Fic: Finding the Slayer (3/?)

TITLE: Finding the Slayer
Author: Ivy Gort
E-MAIL: ivygort@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
RATING: PG No hot girl on girl action, yet.
SPOILERS:Centered in Second Season, with Seventh Season SpoilersPAIRING: Buffy/Willow
SUMMARY: I don't know; Buffy is injured and she has strange dreams?
DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, I?m just abusing them.
ARCHIVING/DISTRIBUTION: Not yet.
FEEDBACK: Please, any kind of positive input is welcome.

Note: Mad Hamlet is my hero! And AMS is a Goddess.

Author's Note: Here is part three. I still have no clue where this story isgoing and honestly, its starting to piss me off. There I was Sunday, writing the next part to Time Travel, when wham, an outline for this story just unfolded before me. So I quickly scribbled it all down with a big sigh of relief. Started writing this part and half-way through, it dug in its heels and refused to move. Didn't Blake say 'Without contraries is no progression made?' Well contrary this buster! If he had a story like this one to write no wonder he ended up drawing pictures of a flea's ghost.

Buffy could feel at least three people in her room. The one holding her hand she knew instinctively was Willow. And she could tell that Willow wasn?t happy about something.

?No, Giles, Mr. Travers. You may not take her.? She heard her best friend say. ?Mrs. Summers listens to me andI will not try to help you convince her.?

?Willow,? that was Giles? voice. ?Need I remind you that all Spike and Drucilla need to finish their potion is the blood from the still beating heart of a Slayer??

?Miss Rosenberg,? that was from a man. ?This hospital has already proven it cannot control nor protect her. Surely you see the reason in taking Miss Summers to the council headquarters until she regains full use of her legs??

?I don?t care! Buffy doesn?t want to go with you, she told me herself.? Buffy could feel Willow?s fierceness through their clasped hands.

She could also feel something else, deeper. Willow was afraid of something?she didn?t trust theman in the room. Buffy let the Slayer take over all her senses to try and pin down what exactly it what it was?just that the situation felt familiar?like it had happened before?.

The Slayer struggled to open her eyes, to move, but it was like she was being held prisoner in her own body.

?We have already had to enspell her least she damage herself further. You must see reason.? It was the man again and the Slayer could hear a smirk in his voice. He thought he would be able to roll over her Willow.

?No,? and Buffy could see Willow?s resolve face in her mind's eye as she heard the word.

Nothing could defeat the ?Resolve Face? Buffythought and the Slayer agreed. She had lost her lover so long ago; she had been so lonely all these years without her.

That confused Buffy, the thought that Willow was her lover, no, it couldn?t be, they were best friends. This is all too confusing?so she let the darkness close over her again.

Willow sat at Buffy?s bedside drifting, not quite asleep, yet not quite awake either. Buffy had been in and out of consciousness for the pass 5 days. And Willow had been here almost the entire time?Giles hadmade her go home for a few hours the second night?then called her to ?come back to the hospital at her earliest convenience.?

It seemed that the Slayer was calmer when she was around, something Willow really didn?t want to look at too closely. She was just happy that the doctors were able to start to slowly lowering the doses of the drugs they were giving her. The young hacker still didn?t know what Mr. Travers meant about enspelling the Slayer ?for her own good.? What, exactly, did that mean? Andwhy did he try to backtrack after he had said it?

A few months ago, the teen would never have thought to challenge an adult butever since she started working with Mrs. Calendar she started trusting her instincts. And her instinctswere screaming at her that the councilman didn?t have Buffy?s best interestsat heart.

Willow sighed and laid her head down onto hand she was holding, her mind becoming more and busy with what ifs, what should be's, when all she really wanted to do was make sure that Buffy recovered.

Something she was beginning to doubt that the councilman, Mr. Travers, wanted. He just seemed too cold and calculating for her. It was clear to the hacker that he viewed Buffy as a thing or possession and not a person. There was something else too; it was almost like he was afraid of her?of Willow?not Buffy. It was like he wanted to take Buffy away from her, Willow Rosenberg--not Sunnydale and not to protect the Slayer--but away from her.

She felt the limp hand she was holding tighten gently around her fingers. When she raised her head and looked up, she met bruise dark eyes and a small smile. She couldn?t help the broad grin she could feel forming.

?Oh, oh, you?re awake!? She said excitedly as she stood up intent on calling a nurse. Only to be held in place by a suddenly tighten grip on her hand, Buffy?s strength surprising her.

?No,? the Slayer said in breathy whisper. ?Not yet?? her voice trailed off as her eyes drifted shut. If not for the grip still holdingher hand, Willow would have thought that Buffy had gone back to sleep.

?The dreams, Will, the dreams.? Buffy?s eyes snapped open and the Slayer pulled the Wiccan close to her ?don?t let them do it. Please promise me!? The Slayer nearly shouted, as her clear green eyes pinned the stunned red head.

?Do what Buffy?? Willow asked trying to keep the pain from her hand being squeezed from showing in her face or voice.

But, something must have shown because the Slayer instantly released her hand with a mumbled, ?I?m sorry.? And Willow could actually see her friend?s shuttering retreat as Buffy gave up her struggle to stay conscious.

Willow settled back in the reclining chair the nurse had rolled in earlier that evening. As she settled the exhaustion caught up to her and forced her to rest. She didn?t realize that her hand was picked-up and lovingly held for safe keeping by Buffy.

The Priestess waited, for her love to return. Shepaced the cave that had become their home in this life. The Slayer was the hero of her people, the power a gift directly from the creator, and those paranoid old men didn?t think it was enough.

?People had died,? they had cried. Their words wounded her wife to the core of her being.

Well they wouldn?t have died if the Elder?s had listened to The Slayer and stayed in their forest. The plague of demons that were terrorizing their village could have been defeated with a little help. Her wife shouldn?t have to fight alone; that was crazy!

?Your connection to the Slayer is blinding you!? They had shouted at her during the meeting as they tried to convince the villagers to leave the forest

?Why yes, my connection is strong, but Slayers were sent down to the earth to help us fight, not to fight alone!? She had shouted back at the old men. ?This is way of time immortal, each Slayer would lead, and each Slayer and her Chosen love of her Soul would help in the fight. Not doall the fighting! This was how the Creator designed it! You must do something to help yourselves, not just watch from afar.?

As she turned to make another lap of the small dwelling something gripped the magical cord between her and her beloved. As the Witch doubled over in pain, she could feel the shock and betrayal singing between the bond, the two women shared. She could hear her soul being sundered apart as she could literally see the glowing thread pulled out of her.

?No! No! You old fools!? The Witch shouted asshe stumbled out of her home and along the narrow rocky edge. She grabbed the gossamer cord before it could escape, it was the tiniest of threads and she had to keep hold of it. She couldn?t lose her connection, for if she did she would never be able to find her love again!

Their connection was meant to be eternal; they must be able to find each other!

?You don?t understand?.? She coughed out as she fell, the pain from the hard unforgiving rocks digging into her knee was nothing compared to the panic that was trying to rush up and crush her.

Several of the villagers were coming out of their caves to find out what was wrong, blocking her path to the Elder?s dwelling. She felt a change in the air, like the charge of a gathering storm. A roar of the wind, only there was no sound?and she knew that the old men were working the darkest of the dark Magicks.

The Witch pulled her strength, her resolve, her will, around her like the armor she saw once at a fair. Because Will was truly magic. Love or hate and Willpower was the definition of magic.

?Stand aside!? The Witch shouted at the villagers as she stood on steady and strong legs. She wrapped the gossamer thread around her hand and yanked on it, knowing that it connected with the other half of her soul. That it was imbedded so deeply that her mate would be compelled to come to her.

?Stand aside!? She shouted again and started marching towards the Elder?s caveas the villagers opened a path for her. She would teach those impostors of the power what was real?.

Something struck her in the chest causing her to lurch forward. At first she thought it another attack on her love?s connection, but when she looked down she sawthe head of a single arrow sticking out of her heart. And she knew that the Elder?s had planned their deceit well, an overwhelming sense of sadness drove the witchback to her knees.

She looked down at the thread that held her love,her life, and watched it as it slipped through her fingers?gone forever.

Yes, the Elder?s had planned their deceit well?with her love?s true name on her lips she died.