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B3 #24: Black the sun

Summary:

Category: Alternate timeline, Buffy/Xander, Angel/Willow.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The gang goes back to Sunnydale - and finds disaster. B3 #24.
Disclaimer: This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like
Feedback: Yes! Yes!! Feedback, any feedback!! Please? ;-)
Spoilers: Becoming 2.
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Work Text:

(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...)
Author's note: Well, the gang went to England so Buffy could kill vamp-Giles. She did, Oz died in the big fight at Spike's headquarters, (Giles had joined forces with Spike and Dru,) and now they're heading back to Sunnydale because Dru told them that bad stuff was going on there. Meanwhile, Buffy and Xander have been getting closer, and the Order of Taraka has marked Buffy for death, (if they can get it done.)

B3 #24: Black the sun
by Chris Kenworthy

Prolog

"Aaah!" Angel yelped as he dived into the van, slamming the door shut furiously behind him.

"You okay?" Willow called at their rental vehicle, but she didn't get an answer. "Hello, Angel? You okay??" After enough seconds had ticked by, one by one, she decided it was worth a try. "Angel??" she repeated, poking the sliding door open by a crack.

"Yeah, you can come in," his muffled voice came. "I'm pretty well covered." Willow snuck through the door and closed it behind her, blessing the foresight she had had to stock the back seat up with several heavy blankets against just such a possibility.

"Uh, well," Willow said, arranging herself on the middle seat and trying to talk casually, "We've got a bit of a problem here, I guess, in the whole 'how do we get you out of here' department."

"It shouldn't be too hard," Angel said after a moment's thought. "There'll be underground parking garages and such once we get back into town." That innocuous reference shattered Willow's composure by reminding her of why they had come into the countryside in the first place, and she started to sob as the tears streamed down her cheeks. Quickly, Willow tried to quiet herself, knowing that Angel would hate to hear her cry while he couldn't do anything about it... but then, why couldn't he? Quickly Willow got up and brushed through the curtain to the back seat, sitting down beside the featureless lump under the blankets, and then crawling under the blankets to hug Angel, still crying.

Angel didn't say a word - just held her, knowing that she had to get the tears out. Once it was over, he continued just as if there had been no interruption. "The big question is how we're all getting back onto a plane and out of town... We'd better get back into town soon, so you guys can start making arrangments for yourself and for me."

"They know that," Willow told him with a smile, squeezing him warmly. "They'll be along pretty soon. As for me, I'm not budging one inch yet."

* * * *

Sure enough, at that very moment outside the van, Xander Harris was saying "So, we should be going, no? Head back into Liverpool, start making calls to the airport and such?"

"I guess," Buffy said dispiritedly. Xander caught her eye and smiled, and the Slayer couldn't help but smile back. "We've all said our goodbyes, yeah?"

"Yeah," Cordelia agreed, turning towards the van. "Ooh, this is a question no-one wants to hear me ask: Who's gonna drive?"

"Uh-oh," Buffy said, appreciating the problem. When they had rented the van, they had purchased insurance for two drivers - Oz and Angel, neither of whom was able to serve just now. Buffy still didn't really know how to drive, and the general consensus was that Cordelia didn't know how to drive safely. That left Tojo and...

"I'll do it," Xander volunteered.

"You sure?" Cordelia asked him. "You haven't driven much lately, I'm sure, Xander."

"Who here has?" Xander replied. "It'll be okay."

They piled into the van, Buffy in the front seat on the other side from Xander, Cordelia and Tojo into the middle. "Willow?" Cordelia asked. "I could have sworn I saw Willow come in here..."

"I'm here," Willow said muffledly from the back seat. "With Angel."

"Uh, okay," Xander said, putting the car into gear and heading back to the main road. "So, well, we've got a bit of a problem here. How quickly can we get a vampire safely onto a plane?"

"Oh, right," Buffy said, wincing.

"What's the problem?" Cordelia asked. "You pack him up in that light-protection crate thingee again, right?"

"Yeah. Except, of course, that we no longer have it," Buffy reminded her. The crate, which they had taken from Queen Kaliya's Sunnydale headquarters, was now sitting in a London alley were they had gotten Angel out of it. They hadn't had the room to keep it in the van for the whole of their trip - things had been cramped with six of them and the box. Seven and the box would have been impossible.

"Ooh, yeah, that is a problem," Xander agreed. "Could we... um, well, build a new one?"

"Not very quickly," Buffy sighed. "But I think that's probably what it's come down to."

"Hmm..." Cordelia said.

"We'll need a standard crate, something to pad it with, a few pouches..." Buffy rhymed off.

"Wait a second," Cordelia interrupted her. "Why does he have to go in a crate anyway?"

Everyone looked at her, everyone who could at least. "What else would you suggest?" Tojo asked.

"Well, what about a coffin?" Cordelia asked. "It's built to house a human body, already padded. Plus, there's the whole 'vampire sleeping in a coffin' rightness."

"Wouldn't the airlines be a little curious about having to ship a coffin?" Xander asked.

"Duh, no," Buffy said, suddenly seeing it. "It must happen all the time - somebody dies in country B, lives and wants to be buried in country A. They'd have to ship it in something, and a coffin would be appropriate." She considered. "Now, we need a place to get a coffin, probably a funeral parlor."

* * * *

"Hey," Buffy said, having gotten the McCrockett Funeral home on the phone from her motel room. "They've got an 'airline to eternity' service - they'll handle all the details for shipping him."

"Hmm," Willow considered that. "Hmm... where are they? Is there covered or underground parking?"

Buffy relayed the question, and smiled to the response. "They're in the St. John's Shopping center, with a multi-level parking garage. Okay, thank you," she said into the receiver.

Xander came into their room just as Buffy was hanging up the phone. "Okay, I called the car rental agency," he told them. "They said that we can return the van here at the Liverpool airport, even though we rented it in London. There'll be a fleet transfer fee."

"Of course, there's always a fee," Buffy told him with a sigh. "Next stop, the St. John's Shopping Center."

* * * *

"Where's the mayor?" the Fireking said as he strode into the Sunnydale City Hall.

"He isn't in..." a suited functionary started.

"Oh, well, too bad," the pint-sized demon lord snapped. "We'll take over without him - it shouldn't matter. Anybody want this pile of shmo?" he asked his vampire lieutenants.

Nobody spoke up. The Fireking snapped his figure, and the poor middle executive screamed in agony and fell to the ground as all of his bones were broken. With a blink, the Fireking started internal bleeding in several parts of the man's body, pulled up a stool, and settled down to watch him die.

"Sir?" Jasper asked, somewhat uncertainly.

"Huh?" the Fireking said, looking up. "Oh, sorry. I'm gonna be here a while, if that's okay. You can handle this, can't you? Just take everybody in the building down, one way or another, or the third way. We've done it before."

"Sure," Darla piled, grinning, and the vampires spread out to start their mayhem.

 

Act One

"So, uh, you have a dead person to take back home?" the man at McCrockett asked Buffy.

"Yep," she said. "We'll need a coffin." She tapped a black six-and-a-half-footer at her side. "This one looks like it'll do fine, once we make a few tiny modifications. How quickly can you get it to California?"

"Uh, well, that depends," the mortician told her. "Where do we go to, um, collect the body?"

"Oh, I'm right here," Angel said, walking over, opening the coffin up fully, and lying down into it. The mortician's eyes bugged out.

"Don't ask," Willow advised him. "How soon can you get him there?"

"Uh..." He was still having a little trouble processing this. "Well, let's check the airline computer... you know, that coffin isn't ventilated or anything..."

"So?" Buffy asked. "He really *is* dead - I don't expect you to believe that, but it's the truth. And if he isn't, and he suffocates, well, then he'll just be dead at the other end, and that's what you're agreeing to deliver - a dead body. We'll sign whatever releases you want, but we need him in a plane, *in that coffin*."

The mortician ducked his head, cowed. "Umm..." he tapped keys on the computer. "Where exactly in California are you headed?"

"Sunnydale," Buffy said.

"Where??"

Xander blinked at the man in surprise. "Sunnydale, man. Just off of the Pacific coast, north of Los Angeles."

"There's Santa Maria Public Airport to the north," Buffy commented, "but it doesn't get too much international flying. We left out of LAX."

"I've got an airliner leaving from Liverpool non-stop to LAX," he said absently, "at a quarter to five this afternoon. Should I book you on it?"

Buffy considered. That seemed like a bit of a wait, but... "When does that get in, California time? After sunset?"

"Um, yes, six-fifty five local time arrival."

"Do it," Buffy said. "You can get the six of us on that flight, as well as the coffin?"

"Oh, of course," he assured her. "You'll need to be on the same flight, to pick, um, your friend up, won't you?"

The arrangements were made, and paid for, (at a pretty penny,) while Willow got Angel's blood bags arranged and closed the locks Buffy had noticed earlier on the coffin. (It wouldn't do to have morbidly curious baggage handlers opening it up - especially not in the sunlight.) "So," Xander said as they left the funeral parlor. "What do we do next??"

"Well," Buffy started, "First off, I want to do some shopping - blow what little credit limit is left on this card. Willow, I need your advice, and, well, Cordelia, you can come too, if you'd like."

"What about us?" Xander protested, indicating himself and Tojo.

"I dunno - find something to occupy yourself?" Buffy said. "We won't be too awfully long, just an hour or two. Then back to the motel for a short nap, and up to the airport in plenty of time."

* * * *

"So, what do you have in mind, Buffy?" Cordelia asked once they had parked the guys in a bookstore - Xander looking at British comics, Tojo at social science treatments and light occult hardcovers.

"Uh, well," Buffy said, suddenly realizing that Cordelia being here might be awkward, "I was wanting to get a surprise for Xander. An outfit for me to wear that I *know* that he'd like."

To Buffy's surprise, Cordelia didn't take it at all badly. "Ooh, that sounds nice. I think I may take a look for some new hot threads. Admittedly, I don't have a guy to wear them for, but, well, there's only one way to change that, isn't there?" She smiled widely at the two of them. "How about you, Willow? Wanna pick out something nice to wear for Angel?

"Uh, I dunno," Willow said, a bit uncertainly. "Angel mostly likes me to stay the way I am, not too fancy."

"He's got good taste," Buffy said with a smile as they headed into a stylin'-looking female's clothing store. "Still, sometimes it's nice to dress up in something more flashy just for you, right? No pressure." Something bugged Buffy about what Willow had said, though. *She* liked Willow dressed casually, the way she tended to dress herself, but Buffy was Willow's friend. She wasn't dating Willow, rather obviously, (no matter how much Xander might love that image.)

Buffy had been wondering, at one point, if what Angel felt for Willow wasn't still mostly friendship, with a bit of enjoying smoochies thrown in. Which would be a problem, because Willow seemed to be really falling for Angel, and what had happened to Oz would probably only make her feelings for Angel deeper. Buffy decided that she'd have to do a little bit of cautious investigating on that subject.

Cordelia, meanwhile, was considering to chatter sociably at both of them, and Buffy was starting to feel a little bad for having misjudged Cordy. Buffy had been avoiding Cordelia, pretty much ever since her relationship with Xander had come out from underground, since there at the end it had become apparent how much Xander had meant to Cordelia. She had expected bitterness, especially given Cordelia's reputation for bitchiness.

But if Cordelia had been through sour grapes, or any other sour fruit, she seemed to have gotten over it by now. "Oh, hey, check this out?" Cordy called out, and Buffy went over to see what had attracted the attention of Cordelia Chase's ever-keen fashion sense.

"So, Cordelia," Buffy started with a falsely casual note in her voice. "Speaking of guys, well, we're on our way back to Sunnydale, and Darrell Flatt will be waiting back there with the rest of the Circle of Diana." Buffy smiled. "You gonna look him up again?"

Cordelia blushed a little bit, remembering the handsome warlock she had met in Limbo. "I dunno. I mean, Darrell - he's cute and all, but he rates pretty high on the spooky-meter, even for a Sunnydale guy." She shuddered a bit. "Magic, I can understand, but dark magic, gazes of Corsheth and what have you... well, I'm not sure I wanna date a guy who's into that, no matter how good his intentions are."

"I get you," Buffy said, nodding. It's too bad, though, she thought to herself. Considering that Darrell was the only guy Cordelia had been interested in for more than a year, excepting of course Xander. Who was now *Buffy's* guy!

* * * *

"Ooh, ooh, let's see," Xander said with a smile as they walked back to the van. "Cordelia, Cordy, ooh, very sexy." Cordelia was wearing a tight, black silk skirt, cut two inches above her knees, and a blue and white patterned knit v-neck sweater. "Willow, ahh, pretty pretty, I like." Willow was wearing tight brown pants and a cute red blouse. "And Buffy... Buffy, you seem to be wearing exactly what you were wearing all night. Weren't... weren't you the one who wanted to go shopping in the first place?"

"Of course, Xander," Buffy told him sweetly. "But my outfit's a surprise!" She patted her shopping bag with a smile. "I'll show you, hmm, when we get back to America, okay? And then," she smiled bewitchingly at him, "I'll tell you what the rest of the surprise is!"

"Oh, please," Cordelia said. "Like we haven't all figured that out already, sheesh."

* * * *

'To the ghost spirits that passed out of the Ether--'

'Three there are, who have known us in life and in death--'

'Let them build their own Elysium--'

'-- a spiritual domain, in which we can remain indefinitely--'

Faces flashed before Buffy's eyes - the faces of dead people. Giles, Jenny, Oz, Jesse, Kendra. "What's going on?" she called out. "I don't get it."

'-- for them, Elysium will forever be just behind their closed eyes --'

"I don't *understand*!!" Buffy screamed.

"Buffy?"

"What are you trying to tell me?" Buffy continued, then blinked, realizing that something had changed. She was lying on her hotel bed, on top of the covers, still in the clothes she had been wearing since changing in another motel, an hour's drive from Liverpool.

"You were calling out in your sleep," Willow explained unnecessarily. "Do you remember what you were dreaming about?"

"Oh, it was way too weird," Buffy explained. "It was about well, uh, dead people. Giles and Oz, and that. They seemed to be trying to tell me something, but I couldn't quite get it."

"It makes sense," Willow told her. "The, uh, the Oz thing is fresh in your mind. I dreamed about him too. And you just closed the book on Giles, 'cause you killed his vampire alternate. He can't ever come back now, I know he didn't want to be cursed into the vampire body, but there's no way to, now."

"Yeah, you're right," Buffy agreed. "Well, I don't think I can get back to sleep now. How long 'til we have to head to the airport??"

"A half an hour," Willow told her, with a tired smile. "Wanna play some Spite and Malice??"

* * * *

"Okay," Vanessa muttered darkly to her remaining colleagues. "Someone or something seems to be on the move. The army base, the police station, and City hall have all been attacked."

"Well, why are we hiding here in your basement?" Darrell shot back. "We're here to guard the Hellmouth. We need to get out there and *fight* this thing."

"I don't think so," Vanessa said, shaking her head. "It isn't that easy. I've been trying to research the source of these attacks magically. Aside from hints that they are connected to Paula's disappearance, I'm getting nothing. Some extremely potent power is blocking all of my attempts to scry into it. And I've cast several oracles on various plans of attack. Each of them ended in complete death and disaster for all of us."

"Whoa - you can tell?" Amy whispered, somewhat surprised.

"Oracle's aren't completely infallible," Vanessa disclaimed, "but they aren't biased either. For four oracles to come out so similarly, well, one thing is certain. We're out of our element here."

"So, what do we do?" Jim asked.

"Buffy should be back soon," Amy mentioned hopefully.

"We stay low, watch each other's backs, and keep our eyes open," Vanessa told them. "Wait for an opportunity to make our talents count. Understood??"

* * * *

"Hello, and welcome to Virgin atlantic flight 45," the stewardess told them. "Is there anything we can do to make your flight a more pleasant one?"

"Uh, yeah," Xander told her. "If you could tell us, tell her actually," he pointed over to Buffy," when we're coming into United States airspace, that'd be great."

"Uh, sure," the stewardess said uncertainly. "I was thinking more of beverages, but I can do that for you, miss."

"What did you do that for?" Buffy asked Xander teasingly once the stewardess had left. She knew what he was getting at, but...

"Well, you said you'd be showing me your surprise once we get to America," Xander replied. "I'm thinking that American skies are still America." As Buffy sighed, he pressed on harder. "Plus, if you show me while we're still on the plane, that'll mean we can get going quicker once we land, right?"

"You know, that does make sense," Buffy admitted. "But you'll have to quit bugging me until then, alright? I need some more girl-talk time, and some more sleep. Okay?"

"Oh?" Xander pouted at her.

"Hey. We spent the whole trip together, going the other way, remember? It's Willow's turn."

"Oh, right," Xander said, shaking his head at her. The trip from California to Britain had been an adventure of its own, with Spectres trying to waylay the plane, or kill Buffy. Buffy blew him a kiss, and then turned back to Willow.

"So, what do you wanna girl-talk about?" her best friend asked, winking.

 

Act Two

Buffy crept silently into the cargo hold. Willow had nodded off, and Buffy was going to try to get some sleep herself in a few minutes. But first, there was something she had to talk to Angel about.

There was his coffin. Buffy checked around the hold - nobody in sight, and no trace of sunlight. "Knock knock," she said, idly tapping on the wood of the coffin. "It's Buffy," she added as an afterthought.

"Uh, yeah?" Angel said, and Buffy unlocked and opened up the top half of the coffin. "Damn, but it's cramped in there," Angel said, shifting himself further up in the wooden chamber so he could sit up and stretch.

"Uh, I hate to say it, but you'd better get down in there," Buffy pointed out. "Someone could walk in any moment - having the coffin open isn't too bad, but having you not lying down could be very hard to explain."

"Oh, yeah, I see what you mean." Angel sighed and lay back down. "So, what is it?"

"Uh, I had something serious I wanted to ask you about, Angel," Buffy said. "Do you love Willow??"

Angel seemed completely stunned by that question for several seconds. "Uh... well Buffy, I'm not really sure. I think so... or at least I thought so, until... why did you ask me that?"

"I'm not sure," Buffy admitted. "Just was kinda wondering to myself, about you seeming more like Willow's friend sometimes, and the fact that Willow's really falling hard for you, and if you don't love her back she's gonna end up hurt..." She shook her head. "Not really my business, I know - it's between the two of you. But..."

"Thanks for telling me, Buffy," Angel told her with a smile. "I'll have to give this a lot more thought, obviously."

* * * *

"I'll build my heaven if I have to..."

"Three there are, who have known us in life and in death, and they can reach Elysium..."

"Why am I back here?" Buffy called out. The horribly familiar faces danced before her again, and these less familiar words rang in her ears.

"... any time they close their eyes..."

"To the ghost spirits that passed out of the Ether, let them build their own Elysium..."

"*Is anybody there*??" Buffy called out, frantic.

"Elysium, Elysium... Elysium --" The word echoed around her for a timeless moment, and suddenly the dream snapped into better focus. Buffy was standing - in Giles' living room??

"Oh, there - got it, got it!" Jenny crowed in pleasure. "Oh, Buffy, you don't know how long we've been working to get you back here."

"Here?" Buffy asked, startled. "Where... where am I?" The question could have only one answer. "Elysium, I presume?"

"Yes, Buffy," Giles told her, coming out of his kitchen with a pot of tea.

"Okay," Buffy muttered, sinking onto the couch in a cloud of confusion. "Big question - how the heck am *I* here? I'm not dead, am I?"

"No, you're not," Oz told her. Oz? Oz?!?

"Oz??" The scruffy wereboy bobbed his head cheerfully at her from the armchair. "What... what are *you* doing here?"

"They kinda picked me up," Oz explained. "There I was, that giant anteater thing had just sucked out my heart, and I was feeling a little out of breath from it. The white light, you know, was shining at me from all the way across the room, and I was going 'that far?' And then, well, purple light, right beside me, so I went for that one. Good call, as it turns out." He smiled at her.

"So, wait a second," Buffy said. "If you can pick up other people from the afterlife... what about my Mom?"

Giles' face dropped. "We've been looking, Buffy, we really have. But... well, you know, there's an awful lot of Ether out there."

Buffy tried her best to smile. "Hey, no big. You're doing your best, right?"

"Getting back to your earlier question," Jenny put in, "no, Buffy, you're not dead. You're just visiting us mentally while you dream."

"While I dream? So this is just a dream??"

"It seems like a dream from Earth," Giles qualified, "but yes, you really are talking to us, here in Elysium. You can come while awake, once you remember to. All you need to do is close your eyes."

"The other two can as well," Jenny explained. "They who have known us well, in death and in life..."

"Which other two?" Buffy asked. "Willow? And Xander??"

"Yes," Giles agreed. "Once you master the technique, you'll have a means of instant contact with us, and thus with each other. That might become important. There's something very frightful going on..."

"In Sunnydale, yeah, I know," Buffy started.

"No, miss, We're not in Sunnydale yet," a new voice said. "But we're flying over Vermont now. You said you wanted to be told when we were in U.S. airs-"

"Huh??" Buffy breathed. Slowly it sank in. She wasn't in... but she couldn't even remember where she had been dreaming about anymore. She was in the plane, she had been sleeping, and... "Oh, yeah, thanks," she told the stewardess sleepily. The stewardess moved away, and Xander caught Buffy's eye from across the aisle, accompanied by a teasing grin.

"Oh, you little twerp," she breathed at him, shaking her head.

"What??" Xander's reply came back, sounding a little offended.

"That dream... it was... I'm not sure, but it was important somehow, and now I can't remember it. All because you couldn't wait to see your silly surprise."

"Was Angel in the dream?" Xander taunted her. "Or was it me??"

"Oh, it wasn't that kind of dream, you... you..." Buffy tossed her pillow at him with a grunt, and then sat up straighter. "Well, I guess now that I'm awake, I might as well get changed. If you'd like."

"*Oh*, yeah," Xander moaned. Buffy smiled at him, fetched the bag out of her carry-on, and headed back to the bathrooms. She took more than half an hour, partly because of the amount of cleaning up she wanted to do, and the number of accessories to put on. But she was also spending the time rehearsing what she was going to say to Xander, once she got back to him, and if she was really ready to do this.

Yes, she did. Buffy loved Xander, she trusted him, and she didn't want to ever be with anyone else. Not even Angel - or, at least, she had put what she felt for Angel behind her now. She was ready, or at least, would be ready, once all of the confusion was settled.

"Surprise," she cooed, her lips almost in Xander's ear. Xander jumped in surprise, looking around at her, his jaw dropping and his eyes bulging in appreciation.

"Wow," he muttered after a few seconds. Buffy took a step back and visualized herself as Xander was seeing her - a black spandex tank leotard stretching tightly across her torso, the straps of the leotard and her black bra making seperate trips over her shoulders. A slinky dark blue silk skirt hung from her waist down her hips and halfway down her thighs, her legs stretched into flat black leather boots, and a white hairband ran from the top of her head down behind her ears, to plunge underneath the hair that buried the base of her head and head back up again. The outfit was topped off with a matched pair of bracelets, small golden cross earrings, and a few rings on each hand.

All in all, Buffy knew she looked hot, sexy, and just a little trashy, in that skanky way that would be guaranteed to get Xander's blood going.

"Do you like it?" Buffy asked him, knowing already what his answer was.

"Oh, my *god* yes!" Xander blurted out. "You *know* how I feel about spandex!!"

"Yeah, I do," Buffy told him, grinning, "that's why I picked it out!" She took a deep breath, not to draw Xander's attention even more to her chest, (although that did, in point of fact, happen,) but to nerve herself for what she was about to say next. "Do you remember what we were talking about? Back at Oxford?"

It took less than a second for Xander to place the reference. "What, you want to do it now? Here??"

Buffy laughed out loud at that. "Naw, I've heard that the mile high club is overrated. But I think I'm gonna be ready soon. Like, once we've gotten back home to Sunnydale, settled any pressing problems that might have come up while we've been gone? What do you say??"

"Oh, man," Buffy groaned. "You know that it's gonna be almost impossible for me to wait now, don't you?"

Buffy grinned apologetically. "Uh, no, I didn't realize that. Sorry." She winked at him as she got back to her seat.

* * * *

Twilight had faded out by the time they were through customs in Los Angeles, but there wasn't any easy way to get Angel out of the coffin without arousing suspicion, so they got him loaded onto the wheeled trolley that the airport luggage officials provided, and managed to head off with both him, all of their other luggage, and even Angel's one suitcase.

Remembering how he had been complaining about the crampedness of the space, though, Buffy turned down the first deserted corridor she could find, stopped, checked to make sure the hallway was as empty as it seemed, and unlocked the coffin for a moment.

"Oh, god, thanks," Angel muttered at her. "I was dying in there. Uh..." He was staring at Buffy's outfit in utter shock. "What - are you trying to disguise yourself as a prostitute??"

Buffy punched Angel vigorously in the shoulder, making him wince and slip off of his elbows. "I'll have you know that streetwalker fashions have progressed a bit since you were alive. This particular ensemble is a bit on the slutty side, yeah, but not indecent."

Angel fixed her with a knowing glance. "For Xander?"

"Guilty as charged," Buffy admitted, shrugging. "Ooop!" Someone else was coming down the corridor, so Buffy slammed the coffin closed and backed up.

As the gang made their way out of the airport, two well-dressed, middle-aged couples walked up. "My goodness," one of the men said to Tojo. "You seem to be well laden, don't you? Is there any way that we could lend a hand?"

Tojo considered, looking discretely over at Buffy as if she should make the call. They were headed for two different cars, with one coffin and quite a lot of luggage to handle, and only one trolly. It would seem a shame to leave the coffin behind, as it had cost them so much money... but anyways, somehow Buffy didn't trust these characters. "Well, thank you very much. I think we can probably handle it," she said, to see what their reaction would be.

It was quite dramatic. The man who had addressed Tojo waved his hand, and now he was a ram-headed demon, wearing rough tunic and pantaloons. "Then now you die, Slayer," he called out, making more mystic gestures with his hands. Buffy tried to move towards him, but was intercepted by his 'wife,' who was now raven-headed and levelling a deadly-looking two-handed sword right at Buffy. Meanwhile, the other guy, (still looking as he originally had,) pulled out a slender wooden wand and pointed it at Tojo, who dodged aside just in time to avoid being hit by a ball of flame. And the second wife, now a skeleton wearing flowing, courtly robes, closed relentlessly on Willow.

 

Act Three

With a battle cry, the lid of the coffin flew open, and Angel sprang up, scrambling out of the wooden death-box. A good thing too - it would have been his funeral coffin in another second. With a wave of the wizard's wand, a fireball enveloped the casket in a cloud of rolling flames.

Buffy reached for the Raven-woman's arm, but was barred again by a skillful slash that made Buffy jump back lest she lose a hand. It seemed just yesterday that Lora Theron had been backing Buffy off with a sword - there seemed to be so many good swordspeople around these days. Somehow, Buffy didn't think that this chick would back off when she was told Buffy was the Slayer, as Lora had.

But Buffy had a plan. She toed up her weapons bag, with a huge effort lifting the heavy pouch up high enough for her hand to catch it. The Slayer unzipped it in a single quick gesture, picking out a short sword and then throwing the bag over to where her friends could get at it. With a Xena-like battle cry, Buffy swung her new weapon against the Raven-head's sword, beginning an intense fencing match.

Meanwhile, Tojo was wrestling with the ram-head, apparently trying to keep the demon from using his hands for any more magic, and the skeleton had caught Willow's arm. Buffy's pretty red-golden-haired friend screamed in utter agony as a whitish frost spread around her forearm from where the skeleton was grabbing it.

"Willow!" Angel called out, charging towards the skeleton, knocking him away from Willow. He had apparently telegraphed his charge a bit too closely, though. The wizard took careful aim and fired with his wand, and the fireball brushed past Angel's side, the flames spreading quickly over his body. As if an afterthought, a second fireball tagged Cordelia, setting her clothes aflame.

"Angel!!" Willow shouted in return now. With a gesture and a couple of quickly spoken words, though, a sudden deluge of water poured down onto Angel's body, out of nowhere at all. The roaring fire hissed in fury, converting most of the water into steam, but then the flames had nothing to breathe and winked out. As an afterthought, Willow shifted the water over to Cordelia and extinguished her similarly.

Xander, meanwhile, was acting to make sure that there would be no repeats of that particular emergency. He vaulted over Angel's fallen body, knife in hand, and ran his blade into the wizard's heart. The fireball wand crumbled into ashes as its owner gasped out his last breath. Xander straightened up, pleased with himself, as the skeleton grabbed him from behind with its icy grip.

Buffy, who had been fencing with the raven-lady through all this, realized that she had to take a chance, and quickly. Diving forward, the Slayer left herself wide open to her opponent's next forehand slash. Sure enough, the ravenhead hadn't been expecting this, and as her blade sank deeply into Buffy's arm, beneath the shoulder, Buffy's own sword pierced the demon's heart, and in a few seconds she slumped over, dead.

Xander was crying out now, in mortal agony as his face and abdomen were slowly being frozen whole, and the ram-head grinned fiercely, twisting at one of Mister Tojo's arms. With a sickening series of cracks, Akira Tojo's forearm bent into a right angle.

Buffy froze for just a second - who should she assist? Her boyfriend? Her watcher?? Tojo had obviously believed that the ramhead was too deadly to be left alone, and Buffy's sword wouldn't do much damage against the skeleton's bones. "Willow?" she called out, waving Willow over to the skeleton, and then she charged the ramhead, running her sword through the creature's back.

With a roar that was not so much pained as angry, the ramhead threw Tojo away, and spun around, wrenching Buffy's sword out of her hands. Cruelly he bashed Buffy on her injured arm. Waves of pain crashed over her body, and Buffy stumbled to her knees.

Meanwhile, Willow had only paused long enough to grab a footman's mace out of Buffy's weapons bag before accosting the skeleton. One bash didn't seem to get the undead thing's attention, but a second blow was enough of a distraction to get the skel to let Xander go, just before the frost was beginning to cause critical damage. Willow fended the skel off with another swipe, growing more confident. "Help Buffy!" she rasped out as Xander straightened himself up.

Her advice was timely. "I shall look upon my enemy," the Ram-head was rasping, staring intently down at Buffy. "I shall look upon my enemy, and the dark place will have her soul. Corsheth, take her!" At the last moment, before the devastating magical power of the Gaze of Corsheth could be set in motion against the Slayer, Xander tackled the ram-head, breaking his concentration and deflecting the power of its magical curse to a patch of green grass, which withered into blackness.

With an angered roar, the ram-head knocked Xander unconscious with one mighty blow to the head, and then sprang up, its evilly magical senses alerted to something. The demon scanned the area intently, taking only a second to find what it was looking for. Tojo was kneeling down beside another bag, trying desperately to root through it with only one functioning hand. "Tojo!" Buffy screamed out in panic, having dragged herself to her feet by now.

Tojo looked up only a second. "Distract him, Buffy." There was hardly any time. Already the ramhead was pointing at Akira Tojo and chanting, Desperately, she dived to knock his arm away. At that second, metal blades flew out from the demon's hand. Deflected from their course towards Akira Tojo, the deadly missles thudded into the bodies of the ravenhead, Angel, Cordelia's leg, and the ground.

Tojo was tossing things out of his bag now, and Buffy picked one of them up, a heavy battleaxe, and swung it at the ramhead. That viscious head bit into the demon's flesh several times, but could not seem to break the bone, and the flesh would not seem to admit that it had been damaged. "Damn it, this guy won't die," she muttered, dispiritedly.

"Not in that fashion," Tojo murmurred. "But..." Suddenly the ramhead knocked the axe out of Buffy's hands, grabbing her by the throat and squeezing. Buffy tried to fight free, but this demon was actually stronger than she was.

Suddenly, the ramhead cried out and keeled over, his grip on Buffy's throat loosening. "I thought that should do it," Tojo murmurred weakly, pointing to the copper spear he had thrown into the demon's side. "Only copper can kill them."

"Ahhh!" Willow yelled out. Buffy jumped, stunned that she had forgotten her best friend. Willow had fallen, dropping the mace, and the skeleton was freezing her face and chest over. Buffy lumbered over, picked up the mace in her good hand, and in a few seconds bashed the skeleton to bits.

"Thanks," Willow murmurred. "I was doing okay with him, until he cast a spell." She pointed at her ankle, where a patch of black, diseased-looking flesh had spread. "My foot wouldn't support me any more, and down I fell."

* * * *

"So," Buffy said, as Tojo wrapped her arm, now that Willow had cast as much healing magic on it as she could. "These were Tarakan assasins, I suppose?"

"I believe so," Tojo told her with a smile.

"What's with the raven and ram heads?" Buffy muttered. "I felt like I was fighting Egyptian gods."

"The ram-heads are rhodintor, demon magi," Tojo explained, nodding proudly at Buffy's mythological reference. "Taraka, the leader of the order, is a rhodintor. This might have been a young nephew of his, or something."

"So, there really is a Mister Taraka?" Xander asked. The entire group was quite the worse for wear after the Tarakan attack. Xander seemed quite unsteady, though his skull had been checked and was fracture-free. Cordelia had some second-degree burns and her clothes were a mess between fire and water damage. Tojo's arm was reset, and bound in a splint. Tojo had mixed up a compress to draw the infection out of Willow's foot, and the freezing seemed to be wearing off. Angel was the best off of all of them, shrugging off the burns over most of his body.

"Well, we'd better get moving," Buffy said with a groan. Nobody had happened upon the scene of the attack while it had been in progress, but there was no telling how long that would last.

"Uh, what about, um, them?" Cordelia said, pointing down at the bodies.

"Leave them," Buffy said. "What do I care if they find the bodies of a ravenhead and a ramhead, rhodintor, whatever. I'd like to see what they make of it, but we don't have time."

With that, they headed off to the cars with what was left of their luggage. The coffin was beyond salvaging, which simplified the packing problem considerably. It was quickly sorted out that Buffy and Xander, Willow, and Angel would lead the way in Oz's van, followed by Tojo and Cordelia in Tojo's car. Angel came up to Buffy as she was packing bags into the van.

"I've thought about what you were saying, Buffy," he started awkwardly, "and I think you might be right. Now, you said that you think Willow's really falling in love with me? Serious, big-time love??"

Buffy swallowed awkwardly, feeling way embarassed. "Uh, yeah, yeah, I think so. The way she talks about you, the way she acts when you're around... yep. Why?" There was a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Are you thinking that you... you don't..."

Angel shook his head, sadly. "No. I like Willow, a whole lot, and she's been great to me over the past few weeks. I like being around her - it makes everything seem easier, and I wouldn't want to see her hurt for the world. But, no, I don't love her, that way, and I don't think I'm even close to that."

"Oh, man," Buffy replied. "What are you gonna do, Angel? You've got to tell her."

"I guess I do," Angel admitted. "But how?"

"You just did," Willow's voice rang out from around the van. Angel span around, stunned, as Willow walked out into view.

"Willow!!" Angel moaned, mortified, stepping towards her.

"Don't," Willow said, holding up a hand. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I could handle it if you touched me right now."

"What??"

"How could you, Angel," Willow said, furiously. "You know what you mean to me - I've told you how much I love you. If you couldn't *handle* it, if what you felt for me was so different, why didn't you tell me before now??" She stared at him for a few seconds, then turned and stalked off.

 

Act Four

"So," Xander said disbelievingly. "You and Willow are splitsville, Angel? Just like that??"

"I'm not sure," Angel admitted. "Probably. She's pretty mad at me, not that I blame her. And even if she were to forgive me, there's not much point in carrying on as if everthing was fine."The vampire sighed and looked out the window at the darkened California forests as they sped by. Willow had chosen to ride in the other car, not surprisingly.

"I can imagine how I'd felt if you said something like that about me," Buffy told Xander quietly, realizing that it wasn't exactly something that would be comfortable for Angel to hear, but, well... she was here with her boyfriend, and wasn't gonna be inhibited out of what she wanted to say to him because her ex was in the back.

"Hey, you know that I love you, don't you?" Xander said. looking intently over at Buffy, apparently ignoring Angel completely. "I've told you that, right."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, chuckling. "It was just a hypothetical, Xander."

They drove along in silence for a minute or so. Buffy looked behind them to make sure that the other cars were following. "I feel a little guilty that I started it," Buffy confessed. "I was the one who got you thinking about whether you really loved Willow or not, Angel."

"Uh, so?" Xander broke in. "I mean, well, from what I understand, Willow's not mad that Angel doesn't love her, but that he stayed with her for so long and made her *think* he loved her. So, if you hadn't brought the whole thing up now, Willow would only have gotten hurt even more when it finally *did* come out."

"He's right, Buffy," Angel told her softly.

Buffy straightened up in surprise. "You know, you are," she admitted. "When did you suddenly become right?" She giggled over at Xander.

"I've been paying attention," he confessed. Slowly, he took one of his hands off of the steering wheel, and let it wander over to Buffy's knee.

"Xander!" Now, again Buffy couldn't seem to ignore Angel sitting back there.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself," Xander teased her. "You've got such a beautiful knee." He smiled charmingly over at her. "So... we've got a date to keep once we're back in Sunnydale, right?"

"Uh, yeah, something like that," Buffy told him. "Once I take care of evil."

"So, what'll that take?" Xander joked. "Half an hour??"

Buffy laughed at that. "Maybe an hour - I don't know."

"So..." Xander paused for a second. "Where?"

"Hmm?" Buffy's questioning noise made her confusion clear.

"You know," Xander urged her impatiently. "You and me - once the evil's done. Where do we go?"

"Uh... I dunno," Buffy said uncertainly, glad that Angel was minding his own business in the second seat. "My place?"

"With your dad staying there?" Xander asked with a laugh. "I somehow don't think so."

"Hey, my dad's cool," Buffy protested.

"Trust me, Buffy," Xander said, shaking his head. "When it comes to teenage daughters, and the kind of thing we're talking about, *no Dads are cool*. Am I right?"

"Hmm, maybe," Buffy admitted. "Well, then where? Another motel? Can you say cheesy?"

"Maybe a hotel," Xander suggested. "A nice, fancy one?"

"Oh, yeah," Buffy said in her turn. "With what money? Not to mention the embarassment factor."

Once again, silence spread throughout the van. "You know what really sucks about this whole fight thing?" Xander asked out loud. "If, you know, something like this had to happen, Willow and Angel splitting up... why couldn't it have happened while Oz was still waiting in the wings? Now, Oz is dead, and Willow's got nobody..."

"Oz!!" Buffy said, the inspiration of dreams suddenly flashing to her. "Oh, my god, I forgot. Oz... and - my dream, Xander. I remember it now, and I've got to..." She broke off, closing her eyes and thinking of that place she had dreamed of, hoping that that would be enough.

"Buffy!" Giles called out. Sure enough, there she was, back in Giles' Elysian living room again. "We've been trying to get you back, but..."

"I'm sorry," Buffy admitted. "I got woken up for the dream, and didn't remember it until now."

"There's almost no time left," Jenny told her, coming quickly down the stairs. "The Fireking and the Council of the Dead are waiting for you to pass into the Hellmouth proper. You've got to be ready for them by the time you do."

"Okay," Buffy said, nodding. "Who are these people, then?"

"Oh, sorry," Giles apologized, nodding. "The council of the dead is a group formed by the strongest of the Reborn vampires - Darla, Luke, and Jasper - plus Michelle. They summoned up the Fireking - we're not quite sure about him. He seems to be a half-vampire who came out of the Hellmouth itself. He looks eleven years old, but he's got incredible magic powers."

"Okay," Buffy said, looking around. "Someone may be checking back, but I need to get the cars stopped - not sure how close we are to Sunnydale. Willow and Xander can come here too, once I explain how, right?"

"I think so," Jenny said. After a pause, "Well, are you going back now?"

"How?" Buffy asked, somewhat stumped.

"Um, just open your eyes," Giles told her.

"They *are* open!" Buffy shot back.

"No, your real eyes," Jenny added, and suddenly Buffy was back in the van.

"Buffy?" Xander said with the air of having repeated it several times, a growing note of concern in his voice.

"I'm okay," she told him quickly. "Pull over. Signal first - we need to make it clear to the others that they have to pull over too."

"Huh?" Xander said, clearly confused. But obediently enough, he flicked his turn indicator on for about half a minute while slowing down, then pulled onto the shoulder and rattled to a stop. Tojo's car pulled over nearby. "Okay, now what?"

"I want you to try something," Buffy told him. "Close your eyes and think of Giles' living room - kinda floating way out there in space..."

* * * *

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Cordelia griped. "The ghosts of Giles and Jenny talked to you, and they told you that we have to walk into town from here?"

"Well, not exactly," Buffy admitted. "But they said that we had to be ready for this Fireking and the council of the dead, and I thought it was probably easier to be ready for the unexpected if you were on foot."

"I'm not so sure," Angel quipped back. "Seventy miles an hour can prepare you for a lot of trouble."

"Unless the trouble is a stone wall that you're heading straight towards at seventy miles an hour," Xander reminded him. "And Giles said that this Fireking could do that kind of thing."

"Well, then, what are we gonna do?" Cordelia complained. "Besides die? We can't stand up to that kind of magic."

"We'll stop him somehow," Buffy admitted. "Wait for our opening, and then take him down."

"I'd like to see you try," a sassy voice rang out from beside them. "You can't kill the boss." As the speaker stepped out from behind the forest cover, Buffy could make her features out by the light of the half-full moon. She was strikingly attractive, with short dark hair, and wore a no-nonsense leather outfit.

"Who are you?" Buffy challenged.

"Ah, no, you wouldn't remember me, my dear, would you?" the stranger said, laughing goodheartedly. "It is Michelle."

Michelle! Buffy remembered Michelle - coldblooded vampire assasin, but a little slip of a dark-haired teenage girl. Then again... it could be. Give Michelle eight years, some good English as a second language classes, and a major attitude transfusion, and it might be this chick standing in from of her. But how could a vampire age eight years - in less than a month, to boot?

"The boss changed me," Michelle boasted. "Michelle LeBlanc, the new and improved version. Do you like??"

Buffy tried to say something witty, but couldn't think of anything. "Oooh - and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is struck speechless. Feel the sexual tension," Michelle cooed.

Sexual tension? Was Michelle a lesbian? "Make me gag," Buffy shot back.

"Now, what good would that do?" another voice rang out. This person was furter up the path, and Buffy cautiously edged toward it. The rest of the gang, and Michelle, followed, not getting too close one to another.

Quickly, Buffy approached a young, human figure, surrounded by fierce and familiar vampires - Luke, Darla, and Jasper. "The Fireking, I presume?" she scoffed.

"Oh, don't you recognize, me, Mom?" the youth asked her impudently. "Or - should I say Dad to you and Mom to Angel? It's so hard to figure these things out." Buffy's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah, guys. Your little baby boy's come home. No thanks to you."

"Obayana..." Angel breathed, completely overwhelmed.

"... Jesse Summers Calhoun," Obayana finished. "The son you left, trapped in the Vortex of Time that was all that remained once you wished Limbo away. I hung *eleven years* in that vortex - abandoned, alone. Not even any physical matter to comfort me. Nothing near me for centuries but the energy of the Hellmouth. Over the years, I became the Hellmouth, and it became me."

"We didn't mean to leave you, Obayana," Buffy cried out desperately. "We didn't know you were in there. We went all the way to England, trying to find out what happened to you."

"That doesn't matter any more," Obayana scoffed, raising one hand at her. "You, Angel - you mean nothing to me anymore. The Demon Samael is the only father I know. He was the one who talked to me, as I floated, trapped in that Vortex. He helped me make sense of the visions that flashed through my mind. And now that I'm back on Earth, I'm going to do his bidding."

"No!" Buffy leapt at Obayana, only to bounce off of an invisible wall in midair, tumbling back to the rear of the party, near Angel and Willow, who were trying to avoid standing too close to each other without it becoming obvious.

"It's a good thing you're here," Obayana continued as if Buffy's attack hadn't taken place. "The time has come for my greatest work of magic yet - possibly the greatest until I open the Hellmouth." He chuckled at the expressions of shock on the Slayerette's faces. "And I *will* open it. That's a prophecy, my friends. 'What I say will come to pass.'" Buffy shivered as she stood, remembering that Dru had told her almost exactly the same thing. "Midwinter's night, I will open the Hellmouth. Don't miss it." He laughed at that. "And now, the main event."

The only gesture the little boy made was raising his arms so that his hands stretched to either side and slightly upward. Immediately something started to happen. For a moment, Buffy couldn't quite tell what it was, and then it became clearer. Something was falling all over the town - a kind of a wall. It came down, with shocking suddenness, right amongst the group - Buffy, Angel, Willow on one side, Xander, Cordelia, Tojo, the vampires on the other. It was black to either side, and slightly translucent, but a red stripe rocketed down and right back up at this spot. Through the murky blackness Buffy could see that the redness was part of a pattern - a giant five-pointed star, arching over the entire town.

"Goodbye mom, goodbye Dad," Obayana's voice came mockingly to them through the wall. "You're going to try to stop me, of course. Good fuckin' luck." As Buffy skittered over to see him through a transparent section of the dome, Obayana seemed about to say something more, then thought better of it. "Come along," he whispered, and the vampires led Xander, Cordelia, and Tojo away.

THE END...

Okay, just a little note to clear some things up at this point. With this story, "Black the Sun," the B3 series has come to its final conclusion. I'd like to thank everybody who has followed the storyline faithfully - without your support and feedback, I could never have done this.

But I can hear some of you calling out "What happens next?" :-D Yes, B3 has ended on the demon mommy of all cliffhangers here, and no, I'm not going to leave you all hanging. There will be a followup, and contrary to all systematic thought it is not going to be called "B4." It's going to be a fan fiction miniseries, entitled "Sunnydale Under Siege," and will describe Buffy's final quest to stop Obayana. I'm going to be taking a short break from this universe, and plan to start writing on SUS in a few weeks, around the time the new season premieres.

Thanks once again,
Chris Kenworthy.

P.S. Hey, I actually got B3 done before WB showed the last third-season episode, namely "Earshot." Cool!!