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Suki Blue Fiction Hellraiser: The Angels Beneath
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Chapter 14
The female Cenobite held out her hand to Xander in a seemingly friendly gesture. “LEAVING SO SOON?”
“Stay the fuck away from me.”
“BUT WE HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU,” Pinhead said with an awed expression.
“Nope. No way. Not interested.”
“YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. WE WILL HAVE ALL OF YOU.”
“I do. I have lots of choices. And I choose not to go to hell.” Xander was surprised that he managed to keep his voice so steady and confident. Just the very sight of Buffy was making him feel sick to his stomach. They’d taken her, tortured her and turned her into one of them, into a Cenobite. And now she stood before them, waiting, watching and quivering with pleasure and pain.
“Erm, actually, I think you’ll find that you’re wrong,” Wesley said, stepping forward and raising a confident finger in the air.
“IS THAT SO?”
“Yes, yes it is, as a matter of fact. I happen to know all about your little Order, and I also know that you can only take either a person who has opened The Box or a person in your presence who agrees to be taken. Therefore, theoretically, Xander is the only one here that is eligible…”
“Oh, thanks for that, Wes.”
“Hush, now. I’m not finished. But, you have made a bargain with my young friend here, and now you must return, alone, from whence you came - immediately.”
The Cenobites were silent. But not for long.
“WE ARE THE ORDER OF THE GASH. WE DO NOT ABIDE BY ANY SUCH RULES!” Pinhead bellowed. “WE WILL TAKE YOU ALL AND WE WILL TAKE YOU NOW!”
“That’s just great, Wes. Way to anger the pain inducing demons.”
“Yeah, mate. Thanks ever so."
The three of them started to back away as the Cenobites moved slowly towards them.
“I was merely trying to appeal to their better natures.”
“I’ll give you ‘better natures’ in a minute, you bloody idiot!”
“COME. THERE IS NO NEED FOR CHILDISH SQUABBLING. YOU CAN ALL HAVE A TURN.” The Female held out her hand to Xander again. “COME. YOU FIRST.”
“YOU FIRST,” the other Cenobites repeated, all in unison.
Spike yanked Xander further back. “No fucking way. You don’t fucking touch him!”
“REALLY?” Angelus asked. “WHAT IF HE WANTS TO BE TOUCHED? AND I THINK HE DOES.”
Xander shook his head. “No. Definitely not.”
“YOU FORGET, CHILD. WE KNOW YOU,” Pinhead pointed out. “WE KNOW YOUR DREAMS. WE KNOW YOUR DESIRES.”
“You don’t know anything about me! Anything!”
“HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU WATCH HIM TAKE YOUR MOTHER? I KNOW YOU REMEMBER. HOW MANY TIMES, XANDER?”
Xander shook his head again. “I didn’t. I didn’t understand…I…”
“Xan, luv, don’t listen to them. They’re just trying to get inside your head. Just don’t listen.”
“HOW MANY TIMES, ALEXANDER? WOULD YOU LIKE US TO REMIND YOU? WOULD YOU LIKE US TO REMIND YOU JUST HOW MUCH YOU ENJOYED IT?”
Xander screamed as the memories flooded him. Yes, he had watched, many, many times.
Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god, oh, god.
He sank to the ground and clutched at his head as he tried to push the memories away.
He hadn’t enjoyed it, he hadn’t. So why had he kept going back, night after night?
So had he enjoyed it?
“COME WITH US AND WE’LL SHOW YOU TRUE PAIN. COME WITH US AND WE’LL HOLD YOU DOWN AND GIVE YOU WHAT YOU NEED.”
“Xan, no. Whatever it is you’re thinking, whatever it is that they’re making you think, it ain’t true, luv. They’re messing with you.”
“No, Spike. I-I watched her. I watched and…”
“You didn’t enjoy it, pet. I know that’s what they want you to think, but it ain’t true. I swear it, Xan.”
“But…”
“No!”
Xander flinched from Spike’s outraged shout. He stilled as he felt Spike latch onto his arms and grip him tightly.
“Remember the nightmare, pet.”
“DREAMS,” Buffy corrected.
Spike gritted his teeth and held Xander tighter. “Remember the nightmare,” he repeated. “Remember how upset you were. Remember how much you cried. You didn’t enjoy it. You didn’t want it. And you don’t want what these twits are offering. Remember, luv. Please.”
“REMEMBER YOUR PLEASURE AT HER PAIN. REMEMBER WISHING THAT YOU WERE HER.”
“NO!!” Xander levered himself up with help from Spike and he stood on heavy, unsteady legs. “NO!” he shouted again. “I didn’t enjoy it! I didn’t like it! I hated it!” He quashed the urge to shout, ‘and I hate you!’.
Xander twisted in Spike’s arms and snatched The Box back from Wesley. “Give that thing to me. How does this work? There has to be a way to send these assholes back.” Xander gripped The Box and used all his strength to turn a piece of it back to where it had come from.
“DON’T DO THAT!” Pinhead commanded.
The piece clicked into place and orange lighting fizzled around The Box and struck Lazlo. His form shimmered and the Cenobite howled with rage as he was banished back to his own dimension.
“GIVE ME THE BOX!”
Xander clicked the next piece back into place and aimed The Box at the Cenobite that was advancing on him. “Go to hell!”
The lightning surrounded the box again, struck out, and engulfed Chatterbox, banishing him back to The Corridors of Hell with an almighty shriek.
Xander worked on the next piece. He was almost positive of where it had to go, but he couldn’t be a hundred percent. He tried both ways. He pushed, he pulled, he twisted and shook The Box. “Shit, shit, shit! I can’t do it!”
“Give it to me, Xan. Which way?!”
“Turn it that way! Or, or maybe the other way! I don’t know!”
Spike grappled with The Box, swearing and cursing at it when it steadfastly refused to budge even an inch. “Fuck!”
The Female drifted closer, her arms reaching out towards Spike.
“Quickly!” Xander shouted.
“I’m bloody trying!”
The Female was close now, her fingers a bare inch away from Spike’s neck.
“YOU ARE A VERY NAUGHTY VAMPI…”
A flash of bright light and The Female was thrown to the ground. A wind suddenly surged around them and the Cenobites were pushed back and away.
Spike paused to turn around and see where the flash had come from. He wasn’t sure if he was surprised or not to see Tara standing behind him, her hair and eyes blackened with dark magic.
“Oh, god. Tara. Where’s Willow? Spike?! Where’s Willow?!”
“Don’t know, luv.”
“She’s not…She can’t be…? Spike?”
Spike ignored the unspoken question and turned back to The Box. He felt the piece give in to his efforts, and finally it clicked back into place. He held out The Box at arm’s length and watched with satisfaction as The Female screamed with disgust and frustration, and disappeared from reality.
Chains whipped through the air and one by one they attached themselves to sensitive flesh. Wesley was pulled to the floor first, followed by Xander, and finally Spike.
“GIVE ME THE BOX!” Pinhead commanded.
Spike turned away as much as he could and tried to hide it away.
“Spike, Spike,” Wesley called. “It’s alright. He can’t take it. It has to be given.”
“Right, right. Which bit next, Xan?”
Xander looked at The Box and then up at Spike with a stricken expression. “I have no idea. I-I’m sorry, I don’t remember.”
The chains dropped from Xander’s body and he was pulled up and held by Pinhead. He felt a sharp sting on his cheek and his head rocked back from the force of a blow that he hadn’t even seen coming. A colder than ice hand slipped around his neck and squeezed.
“GIVE ME THE BOX.”
Spike hesitated. Would throwing The Box to Pinhead actually do any good? Wasn’t he likely to kill Xander and then them all anyway?
Pinhead squeezed tighter. “GIVE ME THE BOX!”
Another flash of light and Xander felt himself dropped to the floor. He heard the clinking of chains in the distance and his vision began to clear as Spike appeared in front of him. The Box was placed in his hand and a kiss placed to his head and Spike was off into the distance, tackling Pinhead with furious fists.
A gentle but firm hand on his arm pulled him to his feet and Xander turned to face a man that he didn’t recognise. A blur ran past and Xander stumbled backwards and tried to work out what he was seeing.
“Come on!” the man shouted above the soaring wind. “We have to get back!”
Xander let himself be dragged, his grip firm on The Box and his eyes trying to focus around him. The chains waggled uselessly on the ground, held back by an unseen force. He looked over his shoulder and finally made out Spike fighting Pinhead and Dawn fighting both Angelus and Buffy.
He felt Wesley supporting his other side and he was led away more quickly.
Dawn was fighting Angelus and Buffy? Dawn?
“Dawn!”
“Easy now. Looks like we got a new Slayer in town.”
“But…” Xander stared at the vision before him, the Cenobites faltering at the hands of a combined Scooby effort, and for the first time since he’d opened The Box, he believed they could win.
**
Tara’s magic floated around them and Pinhead started to get the feeling that he was in trouble. The vampire was strong, very strong. And he was also extremely pissed off.
He knew what they were trying to do: hold them back while the boy fiddled with The Box until he found a way to close it.
Pinhead stumbled back and then crumpled from a hard kick to his stomach. A fist soared towards his head and then he was on his back, the sprightly vampire straddling him, holding him down and firing vicious blows to his face.
Pinhead growled and gathered all his remaining strength. It wasn’t much, the Witch was seeing to that. Who allowed all this magic to roam Earth? He was going to have words with Leviathan when they next spoke. He growled again and pushed up with both hands, sending Spike flying backwards.
It was Spike’s turn to growl. He quickly got to a squatting position and looked up at Pinhead. “Who the fuck do you think you are, tosser?”
“ME? I’M BIGGER THAN GOD.”
“Oh, right. Well, why didn’t you say so? Praise be and all that rot. Wanna know a secret?” Spike asked as he crept closer.
“DO SHARE.”
“I always thought God was a wanker. That must make you an even bigger one, eh?”
Pinhead roared and lunged.
**
Dawn kicked and bounced as Angelus reeled back from the blow. It was Buffy’s turn next and Dawn squealed as her fist connected solidly with her face. With their strength depleted by Tara’s magic, the Cenobites were no match for a Slayer’s strength. Well, one on one, they were no match. Two? Was proving a little tricky.
Dawn tried not to think about her sister. She tried not to acknowledge that the thing in front of her was Buffy. Or rather, had been Buffy. It wasn’t her anymore. She’d been twisted by these creatures – and probably by Riley, too. No-one had said anything, but she had major suspicions that Riley was, indeed, a complete and total dick.
No, this wasn’t Buffy. This was a demon and it was her duty to dispatch it or at the very least stop it from spreading its vile disease to the residents of Sunnydale. She could grieve later, but right now she had a job to do. Her maiden voyage as the new Slayer was going to be a perfect one.
She felt Angelus grab her from behind and Dawn quickly side-stepped him and flung her arm across his neck. Buffy came at her again and Dawn lifted her leg and kicked out her foot. The blow connected and Buffy crashed sideways.
Angelus’ turn again and he opted for attack rather than capture. It threw Dawn off balance and she stumbled back from three punches to her face.
She lifted her hand to her mouth and was surprised to find no blood at all. In fact, it hadn’t even really hurt. “Cool!”
**
“No, no, turn it that way. No!” Wesley cried.
“Wait, I think I got it…no, that’s not it.” Xander shook The Box in frustration.
“No, I meant the other way. For heaven's sake, give it here!”
“I got it, no problem, just…it won’t turn.”
“Turn it to the left.”
“I tried that! I think it’s this bit sticking up. I reckon if I could just turn it counter clock…” Xander stopped and stared off into the distance.
“What!? What!?”
“Willow,” Xander breathed. There she was, alive; alive and full to the brim with darkness and power. Relief was dominant in Xander’s mind, but a part of his brain twitched with panic. What had turned her back to the darkness? Who was dead now? Xander glanced over at Tara; her face was contorted with the effort of projecting so much power.
Who would stop Willow if she got out of control? This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that she’d lost herself in the magic. Xander remembered the carnage as Willow had raged until buildings burned and victims screamed.
When Tara had been hurt, attacked and bled almost dry by an ancient demon, Willow had lost her mind. She’d changed and nothing could stop her desperate wrath. Only the sight of her beloved with moving lips and blinking eyes calmed her soul enough for reason and the real Willow to creep back in.
“Willow,” Xander repeated.
“Oh, dear. Oh dear me.”
The wind died and Tara dropped to the ground, exhausted and drained. The air went suddenly silent and stagnant, a sign that another power had taken over and was about to laugh in the face of hell.
Pinhead felt his power return as Tara fell and he turned and smiled at Spike. “I WILL TEAR YOUR SOUL APAAAAAART!!!!”
“Erm, hate to burst your bubble, mate, but I ain’t got a soul.”
Pinhead bared his teeth and shrieked in complete and utter fury. No-one, no-one spoke to him like…
The air crackled and the dark became darker still as magic floated towards the Cenobites and engulfed them in a cocoon of invisible fire.
Heat burned where once there had been wind. It flew through the air and within seconds it started to sizzle at Spike’s skin. “Dawn!” he shouted. “Get the fuck away!”
Dawn nodded and they both sprinted to the side, Slayer and vampire speed a definite advantage over the Cenobites who, it seemed, never ran anywhere. It was obviously damaging to their creepy persona.
Just as Spike and Dawn ducked out of the way, the heat turned up and Willow threw a veil of blue fire over the Cenobites, drawing out magic and power from every source within her reach: the earth, the sky, the heavens, hell itself. Her eyes flashed from angelic white to a devil’s black and, as she started to smile, the fire turned white hot and finally started to cook the Cenobites where they stood.
“Will it kill them?” Dawn asked as she ran to her friends and watched Xander still struggling with The Box.
Wesley shook his head. “They cannot be killed. But they can be banished.”
“Yeah, by closing a box that won’t damn well close!!” Xander shouted.
“There must be a way to close it,” Wesley insisted.
“Wait, there’s another way.”
“And just who might you be?”
“Name's Doyle. Don’t ask for details; we don’t have time. But I think there is another way.”
“Okay, so spill already!”
Spike put a calming hand on Xander’s shoulder. “Tell us. And you’d better bloody well be on to something.”
“The Box isn’t just a box; it’s a gateway, yeah?”
Everybody looked at Wesley. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“So, if we destroy The Box, we destroy the gateway.”
Wesley looked thoughtful.
“Hang on, but if we destroy the gate, won’t those wankers be stuck here for all eternity?” Spike asked.
Wesley waggled a thoughtful finger. “I think Doyle here might be on to something! Yes…yes, I remember reading about it in a text at the Council, years ago. The Box is made from the flesh of Leviathan himself. If we can destroy it, it will actually destroy a part of Leviathan. Yes! This in turn will pull back the Cenobites into their own dimension. And by the time Leviathan has healed himself, the Cenobites won’t be able to come back through because The Box – their gateway to our world – will have been destroyed. Of course, all this is conjecture and theory.”
Spike rolled his eyes and snatched The Box from Xander. “We’ll try it – if only to shut you the fuck up.”
“How do we destroy it?” Xander asked. The Box was pretty strong and Xander was doubtful that it could be destroyed so easily.
“Give it to me!” Dawn squealed. “I’ll stomp on it.”
“No, no, no,” Wesley said with an insistent shake of his head. “It will take far more than that.”
“But I’m a Slayer! I’m strong!”
“Of that I have no doubt. But what I mean is, that it would take more than just strength to destroy such a thing.”
“What would it take?” Tara asked. Her eyes were drooping shut and she was soaked with sweat.
“Magic, maybe. Powerful magic.”
Tara turned and pointed to the blanket of white fire that Willow was projecting at the struggling Cenobites. “Is that powerful enough?” Without waiting for the answer, Tara took The Box from Spike and hurled it into the magical cascade.
Blue, purple and orange sparks erupted from The Box, and, as it floated and bobbed through the fire, it shook with the force of Willow’s magic.
Tara raised her arms and chanted. Her hair blackened again and she trembled as she forced her tired body to project as much dark magic as she dared.
As the magics united, and hellish, red fire met white, Willow turned and smiled at her lover. “For our friends.”
They turned back to The Box, and screamed as their combined magic surged and The Box exploded into a million pieces.
The air was filled with howls of rage and the sounds of promised vengeance. The orange lighting crackled one last time and Pinhead, Angelus and Buffy were smothered and pulled back into The Corridors of Hell.
Their cries for the arms of their Almighty Father, Leviathan, lingered in the sudden stillness and the echo of their demonic voices floated and threatened until finally the Sun’s eclipse began to fail and light slowly filtered down to the world below.
It was over.
**
EPILOGUE
They sat in silence around the fledgling plants, six roses to represent six souls taken and lost to the darkness.
Giles. Anya. Faith. Andrew. Joyce. And even one for Buffy. Six beloved friends that they’d cherished and loved and would forever more. Four hearts murdered and snatched away, one heart taken by the evil of cancer, and one heart that had been suffocated, manipulated and twisted by life, circumstance, the love of a beast and the darkness of Hell itself.
They sat and they remembered, good times and bad, funny times and serious. They engraved the memories on their hearts, and promised to never forget and always remember.
Giles, a man with a heart of gold and courage of steel. The father, the son and the brother to all that knew him. Endless determination and conviction.
Anya, a demon that loved and cried, sang and laughed. A woman that always tried, even when she faced her greatest fears.
Faith, a Slayer that fought with herself and came through to see the light and fight the forces of evil. A woman of great courage and strength.
Andrew, a man that was still a boy. Playful and light. Brave and valiant.
Joyce, a devoted mother and friend. Grounded and firm. Loving and tender.
Buffy, once so good and pure. Dedicated to her fellow man. She loved her friends and the sacrifice of her own life for them, her sister, and the world itself was always inevitable. Darkness had taken her and the angel beneath her skin and inside her heart had withered and died.
And for Riley, the bringer of The Box and the horrors of its infection - a fire burned on the hill and cursed him to an eternity of suffering.
**
It took days for Willow to even utter a word, a week more to shed the feeling of darkness from inside her. She’d latched on to all the evil and power that she could to try to defeat the Cenobites and destroy The Box, and that evil tried it’s best to crawl further inside her and stay forever. Willow had nearly lost herself, suffocating in dark urges and wicked thoughts, but Tara had pulled her free, coaxed her back to herself with loving touches and tender kisses.
Spike’s run for shelter had been a quick one. A stranger’s house, the closest one possible, had housed him until his car had been fetched and he’d been bundled into it. From there on, everything had taken on a surreal quality. Silence had reigned, only broken by tears of realisation and discovery.
For weeks, physical contact had been the new communication, a fierce need to feel and touch each other in the hope of certainty taking over from pointless words.
And now that acceptance dominated; they grieved, remembered, and knew that it was time to live again, their friends forever carried with them.
The nightmares still came, and sometimes Xander wondered if they would ever stop. Dreams of his mother, dreams of Giles, the Cenobites and dreams of rape and pain occupied his sleeping thoughts, and only the arms of his lover had the power to push them back and leave him with blissful nothingness, a welcomed, temporary death that would allow him peace while he slept.
But they were getting better; fewer and less intense. Spike soothed them away and somehow the nightmares were learning that a certain vampire would foil them every time. And as each night passed and the dreams lessened, Xander still clung to Spike as if hell was about to try to claim him again. Even when the nightmares eventually stopped, Xander knew that he would cling as tightly as that first night, every moment savoured and adored, just as a precious gift deserved.
And Spike would always cling back just as tightly.
“Am I disturbing you?”
Xander jolted from his daydream and looked up from where he lay in Spike’s arms. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Doyle motioned to the roses with his head. “Nice. They’d have liked it.”
“Faith would have wanted a black one,” Dawn pointed out. “Can you get black ones?”
Spike shrugged.
Willow sat up and smiled gently. “We never got around to thanking you before, for all your help.”
“Ah, well. Not necessary. I thought it best to disappear for a while, leave you guys to yourselves.”
“Thanks, mate. And cheers for what you did, really. We might not have made it without you.” Spike circled his arms around Xander’s waist and clutched tightly. He placed a kiss to the dark head of hair and nuzzled. Lost in his own moment, he drifted until he heard Dawn’s laugh of delight.
“Wow! That’s so cool!” Dawn twirled the weapon in her hand. “What is it?”
Doyle laughed back. “It’s a type of club. Polynesian or something, I think.”
“Can I keep it?”
“Of course. It’s a gift, to celebrate your new found Slayer status.”
“Thanks, Doyle.”
“Welcome.” Doyle shifted from foot to foot, decidedly uncomfortable at the pleased and grateful stares that were boring into him.
“So, um, you have visions?” Xander asked - just to break the silence.
“Yeah.”
“And you had one about me and the Cenobites? Wow. Lucky you were close by.”
“Actually, I was heading here anyway.”
“Yeah? Why’s that, mate?” Spike asked.
“I’ve been sent – by the Powers That Be.”
“The powers that be what?”
Doyle rolled his eyes. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that, I’d be a rich man indeed. Look, I’m honestly not sure. They don’t speak to me direct. I get – visions, which is to say, great, splitting migraines that come with pictures. A name – a face. I don’t know who sends them. I just know that whoever sends them is more powerful than me or you, and they’re just trying to make things right.”
“And they sent you here? To Sunnydale?”
“Yup.”
“Why?” Tara asked with a puzzled expression.
“To find the next Champion – A vampire named Spike. Looks like I found him.”
“Oh. EH?!”
“Yeah, you, Blondie. Well, all of you, actually.”
Xander sat up and eyed Doyle suspiciously. “All of us?”
“You bet. You’re all needed. California is a big place, man. Lots of evil to take down.”
Everybody took turns to look at everybody else. Spike was stunned into silence. Almost. “Well, bugger me. So what do this ‘Champion’ and his trusty colleagues have to do?”
“Right now? Head over to Wal-Mart.”
“To buy what, exactly?” Wesley asked curiously.
Doyle pulled a tub of pills from his pocket and shook three out into his hand. He popped them in his mouth and quickly swallowed. “Nothing. Had a vision about twenty minutes ago. Zombies attacking. Flesh eating ones. It’s gonna be like Dawn of The Dead over there, except it’s night. Coming?”
“Zombies, eh? Huh.”
“Zombies could be interesting,” Willow said with a falsely disinterested shrug.
Wesley pondered. “Hmmm, well, zombies are not something that I’ve personally dealt with before. I suppose it could be a learning experience. Dawn, do you feel ready to face…”
“Will their heads fall off if I kick them?”
“Maybe,” Tara answered. "If they’re old and decayed. And if you actually kick them in the head."
“That’s so…!”
“Cool?” Xander finished. “You know, zombies are really dangerous. They steal and - and they try to blow up schools.” Everybody except Spike gave him a quizzical look. “Anyhoo. Moving quickly on. Shall we up and at it? Move on out? Lock and load? Show those zombie-freaks the true meaning of the Evil Dead?” Xander finally suggested as he hooked his thumb at Spike. “Yeah?”
Everybody nodded and got up from the ground, almost gleeful that life was returning to normal so quickly. Sort of. They spared one last look and one last goodbye to the six roses before they turned and left to fight the forces of darkness once more.
“Spike?”
“Yeah, Xan?”
“I wanna knock their heads off, too.”
Spike laughed. “I’ll buy you all the chocolate you can eat if you get five in row.”
“You’re on!”
THE END
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