Rebirth Part 2
By Kimmi


She was busted.  An image of police cars with lights flashing and sirens wailing streaked through her mind.  She could see the headlines in the newspaper THE DEBUTANT GRAVEROBBER! Her entire life flashed before her eyes, and except for the last year she didn’t really like what she saw.  It felt like a hundred years had passed since the hand had descended on her and blew her life out of the water, but it was really on seconds.  Her heart was racing like a thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby, and she could feel the fear-induced cold sweat sliding down her body.  

Cordelia wanted to run, hide or disappear, it didn’t really matter at this point which instead she opted to turn around.  Maybe she could talk her way out of this.  She was devastated at the loss of her friend and it was effecting her mind. Yeah that was it, temporary insanity.  She pushed her fear aside and let her grief shine through, hoping it would be enough to keep her out of jail or the loony bin, and turned around.

Cordy very nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw who had caught her, the last person she ever excepted to see.  “OZ! What are you doing here?  You nearly gave me an aneurysm, how long have you been there?  What did you see?”  

“I heard, I came, I saw.”  The werewolf answered in his usual deadpan voice, as he pointed at Buffy’s casket.  “So when did you become a body snatcher?”

Cordy’s mind flew circles around itself trying to come up with even a halfway plausible reason for what she was doing, but she knew she didn’t have a chance.  He had caught her with her hand in the cookie jar   * eewww much? Bad mental image C, strike that and change it to caught red handed *.  “It’s not what you think. Ok well maybe it is what you think, but it’s not for the reason you think.  Not that I know what  you’re thinking or anything, but I really am doing this for a good reason.  Only I can’t tell you what that reason is, cause they told me not to or something really bad would happen.  I really can’t believe I’m doing this myself, but here I am, and please don’t call the police.”  

Cordelia wondered if she and Willow had somehow switched brains, because she was babbling just like the red-head used to do whenever she got nervous.  She peered at Oz through her lashes and waited for some flicker of emotion to cross his expressionless face so she would know if he was going to turn her in or not.

“I have an idea why you’re taking Buffy’s body, she doesn’t smell dead.  I can smell the formaldehyde they used on her but there’s no smell of decay.  Even with the chemicals they use bodies start to decompose the second the heart stops beating.  Don’t worry I wont tell anyone what your doing, but we should hurry cause I can hear someone coming this way.”  The werewolf bent to the casket to open the lid even before he finished speaking.

Cordy stared at the boy open-mouthed trying to comprehend what he had just said.  It was by far the longest speech she had ever heard him utter and it was a little disconcerting.  He knew she was stealing Buffy’s body, he wasn’t going to rat her out and he was going to help her all on the vague non-answer she had given him and his preternatural sense of smell.  She took a quick look around before bending to help him, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Even though they needed to hurry they opened the casket lid slowly, reverently.  It didn’t seem right to just throw the lid open and yank Buffy out like a sack of grain.  They picked her up and gently laid her down on the blanket Cordy had spread on the ground.  By the time they lifted the blanket with Buffy in it into the back seat of the rental car, Cordelia could hear what Oz had heard minutes before.  

The rattle of an old truck and voices were becoming clearer with every second as Cordy jumped into the driver’s seat and started the car.  She knew she only had maybe a minute before they would be in clear view, but she felt the need to waste precious seconds to thank the werewolf.  “Thanks Oz I really appreciate this.”

Oz waved her thanks away, he had liked Buffy and he knew that she was needed.  He didn’t know how Cordelia was going to accomplish it, but he hoped she would.  “Don’t worry about it. Now you better get out of here, I’ll try to stall them.  Good luck.”

Cordy gave him a slight grin and took off as fast as she could weave her way back through the headstones.  She glanced back once to see the guitar-playing werewolf running toward the now visible truck coming up the narrow service road.  She quickly turned her attention back to driving and hauled ass out of the cemetery as fast as she could without drawing any more attention to herself.  

*******************

Cordy had to fight to stay awake.  She had been on the road for six hours, and with very little sleep for the past couple of days she had to force herself not to doze off at the wheel.  The terrain had gotten steadily steeper and twisting as she climbed higher into the mountains.  She knew she was getting close to where TPTB had told her needed to go, she could see the craggy peak of the mountain that was her final destination.  

It took her another hour on the narrow winding road before she got to the base of the cloud-shrouded peak.  Cordy turned off the main road onto a dirt trail that really couldn’t be called a road and fought the car between the deep ruts.  She didn’t quite make it halfway up the mountain before the road became completely impassible and she was forced to abandon it.  

It took her five minuets to get Buffy out of the car and situated on the blanket.  She was going to have to drag the slayer up the mountain, there was no way that she was ever going to be able to carry her.  Before she could get started Cordy was stopped as an icy chill ran down her spine.  She looked around and noticed for the first time that it was getting dark.  The apex of the mountain was blocking what little daylight remained and it was starting to get a little cold.  

Cordelia grabbed the light jacket she had brought and a flashlight and squared her shoulders, determined to make it up the overgrown hill even though she was already dead tired.  Grabbing the edges of the blanket she started off dragging it behind her.  The going was slow and torturous, the steep climb quickly draining what little strength she had.   

In the first mile Cordy had lost all feeling in her legs and arms.  The only way she could tell she was still moving was the trees slowly sliding by.  She had to keep looking behind her to make sure that she was still dragging Buffy’s body on the blanket.  She lost all track of time as darkness descended and memories played themselves out before her eyes.  

If the scenes had been in chronological order Cordy might have lost herself in them as she relived the past.  But they jumped from day to day year to year in a convoluted display that reminded her of some weird foreign film that started in the middle jumped to the end and then rushed headlong into the beginning.  One second she saw Buffy at graduation and the next it was bug man, then any number of research sessions in the library and then it was prom.  The only thing that was constant in each of the visions was the blonde slayer; everyone else that had been present at those events seemed fuzzy, like they weren’t really there.

Cordelia could never say later how long it had taken her to get up the mountain.  When she finally stopped in front of the cave TPTB had told her to go to it was completely dark.  Night had stolen over the mountain like a silent predator and as she looked around Cordy couldn’t help but wonder how she had managed to get there.  It was lucky that she hadn’t fallen in the dark and broken a leg or her neck, she had never even taken the flashlight out of her jacket pocket.

When she remembered the flashlight Cordy tried to release her grip on one corner of the blanket but her hand wouldn’t obey her; she couldn’t even feel it.  She wanted to rest.  Well maybe rest wasn’t the right word for it.  She wanted to fall down and slip into a coma for about a week but the entrance to the cave seemed to be pulling her forward.  

The seer couldn’t resist the call that drew her into the gaping mouth of the cave even though she was more than a little afraid.  Cordy was convinced that as soon as she stepped into the yawning black maw it would snap shut and never let her out again.  Her feet just ignored her fear though and kept her moving forward.  She closed her eyes as her left foot stepped across the threshold and held her breath when the right one followed.  It took her a few seconds before she could force her eyes open and her lungs to begin to work again when she wasn’t crushed by a couple of tons of rock.  

Cordy peered into the darkness and wondered just how she was supposed to find anything in the pitch-black cave.  It was so dark that the air around her seemed as if it was a living breathing thing, pressing against her, waiting for her to make a mistake so that it could swallow her whole.  She couldn’t see more than a few feet in and was worried about wondering around in circles.  Glancing from side to side Cordy made a quick decision and moved to the left wall.  Making sure she was touching the wall with her shoulder she started off.  

The going was extremely slow since Cordy would only take a step forward after she had to thoroughly tested the ground in front of her with her foot before taking each step.  She was terrified of falling into a pit or tripping over a rock or just falling flat on her face.  She was literally in the middle of nowhere and if she got hurt she was on her own, no one knew where to look for her.

After what seemed like years, Cordy thought her eyes had adjusted finally to the dark.  She could see the outline of the walls and could almost make out the floor of the cave.  After a few more halting steps she realized that it was a glow from the walls of the cave itself that was lighting her way.  It had been dim enough at first that she hadn’t noticed it, but now it was bright enough that she could see not just the walls and the floor ahead of her but the ceiling as well.  

Cordelia Chase stopped dead in her tracks as she stared wide-eyed at the sight before her.  The ceiling of the cave rose a hundred feet above her head and if she didn’t know that she was underground and could feel the weight of the mountain above her, she would have sworn she was outside under the open sky.  The roof of the cave was glittering with lights that resembled stars, making it look like someone had taken an entire universe and put it underground.  She could almost swear that she could see individual galaxies turning and bright flares as new stars were born.  She knew that the cave had to have some sort of mystical properties if TPTB had sent her here, but she never in a million years would have expected a wonder like this.

Cordy shook her head to clear the haze that was quickly enveloping her mind as she gaped at the cave.  She gave herself a good mental slap and forced one foot in front of the other.  She prayed to whoever was listening that she was close to where she was supposed to be, she didn’t know how much longer she could keep moving.  

Dragging Buffy across the sand covered floor of the cave; Cordy nearly stopped again when she saw a massive black shape looming in the center of room.  As she neared it she could see that it was a large stone slab with giant monoliths at each corner stretching up to the star studded ceiling above.  She couldn’t have asked for a clearer sign that this was where she was supposed to be if TPTB had paint a big yellow arrow on the side of it.  

The sheer size of the thing had made it look closer than it was and when she finally made it to the alter, because she could see now that was what it was, Cordelia was dwarfed by the enormity of it.  The alter itself was nearly as tall as she was and she could barely see over it.  What she could see of the surface of the slab looked like polished black glass with a sooth indention in the center, shaped almost like a person.  

Cordy could never say afterwards how she had managed to get the slayer’s body on top of the huge rock table.  All she could remember was burning pain and a feeling like her arms being torn off. The next clear memory she had was of staring down into Buffy’s still cold face, her heart trying to race her breath out of her body.

The Seer sat back and tried to get her breath to slow to something resembling normal as she began emptying her pockets.  Sitting the flashlight she had yet to use on the slab next to her, Cordy turned it on and looked carefully at the other items she had brought.  The candles she had bought before leaving LA, but The Powers had given the two most important things to her, an amulet and a knife.

The knife’s curved blade was shining with an inner light as she held it up for inspection.  The handle was circular, carved into the shape of a serpent eating it’s own tail and two glittering red jewels for eyes.  Cordy quickly put the knife down.  She had only really looked at it once since TPTB had given it to her, she had gotten the feeling that the snake’s red eyes were staring into her soul, and judging her.  The amulet was some sort of black stone, so dark that it seemed to absorb the small amount of pale light and smother it.   She didn’t like looking at it anymore than the knife.

Cordelia placed the stone amulet on Buffy’s forehead as she had been instructed.  TPTB had told her she didn’t need any witchy-type chants, that all she had to do was stare at the stone and call to the slayer.  The amulet was supposed to make it so she could communicate with the blonde girl’s soul and hopefully convince her to return to her body.  Cordy had no problem with that part, it was the second part that she was going to have a real problem with.

The Powers had told her that just calling the slayers soul back from where it had fled to wouldn’t be enough to bring her back to life.  She had been dead for a couple of days and her blood would no longer support life.  Cordelia would have to replace it and it couldn’t be just any old blood either, it had to be her blood.  That’s what the knife was for.  TPTB had told her that she would have to give Buffy her heart’s blood.  The way they shiny guys had explained it, Cordy would have to make an incision in her chest, above her heart and a matching one on the slayer’s.   She could already see a few logistical problems with that, but decided to cross those bridges when she came to them.  She had to actually find Buffy’s soul first. Once she got her back into her own body she could then replace her blood and give her breath.  

Cordy arranged the candles around the slayer’s head like she had been told to.  She had to fumble with the lighter several times trying to light them as her hands were shaking so badly.  Once she had lit the last one she took the amulet and placed it in the middle of Buffy’s forehead, and then sat back.  She wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to do next.  All TPTB had told her was that she had to call Buffy back.  She was trapped between dimensions and that she had to choose to come back.

The amulet was somehow supposed to make it possible for Cordy’s mind to pierce the veil that separated the dimensions, but she had no idea of how to make it work.  ‘You will know what to do when the tie comes.’  That’s what they had told her.  Well the time had come and she had no idea what to do.

“I’m sorry Buffy.  I have no clue what I’m doing.  I don’t even know why they said I had to be the one to do this.  Personally I think Willow or Giles would be better choices since they do all that hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo crap.  I mean come on, most of them didn’t even think I should have been there.  OK, Giles and Willow both were really nice to me, but Xander was just an ass.  He kept glaring at me like he thought I had no right to be upset.  And Anya kept glaring at me every time I happened to glance at Xander.”  

Cordelia didn’t feel the change in the air around her, she didn’t notice the warm glow that surrounded her.  She didn’t really pay attention to the figure suddenly sitting across from her.  She just kept talking.

“I know you and I were never really what you would call friends.  But after I got to know you and all the creepy stuff and the saving the world and all, I got to like you.  Ok, maybe I didn’t show it but I did.  I liked you.  There I said it.  I thought you were pretty cool the way you saved everyone all the time and you had like no clue, just like the rest of us.  I don’t think I ever told you this but I kinda envied you too.  I mean here you had these friends, real friends that cared about you and all I had was Harmony and the rest of those sheep.  You and the Scoobs really loved each other and did things for each other.  My so-called friends would stab me in the back the second they thought it would advance them on the social ladder.  

Somewhere along the way I think I started caring about you.  I mean it wouldn’t hurt this much if I didn’t, right?  I don’t know what to do Buffy.  I miss you and I want you to come back.  Not for Dawn or Willow or Xander or the whole damn world, but for me.  I know that probably sounds selfish cause they are in just as much pain as I am, but I need you too and that’s all I care about right now.”

Cordy stopped talking as unfamiliar emotions threatened to close her throat with their intensity.  She thought for a moment that it was going to drown her, until she felt a light breeze caress her cheek.  For the first tie since she started speaking, Cordy looked away from the amulet she had been focused on and took in her surroundings.

The pale cold light that had infused the cave before had changed, now it was warm and bright and seemed full of life.  The cave itself seemed insubstantial, as if it was only an illusion and the light was the only thing that was real.  But the thing that caught and held the seer’s eyes was the near transparent figure sitting across from her.   Buffy was floating just above her body, hand stretched out toward the seer.  

Cordy realized that it was the almost-touch of the illuminated slayer that she had felt on her cheek.   She knew that she had to act fast, she had to convince Buffy to go back into her body and replace her blood before she faded out.  Reaching out her own hand Cordy watched as it passed into the specter in front of her, and although it met no resistance she could feel something.  It was like walking into a patch of sunlight on a cold day.  It felt warm and welcoming and most of all it felt alive.  

“Buffy.”  Cordy didn’t speak the name so much as if fell softly from her lips on its own.   “Will you let me bring you back?  Please?  I’ll understand if you don’t want to come back but I really want you to, for me.  I don’t care at this point if you never want to have anything to do with me but I need you here, on earth.  I need to you walking and talking and breathing and living.  I can’t stand you being dead it wrong.  You’re Buffy, you’re not supposed to die.  You’re supposed to be here throwing one-liners back at my stupid insults.  You’re supposed to be here making sure my ego stays in check.  You’re supposed to be here saving the world.  You’re supposed to be here so that I can work up the courage to tell you how much I love you and how big of an idiot I was not to see it.  Please come back Buffy cause I don’t know how long I can hold on without you in the world.  So do you want to come back?”

The slayer’s specter tilted her head as if pondering the question then gave the barest of nods signaling her consent.  Cordelia nearly wept with relief.  She was going to get Buffy back and once she did everything would be right with the world again.  The cheerleader leapt forward in an attempt to throw her arms the ghost blonde but fell against her lifeless body instead when she met no resistance.  

Cordy found herself blushing furiously as she realized Buffy’s apparition had moved and was now directly under her grazing up at her.  The brunette closed her eyes for a moment to get her breathing under control and to clear her mind so she could concentrate on what she had to do.  TPTB had only given her until sunrise to bring Buffy back or she would be lost to them forever.  

When the cheerleader opened her eyes she found the scene just as she remembered it with the blonde hovering just beneath her looking up at her with curiosity shining in her transparent eyes.   Cordy gulped down the lump that was forming in her throat and reached for the ceremonial knife she had been given.  The position she was in, both legs resting beside the slayer’s left leg, was too cumbersome.  She threw one leg over Buffy’s slim hips so that she was straddling the other girl and sat up so she was not trying to balance on one arm.  

The Powers had told her that she didn’t need spells.  They had said that all she needed was the will to do what needed to be done but Cordelia found that it didn’t feel right to say nothing.  So she offered up a small prayer before she brought the knife to the Slayer’s alabaster chest.  The alabaster skin offered no resistance to the razor sharp blade and the girl couldn’t stop the shudder as she stared into the gaping wound she had created.  Even though it shouldn’t have, it surprised her that there was no blood.

Cordy moved the amulet from the slayers head and placed it over the cut before bringing the knife to her own chest.  She had to fight to keep her hand steady and force it drag the blade down her flawless skin.  The blood began to well and if she wasn’t seeing it with her own eyes the brunette wouldn’t have believed she had managed it, there was absolutely no pain whatsoever.  The bright red drops started turning into a trickle and it took a monumental effort of will to pull her eyes away.  

As the trickle turned into stream Cordy lowered herself until the wound was directly over the amulet.  She pressed her chest into the stone and could feel her blood flowing into Buffy.  She had now called the slayer’s soul back and was now pouring her own life-force into the other girl.  There was only one more thing to do in order to bring the blonde back from the dead.  She had to give her breath.

The ex-cheerleader looked into ethereal eyes and held their gaze as she tentatively brushed her lips against Buffy’s.  As Cordy breathed out she tried not to think about how cold the slayers lips were and how incredibly gross the entire thing was.  When her lungs were empty she pulled back wanting to see the girl’s return from the dead.  She watched and waited for eternally long seconds, waited for the payoff TPTB had promised her.  

Cordelia was vaguely aware that her blood was still oozing out of the cut she had made.  She was aware of her heart trying to climb up her throat.  She was aware that Buffy wasn’t breathing.  She was aware that the slayer’s ghost was still floating above her body.  She was aware that The Powers That Be were full of shit.  She was aware that she had failed.  She was aware that she had lost the blonde forever.

What she wasn’t aware of was the tears rolling down her cheeks.  She wasn’t aware of them falling into the hole in Buffy’s chest.  She wasn’t aware that she was begging the girl to breath.  She wasn’t aware she had closed the distance between their lips once again until they were touching.  

This time she could feel the air being sucked out of her lungs.  This time she could feel lips beneath hers starting to warm and move.  This time she could feel the amulet burning into her skin.  This time their breath and blood and souls mixed and suddenly Buffy’s arms were around her and they were kissing and Cordy was sure she was going to explode, it felt so right.  

She didn’t know how long they kissed but at some point her chest began to feel so tight it hurt and Cordy realized it was because she needed to breathe herself.  Even so, she reluctantly broke away from the slayer.  As she gasped for air she watched a smile spread over Buffy’s face and knew it was mirrored on her own.

The cheerleader felt a joy such as she had never experienced before surge through her and fill her.  It was as if she was glowing from the inside out.  “Is it really you?  You’re really back?”

“I’m not sure.  Who am I?”  

Cordy suddenly wanted to cry again.  Damn it this couldn’t be happening.

TBC