Chapter 30
Connor glanced around the fairly empty
What those dreams entailed Connor wasn’t sure, although he was
fairly certain that they included his mother and her current situation, and
hopefully a way to remove her, Oz and Dru from said situation.
“Hey Damon,” he murmured trying to muster something more than
the half-heartedness that he could hear in his own voice.
“Connor,” the other Warrior acknowledged him but never
turned.
Connor frowned as he moved up behind him, eyes flickering
between the screens that had Damon’s undivided attention.
“What are you doing?” he asked curiously. “Is that the…”
“The Camp,” Damon nodded, fingers tapping lightly on his
keyboard he gnawed on his bottom lip as screens flitted past. “I’m trying to
see if I can figure out where Buffy and Dru disappeared to.”
“Why?”
“Because if I can figure out where they’re hiding, then…”
“It’ll make it easier to pinpoint our rescue,” Connor
finished with a hopeful grin.
“Yeah… you’re a bright boy,” Damon smirked up at him before
his attention returned to his task. “The only problem is there’s about three
floors and a whole section that aren’t even on
the video system so…”
“That bites,” Connor muttered borrowing one of Dawn’s
oft-used expressions.
“Yep…” the two men studied the screens displayed before them,
one carrying what looked to be a floor plan of the Prison, the others taps into
the existing camera system.
As his eyes moved to each screen in turn a blur on one, which
moved quickly and assuredly out of the frame, caught his eyes.
“Did you see that?” he asked narrowing his eyes as he
attempted to track where the blur had moved to.
“What?” Damon murmured his eyes following Connor’s path.
“What the hell…” he muttered, fingers tapping he waited until they captured the
quickly moving blur… person… and snapping with his mouse he caught and
transferred it to another screen, enlargening it his
eyes widened then flew back to the screens, monitoring the progress that she
was making.
Connors eyes flickered between the blown up photo and the
path she was taking. Shock etched into his features as he tried to figure out what
she was doing… she was walking right into enemy territory.
“Mom.”
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Spike paced the length of the room he’d been given, part of
him was still fuming because he hadn’t been allowed to go, the other was
panicked.
Something was wrong with Dru… desperately wrong with Dru.
He’d been jealous at the intensity of the bond between Buffy
and Angel, even when they hadn’t been together it had been there. And some
small part of him, the one that was still furious with his Grandsire for
stealing Dru away from him when he’d become all soulless, had been pleased as
punch when the Slayer had fallen into his bed time and again.
Their couplings had been rough, violent… the only sweet words
ever spoken had been the ones spoken from his lips. And he had loved the slayer… at least as much as he could with Dru still
possessing every single sodding part of him.
Even after she had left him to his own devices, claiming he
was covered with the Slayer, she had still possessed him.
And maybe he had been covered with Buffy. Maybe he’d needed
the time that he’d spent with her little group, with her in order to see what
it was that he really wanted.
That’s what it had taken for the Slayer to realize that she
would never love anyone the way that she loved Peaches.
That’s what it had taken for the Whelp to realize that he
loved the Cheerleader still.
And it had only taken their deaths and rebirths into
something other than what they had been for Peaches and the Cheerleader to
realize the same.
“Spike… are you okay?” Dawn asked in
a bemused voice from the door.
“Fine pet… why d’you ask?”
“Because you’re pacing as if you’re in a race… is something
wrong?”
Spike smiled softly at her as she sauntered slowly into the
room.
It had taken a while after what he had almost done to Buffy
for Dawn and the others to forgive and even be able to start trying to trust
him.
His having been half-insane with grief when they’d found him
hiding in the basement of the school had gone a long way to accomplishing that.
Buffy,
It had been months of them constantly hovering, constantly
watching his every move.
He’d begged more times than he cared to remember for one of
them to just do it… to put him out of his misery.
He’d stopped doing that after carefully hiding his begging in
one particularly eloquent speech and having the Slayer just stare at him… a
half wounded look in her eyes.
He’d known that her resolve was weakening; she hated seeing
anyone in pain… even him.
So with tears in her eyes she asked him what the point of
winning his soul was if he was just going to give up. Then she had told him a
story… telling him about Angel’s return from Hell, about his being tormented by
the First and she had recited the speech that she had once told the only man
that she’d ever loved on a hill overlooking Sunnydale.
“Strong is
fighting! It’s hard and it’s painful and it’s every day. It’s what we have to
do. And we can do it together. But if you’re too much of a coward for that,
then burn. If I can’t convince you that you belong in this world then I don’t
know what can. But do not expect me
to watch. And don’t expect me to
mourn for you because…”
Then she told him about the miracle snow, the only snowfall
that Sunnydale had ever seen, that had blanketed the entire town drowning out
the sun… drowning out the only way of escape that Angel’d
had save being staked.
With sad eyes she had watched him absorb the story… then had
told him that while she couldn’t love him, while she didn’t have enough room in
her heart to love him that she did trust him. That she wanted to help him.
So she had… slowly he had regained his sanity… only to have Buffy
and Harris go off the deep end just as he was starting to feel comfortable with
himself, with the others.
To return the favor, the help that they had offered him he’d
done the same.
Little things designed to take the Slayer and her sidekicks
minds off the fact that Angel and Cordelia had embarked on a relationship with
each other, were in fact sleeping with each other.
“Spike?” Dawn’s fingers tapping his
forehead had him refocusing on the teen before him and he managed a half smile.
“You’re not okay… what happened?”
“Dru,” Spike rubbed at his chest absently. He’d been almost
staked by soldier boy once, Riley had actually hit his heart and the only
reason he hadn’t been dusted was because the wood wasn’t real. He’d often
wondered if Riley had beat himself up over that fact.
“What about Dru? Is there something wrong?” Dawn’s eyes
widened, the implications of something being wrong with Dru led directly to
something also being wrong with Buffy and Oz.
Since Dru was protecting Buffy and Oz after all.
“I…” Spike rubbed his chest once more. His bond with his
princess was nothing compared to the one that Angel and Buffy shared, but he
could still, and always had been able to feel her through it. And right now…
“She’s in pain… she’s in so much pain…”
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Buffy crept slowly, eyes moving quickly to survey the
hallways as she darted down corridors… ever mindful of the cameras overhead.
She knew that eyes were watching her. Hopefully at least one
set of those was someone that she could term friendly.
Ducking into a barely lit corridor she held her breath,
trying to force herself calm. To her overly sensitized nerves it seemed like
her heartbeat was as loud as a drum echoing through the entire camp.
A demon patrol duo passed just feet away from her and
releasing her breath softly she continued on her way.
“Can’t you
do something?” Connor’s eyes never swayed from the screen before him. Every time
his mother darted through a screen his heart leapt into his throat… inside his
head he was desperately murmuring every prayer that he’d ever heard or been
taught.
“Like
what?” Damon winced as he watched a particularly close call,
Buffy just barely ducking into a room (hopefully empty) moments before a group
of demons marched down the hall.
“Help her,
send them to another area, set off the sprinkler system, something,” Connor’s
eyes lit up as scenarios ran through his mind. “I saw this show on TV… the good
guys did something to the cameras, planted like a false image so that the guys
on the inside wouldn’t be caught…”
“That would
work great… unfortunately we’re tapped into their camera system… I plant a
false image that’s all we see to…”
“Oh… so you
think of something.”
“I could
cut the power,” Damon mused.
“How is that going to help, we still won’t be
able to see anything.”
“The
cameras are battery operated, they’ll still work with no power, the computer consoles in their command center aren’t so…”
Damon nodded, fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard as he began entering the
necessary codes to begin emergency shutdown.
“Won’t they
just start up the emergency generator?”
“Can’t…
first assault we… we fixed it.”
“You mean
you sabotaged it,” Connor grinned.
“You say
potato…”
Buffy peered out the tiny window at the top of the door. She
was filled with apprehension and fear.
She was never going to make it to the medical center without
getting caught. Dru was going to die, Oz was going to be recaptured as was she
and they were never going to be rescued… because once Dru died…
Clenching her hands at her side she attempted to force happy
thoughts into her head. Failing utterly as her hand moved to open the door.
She jumped… and quite possibly squeaked in alarm, although
she couldn’t be sure, as the power died.
She heard heavy footfall and stayed still, forcing her
breathing to be even as she waited.
When silence prevailed she slowly opened the door, wide eyes
darting in both directions to make sure it was all clear.
Moving quietly, hugging the wall she waited for the
inevitable moment when power would be restored and she would be captured. When
that moment came and passed she glanced up at the cameras. A red light on the
side indicated that they were still in fact working, drawing a deep breath she
reached out to the bond that linked her with her team, and almost immediately
felt the calming influences of Damon, Jade and Angel, as well as the exultation
of Connor.
And she knew that they were the ones that had done this…
“When the music stops, the rest is silence,” she murmured to
herself, words long since forgotten… an epitaph to her fallen first Watcher. Hoping that he was watching over with her, along with her mother.
Taking a chance, knowing deep down that she had no choice,
she pushed off from the wall and moved with sure feet to the medical center.
She had a vampire to save.
**************************************************************************************
Oz touched Dru’s forehead lightly, she had been in and out of
consciousness since Buffy had left.
When she was conscious she rambled incoherently, tossing and
turning in agitation. Sweat lining her body.
“Little wolf,” he turned away from where he had been staring
at the unopening door, his attention focusing once
more on Dru.
How long did it take to move through a heavily inhabited
enemy camp, steal some demon blood and get back?
“Not much longer Dru,” he said infusing his voice with calmness
that he didn’t feel, it took a second of her eyes locked on his before he
locked their fingers together.
He knew that she craved the touch of someone else but settled
for his during his absence. He had known that she wasn’t helping them due to the
kindness of her heart, he just hadn’t known what had
been promised her for her help.
He thought he knew now.
Spike.
They, those above him, above them all, had promised her
Spike’s return to her side in return for her assistance… and she had obviously
agreed.
The sadness, the despair in her voice as she called out for
the vampire male nearly broke his heart.
He didn’t know if Angel, when he had been poisoned, had
craved physical contact. He knew that Angel had called out for Buffy, had been
almost desperate for her presence towards the end. Perhaps subconsciously
knowing that she was what he needed in order to survive.
“What will you say to her when you see her again?” Dru asked
him softly.
“Say to who?”
“To the witch, to the one that you walked away from…”
“
“You didn’t give her much choice did you,” Dru stated her
eyes, looking suspiciously clear for someone who just minutes before had been
miles from lucidity, trained on him. “You left… did you think that He would
hurt her?”
“He would have, the Wolf and I…”
“You are one now, one in your hopes, your desires… He desires
the witch as much as you do…”
“I didn’t know that back then, I was afraid that I’d hurt
her. That I’d lose control of the Wolf and he’d
hurt her.”
Dru smiled up at him, an innocent smile of joy that only
served to confuse him.
“I can feel my Prince again,” she whispered confidentially.
“For the longest time I couldn’t, he was as silent as the night but now… now he
whispers to me.”
“What’s he whispering?”
“They’re coming for us… just hours, little bitty hours and
freedom is ours,” reaching out a hand she caressed his cheek gently before
allowing it to drop back down. “Now should we plan what you need to say to
reunite with your Witch?”
“You sound…” Oz frowned down at her. “I thought you…”
“Mummy’s on her way back with the magic potion…” Dru giggled,
a light tinkling sound and Oz knew that if she’d been on her feet she would be
twirling and clapping her hands.
The door crashing open had Oz leaping to his feet assuming a
quick defensive position. To which Buffy rolled her eyes at him.
“Nice lookout,” she grumbled, shutting and locking the door
behind her.
“I think this section is abandoned, I haven’t heard anyone in
well… ever.”
“Still… if they don’t find us in the inhabited section of the
camp soon they’ll start searching these areas.”
Nodding Oz glanced down at the vampiress that was staring at
Buffy, “Did you get it?”
With a grin Buffy waved the small vial that she had clenched within
her hand at him.
“Dru do you think you can sit up?” she asked softly as Oz
took his seat next to the soon to be alive female, cradling her against his
side, his arm looped tightly around her shoulders they both watched Buffy sit
on the edge of the cot.
Taking a deep breath the Warrior pushed aside the tear on
Dru’s bodice, exposing a portion of her upper chest. The arrow wound was still
ugly and red, it hadn’t healed at all. And with gentle hands Buffy touched it
ignoring the flinch that Dru was unable to hide.
Looking down at the vial in her hand her eyes rose to meet
her once mortal enemies.
“Are you sure Dru? It’s…”
“It’s the way things are meant to be,” Dru smiled gently.
“Although not the way they were meant to happen.”
“Right,” Buffy nodded, ignoring the cryptic in favor of the
task at hand.
Tipping the vial, careful to only pour it on Dru’s wounds… it
would do them no good if she was rendered powerless after all… she drew back
after a second and with apprehensive hearts they waited.
**************************************************************************************
Spike cocked his head to the side; the bit and Red were
intent on detailing their 101 reasons why they believed that nothing bad had
happened to his Dark Princess.
Rubbing his chest absently he tuned them out. Instead focusing his attention on the bond that linked him and Dru.
The mated bond that even when they’d not been together had never been silent.
Deathly silent.
“Oh god,” he whispered.
“Spike are you listening to us?”
He just stared at them; his eyes open wide in shock
“Spike?” Dawn moved towards him, horror
slowly crossing her features. “Spike what’s happened? Is it Dru?”
“I… she’s not there…” he murmured, fingers rubbed urgently at
his temple, trying to force himself to concentrate. To seek out the bond that
had linked them for the last 100 years.
“She’s not there,” he said his voice rising in his hysteria.
Both the demon and the soul were pulling on the link that had
gone silent. Begging, urging his mate to answer his summons.
Even when she’d been angry she’d never refused the link. Even
when she’d been shagging his grandsire she’d never refused, he’d always known
that she’d come back. But now…
“Spike?”
“She’s not there, she’s not there, she’s
not there.”
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