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Buffy looked up at Angel. “I really should go now” she looked into his eyes, seeing her reflection back in them. “I’ll walk you” Angel took her hand and led her home.
As they walked along the poorly lit street Buffy suddenly pricked her ears up, she could hear a vampire. He came up behind them. Buffy threw a punch at his face. “Gee. Can’t you ever leave me alone!!?!?!?”
The vampire whistled and suddenly, three more of his friends came out of the bushes and started attacking. Angel fought them off while Buffy dealt with the older more experienced one.
Buffy threw a strong roundhouse at his head, she then used the momentum to spin and punch him in the face, he caught her off guard and managed to strike her in the cheek with a hard fist she tried to recover but instead felt a haze come over her and as she struggled against the blackness it swallowed her up and she felt herself falling
“Buffy!!” Angel saw her fall and not get up. He quickly staked the remaining vamps and ran over to her. He knelt beside her and checked for a pulse. It was there, but it seemed very fast and she seemed very hot, like a sudden fever had overtaken her. He quickly picked her up, cradling her in his arms and ran back to Giles house.
“Giles!!” he pounded on the door with his free hand. Giles came downstairs slowly “What is it Angel...oh Buffy!”
“What happened? …Here put her down on the couch” He checked her pulse and felt her temperature. “She’s burning up! Call Willow and Xander…. we may need some help”
Willow and Xander arrived soon after. Buffy still hadn’t woken up. Willow was leafing through a book, when she suddenly stopped.
“Wait! I think I found something. You know how Buffy just killed that Gotma Demon yesterday?” Giles looked up from his book, “yes”
“Well it says here that whoever kills the Gotma demon will be plagued by fever, unconsciousness, weakness, and strange injuries suddenly appearing on them unless the twin Gotma is also killed within the next three days.” Xander threw his hands up in the air, “well how is she supposed to kill a demon in her state!”
“No, Xander…Buffy doesn’t have to, just anyone has to kill it”
“Well let’s find this manbitch and kill ‘im then!!”
Willow looked up at him. Giles spoke “uh Xander, it’s not as easy as that…. the Gotma demon are very powerful. They only way to kill them is when they are sleeping…we are going to have to find this demons lair”
Angel stroked Buffy’s rapidly sweating forehead. And whispered to her. He watched her face intently, her eyes flickered open slowly. “Hey” angel said. “what happened?” she whispered weakly. “don’t talk, you’re too weak” he said stroking her forehead., “you know that Gotma demon you killed the other day?” She nodded faintly. “well he has an evil twin who has to be killed for you to get better” She sighed, “Fuck me” Willow overheard her, “Buffy don’t swear! Oh Buffy’s awake! Hi Buffy! How are you feeling?” “swell, Will, swell” She closed her eyes and drifted back into a fitful sleep.
“Ok Giles, enough of the books, how are we going to kill this sonofabitch?” Xander paced impatiently. “Xander, I’m afraid it’s not so simple as that. In this book it tells you that the Gotma demon can only be killed in his sleep. This could prove to be very difficult. the Gotma demons usually have lairs that are very difficult to enter…underground and often hidden behind vampires lairs” Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara were all silent for a moment. “However, there is a way around all this trouble” Giles said gravely “how Giles?” Willow said “There’s a spell which we can perform on Buffy..” “Spell?” Xander stood up, defensively, “Buffy’s sick enough as it is..what’s a spell gonna do?” “You see Xander, this is a difficult matter. I agree with you about Buffy being sick enough as it is, but this may be the only way to save her” “Save her??!!?…what she’s gonna die??!” Willow screeched, upset at his words. Giles didn’t answer her, just let the gray silence fill the room.
“Angel” Buffy dragged her heavy eyes opened and whispered his name. He was at her side in seconds. “I’m here…how do you feel?” “ow” she said as she tried to twist around on her side “everything hurts” she scrunched up her face, “when are they gonna kill this guy?” “soon, baby, soon..don’t you worry about anything” “ok” she drifted back to sleep
Angel walked out into the living room where Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya and Giles all sat around silently, seemingly waiting for someone to say something. He sat down silently and brooded along with them. “well..what exactly does this spell do. How does it work?” Xander asked. “What we do is basically, perform a banishing spell on her body, which will temporarily rid her of the illness long enough to find and destroy the Gotma demon” “What’s the chance of it not working?” Xander said “Well, it’s not so much that it won’t work, but that it’ll be very difficult to restore her to full strength, and even if we do we won’t know how long it will last for” “Is this going to endanger her life?” Angel stood gravely. “We can’t say” Giles said . “Is there anything else we can do?” Tara worried. “No I’m afraid this is it” Giles said finally.
“Buffy, wake up baby” Angel stroked her forehead gently. She slowly opened her blue eyes to him, “What?” “We’re going to do a spell” “Spell…what?” “Buffy, sweetie are you listening? We’re going to do a spell to try and make you well enough to fight this guy”, Angel said, holding her hand. “I don’t wanna fight!”, she cried out, upset at the thought of even sitting up. “It’s ok Buffy, really. It’s alright”, he stroked her head as she cried.
“What are we gonna do?” Angel said. “Well, as much as I regret this, Angel, we’re going to have to do the spell anyway, this is the only way for her to save herself and us from the Gotma”, Giles explained. “Against her will?!?”, Angel was angry. “Unfortunately, yes.. and I’m sorry Angel, I know this must be hard for you”
“Ok….hold hands guys” Willow, Xander, Angel, Giles, Tara and Anya were all in a circle around the sleeping form of Buffy. They held hands and Willow instructed them to follow her words. “May the restorative power begin” they chanted, over and over. Suddenly, Buffy opened her eyes and sat up. “Whoa, what’s going on guys?” , she got up and glanced around. “uh Buffy, you don’t remember?” Willow looked uncomfortable. “Remember WHAT?” “Ok, guys, Giles..what do we do?” “What the hell is going on?” Buffy stood up and demanded. “Buffy, sit down” Anya said, glad that she could patronize someone. “Angel? Giles? Will?. then, after a second, “TELL ME!!!” Angel pulled her into his lap WHAT?”, “Buffy, you know how you killed that Gotma demon the other day?” “The guy with the hair? Yeah” “Well, he kinda has an evil twin” “I thought he was the evil twin” she scowled. “Well, he has an even eviler twin.. and you’ve gotta find him and kill him, before the spell wears off, or you could..” Angel paused, unsure of how much to tell her. “Could what?” Buffy questioned impatiently. “Uh, Giles?” Willow looked up at him expectantly. “Is this some kind of conspiracy against me? Are you guys deliberately trying to piss me off? Why don’t you just start talking about me in front of me? Oh that’s right, you already are!!” “Okay Buffy, here’s the deal, earlier tonight, you collapsed while fighting, turns out it’s because this Gottamum Demon Guy has a twin and if you don’t kill him then you die.. oh and you have to kill him in his sleep and he’s really strong, and he lives in a lair” Xander, felt that the truth was the best thing in this instance. “Oo, bad Xander, I like it” Anya cooed at him, then grabbed his hand and played with it. Buffy was so shocked that she sank back down into Angels lap, “Oh my god, how come I don’t remember? This is so weird. So, how do we find this guy?” “Well, I’ll go with you, I have an idea of where he lives” Angel said “One of those Demon Connection things huh?”. Buffy said, fondly rubbing his hands with her own. “Yeah” he grunted, hugging her back, “We should leave now” “Ok” she gathered some weapons and they left.
“I think it’s through here,” Angel said, as he led her through a dark tunnel. She gripped his hand as she followed him through the darkness. They fought a few vampires as they traveled through to the Gotma demons lair, which was deep underground. They finally got there and heard a faint snore coming from within. Buffy was feeling really tired and Angel was worried that the spell was wearing off. “I don’t know if I can fight” Buffy was scared. “We shouldn’t have to fight, you’ve just got to stake him, that should be ok right?” “Yeah” Buffy said uncertainly, even though she felt that at any moment she might collapse. They entered the lair and saw the great big demon lying across the floor. Angel handed her a stake and led her across. She wavered and he held her, “Can you do it?” he whispered. She nodded faintly and walked slowly over to the demon, with Angel at her side. It took all the strength she had to put the stake into the great big creature. But, she hadn’t even got it near his heart, she didn’t have enough strength. He woke up with a roar and knocked her across the room with a huge fist. She slumped in the corner, unconscious. Angel saw this and took all his anger out on the brute creature. He grabbed the nearest thing, a sword that belonged to the demon and slung it at his head, knocking it right off. The demon fell to the ground, dead. Angel ran over to Buffy, “Buffy! Buffy!” she wouldn’t wake up. He picked her up and ran for 2 hours out into the night and all the way back to Giles.
“Do you think they’re ok?” Willow was pacing impatiently. “I’m sure they are, they are both very resourceful and strong”, Giles said, although he doubted his words as they came out of his mouth. Suddenly, Angel burst in carrying Buffy. “Oh dear” Giles said, “Quick, bring her over to the couch…what happened?” “Well the Gotma is dead… but he managed to hit her unconscious. I killed him with his own sword” Angel said, laying Buffy on the couch gently. “Oh, we didn’t know that was possible, very ingenious Angel, well done”, Giles checked over Buffy, as she lay on his couch unconscious. “Is she going to be ok Giles?” Willow looked with concern at her friend. “I think this one is just going to be a matter of rest. Her only injuries are where she fell, on her head and that is just a little bump and cut. She will still have to recover from the spell and fever though, so time is of the essence” “Essence? What like vanilla essence? That stuff smells, I used to know this girl who used vanilla shampoo…” Anya babbled. “Anya, honey now would be a good time to not talk”, Xander patted her arm. “Don’t patronize me Alexander Harris, Creep” Anya crossed her arms and stuck out her lip. “Uh, you guys are so pathetic” Willow sighed and joined Giles looking Buffy over. Suddenly Buffy’s eyes flicked open. Angel squeezed her hand, “Baby, how are you feeling?” “Yucky” “That’s to be expected, I guess” Willow put in. “Yay great, I love feeling yucky” Willow, Xander, Tara, Giles and Anya all left to go and get some pizza. “Angel” Buffy looked at him through her drowsy eyes “What is it?” “I..um, what I mean.. is.. Thank you, and I mean, I was so scared, I’ve never felt so helpless before and you were there… I love you Angel” she looked at him straight in the eye as she said the last bit. “Oh, baby I love you too” he enclosed her in his arms and they stayed like that, locked n an embrace nothing could brake, for hours, until they both fell asleep in love.
