“Faster, but not really safer.”

Willow - 'Nightmares'

****

“Willow?” Tara shouted as she looked wildly around for her girlfriend. “Willow!”

“Tara!” the redhead’s voice sounded somewhere in the distance and the blonde witch sighed with some relief. Willow was there and she was alive. For now that was all that mattered. Tara started to run as best she could, pushing through the overgrown grass, towards Willow’s voice. “Willow, I’m here. Keep shouting.”

“Tara!”

Eventually she spotted Willow’s telltale red hair and sank down beside her lover, wrapping her arms around her. Willow smiled up at her, though her face was covered in tears. “I knew you’d find me.”

Tara smiled, “I’ll always find you.” Then she noticed the tears. “Honey what’s wrong?”

Willow frowned. “My ankle. I think I twisted it. It’ll be ok. Can you help me up?” The two witches climbed uneasily to their feet.

“Do you know where we are?” Willow asked, trying to spot some sort of clue over the top of the grass.

“I can’t see anything,” Tara told her shaking her head.

“Spike!” Willow called inside her mind, hoping her telepathic capability meant she could still speak to the vampire. There was no answer. Willow offered Tara a tight smile and tried Xander. “Xander? Are you here?” Again there was no answer. Willow frowned and glanced furtively at Tara. This didn’t seem right. She had to try something. “Tara? Can you hear me?” The blonde witch didn’t respond.

“Tara,” Willow said aloud and her girlfriend smiled gently at her.

“Did you reach any of them?”

“You didn’t hear me?”

Tara frowned. “No I…” She stopped as she realised what that meant. “But it’s only the mind stuff right? I mean you haven’t lost your…”

Without giving Tara time to finish, Willow started to recite a spell. One she knew she could do as easily as breathing. Something she had been doing for three years.

Nothing happened. She looked at Tara, a little panicked and tried again. Nothing. “Tara?”

Without a word Tara tried one of her own spells and was dismayed to find that she couldn’t get it to work either. “It’s ok. We just can’t use magic here. That’s alright isn’t it? We know how to fight.”

“Well, yeah, kind of. But we haven’t really had much practice in it. We’re always with the magic.”

“We’ll be fine,” Tara assured Willow firmly, sounding far more confident than she felt.

****

Wesley saw the woman’s body lying by the stream and quickly sped up to help her. “Miss?” he called gently as he knelt down next to her. “Miss?” He hesitated only for a moment before pushing back the cascade of blonde hair that covered the woman’s face. Wesley stopped. “Buffy?”

The Slayer groaned as her mind crawled back to consciousness. She heard someone calling her name and pried her eyes open, trying to focus on the person in front of her. “Spike?” she asked hoping against hope that the blonde English vampire would be there to help her. She blinked a couple of times before the face in front of her swam into view. “Wesley?”

“Buffy, thank God!” Wesley exclaimed happily as he helped the Slayer to sit up. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, I think,” Buffy told him, rubbing her neck. Her eyes widened as she remembered the scene in the alley. “Oh God, Dawn. Wesley, we have to get back. It’s Darla, she’s…”

“Darla?” Wesley asked, becoming serious at the mention of the vampiress. “You saw Darla?”

“In LA, and you are going to tell me everything about that after you tell me what happened to you. Is Cordy here? Is she safe?”

“If she’s here, she’s not with me. You’re the first person I’ve seen. We were walking back to the hotel after killing the Lautum demon and suddenly there was this bright light. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here.”

“Ok. She’s here I know she is. So are Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya. We need to find them and fast. There’s no telling what’s out there hunting them. And us. That’s our first priority. Spike and Angel are working on the rest back home. I hope.”

“Spike?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you all about it after you’ve explained what Darla’s doing undead and well in LA.”

****

Willow and Tara pushed their way through the tall grass hoping that they were heading in the right direction. The redhead had classified the right direction as one that didn’t lead straight to the home of some huge scary demon and her girlfriend was more than happy to accept that definition.

“I wish we knew where we were going,” Willow told Tara with an angry pout.

“I wish we knew where we were,” Tara said with a smile, squeezing Willow’s hand a little tighter. “But Buffy and Spike will find us right? I mean they’ll do anything to…”

“Oh sure, sure they will,” Willow answered, trying to sound optimistic. “They’ll find a way to get all of us back home no prob… arggghhhh!”

Tara was pulled to the ground as Willow fell straight down a well sized hole that had been hidden from their view by the foliage. As she disappeared her scream rang out, as did Tara’s startled cry. “Willow!”

She held tightly to her girlfriend’s left hand with her right, trying to gain some leverage on the ground with the other.

The redhead dangled in the seemingly bottomless pit and divided her attention between Tara and the never-ending blackness. “Tara!”

“It’s ok sweetie just hold on,” Tara soothed gently, wondering how she could help Willow without the use of her magic. “I’m going to try and pull you up.” She took a deep breath and tried Willow’s resolve face.

“Ok,” Willow whispered, not feeling entirely sure that the plan would work. Magic they could do, research was no problem, but the other stuff, the strength and the fighting, they were always left to Buffy and Spike. The ones who were actually equipped to pull people back from the precipice. Still, the Slayer and the vampire weren’t exactly going to come running to the rescue this time. There was only Tara. She trusted Tara with her life. “Ok, sweetie,” she called again, suffusing her voice with confidence.

“Right,” Tara said determinedly and then began to pull Willow to safety. She knew something was wrong the moment she started. It shouldn’t have been that easy to lift her girlfriend up, but it was as though Willow weighed no more than a feather. Tara felt strong. She quickly hoisted Willow back to solid ground and her girlfriend fell against her, engulfing her in a hug.

“Tara, you saved me. God I was so scared. It’s been a long time since I couldn’t use magic to… And you were so strong, I mean you pulled me up like I weighed nothing.”

“That’s how it felt. I think something strange, well stranger, is happen…”

She was stopped by Willow’s kiss and the two young witches fell back onto the ground together, proving to each other that they were indeed alive and well.

****

Wesley and Buffy followed the stream through the forest to a clearing. The sight of the waterfall and small pool made them both smile and they sat for a while as the Slayer finished her story. “And then I woke up, which of course, you know.” She looked around again, grinning widely at the serenity of it all. “This is beautiful. If I wasn’t afraid we were going to be attacked any second by some psychotic demon, I’d seriously consider settling down here.”

“Yes it is rather picturesque. A little too perfect though don’t you think? Nowhere south of heaven could surely be so wonderful and not have any drawbacks.” Buffy’s smile faded slightly and Wesley frowned at her. “Is something wrong?”

The blonde Slayer shook her head. “I was just wondering…” she paused and looked around, considering what to say next, while her former Watcher kept his eyes trained on her face for her reactions. “I was just wondering whether or not I was in heaven. You know when I died.”

The Englishman nodded but didn’t speak. After a moment she continued. “I don’t remember any of it. It could have been hell, eternal torment… But I don’t remember. I just know I came back feeling different. At peace with myself.”

“Can I ask you something?” Wesley asked softly and the Slayer nodded. “Do you wish…? I mean do you ever think you’d rather have not come back?”

"Sometimes. I mean sometimes, I forget that I was ever gone. That I missed four months of my life, of their lives. But when I really think about it, I just want to know what happened to give me this sense of rightness inside. And whether I’m destined to be brought back from the dead every time I happen to die?"

Wesley smiled a little, but knew that part of Buffy at least, was being serious. "You deserve peace, of course you do but..."

"I know, I know. There's so much for me to do here, blah, blah, blah."

"Actually I was going to say we missed you."

"Oh," Buffy murmured a little startled by Wesley’s words.

"I mean, I didn't really see the others for very long but I know Willow was devastated and Angel…. We're all selfish beings. And they thought they were doing what was right."

"I know. And maybe they were. Doesn't stop me wondering though."

They sat in silence for several moments both lost in thought before a scream pierced the air causing them both to jump. They looked at each other briefly before racing through the clearing and up the hill. By the time she was half way up, Buffy was out of breath. Wesley kept shooting her worried glances, but refrained from saying anything as Buffy's confusion showed clearly on her face.

"Willow!" Buffy exclaimed as they stumbled across the redheaded witch and her girlfriend, who were sitting together where they had landed on the ground.

"Buffy!" Willow and Tara jumped up from the ground and the redhead and Slayer shared a hug. “Wesley!” Willow exclaimed as her eyes came to rest on the former Watcher over Buffy’s shoulder.

Buffy decided to ignore the introductions of Wesley and Tara for a moment and concentrated instead on the scream. “Will, what happened? We heard a scream. Are you ok?”

Willow stood back a little as Tara gestured to the hole. “She fell.”

“Tara caught me,” Willow beamed proudly as she told her best friend.

“Yeah it was weird,” Tara said, shifting uncomfortably under everyone’s gaze. “I felt strong. I mean, really super-power strong.”

“And we lost our magic,” Willow told the others, the worry creeping back into her voice.

The Slayer frowned. “I ran out of breath. Running up here. It was too hard. An effort. It’s never an effort for me. I’m the Slayer!” Buffy started to panic. She closed the gap between herself and her best friend and tried to lift Willow. The redhead didn’t budge. “I’ve lost my Slayer powers,” she whispered in shocked disbelief.

Chapter 11

“This is all about me. Me, me, me!”

Cordelia – ‘Out of Mind, Out of Sight’

****

“William! Welcome back,” the Host called across the crowded bar as he made his way over to the two vampires and uncomfortable looking teenager in the doorway.

“We need information now,” Angel told him bluntly as he neared, glancing back up the stairs where Gunn and Fred were waiting.

“Well that wasn’t very polite,” Lorne said with a smirk, his eyes flicking over the small group. “You want to stop rushing into things head first, then maybe…”

“We really don’t have time,” Angel interrupted with a frown.

“Sure you do,” the Host told them with a smile. “You have all the time you need.” He turned his attention from the dark vampire to Spike. “Well, William? Was I right, or was I absolutely right?”

“No one likes a smart ass,” Spike assured him; albeit with a genuine smile as he reached into his duster pocket for a cigarette. “How you doin’ Lorne?”

“Actually a lot better since your Grandpa started dropping by. Did you take my advice? With the lady?”

Spike winced. “No. Next time, I promise I will do whatever you say.” He noticed the Host’s increasing interest in Dawn and smirked. “Lorne this is Dawn. Nibblet this is the Host.” The pair shook hands and Dawn smiled weakly at the demon. “You’re not evil are you? No of course not, ‘cause Angel wouldn’t come here if you were and Spike wouldn’t have brought me here and…”

“Shh, shh, honey it’s ok. We’re gonna get your sister back, no problem. You trust these two don’t you?”

Dawn looked up at Angel and Spike, and knew that each of them was willing to die to protect her sister. They’d get Buffy back. And the others. With a smile, she turned back to the Host. “Yes.”

“There you go then sugar. Now, Angel, send those two lurking in the doorway home. Nothing’s going to happen to them, the players are already in place.” He turned his head to catch the eye of one of the bartenders. “Charlie! Two beers and a coke,” he shouted, gesturing at a table next to the wall. “Oh and another Sea Breeze, if it’s not too much trouble.”

****

“She's good. A little nervous perhaps but she's young,” Lorne threw out to Spike and Angel as he focused his attention on Dawn, who was singing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ up on stage because on, it was one of Buffy’s favourite songs and two, she knew all the words.

“Lorne...” Angel interrupted, feeling more frustrated with the green demon than he had ever felt before. Both Lorne and Spike ignored him.

“What do you see?” the blonde vampire asked, as he watched the young girl on stage with a feeling of pride.

“We're not here for that," Angel interjected again; ready to hit his Grandchilde, just to release some of the tension curling through his body. "We have to get everyone back, remember? Buffy and Cordy are...”

“I remember peaches. It's not exactly like I can forget. But Dawn's important.”

“That she is,” the Host murmured absently and Spike turned back to him, managing with some effort to pull away from glaring menacingly at Angel.

“So what do you see?”

“Hmm?” The Host looked at Spike and shook his head a little. “Not yet. Angel's right. Now is not the time.”

“But...”

“No,” he stopped Spike’s own mounting frustration with a look. “I can't reveal anything to you yet. When it happens, it happens.”

The three males sat back for minute, watching Dawn. Finally Lorne turned to them, keeping his voice low as he explained. “This is all about you two, boys. I gotta hand it to you; you sure know how to piss people off. Especially women.”

“So Darla and Dru are behind this?” Spike asked, struggling to remain calm, now their enemy was identified.

“They are,” the Host paused, searching for the correct way to finish, “the brains behind it, if you pardon the statement. The masters, pulling the strings.”

“Who else is involved?” Angel asked curtly, quite willing now to fulfil his promise to Darla about killing her the next time he saw her.

“Now that, I don't know. All I can tell you is that you two are going to be taking part in a little game, along with some of your friends.”

“What kind of game?” Spike asked, his eyes remaining intent on Dawn as she finished.

“Do I look psychic to you?” the Host asked irritably. Angel and Spike looked at him with exactly the same sardonic expressions on their faces. “Ok good point.”

They stopped to applaud Dawn as she left the stage and weaved her way back through the bar to join them. “But seriously,” the Host continued, “do you really think that if I knew everything about everything I'd be running this karaoke bar? What are knights in shining armour for if not to help fill in the blanks?”

“I hardly think Spike counts as a knight in shining armour,” Angel mocked as Dawn appeared at Spike’s side and wrapped her arm around his neck, showing her fondness for and solidarity to the vampire at Angel’s words.

“What's that proverb about glasshouses and stones?” the Host stared Angel down and the elder vampire shifted in his seat. “Getting a little big for our boots aren't we? There's an awful lot you don't know about your Grandchilde.”

It was Spike’s turn to shift uncomfortably as his Sire stared at him in disbelief. “Are you seriously telling me that he's going to...?”

“I'm telling you that he already has,” Lorne told him, effectively ending the conversation. “And to you William I'm going to give you a little piece of advice.” Spike raised an eyebrow in response. “Trust yourself.”

“That's it?” Spike exclaimed and he heard Buffy’s voice in his head asking the demon to vague it up a little.

“What do want Technicolor pictures and surround sound? It doesn't work like that.”

“But you know what's going to happen,” Dawn said, feeling a little lost in the conversation.

“No, I know what might happen,” the Host explained and the three others leant closer to absorb what he was saying. “What's going to happen is, of course, up to these two. I suggest you put aside your personal differences and try to reclaim whatever relationship you had in the beginning. There was a time, if I'm not much mistaken, and I’m not, when you two had some sort of respect for each other.” He opened his mouth to say more but stopped when his eyes met Dawn’s. He pointed to a door further down the wall from where they were sitting. “Bathroom’s down there honey.”

Dawn looked about to protest, but then quickly ran to the door indicated. The Host’s smile remained in place until the girl was out of sight and then it vanished from his face as he became deadly serious. “And if you have trouble getting back what you two had, remember this. Buffy will die. Again. And there'll be no coming back this time. Because this time, when she dies, you two will be all that's left standing.”

****

“How do we even know this is going to work?” Dawn asked as she trailed behind the two vampires as they re-entered the Hyperion.

“We don't,” Angel told her shortly before moving to the reception desk.

“You really trust that green guy?” Dawn continued looking pleadingly at Spike. “He was nice but...”

“Come here a sec nibblet,” Spike interrupted, leading the teenager away from Angel to sit on the couch at the other side of the lobby. Angel moved a little further away, seeming to give them some privacy but, desperate to know what was going on with his Grandchilde, he tuned his vampiric hearing to their conversation, listening intently to every word.

“Last time I saw Lorne, he told me to get back down to Sunnydale sharpish,” Spike began casually. “He said every question I had could be answered there. He said I'd find what I was looking for. But it wouldn't be exactly what thought it was. I was going to get something I'd always dreamed of and that I should be careful to treat I those I loved with the respect they deserved.”

Spike grinned wryly as he remembered. “I didn't know what he meant exactly, but I rushed off back to Sunnyhell and got this thing shoved into my head for my pains. That's when I stopped listening to him. But it all came true all of it.” He moved a little closer to Dawn, cocking his head to the side slightly so that he could look directly at her face.

“I fell in love with your sister a long time before I acknowledged it to myself. She was what I was looking for. Buffy and you and your mum. You Summers women sure know how to get to a bloke. Now we can talk about this now or when peaches and I get back but just remember, you and Buffy are all that matters to me. It took me a hell of a long time to figure it all out, and I'm still struggling to get it right, but you two are my family, and I will protect you both with my life.

Chapter 12

“I like your dress.”

Willow, Angel, The Master – ‘Prophecy Girl’

****

“We’re almost there,” Darla drawled, smiling cruelly as she anticipated what was going to happen. “You should have seen the looks on their faces it was priceless, it really was.”

“So we’re done now, yes?” Ethan asked, edging closer and closer to the door, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two females. “I’ve done what you asked. It’s all up to them now really.” His hand closed around the doorknob just as a beautifully manicured hand fastened around his throat.

“It’s rude to leave before mummy tells you,” Dru whispered, closing her eyes as she leant closer to his neck. Ethan stiffened in fear. “Bad dog. You’ll have to be punished.” Ethan felt her fangs elongate against his skin and he finally accepted that this was it. Death had caught him at last.

“Dru, honey,” Darla interrupted, drawing the dark vampiress away from the shaking human. “We want him in one piece. And scared enough so that he’ll do anything for us of course. But there’s no need to go too far.” She gently brushed her Grandchilde’s arm with her hand as she passed and stood in front of Ethan her hands planted firmly on her hips. “You don’t leave until we say so. And I’m not going to say so until this game is over. You’re here for the duration. If anything goes wrong, I am holding you personally responsible.”

****

The phone rang dead on time and Spike and Angel shared an understanding look, before the elder vampire snatched up the receiver. “Darla?”

“Hello lover,” the vampiress’s voice trilled down the phone and Angel nodded at Spike, never breaking eye contact with his surrogate Childe.

“Darla, just a friendly warning before we begin, when I get my hands on you I’m going to…”

Darla chuckled seductively, interrupting Angel’s tirade. “Too late sweetheart. I remember all too well where your hands were the last time we saw each other. Alone I mean.” She paused and this time Angel remained silent, waiting.

“Oh, baby’s not gonna play? Ok, have it your way. The sooner the pair of you get started, the sooner people start to die and that’s the kind of game I like to play.”

“What game?”

“We’ll explain when you get here.”

“If you seriously think we’re stupid enough just to…”

Darla sighed. “Relax Angelus. You have to come here to get there, we can’t explain it fully when you can’t see what we’re talking about. You come, we explain, you go and try to save your friends. It’s quite simple.”

“Fine,” Angel snarled into the phone, “Where and when?”

“Now and the apartment I’ll give you the address to in a moment. But first there’s just one more tiny thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“Bring the girl.”

****

“I can’t believe you agreed to this,” Spike hissed glaring at his Sire, while holding tightly to Dawn’s hand as they made their way up to the apartment Darla had indicated. “Do you understand what keeping Dawn safe means?”

Angel didn’t answer, knowing full well that Spike was right and fully deserved to be telling him what a fool he was. He stopped outside the last apartment on the corridor and looked back at his two companions. “Trust, remember?”

Spike and Dawn rolled their eyes at each other and shared a small smile before nodding reluctantly at Angel. The dark vampire raised his hand about to knock gently, before stepping back and kicking the door open instead.

“Show off,” Spike mumbled he and Dawn followed Angel into the apartment.

“Darla!” Angel called and was greeted by a light being switched on overhead. The three glanced around the room to find Darla standing at one end of the room and Drusilla at the other.

“Angel,” Dru breathed and Spike twisted his face at Dru’s unceasing obsession with her Sire. “Spike!” she exclaimed happily, starting towards him, but she stopped as he stepped back, moving Dawn away from her. “My Spike doesn’t love me anymore. He just loves the Slayer.”

Spike thought about that for a moment, part of him wanting to tell her he’d always love her in some way, another part, a part that he had suppressed for the hundred and seventeen years he was with her, decided it was time to be a man again and tell the truth. “Yes, I do.”

Drusilla’s eyes flashed with hatred and Spike almost winced at his harshness, before remembering that Dru never apologised when she was cruel and realistically he had burnt all his bridges with her long before now anyway.

“Well, now the reunion’s over, what say we get down to business?” Darla spoke up, thoroughly bored by Spike and Dru’s evil-staring competition.

“And what is business?” Angel asked, casually moving to his right so that he was between Darla and Dawn as Spike was between Dawn and Dru.

“Why, the game silly,” she told him, gesturing towards the table in the centre of the room. Their eyes remaining trained on their former lovers, Angel and Spike moved with Dawn towards the table. On it lay a map, divided into grid squares. Some of the squares contained miniature figures of humans and demons; some contained buildings or weapons.

As Angel, Spike and Dawn became engrossed in what they were seeing, Darla and Dru moved to stand opposite them on the other side of the table. “The object is to rescue the princess,” Drusilla told them, her eyes coming to rest on Dawn who clung a little harder to Spike.

“Actually the object is to stay alive. You rescue the princess and you win the game. You win the game and you stay alive. You two will each captain a team. You play the game, you rescue the princess, the first of you to reach her wins.”

“What?!” Spike shouted as he stared in disbelief at the two women before him. “That’s sick. It’s insane.”

“We like to think so,” Darla said, smiling at him. Spike’s statement turned from disbelief to disgust and he looked away, ashamed that he had ever been involved in their lives. In a vampires life.

“What do you hope to gain by this?” Angel asked, understanding Spike’s feelings. He looked at these women before him and for the first time felt nothing but hate.

“Gain? Absolutely nothing. That’s the best part,” Darla answered before turning to Dawn with a small frown. “Ah the missing link. Ready for your big part princess?”

Dawn looked up at the blonde vampiress, her face expressing nothing but fear. “What?” she choked out nervously, as the same feeling she had had earlier started to surround her.

“No!” Spike cried desperately, realising what was happening and trying to hold onto Dawn as she was torn from his grasp. Both he and Angel tried to grab her, but as before, she floated out of reach.

“Bye,” Darla called as Dawn disappeared in a flash of white light, and a similar feeling started to surround the two males.

“Save the princess, win the game,” Darla reminded them, laughing as the vampires vanished into the game.

Part 4