Title: Party 4: Trust (1/?)
Author: Ivy Gort Ivygort@hotmail.com
Rating: PG. Buffy/Oz
Note: This story is part of my Connection Series:The Slayer and her Wolf
Spoilers: Beer Bad, Wild at Heart, Something Blue
Feedback: Please! Tell me what you liked and what you think needs work.
Disclaimer: Joss owns everything in the world of Buffy, I am just playing with the characters and I promise to return them.


How shall I hold my soul, that it may not be touching yours?-Rilke

Trust Part One

Buffy could feel the warmth of Oz's emotions washing over her from his arms that were wrapped tightly around her. So safe, the young woman thought sleepily. She took a deep breath trying to gather in all the werewolf's unique smell. She didn't know if it was because he was a werewolf or just a human-but she had always found his essence-exciting.

The slayer knew she was at Giles' apartment, in the Watcher's bed, she just couldn't remember how she had gotten there or why she was in his bed in Oz's arms. Maybe a late night of slaying? she questioned. She was terribly tired, so maybe that was it. She lay, dozing, pressed against the werewolf's body a while a longer, floating in his love. She felt absolutely decadent basking in the peace of the sleeping boy's emotions-letting them fill her with a delicious tranquillity. The young slayer loved how her head fit perfectly on the pillow of his shoulder. But the nagging dilemma of how and why she was at Giles' kept intruding on her wish to go back to sleep-to sleep forever in Oz's arms-that's all she wanted.

Her sleepy haze vanished when Angel entered the bedroom. He broadcast hurt, worry, anger and the deep sense of loss to the young slayer. His mood totally overrode and drowned out the peace of Oz's. Though Oz was still in her mind, like Angel, only Oz was welcome-she craved his mental touch. Angel's touch was a black cloud reminding her of the night their bond had been formed, the night he drank from her. His pain became her pain the moment he walked into the room and she couldn't stand it. She was confused, why he was here, in Giles' bedroom?

"Come to me." A voice out of nowhere commanded her. Buffy opened her eyes, blinking her vision clear, trying to find the person behind the voice. All she saw was Angel sitting by the bed watching her intently.

"Come to me, now!" The voice seemingly pulled Buffy to her feet. Her sudden movement waking Oz and the werewolf watched her with the same questioning expression that Angel wore. The slayer started to walk towards the door without realizing it. The weakness in her body caused her to stumble and sit down heavily on the edge of the bed.

Pain lanced through her mind, blocking out everything around her. Screaming she fell back clutching her head with both hands trying to block out the agony. Vaguely she heard Angel shout for Giles but it was like she was underwater. Her body had a mind of it own and it stood once more, intent on leaving the room-Buffy watched as she hit at Giles' in the face as he tried to grab her. And she was thankful for what ever it was that had weakened her because Giles' was able to sidestep brunt of the blow. The follow through left her off balanced and Angel was easily able to grab her hand. It was broken hand and new agony raced through her.

"They aren't to be trusted. Resist them, they made you weak," the voice said blanking out everything else. And Buffy found she was tied to a chair in Giles' living room. Not just tied, chained to the chair. The rug was rolled up and placed in the corner and all the furniture was stacked in the hallway. The slayer was completely disorientated-first she was up in the bedroom-and then it was like she just materialized chained to a chair in the front room. Her body ached everywhere and she saw quite a few colorful bruises on her legs where her shorts ended.

"Oh good, you're awake. We can begin now," Giles said, walking into her line of sight. She saw he had a huge black eye. Buffy was able to take in the chalk runes on the wood floor.

"Giles? What happened?" the slayer asked. A headache was beginning in the back of her head and working its way to her temples.

"What do you remember?" Willow's voice asked from behind Buffy. The slayer turned her head and immediately regretted it as the pain intensified, causing a sick dizziness to fill her and darkness threatened the edges of her sight. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths trying to ease the sickness and her confusion.

Just then both Angel and Oz rushed in the front door of Giles' apartment. An intense emotional awareness from the two men slammed into Buffy's fragile mind. Oz's bright love intertwined with Angel's dark, brooding, but every bit as intense love, created an overload within the young girl. Buffy felt crowded in her own skin, that Angel and Oz were pushing her out of her own body-she thought she would explode from the their power.

"Buffy?" Willow questioned as she touched the little slayer's shoulder. The touch sent Buffy over the edge on which she was balanced and she thankfully slid back into darkness.

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

Oz sat next to the bed, the chained down slayer occupied, listening to Willow and Giles' argue for what had to be the eighth time in two hours. After the slayer had woken the first time and tried to fight her way out of Giles' apartment they had kept her chained. A precaution that was beginning to appear unnecessary since the slayer had spiked a fever a few hours ago. Now, the Witch and the Watcher were at odds on how to treat her. The young werewolf was frightened; the slayer seemed to be to wasting away before his eyes.

Oz thought back, fighting the haze of exhaustion that hung over his every movement--it had been six days since the nightmare began. Six days since Buffy first drank the drugged punch that Devon had given her and in those six days the Slayer had not eaten a bite of food. She was able to keep down some fluids, but precious little, thus the reason for the IV connected to her arm.

"You know it's wrong Giles' and I won't allow it!" Willow yelled walking back into the bedroom.

"I understand what you are saying Willow, without Buffy's permission no spell will work completely but we have to do something." The Watcher answered the Witch as he walked over and checked the slayer's IV line for the tenth time in the past thirty minutes. "Permission implies trust, so we could use the complete reversal spell. Instead of the other one. But at this point she can't give us her trust. We have no choice. This has to stop."

"Giles let's give her a little more time, Ethan has to sleep or feed or something, sometime." Willow pleaded. It wasn't hard for Oz to remember the blank look in his Buffy's eyes; a look put there by the Master Magician turned Master Vampire Ethan. He had done a Blood/Slave spell on the tiny slayer before the Scooby Gang could rescue her; the gang arriving just minutes too late to stop it. Or, as Giles' believed, they were able to stop the worst part of the spell, the part of the spell that would have created an unbreakable consort bond between the Vampire and Slayer. But the part he did complete, the part that turned the beautiful independent slayer into a mindless drone, the vampire was able to finish. And that was the part that was causing all the trouble now-because every time Buffy regained consciousness Ethan was able to exert control over her. The spell to break his hold needed her permission, permission she was unable to give in her present state while either unconscious or in Ethan's thrall. Willow continued, "Let's just give Angel and Spike another day. If they don't find Ethan by tomorrow morning then we will do it your way." The Witch reasoned sitting on the bed next to the slayer as she picked a wet wash cloth out of a bowl of cold water and wiped Buffy's sweaty brow.

The Watcher stood next to the IV bag that was hung up by a coat hanger, which in turned was hooked on a nail placed in the wall. "Willow, I don't think you understand the seriousness of Buffy's illness. A Slayer cannot sustain her metabolism without food, without lots of food."

The Watcher looked grim, "it has been nearly a week since she has eaten, even you can see the weight lost she is suffering. I fear if we wait to break the hold that Bastard has over her she will may not recover."

Oz nearly panicked when Giles' said she could die. He watched Willow get up off the bed and stalk towards the window looking out at the false dawn. Oz could see his ex-lover's resolve face melting. She turned back to the Watcher, "but your way won't break the connection completely, will it? She'll still be able to feel him inside her, like she does Angel?"

Giles' nodded at the young Witch. "Giles' she'll be able to feel his sickness whenever he's close to her, it will always be there-that evil-and gods forbid that he ever get his hands on her again because then," the young girl paused. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and she turned away from the Watcher not willing to voice what would happen to Buffy.

Giles' took off his glasses and started cleaning them with his ever-present hankie. "Yes, his soul, if that is what you refer to a demon's spirit, will still be attached to Buffy's." The watcher put his clean glasses back on, squinting at the witch. "But she will be able to resist his pull and start to recover physically." The watcher's voice took on a pleading tone for the first time. "When she is well, we will be able to combine forces and hunt him down like a rat."

Willow shook her head turning back to face the Englishman, "What kind of vile…ugliness, will he be able to subject her to in the mean time?" Oz could see that Willow had made her point when Giles' flinched. Then she pressed her advantage, "you all think she's so strong in here," Willow pointed at her heart. "Because she's the slayer. Well, she's not, Giles' she's a young woman who's seen too much, and been through too much. You never see it because she hides it from you, but I live with her and she can't hide it from me! You don't hear her cries at night when she has a nightmare." The young Witch finished glaring at Giles' in an unspoken challenge.

Oz remembered the dream Buffy had about the Master killing her and how every time he closed his eyes he was haunted by it. The filth that vampire had left behind in Buffy's mind was every bit as terrifying as anything Ethan could come up with.

Oz thought if the exchange between Willow and Giles' hadn't been so bleak than it would have been like he was a spectator at a tennis match. The verbal barbs just like a ball being hit back and forth. But, he wasn't a spectator; and this wasn't tennis, they were deciding Buffy's future. Though his emotions towards her were new, and they never had a chance to discuss them before this nightmare began, he had a stake in the situation. He picked up the slayer's hand, the one not encased in a huge cast, and reached out to her sleeping mind. Nothing. He received nothing in return. No sparks of recognition, no answering touch to his psyche, the way he expected. They were losing her, rather it was from the physical illness or the mind evil she was infected with, if they didn't do something soon she would die or go insane.

"Willow, Giles' is right," the Werewolf stated simply. The sister of Buffy's heart turned startled and walked back over to the bed, keeping it between her and the two men. Oz watched as she stoked the unconscious slayer's face, the werewolf was able to sense the witch taking the same mental accounting that he had just done. At her defeated sigh, he knew she felt it too, they had no choice but to do the ritual Giles' set forth.

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

Buffy heard chains clanging and then felt hands pulling something off of her wrists. She could feel the intertwined love of oz and Angel at a distance. Like two strands of thread wrapped around each other: one dark and one light: both painful in their intensity. They rubbed at her raw mind; making it bleed--even as her soul sought their comfort--her raw bleeding mind rejected them.

The slayer wondered at the weakness in her body; she tried and failed to open her eyes. The hands were back; they were…neutral hands. The person they belonged to didn't burn her already fragile brain with any weird electrical shocks.

"They made you weak. You can't trust them…." The voice said. Grating again on the open wound of her thoughts. As much as Angel and Oz hurt her, the voice hurt far worse. And the things it was constantly telling her and showing her. She moaned against the power the voice held over her-hot tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes as she wrestled with it's words.

"Shh, Buffy. We have you. We'll make it go away." She recognized Giles' words.

Giles' lifted her, holding her so she could hear his beating heart. He kept his senses under such control that they didn't hurt her. To her relief, she was able to drawl comfort from his physical presence.

"Don't let them do this…." The voice spoke. "Fight, kill them, its all their fault." It said and Buffy out of reflex, weakly swung her fist blindly. Two small hands grabbed hers and held them, Buffy knew then that Giles' was carrying her and Willow was helping. Her best friends touch painless, too.

Buffy was placed on a hard surface; Willow continued to hold on to her hands as first one then other was re-chained. The tiny blonde floated for a while and when she woke she was just able to raise her head up and open her eyes. She tried to blink her vision was blurry clear but couldn't. She could tell she was back in Giles' front room and laying spread eagle chained to the floor.

Willow looked up from, whatever it was she was doing, over in the corner of the room. The slayer couldn't tell what exactly the Witch was doing; though she dropped it as soon as she noticed Buffy was awake. The Witch rushed over to the slayer, kneeling by her head.

"Buffy, I need you to give me permission to do a reversal spell. Please Buffy, can you hear me? I need permission." The slayer couldn't keep her head up or her eyes open. She was so incredibly tired. "Buffy, stay with me!" She heard the desperation in her best friend's voice but the lure of the darkness was too inviting. The last thing the young slayer heard as she faded out was the mocking laughter of the unidentifiable voice. The voice that was intent on driving her insane.

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