FIC: Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior) Part 13a/14

["Beckett, Kevin" <kevin.beckett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior) Part 13a/14
K. Beckett (c) 2000, with the exception of musical lyrics which are (c)
the individual artists / labels.

Disclaimers:
Buffy, Willow and all of the other characters and places from the show
are (c) to Joss Whedon, WB and Mutant Enemy etal. Everyone and everything
else is mine. None of my characters are meant to 
resemble anyone living, dead or un-dead, if you see yourself you are
looking way too hard.

Rating: R - for sexual acts between women and violence. If this offends
you, don't read.

Other: 
The Latin and Gaelic are mine; I take the responsibility for any
translations
of them. In addition, the descriptions of the 
rituals, spells and other craft work come from my traditions, so please
don't take offence if something described here does not 
match your traditions or what you think it should.

Archiving etc.: 
On "Stake and Chakram Library" 
http://members.spree.com/entertainment/kerrison29
Which is maintained by Bill LaBarbera
Also, on the Pumpkin Patch http://www.squidge.org/~pumpkin
Which is maintained by Pumpkin - Anyone else, just ask and I will say
yes.

Spoilers and other ramblings:
Everything up to the middle of season four - I diverge then.

Feedback: - Please. And thanks to all who have commented, I 
appreciate everything that was said. As before, all meaningful 
criticism, support and suggestions are welcome. 

Please note that things perceived by characters other than by the five
acknowledged senses have been enclosed in - -.

mailto:kb_writer@xxxxxxxxxxx
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A priori:

Willow and Buffy have given birth to two beautiful girls, whom 
they have named Faith and Kendra. Grael was finally able to 
interrogate the demon Hugh, and Willow's force has received 
troubling news about slayers, the hell mouths and the demon's 
intentions for not only this world, but also for Buffy and 
Willow's.

Synopsis for part XIII:

Things begin to heat up as Willow finally develops a potential 
solution for closing the hell mouths. She sends out Sonya and the other
new slayers for additional help in her task. Meanwhile, the demon lord,
who has been hiding the existence of the slayer from his superiors, has
begun to close in on the village that has been sheltering Willow's strike
force.

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Part XIII - Alea Iacta Est (The Die is Cast)

The time I like is the rush hour 
'Cause I like the rush 
The pushing of the people 
I like it all so much 
Such a mass of motion 
I do not know where it goes 
I move with the movement and I have the touch 

I'm waiting for ignition 
I'm looking for a spark 
Any chance collision and I light up in the dark 
There you stand before me 
All that fur and all that hair 
Oh, do I dare 
I have the touch

I Have The Touch
Peter Gabriel, Gabriel 4 (Security)
(c) 1982, Geffen Records Inc.

Sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly, little fists clenched in 
dreams. Two little girls lay entwined together under down 
comforters that were embroidered with pictures of kittens and 
bunnies. Watching over them from the foot of the crib was a grey and
black cat, pleased with her human's kittens.

"Purr," said Shadow-Cat thinking, "my human has done well. Her 
kittens are safe with me."

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"Pay attention, damn it," yelled Willow, as she swept Buffy's 
legs out from underneath her for the third time that morning, 
"get your mind back here."

Buffy collapsed to the ground before rolling into a ball and 
springing back up to her feet. 

"I'm sorry," she said, "I just finding that it's hard."

"I know it's hard," replied her spouse, "but they've been fed, 
they're sleeping, Bridie and Aiofe are in the room with them and Shadow-Cat
is watching them and I can see them through her eyes." 

"Ok," said Buffy, "I'll stay sharp. Let's get back to it."

It was just after dawn and Buffy and Willow were in the training area,
with Daithi and some of the new slayers, trying to work off their baby
flab and to get back into fighting form. 

Buffy moved into an Aikido stance, matched by Willow. They 
slowly circled each other for a few moments before Buffy moved 
forward quickly, directing a punch towards Willow's chest. 
Willow timed her response perfectly and moved around Buffy's 
punch, before grabbing her outstretched arm and then pivoting 
around it. She planted her feet, swung Buffy towards her, and 
rolled the slayer over her back and onto the dirt floor.

"Ooof," said Buffy as she fell to the ground.

"You still aren't here, lover," said Willow, as she returned to a ready
stance, "let's get back at it."

Buffy regained her place, and the two young women continued 
sparing. After a few minutes in which neither woman made any 
attacks, Willow leaped and directed an attack down towards 
Buffy's head. Buffy reached forward, grabbed Willow's descending arm
and pulled it down and away from her body. Buffy then used 
the momentum generated to roll Willow over and onto her back.

Willow continued the roll, jumped to her feet, and said, "better, now
you are into it."

They continued to spar for another hour, both women now fully 
focused. Finally, Willow turned to her lover and said, "Buffy, 
time to finish. I'm bushed."

"Okay with me. Let's cool down and head for the baths."

Willow and Buffy began their end of workout stretching routine. When
they were about halfway through the routine, Willow said, 
"so what do we want to do tonight?"

It was the third day after the solstice, Christmas Eve back home. The
entire community had been celebrating, feasting, gift giving and relaxing
since the solstice, and would continue to do so for another nine days,
but Buffy and Willow wanted to make this 
evening special. 

"Don't know," said Buffy, "we could get a tree and stuff I 
suppose."

"And eggnog, carols and stuff. We could make decorations and 
stuff too."

"Will, girl, you are way into this for a good Jewish Wiccan, 
aren't you?"

"Hey," said Willow, "growing up in Southern Cal. What do you 
expect?"

They finished their cool down and headed for the baths. Just as they
were reaching the bath complex Willow said, "hey, let's get Aiofe and
Bridie in on this. It'll be a blast."

They met with several of the inn's inhabitants in the baths, all of them
trying to sweat off the excesses of the last few days. 
Buffy looked around and said, "lets finish up quickly and head 
back to our room. So we can relax."

"Relax you call it," said Aiofe, as she entered the change room 
behind Willow and Buffy.

"Yep," said Buffy, "relax."

"What's up," said Willow, as she began to strip off her sweat 
stained clothing.

"Not too much," said Aiofe, "Bridie and the girls are still 
sleeping, so I decided to grab a quick bath, and something to 
eat."

The three women headed for the warm bath, to rinse off the dirt 
from their bodies before they washed their bodies and hair. Once they
had finished bathing, they retired to their change room.

"Oh, before I forget," said Aiofe, "I ran into Amana on the way 
over here."

"Yes," said Willow, pulling a thick wool shift over her head, 
"what did she want, and can it wait until this morning's 
briefing?"

"Yeah. What's come up since she saw us this morning when we were feeding
the bottomless pits," added Buffy. She had finished 
dressing with a heavy linen and wool dress over her shift and was sitting
down, pulling up long wool stockings.

"She just wanted to sit with the two of you to go over your plan, Willow,"
said Aiofe, "she has a few more questions."

"Relaxation waits," said Willow, -sorry lover.-

-It's ok. I'll get you later.-

The three young women headed back to the inn, and reconvened with Amana
and Grael in Willow's workroom. The workroom had undergone some additional
renovations, and now more fully reflected 
Willow's character. It had been painted in bright cheery 
colours, and had had several linen prints plastered onto the 
walls, creating the effect of large textured paintings or murals. One
corner of the room had been converted into a nursery for the two babies,
and that section had bright cartoon animals painted 
onto the walls, near to the floor. They arranged for breakfast 
to be brought for them, and began the daily briefing session once it
had arrived. Willow had opted to start the briefing with only the five
of them, and would continue later with the full group.

"Ok," said Willow, "I understand that you want to go over things a bit
more."

"That's right," said Amana, "I have a few questions."

"No problem," said the arch-mage, as she spread jam onto a 
buttered scone, "I'd rather we have all the angles covered rather than
forget something important later."

"Why don't we go over everything," said Buffy, "just to make sure everyone
is comfortable."

"Yes, why don't we," said Bridie, as she entered the room 
carrying two little girls, who were awake and looking for their 
parents.

"What's up sweetie," said Buffy, taking Faith from Bridie's arms, "are
you still hungry?"

Faith looked up at her mother and smiled, her cobalt-blue eyes 
dancing with reflected light, and curiosity.

"Don't think they're hungry," said Bridie, sitting down at the 
table and pouring herself a glass of milk, after passing Kendra 
to her mother, "I think that they are just awake and want to be 
where the action is."

"Well, that's good," said Willow, cuddling her daughter and 
walking over to the nursery area, "why don't we put you two in 
your crib here and you can watch your mommies, while they eat."

Minutes later everyone reconvened around the table. Willow 
waited until they were all settled, with food and drink before 
them, and then said, "ok, to continue. After the solstice I 
finally put together all the bits and pieces that have been 
running through my mind for the last six months or so, and I 
think that I have a permanent solution to the hell-mouth problem, at
least on this world."

"So much you have already told us," said Grael, "however, you 
have been a little sparse on the details."

"Except for the part about sending out the new slayers on a 
search mission," added Amana.

"I need them to find as many mages as possible," said Willow, 
"preferably second or third degree, but I'll make due with anyone who
has power, and some training."

"Why's that," asked Aiofe.

"I got the idea, and the need for the additional mages," said 
Willow, "based on what we have found out about the hell-mouths. First,
they are used both as a transportation network, and as a 
method for transmitting energy. Second, they have been created, or are
being exploited, by demons many realities removed from 
this one. Third, the demons have to maintain this network. And, fourth,
the demons are directly affected when one of them are 
closed."

"Ok," said Buffy, "I'll bite. What is this leading to?"

"I think that I've figured out a way to short circuit the hell-
mouths," said Willow.

Her statement was met with incredulous looks from around the 
table.

"How," whispered Amana, "and what do you mean by short-
circuiting?"

"Well," began Willow, "it has to do with overloading the 
circuit." Seeing questioning looks from everyone except Buffy, 
Willow then said, "energy as it flows from one point to another, using
a transportation medium, can be described as a circuit. 
Each circuit has a limit to how much it can carry, and to what 
type of energy it can carry. What I'm going to attempt to do is to is
overload one section of the circuit, thereby, I hope, 
causing a feedback loop which should overload all of it."

"Come again," asked Aiofe, still not too clear on the details.

"The way I figure it, the actual hell-mouths are massive energy 
collectors in the magical realm, and to a lesser extent here in 
the physical world. Because of this, they will have been heavily shielded
by the demon's who created them, and therefore very 
difficult to overload, as demonstrated when I closed the hell-
mouth last spring. However, because they are used as part of a 
transportation network, they must be linked to each other, using some
form of energy conduit. The effort to shield those links 
would be prohibitive, both in effort and in energy, so what I'm 
going to do is hack into the network in the middle of one of 
these links, then funnel a huge amount of energy through the 
break. This should result in the whole network overloading as 
the power surge attacks each hell-mouth from within."

"Cool," said Buffy, who was aware of Willow's prodigious 
abilities with hacking into computer networks, "sort of like a 
computer virus."

"How? What," asked Grael.

"That is where the additional mages come in," replied the arch-
mage, choosing to respond to Grael's first question, "I am going to need
them to help collect the energy, store it and then funnel it to me once
I've breached the network. Some of them will also act as my anchors,
and others I will use to maintain protections around what I will be doing,
so that I don't end up wiping out 
half the mountains when I start playing with that much energy, or for
that matter wipe myself out in a feedback loop."

"Hence your need for Sonya and the rest to find as many mages as possible,"
said Bridie.

"Yep," replied Willow, "The way I figure it, I'm going to need a full
triple circle, with at least half of the members initiated 
mages."

Just as Willow was finishing the remaining members of her command group
came into the workroom to begin the morning briefing. 
After everyone had grabbed drinks and places around the table 
Willow began the meeting by saying, "Morning all. For those of 
you just joining, what you've missed is some additional 
explanations on why I'm sending out Sonya to find mages. If you want
the details, I'll be glad to fill you in later."

Willow proceeded with the rest of the morning's agenda. 
Finishing the meeting an hour later, she said, "ok, that's it 
then. Daithi, would you insure that Sonya and the rest are 
properly outfitted and provisioned. I would like to see them on their
way by lunch time."

"No problem," said Daithi, rising from the table and heading out of the
room.

"One other thing."

"Yes," he replied, turning back from the door.

"Could you ask Sonya to come by in an hour or so. I'm going to 
feed Kendra and then I'd like to brief Sonya on a few last minute things
before they leave."

"Ok," said Daithi as he left the room.

The remaining members of the command group also left to begin 
their day. Aiofe and Grael to help get the search group 
organized, Frankel to continue his work writing an essay on 
slayers and slaying. Aiofe and Bridie remained seated at the 
table; their main job continued to be insuring that neither Buffy nor
Willow over exerted themselves.

Buffy remained sitting at the table, across from her friend and 
lover, and said, "this going to work?"

"Have faith."

"Had Faith," replied Buffy with a smile.

"Buffy," said Aiofe.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind answering a question for me?"

"Ask, and I'll tell you if I mind."

"It's just that we," said Aiofe indicating herself and her lover, "were
wondering how you decided on the names for your daughters." 

Buffy looked across the table at Willow and asked, -do you want 
to handle this?-

-Nope, you can field this one.-

Buffy stood up from the table and walked over to the crib where 
her daughters were lying, staring through the bars. She picked 
up the children, and holding one in each arm retuned to the table and
sat down. She paused, collected her thoughts and then said, "it's a
long story."

Buffy then went on to explain how she and Willow had decided on 
naming their daughters Kendra and Faith. She began by describing the
people that the girls had been named for. Buffy started by 
telling how Kendra had been called to Sunnydale as a slayer, when it
had appeared that she had died. How for a while there were 
two slayers, and then how Kendra had been killed. Buffy then 
explained what had happened with Faith. How she had come to 
Sunnydale as a slayer, and how she had turned from helping Buffy into
being an enemy. How she had fallen into a coma, and what 
had happened just prior to Willow's acceptance to come and help 
this world.

(Continued in part 13b)