Energy (A Buffy fanfic)

Chapter 4: Good Dog

"Why, Angel? Why are you trying so hard to make me kill you?" I decide to take a risk, a gamble. If it works, I'll know for sure. I'll act. I try to convince myself I'm not just putting off the inevitable.

Time to throw the dice. "I know it wasn't you who did it. Wasn't you who hurt her." Surprise flickers through his suddenly human features, one of the few emotions I'd ever seen from him. He lowers his arms, and stops cold. "You know?" he says hesitantly. "How? Why come to me like this, if you knew?"

A high pitched nasal tone emerges from the shadows, as does a small blonde. I know her, I've seen her before. One of the Master's lackeys. "She bluffed, you fool! The Angel I knew, Angelus, would have seen it in a second. Truly, you've grown soft."

I ready my crossbow at her. I can sense Angel, turning to face me, to protect me. He seems wary - which means I should be. As for Blondie, she seems utterly unphased by the crossbow. "Scary." she says, tauntingly, her eyes daring me to fire. I hesitate just a moment too long, and a pair of shiny silver pistols appearing her hands as if by magic. "Scarier!" she crows. There are a couple of cracks, and suddenly Angel is sent reeling. It took all my resolve not to run to him. Bullets can't kill vampires.

I duck under the pool table. Bullets can still kill me, Slayer or no. I listen, all my senses strained for the footsteps that would herald me having to run or fight. I hear voices talking urgently outside - not the words, but from their voices I know who they are. Willow and Theo. Apparently Blondie hears them too, because she hesitates, wondering if she should go after them.

Suddenly, the doors bang open, and I cannot help but look over the rim of the pool table. They say curiosity killed the cat. Hope it doesn't kill me.

Theo stands there, his face contorted with rage, his body shaking with it. I've never seen him like this, never. I've always envied his calm. There's a flat, gleaming knife in either hand, but they're held loosely, as though he doesn't even know they're there.

"You." he snarls, and I've never heard a word endowed with so much hatred. All of it directed at Blondie, who's standing there, looking as stunned as I feel. "You killed me. You came in the night, whilst I was sleeping. You killed the guard - rolled his head right into camp. Then you and the others burst among us, killing. Didn't even drink. Just slaughtered us where we were. You broke us, broke the republic. We could've have been a great country, if not for you and the fear you caused in that single night." his voice was different, still with an accent, but a different one, I'm sure. Spanish, perhaps, maybe Portuguese. I try to remember my history - was there ever a Spanish Republic?

Blondie seems to have regained some composure, enough to answer coolly "I killed you? You don't look very dead to me. Maybe we can fix that." With that, she leaps clean over the tables between them, and presses a pistol to his chest. He freezes. Not even Theo, no matter what's happened to him now, can move faster than a bullet. Not at that range.

"Now, then." she says conversationally, as though she hasn't got a gun pointed at him. "When exactly was I meant to have killed you?" She clearly thinks him mad, and not a threat. Just an amusement. I'm not sure he's not mad. "1939. Just before the fall of Madrid." he answers, gruffly, without a hint of fear. I was right, it was Spanish. Willow will be so proud. An irrational thought to have at a time like this, but no wonder, with my nerves strung so tight.

Blondie seems more surprised now than she had when he first appeared. "How could you possibly know..." she shakes her head as though to clear her thoughts. "It doesn't matter." she says roughly, and then fires. I let out an involuntary squeak.

I needn't have worried. The gun misfired, or whatever the technical term is for when a gun doesn't fire. I've never liked guns enough to learn anything about them.

Suddenly, Angel looms behind like - well, like the Angel of Death. And stakes her with a pool cue. An unimpressive end. Angel looks at Theo, a mixture of bewilderment and something else - fear? Surely not. - in his gaze. Then he looks at me, and I feel my pulse race. He nods at me once, as between equals, then vanishes into the darkness. I know I'll see him again, but for once today I'm more concerned with something else.

"What the hell was that?" I ask Theo, and I'm echoed by Willow, who's come in by the door. She looks furious - I guess she counselled against it, whatever it was. He shrugs and moves to a chair. Even the way he moves is different - Theo moves gracefully, his feet hardly seeming to touch the ground, like a cat, but now he's moving more like a shorter, muscly man. He sits done and puts his head on one hand, and clenches his fist so hard I'd be surprised if it didn't draw blood.

After a few moments like this, Willow moves over to him to see how he is, but I gesture at her to stay where she is. If Theo has become mentally unstable, I do not want her closer to him than she has to be. To think, I even recommended her to him!

Then he looks up, and for a fraction of a second his eyes reflect the gloomy light in a strange way, looking almost silver. Then he smiled, the same crooked smile that has always been his. He's alright. He winces, looking at his hand, and even in this faint light I can see the blood. No doubt, at the rate he heals, it'll be fine by tomorrow.

I repeat my question, and he answers in his normal melodic accent "Just a memory. It came on me so strongly that I became who I was then." I try to follow what he said, but it sounds like he was alive, and got killed nearly 60 years ago or so. Then I realise that that is exactly what he meant. I remember that bussiness with Osiris, when we found that he had memories of being alive about 7000 years ago, and we'd all thought that he had stayed in the same body he was in now. Apparently we were mistaken.

"So you're saying there's some part of you that has lived in other men?" Willow asks incredulously. She's evidently just worked it out as well. He nods, looking at us both to gauge our reactions. "Like past lives." she mutters, under breath but loudly enough for everyone to hear. "That's a good an explanation as any." he says calmly, with a shrug.

I need to talk to Giles about this. Although Theo himself may be stable, if he can be taken over by past lives or whatever they are, then he's a liability. We need to find some kind of a way to stop it. I'm sure Giles, with enough time to research, will find an answer.

But for now, I'm going to go and see Mom, tip off Giles and go home. I hope Mom can leave the hospital now. It's late, and the day has been physically and mentally exhausting.

At least Angel isn't evil. I'm glad I didn't have to kill him, whatever my Slayer duties say. Gods, please tell me I don't have feelings for a vampire!

End of Book 6.

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Authors note

The historical reference here is to the Spanish civil war, 1936-39. The siege of Madrid was the final battle, after which the republic fell and Spain was ruled by a dictator (Franco). It is commonly held that the war was lost because the leaders of the republic left the country, and the soldiers suffered a massive blow to morale. Here, that loss of morale was caused by a massacre of a group of soldiers, carried out by Darla and a group of vampires. Because, if Anya can cause the Russian Revolution, Darla can end a republic.

Also, after the next episode, I will no longer be doing every episode, merely the ones that I find interesting or relevant to the plot. And yes, in the next episode, some of what Theo is will be revealed.

Au'revoir!