No More Be Grieved
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters portrayed here, they remain the property of their respective owners/creators.
Rating: PG-13, for themes and language.
Time Frame: Last summer, post fourth season BTVS and first season Angel.
Archiving: Be my guest, but e-mail me (eilandesq@aol.com) to let me know. . .I like to know where stuff I write ends up and I might want to see what else you've got.
NO MORE BE GRIEVED
Xander ducked under a roundhouse right, then threw a left jab that unbalanced the vampire in front of him for a moment before it recovered and snarled at him before renewing its attack. Xander went on the defensive, blocking punches and kicks while he risked a glance over at Buffy to see how she was doing.
Riley was still out of town, and Xander had volunteered to patrol with Buffy while Giles, Willow, and Tara researched to uncover the meaning of a rather obscure prophecy that Giles had found in the Codex. Things had been rather quiet until three vampires had suddenly leaped out of the shadows and engaged them, one on Xander and two on Buffy.
Xander saw that Buffy was still fighting with both vampires, then noticed that the vampires were fighting defensively, much in the same manner he was. * That isn't normal* Xander knew that vampires, except for the very smartest and/or most dangerous ones, tended to fight all out, trying to overcome their opponent by sheer force. Xander turned back and noted that his opponent was not holding back at all. A chill went down his spine: something was going on other than the run of the mill mayhem in
Sunnydale, and he was damned if he was going to stand there and dance with some wanna-be minion vamp while Buffy was in trouble.
He suddenly switched to an offensive approach, and the vampire was caught flat-footed as Xander slipped a right cross through, then performed a perfect sweep kick,
knocking the vampire on its back. Xander snatched the stake from his belt and delivered the deathblow in short order: the vampire screamed and vanished into dust.
Xander turned back towards Buffy, who was about twenty feet away, but a motion in the shadows caught his eye. A dark bipedal figure stood about fifty feet away, and as
Xander watched, it brandished what appeared to be a throwing dagger, apparently carefully aiming at the Slayer's back.
Without thinking, Xander dashed at Buffy, crashing into her with a flying tackle that knocked her about five feet away from the startled vampires fighting her. As he did so,
he felt a sharp pain in his upper left arm, and was in the process of reacting to the pain and trying to roll clear of Buffy so that she could fight when everything went black.
Buffy was caught totally off guard by Xander, and had to stop herself from striking him as a new opponent before she realized who he was. She saw the dagger protruding
from Xander's arm, and had to check herself from going to him immediately. She whirled back to the vampires, only to see that they were running off into the distance.
Feeling a chill down her spine, she looked to where the dagger had apparently come from, only to see the dark figure vanish into the night. She considered pursuit for a
moment, then remembered there was a more immediate problem. She looked down at Xander, seeing that the dagger was imbedded in his flesh, but did not seem to be
near any major arteries or veins. She removed the dagger and carefully bandaged the wound, noticing that the blade was glowing slightly and that Xander did not react to
any of her attentions. He was breathing shallowly and his pulse was slow.
Buffy's first impulse was to call the hospital, but she had a strong suspicion that they wouldn't have a clue about how to deal with this problem. She picked up Xander and
draped him over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, and began walking rapidly back to Xander's car.
* * * * *
"He doesn't seem to be getting any worse: we can at least be comforted by that." Giles tried his most reassuring tone, seeing the intense worry on the faces of Buffy,
Willow, and Tara as they looked at Xander lying on the couch, pale and unmoving. He turned away from them to look at Xander, hiding his own concerned expression as he
continued, "The blood loss was minimal, and there is no discernable poison on the blade or in the wound; clearly, some magic is involved here."
Willow was examining the blade in question and had found a small sign carved deeply into the blade. She pointed it out to Tara, who shook her head, not recognizing it.
Frowning, she called out, "Giles. . .do you recognize this symbol?"
Giles accepted the blade from Willow and was examining it carefully when Anya burst in through the front door in full demand: "What happened?"
Buffy quickly and quietly explained the situation and braced for a flood of abuse from Anya. She was surprised when Anya turned from her without a word and sat down next to Xander on the couch, caressing his check for a moment before whispering, "I am so going to kick your ass for this stunt when you wake up."
The others in the room smiled softly at Anya's implicitly hopeful comment, and Buffy felt moved to reply, "You can wait in line. . .damn it, he could have just yelled 'Look out behind you!' I've got these nifty Slayer reflexes. . .a lot of good they did here."
Anya ignored Buffy's comment, having spotted the dagger in Giles' hands. She moved over to him and spotted the symbol on the blade. She snatched it from his hands and asked bluntly, "This is the weapon that hurt him?"
Giles suppressed his initial impulse to be annoyed, seeing the glint of recognition in her eyes as she looked at the weapon. He replied, "Yes, Anya. . .do you know what it is?"
Anya's expression went blank for a moment, then she turned to Giles and responded, "I've seen that symbol before. . .and I recognize the metal it's made of. . .looks like someone has tried to use the sacred artifacts of the Order of Ramos to bag themselves a Slayer."
Giles blinked, then commented, "I'm sorry, Anya, but I'm not familiar with that organization. . .would you care to elaborate?"
Anya sighed, then responded, "About two hundred years ago, a woman mistreated by her lover supplicated me to punish him. . .she wished that he should have to face all of the women he had wronged in the past; apparently, this guy had quite a history of loving and leaving women. Anyway, I granted her wish, and a dagger appeared in the woman's hands. . .she wounded him with it, and he went comatose. I was a little curious about the whole thing, so I got the dagger from her and cast a few spells to trace it back to its source. The Order of Ramos is an ancient order devoted to self-knowledge. . .to reach what they consider the highest level of enlightenment, an initiate wounds
himself with an enchanted dagger, causing him to fall into a cataleptic state, in which he communes with the essences of those he believes he has wronged. In this state, the initiate communicates with those essences, resolving those conflicts and leaving the initiate free of the guilt regarding them."
Buffy frowned, and commented, "So whoever that guy in the shadows was, he was planning to cut my throat while I was dealing with my issues."
Anya nodded, and Buffy continued, "Nice guy. . .he definitely goes on my 'soon to be really dead' list, whoever he is." She brightened, and commented, "So, Xander just does the whole inner peace thing and wakes up feeling better about himself? Minus the whole vampires sucking him dry problem, that doesn't sound so bad."
Anya frowned, and responded, "Yes, but he could be in that trance for some time. . .the man I saw wounded simply stayed in a coma until he died of dehydration. From what I understand, staying in the trance for too long could be very stressful on body and soul. . .part of the test was how good the initiate was at resolving his past regrets: if he lacked sufficient insight, the test could kill him." She was speaking matter of factly until the last sentence, during which she began to trail off and turned pale when she realized the implications of her words.
Buffy looked at the others, then sat down next to Anya and squeezed her hand in consolation, then commented, "I'm sure he'll be fine, Anya. . .we'll all be here for him, and Xander has a way of knowing the right thing to say in these situations." She frowned, remembering that there were a few individuals who had a way of getting under Xander's skin and asked, "So, who exactly will Xander be meeting in there, Anya? Every person living or dead that Xander has issues with?"
Anya turned to Buffy and shook her head, replying, "No. . .the focus of the ritual is on resolving conflicts with opposites, so all of the essences he will encounter will be female. . ."
Buffy turned to the others, noting the expressions on their faces as she did the math in her head, then sighed before turning to Giles and commenting, "We'd better order out for some pizza. . .this is going to be a while." She turned back to her comatose friend and wondered what was playing out behind his closed eyelids.
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