Written Aug 2003

Willow/Kennedy PG-13

The story: What if Xander had not seen Kennedy on the ground in the vineyard?

Buffy looked all around at the debacle,

"Get out of here! Fast!" She shouted at the potentials and everyone who could hear despite the chaos.

They were all trying to gather and get out of the vineyard.

Xander helped Rona to get up and they headed to the exit. Spike was bringing up the rear while Faith was at the head of the march, clearing their way out of any bringers for them to escape fast from this rout.

Once out, they ran to the wood. They stopped to breath about 200 meters from the vineyard when they realized no one was following them.

"Everybody alright? my God." Xander still was out of breath and trying ot understand that mess.

He looked at Amanda who looked in a daze, Vi was holding her. Xander was holding Rona who sighed,

"We’ll live, not like..." The black girl trailed off.

Buffy put her hand on her mouth as she recalled what had just happened, suddenly she froze.

"Wait, wait a minute where, oh my God."

Faith frowned in her turn as she looked all around too, "Where’s Kennedy?"

Buffy looked in shock

"He knocked her out against a vat." Rona stated.

"Oh God! Oh God no." Xander pleaded.

Faith looked angry, "Don’t tell me we let her in there!" She as mad at herself at the others.

"Xander take the girls to the hospital."

"You’re not going back in there, Buffy." Spike ordered the slayer.

"Step aside Spike, you can’t understand."

Xander looked at her in his turn, "Buffy, I understand... I want to get her back as much as you do but Spike is right, you-"

Xander trailed off, it was hurting him to say that because he wanted to get Kennedy back, but he felt in his gut that Buffy wouldn’t come back either if she headed back there.

Buffy walked towards him, she had tears in her eyes,

"She was still alive, tell me how do you think I can possibly tell Willow, honestly, that we let her in, still alive, tell me Xander!"

She wasn't angry at him, more at herself for letting Kennedy in there in the first place.

Xander couldn't say anything. Buffy stared at Faith who put a knife in her pocket and picked up a sword. Buffy’s resolved face came back,

"Even if she’s dead, I’ll bring her back to her."

And both slayers walked back to the vineyard firmly, Spike followed them of course.

"You girls, take them to the hospital." Xander told the potentials.

He rushed to follow the slayers.

"Go back, Xander." Buffy ordered him.

"You need someone to get her out of there while you distract Caleb."

They sighed but they knew they wouldn’t make him change his mind.

~~ In the meantime, at the vineyard ~~

Caleb was looking all around with a contented grin.

"Ah that was- oh boys, looky what we got here?"

He walked towards Kennedy who only just started to move again,

"Seems we’ve been left a little present."

He pulled her by the hair, "Oh! A big present... do you think the witch will enjoy it as much as we do."

He smiled proudly while keeping on pulling on her hair to get her up to her feet. She tried to grip his hands but couldn’t make him let go of her hair, she was cut on several places on her face, and he’d broken her a few ribs with his previous kick. She gripped his face and scratched him on the cheek, he punched her hard on the face, still holding her by the hair, she screamed.

~~

The others heard her.

"She’s still alive, hurry up!" Faith exclaimed.

They got rid even faster of the few bringers they were fighting with upstairs. They arrived just in time to see Caleb punching Kennedy again, this time letting go of her hair, she fell hard on the floor by the power of his punch.

He looked at them, "Oh, have we forgotten something?"

And he immediately grabbed Kennedy by the hair again, pulling her up to her knee, she was almost passed out. He had a knife on the other hand, very threatening, they stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"Stop stop!" Buffy yelled, fearing he would slit her throat.

He winked at her teasingly,

"Interesting huh? Do I move? Do I have the time to move before he bleeds her? Huh? So what do you think, Slayer?"

He moved against Kennedy's throat.

"No!" Faith was the one yelling this time.

"You don’t want her, let her go, I’ll take her place."

Caleb laughed at Buffy's proposition.

"You kids watch too much TV. And by the way, you’re not the center of the universe; I don’t want her?? Of course I do, I want them all dead, remember? I’ll get them all dead."

"I won’t let you do."

He smiled, "How?"

He pointed out the two dead bodies on the ground,

"You’ve already made my work easy."

He tightened his grip on Kennedy who groaned a bit,

"But I must say this one."

He pulled her up to her feet again,

"Really a wonderful present. Do you think the witch is gonna get all black-eyed on me after that, huh?"

They all understood he knew who Kennedy was to Willow.

"You can’t stop that, it’s everywhere, we know everything."

He looked at them, then he turned to look at Kennedy who was breathing heavily and shaking uncontrollably, not much from fear, rather from hurt,

"Seems you girls have a slight problem with men, don’t you?"

"Have you seen you?" Kennedy couldn't help but retort.

Caleb pulled her head backwards and pressed her against him, squeezing her very tight. She was having trouble to breath.

"Well maybe you haven’t guessed yet; I have a slight problem with women myself. Do you think we could work this out together?"

He moved his lips inches from her, she struggled. He held her tight, letting go of the knife as he put his hand on her neck, holding her by the waist.

"Let her go!" Faith exclaimed.

Caleb pointed out the knife, "I don’t need this."

Kennedy couldn't breath anymore while he went on, "I just have to squeeze just a little bit."

"Stop, stop we’ll do whatever you want!" Xander yelled, moving closer in reflex.

Caleb released his grip a little bit,

"Don’t you people understand? What we want is all of them dead... And you two as well, but I can work on that later... she, on the other hand, won't go out of here alive, you should’ve understood by now. This is too much of a great deal for me. »

Caleb stared at Kennedy, "I really do hope, young lady, that she cares about you enough to go all black-eyes, black hair and come after me, you know."

Caleb then looked at the others with a nasty smile, "Because afterwards, she’ll come after you."

They all stared at him, they were trying hard to think of a solution but thoughts of last year’s event kept wandering in Buffy and Xander’s mind.

Caleb gave Buffy a mocking gaze,

"What kind of leader are you? What kind of friend are you? You know you really should listen to your friends' advices sometimes huh, slayer?"

"Come on, bringing all these girls here just because I sorta told you so, without knowing a thing on your ennemy, nah really not a good leader. Not listening to your watcher just because you’re mad at him, nah, bad slayer, letting your best friend’s girlfriend... How can you possibly think she’s not gonna flay you alive after that? That would be fun in fact... But enough talking."

Caleb put his hand on both side of Kennedy’s head, about to slap her neck.

"No!"

Faith and Xander exclaimed while Buffy and Spike rushed though they were too far, but Caleb was thrown out against the wall brutally. Kennedy fell to the ground due to her multiple wounds weakening her. Once she was on the floor she was dragged forward with energy by an invisible force. She kept sliding on the ground towards... Willow.

The witch was at the top of the stairs. She started walking down, eyes black and hair slowly turning black too.

"Willow?" Buffy looked incredulous.

Xander moved closer, "How did you know?"

"I felt it, I felt something would go wrong."

Willow was still here, but her voice had already this motionless tone she had last year while chasing Andrew and Jonathan and talking to her friends. Not really caring, not showing any emotions.

Once Willow was at the bottom of the stairs, Kennedy held onto her girlfriend's legs, trying to get up. Willow immediately helped her, the potential was shaking. Willow’s gaze turned back to normal and the expression on her face as well when she looked at her. Buffy and Xander quickly glanced at each other.

"Let’s get out of here."

Caleb got up,

"Oh, oh that’s getting interesting, though you kind of anticipated our plans but well, never mind."

Caleb was looking straight at Willow whose gaze turned back to darkness when she heard and looked at him.

The others knew they had to go, not that they didn’t want Willow to tore Caleb apart but they knew that she was at the edge right now. But she wasn’t stable enough and going to the extent at this moment of her life would push her over the edge, and they might lose her. Willow entrust Kennedy to Spike who held the girl, not really sure he shouldn’t be holding Willow back instead.

Xander put himself in front of his best friend, "Willow stop, Willow."

The young man grabbed her by the shoulders to shake her a little bit as she didn't seem to be listening to him. Her hair was black and she was focused on Caleb.

"Willow!"

Xander managed to catch her attention, catch her gaze, still dark and angry,

"We need you, Willow. Stay with us, we need you, she needs you."

Willow shook her head and her frightened innocent look came back.

Xander smiled at her, "We’ll take care of him later."

Xander dragged her upstairs. Spike was still carrying Kennedy while Faith and Buffy made sure Caleb didn't try to follow them. They got out and walked very fast to Willow’s car, well, Xander’s car in fact.

Spike put Kennedy inside while Willow held Xander tightly,

"Thank you, thank you." She whispered within a few sobs.

"I’ll always be here for you, Will."

Willow then went inside and took her girlfriend in her arms.

"You get fast to the hospital, Spike and I are going back to the house to make sure everyone’s safe in there."

Buffy nodded to her slayer counter part and jumped in. Xander got on the passenger seat and they started the engine.

THE END

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