The End: The Center

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Summary: The aftermath of the punishment as the struggle for survival continues, and Buffy pops in. What happens next surprises everyone.

AUTHOR: Laure Alexander
EMAIL: lara@sunflower.com
RATING: Hard R.
PAIRINGS: Willow/Drusilla
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any of the characters on the show. Joss Whedon and the WB Network own them (for now). No copyright infringement intended, so please don't sue.
DEDICATION: To Mary Ann; take care, hon! I always love hearing from you and I'm going to miss your kind words for my stories and the never-ending encouragement. :)
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Slinking silently into the darkened great room, Buffy stared in shock at the figure hanging from the ceiling.

Her unique scent hit him immediately when she moved upwind, and Spike opened his swollen eyes and tugged futilely on the chains. "What are you doing here, Slayer?" he whispered dully.

"I...I came to talk to Angel," she stammered, shock and dread filling her. "I didn't expect...How did he find you so fast?" Bitterness filled her quiet voice.

"We..." Spike swallowed hard against the lump in his throat and tried again. "Willow insisted we return. She...she thought..." As he broke off, unable to continue, he saw her eyes drift up to the ceiling.

Spike knew she wasn't looking at his chains.

"She's still human." He broke down again and sobbed, "Why doesn't he just do it?"

"She's...she's still alive?" Buffy's eyes widened and a glimmer of hope filled her.

"He won't let you stop him."

Determined, Buffy looked around, then grabbed a wooden chair and dragged it over to Spike. Climbing on it, she quickly broke the chains and he staggered, his arms falling heavily at his sides. "Are you okay?" She gave him a curious look, wondering why he wasn't a bloody pulp, as she freed his wrists from the manacles.

Spike turned stricken, red eyes on her, then fell to his knees, his chin dropping to his chest in defeat. "He...he whipped *her* instead of me, to punish us both."

Buffy gasped in horror, her hand going to her mouth as her eyes widened. "No." She shook her head in denial.

"He knew only that would break me," Spike sobbed brokenly. "She was...she was so brave...but he...There was so much blood."

Tears filled the Slayer's eyes, but she reached down and grabbed the shaking vampire by the arm, hauling him to his feet. "We have to get her out of here."

"He'll never allow that. I got lucky the first time."

"We *have* to," she stressed, dragging him towards the stairs.

*****

Willow awoke to blinding pain. She opened her mouth to scream, but only a gurgle of sound came out, and she choked. The cough sent a wave of agony through her and she stiffened against it.

"Flow with it, Willow," Drusilla murmured. "Ride the pain."

Heat flooded Willow and sweat broke out on her skin as she began to tremble. She cried out as a cool, rough tongue lapped along her spine.

"You taste so good," Drusilla crooned, moving to straddle the injured girl's legs and leaning down to lick gently at the bleeding wounds.

The five inflamed lash marks oozed crimson blood down the slender back, and the vampiress carefully lapped up as much as she could. Willow whimpered at each throb of pain. Curling her fingers into the bedding beneath her, she prayed for a return to unconsciousness.

The pain was going to kill her.

"Not yet, my sweet. Death will come soon, but not from these little wounds."

"I can't stand it," Willow gasped.

"Yes you can. Pain is a lover to such as we." Drusilla's tongue traced a line down to the small of Willow's back, and a shiver went through them both.

A weak sob broke from Willow as terror made her teeth chatter. "Not like this," she whispered weakly. "It's too much. My body's on fire."

"Savor it," Drusilla encouraged, sitting up and staring at the ceiling. "You will never feel such inner heat again." Her head cocked and her eyes slid towards the doorway. "Daddy's coming..."

Willow managed to turn her head just in time to see Angel enter the room. He wore only a pair of low-slung, black leather pants, his pale, smooth chest gleaming in the dimly lit room.

When he saw that Willow was conscious, he couldn't help but give her a slight smile of pride. "Such fortitude."

Willow could only whimper in response as he rounded the bed and sat down next to her. Cruelly he dragged one finger down her back, then licked the blood from it as she forced back a scream of agony.

"So very sweet."

Slipping off the bed, Drusilla leaned against the high post at the opposite corner from her sire, watching, both sorrow and eagerness flittering across her animate face.

"It's time," Angel said softly, reaching down to pull Willow's limp body onto his lap.

The door burst open and Spike and Buffy ran into the room. Angel rolled his eyes in disgust and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Out."

"Willow," Spike yelled, running to her and dropping to his knees next to the bed, one hand reaching for hers and clasping it tightly. She tried to squirm closer to him, but her strength was gone, and all she could do was gaze longingly at him through tear-filled eyes.

Buffy stomped past Drusilla and rounded the end of the bed, all her fury focused on Angel.

One glance at Willow's back had been almost enough to send her running to vomit up her dinner. Tears nearly blinded her, but she knew she had to stop this.

Even if Angel had to die.

Buffy's hand went into her jacket pocket for a stake, but found the amulet instead. When her fingers brushed across the emerald, a lance of heat went through her hand and she found herself pulling the chain from her pocket. As soon as the jewel was exposed the whole necklace jerked from her hand and hovered over the bed.

"That can't be good," Buffy muttered to herself, placing one knee on the bed to climb up and grab the amulet.

As she did so, there was a brilliant flash and five beams of light exploded from the emerald, slamming into the breasts of the four surrounding the bed and Willow's back.

Fire poured through her heart and Willow screamed, her whole body bowing off the bed. The light was too bright to see, but she could hear the others. Above the cries of pain, she could make out Drusilla's chant.

"The red and the black and the gold..."

Then, everything went dark.

*****

In the Library, the floor buckled and the walls shook. Xander shoved Cordelia into the doorway of the office, crying out as a shelf fell off the wall, striking him on the shoulder. As he staggered, she grabbed him and pulled him with her.

Clinging to her boyfriend, she saw Giles sheltering Jenny in the doorway of the storage room across from them. She followed the direction of his eyes and cried out in horror.

The floor was splitting.

Terrifying memories of the night she found out the truth about the Hellmouth returned with a vengeance, and Cordelia clung tighter to Xander, trying not to panic.

"Oh...fuck," Xander muttered, when he saw the tiles cracking.

"We've got to get out of here," Giles yelled, pulling Jenny towards the swinging doors of the Library. She screamed a warning as a bank of lights started to fall, and they jumped aside just in time.

"Come on," Cordelia encouraged, ducking low and dragging Xander with her.

"We are so dead." He scrambled over the counter and lifted Cordelia over next before dashing for the doors.

All four reached them at the same time and they stumbled into the quiet hallway.

Nothing was shaking.

"Well, that pretty much wipes out the 'it's just an earthquake' theory," Jenny sighed.

Giles stared in horror at the doors to the Library. "We have to find Buffy."

*****

Willow awoke to the sound of Buffy's voice.

"When a heart ends, the world will die. Fire and ice and destruction is nigh."

Opening her eyes, she realized at the same time that she wasn't in any pain, and that she was lying on a hard yet warm floor. She pushed herself up to her knees and took in her surroundings.

She was in the middle of what looked to be a five sided room with pale green glass walls and floor. The soft light had a green tint. Surrounding her at the points of the room were Drusilla, Angel, Buffy and Spike. Buffy was the only one conscious and she stood, reading the words inscribed on the walls.

"'To avert the end, tradition must break. Turning of backs for true love's sake. The five into one. A pentacle of power. Life and death and heart and stone. All at the appointed hour. The red and the black and the gold will entwine, to save the world under the full moon's shine.'"

As Buffy turned, she saw Willow and gave her a tremulous smile. "I hate prophecies."

"It's a prophecy?"

Buffy shrugged. "Sure reads like one, all vague and crap. Are you...are you okay?"

Reaching a hand around behind her, Willow touched her naked back. "No lash marks." She glanced down at her hand to make sure there was no blood, and saw that her fingers were shimmering. "I'm not sure we're in our bodies, though."

"Feels real." Buffy shrugged out of her knee length coat and passed it to Willow, before walking over to glance down at Angel. "I wonder why they're still out."

The coat covering her, Willow rose to read the prophecy for herself. It covered all five walls in an elegant black script. "You're right, very vague. What happened? I was sort of out of it." As the memories of the brutal whipping came back, she shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, driving them away so she could concentrate on whatever was happening.

"Um, there's this amulet, might bring about the end of the world, might save it. Giles wasn't sure. I had it in my pocket. I thought maybe Angel might know the language the inscription was in." Buffy ignored Willow's frown and continued, "I was reaching for a stake to threaten him with and I touched the amulet and...it kind of made me take it out and then it..." Buffy furled her brow as she tried to remember. "I think it floated by itself and then there was this big flash of light and...I don't remember anything else until I woke up here."

"An amulet? What did it look like?"

"One of those five pointed star thingies in a circle that witches use. Oh, and in the middle is an emerald."

"An emerald?" Willow looked around at the green, glass-like walls. "Um, Buffy? Could we be *in* the emerald?"

Buffy looked around as well, then rolled her eyes. "Well, crap."

"Where the fuck are we?" came an angry, masculine growl from the floor. Shaking his head to clear it, Angel pushed himself up to his feet.

"We're trying to figure that out, darling," Buffy sneered.

Angel threw her a nasty look, then turned his attention to Willow. "You look remarkably well."

Willow took an instinctive step backwards. "I don't think these are our bodies." Then she got angry and took two steps forwards. "This one doesn't have bleeding, raw lash marks that are going to scar me for life."

"Since you're going to become a vampire as soon as we get out of wherever the hell we are, you're not going to care," Angel yelled back.

"Leave her alone," Spike growled as he staggered to his feet.

Spinning on him, Angel lashed out and cracked a fist across his cheek. Spike reeled into a wall and a tremor ran through the room.

"My bed is shaking," Drusilla whimpered from the floor. When her eyes opened, they widened. "The prophecy..."

The shaking stopped and Willow hurried over to where Spike was wiping blood from his nose. Pressing against him, she dabbed at the crimson stream with her coat sleeve.

"Hey, that's my coat," Buffy protested, then sighed and added in resignation, "Not like it hasn't been bloody before..."

"And just how did you get down from the ceiling, boy?" Angel barked snidely.

"Fuck off sweetheart." Buffy stepped between her lover and the couple comforting each other. Behind her Drusilla began to wander around the room reading the inscription to herself. "I freed him so we could rescue Willow."

Angel glanced around the doorless glass room. "Yeah, good job doing that, Buff." On spying the words on the walls, his eyes narrowed. "Let me guess, the damn prophecy."

"Probably. Willow thinks we may be in the amulet."

"What amulet? Oh, the one my idiot minions found?"

"Yeah, the one that's going to end the world."

"And we're inside it?"

Shrugging, Buffy replied, "Well, the stone in the center is a five sided emerald, the room we're in has five points and green glass-like walls. Do the math."

"I don't think these are our bodies," Angel said, examining his skin. It was whiter than normal. "You and Spike burst into the room and then there was a flash of light..."

"I saw the amulet," Spike said, hugging Willow to his side. "It flew out of the Slayer's hand to hover over Willow."

"We were at the four corners," Drusilla murmured, brushing her fingers over the word 'pentacle'.

"We activated the amulet?" Angel asked, turning to read the inscription more closely.

Willow muttered, "That can't be good."

"Giles thinks it either opens the Hellmouth or keeps it closed. He couldn't translate it. If this is the translation...well, as usual it's stupid and vague and makes no sense."

"To you." Angel shot Buffy a look that indicated that she was sometimes as dumb as her fake hair color implied. She huffed in response, but he ignored her and pointed to the middle of the prophecy. "'The five into one'. There are five of us, together as one wherever the hell we are. 'A pentacle of power.' Well, that obvoiusly means the amulet. 'Life and death and heart and stone' could mean us again. You and Willow are life, the three of us are death. Three of you, Spike included, have hearts, Dru and I have stone instead."

"I have a heart," Drusilla protested.

"And how can a heart of stone love?" Willow asked, looking between Angel and Buffy.

Angel sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever, maybe it means before you two humans invaded our lives and made us love."

Buffy tried to ignore the tingle of joy his words wrought, as she read the next bit, "'All at the appointed hour' and 'under the full moon's shine'. It was just on midnight when we burst in and there's a full moon. Midnight's a traditional time for this kind of thing, right?"

Angel nodded, and addressed the section she left out. "'The red and the black and the gold' could mean us again. Two black, Dru and I, two gold, you and Spike, and Willow as red."

"What does entwine mean?" Willow asked, dreading the answer as images of an orgy filled her head.

"You have a filthy mind, Willow Rosenberg," Angel smirked, reading her like a book. He chuckled as she blushed, and a thrill of pride traveled through him at Spike's protective growl of his mate.

"Well, what do you think it means?" she finally asked, her embarrassment somewhat under control.

Angel shrugged. "I don't know. We're probably supposed to do something in here to stave off the end of the world."

"I am *not* having an orgy," Buffy stated quite clearly.

"Speaking of dirty minds..." Angel reached out and snagged Buffy's arm, pulling her against him and grinning down on her. "Orgies are fun."

"In your dreams, bub."

"It's not an orgy," Drusilla said softly, turning to face the two couples. Her eyes were vague and her hands fluttered nervously in front of her chest. She stared at a spot on the wall past them as she continued, her voice almost droning. "To save the world, to keep the Hellmouth closed, the five of us must be bound in a pact beyond time, beyond ourselves, to our children and their children and on for eternity."

"Dru, pet, what are you talking about," Spike asked gently, reaching his free hand out for her.

She skittered back and continued to speak, as if he hadn't interrupted. "The Hellmouth is beginning to open. If we go back without the bond, if the line is broken with Willow's turning, it will open and nothing will close it. You cannot turn her, Angel, until she has produced a child to carry on for her."

Willow stared at the vampiress, stunned. "What?"

"If we die, our childer replace us. There must always be five, the four points and the heart, the center. Two human, three vampire, black and gold and red, loving, always loving. Hearts made of flesh not stone." Suddenly her eyes shown with gold fire and she smiled. "We will rule the underworld and keep the Earth safe for all time."

"We're demons, Dru, we're not supposed to save anything," Angel retorted, frustrated as he tried to make sense of what she was saying.

"Dichotomy, my Angel. We have always been different. My dementia, William's compassion, your wickedness, traits carried on through our childer. All of us have been tempered by love, when demons such as we are not supposed to be able to feel that emotion. But, that love doesn't weaken us. It makes us stronger, and when we join with our lovers, the five of us will have the strength to seal the Hellmouth."

"What?" Buffy jumped eagerly on the last bit.

Smiling, Drusilla turned to face her long-time nemesis. "Although there will always be vampires and demons for Slayers to fight, the draw to Sunnydale shall cease, and no one will threaten the Hellmouth. The world will be safe, at least from that fate. And you, dear Slayer, might live a long life."

"How do we do this, Dru?" Spike asked, again reaching for her. This time she took his hand and let him draw her against his other side. Reaching across him she brushed her fingers over Willow's cheek.

Then she held out her hand to Buffy who stared at it for along time before taking it and curling the fingers of her other hand into Angel's gentle grip.

As a circle formed, Angel and Willow turned to look at each other. Slowly their free hands slid across the gap until their fingers touched.

The light returned, spearing through them, but this time bringing such pleasure that it left them gasping in sheer glory. Dimly Willow felt Angel's fingers tighten around hers and she returned the clasp.

"It is done."

Drusilla's voice reverberated through them, then everything went dark.

End Chapter 16