides that her knowledge and other experiences still make her
more valuable as a Watcher than as a front-line Slayer.
Carl and Joan have reconciled to the joy of Buffy, Dawn and their Aunt
Pauline and their cousins. After the collapse of the Hellmouth and
Sunnydale, Carl offers up his huge lakeside home near the Redwood
Forest northeast of Los Angeles as a new headquarters for the new
Council of Watchers and a school and training center for all the newly
empowered Slayers. They quickly and unanimously name the center the
Joyce Summers Academy. The Council members go about tracking down the
new slayers around the world who hadn't been with them at the
Hellmouth. Carl uses his wealth to bankroll operations for a brief
period until the old Council's assets are unfrozen and released to
Giles.
They confirm that a Potential Slayer gene apparently runs through Carl
Kolchak's bloodline: both of Aunt Pauline's daughters, Cyndi and
Colette, are now Slayers. Cyndi is the same age as Dawn and they had
been close when they were younger. Twelve year old Colette's powers
actually came to her while she was in the batter's box at a Girl's
Little League baseball game.
Four days after the collapse of Sunnydale, rescue workers with trained
dogs find Amanda unconscious and barely alive inside an air pocket at
the bottom of the crater, but find no other survivors or bodies. As
she begins months of hospitalization, Buffy and Dawn realize that
Amanda was never really a Potential; the same magics that the monks
had used to hide the Key's aura also deflected the Potential-detecting
spells of both Willow and the Bringers off Dawn and onto Amanda. The
new Council promptly picks up her medical expenses and grants her a
full Slayer's living allowance for life nontheless.
After Giles is contacted by Wesley Wyndam-Pryce about a psychotic and
homicidal Slayer that Angel's associates at Wolfram and Hart have
discovered (Angel episode "Damage"), Buffy decides that she is unable
to deal with Angel, and does not want him to have any hint that she is
still in Southern California. They send Andrew and a team of Slayers
to assist in recovering the psychotic Slayer; Buffy and Dawn make up a
cover story for Andrew to tell Angel that they are living in Rome.
After her recovery is complete, Amanda shows up at the Joyce Summers
Academy. She has decided that, despite the injuries and trauma she has
suffered, her place is with the friends she had made the last months
in Sunnydale, if not as a Slayer, then as a Watcher. The new Council
heartily accepts her. Most welcoming of all is Andrew. Whatever
ambiguities he may have shown in the past about sexuality and
orientation, he is quickly discovering that the girl who trounced him
in Dungeons & Dragons the night before the final battle in Sunnydale
is more to him than just a nerdy board game buddy.
The storyline remains in-canon for all of Angel Season 5 until the
episode "The Girl in Question". In this slightly Alternate Universe,
Roger and Trish Burkle still drop in at Wolfram and Hart, and Illyria
still takes on Fred's appearance and convinces them their daughter is
alive and fine. But the rest of that episode about Buffy and "The
Immortal", and Angel and Spike flying out to Rome (which a majority of
Buffyverse fans apparently think was the worst episode of the series
anyway) simply never happened! PTUI! We shall never speak of it again!
;-)
(Actually, there's another fanfic out there written by an author named
Booster and archived at:
http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=4119
that disposes of that episode nicely. Too bad it doesn't line up with
this AU!)
END AUTHOR'S NOTES
*****
*****
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL: SHAKESPEARE BE DAMNED!
by Lyle Francis Padilla
PART 1 OF 3
Being called into Giles's office this late in the evening was cause
enough for concern. Buffy knew it was serious just from the grim
expressions on both Giles and Willow's faces.
"We're just waiting for your grandfather," Giles said as she seated
herself.
Carl was only a few seconds behind her. As he seated himself, Giles
began.
"Willow and I have both received phone calls from the coven in
Westbury. There's trouble in LA."
"Potential apocalypse trouble," Willow added.
They waited quietly for several seconds before Buffy asked, "Is Angel
involved?"
"I'm afraid so, Buffy," Giles nodded grimly.
"The whole coven senses a tremendous bubbling up of evil rage in LA,"
Willow said. "The seers sense that it's the Senior Partners of Wolfram
and Hart that are about to rain Hell on Earth. The original Wolf, Ram
and Hart. Through a circle of demons who make up their representation
in this plane of existence." She paused and lowered her eyes
momentarily before adding, "The seers think that there is an ensouled
vampire who is now part of that circle."
"No," Buffy shook her head. "Angel wouldn't. The seers have been wrong
before."
"Buffy, sweetheart," Carl stroked her shoulder, "you have to look at
this objectively."
"I can't, Grandpa. Even though Angel and I were over as an item a long
time ago..."
"I agree," Giles nodded. "You can't be objective. Which is why I don't
think you should go to LA. We have sixteen other Slayers here if you
include Dawn. We can send Andrew's and Amanda's teams, and Dawn."
"I guess as the Senior Watcher here, plus having my own powers,"
Willow said, "I should lead this one."
"Willow, you can't go either!" Giles said quickly.
Willow was alarmed. "Why not?"
"Because I have reason to believe that the Wolf, Ram and Hart *want*
you in LA so they can tap your powers and use them for their own
purposes."
"And you think that because...?"
Giles waited and drew a deep breath before saying, "Because Angel
called a few weeks ago and asked me to send you to the Wolfram and
Hart office in LA."
"For what? Angel's not the type to call and say, 'Hi, Willow! Long
time no see! Why not come over for coffee sometime?'"
"He told me Winifred Burkle was dying and her body was being taken
over by an ancient demon ruler."
"What?" Willow turned white. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Willow, we're dealing with Wolfram and Hart here. An evil nearly as
great and powerful as The First itself."
"But what if it was true? Oh, God! Fred may really be dead!" Willow's
shock was turning into outrage.
"Willow, even if it *is* true, we have to make tough decisions for the
greater good," Giles said calmly. "We couldn't run the risk of Wolfram
and Hart getting a hold of you and gaining your powers. We still
can't. It could mean the end of the world. You've been there before."
"Giles, Fred is my friend! You had no right--"
"Willow," Carl interrupted her sharply, "while we're debating this
point, the Wolf, Ram and Hart are apparently getting more and more
apocalyptic."
"Yes," Giles said. "We must focus on the crisis at hand. Buffy, you
don't want to lead this mission, just as you've not wanted to touch
our other recent previous dealings with Angel, and I think we're all
agreed that you shouldn't. Willow, whatever misgivings you may have
about my judgment regarding Angel's earlier call, you have to agree,
we cannot run the risk. So that leaves just myself."
"Ohh, no!" Buffy said. "If I'm not going, you're not either."
"And why not?" Giles was incensed.
"As much as I couldn't kill Angel again if it came to it," Buffy said,
"you'd kill him at any excuse!"
"No, I wouldn't. And with his getting in bed with Wolfram and Hart--"
"There you go! Angel may not be evil. In fact, this whole boiling up
thing may be in reaction to him. He could be what's kept the Wolf, Ram
and Hart back from trying to destroy the universe already."
"I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking, Buffy," Giles shook his
head. "We don't know any of that, and in fact, we should assume--"
"Assume nothing!" Buffy's own anger was rising.
"Buffy's right, Giles,' Willow said. "If she can't go, and I can't go,
you shouldn't either."
"And why not?"
"Because you can't be any more objective, either!" Carl spoke up.
Giles raised his eyebrows, while Buffy whispered a quiet "Thanks,
Grandpa."
"I'm not just sticking up for my granddaughter, Giles," Carl said
calmly. "I've never met Angel, but I know enough of the story to know
that you can't be any more objective than she can."
Giles knew he was on thin ice, that either of the two girls could
easily physically stop him from going with Slayer strength or magic.
He also knew that Carl was right. "Who's left, then?" he asked. "Even
if we called Xander back from Cleveland, and he caught the first plane
straight to LA and we met him at the airport, he'd never get there in
time. So who's left who can lead? Certainly not Andrew or Amanda or
Dawn."
"Why *not* Dawn?" Carl asked. There were mixed emotions in his eyes
and voice: familial pride mixed with anxiety and pain.
"Grandpa, she's seventeen!" Buffy said quickly.
"Yes," Carl replied. "Two years older than you were, when you were
called, right?"
"I was planning on sending her regardless," Giles nodded. "If nothing
else, as an additional Slayer. If you're not letting *me* go, no
reason why she can't be put in charge. She did grow up over the
Hellmouth and has been exposed to the Slayer-Watcher dynamic since she
was ten. That's far more experience than anyone else who's going.
We're running out of options here."
"She won't be alone, Buffy," Carl reminded her. "She'll have a dozen
other Slayers and Andrew and Amanda with her."
"And she may not be president of the Angel Fan Club--" Willow added,
"not since the first time Angelus tried to attack her and your mom--
but she's not part of the Stake Angel on Sight Faction either."
"What about her Key energy?" Buffy asked. "If the Wolf, Ram and Hart
are after Willow's powers, couldn't they use the Key against us as
well?"
"It's a calculated risk, Buffy," Giles said. "I don't think there are
any beings left alive in the universe who know how to use the Key, or
many that can detect it, plus she has the masking magics. Otherwise, I
believe they would have come after her as well."
"Calculated risk," Willow said, not trying to hide the doubtfulness in
her voice.
"Dawnie!" Buffy's voice accompanied the sudden loud banging on the
door. "Dawnie! Wake up!"
Dawn looked at her bedside clock and figured she'd been asleep less
than an hour. She turned on the lamp and went to the door, yawning
loudly into Buffy's face as she opened it.
"Dawn!" Buffy said urgently. "Please get dressed and come up to
Giles's office!"
"Buffy," she said, then yawned again, "there had better be an
apocalypse going on for you to wake me up at this hour!"
"Well, it just so happens..." the grimness in Buffy's eyes betrayed
her nonchalant smile. "And I can't go, so tonight may be your night to
shine, Dawnie!"
It was less than half an hour later that they were ready to pull out.
After Buffy and the other senior Council members briefed Dawn, Andrew
and Amanda as best as they could on the situation in Los Angeles, they
and the Slayers-- all of whose sleep had been just as unceremoneously
interrupted-- quickly packed up a couple of days' change of clothing
and toiletries and drew weapons, and had loaded up the Hummer and two
vans.
Dawn was wide awake without benefit of the huge urn of coffee that had
been brewed up for them. Although Andrew and his team would lead the
convoy in their van, as he already knew the way to Wolfram and Hart's
LA office, it was made clear to all that she was in overall charge,
and she could barely believe it herself.
Buffy paced up and down the driveway in front of the main building, in
front of the others who had gathered on the front steps. They had
tried to avoid waking her grandmother, Colette and the other two
under-15 Slayers who were staying behind, but it had been impossible
with all the commotion. Now on top of Joan fawning over the two of her
four granddaughters who were leaving, they had a whining contingent of
junior Slayers to add to the chaos.
"Guys!" Buffy finally snapped at the three youngsters. "For the last
time, you're not being left out!" She lowered her voice so those
boarding the vehicles couldn't hear. "If anything goes wrong with
those guys, *we*--" she gestured to include Willow who was standing
nearby-- "may be the last line of defense against the end of the
world."
Joan finally let go of Dawn and Cyndi as Buffy went up to them by the
Hummer. Cyndi got in the front passenger seat, in front of Leslie, one
of the other Slayers from Amanda's team, and Maureen from Andrew's
team.
"Dawn," Buffy said.
"Buffy..." she replied painfully.
"I'm not saying goodbye, Dawnie. I just want to tell you you'll do
fine. Now make me proud, and come home safe!"
"Thanks!" The two sisters embraced tightly and kissed, both fighting
back tears. Dawn managed to wait until she had her back to Buffy
before sniffling and letting a single tear roll down her cheek. She
had composed herself by the time she settled into the driver's seat of
the Hummer, inserting her favorite broadsword into the customized rack
they had attached to the center console.
Cyndi had inserted the stake end of the Slayer scythe into the rack on
her side of the console. "I still can't believe Buffy let me carry the
scythe!" she said. "Dawn, since you're in charge, shouldn't you have
it?"
"This is my lucky sword," Dawn explained. "I killed my first couple of
demons with it, fighting beside Buffy two years ago. I'd rather have
it than the scythe." She was avoiding discussing the fact-- especially
in front of the other two Slayers-- that she wasn't a true Slayer,
that her strength and powers may not have been connected to the
scythe, and that she didn't seem to feel its power to the same extent
the others did. Despite some misgivings from Buffy, if they were being
sent to hold off an apocalypse in LA, it made no sense to leave the
scythe behind. And although the new Council had taken pains to avoid
the appearance of special treatment for Dawn, Cyndi and Colette, there
was still some logic in entrusting the scythe to Buffy's other blood
relative who was going.
In front of them, the members of Andrew's team slid the door shut on
their van, and then Andrew stuck his arm out the driver's window and
pumped his fist in the air a couple of times, the military hand signal
that Xander had taught them for a convoy to move out. Dawn started the
Hummer and pulled out behind Andrew, with Amanda and her team bringing
up the rear in their own van. Overhead, the sky was clear and starlit,
but far off beyond the horizon toward the Southwest, in the direction
of Los Angeles, there were flashes of lightning that had an
otherworldly quality to them.
*****
The two ensouled vampires had helped, as had Gunn despite his
injuries. But the hundreds of demon corpses piling up around them in
that rain-drenched alley were mostly her doing, and as the last
demon's skull shattered before her fist, she knew that her rage would
sustain her through any further onslaught by the Senior Partners.
And then suddenly, in the strange silence that followed the storm of
battle, she realized that she had no more outlet for that rage. Then
she felt the tears burning her eyes and flowing down her cheeks.
*Wait!* she thought. *I didn't call for these! I did earlier when I
tapped the shell's memories for Wesley's dying moments! But not now!*
She was relieved that there was still some rain falling on her face to
mask the tears so the others wouldn't see them, but she couldn't slow
down the flow at all, let alone stop it. *Oh, God! Wesley!*
Then she fell to her knees and began sobbing loudly, unable to stop
the others from hearing her, and they turned toward her in disbelief.
*What's happening to me? Why am I having these feelings? Wesley was
kind and helpful to me, but he was a mere human! Why am I feeling such
pain over his death? Oh, my God!... Wait! Why am I calling out to God?
I AM a god! No! It's the shell! I'm feeling the pain of the shell, the
feelings of Fred Burkle! She's still inside this body! Ugh! Is this
what it means to be human? To have these frailties? To feel rage and
pain and grief and sorrow and... love? My God! I can feel Fred Burkle!
No, I AM Fred Burkle! Oh, God! Fred, I'm so sorry!..."
Illyria collapsed onto her back, and as she did so, the glowing blue
in her hair and her leathery armor morphed away....
*****
Winifred Burkle regained consciousness to see the three figures
kneeling over her. In the dim light, she could recognize them: Angel,
Gunn and Spike. As her eyes gained more focus, she could see stars in
the night sky; the rain had stopped and the clouds had cleared. She
became more aware of her other senses, and realized she was lying flat
on the cobblestones of the alleyway and that she was a little chilly.
She looked down at her body and realized why: she was barefoot, and
her knit top and skirt were muddy and wet from the rain-- the same
knit top and skirt she'd been wearing in her apartment when Illyria
had taken over her body, when she felt herself dying in Wesley's arms.
"Oh, God! Wesley!" she moaned, then let her head sink back onto the
cobblestones and her eyes roll back into their sockets.
"Illyria!" Angel said.
"Just let me die!" she sobbed weakly. "I want to be with Wesley. I
promised him I would.... I don't care if Illyria dies with me, she's
the one who brought this on."
That raised the eyebrows of the three others. "Fred?" Gunn squinted at
her.
"It's me, Charles," she murmured. "I mean, Illyria's still here,
inside me, but I have control of my body back. Not that it matters
much. Just let me die."
"Fred, if it's really you," Angel said, "don't even think like that!"
He turned to Gunn. "We need to get both of you to the hospital." He
added ruefully, "A *real* hospital, now that the one at Wolfram and
Hart is no longer available."
"Sounds good to me," Gunn nodded, still clutching at his gut wound.
"Mercer Memorial's the closest."
"Okay," Angel nodded. "Spike, you carry Gunn, I'll carry Fred."
"No!" Fred cried. "I said, let me die! Leave me!"
Angel sighed. "If we're gonna move, we don't have much time. Won't be
long before sunrise. Spike, you go on ahead with Gunn."
"You got it, Mate," Spike nodded, then turned to Fred, kissed her
forehead and held her shoulder. "Fred, if you're really back, thanks
again for what you did for me, when I was about to go to Hell. I'll
owe you forever."
"You're welcome, Spike," she murmured. "You're a good man worth
saving.... Have a good life. I hope you find happiness."
Gunn kissed her on the cheek. "Please come with us, Fred."
"No. Goodbye, Charles. Thanks for everything.... And I forgive you for
the sarcophagus. You didn't know."
"Angel," Spike said, "do what you can to change her mind, will you?"
"I will. Now go!"
"Okay," Spike said as he boosted Gunn to his feet. "Let's go, Charlie
Boy!"
Gunn let out a short, sharp grunt as Spike slung him over his shoulder
and started working his way over and around the piles of dead demons
between them and the street. "It can't be that bad, Charlie," Spike
smiled. "Illyria said you wouldn't last ten minutes in that fight.
It's been over two hours, the fight's over, we won, and you're still
with us!"
"Only two hours?" Gunn mumbled. "Felt more like two days. Besides, she
did most of the killing."
Angel watched them disappear down the alley behind the dead dragon,
then returned his attention to Fred. "Fred, if you're really back, I
can't let you die! Let me take you..."
"No!" Fred moaned. "I want to be with Wesley. You have to respect
that, Angel."
"Wes would want you to live. For him."
"I promised him we'd be together. He died thinking he was going where
I was... and now he's not." She sniffled. "Angel, sometimes letting
someone die is the right thing to do.... Letting that person live can
be cruel. You know that."
"Yeah," he nodded. "Not that I'm agreeing that this is the case with
you. At least tell me where you're hurt so I can make you more
comfortable."
"Not sure," Fred replied, then paused. The shock of having control of
her body returned to her while still feeling the essence of Illyria
within, combined with her grief over Wesley, had been so overwhelming
that she hadn't been able to sort out the myriad of emotional and
physical sensations. "I'm aching all over, like every fiber of my
whole body's been on fire. I feel like I can't move too well. And I'm
cold."
Angel looked around the alley. He had the clothing from several
assorted demons to pick from, and he didn't have to step too far away
from Fred to come back with the cloaks of two Rekrab demons and
blanket her with them.
"You don't have any open wounds or I'd smell your blood," he told her.
He sat on the cobblestones and then propped up her head in his lap.
"Thanks," she murmured. "I think I'm bleeding to death internally."
"Or maybe you're not dying at all," he tried to sound encouraging.
"Oh!" As weak as she was, her disappointment in that possibility was
loud and clear. "Then just let me lie here. If I'm not dying, then it
won't matter whether or not you take me to the hospital." After a few
seconds' thought, she added, "And Angel, if I'm not dead in half an
hour, I want you to drink my blood. Feast on me and let me join
Wesley."
"You know I'm never gonna do that, Fred!"
"I'm begging you, Angel. Please. For me and for Wesley."
"Not gonna! Don't even think like that!"
Fred rolled her head slowly from side to side. Angel saw that she
first eyed his sword on the ground next to him, and then scanned the
assortment of demon weapons littering the alleyway.
"And don't go grabbing for the happy dagger, Juliet!" he said firmly.
"Shakespeare be damned! This whole star-crossed lovers' suicide pact
thing is way overrated."
She began sobbing.
"Talk to me, Fred. What happened? What do you remember?"
"Everything," she cried. "Illyria burning my body from the inside out,
taking over it. I remember going to her temple with Knox and finding
her army all dead.... I remember her deciding to continue to exist in
our world, asking Wesley to guide her... Wesley agreeing to do it
because she looked like me.... Spike and Wesley draining her powers
and fighting her.... I was trapped inside my own body without having
any control over it."
"Oh, I know what *that's* like!"
"Illyria tapped into me when she wanted to appear to be me... like for
my parents, and for Wesley at the end.... She tapped into my soul...
but I couldn't cry out for help! She wouldn't let me!"
"So if you're Fred, you weren't in some heavenly dimension?"
"Illyria talked about burning up my soul and some electrical spasms
staying behind. But those spasms *were* my soul. It never left my
body. I never really died. But even Illyria didn't realize it... or
understand it."
"I want to believe that, but..."
"Then believe it, Angel." She looked deeply into his eyes with her own
eyes flowing with tears. "It's really me. Why would Illyria do this?"
"Maybe because you're... *she's* tired of living without her demon
kingdom to rule over. Wants me to kill her mortal coil in this world."
"No. Not exactly.... After Wesley died... when we were all here in the
alley... she told you and the others that she grieved for him." She
sniffled. "She'd never felt anything like it before. That was *my*
grief she was feeling. Or maybe she loved Wesley too... and connected
with *my* love and *my* grief. That part's all mixed up inside me....
It was both of us fighting and killing the demons. We wanted to make
sure you and Charles and Spike made it.... But now that she's felt
real pain and loss... she's sorry for all the pain she's caused us
all.... So sorry that when we were done fighting, she gave me back my
body... even though she knows that I *want* to die... and that she'll
die with me."
Angel stroked her hair. "I'm not going to let you die, Fred!"
"Then you believe it's me?"
"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. All the more reason to help
you to live. Beautiful woman. Saved me from the monsters."
"No. Whether or not I'm really me, either way, let me die and you get
to kill Illyria... for all the pain and misery she's caused all of
us.... And Wesley's waiting for me, Angel."
"I'm taking you to the hospital, Fred."
"No! And don't give me the 'Things will get better, you have a lot to
live for' speech. I have nothing to live for here without Wesley...
and Illyria has nothing either."
Angel sighed. "Now you're making me doubt that you're really Fred.
Look, I can't argue with you all night. If I'm taking you to the
hospital, we have to move soon. We're running out of darkness. Dawn's
coming."
"Dawn's *here*!" another female voice interjected, vaguely familiar to
Angel and with a bit of a smirk in it. He turned to see a pair of
women's boots on the cobblestones beside him, with the point of a
broadsword between them. He followed the boot calves, the black jeans
and the sword upward until he came to a familiar face. Older and atop
a taller and curvier frame than he'd remembered. Then he realized that
the last time he'd seen her was three and a half years earlier and
from a distance, at her mother's funeral in Sunnydale. He'd waited
until she and the others had left Buffy alone at the graveside before
coming up to console Buffy and sit with her the rest of the night. Now
with the more mature features and some blonde highlights in her long
hair, on top of the dark outfit and sword, she looked even more like
her older sister than he'd remembered. And now taller than her.
"Dawn?" he squinted at her. "What the hell are you doing here?" As he
asked, he saw over a dozen more teenage girls working their way from
the street around the piles of demon corpses, and forming up behind
her, each holding a weapon of some kind. He recognized most of them as
the same Slayers who had accompanied Andrew on his mission to retrieve
Dana, the psychotic molestation victim who'd been activated as a
Slayer while in a mental hospital. The blond girl closest to Dawn held
the red-bladed scythe that he remembered Buffy using to kill Caleb the
Evil Preacher.
"We heard there was another apocalypse brewing," Dawn said casually.
"Is it over, or are you just taking five?"
"I *think* it's over," Angel shrugged. He noticed Andrew bringing up
the rear of the Slayer contingent, looking nervously into every nook
and cranny of the alleyway, and immediately knew why. *Don't worry,
Andrew. You just missed him, and there's no way I'm letting Buffy's
kid sis in on our little secret!*
Her head still in Angel's lap, Fred let out a moan.
"What's wrong with her?" Dawn asked. "Who is she?"
"Fred!" Andrew gasped as he saw her.
"I *think* it's Fred," Angel shrugged again.
"You *think*?" Dawn raised her eyebrows.
"Long story," Angel sighed. "Fred Burkle, this is Dawn Summers,
Buffy's lit-- uh, *younger* sister. And you remember Andrew."
"Is she all right?" Andrew asked.
"I'm not sure," Angel said. "She could be bleeding to death
internally. Or she could just have a broken heart."
Fred's eyes opened wider and she lifted her head off Angel's lap as he
continued to explain, "She and Wesley were... Well, Wesley didn't make
it."
"Wesley's dead?" Dawn felt her own heart sinking. Even though she'd
resented the way the Council had sacked Giles as Buffy's Watcher and
had forced Wesley upon them all, she never held it against him and had
grown to like him over time. Another loss in her young life.
"Oh, poor Pryce!" Andrew hung his head.
"Oh, my God!" Fred gasped. They'd paid little notice to the fact that
she had propped herself up on her elbows and was now squinting as she
scanned around the girls now gathered in a semicircle around her and
Angel. "It's not too late! We can bring him back!"
"Fred?" Angel asked. "How? What are you talking about?"
Galvanized, Fred sat fully upright and continued looking around, more
frantically now. "I can sense-- *Illyria* can sense an energy of some
kind. One that just got here."
"Okay, so she's *not* bleeding to death internally," Dawn sighed to
herself.
"She's not exactly sure what that energy is," Fred continued,
breathing heavily and excitedly, "but she can use it to bring Wesley
back!" She turned toward Cyndi, who was behind Dawn holding the
scythe. "Illyria can't seem to focus on it, but it seems to be around
you!"
Cyndi held the weapon out toward her. "Is it this? This is the Slayer
scythe. The scythe that gave us all our powers."
Fred stared at it intently, touched it momentarily. "No," she shook
her head. "Illyria can sense the energy from it, but it's a different
energy. The energy that can bring Wesley back... it can cross
dimensions, and that's what we need to pull his soul back!"
*Oh, God! She's talking about ME!* Dawn realized.
Fred rose up on her feet, rather unsteadily but excited now. "We don't
have much time," she said to Cyndi as she draped one of the cloaks
over her shoulders. "It's like when your heart stops and you try CPR.
Illyria can use some of your energy to reverse the cellular damage to
Wesley's body, but there comes a point when it's irreversible."
"*My* energy?" Cyndi asked.
"Please!" Fred grabbed her shoulder. "We don't have much time. Illyria
was wrong about my soul being gone, but she's sure about Wesley's this
time. We have to get back to his body before he's gone forever!"
"Where *is* Wesley's body?" Dawn asked.
"It's in a mansion in Holmby Hills," Fred replied. "Do you have a car?
It's a fifteen to twenty minute drive this time of night, but at least
an hour and a half walk, and it may be too late by then."
"Cyndi, get in the Hummer!" Dawn said sharply, then turned back to
Fred. "I'm driving. Let's go! Amanda, you're in charge here. Keep an
eye on Angel and be ready in case there's a Round Two from the Big
Bads."
"Got it," Amanda nodded.
"But Dawn, I don't..." Cyndi started.
"I'll explain on the way!" Dawn told her, then as they started down
the alley back toward the street, she reassured Fred, "Wesley was my
friend too. From a long time ago."
The three of them worked their way around the dead demons toward the
street. Fred stepped rather quickly and steadily on the wet
cobblestones despite still being barefoot, driven and determined to
save her love.
The Hummer and two vans were parked right at the entrance to the
alleyway. Dawn unlocked the Hummer with her remote and got behind the
wheel, handing her sword to Cyndi who still had the scythe. Fred got
in the front passenger seat as Cyndi got in the back with both
weapons, then Dawn pulled out onto the empty street and headed for the
freeway.
"Oh, Fred, this is my cousin Cyndi. Turns out our grandpa was a
legendary vamp hunter back in the sixties and seventies, and
apparently the Slayer gene runs through his bloodline."
"Yeah, I've heard of him," Fred nodded. "Willow told me, but I'd
actually heard of him even before that. Without ever seeing the TV
show."
"Yeah, the Slayer gene's fine," Cyndi said, "but Dawn, I don't have
any special cross-dimensional energy. I don't know what she's talking
about!"
"*I* do," Dawn said, then after a beat, she added: "To both."
"What... what do you mean?" Fred asked.
"You don't know exactly what that energy is that you sense, let's keep
it that way. Very few beings in the entire universe can detect it at
all. I don't like to advertise it, not to the other Slayers, not even
to my own cousins who are Slayers. But *I'm* the one who has the
energy. I also have some kind of masking powers which is why even
though you could sense it, you couldn't focus on it. But if you think
it can help bring back Wesley and we're in a time crunch to use it,
okay, I'll give it a shot."
"Thanks, Dawn. It'll work. I *know* it'll work.... Uh, Illyria knows
it'll work."
Dawn squinted sideways at her. "Fred, who the heck is Illyria?"
*****
END PART 1 OF 3