![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I did it! I managed to pound out this chapter afterall! *whoot*
Title: In Sunlight or Shadow (16/18)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chocgood84
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Rating: NC-17 overall
Feedback: It's my anti-drug. So unless you want me start abusing chocolate and crack, please leave some.
Notes: Vamp!Xander series; the usual applies: blood play, smut, schmoop and man-luvin.
Previous parts: here.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Spike, Xander, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If I did, this wouldn’t be fanfic, it’d be cannon. These belong to Mutant Enemy and its creator, Joss Whedon. No harm, no foul.
Throughout the town, transformers and power boxes were bursting with overloaded circuits and burning up in fire so hot it melted the metal casing around it. Only a few seconds later, they were left with darkness surrounding them and no electricity, no light, and no sound to pierce it.
“All right, that’s it,” Buffy said, rage filling her voice. “First we find Giles, and then we kill them. We kill them hard.”
The faux midnight calm that was settled on the dead town of Sunnydale was pushing against them like the deep sea against a tin can vessel. It was thick with heat and swollen with a nightmarish glare that no moonlight could pierce, and no lantern could chase. It was the darkness of childhood fears and of adult worries. And this group walked solemnly through it, their voices hushed in funereal tones and soft like gauze on a wound.
Willow led the company, her beacon of light the only energy thrumming on this black day-night. Piercing it only enough to allow them to move, to allow them safety on a voyage that reeked of madness and tasted of ash.
Buffy, in her own right, walked beside the powerful witch, weapons raised and eyes lowered, glowering into the silence that circled them. Her face was contorted into a marriage of anger and of sadness.
Tara, with soft steps and quiet whispers of affection, walked behind the two, one hand gently brushing against her lover’s arms, shoulders, back. Guiding and supporting, giving and understanding of the energy that seemed to pass between the two so effortlessly.
Spike and Xander took the last positions of the group, their shoulders pressed together and their eyes working like machines, passing back and forth from the women they protected and the darkness that they feared. Neither man spoke a word, for no words were left to be had. More than once since this entire adventure had begun, they had reassured each other that it would be over soon and that worry was pointless, was reasonless. But now, it seemed, everything that had once been could easily become what was most feared. The blackness that had permeated their very existence, had invaded their sheltered security was threatening to take it, to falsify it, to sever it. The very thing that had created them now sought to destroy them.
The five of them pressed through, confidently but cautiously, to the outskirts of the comatose city. Once more, they were assured that no one else was residing here – no sound echoed, no movement stirred, no breath was made. The silence was as hard as diamonds and as cold as arctic water, and it unnerved each of them in different ways. Xander pressed his arm tightly against Spike’s, Buffy became even more rigid in her posture, and Tara quaked slightly. Yet still they plowed on, searching for their lost confidant.
“It’s not far from here,” Tara whispered. “Only about another mile to the south.”
“Thanks, Tara,” Willow replied, guiding the group slightly to the left.
After another few moments in silence, Spike took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. The sudden click made every human present jump just enough to make him smile.
“God, Spike. It’s bad enough you kill Xander, but now you try to give me a heart attack?” Buffy whined ever-so-quietly.
“Yeah, well, figured I could at least amuse myself,” Spike admitted, smiling innocently at Xander’s poking at his ribs.
“Well knock it off, would you? It’s creepy enough out here without the added annoyance of a lemon head vamp trying to ‘amuse’ himself.” Buffy scolded, never taking her eyes off the unforeseeable distance.
“Sorry, Buff; won’t happen again,” Xander whispered, leaning over and wrapping his arms around Spike. “And just for the record, again, he didn’t kill me.”
“Tomato, to-mot-toe,” Buffy mumbled.
“Shhh,” Tara silenced them, stopping abruptly. The other four travelers stopped as well, looking puzzled at her.
“What is it, Glinda?” Spike asked.
“Don’t you think it’s a little too quiet?” She wondered aloud.
“Sure is,” Willow answered, her voice just slightly quivering.
“They know we’re coming,” Tara stated.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Xander admitted, holding on tighter to Spike’s waist. “Something’s not right.”
“Uh, Xander? I don’t think anything is alright just now,” Buffy pointed out.
“Touché,” he retorted. “But you know what I mean. The boogie-shadow-screamy things haven’t had a problem before letting us know where they are. Why not now?”
“Because we’re close to their lair,” Tara announced, pointing into the blackness. “It’s just over the next ridge and down the valley a little.”
“Have you been there, Tara?” Buffy asked.
“No, but I can…feel Giles. He’s giving off energy like a homing beacon,” Tara explained.
“Tara, you know I love you, but you can be one creepy girl,” Xander admonished.
“Thanks, Xander,” Tara replied, beaming. “Anyway, it’s a good thing that I can still feel him so vividly – it means that he’s, uh, conscious.”
The five of them exchanged the same glance of worry and determination. Not another word was spoken as they turned on their heels and started back in the direction of Dark Creek Canyon. Tara was correct, because only a short time later, they were funneling out of the small valley, following the dried up creek bed. No water was found, here – only dust and pine needles, a few small animal bones and teeth, and further down-canyon they found an old suede boot that rotten with age and hardened by sunlight.
The sight of the empty creek, and especially the shoe, because where’s the other one, and where it’s owner? sent shivers and quakes up and down Xander’s spine. He made a silent admonishment that when all this is over, he and Spike are getting out of this business. It would be nice just to go off and have a nice, normal, blood-sucking, man-loving, daylight-avoiding, crucifix-fearing relationship with the century-old vampire he loved.
“So, why do they call it Dark Creek Canyon?” Buffy asked, kicking a dirt clump in front of her.
“Oh, in the winter, after the wet season, the creek fills up – overfills actually – but the water has so much mud and gross stuff in it, it looks black,” Willow explained. “And because the canyon walls get so high further on, the only time daylight ever makes it down here is a thin sliver at a specific time every day, when the sun is directly overhead.”
“Way to go, knowledge girl,” Xander teased.
“Yeah, Willow, gold star for you,” Buffy joked.
“I had to do a report in 7th grade,” Willow explained, shrugging her shoulders. “Actually, me and Xander were supposed to do it, but I did all the work and he skipped school the day we presented.”
“Huh?” Xander tripped over a tiny pebble. “Oh yeah! Now I remember. That was the day you came over to my house right after school, walked right in, marched up to my room, opened my door and started to call me a, a, what was it?”
“A butthead, I think. I don’t remember; as I recall I just turned completely white and fled the house.”
“Why?” Buffy asked.
“I was uh, um…” Xander tried, his voice barely above hearing range, as he toed at the dirt innocently. “Was trying something…”
“Again, I’m going with ‘ew’,” Buffy snorted, smiling anyway.
Willow laughed at the unsuccessfully repressed memory, and Tara joined her – her face turning red and her eyes shining bright.
“You think that’s funny, Spike?” Xander asked the vampire beside him who was practically convulsing with silent laughter. Spike only nodded and snaked a cold hand into the back of Xander’s jeans, grabbing a hand full of the soft muscle back there.
“Maybe later we can try something together, Xan,” Spike whispered into his ear, licking that sensitive flesh quickly. Xander moaned quite loudly and unashamedly.
“Hey guys, can we not turn this into a Falcon film? I don’t think my brain can handle it,” Buffy admitted. Xander nodded with a coy smile, and the five of them returned to course, searching for the place they would find Giles.
“Hey, Buffy?” Xander called.
“What, Xander?”
“How do you know what a Falcon film is?” He asked with every insinuation possible dripping from his words.
“Shut up, Xander,” Buffy quipped, trying not to notice the peels of laughter coming out of the two men and the looks of wonder and blackmail that seeped into both witches’ faces.
”Gee, you think this is it?” Xander joked, looking up at the gaping towering hole of blackness that was cut into the side of the canyon.
“I’m going to say yes,” Buffy stated. Everyone in the group grumbled slightly, rolling their eyes and shaking their fists.
“Okay, what’s the game plan, Buff?” Xander asked.
“Uh, kinda thought we’d go in, find Giles, and leave. If those shadow-whats-its start bothering us, we poke at them with these big shiny weapons,” she explained.
“Sounds good, let’s go,” Spike said, ready for action.
“Okay, Tara, make sure you stay between us. Don’t want you getting eaten or poked at,” Willow lectured. Tara only smiled, kissing the redhead on her cheek and nodding.
“Alright, I think we’re ready,” Buffy said. “Let’s go”
With that, the group plunged into the narrow space, their heads held high and their weapons held higher.
”Just over in the next room,” Tara told them, pointing to the west wall of the immense room of rock and granite.
“So, just to make sure – I’m not the only one uncomfortable with the fact that we haven’t seen any of those things?” Xander asked.
“No, you’re not the only one,” Buffy replied, stepping cautiously towards the cell’s door. “I thought for sure they’d be around once we got inside.”
“Maybe they’re taking a nap,” Willow offered.
“Or maybe they’re waiting for just the right time to kill us all,” Spike suggested.
“Not funny, Spike,” Buffy chided, leading the group into and through a small tunnel that connected the two rooms.
When they emerged on the other side, all of them gasped. In the center of a room was a lone candle, shining brightly in the confining darkness. But more importantly, holding that candle was a middle aged librarian sitting cross-legged on the earth. He didn’t speak, and his eyes weren’t open – it appeared as if he was in a Buddhist trance, trying to find the ultimate understanding.
They rushed to him, and on closer inspection, he was not merely sitting, he was tied to the ground. His hands were bound together in front of him, and the candle he was holding had dripped wax over them, further entombing them and making them unable to free himself.
“Giles?” Buffy whispered, gingerly reaching out to touch him.
All of them jumped back as suddenly his eyes opened. No one had time to say or do anything, because at the same moment, the candle as well as Willow’s beacon of light blinked out.
Instantly, the solid blackness that surrounded them dissolved into swarming writhing shadows, slipping between and around them. Spike and Xander could both see in the darkness now, and it was as if a veil had been lifted. The only problem was that what they were seeing wasn’t looking too good for them. Only seconds elapsed before the screaming wails of the demons pierced their ears like a like a jagged spear.
“Fuck!” Xander yelled, dropping low to the ground. The same movement was accomplished by the rest of the group.
“Xander, help me get Giles untied, and then we need to get out of here!” Buffy screamed over the shrieking.
Xander quickly looked back to find Spike slashing at the shadows with his battle axe and seemingly doing little damage. Before his weapon could make contact with the demon, it was dissolve into the darkness, only to be replaced by three, five, twelve more. Willow, too, was trying to jab at them with the dagger she’d chosen. Tara sat on the floor of the cavern, seemingly unaware to her surroundings, chanting silently. Xander couldn’t understand what it was she was saying, but he hoped it was something that get these things to back off.
As he made his way towards the watcher, he felt the demons grabbing at him, slipping through him, clawing and screaming at his ears. They pulled at his hair and tore at his clothing, trying to pull him away from the rest of the group like a pack of wild dogs. Behind him, he heard Spike swearing into the swarming beasts as they swirled and circled around him, throwing stones and other debris at him.
When he finally made it to where Buffy was frantically trying to untie, and finally cut through the ropes that were holding Giles down, Xander reached up, placing his hands around the man’s wax-encased hands. He flexed his arms and his fingers quickly, tightly, causing the wax to chip, crack, and finally fall away. The candle fell to the ground, freeing Giles' hands. They quickly went up to his mouth, where unbeknownst to his rescuers, his lips had been waxed shut as well. He tore and clawed at his mouth, frantic and panicky. At last, he was able to move his lips, and he sucked in a great mouthful of the humid air, breathing deeply.
“Thank god!” Giles declared, his breath hitched and his face breaking into beads of sweat. “Thought I’d be here forever; what took you so long?”
“Sorry, Giles. We had some…stuff to take care of,” Buffy said, looking calmly and secretly at Xander. She was slicing and hacking at the ropes with her dagger, and it seemed about as successful as using a toothpick to carve a diamond. “Dammit, I can’t cut through these ropes!”
“Here, step back,” Xander shouted over the din. Buffy retreated as he stood up, hefting his own sword high above his head. Bringing it down in one fluid, smooth, motion, he heard the ropes hiss as he cut through them, falling to the ground like snakes cut from the garden.
“Buffy!” Willow screeched, her hair being blown about and sustaining several bruises and cuts on her arms and face. Spike, too, suffered from the minor injuries, but it was clear that they could not get out of this cavern without light.
“We have to get out of here, Buffy!” Xander called, reaching down and pulling Giles up by one arm. The watcher looked suspiciously at him, but said nothing.
“How?” Buffy yelled back, swiping her sword through a shadow. “We can’t get through them to get out!”
“Verto inside foris , planto lux lucis fulsi perspicuous!” Tara yelled, her voice penetrating the roar that seemed to echo a thousand fold in the large room.
As the last word left her mouth, both Giles and Willow fell to the ground, their bodies going slack and arms splayed out. Within the space of a second, each of them was revived and fighting back to standing positions, looking solemnly at Tara who was still seated on the earth, her legs tucked under her and her arms outstretched.
Xander felt it before he saw it; an energy that seemed to pulse and wrap around him like a blanket of bees, swarming and tingling against his skin. Then the room shattered with light, turning the blackness into the light of mid-day. Every demon in the room seemed to melt, as they had back at Xander’s apartment. The shadows fell to the floor, a thousand screams and a million cries as they dissipated into the light.
Looking down at the source of the light, Xander realized that it was coming from Tara. Not from her, but her. She was the light. He could make vaguely make out the shape of her body, but the light was shining, blazing from within her. And quickly, the light began to move, towards the exit to the room, through the tunnel.
No one spoke, but instead followed the light that was Tara, quickly and silently. They escaped the room that had held Giles prisoner with wax and magical ropes. They passed through stone corridor after corridor, room after room until finally they emerged, outside of the gaping hole in the side of a mountain. But still the light shone, and still it guided them.
Back through the canyon, through the valley, and over the ridges of dry grass and broken pine needles. The light continued to flow like water over polished stone, illuminating their path and turning this inescapable night into impenetrable day.
Through the silent streets of the dreaming city and the past the broken buildings that had been robbed of their life, they passed. Quiet had settled once again, and once again it felt wrong somehow to disturb this silence. Their feet fell tenderly, their voices forgotten.
Past sleeping cars and forgotten bicycles, deserted coffee shops and abandoned supermarkets, they crept through the town like wolves through a forest.
Finally, it/she led them up the stairs of Xander’s apartment building, filling the hallway with tremendous golden light, passing through the door of his own home, where still the candles burned and the lanterns glowed.
As Spike closed the door behind them, they all circled the blazing tower of light, shielding their eyes from the awesome brightness. And as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The light became Tara once more, as she collapsed to the floor like a solid heap of bones and magic.
Blinking light bulbs of flash out of their eyes and disbelief out of their minds, they fell towards the once-again human girl. Her flesh was pale, ashen, and her breathing was shallow. Her eyes closed, and her heartbeat fluttered.
Title: In Sunlight or Shadow (16/18)
Author:
chocgood84Pairing: Spike/Xander
Rating: NC-17 overall
Feedback: It's my anti-drug. So unless you want me start abusing chocolate and crack, please leave some.
Notes: Vamp!Xander series; the usual applies: blood play, smut, schmoop and man-luvin.
Previous parts: here.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Spike, Xander, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If I did, this wouldn’t be fanfic, it’d be cannon. These belong to Mutant Enemy and its creator, Joss Whedon. No harm, no foul.
Throughout the town, transformers and power boxes were bursting with overloaded circuits and burning up in fire so hot it melted the metal casing around it. Only a few seconds later, they were left with darkness surrounding them and no electricity, no light, and no sound to pierce it.
“All right, that’s it,” Buffy said, rage filling her voice. “First we find Giles, and then we kill them. We kill them hard.”
The faux midnight calm that was settled on the dead town of Sunnydale was pushing against them like the deep sea against a tin can vessel. It was thick with heat and swollen with a nightmarish glare that no moonlight could pierce, and no lantern could chase. It was the darkness of childhood fears and of adult worries. And this group walked solemnly through it, their voices hushed in funereal tones and soft like gauze on a wound.
Willow led the company, her beacon of light the only energy thrumming on this black day-night. Piercing it only enough to allow them to move, to allow them safety on a voyage that reeked of madness and tasted of ash.
Buffy, in her own right, walked beside the powerful witch, weapons raised and eyes lowered, glowering into the silence that circled them. Her face was contorted into a marriage of anger and of sadness.
Tara, with soft steps and quiet whispers of affection, walked behind the two, one hand gently brushing against her lover’s arms, shoulders, back. Guiding and supporting, giving and understanding of the energy that seemed to pass between the two so effortlessly.
Spike and Xander took the last positions of the group, their shoulders pressed together and their eyes working like machines, passing back and forth from the women they protected and the darkness that they feared. Neither man spoke a word, for no words were left to be had. More than once since this entire adventure had begun, they had reassured each other that it would be over soon and that worry was pointless, was reasonless. But now, it seemed, everything that had once been could easily become what was most feared. The blackness that had permeated their very existence, had invaded their sheltered security was threatening to take it, to falsify it, to sever it. The very thing that had created them now sought to destroy them.
The five of them pressed through, confidently but cautiously, to the outskirts of the comatose city. Once more, they were assured that no one else was residing here – no sound echoed, no movement stirred, no breath was made. The silence was as hard as diamonds and as cold as arctic water, and it unnerved each of them in different ways. Xander pressed his arm tightly against Spike’s, Buffy became even more rigid in her posture, and Tara quaked slightly. Yet still they plowed on, searching for their lost confidant.
“It’s not far from here,” Tara whispered. “Only about another mile to the south.”
“Thanks, Tara,” Willow replied, guiding the group slightly to the left.
After another few moments in silence, Spike took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. The sudden click made every human present jump just enough to make him smile.
“God, Spike. It’s bad enough you kill Xander, but now you try to give me a heart attack?” Buffy whined ever-so-quietly.
“Yeah, well, figured I could at least amuse myself,” Spike admitted, smiling innocently at Xander’s poking at his ribs.
“Well knock it off, would you? It’s creepy enough out here without the added annoyance of a lemon head vamp trying to ‘amuse’ himself.” Buffy scolded, never taking her eyes off the unforeseeable distance.
“Sorry, Buff; won’t happen again,” Xander whispered, leaning over and wrapping his arms around Spike. “And just for the record, again, he didn’t kill me.”
“Tomato, to-mot-toe,” Buffy mumbled.
“Shhh,” Tara silenced them, stopping abruptly. The other four travelers stopped as well, looking puzzled at her.
“What is it, Glinda?” Spike asked.
“Don’t you think it’s a little too quiet?” She wondered aloud.
“Sure is,” Willow answered, her voice just slightly quivering.
“They know we’re coming,” Tara stated.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Xander admitted, holding on tighter to Spike’s waist. “Something’s not right.”
“Uh, Xander? I don’t think anything is alright just now,” Buffy pointed out.
“Touché,” he retorted. “But you know what I mean. The boogie-shadow-screamy things haven’t had a problem before letting us know where they are. Why not now?”
“Because we’re close to their lair,” Tara announced, pointing into the blackness. “It’s just over the next ridge and down the valley a little.”
“Have you been there, Tara?” Buffy asked.
“No, but I can…feel Giles. He’s giving off energy like a homing beacon,” Tara explained.
“Tara, you know I love you, but you can be one creepy girl,” Xander admonished.
“Thanks, Xander,” Tara replied, beaming. “Anyway, it’s a good thing that I can still feel him so vividly – it means that he’s, uh, conscious.”
The five of them exchanged the same glance of worry and determination. Not another word was spoken as they turned on their heels and started back in the direction of Dark Creek Canyon. Tara was correct, because only a short time later, they were funneling out of the small valley, following the dried up creek bed. No water was found, here – only dust and pine needles, a few small animal bones and teeth, and further down-canyon they found an old suede boot that rotten with age and hardened by sunlight.
The sight of the empty creek, and especially the shoe, because where’s the other one, and where it’s owner? sent shivers and quakes up and down Xander’s spine. He made a silent admonishment that when all this is over, he and Spike are getting out of this business. It would be nice just to go off and have a nice, normal, blood-sucking, man-loving, daylight-avoiding, crucifix-fearing relationship with the century-old vampire he loved.
“So, why do they call it Dark Creek Canyon?” Buffy asked, kicking a dirt clump in front of her.
“Oh, in the winter, after the wet season, the creek fills up – overfills actually – but the water has so much mud and gross stuff in it, it looks black,” Willow explained. “And because the canyon walls get so high further on, the only time daylight ever makes it down here is a thin sliver at a specific time every day, when the sun is directly overhead.”
“Way to go, knowledge girl,” Xander teased.
“Yeah, Willow, gold star for you,” Buffy joked.
“I had to do a report in 7th grade,” Willow explained, shrugging her shoulders. “Actually, me and Xander were supposed to do it, but I did all the work and he skipped school the day we presented.”
“Huh?” Xander tripped over a tiny pebble. “Oh yeah! Now I remember. That was the day you came over to my house right after school, walked right in, marched up to my room, opened my door and started to call me a, a, what was it?”
“A butthead, I think. I don’t remember; as I recall I just turned completely white and fled the house.”
“Why?” Buffy asked.
“I was uh, um…” Xander tried, his voice barely above hearing range, as he toed at the dirt innocently. “Was trying something…”
“Again, I’m going with ‘ew’,” Buffy snorted, smiling anyway.
Willow laughed at the unsuccessfully repressed memory, and Tara joined her – her face turning red and her eyes shining bright.
“You think that’s funny, Spike?” Xander asked the vampire beside him who was practically convulsing with silent laughter. Spike only nodded and snaked a cold hand into the back of Xander’s jeans, grabbing a hand full of the soft muscle back there.
“Maybe later we can try something together, Xan,” Spike whispered into his ear, licking that sensitive flesh quickly. Xander moaned quite loudly and unashamedly.
“Hey guys, can we not turn this into a Falcon film? I don’t think my brain can handle it,” Buffy admitted. Xander nodded with a coy smile, and the five of them returned to course, searching for the place they would find Giles.
“Hey, Buffy?” Xander called.
“What, Xander?”
“How do you know what a Falcon film is?” He asked with every insinuation possible dripping from his words.
“Shut up, Xander,” Buffy quipped, trying not to notice the peels of laughter coming out of the two men and the looks of wonder and blackmail that seeped into both witches’ faces.
”Gee, you think this is it?” Xander joked, looking up at the gaping towering hole of blackness that was cut into the side of the canyon.
“I’m going to say yes,” Buffy stated. Everyone in the group grumbled slightly, rolling their eyes and shaking their fists.
“Okay, what’s the game plan, Buff?” Xander asked.
“Uh, kinda thought we’d go in, find Giles, and leave. If those shadow-whats-its start bothering us, we poke at them with these big shiny weapons,” she explained.
“Sounds good, let’s go,” Spike said, ready for action.
“Okay, Tara, make sure you stay between us. Don’t want you getting eaten or poked at,” Willow lectured. Tara only smiled, kissing the redhead on her cheek and nodding.
“Alright, I think we’re ready,” Buffy said. “Let’s go”
With that, the group plunged into the narrow space, their heads held high and their weapons held higher.
”Just over in the next room,” Tara told them, pointing to the west wall of the immense room of rock and granite.
“So, just to make sure – I’m not the only one uncomfortable with the fact that we haven’t seen any of those things?” Xander asked.
“No, you’re not the only one,” Buffy replied, stepping cautiously towards the cell’s door. “I thought for sure they’d be around once we got inside.”
“Maybe they’re taking a nap,” Willow offered.
“Or maybe they’re waiting for just the right time to kill us all,” Spike suggested.
“Not funny, Spike,” Buffy chided, leading the group into and through a small tunnel that connected the two rooms.
When they emerged on the other side, all of them gasped. In the center of a room was a lone candle, shining brightly in the confining darkness. But more importantly, holding that candle was a middle aged librarian sitting cross-legged on the earth. He didn’t speak, and his eyes weren’t open – it appeared as if he was in a Buddhist trance, trying to find the ultimate understanding.
They rushed to him, and on closer inspection, he was not merely sitting, he was tied to the ground. His hands were bound together in front of him, and the candle he was holding had dripped wax over them, further entombing them and making them unable to free himself.
“Giles?” Buffy whispered, gingerly reaching out to touch him.
All of them jumped back as suddenly his eyes opened. No one had time to say or do anything, because at the same moment, the candle as well as Willow’s beacon of light blinked out.
Instantly, the solid blackness that surrounded them dissolved into swarming writhing shadows, slipping between and around them. Spike and Xander could both see in the darkness now, and it was as if a veil had been lifted. The only problem was that what they were seeing wasn’t looking too good for them. Only seconds elapsed before the screaming wails of the demons pierced their ears like a like a jagged spear.
“Fuck!” Xander yelled, dropping low to the ground. The same movement was accomplished by the rest of the group.
“Xander, help me get Giles untied, and then we need to get out of here!” Buffy screamed over the shrieking.
Xander quickly looked back to find Spike slashing at the shadows with his battle axe and seemingly doing little damage. Before his weapon could make contact with the demon, it was dissolve into the darkness, only to be replaced by three, five, twelve more. Willow, too, was trying to jab at them with the dagger she’d chosen. Tara sat on the floor of the cavern, seemingly unaware to her surroundings, chanting silently. Xander couldn’t understand what it was she was saying, but he hoped it was something that get these things to back off.
As he made his way towards the watcher, he felt the demons grabbing at him, slipping through him, clawing and screaming at his ears. They pulled at his hair and tore at his clothing, trying to pull him away from the rest of the group like a pack of wild dogs. Behind him, he heard Spike swearing into the swarming beasts as they swirled and circled around him, throwing stones and other debris at him.
When he finally made it to where Buffy was frantically trying to untie, and finally cut through the ropes that were holding Giles down, Xander reached up, placing his hands around the man’s wax-encased hands. He flexed his arms and his fingers quickly, tightly, causing the wax to chip, crack, and finally fall away. The candle fell to the ground, freeing Giles' hands. They quickly went up to his mouth, where unbeknownst to his rescuers, his lips had been waxed shut as well. He tore and clawed at his mouth, frantic and panicky. At last, he was able to move his lips, and he sucked in a great mouthful of the humid air, breathing deeply.
“Thank god!” Giles declared, his breath hitched and his face breaking into beads of sweat. “Thought I’d be here forever; what took you so long?”
“Sorry, Giles. We had some…stuff to take care of,” Buffy said, looking calmly and secretly at Xander. She was slicing and hacking at the ropes with her dagger, and it seemed about as successful as using a toothpick to carve a diamond. “Dammit, I can’t cut through these ropes!”
“Here, step back,” Xander shouted over the din. Buffy retreated as he stood up, hefting his own sword high above his head. Bringing it down in one fluid, smooth, motion, he heard the ropes hiss as he cut through them, falling to the ground like snakes cut from the garden.
“Buffy!” Willow screeched, her hair being blown about and sustaining several bruises and cuts on her arms and face. Spike, too, suffered from the minor injuries, but it was clear that they could not get out of this cavern without light.
“We have to get out of here, Buffy!” Xander called, reaching down and pulling Giles up by one arm. The watcher looked suspiciously at him, but said nothing.
“How?” Buffy yelled back, swiping her sword through a shadow. “We can’t get through them to get out!”
“Verto inside foris , planto lux lucis fulsi perspicuous!” Tara yelled, her voice penetrating the roar that seemed to echo a thousand fold in the large room.
As the last word left her mouth, both Giles and Willow fell to the ground, their bodies going slack and arms splayed out. Within the space of a second, each of them was revived and fighting back to standing positions, looking solemnly at Tara who was still seated on the earth, her legs tucked under her and her arms outstretched.
Xander felt it before he saw it; an energy that seemed to pulse and wrap around him like a blanket of bees, swarming and tingling against his skin. Then the room shattered with light, turning the blackness into the light of mid-day. Every demon in the room seemed to melt, as they had back at Xander’s apartment. The shadows fell to the floor, a thousand screams and a million cries as they dissipated into the light.
Looking down at the source of the light, Xander realized that it was coming from Tara. Not from her, but her. She was the light. He could make vaguely make out the shape of her body, but the light was shining, blazing from within her. And quickly, the light began to move, towards the exit to the room, through the tunnel.
No one spoke, but instead followed the light that was Tara, quickly and silently. They escaped the room that had held Giles prisoner with wax and magical ropes. They passed through stone corridor after corridor, room after room until finally they emerged, outside of the gaping hole in the side of a mountain. But still the light shone, and still it guided them.
Back through the canyon, through the valley, and over the ridges of dry grass and broken pine needles. The light continued to flow like water over polished stone, illuminating their path and turning this inescapable night into impenetrable day.
Through the silent streets of the dreaming city and the past the broken buildings that had been robbed of their life, they passed. Quiet had settled once again, and once again it felt wrong somehow to disturb this silence. Their feet fell tenderly, their voices forgotten.
Past sleeping cars and forgotten bicycles, deserted coffee shops and abandoned supermarkets, they crept through the town like wolves through a forest.
Finally, it/she led them up the stairs of Xander’s apartment building, filling the hallway with tremendous golden light, passing through the door of his own home, where still the candles burned and the lanterns glowed.
As Spike closed the door behind them, they all circled the blazing tower of light, shielding their eyes from the awesome brightness. And as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The light became Tara once more, as she collapsed to the floor like a solid heap of bones and magic.
Blinking light bulbs of flash out of their eyes and disbelief out of their minds, they fell towards the once-again human girl. Her flesh was pale, ashen, and her breathing was shallow. Her eyes closed, and her heartbeat fluttered.
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Thank ya, baby! Only two chapters left! EEP.