TITLE: Essence of the Slayer (Chapter Four)
AUTHOR: Cherry <cherry@thekeep.org>
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: Buffy/Darla, then maybe Buffy/Spike
SUMMARY: Buffy dies, discovers a new world.
ARCHIVE: http://www.thekeep.org/~cherry/
SPOILERS: BtVS: S5 'The Gift' & S6 'Bargaining'
FEEDBACK: I'm struggling to find direction with this, so any help would
          be deeply appreciated.
PREVIOUSLY: Buffy makes a mistake, and runs to Sunnydale in a panic.

** From Chapter Three **

	Tara went pale, and grabbed a wooden stake sitting next to the
door.  She held it up and yelled a single word that Buffy didn't
recognize, the stake leaping from her hand faster than Buffy could react
to.  There was an agonizing pain as it buried itself in her chest.  The
only thing she had time to do was to look up in shock as she collapsed.

** End Chapter Three **

	Awakening was disorienting, as always.  There was a disturbing
pressure on her chest, but Buffy ignored that for the moment to figure out
where she was.  It seemed to be the dining room in her...  no, it was
Dawn's now...  house.  That resolved, she looked down to see the top half
of a stake sticking out of her chest, right above where her heart was.

	Duncan hadn't mentioned that could happen.

	Pulling it out was agonizing, but there was much less blood than
she'd expected.  The last thought she had before blacking out again was
that she didn't seem to have a heartbeat.

*****

	The second wakening wasn't much better, but at least she could
feel her heart beating again.  The bloody stake was still in her hand,
which she quickly tossed aside, making a stain on the floor.  Buffy sat
up, checking herself for wounds by reflex.  The years of slaying had left
deeply ingrained habits, not quite erased now even though her injuries
healed so quickly.

	She could hear Willow on the phone, talking to someone.  She
sounded kind of scared.  Buffy got up, moving across the room to listen
in.

	"No, no dust.  She was even a little bit warm when we carried her
in."  A pause while the other person spoke.  "Spike's here already."
Another short pause.  "Okay, we'll keep an eye on her body until you get
here."

	Buffy didn't stay to find out what would happen when they
discovered she was awake again.  She grabbed her swords off the table, not
sparing a thought as to why they were out of her coat, and slipped out the
front door as quietly as possible.

	Her red Miata was still parked in front of the house.  The tires
squealed as she pulled away, almost certainly attracting more attention
than she wanted, but it was late and it was dark, and no one came running
out after her.

*****

	"None of this makes sense!  Why didn't she turn into dust, Spike?"
Willow glared angrily at Spike, as if it was his fault they had Buffy's
body stretched out in another room.

	"I have no idea, Red.  Maybe being the slayer..."  He cut off as
there was a screeching of tires peeling out coming from the front of the
house.  They rushed to the door, crowding behind Tara, who had come down
the stairs after hearing the same sound.

	Leaving the two witches to look around, Spike looked over to where
the body should have been.  All that was left was the bloody stake.  Even
her weapons were gone.

	Tara came back inside first.  "I think we're just jumpy, that
probably wasn't anything."

	Spike turned to look at her.  "No?  That was Buffy leaving in a
hurry.  Looks like she left behind the stake, though."

	"You're s-sure she didn't d-d-dust?"

	It was easy to like the blonde witch.  Hearing her stutter
nervously reminded him of his old feelings for Dru.  The desire to protect
someone.  Dawn made him feel the same way.  He tried to make his voice
soothing.  "Sorry, luv, her blades are missing too.  Hey, I'm betting she
was too scared to face your witchy might again, that's all."

*****

	Phone calls in the middle of the night were always bad.  They had
to be, because if it wasn't a disaster, he'd kill whomever had the nerve
to wake him up.  He answered the phone with a sharp tone, "Yes?"

	//"Adam?  I...  think I did something really stupid."//

	He curbed his first instinct, which was informing her that calling
him at this hour was definitely stupid.  Instead, he considered options.
He'd chosen Los Angeles for it's remarkably dense sub-human population,
and scarce immortal population.  It was to be a target-rich environment to
get back into slaying.  It was also much too close to Sunnydale.  But then
being close to Sunnydale explained the sub-human presence.

	"No, don't tell me.  Allow me to guess.  You're in Sunnydale, and
you've contacted those who knew you."

	//"How did you..."//

	"It's the single most phenomenally stupid thing a new immortal
could do.  How badly did they react?"

	There was a long pause.  //"Tara staked me.  Through the heart."//

	If it were possible, Adam would have developed an instant raging
headache.  On top of contact, he now had a revival problem, and Buffy
sounded much too upset to drive back.  The last thing he needed was to
drag her out of a morgue tonight after she wrecked her new and expensive
car that he'd paid for just to keep her out of trouble...  Adam took a
deep breath.  "Go to a hotel, and stay there.  I'll be there in the
morning." She gave him the name of a motel that sounded run-down just
based on the name, and her room number.  "Fine.  Get some sleep." 

	He hung up the phone, and thought for a moment before picking it
up again.  It was always wise to have a back-up plan.

*****

	Xander was the most skeptical, arguing that they'd made a mistake
somewhere.  "Are we sure she's a vampire?  Unless she found something like
that Gem of Mary.  Are you even really sure it was her?  It could have
been some kind of trick."

	Spike clenched his teeth together.  "Amara."

	"Xander, it was her.  Her body, at least.  I'm just glad we had
Dawnie stay at your apartment, so she didn't have to see it."  Willow had
expunged her doubts after seeing the weapons.  Two swords, each in a
hidden pocket inside the long coat.

	Giles took on a familiar lecturing tone.  "We are dealing with a
firm that specializes in the supernatural.  If there is another method of
protecting a vampire against a wooden stake, they almost certainly know
it.  Tara should be finished with the de-invitation ritual by now, but we
cannot assume it will keep her out.  What I find curious is that she ran."

	Willow's voice was flat.  "She knows we know.  I told her when she
called not to come back.  She came back anyway.  She has to know that when
we find her, and we will find her, we'll dust her."

	Spike sat out of the discussion that followed, looking for ways to
discover and remove the protection she seemed to have.  If Buffy really
was his childe now...  he excused himself after a bit, and slipped out of
the shop through the sewers.  He'd do whatever it took to keep Dawn safe,
even if it meant fighting Buffy.  It was trying to accept that he might
have to slay Buffy that was bothering him.

*****

	He pulled into the parking lot, and chose the spot next to the
little red car.  It was even worse than he'd expected.  Run-down is what
this motel aspired to be.  He knocked, and waited as the door opened a
crack, then opened all the way as Buffy stepped back.  She was even more
on edge than he'd suspected, noticing a bare blade in each hand as she
closed the door.  And she clearly hadn't slept, the bed was still made.

	"You need to sleep.  It would be best if I dealt with this alone.
When I'm finished, we'll discuss where we'll be staying.  L.A. seems to
have been a grave error."  Five minutes later, she was asleep, and he was
gone to check into police reports for the night before.  

	Adam wasted time figuring out that there was nothing to cover up,
that no one had filed a report of any kind.  Not that he'd expected one,
but no paper trail of any kind could be allowed.  He then wasted more time
activating legacy connections between the watchers he had infiltrated, and
a similarly named group called the Council of Watchers.  It was there that
he made the most startling discovery.  The Council was still unaware of
Buffy's death, and had recent reports from her still current watcher,
Rupert Giles.  Reports that indicated Buffy Summers was still slaying evil
in Sunnydale.  It took a large number of strings, but eventually Adam
learned that he owned a small shop in Sunnydale called the Magic Box.  By
the time he had made his way there, sunset wasn't all that far off.

*****

	The round table in the Magic Box had seen many meetings, research
parties, and a surprising bit of use for doing homework.  It looked like a
council of war, now.  The observer who formed this opinion had a fairly
good idea what a council of war should look like, after all.  Adam could
hardly have failed to notice the obvious hush in the room, and based on
the furtive looks he was getting, he'd clearly interrupted something.

	What was most curious, Adam could feel the unpleasant but familiar
buzz running up his spine.  There was an immortal nearby.

	"Welcome to the Magic Box.  Can I assist you in spending your
money here today?  We have many fine--"

	Adam cut off the sales pitch of the young lady behind the counter
as he headed into the store.  It was too late to back off now, best to
carry on and deal with the other when he revealed himself.  "Thank you,
but I'm looking for Rupert Giles."  He stepped down near the table as the
apparent gentleman in question stood up.

	"Yes, I'm Rupert Giles.  How may I help you?"  There was a pause
in the conversation as Adam ignored Giles, staring past him and directly
at a young blonde girl sitting at the table.

	"Buffy, what are you doing here?!"  His mind whirled with
potential disaster scenarios, each worse than the one before.  Not the
least of which was how much new damage had been done with his slip of the
tongue.

	What he didn't expect was the perky response, accompanied by the
bright smile.  "Hello!  I'm sorry, but I don't think I know you.  Have we
met before?"

	Adam managed to wipe the stunned expression from his face as he
looked back at Giles, replacing it with an angry one.  He was suprised
enough not to notice that the buzz hadn't gone away as it usually did,
putting him off balance and leading him to say more than he should.  "What
have you done to her?  Erased her memory with magic?  I'd ask how you
found her, but I suppose that's irrelevant now.  At least I understand why
you've been submitting false reports to the council.  You've obviously
been planning this for months."  He could feel his anger seething to the
surface.  How dare he interfere?  "She doesn't belong to you!"

	Dead silence filled the store.  It was broken moments later when a
clever subroutine connected two facts for the Buffybot.  One was encounter
yesterday with a girl who looked just like her.  The other was a man who
knew her, but she didn't know.   "Giles, is he talking about the other
me?"

*****

	The bot wasted a great deal of processor power trying to
comprehend her error in the conversation.  The man with the tense
shoulders had left the store in a rush after her query.  His expression
matched one in her database filed under panicked.  It seemed to have
something to do with the other girl, though.  His last words had been
'You're not--', and then he was gone. 

	Her schedule indicated this was a solitary patrol night.  After
tucking Dawn in, she gathered the standard weapon assortment as per
Willow's checklist, and went out to vanquish the evil.  It would never
have occurred to her that given the events of the day, the standard patrol
would be canceled.

	She selected a random route from her database.  It was important
not to be predictable, as evil would take advantage.  This one was a long
loop through all the cemeteries.  Coincidentally, it was the original
Buffy's route of choice when she had deep thinking to do.  Starting from
the motel, however, it was more natural to walk the route in the opposite
direction.

	Early in the patrol, the bot rounded the corner of a crypt,
tracking sounds that had been identified as fighting.  She discovered the
girl from the previous day surrounded by a large pack.  She activated her
combat mode, and aided the girl, who appeared to be using two swords to
behead vampires.  She made a note to ask Giles for training with swords,
they appeared to be very effective.  The fight ended quickly, and the bot
tucked her remaining stakes away, recording the number lost so she could
make new ones later.  

	"Hello again!"

	Buffy stared at the bot, then slid her weapons away as well.
"First Kendra, then Faith, now a robot.  Is someone trying to give me a
hint here?"

	This got her friendly smile number seven, linked to an apologetic
tone.  "I can't give you a hint, I haven't asked the riddle yet."

-- End Chapter Four
$Revision: 1.7 $
$Date: 2002/04/20 05:59:23 $