The Journal of Buffy Summers

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Page 11 – HELTER SKELTER AT THE HYPERION
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JOURNAL NOTE: Giles, I had a prophetic dream while dozing in the car on our ride over to the Hyperion. It really shook me up, but with all the activity going on, Willow and I haven’t had any free time to decipher its meaning. So I’ll just leave that in your very capable hands, as I try to do the following:
• find the hidden trunk
• read Wesley’s journal
• read Angel’s letter
• do a tracking spell on Angel and Spike
• have Harmony’s soul restored
• have her chip removed
• have chip magically transported to you to research along with the remote

Help! Way too much is going on, and I cannot take care of it all by myself even though in the past I’ve tried too. You know me Giles; I’ve always been more of a “fist in face” for information kind of girl and not so much for the research and theorizing.

Also, I’ve decided to follow my gut instincts which are screaming at me to keep our discoveries a secret. We may have a traitor in our mists and I do not want to reveal too much information until we can figure out who the Judas in our organization is. So for now let’s keep whatever we discover between you, me and Willow. Do not even tell Andrew, the fewer people that know the better off we’ll be. So from this time forward, my entries will be for your eyes only, Willow already set it up for me.

I’m starting this page entry with my prophetic dream, so let me know what you’ve come up with and if it applies to any known prophecies. Just call me Prophecy Girl. Did I ever mention that slayer dreams have the sickening habit of always coming true? I hate it when I have them and they are never happy dreams either, why is that? Oh, never mind, rambling here, and I so hate being a pawn to destiny. When will I ever get a break? I mean even dying twice doesn’t seem to cut me any slack. All right, this is me shutting up now. So on with the cryptic dreams and strange events.

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I felt weightless and my body felt like it was floating on air, my first thought was “I’m in heaven.” Looking around I saw that I was surrounded by wispy, hazy, translucent white clouds stretching out as far as my eye could see. I wondered how I was being held up. So I looked down and saw the misty haze beneath my gold satin sandals (how cliché I thought) as it danced around my gold painted toenails. The clouds felt warm and soft against my feet making me giggle as the sensation tickled in the oddest way that felt purely pleasurable like the softest, gentlest of caresses.

That was the first time I noticed that I was wearing a beautiful white gown. Simple in its design but elegant in its form as it clung to my every curve and radiated a pure white glow as it surrounded my body. It didn’t appear to look like any material I’ve seen before. Its diaphanous appearance gave a hint to my golden flesh hidden underneath but it remained solid in private key areas. It moved and swirled about my body every which way like a living thing as it gave off flashes of soft irradiant light with my every movement. I feel and look like a heavenly angel was my first conscious thought. A soft contented moan escaped my lips as I exhaled and inhaled the sweet scented air.

Buffy, a male voice softly called my name. I turned around, searching for the man who had called me. Appearing like a ghost out of the murky, hazy fog the outline of my first love appeared dressed in shimmering white clothes made of the same substance as my own. He wore an amulet around his neck that shimmered with a dark glow. His hair and brown twinkling eyes made quite a contrast to his white attire and surroundings. A smile of pure happiness adorned his handsome face as he came into focus. Walking slowly towards me, he stretched his arms out beckoning for a hug.

Angel, I heard myself say, to my ears, my voice sounded almost musical as it left my lips. Even his name sounded like it belonged in this place, so warm, peaceful and happy. The only time I ever recalled seeing him look so happy was during our one and only time together when we made love.

Almost as if that thought alone were a curse to break the peace and tranquility of the moment, a dark cloud started forming underneath his feet and like black ink it started spreading to the surrounding area quickly enveloping the bright white clouds into dark, dense, murky and ominous looking shadows. A sense of foreboding filled me as I watched the transformation take place in front of me.

Suddenly, a hand burst through Angel’s chest gripping the amulet making him scream helplessly out loud. Staring at me, he begged for my help as he stretched his arm out reaching toward me beckoning to hold my hand. His pose exactly as I remembered, when I ran him through with the sword to close the void opened up by Acathla. “Buffy, you’ve got to destroy him to set me free, please if you’ve ever loved me, kill him and end my torment. He’s got me imprisoned and I’m helpless to stop him or what’s coming.” His voice began fading as his last words haunted me with his pleas for help.

Like a second skin that was being torn off and then disdainfully discarded, Angel’s skin was being shed by the figure emerging from within. Out stepped Angelus glowering at me with his true demonic face. He was dressed all in black, wearing silk shirt, leather pants and spike tipped leather boots. His golden eyes pierced me with their intensity as he menacingly smirked and said, “Hello lover!”

That was when I woke up with a heaving gasp and noticed that I was bodily being carried by Robin Woods into the hotel. “I really have to stop being carried by men,” I mumbled absently as my head started clearing and the echoing laughter of Angelus was rippling away from my groggy head.

“Hello Buffy,” Robin smiled warmly at me, as he set me down on the lobby sofa. “Nice to see you again.”

“Yo B, damn girl you sure know how to make an entrance,” Faith said as she appeared next to Robin.

Slowly looking around, I could see a sea of faces staring at me as I shook my head moaning, trying to clear it.

“You okay, Buffy? I didn’t want to wake you up. My instinct’s told me that you were having a slayer’s dream. I felt the power radiating off of you in waves, as you slept. I sensed that it probably was being given to you from “The Power’s That Be.” So I had you carried inside for safety, because judging from past experience, we both know that as soon as you have one, things get dangerous real fast and just keeps on escalating,” Willow explained.

“Thanks Will,” I gratefully answered. Looking around, that was when I noticed that the entire lobby was covered with flowers. All in different colors and in different arrangements, every conceivable kind of flower seemed to have been filling the expansive room. “Okay, what’s with the Parade of Roses theme in here?” I frowned as the room got deathly quiet and everyone was nervously squirming or shifting on their feet.

“Oh God, I’m dead and this is all a dream isn’t it?” I swallowed hard as I blinked my eyes and pinched my arm. Ouch! Okay, one very vivid dream.” I pouted as I rubbed the tender spot I just pinched.

“Uh, no B, they started coming here delivered every hour, on the hour, addressed to you since this morning. The cards are not signed and we have no idea who is sending them even though we’ve called the various flower shops asking who is responsible and rich enough to afford to do this,” Faith replied as she ran a rose up and down her cheek wagging her eyebrows in a naughty fashion at me. “Someone has a secret admirer.” She then touted, as she thrust her hips forward suggestively and wore a lewd smirk on her heavily made up face.

The first thought that came to mind was it had to be Angelus, just like the time when he sent me flowers with the words “SOON” written on the card. But it couldn’t have been him because to send flowers anonymously simply was not his style. It was the dream that made me jump to that conclusion. If it were really Angelus, he would want to let me know just so he could play with my head. No, this was someone else altogether. I made a mental note to later find out who was being my secret admirer.

Standing up, I looked around and attempted for a half smile trying to ignore the killer headache. “Hi everyone,” I said as I raised my hand and wiggled my fingers at everyone. Just then a young blond girl in pigtails appeared with what looked like two aspirin’s and a glass of water in front of me.

“Hello?” I greeted as her green hazel eyes met mine and she smiled and said in a thick Australian accent. “I’m Suzanne Arabella Finn but everyone just calls me Suzy, my mum and dad told me all about you.” She cheerfully stated as she handed me the aspirin and glass, which I quickly swallowed and handed the empty glass back to her. When our hands touched I got this familiar feeling about her, almost the same as I get with Dawn, very interesting. Looking at her was just like looking at a reflection of myself at her age. How strange I thought as she just stared at me with wild eyed innocence.

“All good things, I hope,” I smiled at her.

“No worries, all I’ve heard from my dad is what a great warrior you are. I want to be just like you,” she beamed proudly.

“Thanks, Suzy, I hope that we can be friends as well,” I replied returning her infectious smile and gave her a grateful nod. That was when Sam stepped into my line of sight, hugged me telling me how good it was to see me again. She then took Suzy’s hand and led her to the back of the crowd telling her to let me catch my breath and that it was not polite to stare. I still couldn’t get over just how much Suzy bore an uncanny resemblance to me but quickly shook that thought away as I spent the next few minutes greeting everyone around me including Illyria.

Giles don’t let your head explode with stress overload, but I think she is one being that needs to spend some quality time with you. You’re the only one experienced enough to test her powers and abilities objectively. Also, at the same time you would get the opportunity to study a former ancient god up close and personal. Specifically one who once possessed the ability to alter the flow of time. Just imagine the wealth of information she could provide for your growing library. She was around when demons ruled the earth, and she even predates the written word.

Faith told me that she got very close to Wesley and hasn’t made any attempts to get close to anyone else since his death. You’re the closet thing to Wesley we have and I would like to know if she is a player for our side or not. So next chance you get, you may want to hop on a plane and start feeling out her loyalties to our group. Time to get your hands dirty Giles!

In allot of ways she reminds me of Anya, only with Angel’s broody personality. She only speaks out when necessary and when she does, it is brutally honest and painfully to the point. When we approached her, she was standing away from everyone cocking her head to the side observing everyone and everything.

“Illyria, this is Buffy Summers, the first slayer of our lineage for our generation,” Faith proudly introduced.

Grimacing at me, never flinching from her blatant glare, Illyria spat out. “You reek of disgusting solicitude; it oozes off your body from every pore.”

“That’s just the stench of demon guts from her earlier psychopathic killing spree,” Harmony cheerfully offered. She was only too happy to volunteer that bit of information to anyone within hearing range.

Shocked at her blunt outburst, I reacted by raising my arm and sniffing my arm pit. Pouting, I scrunched up my face and complained. “Thought I got rid of the demon guts stench from earlier. Damn army doesn’t believe in stocking up on Herbal Essence. All they had on hand was plain unscented soap,”

“Whoa, Illy,” Faith quickly jumped in. “Remember that talk we had earlier about the human way of greeting each other? Well that was the wrong way of doing it, alright?”

“Humans are easily offended,” Illyria casually remarked as she studied me with an intense scrutiny. “You are different than the others,” she observed, with a sure cock of her head.

“Different? Different how?” I asked, as memories of Spike taunting me saying that “I came back wrong” flooded my head. Hmmm, funny how Harmony’s chip didn’t think so, must be the enhanced features of right and wrong, good guys and bad guys, I absently mused.

Lifting her head in a stubborn pose, Illyria abruptly turned and walked away. Her parting words were, “What you are is not for me to tell, I grow weary of the putrid stench of human emotion, goodbye.”

“Geesh, cryptic much? Just what the hell was that all about? Is she on our side or not?”

“Sorry B, she’s new to our world and is a having a hard time adjusting,” Faith excused her wayward friend.

“Okay,” Willow broke in, “Harmony let’s go and get you settled into your new life, shall we?”

“Uh, Okay,” Harmony agreed, as she turned to face me and gave me a hug and said “Thanks for taking me in Buffy; I will do my best in working for the good guys.” She then smiled and parted with a questioning face, “friends?” To which I acknowledged by shrugging as I nodded my head saying, “Sure why the hell not.” Will wonders never cease? Guess all Harmony really needed was for someone to give her a chance.

Willow quickly took Harmony to her new assigned quarters to secretly do the spell to give her back her soul and to remove her chip. We had earlier agreed to keep its removal a secret with no one else knowing except for Giles. The others were going to be told that she still had the chip implant. We didn’t want to run the risk of having Harmony dusted by Kennedy or any of the others out of mistrust or blood lust paranoia.

We reluctantly decided to give Harmony false memories of drinking pig’s blood as a steady diet from the beginning of her being turned. Also any memories of her killing humans would be completely erased from her mind. Willow would use the implanted chip one last time before its removal. The mind control and brain washing capabilities the chip provided would prove handy for this necessary task. In doing this, Harmony would skip the guilt trip experienced by both Angel and Spike. Then she could immediately go to work on her new duties within the academy. As soon as the chip was magically removed, Willow would then teleport it to Giles for further study.

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Okay Giles, boring journal background stuff that you may or may not know about following below this sentence. So don’t nod off okay? Just be like a sponge and absorb!

My luggage had already been delivered to the Hyperion from the airport. Willow already had all my things put away earlier, at the top floor suite that I used as my private quarters. The entire floor was privately mine and could only be entered by using a key in my own private elevator and Willow and I have the only keys for access. Willow had also put up magical wards on the floor to prevent anyone (excluding herself) from magically transporting there. It contained my own private training room, conference room, kitchen, and bedroom suite as well as roof access. Since turning it into our academy, I had the entire floor and roof top secured for myself. That was the only selfish thing I insisted upon for my own behalf. The academy could have the rest of the building and grounds as far as I was concerned, but I needed my own space.

Anxious to secretly go searching for the hidden trunk, I met with Willow roughly a couple of hours later and we went on the hunt for it. We didn’t want anyone else to know what we were doing, so we waited till everyone was either in class or in training to begin our search. We gave out the excuse that we were going to be busy doing research in my suite. Once the trunk was found, then I would hand Wesley’s journal over to Willow to read and do research, while I opened Angel’s letter. For now his letter was locked in a small safe in my bedroom with one of Willow’s spells protecting it.

“Blah, blah, blah. Still with me Giles? Okay on to the search.”

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Giles have I ever mentioned that sewers smell bad? Duh, dumb thing to say, I know. But how can vampires stand the stench with their heightened sense of smell? UGH! Way gross! Maybe that was why I couldn’t smell the creatures that were down there. Geesh, my slayer abilities can sense most evil creatures a mile off, but I had no warning on the ones lurking down there in the dark. I found that fact highly disturbing, just what were they?

Cautiously we walked, waiting for an attack while looking for the trunk. The closer we got to sensing the magic cloaking the trunk, the more anxious I became. Could they be cloaked too? God I hope not!

I saw movement in the shadows and decided that it was time for Mr. Pointy to make an appearance. Vampire or not, Mr. Pointy would do the trick if used right. Motioning for Willow to stay behind me, I advanced extending my senses, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the creature hiding in the darkness.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sang out, as my eyes dashed all around me waiting for an attack. It was then that I heard a scuffling noise to my immediate right and I quickly looked in that direction as I saw a dark form braced against the sewer wall. I began raising the hand holding Mr. Pointy ready to attack, when to my left a dark figure jump out at me. Where the hell did he come out from? I avoided the chain he swung at me as I jumped out of its path. That was when his companion decided to join in on the fight and I yelled for Willow to go and get the trunk while I took care of my attackers.

Willow immediately ran to where she felt that the trunk was hidden and started chanting to drop the spell hiding it, when she was attacked too. She went flying across the small tunnel when a bolt of magic hit her unexpectedly. Appearing out of the shadows, stood a dark figure cloaked in shroud, almost giving the appearance of “The Grim Reaper.”

As I fought struggling to defeat the two that were attacking me, I gave quick glances over at Willow trying to make sure she was alright. She was lying on the sewer floor stunned and she had blood streaming down her forehead.

“Willow!” I yelled, trying to snap her out of her daze, I knew that she had been weakened with the magic’s she had already performed today and hoped that the figure near the chest would not hit her with any more magical bolts and hurt her.

The figure then turned and waved his hand in a semi-circle and the trunk appeared into plain view. That was enough to make Willow react when she saw the trunk starting to shimmer as a teleportation spell was being chanted by her opponent.

I don’t know where she channeled her strength from, but I gathered that she had been mentally communicating with her coven and they were helping her magically. She started to glow white, as it radiated out, illuminating the entire area, she then began to float and was levitated about a foot off the murky ground. She then started to float toward the chest as the dark figure raised his hands up in the air and the trunk stopped shimmering. Willow had gotten his complete attention away from the trunk.

It was then that the magical battle erupted between the two sorcerers. As light and dark magic’s collided with a thunderous roar, their impact began shaking the very bricks and area around us. As wave after wave of powerful magical bolts collided, they created a shock wave in their wake that rippled out and sent me and my two opponents flying off our feet from its force.

I couldn’t see them as I shielded my eyes from the blinding light and then a torrential wind blasted through the tunnel picking up my two attackers and sending them flying past me out of sight. I too felt my body lifting as I grabbed a metal ladder concreted into the sewer wall and held on for dear life.

I could feel the metal starting to twist in my hand as the gale force wind kept me lateral and off balance. I could only hope that it would hold long enough for me to see how Willow was faring against this intruder.

Then just as quickly as the wind appeared it stopped sending me crashing to the ground with a dirty squishy thud. Eww, looking around I noticed Willow slumped against the trunk as she panted catching her breath and holding her hand to her chest.

“Willow? Are you okay? What happened to Mr. Grim Reaper?” I looked around trying to see if there was a dark smudge smeared on the wall or icky floor around her.

Frowning, I scrunched my nose up in disgust. I started walking toward her, as she began clearing her throat. All the while, I kept wiping my hands on my clothes, trying to rub off the stinky stuff stuck on me.

“Fighting black magic leaves a bitter taste in my mouth," Willow replied as she kept smacking her lips together with a sour look on her face.

“I think our Darth Vader guy teleported the heck out of Dodge,” Willow quipped as she started to stand up on shaky legs. “Oh, head rush,” she mumbled as she started to sway unsteadily on her feet. I immediately went to her side and held her steady.

“The trunk,” I commented, “its still here.” Duh, I know, attack of the blonde moment.

“Yeah,” Willow absently replied, “seems our dark friend knew it was down here and we just barely beat him to it.”

“Strange, the only ones that knew about this were us, Harmony, Spike and Riley.” We both looked at each other and said at the same time, “we have a mole in our group!”

We both giggled weakly on our mutual comment. We started hearing noise coming from the access entrance and we both didn’t want to be discovered with the trunk by the others.

Willow drew in a long breathe, closed her eyes to concentrate and then mumbled some words and the next thing I knew we and the trunk were in my private quarters. It was then that Willow’s legs gave out from the effort and I held on to her tight and guided her to the nearest chair.

Just then my phone rang; it was Kennedy looking for Willow. She was trying to find out if she was safe and alright after the earthquake.

“Yeah, she’s okay,” I replied. “Do you want to talk to her?”

“No, don’t bother her, it sounds like you’re both very busy if you didn’t even bother to come out and investigate the tremors.”

“We are busy,” I maintained. We’re working on some very important research for Giles that is time sensitive and we cannot afford any interruptions. Unfortunately, the research is taking longer than expected, so we’re planning on eating our meals here. Thank goodness Willow stocked up my kitchen because it is starting to look like we’ll be working on through the night.”

I turned to look at Willow as I said that to gage her reaction. She shook her head in approval, relieved that she didn’t have to talk to Kennedy and lie to her. Willow could never tell a convincing lie and Kennedy would know that we were keeping secrets from her.

“Okay,” Kennedy responded sounding rather suspicious and that was when she was being called by Faith.

“Are you talking to Buffy?” I heard Faith ask in the background and then I heard shuffling and Faith came on the phone line. “B, we are going to investigate the sewer tunnels, Robin and I think that is where the tremors came from.”

“Okay Faith,” I replied. “Let us know what you come up with, Willow and I will be in here doing research.”

We took a bath, got dressed and then decided to look over the trunk.

The trunk didn’t have any visible seams or hinges. Willow tried some spells but it stilled remained magically sealed. She was stumped. Willow had never come across magic like this before. Frustrated, she roughly took off the towel wrapped around her wet hair. In her agitated state, she had forgotten all about her cut and it began to bleed again. Willow felt the trickle of blood on her forehead and reached out with her fingers to touch it.

“I’ll get some bandages from the bathroom,” I offered. Just then Willow dripped some blood onto the chest and as soon as it touched it a flash of glowing white light shined for a few seconds and then the seams to a hinged lid with a latch appeared, allowing access to the interior of the trunk.

“Its blood magic!” Willow excitedly exclaimed. “I’ve heard rumors of doing spells with blood and flesh but this is my first experience with one. It’s very old magic and pre-dates language. I wonder why Wesley didn’t want to use word magic?” Willow wondered for a second before stating, “I’ll have to contact the coven and let them know after we’re done reading Wesley’s journal.”

First things, first, we bandaged Willow’s cut to stop the trickling of blood and then we turned our attention back to the trunk. Drawing in a breath I looked at Willow and said, “First trunk, then Angel’s letter Okay?”

Nodding her agreement, Willow knelt next to me on the floor as I reached out to raise the lid.

“Well here goes nothing,” I said opening the lid. “Hope nothing jumps out at us.”

TBC…


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To Katrina & Megan - thank you so much for leaving good reviews, you both made me punch out this chapter.

Will see if I can work in some Spuffiness in real soon!