Buffy & The Four Ch. 04

"S-sure, Ruth. I was just sayin'..."

"Well, don't. If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it."

"Okay," Jody said, with a tiny voice. Sometimes there was a look in Ruth's eyes that said her friends meant nothing to her and were only a means to an end. Sometimes.

"Well, that was a downer," Mary grumbled. "I think we need a pick-me-up. Anyone for marshmallows?"

"Oooo, dipped in melted chocolate?" Kim asked.

"Urgh," Jody complained. "Toasted, yeah, dipped in chocolate, nuh-uh. All those calories... that's just disgusting."

"Disgusting?" Mary laughed. "Have you forgotten what she puts in her sandwiches?"

+++++++++

Buffy groaned and sat up. Her cheek throbbed rhythmically and she gingerly touched it to see how big the swelling was. To cap it all, her mouth tasted funny. "Gee, the demons better watch out if Dawn ever gets Chosen. Ungh. Team her with Faith and it's goodbye vampires."

The room around her was in complete disarray from the fight. There was a gaping, jagged hole where the window had been, and the door still lay on the floor where it had been smashed. Also on the floor were Anya and Willow. Even as she looked at them, Anya jerked and sat bolt upright.

"Get you too, huh?" Buffy asked.

"Only because a wizard turned up to help them."

"A wizard? We don't know any wizards. Are you sure it was one of them?"

"Casting Merlin's sapping cloud? Yeah it was a wizard. Or sorcerer, at least. Only one of those types of show offs would go in for the all-flashing-smoke-and-mirrors type of attack. I mean, really, the name of the spell alone shows just how theatrical it is. Any decent spell caster would just have used something lethal or at least not as showy. Grandstanding, much?"

Buffy frowned, not entirely sure she was following, but got up and walked over to check on Willow. The redhead opened her eyes and looked a little woozily up at the Slayer.

Buffy smiled down at her. "I bet going dancing and getting laid is sounding a much better idea now, huh?"

++++++++++

Giles watched Ethan intently as the man used an eagle feather to waft the smoke from the incense burning in the little bowl he held around the room. The sorcerer wandered to the window and let the smoke run over the glass, then went to the door and wafted it into the cracks and keyhole. All the while he was chanting something under his breath, over and over.

It irked the Englishman no end that Ethan Rayne had saved them. His old college friend never did anything that would not result in a hefty payoff for himself. They may have been firm friends once, indulging in the exploration of the mystical, throwing orgies and even dabbling in demonic possession for narcotic stimulus, but now there was a huge gulf between them.

Giles had finally seen how dangerous the dark arts could be - in no small part down to the mess involving the demon Eyghon - and had pulled back from his Ripper persona. In doing so, he had finally found his path and calling, becoming the Watcher he had always been fated to be.

But no so, Ethan. He had found perfection in the darkest magics. He had found that chaos was his calling and thrown himself with just as much vigour into worshipping it. In time, his sorcerous abilities had grown to such levels that he was very much in demand as a mercenary for hire, even contracting out to Mayor Wilkins in Sunnydale to provide a distraction with the Band Candy that regressed adults to their youth.

No, Ethan could not be trusted. It was his life's goal to spread chaos and he did it very well indeed. Usually. Admittedly, it had not gone too well for him each time he crossed paths with Buffy, but that was only a minor setback as he saw it, all things considered.

"That should do it," the thin man said, putting the bowl and feather back on the dresser.

"A ward strong enough to resist Willow? I thought you only capable of sleight of hand and parlour tricks."

"Your barbs cut me to the quick, as usual, Ripper. However, we both know that you admire my skill, if not my practise."

Faith leant close to Giles, "I could always thump him for ya."

"Oh, no young lady," the sorcerer grinned. "Ripper wouldn't want you to do that, would you, Rupert?"

Before Giles could answer, the Englishman added, "He enjoys doing it himself far too much."

Faith frowned at the warning look her Watcher shot the sorcerer. These two had a really dark past together, that much was obvious, but there was also another undercurrent there that she could not quite put her finger on...

Xander looked troubled. "Should we wait to find out if Buffy's cure works before we try to get one for Willow and Anya?"

"No," Giles answered, taking off his spectacles and polishing them with his handkerchief. When he noticed Ethan watching that gesture fondly, he stopped and thrust them back on his face. "We cannot wait. Buffy is very strong and so it could take longer for her cure to work. On the other hand, perhaps it may not work at all on her, but would on Willow. Actually, I feel that Anya is the best one to try to cure next. If we can get her back to normal and on our side..."

"When she's normal she's on our side?" Faith gasped, with mock-incredulity. "How can you tell?"

"Hey!" protested Xander.

"...And on our side," Giles repeated, "we stand a better chance. As I said in Daniel's apartment, she can easily escape almost any bonds we can put her in. Even magical, I suspect."

"Diffusing the core of her reality through the fabric of the dimensional walls would negate the esoteric forces and effectively annul the effects of any binding spell," Ethan added, helpfully.

"Okay, English overload," Xander complained. "One walking dictionary is bad enough, but two is just not playing fair in my book. Wanna say that again so that everybody who is not Giles can understand it, Dumbledore?"

Ethan looked blankly at Giles, who shrugged.

"H-he's a magician from a book," Tara explained.

"Oh, pop culture," Ethan nodded, glumly. "In your teen speak, 'she can pop in and out of any containment spell by teleporting between dimensions.'"

"That's his idea of how teens speak?" Xander whispered to Oz. "He really is from another country, isn't he?"

"Got anymore bandages?" asked Dawn, from the bed where she was wrapping a nasty gash in Ru's arm. They had found the young werewolf unconscious on the wreck of a Buick. Luckily, the car had been parked and was empty.

"I am afraid not," Ethan told her. "I only tend to get bloody when Rupert here wants to show me the strength of his... disappointment."

"Look in the drawers, Dawn," Giles said, ignoring the jibe. "If there are any shirts, you can tear some of them into strips."

"No you cannot!" the sorcerer blurted. "Those are expensive, designer shirts! I would not be seen dead in anything less and you certainly cannot use them to mop up blood from somebody who is going to be fully healed in an hour or two. She won't die from bleeding a bit, you know."

"He's all heart," Dawn whispered to Ru, doing as Giles suggested.

Veruca scowled. "He's camper than a row of tents."

"Please Ripper," Ethan begged, at the sight of Dawn measuring out one of his favourite Egyptian cotton shirts.

"Get over it," his old friend snapped. "Veruca, I am sorry to ask this given your condition, but are you ready to do this ritual?"

The werewolf looked bitterly at Xander, but a glance to Oz made up her mind. She couldn't give a shit about Anya and especially not Willow, but Oz did and that was all that mattered. "I can do it, but doesn't it need me to cum? No offence, Xander, but you're not exactly equipped in either the tool department or the temperament one to get me off."

"What does she mean by that?" the young man asked in a horrified squeak. He turned to Oz, "What does she mean by that?"

The young werewolf gave a frown and flicked his eyes to Veruca. In his anguish, Xander turned to look at Giles, "What does she mean by that?"

"Ah, er, nothing, I am sure," he floundered. "But she does have a point. It is important that she orgasms to produce the ah, um, required elements. You may have to do whatever special things she needs to reach that."

Xander stared at him for a moment and then turned to Faith, "What does he mean by that?"

She grinned at his distress. "Relax. You're capable, but I think the girl likes it a little rough. Smack her ass a little, that kinda thing."

"I can do that," he said, more to convince himself than anybody else. "Ahn and I do a lot of role-playing during sex. I can do the spanking."

"So Anya keeps telling us," Dawn sniggered.

His fixed grin seemed borderline hysteria. "I can do it."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Ru murmured.

Giles leant over to whisper to Oz. "Do you think you could give him a private talk? Maybe tell him where her particular sweet spots are and how to act for her?"

"Not big on the talking, in case you hadn't noticed," Oz said with a smile, "but I'll do what I can."

"Thank you. I appreciate how difficult it must be for you to be doing this. I don't think I could be so understanding if it were Bu... somebody I loved. To have to explain to another man how to excite your girlfriend during sex must be..."

"Yeah," Oz said, cutting him off.

++++++++++

Buffy shivered as she felt a tingle ripple through her from head to toes. Something was changing. She didn't really know what, but she certainly felt different. Not normal, but different. She smiled to herself and put a hand on Willow's arm.

"Will, I want you to do something for me."

++++++++++

Gohnarth chuckled in pleasure as he watched the events unfolding through the eyes of others. "Azaroth!"

"Yes milord?"

"Summon the Hagna king to me."

"Yes milord."

Striding over to the doors to the Machina Demonica room, the large demon spoke to a small Hagna that ran up to meet him. It bobbed in compliance and raced off toward the machine. In a minute, the Hagna king hurried over to Gohnarth's throne of bones and knelt in supplication at the edge of his slime pool.

"I live to sssserve Massster." The king was twice the size of his subjects, and looked strong enough to tear apart a truck with his bare claws.

Gohnarth turned his dread gaze upon the submissive beast. "I want you to taint the flow of magic being fed to the witch. I think it is time we encouraged her to take this beyond mere vengeance, don't you?"

++++++++++

"This is a little weird," Xander confessed.

Oz nodded. "Yep."

Together, they were sat in the bathroom of Ethan's motel room. If they had known how closely they resembled the earlier encounter between Tara and Faith, it might have made them smile.

Oz was sat on the linen hamper, while Xander sat on the closed lid of the toilet. The atmosphere was definitely strained, even though the two were very close friends. In fact, Oz was Xander's closest male friend since Jessie had been turned into a vampire right back when Buffy first came to town.

"The thing with Ru is that she is very much in tune with her inner wolf," the guitarist started.

"Oz, man..."

"No, Giles is right. You have to do this and do it right. Anya will be lost to you if you don't. So, if you love her, you'll put the best effort you can into... Ru."

Xander sagged. He knew his friend was correct, but it was so difficult knowing that to save the woman he loved, he would have to have sex with the woman Oz loved. It just didn't seem right...

"Wolves are pack animals. In that pack, they work together as a team, but there are clearly defined ranks. The Alpha male is the highest and gets the best of what is on offer."

"And you're her Alpha male, aren't you?"

"Yeah. You need to assume that role for the... act. Ru is fiery and strong willed. She will challenge you and you need to meet that challenge and put her firmly in her place - physically as well as mentally. Only then will she submit to you and give her all."

The young builder winced. "I'm sorry, man."

"Don't be. It's not your fault." He shuffled his sneakers together, rubbing the laces of one with the sole of the other. "Dominate her, Xander. Be hard and rough. She loves to be yanked back by her hair in the doggy position. Also, bite her neck and shoulders, a little. Spank her a lot. You know, rough sex."

"Gotcha. Be mean."

"Exactly."

They were silent for a while.

++++++++++

"They've gone!" Ruth gasped. "The possessed."

Jody looked shocked. "Which ones?"

"All three of them! One moment I could feel them, the next nothing."

"Is that possible?"

"It shouldn't be, but it seems it is."

"Dammit. Now what?"

"I don't know. I thought the essence of Hate would keep them in my thrall. Shit! I wonder how they did it."

"Too much Hate in the spell," Mary said. She suddenly realised she had made a mistake in letting Ruth know that she understood the working of magic better than she did.

"How do you know that?!"

"I study. The scroll that contained the spell stated that the Hate had to be used in moderation."

"I read that, but surely the more the better. The more Hate, the stronger the final spell."

"Exactly. The control issue is a minor side effect of the spell. The stronger the spell, the less control you have, and the quicker they will rebel. I did try to tell you."

"She did say something about that before you began summoning Meg's blood, Ruth," Kim confirmed.

"I know that!" the lead witch snapped. "But I didn't believe her."

"So what can we do now?" Kim asked.

Ruth frowned for a moment, then an idea came to her, apparently out of nowhere. "We get a little more active and take the fight to Summers and her weird friends. Forget about the possessed, they will be working their own agenda, but we need to get a little help."

"A little help?"

"Okay, a lot of help. An army. And I know just how we can do it, too."

++++++++++

"Remember, if you love Anya, be aggressive and dominant," Oz said, as they went back into the motel room.

The rest of the Scoobies, plus Veruca and Ethan, were sat on the floor or sofa, out of the way.

"Does he need to be here?" Xander asked Giles, pointing at the chaos worshipper.

"Oh, please," Ethan said, patting his hand on the air in front of him. "I've seen more lewd things than this. You should have been there in the old days when Ripper and I threw orgies. Oh, the perversions we tried! There was this one time with the late lamented Deirdre, I was fucking her cunt, Ripper was in her ass and a Tundi demon..."

"That's enough!" Giles snapped. More civilly, he said to Xander, "I'm afraid he does. His spell will block Willow from finding our location, but it has sealed the room. If anyone crosses the boundaries, the spell will be broken."

"Fine," Xander said, sulkily. "But I don't want him looking at my ass!"

Ethan chuckled. "Why? You have a nice 'ass' as you American's so quaintly say. Don't you think so, girls?" He glanced at Dawn, Faith, Ru and Tara. "What do you think, Ripper?"

"I think you don't have to have all your teeth for the spell to remain effective," Giles threatened. Ethan saw the steel in his eyes as he glared at him and shut his mouth. He enjoyed teasing his old friend but, unlike the others in the room, he knew just what Giles was really capable of if pushed too far.

"R-right," Xander said, nervously. "Veruca, could you come over here?"

She was perched on the sofa arm, her elbow on her crossed knee and chin resting on her cupped palm. "Oh boy," she said, despairingly. Half-heartedly, she slid to her feet and stood, one hand on a slung out hip. "I can't do this with wimp-o."

Xander glanced to Oz, who nodded his encouragement. 'It's just a role play, like I do with Ahn,' he silently told himself. "Okay," he said, firmly. "Get your skanky ass over her, bitch!"

Ru raised an inquisitive eyebrow and slowly walked toward him. A lot of things could be said about Ru, and Willow had tried many of the more choicer ones, but unsexy was not one of them. She exuded sexuality. Everything about her, from the slightest gesture to the purr of her voice and the sway as she walked, said 'fuck me, I'll be the best you've ever had'. She was the kind of naturally sleazy blonde that attracted attention without effort.

Stopping nose to nose with the young man, she stared defiantly into his eyes. "I need a man, not a mouse. You don't even rate."

SLAP!! His hand cracked across her cheek, rocking her head to the side. For a moment, she froze like that, wisps of her blonde hair covering her face, before she straightened and glared back at him. This time, it was her hand that slapped him, far harder than he had done to her.

"You wanna play rough, I can do that. But fair warning, Xander, I play for keeps."

Her evil smirk faded when she saw something settle in his eyes. It had taken her slap to make what he needed to do real, but now he fully understood. Seduction, gentleness, and respect had no place in her world. She was a primal creature - in more ways than one - and only respected the strong. Well, for Anya, he could find that strength.

SLAP!! His hand cracked across her face once more, but this time he didn't hold back. She gasped aloud and then hissed when his fingers coiled in her hair and yanked her face to his. "We're going to do this, Veruca, and you're going to submit. From this moment on, I own you."

Her eyes momentarily flicked to Oz, and he brought them back to his by a violent jerk of her head. "Look at me, not him! You are mine now and there is nothing he will do about it, got that?"

Her clawed fingers grasped for his face, trying to tear his eyes out, but he batted them away with his free hand. "And you can cut that out, too."

With a shove, he thrust her away from him and she collapsed to the floor. Instantly, she was levering herself up and glaring back at him, but he stepped forward and pressed her down with his foot. "You don't stand until I permit it."

"Fuck you!"

He chuckled but shook his head as he leant down to grasp hold of her left wrist. "Soon, slut, soon." With a rough twist, he bent her arm around and forced it up the centre of her back, holding it between her shoulder blades.

"Ow!"

"You see, Ru, you have to learn something. I can do anything I want to you."

"Like fuck you can! Ow!"

"Sorry, does that hurt?" he asked pleasantly, forcing her arm to bend further. "Shame. Ah well."

"I'm going to rip out your fucking throat and eat your heart!" she spat, struggling wildly.

To her amazement, he released her. "Okay, take your best shot."

She clambered to her feet, rubbing her sore arm, but puzzlement creasing her face. "What?"

"You heard. If you think you can take me, try it."

"Xander," Oz warned. "I don't think that's such a wise..."

The young builder raised his hand to silence the guitarist. Not taking his eyes off the singer, he nodded. "Yeah, you think you're a tough bitch, so go ahead. Show me."

A feral smile spread across her face and then she leapt at him, snarling and clawing.

People always underestimated Xander. For years he had fought side by side with Buffy, doing more than his fair share to hold back the forces of darkness. She was the Slayer, imbued with superhuman strength, speed and healing powers. She had a Watcher to train and drill her in every style of combat imaginable. She had destiny on her side. He had nothing.

And yet, he survived. No matter how deadly the enemy, he had always come out alive. Granted sometimes that required her intervention, or a plaster cast for his arm afterwards, but he lived. He fought without any magical powers, without any special lessons. It was 'on the job' training that had a heavy price for failure.

Plus, Ethan Rayne's devilment had once turned him into a soldier for a night, and he still retained all the knowledge of that persona.

So almost everybody in the room was shocked when he sidestepped her attack, grasped her wrist, curled it around her back once more, and thrust her face down on the bed. Following her, he dropped his knee into the small of her back and held her pinned, no matter how forcefully she struggled.