Sacrifice

Author: Persephone

Parts: 11 - 12

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~Part: 11~
 

Angel jerked awake, sweat streaming down his body and tears trickling down his face.  His hand was outstretched, trying to catch Willow.  His chest heaved with unneeded breaths as he stared uncomprehendingly at his bedroom walls.  His body collapsed against the pillows as he realized it was nothing more than a dream.  He curled up in a ball, holding tightly to Willow’s pillow and began to cry.  His sobs echoed emptily around the room.

Across town Kat jerked awake to the sounds of Demi’s screams.  Her feet were already on the floor and a sword in her hand before she was conscious of moving.  She ran down the hall to Demi’s room, the screams still ringing through the air.  She tried the knob and found that it was locked and another scream ripped through the air.  Vaguely she was aware of Spike coming up behind her, demanding to know what was going on.

Kat grasped the knob with her hand and pulled.  The hinges gave with a load groan and Kat threw the door out of her way as she charged into the room.  Demi was still screaming.  It took a moment for Kat’s eyes to adjust and then they swept the room.  Demi was screaming on the bed but no one else was there.  Kat lowered the sword and hurried over to Demi, pulling the hysterical woman into her arms.

“Shh,” Kat soothed as she began to rock.  “Everything is all right.”
“I’m sorry.  I am so, so sorry,” Demi cried as she clung to Kat.  Her arms wrapped around Kat’s neck and her face was buried against Kat’s throat.
“It’s all right,” Kat soothed and began to stroke Demi’s hair.  “Everything is fine.”
“It’s all my fault,” Demi sobbed into Kat’s neck.  “Everything is my fault.”
“Shh,” Kat soothed.  “You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I should have known,” Demi whispered brokenly.  “All my fault.”
“What’s your fault?”  Kat asked.
“My fault.  All my fault,” Demi whispered over and over again.

Kat said nothing more, just continued to rock Demi until she fell back asleep.  Demi’s tears were still trickling down her face, even as she slept.  Kat made to lay Demi down and Demi groaned and clutched at her, trying to pull her closer.  Kat gave up and swung Demi up into her arms.  She swept out of the room, Demi held firmly in her arms.

Spike was waiting in the hall, arms crossed over his chest as he watched her.  His brown hair was tousled from sleep, his jeans zipped but not snapped and riding low on his hips.  Sean came out of his bedroom and was rubbing at his eyes.

“What’s going on Mom?”  Sean asked sleepily, a yawn preventing him from asking any other questions.
“Nothing,” Kat assured him.  “Go back to bed.”
“But Mommy was screaming,” Sean protested.
“I know but it was just a nightmare.  She’s fine now,” Kat told him and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Sean agreed and covered up another yawn.  “Then I am going to go back to bed.”
“Goodnight baby,” Kat called.
“Night Mom, Uncle Spike,” Sean replied as his door shut behind him.

Kat moved into her room and settled Demi onto her bed.  Demi rolled over and wrapped herself around Kat’s pillow, hugging it to her chest as she continued to sleep.  Kat rubbed at her forehead and wondered what she had done to warrant this type of punishment.

“Pet?”  Spike called softly.
“Hmm,” Kat answered as she looked over at him.  He was lounging in the doorway staring at her with a considering expression.  He gestured for her to come over and she did, stopping when she was next to him. “What’s up?”
“Are you sure there is no way for Demi to be Red?”  Spike finally asked, his blue eyes level on hers.
“I really don’t think so,” Kat replied after a moment.  She crossed her hands over her chest and looked back at Demi sleeping on the bed.  “We’ve been together since we were 8 years old.  We have pictures and everything to prove it.”
“I know that but she does look just like Red,” Spike told her.  He reached out and brushed a hand down her cheek.  “Is it possible that they could have put Red’s soul into Demi?”
“You mean that night 10 years ago?”
“Yes.”

Kat was silent for a long moment before she spoke again.  “That night Demi and I were out on patrol.  I may not have been a Slayer but I was trained for it and Demi was the perfect partner.  We ran into a demon that we weren’t prepared for.  It was stronger, faster, and deadly.”  Kat’s voice trailed off and Spike waited, watching her carefully.  “Demi took a blow that sent her flying.  To this day I still remember the sound of her smacking into the ground.”  With that Kat stepped away and moved back towards the bed.  With a practiced movement she slid into bed with Demi, pulling the covers over them and adjusting to the snuggling motions the other woman made.

Spike was left standing in the doorway, puzzling over what Kat had told him and what it could mean.  Was it possible that Demi contained Willow’s soul?  And if she did, what did that mean to the rest of them?

~Part: 12~

Willow Rosenberg shifted slightly, her head tossing as distorted images flowed through her mind.  Her mouth was pulled down in a pout, hair tangling around her face as tension and anger pulsed in her blood.  Her hands twisted anxiously, fisting as she fought with the demons in her mind.

For a moment her eyes fluttered and a slice of the emerald green gaze could be seen.  Then her breathing slowed.  Her muscles relaxing and her eyes closed again.  She was asleep again, secure from the images that had plagued her.

Angel stared out into the sunny garden from the shadows.  Red roses spilled across the flowerbeds and their sweet scent floated on the air to him.  The sky was a brilliant blue, birds were singing and the sun was shining down.  It was wasted on him as he brooded about past mistakes.  When Spike and Buffy had come to him and told him, Angel hadn’t believed them.  After all Willow loved him and would never betray him.  But they had planted doubt in his mind.  He had never told Willow what she meant to him, never told her that for him she was the sun.

So the idea that Willow had been looking for love from someone else hadn’t been so far fetched.  And his own fears that he wouldn’t be enough to hold her attention for long had consumed him.  He hadn’t emerged from the haze of his own fears until Willow had disappeared.  And he had realized what exactly he had done.  Angel had rushed to alert the rest of the AI gang and to have them start searching.  But it had all been in vain and her death plagued him more than any other.

The thought that she could be alive filled him with both hope and dread.  If she hadn’t come back of her own violation then Angel was faced with the possibility that Willow hadn’t forgiven him.  If she didn’t remember and was living quietly, secure in the love of another man, what right did Angel have to take that away?

None.  Angel decided and stared out into the garden.  Willow had loved the garden, delighting in taking care of it.  She had told him that for her it was relaxing and a way to remind herself that no matter how much evil was out there, there was beauty too.   So Angel had continued to take care of it after her death.  He refused to let anyone else anywhere near it.  Every year on the anniversary, he would take flowers from their garden to leave for her.  Another way for him to try and make amends.

As he stood there he could almost see Willow in the garden and a smile crossed his face as he fell into the past.

“Angel?”  Willow asked as she blinked up at him.  She was kneeling in the dirt of the flowerbed and looking up at him.  “Is something wrong?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Angel admitted sheepishly.  “I thought you were going to come to bed, it is almost dawn.”
“I know,” Willow told him and shifter her attention back to the flowers.  Her glove covered hands worked at digging a hole for her new plant.  “I was too restless to sleep.  And I didn’t want to bother you, so I thought that I would work out here.”

Angel noticed that Willow wasn’t meeting his gaze and she had been avoiding him the past couple of days.  Willow had been coming to bed after he was asleep and gone long before he woke up.  The only way that he knew that she was there was the warmth in the sheets from where she had laid.  And here lately the warmth hadn’t been there.

So as the clocked had ticked away the minutes and Angel had laid there waiting for Willow to come to bed, it had suddenly come to him that Willow wasn’t going to come up to bed.  He had begun to rack his brain as to what might have caused this sudden change and it dawned on him that two weeks ago, Willow had walked in on a conversation between him and Buffy.  Just as he was admitting that he still thought about her too.

Of course Angel had meant it as a thing of the past.  Not a wish for the future, but there had been a flash of hurt in Willow’s eyes before it was masked.  At the time Angel had told himself that he had imagined it that Willow had to know that he loved her more than anything.  He may never have told her, too worried that if he admitted it then he would risk losing her.  God knows that he lost everyone he loved.

Now staring down at his love, Angel knew he couldn’t hold his tongue any longer.  But he didn’t want her to think that he was saying it because he wanted to have sex again.  So Angel decided that he would wait and tell her for their anniversary.  Tonight, or this morning, he would show her that she was the most precious thing to him.

“Come to bed,” he whispered as he knelt down beside her.  Taking the trowel from her gloved hand and placing it on the ground.
“I told you that I am too restless,” Willow replied shortly.  She didn’t look at him as she said it, nor did she try and retrieve her trowel.  “You go onto bed. I’ll be up shortly.”
“You haven’t been to our bed for almost a week and before that you only came when you knew I was asleep,” Angel told her and tried to get her to look at him.
“You’re imagining things Angel,” Willow told him and reached for the flower.  “I just haven’t been tired lately.”  She shrugged and her hands worked the dirt around the newly planted plant.
“That is not what the circles under your eyes say,” Angel told her as he wrapped a hand around her chin and turned her face towards him.
“It’s called insomnia,” Willow told him.  She still didn’t meet his eyes, instead choosing to look to the side.  “I’m tired but I can’t sleep.”
“Why do you keep lying?”  Angel asked as he pulled her into his arms.
“I am not!”  Willow protested and tried to pull away.

Angel didn’t argue simply bending down and placing his mouth on hers.  She remained stiff in his arms for a long moment before melting into him.  Her mouth flowered open under his and he drowned in the warmth that only she could provide.  His tongue flowed into her mouth, searching out its recesses and drawing her deeper into the kiss.  His hand drifted down to her hips and pulled her tighter against him.

They kneeled in the garden, pressed together from knees to shoulders, hands clinging as his mouth left hers and traveled down her neck.  Her moan delighted him and he suckled hard on the skin of her neck.  Her hands tightened in his hair and Angel delighted in the sensation.  Soaking in the touch like a starving man.  His mouth moved to claims hers again, and gently laid her on her back on the ground.

His eyes stared into her dazed and molten green eyes and felt as if he was finally home.  She smiled up at him and pressed a hand to his cheek, he turned his mouth into it.

“I love you Angel,” Willow whispered.

Angel came back slowly, caught halfway between the past and the present.  Warm arms were wrapped around his neck, a body flush against his and a voice whispering in his ear.  Unlike the first time, Angel found himself responding, answering Willow’s statement.

“I love you,” Angel whispered to the woman in his arms.  His dark eyes still closed as his mouth found hers.  He lost himself in the kiss but something was wrong.  The taste, the warmth and the way his body was reacting began to make him wonder.  Angel pulled away from the woman, his dark eyes opening.

And across the garden he met the startled green eyes of his love.  Angel’s eyes widened in apprehension and he looked down at the woman he held in his arms.  Buffy’s blue eyes were gazing up at him lovingly, tears dripping down her cheeks and her arms wrapped firmly around him.

“I knew you loved me,” Buffy cried and pressed her face to his chest.  “Why did you make me wait so long?”
“Buffy I…”  Angel started, trying to pull away from her clutching hands.  He looked across the garden and met the gazes of the rest of the gang and read the condemnation for him in them.  But Demi’s gaze was the hardest to meet, the dark green eyes so much like the woman he loved.
“Don’t lie to me anymore Angel,” Buffy told him and looked up at him.  “We can be together finally.  And put Willow into the past where she belongs.”
“No Buffy,” Angel told her firmly and set her away from him.  He watched as the rest of the gang left them alone, their murmurs slowly fading away.  “You don’t understand.”  Angel stared down at the woman that he had once loved, the blue eyes that were slowly filling with nerves.  “You caught me unaware and remembering the past.”
“Our past of course,” Buffy told him.  “I know that you never told Willow you loved her.”  A smirk twisted her lips and her hand reached out to brush down Angel’s chest.  “So it had to be me.”
“It wasn’t,” Angel told her bluntly.  His voice was cold, hard and his eyes were black with anger.  “I was remembering Willow and the time that I should have said I love you.  You didn’t even enter my thoughts.”  He shrugged and looked away from Buffy.  “I thought you were Willow.  No more.”  He looked back at the woman, ignoring the crushed look on her face.

Angel turned and left the garden, not heeding her pleas to stop.  Now he wondered how he was going to convince the rest of the gang that what they saw was not what had happened.  As he entered the lobby and everyone turned to glare at him, Angel decided it was going to take some doing.

Demi shrugged off the feeling of uneasiness that had been dogging her since she had gotten up.  A restless was slowly growing in her and the itch beneath her skin gain intensity with every moment spent on this continent.  A hand took hers and squeezed, Demi looked into the loving eyes of Katrina and felt everything snap into place.  She smiled at Kat and squeezed her hand.

“Are you okay?”  Kat whispered.
“I’m good,” Demi replied.  “It’s nice to finally have the truth out though.”
‘You mean about Angel and Buffy,” Kat guessed.
“Yes.  It was getting annoying listening to the lies the Betrayers kept telling,” Demi told her.
“I just have one question,” Kat mused.
“What?”
“Why do they look like they’ve just caught their spouse in bed with another?”
“Huh?”

Demi looked around and realized that everyone was wearing a strange expression.  It was almost like they had been suckered punched.  A frown crossed her face as she wondered what this meant.  She looked over at Kat and received a shrug in response.

“I knew we should have killed him years ago,” Conner suddenly muttered.
“Conn,” Xander cautioned and placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.
“No!”  Conner shrugged off Xander’s hand and glared at Angel when he entered the room.  “The moment this is done, I’m going to kill him.  Perhaps mom will rest easy then.”
“Conner,” Angel started and reached for him.  “I swear that it wasn’t what you thought.”
“I don’t want to hear it!”  Conner screamed at him.  “I am tired of all the damn lies!”
“Conner, please,” Angel begged.  His dark eyes haunted as he met Conner’s.  “I would never betray your mom like that.”
“But you already did,” Demi said softly.  Her green eyes steady when Angels’ tormented ones met hers.  “That is what started this mess.  I mean you made out with Buffy in front of the Savior right?”
“I was confused,” Angel told her desperately.  He ran a hand through his hair as his eyes met each of theirs.  “I was so worried about not telling Willow that I loved her that I believed that she would leave me for someone who could.”  Angel looked over at Spike, “I always knew that Willow and Spike had a special relationship.”
“Red and I were friends,” Spike told him.  “I admit that I fudged the truth all those years ago.  I admit that I let you think what you wanted because I was tired of all the girls going for you.”
“Then it makes it your fault!”  Angel yelled at him.
“No, it makes it yours,” Demi interrupted softly.  Angel jerked as if he had been hit and stared into her emerald green gaze.  “You should have believed and trusted the Savior.  How many times had she ever betrayed you?”
“Never,” Angel whispered, eyes averted and staring at the floor.
“How many times had you ever caught her in a malicious lie?”  Demi pressed again.
“Never?”
“And how many times had the slayer lied or betrayed you?”
“Too many times,” Angel sighed.  His shoulders slumped as he turned away from them.  “So, it is my fault.”
“Yours and Buffy’s,” Demi agreed.  “If you want to fuck the slayer, that’s your business.  But don’t let it confuse you as to what is important here.”
“Willow,” Angel breathed.  His dark eyes lifting to meet the eyes so similar to his lover as she stared at him.
“Willow,” Demi repeated and then turned to look at everyone.  “The savior is what is important here.  Not who is to blame.  Not the petty bickering.  Willow Rosenberg.”  She met each of their eyes, “if you have a problem with that, then you need to leave.  You are more of a hindrance than a help.”
“We understand,” Giles nodded.  “We’ll concentrate on what we need to do.”
“Good,” Demi stated firmly and reached for the papers on the table.  “I am not going to let your stupidity get my slayer or I killed.  That is unacceptable.”  Her green eyes were cold and unyielding as she continued, “if that happens I will make sure that all of you will pay.”
“Dem,” Kat cautioned as she wrapped her arms around her best friend.  Demi’s frame was tense against Kat’s even as she tilted her head back onto Kat’s shoulder.  “Calm down, luv.  It’ll be okay.”
“It had better.  Or they will suffer,” Demi told her firmly.  Her green eyes lasered around the room one last time before concentrating on the papers in her hand.  “I think I found out what spell is going to be used.”
“Really?”  Wesley asked with a raised brow.  “We didn’t find anything that could bring Willow back.”
“That’s because you didn’t know the nature of the spells that the Savior was using,” Demi responded absently.  Her hands were running up and Kat’s arm as she spoke.
“What’s that mean then?”  Kat asked as she peered over Demi’s shoulder.
“That I know when and where they have to strike,” Demi told her with a smile.  She looked over her shoulder at her best friend, “and I know what they need.”
“Which means that we can stop them,” Giles inserted.
“Yes.”
”Wait,” Conner suddenly interrupted.  Everyone looked over at the young man.  His dark eyes were serious and slightly confused before he continued, “are you sure that we should stop them?”
“What?!”  Everyone exclaimed at once except for Demi and Kat.  He held up his hand, leaning forward slightly.  “I mean shouldn’t we let them get mom back?”
”It’s a good thought,” Demi admitted.  “I know that you want your mom back but at what cost?”  She leaned over and touched his arm, smiling at him gently.  “I understand completely.  I know what lengths I would go to get Kat back, but are you prepared to take that risk?”
“What do you mean?”  Conner asked, looking at the woman who looked so much like his mom.  The wisdom and gentle warmth that had always been in Willow’s gaze apparent in Demi’s.
“I mean that it’s possible that the Savior has been consumed by the darkness already.  You must remember that the hellmouths reside in her, which means that every evil thing is born from her.”
“Mom wasn’t like that,” Conner protested.  “She would never let that happen.”
“Consciously maybe,” Demi agreed.  “But what if she’s been sleeping or unaware what is inside her.  You must remember if she is awakened then all the anger, pain and fear that she felt when she did the spell will be the first thing she remembers.  With all the hellmouths residing in her, it’s possible that she may strike out.”
“I see,” Conner’s head bowed and he rubbed a weary hand across his face.  “I just wanted her back you know?”  He raised damp eyes to Demi, a smile trembling on his lips.  “If only if it was just to say goodbye.”
“I know,” Demi consoled.  Her hand rubbed his cheek, “but I’m sure that your mom knows already.”
“Yeah,” Conner whispered and looked down again.  “So when do we strike?”  He asked finally, head lifting to meet her eyes.
“In two days,” Demi told him.  “They have to do it on the anniversary of her death and when the moon is full.  I did some checking and the next one won’t be for another hundred years.”
“That long?”  Giles asked, reaching for her papers.
“Yes,” Demi nodded and handed the papers to Giles.  “There are a bunch of factors that have to be in place for the spell to work.  The conditions only happen once every hundred years.”
“Then we need to get ready,” Gunn told them and stood up.
“It’s time to pay for our mistakes,” Xander told them grimly.  “God help us all.”

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