The Crow: Vengence
Part 2 - Resurrection
by: Miss Witch
Rated R for violence and gore
Email: Miss Witch
Summary: Sometimes a soul has unfinished business and can't rest until vengeance is achieved.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Buffyverse or the Crow comic series. I don't pretend to own them. If I could, I'd pretend I didn't own this story either.
Spoilers: Takes places sometime after Hush, Maggie Walsh isn't dead, and Adam's not in the picture.
Distribution: The Usual Suspects - Dword, Gabi, Dee, Trinity Last. You want it? Just ask.
Feedback: Does the word "Duh!" mean anything to you?
Author's Notes: [ ] means thoughts.
Author's Notes 2/Warnings: Dear gentle readers, if you've read any of my stuff before, you know that usually I write happy, fluffy stories. This is not one of those stories. This is a dark, dark fic filled with death and despair. I'm not kidding. There is only 1 chapter where someone doesn't die. I made myself cry people!!! Consider yourselves warned.
Warning: The following story contains:
Character deaths - in spades
Angst - oozing from every word
Blood, torture and gore - it ain't pretty
Riley - the bastard
"I believe there's a place where the restless souls wander. Burdened by the weight of their own sadness they cannot enter heaven. And so they wait, trapped between this world and the next, endlessly searching for a way to rid themselves of their pain - in the hope that somehow, some day, they will be reunited with the ones they Love."
--- quote from "The Crow: City of Angels"
Part 2 - Resurrection
Joyce Summers placed flowers on her daughter's grave as the night surrounded her. The cemetery was silent with the exception of some hardy crickets doing their best to attract mates. Joyce didn't fear the creatures that might have harmed her, not when she had a vampire keeping guard for her. Tearfully, Joyce stepped back to study her daughter's grave, to study all of the graves.
Joyce didn't know where she'd found the strength to insist that they were buried together. But she had.
Through sheer force of will, she'd overruled the Rosenburg's homophobic denial of their daughter's lover, and had browbeaten the Harris' to bury Anya next to their son. She, herself, had buried her beloved daughter next to Giles, the man Buffy had only recently found the courage to love. Unable to stand the thought of attending six separate funerals, Joyce had insisted on one. She'd felt it was only right to bury them as they'd lived and died. Together.
A sob of sorrow escaped Joyce as the realization that they were gone, all of them, overwhelmed her. These people she'd grown to love and respect had been taken from her in one fell swoop. Not by a demon or a vampire, but by humans. Joyce wept with the unfairness of it all.
"There, there, luv." Spike said awkwardly, pulling the distraught woman to his chest. He blinked several times, fighting his own tears as Joyce's sobs soaked his chest. Despite his best efforts, he'd grown quite fond of the spunky Slayer and her friends.
Spike knew it wasn't right for the Slayer to have died like that, at the hands of human hatred. Spike closed his eyes, patting Joyce's back clumsily.
He, himself, had found the bodies, the scent of blood drawing him to the shop. Spike had stood in the doorway, stunned by the sight that had greeted him. Not since his days as William the Bloody, running with Angelus, had he seen such carnage.
The Magic Box had been awash in blood, the metallic scent of copper filling the air. Even though he was a vampire, the intensity of the smell had made his stomach roll. He'd stared helplessly at the crumpled bodies, at the fallen lovers who'd tried in vain to protect each other, and known that they were all dead. He'd snuck away and found a pay phone, calling 9-1-1, then watched from a distance as the police swarmed to the store.
Joyce had been listed on the cash register as an emergency contact, and had been called to the scene to identify the bodies. Spike had emerged from hiding to prevent her from barging into the store. It was bad enough that he would never be able to forget the sight of Buffy's dead eyes as she'd lain in her dead lover's lap. There was no need for Joyce to see it. Spike shivered at the memory.
The Watcher had been tortured. Spike was sure of it. There was no doubt that whoever had done this had tortured Giles and made Buffy watch. It never occurred to Spike that not even two years ago, he would have gleefully done the same. Right now, Spike only knew it was one of the most horrible things he could've imagined.
Robbery gone wrong, the police had decided. Spike snorted with disgust. Only the Sunnydale police wouldn't know a hit when they saw one. Robberies gone wrong did not include torture and execution style shootings.
"We need to go." Spike said suddenly, his dead skin prickling. He could sense an energy in the air. He wasn't sure what was going on, but knew that he needed to get Joyce away from it.
"I don't want to leave her alone." Joyce sniffled. A black crow alighted on Buffy's headstone, focusing its bright eye on them.
"She's not." Spike pointed out a bit desperately, his unease growing. His sensitive ears picked up the familiar sound of movement beneath the earth. "She's got Giles and that bird'll watch over her." The crow cawed as if in agreement. Joyce nodded despondently, allowing Spike to lead her away. The bird cawed again, watching their departure with a beady eye. When it could see them no more, it began pecking at Buffy's grave, its beak tapping loudly on the granite.
The crow waited patiently as thunder rumbled in the night sky. It had a mission. A mission shared by the occupant of the grave.
Suddenly, a hand broke through the dirt below it, clawing its way to freedom. The bird watched impartially as another hand soon followed, dirty and bleeding.
Buffy gasped for air as she dug her way free of the grave. Dirt and grass matted itself in her hair as she sat up. Cawing encouragingly, the crow hopped on the headstone as Buffy dragged herself from her coffin. Covered in grime, Buffy lay still on the ground, her chest heaving from her efforts. Above her, lightning flashed through the air. She was oblivious to the first drops of rain that began to fall.
Slowly, with great pain, Buffy stood, turning to look at the bird calling to her impatiently. She stared with disbelief at the tombstone it was resting on.
Buffy Anne Summers
Beloved daughter and friend
She left us too soon
Unbelieving, Buffy stumbled forward. Another flash of lightning illuminated the grave next to hers.
Rupert Giles
Beloved friend and mentor
The world will never know a finer man
"No!" Buffy wailed, falling to her knees. She traced the words with her fingers, unable to believe they were real. Buffy wept inconsolably while above her, the sky opened up, rain pouring over her as if the heavens had joined her weeping.
Ruffling its feathers against the rain, the bird continued to call to her insistently. Emotionally spent, Buffy finally stood, looking around her. Her Slayer vision enabled her to read the graves that surrounded her.
[Willow Rosenburg, Tara McClay, Alexander Harris, Anya Jenkins.] Buffy's heart broke just a little more with each name that she read. But even as she was filled with sorrow, something else flowed into her. Hate, rage, anger all swirled through her.
Her eyes dead and cold, Buffy turned to the crow, who still waited for her.
"I know what I have to do." Buffy told it simply. The bird cawed once more, and took flight into the night.
Turning her back on the graves, Buffy strode purposely from the cemetery.
+++++++++
Buffy gave no thought to her destination as she wandered through Sunnydale. Tired and exhausted, she found herself standing outside of Giles' apartment. It was silent and dark, no welcoming light in the window. Giles had always left a light on for her, just in case she had needed him in the middle of the night. Buffy knew, even as she searched for the key he'd kept hidden away, that Giles wouldn't be there to welcome her. Yet still, as she fumbled with the key and the lock, Buffy couldn't help but call out for him as she pushed the door open.
"Giles?" she called softly, as though he might have been sleeping upstairs. "Giles!" Buffy yelled louder when there was no answer. He always answered her. No matter how soft her voice, he'd been attuned to her, waking instantly. Slamming the door shut behind her, Buffy rushed up the stairs to the loft. "GILES!" Buffy screamed, a note of hysteria in her voice.
Giles' bed was empty, as she'd known deep down inside it would be.
"Oh god, Giles." Buffy sobbed, reality sinking in. Heedless of her muddy clothes and dripping hair, Buffy crawled onto the bed she'd shared with Giles for only a few short months. Pulling his pillow close, Buffy inhaled the scent that lingered there. She clutched the pillow tightly to her, and wept until she fell into an exhausted sleep.