Once It Begins

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Thanks everybody for reading, special thanks as always to the wonderful people who take the time to review!!!

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OIB 16 Instincts

Outside Angel’s Mansion

When Angel arrives back at the car, he finds Xander lying on his belly on the ground, screaming in pain. Spike’s on him, holding Xander down while he drinks brutally from his neck. Angel flashes back in time to an identical scene. Then, he was the one enforcing his sire rights over an unruly childe. He still hears William’s screams for mercy in his nightmares, sometimes.

Without any more hesitation, he grabs Spike’s short blond hair and his shoulder.
“Let him go!” He barks but Spike won’t listen to him. He yanks on Spike’s hair, succeeding only in hurting Xander even more.
“Let him go!” Angel growls, using his thunderous sire’s voice. “NOW!”

This seems to have effect. Spike pulls back and turns his head. Gold gleams through slitted eyes. “What the hell do you want?” Spike spits at Angel, blood dripping from his mouth down his chin. “This is none of your business!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, boy!” Angel says grimly and shoves Spike off Xander, throwing the blond on his back in the dirt. He shifts into his gameface and meets Spike’s angry eyes. “I am the head of the bloodline. Everything going on between my offspring, my blood is my business.” He pauses for effect. “And now, you will explain to me what just happened here!”

Connor has arrived at the scene, he watches with mixed feelings. He’s afraid, shocked, impressed and helpless at the same time. There are a lot of new feelings he’s experienced since the first pain wave brought him here. Angel and Spike yell at each other, things Connor doesn’t understand anything of: bloodline, childer, sire rights.
It’s a bit like one of those big screaming fits between his parents… it just seems wrong for them to fight like this.

Under any other circumstances Connor would flee from it but he can’t. He promised Angel to stay and he’s very curious as to what Angel’s gonna tell him. He looks at Xander who lies on the ground, making himself as small as possible. He’s bleeding from a neck wound and Connor feels like he should do something to help the guy.

Taking some deep breaths, Connor tries to gather the courage to actually do something, then he goes over to Xander and kneels down at the guy’s side. “Hey.” He approaches Xander, before he touches his shoulder. “Guess you’d like to clean up a bit? Patch up?”

Suddenly, Xander’s head shoots up and, wildly sniffing the air, the young fledge is on Connor. The youth gives a surprised, strangled little cry but it’s unheard by the two Master vampires a few yards away.


Magic Box Training Room

As soon as the door closes behind them, Cordy jumps into action.
“Willow,” she begins. “I know this is hard on you but we have to try to get things clear. I don’t want any more dead, erm, undead people, erm, you know what I mean!”
Willow looks dumbfounded and blinks helplessly at Wesley.

“I-I think Cordy is r-right.” Tara says and Cordy gifts her with a movie star smile. Immediately, the shy witch disappears behind a curtain of hair.
“Hey, hey…” Cordy says. “No hiding allowed. I have the feeling that something is wrong here. Something with Buffy. In my vision she staked Spike for killing Xander, but it can’t be since I saw Spike just a few hours ago.” Slowly Tara nods. Willow stares at Cordy. Silent tears are still running down her cheeks. Wesley searches through his pockets for a handkerchief but comes up with nothing.

“We need to find Angel. We need to talk to him. I know I said he was Angelus but… It’s instinct or feminine intuition.” She sighs. “Damn, I am confused and I still have this horrible headache!” Cordy sits down on some gym mats. Tara gets out a handkerchief and gives it to Wesley who gives it to Willow who looks at him thankfully.

Tara kneads her hands while she chews on her lower lip, finally, she sighs and takes a step towards Cordy. “T-try t-to think about nothing.” She says and puts her hand on Cordy’s forehead. She whispers a short word, “heal” and Cordy feels as if she’s bathing in sun beams, as if she is filled with a warm light.

Tara can feel the pain Cordy suffers but as with anything else, it’s just a flow of energy that can be formed and guided. Her mother has taught her how to do that since she was a child. The most important thing, her mother taught her, was that she mustn’t ever lose the connection to the completeness of the world. Energy never disappears, it transforms, converts. So Tara was expecting to take the pain energy from Cordy and give her healing energy from herself. However, she wasn’t prepared for the damage in Cordy’s brain and it scares her when she has to give in more healing energy, take more pain energy than she expected.

Suddenly, another flow of energy appears from Cordy and it supports Tara, grows and soon Tara can draw away without any problems, she even gets back some of her invested energy. When she opens her eyes, she doesn’t feel dizzy or tired at all for which she’s really glad. Cordy’s eyes are still closed; she appears to be in a deep trance. A golden light surrounds her like an aura, she glows.

“I-I didn’t do th-that!” Tara says, not scared, she feels that Cordy is regenerating on her own, but worried. Willow looks sceptically, frowns at her girlfriend.
“Oh, that’s okay.” Wesley calms Tara. “Cordelia is half-demon. That’s how she regenerates the damage done through the visions. The PTB gave her the ability when she nearly died from the visions. It just takes a few hours after a vision until it starts. Whatever you did, Tara, it must have activated her inner healing energy and I am sure she’s very thankful for that.” Slowly Tara smiles and is proud of herself for having the courage to act in the first place.

“I guess the first thing we should do now is try to find Angel.” Wesley says, taking the initiative now Cordy is out for a while. Usually she needs up to an hour to completely heal herself. He hopes, this time, she’s going to be ready sooner.

“Oh! I can do that. Locator spell. No problem. Witch power here too. Just a moment. I need a candle and a map.” Willow babbles and looks around searching for the items.

“Well, there is a map on that wall.” Wes points to a big map pinned to a black board. Different colours mark the different areas and patrol routes through Sunnydale. Cemeteries are red, as are areas around the Bronze and down at the docks. Churches are blue. The Sunnydale High school is crossed out and with big red letters Hellmouth is written on it.

Under the map is a small sideboard with several drawers. Wesley goes over to it and pulls the first one open. He finds a torch, batteries, a few short candles and two lighters. Probably Giles put them there in case of an emergency like a black out. Always prepared, of course. Wes suppresses a snort. He takes a candle and a lighter out and holds them out to Willow who grabs them immediately. She lights the candle and sets it on the sideboard, and then she starts chanting quietly.

Only seconds later, a small light flickers over a red marked building at the city limits. “Angel.” Willow says and continues chanting. A second light appears close to Angel’s. “Xander.” The next light “Spike.” is right next to the others. Still, Willow keeps on chanting and a fourth light appears in the middle of the town in a red framed area. “Buffy.”

Tara and Wesley get closer to the map and read the street names. “Oh.” Tara says. “Buffy is in the cemetery where Spike has his crypt.” Wesley nods encouragingly and concentrates on reading the hand script over the red marked building at the city limits. “Mansion.” He reads loud. Willow lets her arms fall to her sides and the lights go out.

Gradually the light glow around Cordy subsided whilst the others concentrated on the map. She heard the last sentences and now slowly opens her eyes before speaking.
“That means we’re about as far away from the mansion as Buffy. We need to get going now if we want to be at the mansion before she is. I am sure she’s on the way there already.”

They all turn around to Cordy; Tara hesitates to blow out the candle.

“Hey, you’re back with us!” Wes exclaims happily and grins at Cordy. She takes the time to grin back before her facial expression goes back to business. “Come on now. We need to be faster than Buffy.” She stands up and stretches her body. She goes to the backdoor, looks out. Nobody can be seen, so she goes outside. “Hurry now.” The others follow slowly.

“Don’t we need weapons or something if we want to take on Angelus and his family?” Wes whispers hesitatingly.
“We’ve got witches! Who needs weapons!?” Cordy flips back.
Tara and Willow exchange a look.

~~~

tbc

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