Author: Nicky
Email: obsessive24[at]gmail[dot]com
Rating: PG-13
Category: Crossover
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything
Summary: It’s fall semester, and some new players arrive in New Rawley following vampire attacks in town.
Spoilers: YA – original episodes. All the important characters except Finn know Jake's a girl. Buffy – spoilers up to the end of season 4.
Feedback: This was my first attempt at fanfic, hence the crappy title. It’s now revised and in some bits, heavily edited.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Vanessa, who pushed for this to go on my site and hence kick-starting the revision process.
Part one
A chilly wind rustled through the trees surrounding Rawley Lake, leaving in its wake a flurry of autumn leaves, pieces and shades of blazing red and orange tumbling through the air, as though entangled in a dance to inaudible music.
Jake hugged her leather jacket tightly to herself, but still could not help shivering as the cold breeze blew through to the clearing amongst the trees, where Finn’s co-ed literature class was being held for the day.
Hamilton sat next to her, and seeing her sporadic shivers, gave her a little sideways smile. The kind of smile that meant ‘I wish I could just take you in my arms and make these shivers go away, but I can’t because we’re out in the open, sitting in lit class, and we’re are both supposed to be guys.’ Not that enough people didn’t think they were gay already, but they both thought it better to keep their relationship clandestine (or at least low-profile, as it was turning out to be) for the sake of Hamilton’s poor parents, who had enough things to worry about as the Dean (and wife) of the school, without needing serious – and in actual fact undeserved – contemplation on their son’s sexuality.
She couldn’t help but smile back. Three weeks apart after Summer Session, what with her returning to New York, and he staying where he always stayed – right here in Rawley Academy – did nothing to snap the thread of complete understanding that seemed to run through them. Every gesture, every look… she knew what he was saying to her, though he did not utter a word.
She sneaked a peek at him. He was lying back, propped up by his elbows, looking content and relaxed in a grey button-down shirt and jeans, brown hair tousled by the wind. The trademark furrow in his brows indicated that he was concentrating on class, a look that she found endearing.
“Earth to Jake…” Finn’s voice startled her out of her reverie, a reminder that the same that could be same for Hamilton certainly couldn’t be said for her. She had barely heard a word Finn said since class began.
“Wha… huh?” She looked up to see the charismatic teacher looking at her with an expression caught halfway between amusement and exasperation, “Mr. Pratt, I know Wordsworth doesn’t hold a candle to whatever you were daydreaming about, but I’m about to set an essay that’s going to be due in a week, so I suggest you pay attention.”
“Uh… yeah,” Jake muttered, noticing out from the corner of her eye, Will and Scout nudging each other with seedy, knowing smiles. Ever since she had told them about her masquerade, they contribute her every daydream to Hamilton. Well, on second thought, it was really the case this time… or most other times…
Before she could sink too far down into dreamland once more, Finn nodded in the general direction of the students and said, “So, this is it. Class dismissed.”
In the midst of the students’ noisy chatter and getting-out-of-class commotion, Hamilton scrambled to his feet, pulling Jake up in the process. Scout and Will also stood up and made their way over, smirking at Jake and looking all set to tease. But before any of them could open their mouth, a shrill scream pierced through the din.
Everyone paused, turned around, and looked toward the source of that scream, which turned out to be Lena.
Lena, of the calm, collected, and coolly analytical kind.
The screamer herself in turn was staring at a figure that stumbled out of the trees, fell at her feet, and proceeded to stay there, motionless.
It was Ryder, but unlike any of them has ever seen him before. His skin was pale to the degree of being translucent, with spidery blue veins showing quite clearly through his hands and face. His eyes were open, but held a glazed look that was not normal to any standard. He looked – or rather, was, pretty much – half dead.
Finn immediately sprung to action. “Call an ambulance!” he yelled to Jake. Pushing past the crowd of students, he hurried to the blond boy’s side. Ryder lay sprawled on the ground, barely reacting to Finn’s attempts at resurrecting him.
Jake could only catch a glimpse of the Brit’s still figure before sprinting off towards the dorms with Hamilton in tow. What little she saw though, was weird, to put it mildly.
Ryder had two neat incisions on his neck. An inch or two apart from each other, they were small, but…ew, pretty bloody. What, She wondered, did he fall on a barbeque fork or something?
***
Evening: Friendly’s
“So,” Scout put down the tray he was holding, and grabbed a dishcloth to wipe down the counter, “What’s the what with Ryder today?”
Will shrugged and looked toward Jake and Hamilton, who were sitting in their usual booth, sharing an ice-cream sundae. “Hey guys!” he called.
Hamilton leaned in to whisper something in Jake’s ear, and she smiled. Knowing it was late and they were the only ones still in the restaurant, save for Scout and Will who didn’t count, Hamilton didn’t bother to look around before planting a quick kiss on her lips.
Will just rolled his eyes and tried again, “Hey, earth to Jake and Hamilton!” To his and Scout’s amusement, the two, lost in their own little world, still didn’t hear him.
Bella witnessed the scene as she walked into the diner, finally having closed up the garage for the day. “One thing I've learnt,” She smiled as she sauntered over to the guys, “never try to speak to these two when they are in the ‘share ice cream and talk private jokes’ mode. It calls for lung capacities that we just haven’t got.”
Scout and Will laughed out loud, finally startling Jake and Hamilton out of aforementioned romantic mode. Jake greeted Bella, while Hamilton asked sheepishly, “Sorry guys, were you saying something?”
“Yeah,” Scout replied as he, Will and Bella took their places in Jake and Hamilton’s booth, equipped with several glasses of soda, “What’s the deal with Ryder today?”
“Oh,” Jake wrinkled her brows, “He’s gonna be okay, but he’s going to be spending a few days in hospital. The paramedics said he was suffering from major loss of blood, but they couldn’t find any injuries on him, apart from two really small cuts on the artery in his neck.”
“The thing is,” Hamilton cut in, “Those cuts shouldn’t have been big enough to just pump out the amount of blood they said he’d lost.”
Bella caught on the fastest. “So you're saying something sucked the blood out from those cuts on his neck?” Seeing Jake’s small nod of affirmation, she made a face, “Gross.”
“Well, they said it was the only logical explanation,” Jake shrugged.
“Wait, that’s not logical at all,” Will interjected, “what do you mean something sucked the blood out of him? How could anything do that?”
Scout laughed. “Vampires, of course. A vampire found Ryder and made him dinner. Our prayers were finally answered.”
The gang laughed. Vampires? Next thing, there'll be witches on broomsticks flying around Rawley Lake.
However, Scout's little quip did not pass that lightly over everybody. A group of five, fronted by a petite blonde, entered Friendly’s, and they immediately snapped to attention at those words.
Scout jumped up and smiled at the late diners. “I’m sorry, but the kitchen’s closed.”
“Oh yes, of course.” A middle-aged man behind the blonde girl pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, “We’re terribly sorry to disturb you. But we just arrived in town, and are searching for accommodation for the night. Would you be so kind to help us?” He spoke softly, with a strong British accent.
“Yeah, and sorry, but I kinda heard something along the lines of ‘vampires’?” asked the blonde girl who, as noted by Will, Scout and Hamilton, was a particularly compact and attractive member of the female species. After glancing around at the Rawley gang and her own group, she added as an afterthought, “You know, cos I’m… uh, just curious.”
“Yeah, that was real smooth, Buff,” scoffed a dark-haired guy behind her, “you’d think your inquisition skills would improve after a few years on the job.” The girl turned and hit him on the arm. He grimaced, and tried to hide the evident pain with a goofy grin.
The British gentleman smiled somewhat weakly. A slim, pretty redhead who had been standing behind the dark-haired guy, seeing the strange look on Scout, Bella, Will, Jake and Hamilton’s collective faces, decided to take matters into her own hands by saying rather brightly, “My friend here is, uh, obsessed by vampires… uh, no, vampire stories.” Hearing just how that sounded, she hastily added, “I mean, haha, vampires? As if!”
On that very lame note, the blonde girl, the dark-haired guy, the British man all turned and shot accusatory stares at the redhead, whilst the fifth member of the group snorted with laughter.
Jake glanced at the guy and raised an eyebrow. Whoa, that was some serious Billy Idol problem going on here. Bleached blond… no, make that platinum… hair, long black leather trench coat… not exactly everyday wear in New Rawley.
The blonde girl, without so much as turning, said with a threatening air, “Shut up, Spike.”
Now thoroughly confused, Scout glanced at Bella before grinning weakly and replying. “Uh, sure… just take a seat here while I go and get the hotel listings…”
“Just exactly how many hotels do you think we have, around here?” Bella asked with a chuckle. Standing up, she pointed down Main Street, “See that neon green light over there? That’s Mrs Taylor’s Bed and Breakfast. Pretty good prices, decent food, not to mention one of the only accommodation you can find here in town.”
The British man nodded, “Thank you.” He turned to leave, only to find that the blonde girl evidently had no intention of leaving. Pushing past him, she strode up to the Rawley gang’s table and leant over with an intense, inquisitive expression, “Seriously, you were talking about vampires?”
Hamilton protectively slid an arm around Jake’s waist, discreetly shielding her from this crazy girl, whom he was now sure to be a member of one of those new vampire-worshipping cults that were popping up all over the place lately. Jake allowed herself a tiny smile: although this protect-the-damsel thing was a little macho, she didn’t mind it for once. It was nice to be loved. Anyway, this group was starting to freak her out a little.
“We were just fooling around,” Will replied carefully, throwing a confused look over his shoulder at his friends.
The blonde girl stared at him a few moments more than what was considered necessary, before she straightened up and sighed softly, “All right. Thanks for the directions.” Turning, she asked, “Will?”
“Yeah?” Both Will and the redhead girl replied at the same time. They looked at each other, simultaneously asking, “You’re Will?” Realising they’d spoken in sync again, they smiled at each other. Will took this as a cue to stand up and offer his hand to the redhead. “Hi. I’m Will Krudski, welcome to New Rawley.”
The redhead took his hand and smiled, “Hi, I'm Willow. Willow Rosenberg.”
Will nodded, and decided it was only polite to introduce the rest of his group. “Uh, this is Scout, and this is Bella,” He said as he pointed to each of them in turn, “… Hamilton, and Jake.” Each of the previously mentioned persons either nodded or smiled politely, still wary of these strange visitors.
Willow, seeing introductions were being made, decided to follow suit. She gestured toward the blonde girl, the British man and the dark-haired guy respectively, acknowledging their names, “These are my friends Buffy, Giles and Xander.”
The bleached blond guy at the back was displeased. “Hey Red, don’t I get a mention at all?”
Jake noted that this guy spoke with a British accent too, although somewhat different to that of Giles. In response, Buffy was quick to reply with a flat ‘No.’
Willow, on the other hand, sighed and said, “And this is Spike.”
“But he's not our friend…” Xander piped up.
Spike interrupted with a haughty roll of the eyes, “Thank God for that!”
But Xander wasn't finished, “… he’s more of a tag along.”
“Hey!” Spike exclaimed, insulted.
Giles cleared his throat, “Uh, well, yes, very nice to meet all of you. But I’m afraid we must head along now…don’t you agree, Buffy?” He stared pointedly at the blonde.
Buffy nodded, “Yeah, it’s nice to meet you. Maybe we’ll see you again sometime?”
Will glanced at Bella and laughed, “With the size of this town? You can bet on it.”
After the visitors have left, Hamilton finally raised his eyebrows and exclaimed, “Okay, now how weird was that?”
Will shrugged. “They don’t really look like your run-of-the-mill tourists, but they seemed pretty…”
“Creepy?” Jake supplied.
Will smiled. “I was going to go with ‘nice’ myself, but I guess ‘creepy’ would do.”
“And speaking of pretty,” Scout suddenly said, “The blonde chick was definitely…”
“Very, very, hot.” Will finished his sentence for him and the two high-fived each other. Bella rolled her eyes, and the two blithely ignored the gesture.
Hamilton was wondering if he should agree with the guys, or stay quiet for Jake’s sake, when the girl in consideration herself chuckled in a decidedly male fashion and quipped, “Yeah, major babe.”
There was silence around the table while all gazes came to rest on Jake. She pretended not to notice, took a long drink out of Hamilton’s glass of Coke, and innocently exclaimed, “What? I’ve been out of practice in New York. Gotta polish up my guytalk if I hope to stay here and not get caught.”
Hamilton smiled and kissed her on the cheek, “You had me worried for a minute.”
Part Two
Early morning: Jake's room
Quiet but insistent knocking on Jake’s door startled her out of slumber. Sluggishly opening her eyes, she noted the time on her clock to be 7:30am. “But it’s Saturday…” she groggily complained as she half-rolled, half-fell out of bed. Knowing it was Hamilton outside the door (nobody else ever knocked like that), she didn’t bother putting on some guy clothes before unlocking her door and peeking out.
Sure enough, it was Hamilton. He pushed opened the door wide enough to squeeze through, then turned and locked it once more. “Hey,” he leaned in for a good morning kiss.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips against his. “Morning,” she mumbled. A moment later she broke away, “It’s seven thirty on a Saturday.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” He examined her tired expression, “But you have to get dressed. My dad has called an emergency assembly for the whole school.”
“An emergency assembly?” she asked, perplexed, “What happened?”
He shrugged, “Something big by the looks of it. I don’t know what it’s about though. Dad was kinda hazy on the details, and my mom was looking more uptight than usual, so I thought I better not bug them. “
“Oh.” She turned to pick her binder up from the floor where she carelessly dropped it last night. Looking down at her tank top and boxers, she commanded, “Turn around.”
“Why?” He had a devilish gleam in his eye. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before.”
“Will you ever shut up about that?” She felt a familiar blush creep up her cheeks, “God, I still can’t believe you convinced me to take that shower with you.”
“Which, speaking of,” he hastily added, “you still owe me.”
“In your dreams, Fleming,” she laughed as she whisked him around so that he faced the door, whether he liked it or not. Changing out of her pyjamas and into school clothes in record time, she watched herself in the mirror as she rapidly became a guy. She shook her head slightly, even after all this time it was still quite a head-trip. She was in perpetual wonder at how her boyfriend managed to deal with this pretty much as a matter of course.
“Stupid Finn,” Hamilton muttered, still facing the door.
“Actually, I was pretty glad he walked in when he walked in.” She buttoned up her shirt.
“What?” He turned around, “You didn’t want to take that shower with me?”
Seeing the dejected look in his eyes, she smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist. “It’s not that. It was just…”
“I know,” he kissed the top of her head, “This feels like it’s going too fast.”
She glanced up at him, and he smiled thoughtfully. “I feel like I’ve suddenly been thrown into a racecar that hasn’t got brakes, and I’m driving, and I’m drunk, and the whole ride’s so exhilarating and great and it’s dangerous at the same time, cos I have no idea where I’m going.”
“Exactly,” she agreed, burying her face in his chest. He always had a way of putting together words to make crazy sense of their crazy feelings.
“But I don’t want to stop.” He continued softly, “I don’t ever want this feeling to go away. When you went to New York, I didn’t know what I was doing for those entire three weeks. And I was so scared at first, that Finn had found out… I was so scared that you’d never come back.” He put his fingers under her chin and gently tilted her head upwards, “I love you. And I want you so badly.”
She smiled slowly, “I know the feeling.”
“God, Jake,” he kissed her forehead. “I know you still have doubts. I’ll wait. As long as it takes for you to be ready.”
“I love you so much,” she whispered, staring into his eyes. Reaching up, she kissed him and they both marvelled at the shiver that ran through them like lightening, when their lips found each other, where their minds and hearts entwined and nothing else needed to be spoken.
***
Morning: Common Room
“I’m sorry that an emergency assembly had to be called so early in the morning, but something urgent has come up, and must be given our immediate and utmost attention.” Dean Fleming stood before the roomful of male students that made up Rawley Boys. Or, to be more precise, the roomful of male students plus one girl, that made up Rawley Boys.
The Dean continued, looking around the room gravely, “I’m sure most of you have heard rumours about residents getting attacked in New Rawley. No one, including the hospital, have yet to come up with a logical explanation as to why, or even how exactly those people were attacked. All we know for certain is that the victims usually suffer from a great loss of blood over a relatively short period of time. So far, two people have died. It is to our concern that yesterday, a student from this school was also attacked. Most of you may know Ryder. He suffered from major loss of blood which, unfortunately, combined with other health problems, has landed him in a coma-like condition. He is no longer in danger, and we expect him to wake up in a day or so. But until he does, we won’t be able to extract information from him about the attack. In the interest of our students’ welfare, I regret to say that a curfew has been laid over the school, and is likely to be the case for the town of New Rawley soon after. All students must be inside the dormitories by 9pm on weeknights and weekends, until further notice is given.”
Immediately the room broke into indignant chatter. Back in the dorms by 9pm on weekends? To most of the boys there, that was undoubtedly a death sentence to their social lives.
“Quiet!” Finn suddenly yelled over the commotion. “This is an extremely serious situation!”
The boys were temporarily startled into silence as Finn strode up beside the Dean. “Two people have died,” he rubbed his temples with a wariness that came with trying to speak logic to adolescents in a time of unrest, “Do you hear me? People have died from this. One of your peers is currently in a coma because of these attacks. We don’t know who is doing this, we don’t know how they’re doing it or why. We can’t bear the consequences if anything should happen to any of you.”
He paused and looked around the room. Seeing many faces still undisturbed and rebellious, he came in for the kill. “Tell me, do you want to die?”
A chill went through the room. All was quiet.
Finn sighed a little, satisfied that his message had gotten through. “Curfew. 9pm. Every day. No exceptions.”
***
Mrs Taylor’s Bed & Breakfast
Buffy Summers woke up in a particularly bad mood.
Being the Vampire Slayer, the Chosen One, she who stands alone against the demons, the vampires and the Forces of Darkness, yada yada, was not exactly fun at the best of times. But she puts up with it. It was ‘Sacred Duty’, after all.
But there were limits on a girl’s patience. Travelling all the way from Sunnydale, California, to New Rawley – coming to think of it, she wasn’t even sure what state this town’s in – on the tail of some century-old vampire who was hoping to resurrect an ancient demon to bring forth the destruction of the world…where had she seen this scenario before? Oh yeah. Angel and his Big Rock, Acathla. She stopped that all right, although not without some bad consequences. There were always consequences when Armageddon was involved.
But this time it was different. Not Sunnydale, for one. Instead, the Scooby Gang had to, for the first time, go places.
New Rawley. Quaint little town, big lake, with some elite boarding school towering over everything. No one would have guessed that a demon, older and more dangerous than a great deal many things… even the things she’d encountered back on the Hellmouth… lay dormant inside the lake, ready to be awakened with the right assortment of spell ingredients and incantations.
And now, someone was trying.
Viola del Roye. Vampire, female, approximately 200 years old. From the research that Giles and Willow had thus far conducted, she appeared a pretty formidable enemy. An English Baroness in the late 1700s, Viola was not a particularly nice human being to begin with. She wrecked havoc in Europe during her early years as a vampire, sired by none other than the Master himself. After a run-in with the then Vampire Slayer in 1850s, she had toned down her act somewhat and was last seen retreating to the Americas to seek santuary… until now.
Their mission? Find her, stop the ritual, stake her, go home.
Of course, it was already becoming more complicated than that. Viola had made her move. Made more vampires. Of course, raising a demon called for minions, but more vampires in New Rawley meant more slayage, and more conspicuousness in general. Residents here did not take deaths lightly, unlike back home, where funerals occur as often as…well, something that occurred very often. And Buffy couldn’t really leave until she had made sure that no more vampires remained in New Rawley, just like before Viola set foot in this place.
No wonder Buffy was in a bad mood.
***
Noon: The Gas Station
“God! Could you believe Finn?” Scout moaned out loud, leaning back against one of the gas pumps, “Can anyone else say psycho?”
Jake shrugged, “Hey, curfew’s all right with me if it means I won’t die from some blood-sucking fiend.”
Bella looked up from the car she was fixing, “So something serious really is going on?”
“Serious enough for the school to go berserk,” answered Will, who was sitting on the doorstep, half-heartedly proofreading a research paper he’d written.
“I've never seen my dad like this,” Hamilton added, wrapping an arm around Jake’s waist, “He’s wound up so tight under all this pressure, I’m afraid he’s just going to snap. I mean, if a student actually dies, the school’s finished for good. No one’s gonna enrol next year if they can’t control this thing.”
Jake tried to reassure him with a helpful smile, “I’m sure with the curfew, it’s gonna be all right.”
“So…” Scout wondered, “Does anyone else have a theory on the attacker?”
Bella laughed, “Your ‘theory’ wasn't really a theory, Scout.”
He shrugged, “Whatever. I’d like to see you come up with something better than vampires.”
Will snorted without taking his eyes off what he was reading, “Yeah, something that isn’t fictional would be good.”
A loud rumbling motor brought their attention to a very beat up car, which pulled into the garage. Buffy, Xander and Willow clambered out when it stopped with a jerk and a groan. The older man, Giles, took off his glasses and leaned out of the open window, smiling apologetically, “Excuse me. I’m afraid I’ve all but worn this car through. Is there any hope that I might be able to drive it back to California before it disintegrates completely?”
Bella laughed and wiped her hands off on a dirty towel nearby, “Hi, Mr Giles. Let’s have a look at it.”
While Bella discussed with Giles the merits of driving a beat-up Citröen across the country and back, Buffy and friends took the liberty of sitting down in the shade with the Rawley boys (and girl). Jake smiled at them; without the leather-clad blond guy, those people looked a lot friendlier. She also noted that Buffy had a really cool outfit on. “Cute coat!” she commented, it was a running joke in her group nowadays.
Will, Scout and Hamilton cracked a smile while Buffy widened her eyes and looked back at the dark-haired, slender ‘boy’. “Thanks…” she replied uncertainly.
“So,” Hamilton asked, “You guys from California?”
“Yeah, right from the Valley of the Sun itself.” Xander replied. Seeing the confused look on the others’ faces, he quickly added, “We live in a town called Sunnydale.”
“Oh,” Jake said, nodding, “Sounds pretty.”
“Yeah, that’s what people say before they get there.” Willow replied with a wry smile.
Will smiled back at her, “So there are skeletons in the closet of Sunnydale?”
Buffy’s gang seemed to find that extraordinarily funny. “You have no idea.” Buffy said, chuckling.
“So, what brings you guys here?” asked Hamilton.
“Business,” said Buffy, just as Xander said “Holiday,” and Willow said “Cross-country trip.” They paused and stared at each other before Buffy coughed nervously and said, “We mean, a cross-country business holiday… trip.” Shrugging, she tried to laugh it off, “you know.”
“Right.” Hamilton replied with a disbelieving smirk.
“So!” Xander exclaimed in an obvious attempt at diverting their attention, “you guys go to school here?”
“Yeah, we all go to Rawley Boys over by the lake,” Scout replied, “except Bella, she goes to the local high school. And you guys?”
Willow smiled, “Buffy and I go to UC Sunnydale.”
“And I, for those of you interested,” Xander announced, “Drive an ice-cream truck. Only sometimes, mind you.”
“Cool,” said Jake. Seeing the others glance her way, she added, “Come on, free ice cream all day, every day? Cruisy existence.”
“You know, I like you already,” said Xander, wagging a finger at her in what seemed like an appreciative gesture.
Jake smiled while Hamilton furrowed his brows. He knew the other guy was probably just grateful that someone didn’t look down on his non-college-status, but he was apprehensive, all the same. He didn’t want a tall dark stranger telling his girlfriend ‘I like you’, despite the fact that the tall dark stranger seemed to have no clue that his girlfriend was a girl.
Love makes you paranoid, he silently told himself. But on a brash whim he reached over and took Jake's hand for all to see, silently sending out a ‘Don’t-touch-my-girlfriend-even-though-she’s-crossdressing-at-the-moment’ signal to all who dared challenge it. Jake shot him an amused look, but didn’t withdraw her hand from his grasp.
Willow smiled at the obvious affection between the two boys. It hadn’t been long since she had started seeing a girl herself, for the first time. It was nice to see such a young gay couple so open about their relationship. She was just about to say something when Giles approached, “I guess the car will be staying in the garage for a few days, while Miss Banks kindly polishes it up for me…”
“Just Bella, please.” Bella replied, smiling at the older man who was so polite and…well, British. And speaking of British…
“Hey, where’s your friend Spike?” Jake asked.
“Ugh, he is so not our friend.” Buffy made a face, “He’s really just a tag along, and a really annoying one at that.”
“He’s at the B&B, resting.” Xander informed the group.
“But it’s such a nice day,” Will said, “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be cooped up in this great weather.”
Willow, Buffy and Xander exchanged a look. “…Yeah…We can’t imagine either.”
Part Three
Evening: by Rawley Lake
Jake and Hamilton looked across the lake to where the sun disappeared below the horizon. “It’s nice for Will and Scout to give us some time alone before we got back,” she said, kicking a pebble with the toe of her shoe.
“Yeah,” he replied, a little distracted, “it’s nearly nine though. We better hurry.”
“Is anything wrong?” she asked, seeing his face settle into that contemplative look that she loved because he looked so adorable, yet made her wary at the same time because she didn't want him to ever worry.
He glanced at her, “I just can’t shake the feeling that Buffy’s group are up to no good. They are so secretive, and I’m sure they’re here for a reason. Something that’s not ‘cross-country business holiday trip’.”
“Yeah,” she chuckled at the memory, “They are weird about certain things, like why they’re here, or…”
“Do you notice how they get really uptight whenever anyone mentions ‘vampires’?” he asked with a frown. After spending the entire day with Buffy’s group, mainly because none of them had any plans, he noted that they got some mighty strange looks whenever the subject of the supernatural was broached.
“You don’t think…” Jake began, and trailed off as she tried to assemble her thoughts.
“I don’t think what?” he prompted.
“Well, I just thought,” she chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, “they arrived around the same time when Ryder got attacked, and they’re so hung up on the whole vampire thing, I just thought, maybe they are…”
“Jake, you don’t think they are vampires, do you?” He laughed, “I hate to burst your bubble, but you do realise they spent the entire day with us out in the sun?”
“Of course!” She coloured, “I just thought maybe they are a psycho cult pretending they’re vampires, and goes around killing people or something.”
He smirked and was all set to tease her on that theory, which didn’t fare much better. But quite unexpectedly, he felt a sudden chill crawl down his spine. Sure, psycho-vampire-imitating-killers loose in New Rawley wasn’t one of the likeliest events to happen; but then again, people dying from major blood loss due to unconfirmed reasons wasn’t either.
It was still happening though.
The darkness around them suddenly seemed very, very unsettling.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and whispered, “Let’s just get back before curfew.”
“Well, children,” a woman’s voice suddenly rang out from the direction of the trees, startling them. “I just don’t think that is going to happen,” the voice continued, sounding simultaneously imperious and sinister.
“Who’s there?” Hamilton asked with a tinge of apprehension, squinting his eyes and trying to make out the speaker in the dark.
“They’d make fine ones, boss,” another voice sounded, this time that of a man.
“What the…” Jake looked at Hamilton, who glanced back at her, reading uneasiness from each other’s faces.
By the dim light of the moon they saw three figures emerge from the shadows. A woman and two men, from their body shape. But as they came closer, Jake uttered a strangled cry.
“My God! What the fuck’s wrong with your faces?” Hamilton had a tendency to swear when he was scared. Fear was not something he liked to show to the public at large, but this was obviously an exception to those times. How could those faces be described? They certainly weren’t human. Wrinkled, lumpy, and hideously disfigured. And Hamilton wasn’t sure, but… did he just see a small white flash from the curled lips of one of these creatures, the glint of fangs?
“Oh my God, are those… fangs?” Jake whispered as she held onto him, voicing his doubts.
“Observant,” one of the male things sniggered.
“What do you think we are?” The other male thing asked, baring his fangs, and emitting from his throat a soft, menacing growl.
“This can’t be happening.” Jake and Hamilton, wide-eyed, exclaimed in unison.
“Synchrocism!” The female creature laughed, her voice clear and melodic with a hint of what seemed an upper-crust, British accent. “You two will make fine vampires.”
“Va…Vampires?” Jake and Hamilton stuttered, again at the same time.
The female vampire smiled thinly, “I’m Viola del Roye. ‘Baroness’ would suffice.” She walked forward into the couple’s field of vision, bringing into sharper focus the wrinkled ridges that lined her Game Face and her glowing, yellow eyes. Jake and Hamilton shrank back in disgust.
Baroness Viola del Roye extended a hand as though she expected the couple to kiss it, and they could see that her nails, painted a deep red with silver tips, were long and sharp. Hamilton tugged on Jake’s sleeve, and after sharing a brief look, they did the thing that was most logical at the time – they bolted.
They didn’t think those people were real vampires, of course, but maybe some sort of weird self-mutilating gang. Vampire-worship gangs like that did exist, you know. Late-night documentary/exposé thingies give you pretty useful information sometimes.
Still, they knew better than to just stand their ground. Running away was a good solution when you were face-to-face with really disturbed people. Both of them were quite athletic, and getting a surprise head start on those people-vampires should be enough for them to make it back to the dorms, before anything really bad could happen.
It was good in theory.
The vital thing that both of them missed was, of course, the fact that those vampires really were vampires.
Vampires are hunters. No human could hope to match their strength, reflexes and stamina, except for the Slayer, of course. That was the bad news. And the worse news? The older the vampire is, the stronger they are.
So Jake and Hamilton had but sprinted a few steps before Viola, already decades past her bi-centennial, suddenly appeared in front of them, grabbed Hamilton by the collar, and flung him against a tree. He flew through the air, crashed halfway down the trunk, slid the rest of the way down, landed with a dull thud and a very loud ‘Ow!’
“Hamilton!” Jake shouted, pausing mid-stride and ready to turn back. However, Viola accelerated that motion by doing the exact same thing to her, causing Jake to also sail through the air, crash into the tree, and fall on top of Hamilton. He uttered a muffled cry of distress, and Jake rolled off him, feeling like her spine had been snapped in half. Gasping for air, she cried, “God, are you all right?”
Hamilton groaned, and lifted his head. At least he seemed to be in one piece.
Behind them, Viola laughed coldly. “Take them both,” she demanded.
With her two vampire minions fast approaching, Jake and Hamilton had nowhere to run… not that they were in any shape to run, in any case. Seeing the anguished look on their faces, Viola crossed her arms in front of her chest and tapped her foot impatiently. “I’m disappointed at your lack of enthusiasm,” she chided.
As they watched in amazement, the vampire’s facial features shifted and changed, shrinking back and smoothing out to reveal an attractive human face, with porcelain-white skin and dark, luminous eyes.
Again Viola smiled at their shock, raising an eyebrow. “Do you know how many people would sell their souls to be where you are? I am offering you eternal youth… eternal beauty… eternal life.”
“Yeah well, some of us happen to like our souls.” A female voice suddenly declared.
“Speak for yourself,” another voice, male this time, sourly replied.
Jake's eyes widened. A dour British accent… it couldn’t be…
A shapely leg, clad in a knee-length black boot, suddenly shot out, seeming to come from nowhere in its power and agility. Minion vamp #1 staggered back, only to be met with a flurry of black leather and a mean right hook to the nose.
Two blond heads came into view, respectively belonging to Buffy, the strange girl from Sunnydale, and Spike, her ‘annoying tag-along’. While Buffy extracted something long and sharp from her sleeve, Spike jumped on Minion Vamp #1, arms and legs wildly flailing, laughing uproariously at the poor vampire, who tried to defend himself from the blows that were raining down, and failing desperately.
Jake and Hamilton could only watch in a marvelling stupor while Buffy artfully dodged Minion Vamp #2, swept her feet along the ground, tripping the vampire. As he fell to the ground, she plunged the sharp implement into his chest.
God, Jake thought, It’s as though she’s done this millions of times before.
And as the vampire exploded into a grey cloud of dust, she realised that Buffy probably had done this millions of times before.
Buffy straightened up, and tossed the sharp object which Jake now recognised as a wooden stake to Spike, who promptly caught it and did the dusty thing to Vamp #1, whose face was already an unrecognisable bloody pulp, and he probably welcomed the quick end anyway.
Buffy, getting a moment’s breather, darted towards Jake and Hamilton and asked, “Are you guys all right?”
Hamilton, all pain forgotten for the moment, pounced… not literally, of course. It was pretty obvious that he would be stranger to pouncing for a while. “Okay, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? And WHAT is going on?”
Jake tried to calm him down, “Shh, Hamilton, it's all right…”
“No, it’s NOT all right!” He yelled, “I need to know what’s happening, like, right this minute! This is insane!”
“Whoa, now’s not the time to get wiggy, guys,” exclaimed Buffy.
“Wiggy?” Jake and Hamilton repeated, looking bemused.
Buffy rolled her eyes, “Never mind.”
“Uh, Buffy…” Behind them, Spike spoke, voice edged with heavy sarcasm. “Sorry to interrupt your introducing-Sunnyhell-slang-to-the-New England-kids and whatnot, but in case you didn’t notice, we have a problem over here…”
Buffy looked up to see Viola holding Spike by the throat, with the stake now pointed to his heart. Spike was, to say the least, pissed off. “I thought we were supposed to be a team! You know, like we help each other?” Seeing no immediate response from Buffy, he yelled, “Oh, come on! Save me!”
Buffy paused for only a second before asking casually, “Spike, you didn’t really think that, after you tried to kill me countless numbers of times, I would ever try saving you at the expense of my own butt?”
“Do we have to have this conversation now?” Spike groaned, “You are the good guy who takes care of everybody. You know, saving the world an’ everything!”
Buffy smiled like a cat, “And that would affect you how?”
“Well…” Spike was at a loss for words, “I’m part of the world, aren’t I?” The lame response evoked only a rolling of the eyes from Buffy.
Jake and Hamilton, understandably, were completely bewildered by the conversation. Their heads swerved left and right, then left again, watching the two banter as though they were watching a tennis match. Saving the world? Who was this Buffy person?
Viola answered that question. “Slayer,” she said simply, “We meet at last.”
“Oh, now it all makes sense. She’s a Slayer.” Hamilton muttered sarcastically, “What the hell’s a Slayer?”
Spike, seeing an appropriate moment where Viola wasn’t paying attention to him, suddenly kicked his legs out from under himself, fell to the ground and rolled away before she had a chance to stop him – via stake to the heart, for example. He scurried to Buffy’s side, which was, under consideration, the safest place to be, while all the time muttering “I hate you, and if…”
“Yeah, yeah, if only you had the chip out of your head, you would kill us all in gross and gruesome ways, we’ve all heard the tirade.” Buffy sighed.
Spike faltered in his speech, “…Yeah, well!” He decided to leave it at that, and instead turned to Viola, who was examining Buffy with the utmost interest.
“Funny, I thought you would be permanently fixed upon the Hellmouth.” Viola mused, her tone subtly condescending, “Who’s taking care of the demons, the vampires, and the forces of darkness if their precious yet overworked Slayer wasn’t there to do all the protecting?”
Buffy smirked. “With you trying to raise all Hell – literally – here in New Rawley? Come on, I had to show.”
“Besides, Soldier-Boy’s got it all covered back on the home front.” Spike quipped, and earned himself another glare from Buffy.
Jake rubbed her eyes. This was getting to her. Vampires, Soldier-Boys, chips in heads and a ‘Slayer’ who saves the world, apparently. She turned and looked at Hamilton. He glanced back at her, and tried to smile. In each other they still found some sort of reassurance, which was good, because Buffy and Spike launched themselves upon Viola, and as Spike once so eloquently put it, ‘wackiness ensued’.
Part Four
Viola was surprisingly strong and agile, especially considering she was wearing a long, slim dress adorned with ruffles. As Buffy and Spike lunged at her, she dodged the attack with a dancer’s grace and with one powerful elbow stroke sent Spike sprawling. She exchanged a few blows with Buffy before landing a solid punch in the Slayer’s stomach. Jake and Hamilton watched in fascinated horror as Buffy flew through the air and crashed, with bone-crunching force, onto a thick tree trunk. The blonde clambered up immediately, as though that impact, which was enough to break a normal person’s spine, was nothing but a small deterrent.
“Impressive,” Viola said blandly, her tone indicating that she was anything but impressed. Behind her, Spike had recovered and charged at her with full vampire face on. She whirled around, and with astonishing precision grabbed him straight by the jaw. Smirking, she brought her feet down, her hard leather shoe scraping its way across his shin and landing solidly on his foot. Spike yelled out in pain, staggering back. Viola chose that moment to dash her nails across his throat, letting flow a torrent of blood.
Buffy reached up and pulled something out of her hair. As she shook her head and golden waves fell around her face, Jake and Hamilton saw that a stake was what held her hair in a topknot. Without further ado she launched herself at Viola in a series of high-kicks. Viola warded herself with graceful movements, her attacks and defences almost liquid-like, but in the same time full of danger and menace.
“I see you spent some time in Asia,” commented Buffy, appraising Viola’s sophisticated martial arts moves, “goody, a vampire who knows Kung Fu.”
“Don’t mock when you still have much to learn, Slayer,” Viola said simply, and suddenly leapt into the air, executing a triple kick that landed respectively on Buffy’s knee, stomach and chest. Buffy staggered back and Viola, light as a feather, somersaulted in mid-air and landed back on her feet. “I can’t very well let you go now that you’re planning to ruin my plans,” she said, advancing upon Buffy, “I guess that only way to deal with this situation, or…” she smiled, her eyes dark and cold, “the only way that we vampires know how, is to kill you all.”
Buffy’s breath came in ragged gasps. She could see in her peripheral vision Spike slumped to one side, hands held up to his neck. Although she knew there was no danger to his life – vampires healed too quickly for death from blood loss – he nevertheless was not in a condition to fight.
In truth, she had not anticipated that Viola would be this strong. Perhaps it had been too long since she’d fought a truly dangerous vampire. As she watched the vampire set upon her, she went for the safe option – the trusty bottle of Holy Water she always kept by her side.
Viola had expected Buffy to jump up and fight some more before finally succumbing, but she had not anticipated that the Slayer would suddenly hurl, with all her superhuman strength, a bottle of Holy Water as though it were a Molotov Cocktail. The bottle impacted and broke upon Viola’s chest, her skin immediately bursting into sizzling, red patches where the liquid touched. Viola screamed from shock more from the pain, and she staggered back. The majority of the Holy Water had splashed onto her face, and the pain induced her Game Face to reappear. “You…” she said through gritted teeth, pointing a finger at Buffy, her yellow eyes narrow with hatred.
Buffy tossed her stake from one hand to the other, stepping up as though to accept a challenge. Viola stared at her for a moment, and glanced at Spike who had shakily gotten to his feet, the bleeding from his neck already stopped. It wasn’t going to be an easy victory for either side. With that in mind, she began retreating toward the shadows. She had more important things to do. “We’ll meet again, Slayer,” she spat, fading into the darkness.
Buffy let out a relieved sigh. Truth be known, she wasn’t sure that she and Spike could have taken on the vampire in their present condition. Walking wearily to Jake and Hamilton, she asked awkwardly, “Uh, guys, how are you feeling?”
“We’ll live.” Hamilton said with a little groan, helping Jake to stand up.
Jake dusted herself off, and looked at the petite blonde girl who stood before them, having just come out of a fight with a vampire, sporting no injuries whatsoever. “Who are you?” She asked in wonder.
“I always find this part so tedious,” Buffy half laughed, half groaned. “I’m… the Vampire Slayer,” she said, with a look that clearly indicated that she knew they wouldn’t have any clue what she was talking about, and really couldn’t be bothered explaining. Sure enough, upon seeing the very blank looks on the couple’s faces, she gave up immediately. “You know, I'm all for the long-winded speech on my Chosen One-ness, and open for you a door to a world that you have never seen before, blah blah, but don’t you guys have a curfew or something?”
“Oh my god, the curfew!” Jake and Hamilton exclaimed in unison. “We’re so dead meat,” Hamilton muttered.
“No, that’d be you before we showed up.” Spike interrupted, lighting up a cigarette. Tactless, as usual, but to the point nevertheless.
Jake shuddered as the reality of the night suddenly hit her. Looking at Hamilton, she knew he was thinking the exact same thing. She instinctively reached for his hand, and he grasped it tightly. “We nearly died,” he whispered.
“No, we nearly became one of them,” Jake replied, a grimace curving her lips downwards, the loathing evident in her voice.
“Hey!” Spike was insulted. Again. He seemed to be insulted a lot lately. Damn chip, he thought, wait ‘til I get it out of m’head and I’ll show them what it’s really like, being one of us.
“Okay, I assume you guys want to know more about what’s going on?” Buffy took charge, “Let us walk you to your dorm, and we can talk on the way.”
Darkness wrapped around them like a blanket as the Slayer and the vampire guided the boy and the girl (or the two boys, depending on who was doing the looking) back to the dorms.
***
Night: Jake's room
“I can’t believe no one realised we weren’t in by curfew,” laughed Jake, once in the safety of her room.
“Yeah, you’d think with the big ‘Do you wanna die?’ speech, they’d actually bother to check in on us,” replied Hamilton as he took her phone and dialled a number. “…Hey mom? Yeah, sorry about not calling earlier… I know it’s after nine… yeah, I mean no, I can’t get home now, so I’ll be staying over at Jake’s for the night…all right, yeah…bye.” He hung up and smiled at her, “Guess I’ll be crashing here tonight.”
She smiled back, “Just be thankful Ryder’s not around to see you sneak out of my room tomorrow morning. That’d give him something to talk about.”
He shrugged, “They all think we’re gay anyway. I’m over it.”
She stared at him, “How can you be so calm about it now? Not long ago…” She didn’t get to finish, since he hushed her halfway through the sentence with an urgent kiss.
After the initial surprise, she blissfully immersed herself in the kiss. The events of the night played through their heads in rapid succession, and they were left wondering at what they found out tonight, and what might have happened if Buffy Summers had not shown up in time. Their breaths mingled, and each was left thankful that they still had warm breath in their lungs, and still felt the heat of each other’s lips.
From what Buffy and Spike told them about vampires, they doubted that they’d like that sort of lifestyle much. Apart from the obvious downside of becoming murderous creatures of the night, and never being able to see the sun again, they’d also be without souls, devoid of warmth, with flesh like marble and blood that ran cold in their veins, slaves to an eternal lifetime of hunting, or being hunted.
A while later, the two of them parted, breathless. A new sort of euphoria enveloped them both, something that they had never thought of much before, because there was never need. Fighting the forces of darkness never really occurred to them as a hobby of sorts, but now…
“We need to help them.” Jake declared, voicing the thoughts that circled in their minds but were wary of being spoken. “Stop Viola, stop the demon, do whatever we can to save the world.” She marvelled at how the words ‘Save the World’ tasted on her tongue, sweet and somehow ethereal, because it was never a phrase that she would have linked with herself or anyone that she ever knew.
Hamilton looked out the window, moonlight falling across his face as he gazed at the shimmering lake in the distance. “I still can’t believe all this is happening. One minute we’re just normal teenagers in a small town, and the next?” He looked back at Jake, voice quivering, “Vampires, demons… and a Slayer.”
She chuckled despite the heaviness that hung in the air, thick with depressing, unwanted knowledge. “I know. It’s all slightly screwed-up, isn’t it?” She paused, and added, “You do know I meant ‘slightly’ in a sarcastic way.”
He smiled his trademark slow smile, the type that made her all melty and gooey inside. “I got it.”
They settled down on the bed, her head resting on his shoulder. The closeness was comforting. She felt his chest rise and fall with every breath, and that was comforting too.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to be meeting up with Buffy tomorrow at the diner?” He looked up at the ceiling and asked, “I mean, she specifically asked us not to tell anyone else about the…vampires and stuff, and if people see us hanging out with her in town, it’s going to look pretty suspect.”
She shrugged, “You know Will and Scout never work on Sundays, and Bella gets the afternoon off too. So I think we’re safe from the people we’re closest to, at least.”
He sounded disturbed, “I’m still trying to digest all the information she fed us in the ten minutes it took to get back here. I can’t even begin to imagine what she might tell us tomorrow.”
She looked up, “Are you sorry that we found out about…” She vaguely waved her arm around, as though the room might be filled with vampires and demons and all the things Buffy had managed to tell them in such a short time, “…all this?”
“All the stuff about the vampires?” He furrowed his brows and sighed, “Yeah, I am. I’d rather be blind to what’s going on around me, than to know…”
“That the Things that go Bump in the Night are actually real.” She finished for him, sighing.
He tightened his grip around her shoulder, “Promise me, before this whole thing blows over, you’ll never walk around outside after dark…” he paused, “at least not without Buffy by your side.”
“Only if you’ll do the same,” she whispered.
He smiled, kissing her temple softly. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she replied, as content as she could be under the circumstances, and drifted off to sleep.
***
Noon: The Diner
Giles took a sip from the steaming cup of Earl Grey that the waitress had just set down in front of him, and looked as pissed off as it was possible for Rupert Giles to look.
“No,” he said through gritted teeth, “I do understand the part where you had to reveal your identity to them, considering they were about to be eaten by three vampires bent on bringing about the end of the world. But why on earth did you have to agree to meet them, and give them even more information about what we’re up to?”
“I just thought… I just thought,” said Buffy, slightly taken aback by the older man’s reaction, “maybe they could help us, since they are familiar with this town…”
Giles shook his head angrily, “But it’s not their job to… to…” pausing, he glanced around surreptitiously before continuing, “…do what we do.” What they do being slaying, and general stoppage of pending apocalypses, of course. He took another sip of tea before continuing, “It’s unfair to tell them of these things, and expect them to just…” he waved his hands in the air, “jump in and start…”
“Start pitching in? We're doin’ it fine, and it’s not our job either.” Xander pointed out, long legs stretched out from under the Formica table.
“Yeah, and I have to say, we’ve helped Buffy out enough times to be counted as Assets to The Cause.” Willow said, slightly indignant.
“But need I remind you of how many times our lives were put in danger?” Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them as he spoke, “These kids don’t deserve such a dark fate!”
“And we do?” Xander and Willow questioned in unison. Giles looked up, startled, and Willow continued, “I know living on the Hellmouth and being friends with the Slayer kinda subjects us to a scarier existence than most. But the bottom line is, we do what we do because we want to, not because we’re forced to.”
Buffy looked toward her friends in gratitude, and Xander continued, “If I want to, I can just be like anybody else in Sunnydale and look the other way when something crazy happens, and tell myself it’s not my business, but I don’t. We do this because we want to help people.”
“Which is why we’re here.”
The Scooby Gang looked up to see Hamilton and Jake standing over them, looking set with determination, tentative resolve shining through whatever doubts they may still see from within themselves.
Hamilton spoke again, “We want to…uh, to help you.”
Giles was moved by what he saw as a genuine want to do good for the world. With his previous years as Watcher and lately A Gentleman of Leisure (Giles-talk for unemployed), he did not see that trait very often in young people nowadays, what with their cellphones, Playstations, and designer wrap-around sunglasses behind which they could hide their vacant, apathetic eyes.
He put his glasses back on and smiled, “Uh…yes, hullo. Hamilton and… Jake, is it? Why don’t you sit down?”
The couple obliged, sliding into the vacant seats in the booth. They stared expectantly at Buffy and her friends, who did not really know what to say. Sitting in a clean, sun-drenched restaurant did nothing to set the mood for gloomy recollections of ancient vampires and dormant demons.
After an uncomfortable silence, Hamilton cleared his throat, “Look, we know this is a really big deal, and we’d be happy to just do whatever you need us to do, to help you out in any way…” He paused, not sure what else to offer. He looked questioningly at Jake, who returned a reassuring gaze. They lost themselves for just a moment, smiling at each other.
“Uh… well.” Giles pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, “All we know at the moment is that Viola del Roye, the vampire we’re after, is trying to resurrect the age-old demon Ezekiel from the depths of Rawley Lake. From what little research we conducted, we established that in order to raise the demon, she must perform a ritual on a particular spot by the lake…one which we are yet to locate, I might add… on a particular day and time where magickal elements are in harmony…”
“Wait,” Hamilton interrupted, “What?”
Giles looked blank for a moment. “Oh, of course, forgive me for the slip-up in terminology.” He tried to explain, “By consulting both the Pagan and standard calendars, and predicting the dates where particular planets are aligned, a certain time where harmony occurs between many facets of spell-casting could be pinpointed…”
Seeing Jake and Hamilton looking totally baffled, Xander interrupted, “What the New Edition of the British Supernatural Walking Dictionary is trying to say is, Viola’s gonna raise Ez…Ezymacallit… on a preset time where magical forces add up to a really Big Bad, and he doesn’t know when it is.”
Giles sighed, “The demon is called Ezekiel, and once again, you’ve managed to boil the matter down to the simplest possible form.”
“Please, hold the applause.” Xander looked pleased with himself.
“Oh! Oh!” A Very Excited Willow raised her hand, “No, we know now, I’ve found out when it’s going to be. Tomorrow night at midnight!”
“Planet Power All Go at the Witching Hour, yay us!” Buffy muttered darkly.
Giles took his glasses off again and furrowed his brows, “How did you manage to find that out?”
“I… uh, contacted the Spirit Guides.” Willow replied meekly, looking as if the Englishman might bite her.
“THE SPIRIT GUIDES?” Giles roared. Well, not really, because stuffy English ex-librarian/Watchers didn't really roar, but as far as Giles went, that was as much of a roar as he could ever hope to achieve. “Bloody hell, you invoked the Spirit Guides? Do you know how dangerous that could be?”
“Well, I knew you were going to be angry and stop me, so that’s why I didn’t tell you. But since I’m still here, and I have the information, it’s all right, right?” Willow was like a little girl, all squeaky-voiced and timid. Giles still looked angry, but decided against saying anything. Willow, seeing that she escaped the-Scary-Wraith-of-Livid-Giles, smiled brightly.
“So what you’re trying to say,” Jake tried to make sense of it all, “Is that tomorrow, at midnight, the vampire Viola is going to raise the demon Ezekiel from somewhere by the lake, and if she succeeds in doing that, the world is doomed?” She stopped, marvelling at what just came out of her mouth. And she was serious, for God's sake.
“It’s gonna be the End of the World, again.” Said Buffy, Xander and Willow, obviously having done the surprised-and-scared thing enough times to be Not-surprised-and-scared already.
“Oh boy.” Hamilton murmured.
Part Five
Giles put his glasses back on, “Well, since we now know the time at which Viola will attempt to raise Ezekiel, all we need to do is to find out the whereabouts of demon within the lake, and cross-refer to a physical investigation of possible locations where Viola is likely to attempt the ritual. Put these two together, and I think we’ll be able to come up with the location of the ritual.”
“But that could take days.” Willow objected, “In order to find the demon’s location in the water, we need to take cross sections of the whole lake and go through them piece by piece. It’s…”
“That can all be done by computer though, right?” Buffy interrupted, “What I’m worried about is the actual investigation! Rawley Lake is huge, and we’re not even in Sunnydale, where we at least know the ropes.”
“I wasn’t finished!” Willow exclaimed, “Sure, the computer can do all the cross sectioning, but everything doesn’t just appear when you punch a button! Cross sectioning is tedious at the best of times, not to mention that I don’t have either the time or the expertise in order to hack into Government Geographical…”
“Excuse me,” Hamilton interrupted, “Did I just hear you say ‘a problem with hacking’?”
Willow glanced at him, “Yeah?”
“Nothing, except that the g…” the word ‘girl’ was on the tip of his tongue, “…guy sitting next to me once hacked into NASA.”
Willow looked impressed as hell. Buffy, Giles and Xander just stared blankly.
“Well…” Jake peeked up from a modestly lowered head, “Twice, actually.”
“Okay, problem totally solved.” Willow stated flatly, albeit happily, “Onto the physical investigation part!”
Hamilton spoke up again, “I guess you’ll be in need of someone who knows the lake, who knows all the little nooks and crannies, a guy who can find all the secret clearings by the lake that nobody else knows…”
Giles started cleaning his glasses again, “And I suppose you are that ‘someone’?”
Hamilton smiled, “Well, I don’t like to brag.”
***
Afternoon: Rawley Boys’ dorms
“Wow.” Willow looked around the vast polished-wood hallway and breathed, “This is…”
“Nice, I know.” Jake turned the key to her room and opened the door, “Come on in.”
“Are you sure I’m allowed here? In the dorms, I mean.” Willow said, pausing in the doorway. “Rules kinda… rule me,” she confessed.
“Not really. But guys bring chicks in here all the time, and as long as you’re not caught, it’s cool,” Jake smiled.
Willow didn’t look comforted by that remark. With wide eyes she said, “But… I mean, you’re not bringing me in, like, ‘that’ way, right?”
Jake laughed out loud, “No, not ‘that’ way. You’d better come in though, before a teacher catches you.”
Willow gingerly stepped through the threshold, and her attention was immediately grabbed by Jake’s big stack of CDs scattered around the table. Eyeing them longingly, she said, “You’ve got a lot of albums.”
“I like music,” Jake turned on her laptop and asked with a smile, “you wanna go through them and pick out something for us to listen to?”
“Sure!” Will bounded happily in the direction of the CDs. Thumbing through Jake’s collection, she said idly, “I wasn’t really into it until I dated a guy who taught me a lot about music. He was in a band.”
Jake opened up a couple of Internet Explorer windows, “What did he play?”
“Lead guitar.” Willow was proud of that fact, Jake could tell. She was just about to say something when Willow exclaimed, “Sarah McLachlan! I love her! Can we please listen to this?”
“Sure, she’s my favourite,” Jake grinned.
Willow popped the CD into the stereo, and slow piano music filled the room. She closed her eyes and sighed, “Isn’t she great?”
“Yeah,” Jake agreed wholeheartedly.
Willow opened her eyes and smiled, “You know, it’s really nice that you don’t mind admitting that you like ‘chick music’.”
Jake chuckled, contemplating whether this was a good time to come out of the proverbial Closet-with-a-twist. God, it wasn’t like Willow couldn’t keep a secret. Anyway, the Scooby Gang had come clean about all their secrets, maybe it's only fair to do the same.
“I didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” Willow, slightly apprehensive after the words had left her mouth, hastened to add. “I just… I just think it’s really cool.”
Jake laughed, “No offence taken, believe me.” And as she and Willow busied themselves with decoding the entry to Rawley files in Government Geographical, she thought to herself that it was enough for now.
***
Afternoon: beside Rawley Lake
Xander swatted at a branch that came flying at his face after Buffy accidentally let it go, and groaned, “Did I mention how much liking this expedition I’m not?”
“Yes, you did, and I wish you would stop,” panted Giles as he tried to keep up with Buffy and Hamilton's jaunty pace. “Excuse me, Hamilton, but you’re reminding me exactly how many years has passed since my youth…”
“Ah, the Glory Days.” Xander mock-sighed.
Buffy halted while Hamilton turned back, “Sorry, Giles, would you like a rest?”
“Please.” Giles sat down on a large rock nearby and proceed to wipe his forehead with a starched white handkerchief.
“What…” Xander and Hamilton began at the same time, and smiled at each other. “You go ahead,” Hamilton offered.
“Thanks.” Xander replied, “Anyway, what I was going to say was… what exactly are we looking for?”
“That’s what I was going to ask,” said Hamilton.
“Well,” Giles began, “We’re trying to locate a place near the water where nature’s energies flow freely, and will therefore drive a resurrection ritual along without needing to take additional steps to ensure the balance of elements in the atmosphere. It’s possible to locate quite a few such places around here, but once we have cross-referenced with Willow’s deductions of Ezekiel’s possible whereabouts, I think we can pinpoint where exactly Viola is going to hold this ritual.”
“So it’s a demon-ritual Feng Shui thing, I get it.” Hamilton wasn’t being sarcastic, he really was into Feng Shui. “Look, I can narrow it down to a few places for you guys already. I know this lake like the back of my hand, and some places do have better vibes than others. Um… if we come across the right place, you will know, right?” he asked doubtfully, eyeing Giles.
Giles drew himself up to his full height and replied with all the dignity he could muster, given the circumstances, “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
***
Late afternoon: Friendly's
Jake jumped up as soon as she saw Hamilton come in with Buffy, a haggard-looking Xander, and a very haggard-looking Giles. “How was it, you guys?”
“We did pretty well.” Hamilton replied with a smile, “Although… some people had… difficulties.” He and Buffy glanced at Giles and Xander, then at each other, and they burst out laughing.
Jake looked from Hamilton to Buffy, then back again with unease. Sure, the Slayer had a few years on Hamilton, but then he had always been mistaken for older than he was, and Buffy was really uncommonly pretty. Prettier than Jacqueline Pratt herself, anyway.
Or maybe just more feminine? Jake wondered. Then again, she could name one hell of a lot of girls who were more feminine than her. Especially now, when she was dressed in baggy pants, two layers of shirts, boxer shorts and a corset-binder thing. She tugged at her hair self-consciously.
Hamilton sat down, prompting everyone else to do the same, “How about you?” he asked, reaching for Jake’s hand under the table. She let him take it with a small, pleased smile.
Willow beamed as she held up several sheets of computer printout, “Just call us the Masters of Cross Sectioning.”
Giles took the printouts and compared them to a clipboard he was holding, “Good work. All that’s left to be done now is to cross-reference these two sources, come up with the ritual site, and stop the ritual.”
“And how are we planning to do that, exactly?” Xander leaned back in the stall.
“I stake Viola.” Buffy answered matter-of-factly.
“But what if something goes wrong?” Jake asked, surprised at the casualness with which the Scooby Gang is treating the looming End of the World.
“Ah-ha, that’s where I come in,” Willow pulled out another sheet of paper. “The plan is to find Viola and stop the ritual before she has a chance to raise Ezekiel, but just in case we’re delayed, I have a spell here that would effectively bind the demon back to its own dimension.”
“Kicking its big fat demon ass right back into hell!” Xander offered by way of rephrase, just in case Jake and Hamilton didn’t understand it the first time round.
“Right,” Willow rolled her eyes at him, good-naturedly. “All I need to do is get some supplies… uh oh,” her face fell as the thought hit home. “I don’t suppose you have any magic shops here in town?” She asked Hamilton hopefully.
“I guess you mean ‘actual’ magic shops where they sell witchy stuff like toads and…” Hamilton paused, not sure if he was on the right track. Willow nodded.
“Way too unwholesome for this town.” Jake sighed, then brightened, “Although I think there’s a New Age shop in Carson.”
“Carson?” Giles took off his glasses, “But it’s 40 miles away, and my car is still in the garage.” He looked across the road to where his Citroën was parked in Bella's gas station.
“I can take my bike.” Jake offered.
“No, Jake, I need you to stay here and do some more hacking for me.” Willow told her, “I need to go today because I still need to do some modifications to the raw materials… but I can’t ride a motorbike…”
“No problem, I’ll drive you.” Hamilton offered.
Buffy looked outside at the fading light, “You guys better go now, if you plan to catch the shop open.”
“Okay,” Willow replied as she hurriedly told Jake, “Look, I need you to find police records, hospital records, online obituaries, any recent information on people who died or are reported to be missing. For all we know, they could all be vampires.”
“Yeah, and seeing that I can’t stay in town to protect you guys forever, I have to make sure the town’s cleared of vampires before I leave.” Buffy said, “And that means not missing a single one.”
“Cos those guys really know how to sire a whole colony in no time,” Xander smirked.
“It’s settled, then,” said Giles as he gathered up his papers, “Willow, Hamilton, I suggest you two leave now; Jake, please carry on with your computer work; and the rest of you, come with me, we have much cross-referencing to do.”
Amidst Buffy and Xander’s loud protests, Jake tossed her keys to Hamilton. Heading out of the diner, they dispersed, each person doing their part to save the world.
***
Nighttime: Jake's room
Jake looked to the darkness outside and strummed her fingers nervously on her desk. She hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on, and the computer monitor cast an eerie blue glow over her face.
The sun had set hours ago, and that was not good news ever since Viola came to town. For all Jake knew, there could be vampires prowling all over town right now. The fact that Hamilton had still not come back or called only added to her distress. It was just as well then that she worked better under pressure, as she’d finished all the hacking that she needed, and even completed her English essay due next week.
Nine deaths or missing persons since Viola’s arrival, all of whom possible vampires by now. And that was not counting any ones that may be made tonight, as they sat and did nothing but wait.
Her heart leaped when she heard Hamilton’s signature knock. Dashing to the door, she wrenched it open, pulling him in and giving him a huge hug before he could say anything. “I was so worried!” she cried.
He hugged her back. “Sorry I didn’t call,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “Willow’s shopping took longer than we expected, and when we got back it was already dark, so Buffy and Spike had to ‘escort’ me back.” He laughed, “You notice how Spike’s just like a weirder, funnier vampire version of Ryder?”
She chuckled. “So Willow’s got all she need?” He nodded, and she asked quietly, “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“We meet for breakfast in Friendly’s.” He walked towards her computer, staring at the array of police records that are crowding up the screen. “My girlfriend the prodigy criminal!” he grinned as he glanced back at her.
She shrugged and took her seat in front of the laptop, “It’s for a good cause.” Staring at the screen, she sighed, “It’s so sad to think that all these people died just because Viola wanted some minions.”
“Or food.” He added as he wrapped his arms around her and looked over her shoulder. “I was talking to Buffy about her Slayer duties,” he said, “And it struck me how… pointless this whole thing is. I mean, she’s forced to fight evil until she’s too weak to do it anymore, then…”
“She has to die on the job before the next Slayer is called,” she finished for him. Seeing his surprised look she explained, “Willow’s been telling me about this too.”
He let his forehead drop onto her shoulder. “It’s just… I can’t get over how they are fighting a losing battle. I mean, no matter how many times they win over the demons and the vampires, there are still gonna be more, and they are just going to keep coming. It’s one thing for us to help them, but after they work this through and leave, we’ll be able to lead a normal life again. But for them…”
She turned her head towards him and, catching the look in his eyes, whispered, “It’s never going to stop for them.”
“How do they deal?” They wondered aloud.
***
Morning: Friendly's
“How do we deal?” Willow and Xander repeated, looking at Jake and Hamilton who sat across the counter.
“I don’t know,” said Xander with a careless shrug.
“We just… do.” Willow replied quietly.
Jake and Hamilton nodded. Strangely enough they did understand what she was talking about. You don’t ask someone how they dealt with anything. You don’t even think about it. If dealing is what’s required of you, then you just do. It was human nature.
The four of them sat there for a while, silent, contemplating over hot coffee.
Part Six
There was only so much that one could think about irreversible fate and noble causes before one started being sucked into the depths of depression. With that in mind, Jake tried to divert everybody’s attention by suddenly asking, “So… where’s Buffy and Giles?”
“They stayed up all night doing the cross-reference thing. Yours truly ended up being plain annoying, so they sent me to bed early.” Xander replied, “They’re still catching up on sleep.”
“So what’s going to happen tonight?” asked Hamilton.
Willow took a bite out of her croissant before replying, “Okay, the plan. Buffy and Spike will attack Viola head-on, while Giles and I hide in the bushes and perform some simple combustion spells to take care of her band of vampires.”
“And I’ll be hang-around-and-be-annoying-guy, as usual.” Xander offered, resigned to his fate.
“Actually, we need you tonight.” Willow informed him.
He visibly brightened, “Oh? What… wait, you’re not making me donut-getting-guy again, are you? Cos I’m over that.”
“No,” she smiled, “No more donuts for the three of you to form a Protection Circle.”
“A what?” Xander, Jake and Hamilton asked at the same time.
“A Protection Circle. It’s like a magickal force field that stops any undead from leaving the proximity that you guys will cover.” Willow exhibited three little sachets fastened by long pieces of leather thong, which smelt less than stellar. “Scapulas all around!” she exclaimed happily.
Xander wrinkled his nose as he took one and looped it around his neck, wearing it like a necklace. “Yay, the Stink Packet,” he muttered sarcastically and made a face at Willow, “why did you have to use sulfur again?”
“I was short on supplies.” Willow shrugged and handed the other two to Jake and Hamilton, who handled the scapulas like time bombs. “These are… um, a sort of magick charm, I guess. What’s going to happen is this: you guys must stand around in designated spots around the ritual site, and the magick contained in the scapulas will connect with each other to form a triangular force field, with you three as the vertices.”
Xander was looking lost already, but Willow ignored him, “This force field will trap all vampires inside the triangle, so it’s really important that you guys don’t wander away from your posts while we take them down. The circle must be complete before anything could work.”
“And that brings us to a pressing question,” Xander noted, “Why is it called a ‘circle’, when it’s obviously a triangle? Stupid magick-creating people… ooh, chocolate!” A waitress walked past as he spoke, holding a large platter filled with chocolatey goodness. “Excuse me,” he said as he stood up and promptly followed the platter.
Jake and Hamilton also stood up. “Morning English class,” Hamilton offered by way of explanation.
Willow nodded, “We’ll meet you at the B&B this evening. Come before sundown. If anything else comes up we’ll call you.”
As the two turned to leave, she suddenly stammered, “Uh… I think…”
The couple looked back to see Willow flabbergasted and blushing an endearing shade of pink, “I mean…” she said in a hurry, “I think it’s really cool and brave for you guys to have your relationship out in the open like… this.” Seeing their momentary lack of response, she added, “Cos it’s not easy, I know…”
Jake glanced at Hamilton before sitting back down. It was one thing to simply not tell the truth, but she was not going to lie to the Scooby Gang. They gave her and Hamilton the truth, and they deserved truth in return.
“Willow, this… it’s not what you think.”
Willow looked at her, “Don’t tell me you’re not in love because I’ll never believe it. The way you look at each other, the way you touch…”
“No, we are in love,” Hamilton said quickly, laying a hand on Jake’s shoulder. She smiled at him, noticing how the sunlight filtered through his hair and cast flickering gold upon his thick lashes. She turned back to Willow and lowered her voice, “I’m a girl.”
***
Late morning: Rawley Lake
“She didn’t believe me.” Jake stated the obvious as they walked to where Finn’s class was sitting.
“Nope,” Hamilton agreed cheerfully.
“Well, I tried,” she shrugged, “no big. It wasn’t like I could’ve ripped my shirt open then and there to prove anything.”
“I thought that move was exclusively for me,” he joked. After a moment he exclaimed, “You just said ‘no big’. Buffytalk.”
“Yeah, it is,” she laughed, “I guess ‘Sunnyhell slang’ is rubbing off.”
“On me too,” he grinned. Thinking back to what they tried to tell Willow, he chuckled, “Now Willow thinks we are a couple of gay guys in a really screwed up form of denial.”
She laughed out loud as they sat down next to Scout and Will. “Hey guys,” they chorused.
“Hey,” said Will, while Scout wondered, “Where have you been? Haven’t seen you guys around all weekend.”
“We’ve been busy,” Jake replied lightly. Seeing Scout and Will exchange a ‘knowing’ glance, she felt her cheeks heat up. “God! Get your minds out of the gutter! Is that all you think about?”
“What were we thinking about?” Will challenged, fluttering his lashes innocently and laughing. Jake chose to ignore him.
“Seriously, what have you guys been doing?” asked Scout, feeling a little left out.
“Nothing,” Hamilton said.
Will wasn’t convinced, “So you were busy all weekend doing nothing.”
Hamilton shot a ‘help me’ look in Jake’s direction, while uttering a non-committal syllable that could have meant anything.
“Oh, come on, why the secrecy?” Scout pressed, “We’re like, your best buds.”
“Okay,” Jake said with a smile, “We’ve been busy saving the world from vampires and demons and the forces of darkness, you know – the usual.”
Will and Scout snickered, “Good one, Pratt.”
***
Dusk: Mrs Taylor’s Bed & Breakfast
“Reporting for duty,” Hamilton called from the doorway to Giles’ room. Startled, the Englishman looked up from amidst a sea of little plastic packets, “Oh, Hamilton, Jake, hullo. Do come in.”
The two carefully picked their way across the room and settled on the sofa. “What’s all this?” asked Hamilton, indicating the packets.
“Oh, ingredients for the Protection Circle,” Giles replied, “the combustion spells, and if the need arises, the binding spell for Ezekiel.” He nodded at the kitchenette adjoining the room and said, “Make yourselves at home. There are tea and ginger snaps if you would like some. The others should be coming along any minute now, but we’ve got a long wait ahead of us.”
As the couple settled down comfortably, Jake asked, “Are you sure you know exactly where the ritual’s going to take place?”
Giles looked up, mildly indignant, “Of course I'm sure.” Seeing Hamilton hide a smile, he crossed his arms over his chest, “I may not seem like the type who’d go trotting along with Buffy on all her missions, but back in my day…”
“Hi guys!” Willow called from the doorway, Xander in tow and interrupting what looked to be a mighty big tirade from Ripper (back in his day). “Ready for a big night?”
“Yeah,” said Hamilton, just as Jake replied, “Psyched.”
“Well, the psyching will have to wait a while,” laughed Buffy, who had just shown up, fresh from the shower, “until I come back from patrolling with Spike.” She looked towards Giles, “We'll just do the usual rounds and come back around eleven, giving us plenty of time to assemble at the site.”
Giles nodded. Buffy looked outside, just in time to see the sun disappear below the horizon. “Goody,” She said, “time for Spike's wake-up call.”
Darkness descended.
Nature itself seemed restless. The wind rustled with an extra chill. Nocturnal animals did not venture out in fear of something they could not identify, but could sense nevertheless. In the midst of all this, the lake stirred. The demon Ezekiel, trapped deep within the shifting, murky waters, waited patiently.
***
Nighttime: Mrs Taylor’s Bed & Breakfast
“Let’s go over this one more time,” Hamilton suggested. “We wait until Buffy and Spike come back. We leave for the site. When we get there, I’m wearing my spatula.”
“Scapula,” Willow corrected, not bothering to look up from the computer screen. Jake chuckled at the thought of Hamilton wielding a plastic spatula at an onslaught of vampires.
Hamilton was unfazed, “Right, so I’m wearing my scapula. You guys show me where to stand, and then I stand there for the rest of the night, until you guys come and get me.”
“Exactly how it goes,” Xander agreed.
“Oh,” Hamilton was disappointed, “I thought Saving the World would be a little more…”
“Exciting, dangerous and sexy?” Xander offered. Shaking his head, he smiled ruefully, “Sorry, not in this reality.”
They looked at each other and sighed loudly.
“Well, that’s it.” Willow shut her laptop with a decisive click, “No one died or was reported missing last night, undoubtedly from Buffy’s patrol efforts, so our grand total of vampires remains at nine, plus Viola.”
Giles looked up, “Deduct from that the two that were slain on Saturday, and the one on Sunday, bringing us to six vampires that we must try to burn with our combustion spell.”
“But isn’t it possible that some people may have been killed for the vamps to feed on, and weren’t made into vampires?” questioned Jake.
“Under normal circumstances, yes.” Giles sighed, “However, it won’t be the case this time. Normally vampires are quite wary of making more of their own kind, and prefer to keep the vampire blood exclusive between a select few in each town. This limits the number of hunters, while keeping a valid supply of victims.”
“Less mouths to feed and more food to go around,” Hamilton summarised. Giles nodded, “However, it’s not actually a great task for a vampire to sire another, and in a case like Viola’s she’ll be most likely to make minions out of any person who stumbles across her path.”
Xander frowned, “The more helpers she has, the less she’ll have to worry about us.”
“I’m just glad no students got bitten,” Jake said, “I guess we should thank the curfew. Without it, everyone would just be running around on and off campus.” She shuddered at the thought.
“Like I once said, like Happy Meals with legs,” said Spike from the doorway.
Giles looked up, “Where’s Buffy?”
“What, no ‘How did patrol go, Spike’?" Spike pretended to be hurt, “You know, for an Englishman, you really don’t have much manners.” Lighting up a cigarette, he took a long drag and peered contemptuously around the room.
“No one needs manners around you, Spike,” Buffy quipped, emerging from behind him. She glanced around, “Are you guys ready?”
Everyone stood up, Giles and Willow clutching their various plastic bags and Xander toting a backpack. Buffy tossed a couple of stakes to Hamilton and Jake. “For safety’s sake,” she said.
Jake looked at the stake in her hand, alarmed, “I don’t have to use this, right?” In her mind she could see herself trying to plunge it into a vampire’s chest, and found many, many things wrong with the picture.
“No, that’s just for scaring them off.” Xander replied, serious for once. He handed the couple a large wooden cross each, “This is the real weapon of choice for those of us who have no slayful, vampiric or witchy powers. Just stick it in their faces, and watch ‘em sizzle.”
“With that cheery thought in mind, let’s go.” Buffy winced and turned, leading the group into the night outside, where Viola, Ezekiel, and other assorted Powers of Darkness awaited.
Part Seven
Midnight approaching: Rawley Lake
“Okay guys, we’re getting close to the site, time for Stealth Mode,” Buffy whispered as she held her stake at the ready, glancing around cautiously. She, Willow, Xander, Giles, Spike, Jake and Hamilton made quite a team as they crept closer and closer to where Viola was about to hold the ritual at midnight. The site itself, being on the waterfront, made it impossible for any vampires to escape once the Protection Circle was completed.
Jake walked along, careful to avoid any crunchy leaves and branches. Since they are walking among trees and now being fall and all, it wasn’t an easy task. In a low voice she said to Hamilton, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
He smiled at her, and she could just catch the moonlight glinting in his eyes, “Me neither. This is totally trippy.”
“Shh!” whispered Buffy urgently. Hamilton and Jake looked up to see her brandishing her stake and motioning the rest of the group to stop moving.
Everyone stopped, and all fell silent. It wasn’t the sort of silence that signified peace and pleasantness, but still, agitating, eerie. Buffy closed her eyes and concentrated, her superhuman Slayer senses kicking into overdrive.
“Gotcha!” she suddenly exclaimed as she leaned into the bushes on her left, grabbed something, and yanked it out.
It was a vampire. Seeing its cover had been blown, it immediately lunged at Buffy, who side-stepped and cast a kick to its back, sending it sprawling. The vampire scrambled up at once and tried to grab her again, but she ducked easily under its outstretched arms and drove the stake into its heart. The vampire paused for a fraction of a second, just long enough to look down at its chest and see the protruding stake, before promptly exploding into a pile of dust.
“Yay!” Willow was the first one to cheer, “Slap my hand now!” She held up a hand and Buffy high-fived it. “That’s one down, five to go,” she said happily.
“‘Slap my hand now’?” Jake and Hamilton questioned in unison.
“Oh,” Giles smiled, “I believe that expression was first coined by Anya, which then… unfortunately… caught on with the rest of them.”
“Who’s Anya?” asked Hamilton.
“Ah, such a good question.” Giles murmured, looking pained.
“Anya is an ex-vengeance demon who granted wishes to scorned women, who also happens to be my girlfriend,” replied Xander. Seeing Jake and Hamilton looking perplexed, he hastily added, “Trust me, it’s a long story.”
“That I’ll believe.” Hamilton said, just as Buffy glared at him and did a weird flappy hand motion, trying to get them to shut up. “Is she always this uptight?” he whispered.
“Oh yeah.” Spike muttered, throwing an evil look in the Slayer’s direction.
“I heard that,” Buffy rolled her eyes. As the group crept along, she whispered, “That vamp must’ve been on lookout. I wonder if there are any more.”
“Well, vampire or no vampire, we’re at our first stop,” said Willow, “We’re standing on the first vertex of the Protection Circle. Which one of you wants to stand here?” She asked, looking in turn at Xander, Jake and Hamilton.
“It’s not like there are any prime spots that we’re all fighting over anyway,” Xander said, glancing at Willow to make sure, “is there?” She grinned and shook her head. He shrugged, “All right, I’ll stand here then.”
“You’re prepped if a vampire comes at ya?” Buffy asked.
Xander held up his cross and a vial of Holy water, “Be prepared, that’s my motto.”
“I thought it was the Boy Scout motto,” Hamilton smiled.
Xander didn’t miss a beat, “They stole it off me. Damn it, I knew I should’ve gotten it patented.”
“Okay, okay, we need to split up from here,” Buffy was Take-Charge-Girl, as usual. “Spike, Giles, you guys guide Hamilton to the second vertex. Willow and I will take Jake to the third vertex. Once the Protection Circle is in place, we'll move in towards the centre, which is where Viola’s going to be. Any questions?”
There was no response, so she barked, “Good, move.”
“Check out the Drill Sergeant,” Spike sneered, “Soldier Boy’s been rubbing off on somebody.” Buffy only scowled at him.
Jake looked at Hamilton. She didn’t realise that they'd be separated so soon, “Wait, aren’t you going to drop us off one by one?”
“We don’t have time for that.” Buffy explained, “We need all three of you in your places as soon as possible, and if we leave you one by one, we’ll have to take a detour. We’re splitting up now.”
Jake and Hamilton stared at each other. Without the comfort of the other’s presence, the task ahead suddenly seemed very bleak indeed. They wanted to say a private goodbye, but the Scooby Gang was waiting.
“So… I guess I’ll see ya when I see ya.” Jake smiled, trying to make light of the moment.
Hamilton wasn’t fooled. He could see how much she didn’t want to leave his side. Who knows? If something went horribly wrong, they just might never see each other again. He glanced around at Buffy and Giles, who clearly wanted to get moving, then at Willow and Spike, who were watching them with keen interest. “Oh, what the hell,” he muttered, grabbed Jake by the shoulders and kissed her.
Jake was taken by surprise. It was one thing to throw caution to the wind while Hamilton was in an empty bathroom and thinking he was kissing another guy, but an entirely other thing for him to be out here in the open, ready to save the world, and throw caution to the wind by kissing someone that everybody else thought was another guy. It was a daunting thought, yes, but she was moved by the gesture. God knows, with impending apocalypse and the revelations that came with the past couple of days, she needed the reassurance. Hamilton kept her sane.
She kissed him back, knowing only too well the passion that desperation brought, when she realised that they would not be there for each other, in what might be the most important task in their lives, and it made her hurt. The ache churned and her heart refused to stay quiet and still, as her pulse throbbed in her temple, her wrist, every inch of her. Blood rushed through her veins, and she felt it burn.
Hamilton’s lips left scorching imprints on her own, as they clung to each other and felt almost foolish to be acting this way, when the whole thing would probably all be over in an hour and they’d be back in each other’s arms again.
But let us have just one more moment
In each other we find solace
It may be that young love is foolish and overrated,
But we still fell with eyes wide open
Not knowing what is to come
We wear our hearts on each other’s sleeve…
The kiss could have been for an eternity, though it lasted only a little while.
They separated, Jake blushing furiously and Hamilton looking just a bit shocked at what he’d done so brashly in front of the Scooby Gang. At such an inappropriate time, no less.
The Scooby Gang itself, was for the most part, taking it pretty well.
Giles was cleaning his glasses with avid interest in the squeaky-clean lenses; Xander was staring wide-eyed; Spike just looked confused (maybe he needed time to think up a smart-arse remark); Buffy seemed vaguely uncomfortable, and the look on Willow’s face was indiscernible, equal parts pride and bewilderment. A little part of her had just started to take the ‘Jake’s a girl’ thing seriously, and she wasn’t sure what to think regarding this couple, not anymore.
Jake and Hamilton stared at each other. She ran her tongue over her lips in the usual manner, whenever she had something important to say.
“If you let anything happen to yourself, I’ll never forgive you,” she said, raising a hand to caress his cheek.
It was a strange and oddly menacing version of ‘be careful’, but Hamilton could almost hear her choke back a sob as she uttered the words. It was the most tender thing he’d ever heard anyone say to him, and he bit down on his lower lip to stop the tears from welling behind his eyes.
He didn’t cry, though, and as they stepped away from each other, he whispered, “I love you,” and let the night wind carry the words to her.
Buffy recovered sufficiently enough to take Jake by the arm, and smiled to Hamilton, “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him.”
Hamilton, along with Giles and Spike, was already fading into the darkness, away from them, away from Jake. But his voice drifted between the trees. “Her…”
Buffy turned to Jake quizzically, “What did he say? Did he say ‘her’?”
Jake was still half dazed. Glancing at Buffy with small sideways smile, she spoke almost automatically, “Yeah, well… I’m a girl.”
Willow, upon hearing that phrase the second time, scrutinised Jake carefully and suddenly saw it. She was a girl, and the love that she held, in a heart so full, had made her excruciatingly beautiful. Her cheeks were flushed, her glittering eyes reflecting the night sky over their heads. In that moment Willow was stunned at her error, for now it was obvious to any onlooker.
Perhaps love – and the miraculous realisation that one was capable of being loved – could bring out in somebody the real person inside, the identity that perpetually lay half-concealed, the truest form of ourselves that we could hope to discern.
***
Midnight approaching: the area of the 3rd vertex (Jake's post in the triangle)
“I guess this is it.” Buffy said, “Are you going to be all right on your own?”
Jake gulped. “Yeah, sure, fine,” she smiled weakly, “It’s not like I’m gonna get a lot of action here anyway.”
Buffy was concerned, “But just in case a vamp finds you, you know what to do?”
Jake held up her cross and stake as though she were holding a banner at a protest march. Buffy looked at her, holding back a grimace at the inexperienced stance. However, she decided to leave Jake to it, given the circumstances, there wasn’t much else she could do.
Willow touched Jake’s arm, “You sure you’ll be fine?”
“Sure, just go and do your thing,” Jake tried to sound cheerful.
“All right, we’ll catch ya later, girlfriend,” Willow called out, and a moment later, they too were gone. As they left Jake could just catch a bit of their conversation, as Buffy exclaimed quietly to Willow, “‘Catch ya later girlfriend’? Isn’t that what Faith used to say?”
“Well, I had to acknowledge her as a her somehow…” Willow’s reply grew softer and softer as they walked away, and soon Jake could not hear anything at all.
Who’s Faith? She wondered idly as she stood alone in the woods. It was cold, it was nearly midnight, and she was scared beyond belief. She fingered her scapula, which was hanging loosely around her neck, thought of Hamilton, and wondered if he was thinking of her.
***
Midnight approaching: the area of the 2nd vertex (Hamilton's post in the triangle)
Hamilton resisted the urge to gag as he tried to get his scapula as far away from his nose as possible. “God, this stinks like hell!” He muttered, and wondered if Jake too was fighting off the waves of nausea that came with merely having the thing hanging off her neck.
He stood alone. Spike and Giles had left him here, and he wished that he felt more World-saviour-ish. Instead he just felt stupid, what with him wearing his Stink Packet (as Xander so eloquently called it), standing here like an idiot, midnight fast approaching.
Part Eight
Midnight: Ritual site by Rawley Lake
Viola de Lamoureux was in distress.
Her gorgeous red velvet dress, the one that she’d specifically picked out for the ritual, which she had to kill a couple of shop girls back in Boston for, was ruined. The dog that was slain as a sacrifice to Ezekiel lay dead at her feet, but its blood had ran everywhere, and she saw the end result a little too late. The beautiful dress now had an unsightly darker red stains sloshed all around her ankles. Not exactly the most graceful way to start world domination.
Hundreds of candles burned around the clearing, the site where Ezekiel will be raised. Vampires weren’t particularly concerned with fire safety regulations. Viola leaned over to fetch an ornate ceramic urn, filled to the brim with peculiar-smelling substances whose particular natures were perhaps best left unknown.
She straightened, and her jet-black hair tumbled about her shoulders. The sight could have been overwhelmingly beautiful, had there not been five vampires guarding the premises with full game face on, soft growls emitting from their throat as they scanned their surroundings.
“The time has come,” Viola began to chant, her voice low and hypnotic, “At the hour where all magickal elements are in harmony, in the place where all magickal vibrations are in tune, I call on you, Ezekiel, Harbinger of death, Patron of Hell.”
The candles flickered as she continued chanting, this time in Latin.
***
Buffy crouched low and watched the ritual from a safe distance. She and Willow had met up with Giles and Spike earlier, and were now prepped for action. Giles and Willow had dumped out their assortment of spell ingredients, and were busy assembling most of it into an intricate Wiccan design on the ground. Willow poured the contents of one of the bags into an urn similar to the one Viola was holding. “Just a second, Buffy…” she muttered, shaking the bag to get the last of the powder.
“No,” Buffy decided, glancing at Giles, “she’s started the ritual, we can’t wait any longer.”
“She’s right,” the ex-watcher agreed, “we’ll begin as soon as we can. Buffy…”
“We’re going in,” Buffy finished for him, “come on, Spike.”
Spike was irritable, and did not fancy the odds of five vampires on the two of them, but Buffy reminded him of how much he adored punching people, so as she leapt out of the bushes, he followed.
Viola looked up to see the Slayer and her tag-along leap out of the bushes. She smirked, taking no notice of them for the time being except to wave her minions over and do the dirty work.
The vampires rushed at Buffy and Spike, fangs bared in the faint light. Meanwhile, Viola carried on chanting, gradually increasing in volume as the contents of the words being spoken became darker, more intense, the spell beginning to gather momentum of its own, carrying the ritual forth on a surge of dark magick, the desire to raise up he who would bring about endless destruction. A sudden wind whirled through the clearing, potent forces agitating everything in nature, wakening Ezekiel in his watery sanctuary.
***
Midnight: Jake's post in the triangle
Jake looked at her watch. It was exactly midnight, and everything was quiet. She thought she could just make out the faintest of voices from the distance, but she could not, for the life of her, figure out what it was saying. Perhaps it was in another language? She wondered. Sounded like… Latin? It grew louder as the night wind picked up speed, chilling her to the bone.
She stood there, wondering, as the wind whistled through the trees with supernatural urgency. Autumn leaves fell all around her, a few jagged edges grazing her cheeks with short, sharp bouts of pain. She did not dare move.
***
Midnight: Hamilton's post in the triangle
Hamilton smiled with anticipation as he heard the maniacal chanting in the distance. The wind whipped him in the face, and he could make out the shapes of lakeside animals scampering in all directions.
This is more like it, he thought. As far as Saving the World went, this didn’t suck.
***
Midnight: Ritual site
Buffy tried desperately to throw off the vampire that was clawing at her back, while shoving her heel up the jaw of the one in front. A third vampire joined in the gang-bash, and punched her squarely in the face. Buffy, reeling from the shock, stumbled back, right into the vampire that was clawing at her before, and it kicked her sharply in the small of her back. She fell face first onto the hard ground, and saw in the brief moment it took for all three vamps to jump on her, that Spike had his hands full, and was unlikely to come to her aid.
She didn’t bother looking again, and instead focused on the fact that three vampires were sitting astride her (in the most unseemly fashion) and would be sucking her heart out through her neck if she didn’t do something soon.
Gritting her teeth, she threw her head back, feeling her skull hit a vampire’s head with full force. The jarring blow took it by surprise and it rolled off her back. Buffy, ignoring the spell of dizziness that came with the headbutt, half-twisted her body and ran a fist into the second vampire who sat on her. She threw the last one off, and managed to get into a crouching position. Before she could even struggle to her feet, they pounced again.
Spike swore under his breath as two vamps lunged at him at once. He ducked, and they flew right over him. He straightened up with a sneer, “God, it’s your type losers who give vampires a bad name!” In his day, vampires did more than growl and look menacing. They actually ‘menaced’, if such a word exists.
“Where are all the evil geniuses nowadays?” he wondered aloud as the vampires came at him again. They had pointless bravado, he’ll give them that.
***
Willow peeked over the bushes and saw that Viola’s spell was beginning to take effect, while Buffy and Spike were still entangled with her minions. “They haven’t even reached her yet,” she cried as she frantically scrabbled for a match, “hurry, Giles!”
“I’M TRYING!” He yelled irritably, waving his hands over the ground, tracing the design that they’d made. He muttered a few words in Latin, then in English, “I call on the elements, grant us the magicks of the Higher Powers!” He looked up and shouted, again in Latin, “Librum incidere!”
Immediately, one of Buffy’s vampires burst into flames. It screeched in agony for a moment before it simply disappeared into thin air, leaving a cloud of dust in its place. Buffy took the opening and whipped a roundhouse kick straight to another vamp's temple, tucked into a dive roll, leapt up, and cleanly drove her stake into its chest. “Two down, three to go,” she panted, and turned her head just in time to see another vampire instantaneously combust, no doubt Willow and Giles’ handiwork, and Spike lunged to dust the other vamp that was attacking him. The last vampire, seeing that things were taking a rapid downturn, decided to flee the scene. Buffy made a minor attempt at chasing him, but decided that there were more important matters at hand.
Just as she thought the tables were turning, Willow yelled from the bushes, “Buffy, look out!”
The Slayer turned, and was immediately hurled to the ground by a massive force coming from Viola’s direction. She looked back to see Viola holding the urn high above her head, her demonic vampire face back in place, her eyes glowing yellow.
“Ezekiel, exaudi meam causam, veni, appare, acum! Asa sa fie!”
As she screamed the final words to the resurrection ritual, Viola brought her arms down, and smashed the urn to smithereens.
***
Hamilton's post
Hamilton was beginning to get bored when he heard suspicious rustlings in the trees. He had half a mind to investigate and half a mind to hide, but decided against both as he stood his ground, determined to keep his post in the Protection Circle.
His eyes widened as he saw a vampire burst out of the trees and, not seeing Hamilton for the moment, ran across right in front of him. It was only a few feet away when its body suddenly seemed to ram into a solid wall and the vampire fell back, growling in surprise.
The thing was, there was no wall in its way.
It’s the Protection Circle! It worked! No undead thing could get past the barrier that he, Jake and Xander have created! Thoughts flitted in Hamilton’s mind, shot through with excitement, momentarily making him forget that a vampire was really close to him, which was undoubtedly a Very Bad Thing.
Of course he remembered that all in good time, when the vampire crawled up in defeat and saw a tasty human treat not far away. Promptly, it decided that escaping wasn’t really the first thing on its mind, even though it only barely missed out on being spontaneously-combusted or staked by the Slayer back at the ritual ground.
It plunged toward Hamilton, who drew a jagged breath, shut his eyes in fear, and held out his wooden cross at arm’s length. Immediately realising that shutting his eyes perhaps wasn’t the smartest thing to do, he opened them to see the vampire stumble back, apparently terrified of the holy sign.
They faced each other, fearful and wary.
***
Jake's post
Jake heard Viola’s chanting from a distance, and wondered where she’d gotten to with the ritual. That question was instantly answered, as Viola let loose with a triumphant laugh and the earth shook beneath Jake’s feet, throwing her to the ground. She landed in a heap, disoriented and filled with sudden dread. What was happening out there?
***
Site of the ritual
Buffy gasped. Giles and Spike looked up in wonder, while Willow set her jaw and struggled to reach the urn that she had filled earlier. It was the vital component to the Binding spell, which was the only thing that could stop the demon now.
Ezekiel had risen.
Viola raised a hand, in triumph and in greeting of the demon, as it rose up from the lake, monstrous head reared and eyes blazing red.
It stepped out of the lake, and Viola laughed.
***
Hamilton’s post
Hamilton heard the commotion at the site, and momentarily looked away. He didn’t see anything, but the opening was enough for the vampire. It dove towards Hamilton, and they both fell backwards, onto the hard ground. As Hamilton felt his lower back impact, sharp pain shot up his spine. He did not have time to even think about that, as the vampire landed on top of him, straining forward and its fangs grazing his neck.
He used every ounce of his strength to push the vampire away, just a little bit, before freeing up a hand and pressing the cross onto its face. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air as the vampire screamed and loosened its stranglehold on him, leaning away.
Hamilton did not think, he acted half on instinct, half by what he remembered of Buffy’s fights. He rolled over, pulled out the stake that he’d tucked away in his sleeve, and plunged the sharp implement into the vampire’s chest.
It exploded into dust.
He fell back, eyes wide with disbelief.
He just killed a vampire.
Killed.
Vampire.
Whoa.
A violent tremor of the ground jolted him out of his astonishment. “What’s going on?” he bellowed, and decided to hell with the Circle, he was going to where the action was.
***
Site of the ritual
Ezekiel inhaled deeply. When it breathed out, the air from its lungs ignited and formed a huge fireball, which flew directly at Buffy. With her Slayer reflexes, she dodged the attack with ease, rolling off to one side, leaving a small tree direct in the line of fire.
Surprisingly, the tree did not burst into flames when the fireball hit. Instead, it turned grey, withered, and died almost upon impact. Its leaves disintegrated while its branches shrunk into wizened bits in the space of a few seconds.
“What the…” Spike exclaimed.
“It’s impressive, isn’t it?” said Viola, enchanted. “This is no ordinary fire.”
“It is Hellfire, brought forth by the patron of Hell itself,” turning, the vampiress looked Buffy in the eye and explained, a little smile playing about her lips. “It does not burn, but instead, destroys any living thing that lies in its path.” With a sudden laugh she walked in front of Ezekiel, gazing up at it with a mixture of adoration and something that resembled superiority. Why not? She was the one who raised him, after all. The demon cast its fire in all directions, sending the Scooby Gang diving for cover. Yet, when the flames touched Viola, nothing happened. No withering, no greying, not even ordinary catching-on-fire.
“You see, being undead, i.e. not living?” Viola said slowly, winking at Buffy as the blonde executed a beautiful series of backflips to get out of Ezekiel’s way, “It’s got some perks.”
“Well then, in that case,” Spike declared, jumping to his feet, “I think I’ll leave now.”
“WHAT?” Buffy shouted, “Spike, what the hell are you doing?”
He shrugged, beginning to rummage around for a cigarette, ignoring the demon’s fire. “What do you expect me to do? This demon doesn’t affect me.”
“Yeah, but what about us?” Buffy yelled, throwing herself on the ground and pulling Willow down with her, just as a fireball flew over their heads, missing by mere inches.
“Hey, in case you didn’t notice, I’m still evil!” Spike shouted back, throwing his hands up in disgust. The whole evil thing wasn’t really working out since he couldn’t even harm humans, much less kill, maim and torture them. He’d just have to settle with deserting the Slayer and her Slayerettes at a time of need. He chuckled to himself as he merrily left the scene, beginning to whistle a jaunty little tune. Viola watched him go, a smile playing about her lips. That little interlude was unexpected, and rather amusing to watch.
Turning back to Buffy, she grinned, brushing strands of her dark hair off her face. “Let’s play a game, shall we?” Motioning for Ezekiel to come closer, she mock-whispered to Buffy, “How about if you run, and I’ll see how long it takes before Hellfire destroys you?”
At that moment Hamilton burst out of the trees. Skidding to a stop, he exclaimed, “What… Oh my God! The Loch Ness Monster?”
Despite the urgency of the situation, Buffy had to give it to him, the demon did resemble a dinosaur. Only, it was evil. Ezekiel responded to Hamilton’s unfortunate labelling by sending a fireball his way. Hamilton ducked, and it missed him by a fraction of an inch. “It’s not the Loch Ness monster, you idiot!” Buffy shouted.
“I’ve got to get to Jake,” Hamilton yelled, leaping to his feet. She was alone somewhere in the woods, with a rampaging demon from Hell on the loose. Without another thought he took off, sprinting into the trees. “Hamilton!” yelled Buffy, running after him, “What are you doing?”
Viola looked at Ezekiel as she would an adored pet, “What do you say, shall we follow?”
It responded by snorting a spray of Hellfire, and the trees in front of them withered and fell, creating a clean path free of all living things, almost in the fashion of Moses and the Red Sea.
Still a fair distance away, Giles stumbled as he pulled Willow along, “Come on, we’ve got to save the kids!”
Willow cast a trail of herbs on their path as they ran, “Giles, slow down, I have to perform the Binding spell as we go, or it won’t work!”
“Hurry, we don’t have time!” gasped Giles, watching the dead grey areas expand and grow right in front of their eyes. Viola sauntered ahead of Ezekiel, who followed leisurely, the two lit up by Hellfire. “If we wait much longer, the demon will destroy everything!”
Part Nine
Past midnight: beside Rawley Lake
Hamilton didn’t think he was able to ever run this fast. Each breath that he took was burning, raspy torture, his leg muscles felt like they were seizing up, and whipping past stray tree branches left stinging red welts on areas of his skin that lay exposed. But he had to get to Jake. He had to protect her. Buffy ran after him, yelling at him to slow down, to wait for her so he would at least have some backup, but he either didn’t hear her, or simply did not care.
Willow and Giles ran after the two of them, chanting with ragged gasps as they stumbled along. The Binding spell had begun.
***
Past midnight: Jake’s post
Jake was scared. Voices, both human and inhuman, echoed in the air. Overhead a dark, grey mist had swept in like tide and blotted out the stars. Fire blazed in the distance now and then, although she was not sure if it was real fire because nothing seemed to stay burning for long. She wanted to move, to hide, but she forced herself to stay still. She had a job to do.
To distract herself from the madness that was now, she decided to think about Hamilton, he who should be in the same place as her, at this moment. Same place being emotionally, of course, although she would give much just to have him physically here as well.
Suddenly, she tensed. Something was coming. Something big, dangerous, and…evil. It wasn’t necessary for her to perceive it to know this, for she could sense it in every pore, the evil drifted all around her, dense and suffocating.
An orange glow suddenly flared in front of her eyes. As she watched in horror, the trees that shielded her from whatever it was, the trees green and leafy and comforting, withered and turned shades of grey, as if the essence of life itself had been drained from them. As the thick foliage fell away to fade into insubstantial ash, she saw standing in their place Viola del Roye… and the Loch Ness monster.
On second thought, it was probably be Ezekiel, the demon that Viola was trying to raise.
Loch Ness or not, this monster was still a great deal more evil than anything Jake had ever encountered before. For one, it was an honest-to-goodness monster. She forced her legs to move, but they seemed frozen in place.
She watched, immobile with fear, as the monster reared its head, shooting a flaming fireball out of its mouth straight toward her.
In that moment someone called her name.
“Jake!”
It was Hamilton.
When she heard his voice, she felt that everything was going to be all right after all.
Hamilton saw her, dark hair and eyes illuminated by hellfire, looking more beautiful than he’d ever seen her. More beautiful than anything. Illuminated, she stood fragile yet resplendent, like a statue in the path of the fire from hell, destroyer of all life.
In that moment he knew. He came here to protect her, and that was exactly what he was going to do.
He darted out of the trees, quick enough so that she wouldn’t register what was happening, and threw himself on top of her. His blue eyes burned into hers, his breath was warm against her cheek, and he covered her body with his own as they fell to the ground.
Hellfire consumed him.
***
Buffy dashed out of the trees a moment later, coming to a halt.
He had turned grey just as everything else did, when they too were touched by Hellfire. The life that was contained within him was gone, destroyed, like all else. He was still beautiful though, in the ashen and immobile way that destruction seemed to appeal, somehow.
His motionless form slid off Jake's body. She lay there, exposed, frozen with shock.
A thousand feelings stirred inside of her. It was dread, it was shock, and it was a sharp stabbing pain where her heart ought to have been. It was love, it was tenderness, and it was disbelief that her mind fabricated to soften the blow, though her heart already knew.
Hamilton was dead.
He knew what would happen, his eyes had told her, yet he still did it. For her. If a life had to be taken, it wouldn’t be hers.
Slowly, she rose to her feet.
Her eyes were glazed. Glassy but not empty, as blood boiled behind them.
Anger had not been more dangerous than this. Vengeance could not do justice to the look in her eyes.
She did not seem human.
Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew her wooden stake without ceremony. Staring Viola straight in the eyes, she brought her arm back, and sent the stake flying.
Buffy had never seen anything like this. It was as if the stake had a life of its own, as if somehow, all the love and hate Jake had ever possessed were pulled out and compressed into the very fibre of the wood, and as it curved through the air, the love radiated and the hate severed all in its path.
For a moment, Jake took on all the strength and precision of the Slayer. More than that – the slayer is still, in the end, human. What Jake possessed in this single moment of pure love and pure hatred was not something that a person could do – the emotions transcended human capacity, and Jake was made a part of it. With that came a power more awesome than any of them had ever envisaged, a force more terrible and beautiful than anything conjured from the skies or from the earth.
Viola was mesmerised and frozen shock still. Like everyone else around, the mere sight of Jake had rooted her to the ground, she who invoked Ezekiel, she who brought about all this destruction.
As everybody watched, the stake seemed to puncture through the very fabric of time and space, driven by this horrific yet wondrous force behind it all… Jake.
It hit Viola at full force. The sharp point of the wood carved through her velvet dress, cut clean through her cold flesh, and made its presence known.
As Viola looked at the boy who was a girl who was in love with the boy who was now as dead and grey as everything else, she felt the wood burst into splinters inside her heart, and it was a new pain that she had never known before.
“Why don’t you try feeling what I feel?” Jake whispered.
And Viola exploded into dust.
***
Willow burst through the trees and saw Viola die. She was about to say something, in victory or in consolation, but was stopped by the look in Jake’s eyes.
In the four years that she spent befriending the Slayer, she had seen more than her fair share of death and the all-consuming devastation that it brought. But everything that she had seen still didn’t compare to what she saw there on Jake’s face, in her eyes, something so absolute in its grievance that even Ezekiel, the monster, stopped for a moment, stunned.
And Willow took that moment to finish the Binding spell needed to send the demon back to Hell. The Wicca tossed a burning match into the urn that she held, and sparkling green tendrils of magickal energy curled up from the flame.
Jake did not notice. She was down on the ground, trembling fingers caressing Hamilton's cheek. It was only an hour ago when she had stroked the same spot, where the skin was smooth and soft to the touch, only… an hour ago, he was still warm with life.
An hour ago, she loved him, and he loved her back. She didn’t know if it was possible to carry on loving once you die. She wanted to believe it, but she didn’t know if she could.
She didn’t cry. When it mattered the most, she found that she couldn’t find the tears. When it hurt the most, it was impossible to flood anything out.
It was the deepest pains, in the end, which could never be reached; not by warm liquid or salt, it would never be an open wound that could blister and burn, but then heal. The pain lingered beneath the skin, etched into her bones, and it would never dissipate. So she knelt there, dry-eyed and bleeding inside.
Willow raised her arms above her head, which the cackling green magick climbed like vines, “Ezekiel, I bind thee from doing more harm!
“Ezekiel, I bind thee back to Hell, by the powers of the Gods above me, I bind thee!” she cried, for a moment her eyes turned black as the potent magick coursed through her, “Leave, be gone!”
Brilliant emerald beams shot out of Willow’s outstretched fingertips, and they hit Ezekiel with such force that it stumbled back. Energy, rippling like water, surged and enclosed it in gelatinous crystal layers, and the demon screamed out in pain.
Willow, Buffy and Giles watched in grim satisfaction as the magick wrapped around Ezekiel massive form, binding it, green beams of energy intertwining, twisting tighter and tighter still, until in a blinding flash of light the demon disappeared entirely.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, but she gazed at Jake’s shaking frame kneeling next to Hamilton’s stationary body, she was far from happy.
What about the ruins?
What about the sacrifices that were made?
Giles lowered his head. The burden of darkness should not have been borne by these children, who were not used to it, who were not supposed to live or die this way. It was never their fight. Yet, he failed in trying to turn them away, and this was the consequence.
But as they stood silent and grieving amongst the devastation, a gentle wind rustled through the clearing, and things began to change.
From the ground, from the dark and grey ashes, individual leaves slowly took form. Like a tape played backwards in slow motion, they turned from monochrome to bright, lively green and floated upward, gently, reattaching onto the trees that again flourished. Signs of life lay in the twitching ears and sniffling noses of little animals that fell where the hellfire touched them.
Life spread, and death receded.
Giles took off his glasses. “How did that happen…” he murmured.
Jake looked at Hamilton’s grey lips and imagined kissing them. She thought she must have been hallucinating when tinges of pink returned to his cheeks and his eyelashes begin to flutter.
Hamilton coughed, sputtered and sat up, looking around in confusion. “What did I miss?” he asked groggily.
Jake stared at him.
“What?” her intense gaze was freaking him out.
She threw herself at him, hugging him like she would never let go and she pummelled him at the same time, yelling hysterically, “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”
Xander chose this time to burst out of the trees, panting, “Okay, I got bored just standing there, so I thought…” He glanced at Jake and Hamilton, raising his eyebrows, “Did I miss something?”
Hamilton looked up with a bemused smile on his face, “Does anyone mind telling me what all this is about?”
“Hmm, don’t ask me about what is going on, but from my personal experience, when the object of your affection yells ‘I hate you’, it usually means that they’re totally in love with you,” replied Xander with the sage air of a guy who’d been there and done that. “Or,” he added under his breath, “it could be that she’s going to take out a restraining order on you the next day.”
“Oh,” Hamilton, upon the first of the two explanations, slowly smiled. “I could live with that,” he hugged Jake back, and whispered in her ear, “I love you too.”
Buffy shook her head in disbelief, “How did you do that, Will? How did you reverse everything?”
“Oh,” Willow smiled meekly, “you know how I was doing a little modification to the raw materials of the spell?” Buffy nodded.
“Well,” Willow tilted her head, clearly proud of what she had achieved, “all I did was mix a little ‘Undo’ spell into the big one. Motherwort, hair of unicorn… it’s not all that difficult.”
“So all the damage the demon caused was undone once it was bound!” exclaimed Giles as he put his glasses back on, “Willow, I must… I must congratulate you on your ingenious thought! Not only did you leave New Rawley virtually untouched, you also…” He looked toward Jake and Hamilton, then back at Buffy, Willow and Xander. That was when he realised that he didn’t need to say anything more.
The stars shone down on them, and the town slept on, having no idea that minutes ago, it was on the brink of becoming Hell itself.
Part Ten
Afternoon: Friendly’s
“I died?” exclaimed Hamilton, causing a few diners to look in his direction. Scout, who was working, also glanced over, then exchanged a knowing look with Will and Bella. Those guys were acting really strangely lately.
“Shh,” Jake whispered, noticing the stares they were receiving.
“I can’t believe it,” he murmured, “I just thought I got a lucky break when I woke up and found myself alive. I didn’t expect to be, you know.”
“I know,” she replied with a frown, “and I want you to know I hate you for it.”
He looked at her evenly, sizing her up, then said, “You would’ve done the same for me.”
She gazed at him and felt her stern expression dissolve into a smile. The bell above the door tinkled and they looked up to see Buffy and her gang enter the restaurant. They greeted each other, noting the bruises and cuts that all of them sported as memoirs from the night before.
“Well, seeing that everything is settled, I guess it is time for us to depart,” smiled Giles.
“What about Spike?” asked Hamilton, “Did you find him?”
“Nope,” Buffy laughed, “I think he’d already skipped town. Maybe he’s gone back to Sunnydale.” She shook her head and put her hands on her hips, “I'm so gonna kick his ass if I find him back home.”
Everyone laughed appreciatively, knowing she wasn’t kidding. Willow shot a meaningful glance at Buffy and motioned for Jake to follow them. Bemused, the brunette obliged, and the three girls stepped outside. “Girltalk,” Buffy offered by way of explanation.
“What? Jake isn’t…” Xander started to say, before his eyes widened and the thoughts clicked into place. “Oh my God! Jake’s a…”
Hamilton leapt up and covered Xander’s mouth with his hand before he could blurt the startling revelation to the entire restaurant. Xander shook his hand free and stammered, “When did this happen? You guys all knew?”
Hamilton and Giles looked at Xander, amazed at his total lack of clue, and seeing that there was truly nothing that could be done, shook their heads in amused defeat.
***
“So everything’s cool with you and Hamilton?” asked Buffy, basking in the sunlight. Having been the Slayer for so long, she’d almost forgotten the simple joys of just being outside during daytime, a place where darkness was banished, if only temporarily.
“Yeah,” Jake smiled, “It was just… I mean, after he woke up, I just…”
“Wigged out?” Willow supplied with ‘Sunnyhell slang’, grinning.
Jake laughed out loud, “Yeah, I wigged out.” Pausing for a moment, she added, “big time.”
Buffy and Willow nodded in understanding. “Been there, done that,” said the redhead, “we totally know what you mean.”
“It’s just… the whole thing with him dying? It made me think about a lot of things.” Jake contemplated. Seeing the look on the girls’ faces, she nodded in agreement, “Yeah, this line’s kinda cliché.”
Buffy smiled, “But it’s true, I grant you.”
“I just can’t help but think about what things would be like now, if he had, um, you know…” Jake faltered.
“Stayed dead?” supplied Buffy.
Jake had to laugh, “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it. If he had stayed dead, I think I would’ve regretted a lot of…” She suddenly looked very bashful, “I mean, what if I never feel this way about anyone else ever again? I wished I could undo some of the things in the past – if I’d known what was to come, I’d have, you know…” She tried to cover her red face with her hands, “Oh God. Now I’m embarrassed."
Willow and Buffy looked on with broad grins, amazed to see her looking so girly. It was cute. Her words struck a chord with Buffy, as she recalled that, a time long ago, she also expressed sentiments along those exact lines. With a sideways smile at Willow, she said to Jake, “You know, Willow once gave me a piece of really good advice.”
Jake peeked through her fingers, “What was it?”
Buffy’s eyes took on a faraway, dreamlike quality, “Carpe Diem. Though not,” she hastened to add, “as I thought at first, meaning ‘Fish of the Day’.”
Jake saw Dead Poet’s Society, she knew what it meant. She put down her hands, “Seize the Day?”
Willow’s eyes widened and she waved her arms around frantically, “No! No! It wasn’t good advice at all! It was bad! It was more than bad! I mean, you… um, seized it, and then Angel was all ‘grrr’ and you were sad, and then you had to kill him and then it was lucky that he came back, but you realised you could never… then it was like, ‘I’m sorry’, and he had to go to LA… OH NO, it was the worst advice ever!”
Buffy rolled her eyes, “Come on Will, this is different. For one, Hamilton isn’t even a member of the soulful undead.”
Jake was interested, “You guys wanna fill me in on this story?”
Buffy didn’t answer straight away. Instead she stared up into the sky, looking at the sun. A little while later, she smiled wistfully, “Maybe another day.”
***
Evening: Rawley Boys' dorms
“So… the demon’s back in Hell, the Scooby Gang’s gone home, and everything’s back to normal.” Hamilton sighed as he and Jake walked down the hall.
“I guess,” she replied, somewhat distracted.
He heard the preoccupation in her voice. “What’s wrong?”
She looked up, but before she could answer, somebody snorted from a doorway, “Aw, isn’t this cute? The Dean’s daugh’er is being quite the sensitive new age fag.”
It was Ryder, awake from his coma, fresh out of hospital, and as big a jerk as ever.
Normally Hamilton would’ve tried to think up a comeback and hurl it as nastily as he could, no matter how lame it was. Today, he simply smiled at Jake, and they walked on. As they passed Ryder, he said offhandedly, “Spike’s accent was much cooler.”
She tried to keep a straight face and agreed, “Yeah, it was. And he had the best coat.”
Ryder stared at their retreating backs, confusion written plainly on his expression.
Jake and Hamilton held in their laughter until they reached Jake’s room. Once safely locked away from the rest of the world, they collapsed on the bed and cracked up. “Did… did you see his face? He didn’t have any idea what we were on about,” she gasped.
“I think he was just shocked at the fact that we ignored him,” he laughed.
She rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling with a contented sigh, “Ryder’s back… I guess everything’s really back to normal now. Except now we are a little older, and possibly a little wiser.”
“Wiser?” he repeated, raising his eyebrows.
She shrugged, “We found out some new stuff, didn’t we?”
He tilted his head and scrutinised her face, “You know what I’d like to know? What you, Buffy and Willow talked about outside the diner. You never did tell me.”
She smiled, “It’s not really something I’d talk about.”
“No?” he challenged, smiling.
“No…” she confirmed as she smiled lazily and leaned in so that their noses were touching, “It’s more something I’d do.”
“Yeah?” he was intrigued, “Anything in particular?”
She kissed him, and when their lips brushed together, she whispered, “Carpe Diem.”
Seize the Day.
You know what? She thought to herself as he drew her into the kiss, I think I’ll do just that.
The End
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