Fic: The Flow (2/?)

[stefzis@xxxxxxxxx]

Hello all,
Well I'm back with more, really enjoyed the response I got from the 
prologue, gave me a warm fuzzy feeling :) Is that wrong?
Catch you on the flipside,
Stef

p.s. I'm adding the prologue to this part, sorry!

Title: The Flow
Prologue: Coffee Shop (reposted)
Chapter 1: The Priest
Rating: R (language and future naugthiness)
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns it all right?
Summary: Set after the serie's end, kind of hard to put into words 
really. Xander arrives on the scene.

Prologue: Coffee Shop

Strange how things tend to flow, take me for example my life flows 
from one moment to the next, but that's what a girl like me should be 
watching for. The flow of things, the order of the fundamental forces 
effecting our world and cool sounding stuff like that. I don't like 
being called a witch or a Wicca since those terms are so confining. I 
am just Willow, named after the tree, but the resemblance ends there. 
It didn't always end there, but that was long ago and I don't want to 
bore you with tales of the past. 

I make my home in London now, my college days are long past me and I 
now spent my gray and dark days arguing philosophy and history at a 
small coffee shop near Hyde Park. Strange how it always starts at a 
coffee shop or in some dust filled library worn with the spilled 
coffee and blood of countless generations of people with nothing 
better to do. 

Now why am I here instead of Stateside? Well Despite popular belief 
the spiritual center of the world lies here in the Old World, not 
over some revolving door into Dimensional Plane 6 like many of you 
have been lead to believe. So I sit here and watch the world flow 
around me, waiting for something to happen.  

Where are my friends you might ask? Now if you are asking that I 
might ask you back: How the hell do you know about them, but that 
would be rude now wouldn't it. Since this is my story I can do what 
ever I want right? But I guess a little back-story is not too much to 
ask for? So here is the readers digest version: For seven years we 
fought and died and then it ended, like all things it eventually 
ended. In the end it was just us left, the same four that had started 
the fight. So here is a quick rundown for you, the basic stats to 
keep you informed.
Rupert Giles, currently living somewhere in the great moors of 
England. 
Alexander LeVille Harris, born again Christian running a mission in 
some hellhole in some third world country. 
Buffy Anne Summers, still the Slayer and still off my radars. 
That's it, we are the Four, the four directions, the four pillars of 
peace in the world and nobody knows about it except maybe the odd 
Watcher and the staff at Angel Investigations, clever fucks they are 
yes.

I pay for my coffee and head into the drizzle of the London fog once 
again, it's been a cold winter, but it's hopefully turning into 
spring, it's just the way of things. There will be a taxi waiting for 
me at the sidewalk cause that's just the way things are. I draw up my 
shields and prepare to do my job. Cause that's just the way things 
are and if you don't like then? well fuck you.

Chapter 1: The Priest

As far as I'm concerned this is the dullest city on Earth, or maybe 
it is just the climate. Willow once called this place the spiritual 
center of the world and well it might well be, but why does it have 
to be so cold? I'm used to warmer climates mind you, still there has 
to be a reason for why I'm here instead of in the jungle. My name is 
Alexander. Now you are asking why happened to Xander? Well Father 
Xander doesn't sound that dignified and there comes a time when we 
must leave such childish things behind. But I won't bore you with 
tales the past, whoa déjà vu or what?

Now why am I here instead of in the jungles of South-America or 
Africa? Well something is calling the Four here to this place. I know 
Willow's here somewhere and now I'm here hoping for a sign from above 
or below I'm not that picky about where I get my signs from. Take for 
instance how I became a man of the church, the Lutheran mind you, I 
wasn't ready to give up sex at the age of 24. The sign came from a 
green demon with red eyes and horns, not very biblical and I'm sure 
the old man in Rome would have a stroke if he found out. 

I walk along Hydefield Close and the gate leading into Edmonton 
Cemetery looms ahead, I just now that one of them is going to be 
standing there leaning against the pillar. It's just the way the 
things are and you can't prevent some things from happening no matter 
how hard you try. The fog parts for just a moment and I see who it is 
that's waiting for this lowly priest. 

She has changed quite a bit since I last saw her, she's darker, but 
maybe that's just the influence of the city on her talents. Her hair 
is so red that it's almost black and her eyes shine with intelligence 
gleamed from the very edges of insanity. Yep Little Willow is all 
grown up and I'm really kicking myself from being so stupid all those 
years ago. 
Come down from the mountain to bring hope to the wicked? She 
asks with that peculiar half-smile born from experience and the 
knowledge that the world isn't as simple as it once seemed.
No need to be mean about it Wills, at least I have faith, is 
my answer. Sure I could have gone with something witty and clever, 
but I like playing the good priest around Willow. 
It's over-rated; she answers as she wraps her coat tighter 
around herself. I can see that she isn't sleeping much and she has 
lost weight. Her cheekbones are visible and I'm pretty sure that 
under the bundle of clothes she's wearing she's nothing but muscle 
and bone.
Are the others here? Is my next question, not that I mind a 
little verbal sparring but I make an issue of not engaging in it with 
somebody that can turn you into a smear of protein even though 
chained, blinded and burned. Which is exactly what happened leading 
up to the end. We walk in silence to the waiting taxi that will take 
us to the ancestral home of the Giles family. I pity the driver cause 
he'll wake up tomorrow back in London with a headache and missing 
about a day of his life. Yes Willow is a ruthless bastard.

To be continued...