FIC: To Thine Own Self Be True 14/?

["wizathogwarts" <mcronin24@xxxxxxxxx>]

I still don't have a beta reader so spelling and gramatical comments 
are especially welcome.

Title - To Thine Own Self Be True 14/?
By mike (mcronin24@xxxxxxxxx) 
SPOILERS: Season 1, Up to episode 3, the Witch.
RATING: R. It is a Buffy/Willow fic that includes smoochies, 
caressing and mystical intimacy. 
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters belong to 
Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox. 
FEEDBACK: Constructive comments are encouraged. 
SUMMARY: (Buffy/Willow) Buffy and Willow begin the hard work of 
learning to harness their powers while discovering their 
weaknesses. Also the hint of a shared destiny.
Authors Notes: 

To Thine Own Self Be True
Chapter 14
Reflections.

A gentle disturbance I know not what
Warms my cheek with a gentle beat
I grasp to comprehend this much
With a mind of wisps and ghostly thought...

My left eye opened and my right tried to follow suit but it was 
deliciously buried in the soft warm flesh of Willow's breast. While 
it was quite content right where it was, I was sort of wondering why 
I was trying to write bad poetry in my sleep. My slightly opened 
eye, the one not enjoying blissful contentment, registered a very 
slight graying to the night. From numerous occasions of being up 
all night, I knew there was a good hour before I needed to wake up 
even with our early appointment with Giles, so why was I awake. My 
head gently rode the rhythmic rise and fall of Willow's breast, a 
motion that should lull the most indefatigable insomniac to sleep. 
But not me for some reason. I slowly expanded my awareness to the 
rest of my body. I noticed that my own breathing was a bit faster 
than Willow's. I then noticed a warm tingly feeling all over my 
body, building around a dampening between my thighs. Oh dear, I've 
woken up horny! My one open eye was now focused in the dim light on 
the slightly raised peak just inches away from my wanton gaze. As I 
continued to focus in on this immediate object of desire, I slowly 
extended my tongue from between my lips until the moist tip touched 
the soft slightly puckered nipple. As I very slowly and gently 
began to stroke and caress the exquisite flesh, it began to distend 
itself as if to expose more of its quickly heating member to the 
tantalizing ministrations I was lavishing on it. I raised my cheek 
slightly as Willow's breathing began to accelerate. As I continued 
to tease her now fully extended nipple with flicks and sweeps of my 
tongue, I heard a soft moan from my lover as her hand slowly 
caressed the back of my neck. At this juncture, I raised my head 
sufficiently to suck the now very eager nipple into my mouth. I 
sucked, nibbled and stroked slowly and deliberately, creating a 
sensory treat for my love.

"Ahhhhh, Bufffffyyyyyyy!" Willow moaned lowly.

I allowed myself a self congratulatory smile as I leaned up and slid 
my tongue across her cleavage before lavishing my attention on her 
other delicious morsel. I felt the waves of passion I had so 
quickly aroused within Willow come cascading through my own passion 
as she opened herself fully to me. Her hands were stroking my back 
in passionate urging as I brought her right nipple to the same level 
of ecstasy as her left. Her moans and ragged breathing drove my 
hungry mouth down across her smooth tight stomach, trailing kisses 
and loving nips as I traveled towards heavens gate. The scent of 
her arousal drove my passion higher as my lips passed across her 
soft auburn curls. As I firmly placed my lips over her nether lips 
and parted them with my tongue,
"Oh Goddess Buffy!" Willow called out as she in a surprisingly 
strong move rolled both of us on our sides, raising her right leg up 
to allow me unobstructed access and simultaneously forcing mine up 
as she planted her eager mouth firmly on my own very moist center. 
In matching positions and desire we began to lavish each other with 
our eager tongues. On cue, we sucked each others clits between our 
lips and began stroking each other in unison. We then each inserted 
one and then two fingers between our wet silky lips, matching each 
other stroke for stroke, lick for lick in total synchronicity. Our 
heated breathing through our flaring nostrils also fell into rhythm 
and then the beat of our hearts. Two completely in tune waves, 
building together, adding together up and up, higher and higher, 
rainbow flashes of light strobing across our vision as our perfectly 
sequenced ministrations created a tsunami of monumental proportions 
to finally crest and crest some more to a climax that seemed to have 
no end, time no longer existed. The mutual screams starting deep 
within our throats were frozen in a blinding flash of brilliant 
light and out of this light a figure slowly appeared. A woman of 
indescribable beauty, beauty that could only be comprehended while 
in the throws of ultimate ecstasy. The lady approached us with a 
look of complete love as her raised arms reached towards us to place 
a warm soft hand on each of our foreheads and all conscience to 
evaporate in a blinding flash.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. "Buffy, Willow, time to get up!"

"Uhhh." I mumbled, my face still buried in Willows sweet, moist 
center. I could feel Willow duplicating my incoherent action 
causing a delicious tingle to the incredible afterglow that sufficed 
my still heated flesh. We reluctantly pulled away from each other 
as mom followed up.

"Come on girls, up and atem!" She called out.

"Up mom, we're up." I managed to call out.

I rolled back and with great effort raised myself up to look at 
Willow. Willow had left her head resting on my naked pelvis, half 
open eyes glinting with an incredible rich green, her whole mouth 
glistening with moisture and slightly turned in a very satisfied 
grin. 

[ do I look like that? ] I shared my vision of her.

[ yep! ] She shared her sight of me right back.

"Wow!" I forced out with all my remaining strength.

"Ditto." She mumbled between her slightly swollen lips.

"Come on sweetie, we gotta get up." I very slowly got out.

"I don't think I can move." Willow replied just as slowly.

I leaned over and kissed her thigh gently. [ lets get some 
strength ] I then joined with her mind, gently urging her to travel 
with me to the fountain. She joined my thought and we were floating 
above the beautiful flow of blue and gold. We slowly dipped our 
essences into the energy flow and let it fill us, our mental acuity 
and vitality quickly returned to normal. Upon returning to our 
bodies, we felt the extreme lethargy had left us to be replaced with 
the most incredible feeling of relaxation. We now had the strength 
to slowly raise ourselves up, and the look on Willow's face was 
absolutely the most precious. The look of love she had completely 
melted my insides. I was helpless as she brought her lips to mine 
and gave me the most lovingly gentle kiss I could ever imagine.

"Thank you." I said softly as she pulled back.

"No, thank you for the reality altering experience and I think we 
saw the Goddess." She said while softly stroking my cheek with hers.

"Oh, is that who that was. Knew it had to be someone important. 
Maybe we can visit longer next time." I said semi seriously.

"Buffy, any more and I don't think we could come back." Willow spoke 
completely seriously.

"And spending the rest of eternity in orgasm heaven would be bad?" 
I asked arching my eyebrows as I maintained full eye contact with 
her.

"Well maybe not bad, but we wouldn't be able to accomplish anything 
else." She said only somewhat convinced herself as both of us were 
still savoring the incredible physical and mental experience.

"Gotcha, getting ready for school before mom comes back and drags us 
out of bed I think will be the big accomplishment of the day." I 
gently pushed her back with a passionate kiss then when I felt her 
losing herself to my lips, I leaped up, grabbed my robe and for the 
first time ever beat her to the bathroom.


***************************************
As we walked into the main hall at school a little before eight, [ 
buffy, weren't we supposed to meet giles at seven? ] Willow 
exclaimed in panic.

I reached out my hand and placed it on her shoulder to calm her. [ 
yes willow, but having a vision of the goddess kinda takes 
precedence don't you think? ]

[ you think he'll buy it? ] She asked meekly.

[ if he wants to continue working with us, he will. ] I tell her 
firmly.

[ oh yea, its just my natural reaction to adult type authority 
figures and the fear of disapproval that puts me into panic mode and 
the whole punishment possibility, like detention which I've never 
had but the thought of it gives me the wiggins. ] Willow babble 
takes on a whole new perspective when it comes in at the speed of 
Willow thought.

[ slow down willow, he'll be fine with it. And just imagine how 
excited he'll be when we tell him about the vision. ] I gave her 
shoulder a gentle squeeze.

[ ok, but we don't have to tell him what we were doing that put us 
into the vision state, do we? ] Her embarrassment was spreading 
quickly down her neck just thinking of sharing our mind blowing 
experience with anyone, let alone Mr. prim and proper Giles made me 
blush too.

[ nope. ] I reassured her. [ just tell him that we woke up early to 
get ready but immediately went into a trance, had the vision and 
when we came out of it, an hour had passed. That is pretty much 
what happened, just without all the stuff that would prevent the G 
rating. That's G for Giles, not General. ] I added.

With a snicker from Willow, we entered the Library almost an hour 
later than we told Giles we would meet him. Giles was behind the 
counter doing his librarian thing to some books and quickly looked 
up as we entered.

"Sorry Giles, we didn't forget. Something came up that delayed us." 
I quickly got out before he could launch an attack of his own. His 
expression quickly turned from one of those stern adult frowns to 
one of concern.

"Not life threatening, I hope?" He responded carefully.

"Nope, more of the life interesting, well actually interesting 
doesn't come close. Is there a word that sums up mind blowing 
incredible?" Willow jumped in, her excitement brimming over. Giles 
then got past his rehearsed mindset of lecturing two errant 
teenagers and began to notice the very happy faces before him.

"It appears not, and I believe the only word that might fit your 
description is not a word at all. But I doubt that would stop you 
so try supercalifragilisticexbealidocious." He then grinned widely 
at his little joke.

"So, are you Mary Poppins or do you sweep chimneys in you spare 
time?" Hey, I'm up to date on the classics.

"What do you think Will, can't you see Giles in drag with an 
umbrella, walking around like he's got a big stick up his..." I was 
quickly cut off.

"That imagery is quite unnecessary, and does nothing to tell me why 
the two of you are late." Mr snooty was back, the Mary Poppins thing 
must have hit close to home. I could hear Willow chuckle as she 
picked up on my thought.

"Ok, well basically, we woke up early enough to meet you here by 
seven, but as we were waking up, we saw this bright light and went 
into like a dream. But it was a vision because everything was so 
clear and sharp. And Willow and I were in this very bright place 
and the most indescribably beautiful lady appeared and smiled at 
us. Then She touched our foreheads and there was another bright 
light. We came out of the vision and it was almost an hour later. 
Willow thinks it was the Goddess." I was so hoping he wouldn't 
notice how monstrously edited this story was. I reached out and 
clutched Willow's hand as I felt her memories of the morning begin 
to mix with her apprehension of explaining all to Giles. As I held 
her hand, I flowed calm loving energy into her and quickly noticed 
her breathing calm and her color return to normal. Unfortunately, 
it wasn't quick enough for Giles' quick eyes to take notice.

"While I am quite astounded at your ability to calm Willow and 
prevent her from entering one of her rambling diatribes, I'm not 
oblivious to the evidence that your story is lacking a lot of 
detail. Would you care to elaborate?" He arched his eyebrows and 
looked quite pleased with himself.

[ can I leave now ] Willow's thoughts were ready to reenter the 
panic zone again.

[ it's ok honey, I'll take care of him ] I replied as I kept 
soothing her.

"Giles, are you truly interested in the uhhh let's say intimate 
details that preceded our entering the vision?" I raised my eyebrows 
putting my face into what I hoped was a big question mark of `you 
don't want to go there'.

"Ohhh, well I suppose those details are not really relevant to the 
matter of the vision." He was wiping his glasses and looking as 
embarrassed as Willow.

"Thank you Giles." I said sincerely.

Willow got her voice back and proceeded to share her thoughts. "The 
curious thing is that the time lapse of the vision doesn't match our 
memory. The vision seemed to last only a couple of minutes, but 
nearly an hour went by."

"Well, if your minds truly traveled to a realm where you meet a 
heavenly personage, time does not exist at the same speed. The 
other possibility is that you don't remember everything that 
occurred." Of the two explanations Giles had just offered, I was so 
hoping for the first. Unfortunately, I was pretty certain that he 
had hit the nail on the head with the second.

"Buried memories." Willow was thinking the same thing I was. "Could 
they be like post hypnotic instructions? Like anytime somebody says 
chicken, we start flapping our arms and cluck? Or maybe..." Giles 
quickly interrupted her.

"I think it's more likely information that will be revealed to you 
at a later time when you need it. That is usually the case with 
situations like this, or so the two other cases of this that I am 
aware of have revealed." His words calmed Willow a little, at least 
she was no longer afraid of turning into a chicken.

"It's ok Willow. Remember who we saw, you have to believe that She 
would not have done anything bad or evil to us. Right?" I reached up 
and put my fingers under her chin and turned her head to look at 
me. I smiled reassuringly at her and recalled the memory of the 
vision and shared it with her to strengthen my point.

She smiled back at me as she shared the memory. "You're absolutely 
right. And if we're not supposed to know now, it's probably because 
we might misuse or not understand the information until we have 
learned something important." My Willow's confidence was back. I 
just love that look on her face when she says something with that 
calm serenity she uses when she knows something is true. Willow has 
a built in truth meter. That doesn't mean she always know when 
something is true or false, her meter just lets her know sometimes 
when something is absolutely, completely and irrevocably true. Her 
meter was telling her that now. Her calm assuredness washed over me 
and I was totally satisfied. The discussion was over and Giles must 
have correctly interpreted the expressions on our faces because the 
next words out of his mouth were.

"I wasn't aware that Willow was an Oracle." He offered not in 
sarcasm but in concession.

"Better an Oracle than a sql server." Willow snickered.

I groaned out loud but my own internal nerd that had developed as a 
consequence of my three years of isolation in junior high actually 
smiled. I especially loved the complete look of incomprehension on 
Giles' face.

[ I won't admit this publicly, but that was great just for the look 
on his face ] I silently complemented her.

"Classes are about to commence. Could we meet here in the library 
at lunch to research the matter that we were unable to accomplish 
this morning?" Giles asked looking at the clock above the door.

I looked at Willow, basically letting her know it was up to her. 
She nodded and I responded.

"Lunch it is, but we expect turkey and swiss on rye. Mustard, no 
mayo. And don't forget the pepsi's." I grinned innocently and 
pulled Willow out the door with me before he could respond.

[ and you tell me I have to use my powers for good. What about 
you? ] she asked me in a mockingly serious tone.

[ but its good to exert power over those who think they have power 
over you ] I replied seriously.

"Huhhh that actually made sense." Willow exclaimed out loud.

"Yea," I replied licking my lips and winking at her.

During all this fun and frivolity, we had been keeping an eye on 
Amy. This is why we both stopped as we sensed her coming up the 
hall. She had the same History class as we did. Willow smiled 
brightly at Amy as she caught her eye.

"Hey Amy. Did you happen to hear how Amber is? Like is she going 
to be OK." Willow asked her old friend.

"Yea, she's going to be OK, but they say her hands will be bandaged 
for a month at least." Amy's face showed concern, but our alternate 
vision revealed a darkness floating around her with these tiny red 
and black threads going off in different directions.

"Well, if you want to do a brownie fest, just let me know. I'm sure 
Buffy wouldn't mind joining in," Willow offered in friendly support.

"Brownie's, I never eat brownies. Gotta keep my weight down." She 
looked incredulously at Willow.

"Oh, uhh, just a friendly offer." Willow squeaked out.

I looked over at Willow carefully, feeling her confusion 
immediately. "Class is starting, we better go in." I quickly said 
to divert attention away from Willow's confusion.

As we entered the class and took our seats, a couple rows over and 
in front of Amy, I asked Willow. [ what was that all about? ]

[ buffy, that's not amy. ] Willow thoughts were streaking around 
like crazy but this time I just let her go, knowing that when she 
figured it out, her thoughts would all just lay out.

[ I've never met her before, so I'm going to go out on a limb and 
say she at least looks like the amy you know. ] I replied as we both 
looked towards the front of the class with properly attentive looks 
on our faces.

[ yea, it looks like amy but amy loves brownies. Her mother is a 
real fanatic about weight. If she gained a pound, she'd pad lock 
the refrigerator. Amy would come over and we would pig out on 
brownies. ] Willow was still juggling conflicting thoughts.

[ well, her mother sounds like a real nazi. But just yesterday she 
was saying how great her mother was. ] I offered up this new 
information.

[ that's not right, amy was afraid of her mother. Hated her for 
driving her father away. ] Willow was processing this new 
information.

[ well why would she think it's so great that her mother is working 
with her on the cheerleading? And when we looked in on them last 
night, she bossed her mother around. Could she have gone crazy with 
power? ] I was playing devil's advocate.

[ that could be possible but wouldn't explain the lack of knowledge 
about the brownies. It's more like amy is her mother and her mother 
is amy. ] I heard an audible sigh come from Willow as she processed 
this thought. We both knew Willow had hit on something and it took 
all our will power not to look at each other in amazement.

[ I wonder what amy's mom is doing right now. ] I asked genuinely 
curious.

[ let's find out ] Willow replied.

Maintaining a modicum of attention in the class room, we mentally 
traveled to Amy's house and there we observed Amy's mother. She was 
sitting on the couch, watching TV with a plate of brownies sitting 
next to her. While we did not observe any darkness shrouding her, 
there was a faint glow of green and red to her and one of those 
threads.

[ follow the thread ] I said.

We followed the thread all the way back to the very classroom we 
were in to where it terminated into Amy.

[ ok willow, this doesn't look like something that amy would do to 
herself becoming a thirty-five year old couch potato, but why would 
amy's mom do it? ] I asked, and in the back of my mind I was 
wondering if my mom would want to switch with me.

[ I think you're right buffy, and I just remembered that amy's mom 
was this big cheer leader during high school. Won some kind of 
trophy. The trophy is in the display cabinet in the main hall. 
Reliving her youth vicariously through amy isn't enough for her. ] 
Willow's thought had completely stopped. I could feel that she was 
completely focused on one concept. Amy's mom had switched bodies 
with her childhood friend.

[ we have to help her buffy. ] The hurt for her friend was very 
evident in Willow's thoughts and our connection enabled me to feel 
that pain.

[ we will, love. Maybe giles can take us over during lunch to talk 
to amy and find out what is going on and see what we can do to 
help. ] I calmed her down and then added, [ and you need to not give 
anything away. There's no telling what she may do if she catches on 
that we know ]

[ yea, I'm just glad she's not your mom `cause then I would 
completely blow it but she's really amys' mom then again, I never 
liked amys' mom so I'm not likely to feel compelled to spill the 
beans to that old goose stepping bag. I just need to avoid her 
completely ] I had started to get worried with Willows' latest 
babble but she finished up great. I placed a gentle energy kiss on 
her cheek and caught her blushing out of the corner of my eye.

The rest of the morning was impatience hell waiting for lunch to 
roll around. And when we got to the library, Giles wasn't around. 
There was a note on the white board behind the counter.

Emergency staff meeting. Will return at 1:00 PM.

"What are we going to do now." The whimper in her voice broke my 
heart and I immediately gathered her into a comforting hug. 


"It will be ok Willow. We've been keeping watch on her all 
morning. She hasn't done anything else." I put my arms around her. 
I could feel her body shiver as if she was freezing. I very gently 
opened my mind to her, inviting her to open hers in return. I could 
feel her fear, not of me but of letting me see something that she 
wasn't proud of, the fear that comes from losing control.

"I love you Willow. The time will come when I will need you to help 
me when I'm afraid. And I'll know I can let you in because you love 
me and I trust you." My voice was soft and as soothing as I could 
make it. I gently stroked her hair as I spoke. Then I felt her 
open to me, like a morning glory opening to the sun. I didn't push, 
I merely presented to her my unconditional love. "Just because we 
don't have an answer now, doesn't mean we won't figure this out. So 
Giles isn't here, lets put our heads together and see what we can 
figure out on our own just like we've done with the vamps. OK 
Willow?" I then gently kissed her.

Her shivers had ceased and her arms were now around me holding me 
tight. "You're right Buffy, sorry about the whole losing it bit, 
this is kinda what I was like before you knew me. I was hoping that 
I had left fall apart Willow when things get out of control 
behind." She whispered into my shoulder. 

"Oh Willow, don't feel bad." I spoke softly with her ear so close to 
my lips. "It's just that your desire to help your friends or just 
make things better in general is so strong that when things don't go 
right, your frustration just gets out of control and triggers the 
little fear demons. But from here on out you are going to see that 
you can find a solution to any problem. And once you get used to 
doing that, the way you handle frustration will become more 
positive. All you need is some experience with things going right 
for awhile even when obstacles get thrown in the way." I felt her 
sigh as my words penetrated through years of feeling that other 
people and circumstances always had control and power over her. 
Words that helped her see that she didn't have to give up anymore 
just because something went wrong. We had so many successes the 
past week and a half that Willow hadn't relearned how to handle 
those times when Murphy's Law makes an appearance.

I guided Willow over to the conference table and sat her down. I 
took the seat next to her and grabbed her book bag. I pulled out 
her notebook and as I opened it to a fresh page, I gave her a 
reassuring smile. I then took her favorite purple pen and placed it 
on the pad.

"OK now. How about we start with what we know." I placed my hand 
on her back and rubbed it encouragingly.

"Yea," she said, picking up the pen, "what we know." Writing as she 
spoke on the top of the page. 

"Number one; Amy is a witch."
"Number two; Amy is really her mom and her mom is Amy."
"Number three; Amy's mom in Amy's body is doing dark mojo to get on 
the cheer leading squad."
"Number four; the dark mojo or chaotic energy shows up as black and 
reddish threads and smokey vapor."
"Number five; when we touch the dark with our energy, it feels awful 
and destroys the dark mojo and our energy."
"Number six; one of those threads goes from Amy to her mom."
"Number seven; we can form tools with our energy so we can touch the 
chaotic energy without getting sick but it's like a one time only 
thing because it destroys the tool."
"Number eight; uhhh, do we have a number eight?"

She looked over at me, her face looking hopeful that I could keep 
things going.

"Not off the top of my head, but let's start on our questions and 
then see if we can come up with some answers." I smiled and gently 
stroked her cheek with the back of my fingers.

Willow sighed and then turned back to the paper. "Alright, question 
one; how do we stop Amy's mom?"

"That's the big question Willow. I think we need to break it down a 
bit." I wasn't anymore sure of where this was going than Willow was, 
but I figured that if I kept asking enough questions, my answer girl 
would eventually come up with something.

"Oh yea, good idea. Break the problem into its smallest parts and 
work on them individually. So question one should be more like how 
do we stop the magic, or can we block it somehow and can these 
strings be cut but what would happen if we cut like the string 
between Amy and her mom. Would they go back to their own body's or 
would they stay in each others permanently?" Willow voice was 
getting stronger and more confident. She had a problem that was 
becoming more clearly defined and I knew she wouldn't quit until she 
solved it.

"That sounds more like, oh let me see, four or five questions. And 
I would like to throw one more in. Can we experiment on breaking the 
dark energy without tipping off Amy's mom?" Willow's questions were 
begging for answers that required experimenting.

"Ahhh, so question one is how do we experiment and the answer is 
Giles setting up dark mojo tests for us." She exclaimed brightly.

"OK, what kind of tests then?" I asked encouragingly.

She finished writing the questions down neatly and then 
wrote `Experiments'.

"Experiment one; something linking the user to an object that 
creates one of those strings. We create energy scissors or knife 
and cut it to see what happens."
"Experiment two; we create a shield to try and block the dark 
energy."
"Experiment three; create a reflector, bounce it back at the person 
doing the magic."

"Good one Will. I can't wait to see what that would do to Giles but 
we'll have to make sure it's something small and harmless so he 
doesn't get hurt too badly." I was feeling better with our 
accomplishments but realized that we needed answers and couldn't get 
them without either alerting Amy's mom that someone was on to her or 
waiting for Giles.

"We still have to wait for Giles." Willow said dejectedly.

"Hey, it's just until after school and we can keep an eye on Amy." I 
said while gently rubbing her shoulder.

"What if she tries some more of that black magic on someone?" 
Willow's concern wouldn't let up, as it shouldn't. She is the most 
caring person I have ever met and just one of the many reason's I 
love her so much.

"We've got a little lunch time left, lets experiment with that 
reflector idea of yours so at least we have something in case of an 
emergency." My idea was to just give her something to do to occupy 
her time and her mind but always active mind jumped on it.

"Yea, and we are on a hell mouth, there has to be other dark mojo 
out there besides Amy's." She grabbed my leg just above the knee and 
squeezed in her excitement. There were other ways to occupy our 
time I remembered as warmth spread up my leg from her touch.

"Buffy, keep your mind on the problem at hand." Willow chided me as 
she noticed the flush spread across my face from her touch as she 
quickly removed her hand.

"I'd rather focus on the problem your hand just caused, but for you 
no sacrifice is too great." I then smiled sweetly.

Willow laughed and rewarded me with a great big smile. "I think we 
should move this to someplace where we won't be disturbed." We 
grabbed our things and I followed her up the stairs into the dark 
recesses of the book stacks. Willow led me to a dark corner behind 
the last book case where there was enough room for us both of us to 
sit on the floor. I got an idea and sat down with my back against 
the wall and spread my legs, making room for Willow. She sat down 
between legs and snuggled up against my body as I pulled her tight.

"Comfy?" I asked while inhaling the smell of Willow's hair.

"Mmmmm, very comfy. But no getting me distracted. As much as I 
like your distractions, this is really important." She had placed 
her hands over mine that were folded across her firm flat tummy.

"I know baby, it's important to me also. So let's get started." I 
whispered in her ear.

We closed our eyes and opened ourselves completely to each other. 
It was easier this way, we knew what each other was thinking as we 
thought. It prevented miscues and misunderstandings. All it 
required was complete and total trust in each other. We agreed that 
we should try and find something to experiment on that wasn't 
connected to Amy first. With our new knowledge of this dark energy 
and how it could manifest itself on the demon scape we began to 
adjust our perception. After several minutes, we began to see dark 
pulsations spreading out all around us. It was almost too much to 
handle, seeing how it spread over everything. We then looked to see 
if it was touching us. What we saw drew a dual gasp from us both. 
The dark pulsing stopped about six inches from our bodies, flowing 
around us like water around a rock in a stream but appeared to 
penetrate everything else, walls included. It appeared that we had 
a natural shield to it. But what was it? We determined after some 
exploration that the pulsations were emanating from below us and 
traveling out over all of Sunnydale. Taking a birds eye view of the 
city, the mystical darkness pulsed like some dark light with the 
darkest concentration centered under the library, right beneath our 
previous position at the conference table. Our melded minds reached 
the same conclusion. Hell mouth. They build the high school right 
on top of the hell mouth. This was a perfect trial for our 
experiment. We reached into the well of coherent energy and began 
to create a shield which we placed on the floor. The shield did not 
destruct and the dark energy seemed to flow around it. As we 
expanded the size of the shield, it began to float above the floor. 
We came to the conclusion that to really shield the library, we 
needed to somehow merge the shield with the structure of the floors 
and walls and create an all encompassing box that would block that 
energy, but nothing else. This was going to take more time and 
effort than we had right now, but it provided more things that we 
know and a lot more questions.

Returning to ourselves, I hugged Willow a little more tightly as I 
felt our minds part. [ would making love while we're like that be 
considered masturbation? ]

"Buffy!" Willow squeaked at the thought, then [ you are so bad. But 
it is an intriguing question. Maybe we should experiment. ] She 
turned her head and body enough to kiss my nose and then pushed 
herself up.

"You have a promising future in R&D Willow." I said seriously with 
a smile as I also stood up.

"Yep, just call me research gal." She responded with a delightful 
glint to her eyes.

"Come on research gal, were back on the clock." I said as the bell 
rang.

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

As the last class of the day ended, we checked the library right 
after checking on Amy. Giles was definitely in the library so we 
headed there at a brisk walk.

"Hey Giles, missed you at lunch." I said aw we approached him 
standing behind the counter.

"It's that idiot Flutie. He had some feel good psychologist in to 
tell us how to feel good about ourselves and the work we do. He 
wanted everybody in the staff to hug each other. It was quite 
unpleasant." He huffed then got a little smile and said 
quietly. "Well mostly."

"Ooohh, do I detect a pleasant hugging experience?" I teased him.

"Uh, no, no pleasant hugging experience at all." He reaffirmed.

I looked at Willow. Willow looked at me. [ bet it was miss 
calendar. ] Willow smirked knowingly as she said it.

[ ahh, they are about the same age, aren't they and too old for that 
kind of stuff anyway don't you think. ] I just couldn't wrap my mind 
around Giles getting intimate with the computer science teacher.

[ yea, thinking of adults that way just makes me go ewww. ] Willow 
grimaced.

"If you two are quite finished discussing whatever you don't want me 
to hear we could get on with business at hand." We both looked at 
him to see an impatient glare.

"Sure Giles, we even outlined some of the experiments we want to try 
out. It's going to be up to you how to set up the mojo part 
though." I said quickly, refocusing every ones attention.

Willow handed him a copy of just the experiments that she had 
prepared earlier.

"Well, the levitation spell should work for the first experiment. 
Let's start with that since I have everything all prepared." As he 
talked, he motioned us both back into his office where he had a 
table set up.

"OK, let me know when you're ready and I commence the levitation 
spell." He said as we sat down in two of the chairs and clasped 
hands.

[ I'm ready, you ready? ] I asked Willow.

[ yep, ready as I'll ever be I guess. ] Willow replied.

"We're ready, do your thing." I told Giles.

As Giles sprinkled something over some coals in the small ceramic 
dish on the table and began speaking some words in a foreign 
language, Willow and I put all or focus into the demonscape. As he 
chanted, we saw tendrils from the dark pulsating energy around us 
began to separate and attach themselves to Giles forming a thread 
that wrapped around him and then attached itself to him centered 
between his eyes but a little higher. The other end slowly moved 
out and attached itself to the glass paper weight on the table. 
Then very slowly, the paper weight began to rise. 

[ show time ] Willow said and we worked together to form a pair of 
scissors, separated them and each grasped a handle with a pseudo 
hand. We moved the scissors over the string and together close the 
blades over the black thread. The ball began to fall then stopped 
as the string reattached itself after the quick dissipation of our 
scissors.

[ that didn't work. ] I stated the obvious. [ lets try wrapping it 
in energy. ] I stated in sudden inspiration.

[ ok, I'm willing to try just about anything. ] Willow then 
concentrated with me on bringing forth a blanket of energy that we 
draped over the thread, wrapping it up like a hot dog in a bun. The 
paper weight fell with a thud and so did Giles. 

"Giles!" Willow and I both shrieked and dashed over to his crumpled 
body. I picked him up and sat him in his chair. I gently patted 
his cheek hoping to rouse him.

His eyes opened up. "Oh my, that was a most decidedly painful 
experience." He then reached up and was rubbing the area where the 
thread had been.

It turned out that Giles was OK and rather than bore you with two 
hours of experimenting, I'll just sum up what we found out. We 
finally figured out through trial and error that spells took the 
dark chaotic energy and focused it for whatever the spell caster 
intended. Prior to being formed by a spell, we could use our 
shields to block the dark energy without any destruction to the 
shield. This is interesting because we discovered we could create 
an area where no dark energy could get into, and no magic could be 
performed. Once the energy was focused by a spell however, using 
our energy on it cancelled out both and if done abruptly, left the 
spell caster with some kind of mystical opening that was painful as 
it closed down quickly in the absence of the thread. Then we 
discovered that we could replace the dark thread with one of our own 
and then we had complete control over the magic. We were even able 
to levitate Giles. That was most amusing, especially to his frantic 
cries of `let me down now'. Willow's reflector idea also worked 
great. Giles had cast a spell that would cause a wart to appear on 
the castee. Giles now has a nice wart on his chin that he claims 
will disappear by morning. If its still there tomorrow, I'm afraid 
Willow and I will be laughing to hard to make first period. So the 
plan is watch for the next thing that Amy tries and try to transform 
it so that she doesn't catch on that someone else is blocking her. 
We got a hint of something when we checked on Amy in the girls' 
locker room after cheer leader try outs. Cordelia had come in and 
threatened Amy and at first Amy looked frightened then after Cordy 
left, she just looked pissed.


We had homework to do, finals before spring break to study for and a 
body stealing witch to keep tabs on. Definitely time to get home.


***************************************
We didn't get home until five thirty and we promised mom we would be 
available for dinner at six. I put the prepared lasagna in the oven 
per mom's written instructions and Willow started on the salad. Mom 
was determined to keep up on everything and the path she was taking 
was actually pretty successful. We would sit down for dinner and 
tell her everything going on and she would just listen attentively. 
She didn't criticize or harangue. The most she did was offer 
helpful suggestions. After a few days of this, we found ourselves 
telling her everything without fear. I think that was her plan. I 
tell you, that woman is truly devious.

After dinner, mom gave Willow a hug and told her everything with Amy 
would work out just fine. That she was proud that we had taken the 
time to properly research what to do and had come up with a sound 
logical strategy for helping her friend. Willow was absolutely 
glowing after this and was once again my confident, take charge soul 
mate.

After dinner we dived into homework and studying for finals with 
just a little focus on what was going on over at Amy's. A little 
after eight, we saw Amy going up to her attic and stopped our 
study's to pay more attention.

We watched and listened to what Amy was doing. Amy stirred the 
pot. "Give me the power. Give me the dark." She goes to grab a doll 
from her rack. "I call on you, the laughing gods." She yanks one of 
the dolls off of the rack. "Let your blackness crawl beneath my 
skin." She wraps a scrunchie around the doll's head. "Accept thy 
sacrifice... of Cordelia. Feed on her." She drops the doll into the 
brew. 

"Cordelia!" Willow exclaimed. "Is Cordelia going to burst into 
flames now?"

"Calm down, lets follow the thread and see what it does." I said 
taking her hand into mine.

"Yea, follow the thread." She repeated and that's exactly what we 
did. We followed this black thread from Amy as it traveled quickly 
to the Bronze where it attached itself to Cordelia as she stood 
court. We continued to watch for fifteen minutes but nothing 
appeared to be happening.

"Something tells me that whatever is going to happen won't take 
place until tomorrow at school." Willow slowly said.

"Gotta agree with you Will. And since it doesn't look like anything 
evil is out and about right now, I say dessert time." I leaned over 
and placed a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Alright, but I want a slayer back ride." Willow jumped on my back 
before I was even up, wrapping her legs and arms around me tightly 
and as I stood up, she managed to slide the center of her pelvis 
against my back bone. The heat she generated doing so nearly made 
me stumble.
I put my hand under legs to hold her firmly in place and paused. "Is 
that where you want your ice cream?" I said with a very throaty 
voice.

"If you're the one eating it then most definitely yes." She 
whispered into my ear finishing by sucking on my earlobe.

"Ok, fill bowls and bring back to room." As my pulse quickened, I 
took off towards the kitchen with sweet lusty thoughts on my mind 
and Willow yelling whoopee and giddyup.

"Hi girls!" Mom greeted us with a very amused smirk on her face as I 
skidded to a halt.

"Hey mom!" We both chimed back as I let Willow off my back.

"I'm guessing ice cream." Mom said as I headed for the fridge and 
Willow was grabbing bowls and spoons, though I didn't think we were 
planning on using the spoons but don't want eagle eye mom to know 
what I was thinking.

[ no siree, sure don't want mom getting any ideas. ] Willow thought 
back and I realized that we were still linked. I looked at her and 
shrugged my shoulders as I heard her thoughts that she didn't care 
and it really didn't bother me and it was convenient as we didn't 
have to waste time trying to figure out how to say something as we 
both already knew what the intention was and we're both mind 
babbling so that might be a good reason to break the connection but 
for the time being its kinda fun and all this is going on in the 
background, just like regular thinking. We know who's thought is 
who's and follow up thoughts were often responses to the others 
thoughts but now its getting confusing because
it's a little difficult to focus on anything else so we are mutually 
agreeing to break the connection.

Willow and I both started laughing and mom just looked at us as if 
we were crazy even though she knew we had been having a silent 
discussion.

"Want to let me in on the joke?" Mom asked as we tried to stifle our 
giggles over the joint mind babble we had just shared.

"Uh, just a little joint mind babble that got away from us." I 
explained since Willow was still trying to get herself under control.

Willow and I both stopped abruptly as a major demon presence showed 
up. Nine vamps in one of the large mausoleums in the largest 
cemetery that was just six blocks from us.

"You call Giles, tell him to meet us at the corner. I'll get the 
bag and change into better clothes and fill mom in." I spoke out 
loud so mom would know what was going on and then I dashed up to my 
room all lusty thoughts gone for the time being.

I changed into some black stretchy workout pants, put on my cross 
trainers and grabbed Willow's shoes and the equipment bag. I was 
back downstairs with Willow waiting by the door and mom looking 
anxious.

"They're splitting up into groups. Three groups of two and one of 
three and heading off in different directions." Willow explained for 
mom's edification as she grabbed her shoes from me.

"And Giles just left his place. Fortunately he doesn't live 
far `cause the way he drives it's still going to take him five more 
minutes." I explained also.

"I wish I could go with you. Please be careful." Mom gave us both a 
hug and we hugged her back then went to meet Giles.

Fortunately the vamps were not moving fast. In fact they looked 
downright cautious.

[ do they look like they're being cautious? ] Willow had noticed the 
same thing I had.

[ yea, you don't think we had anything to do with that, do you? ] I 
couldn't help but feel somewhat proud and amused at the thought.

[ maybe, but all the more reason not to get all cocky. Not that 
you're the cocky type cause you're a girl and all and not in the 
least with the cocky thingy, damn it focus. ] Willow mentally 
slapped herself.

[ it's ok willow, there's no over confidence going on her. Just 
start focusing on what order would be best to go after the groups. ]

[ yea, focus on plan of attack. ] I could almost hear her brain 
whirring and then she opened our link and I knew her thought 
process. I joined in with my logistical take on things and our plan 
was worked out just as Giles pulled up. We noticed that of the four 
groups, two of each were actually going in the same direction. It 
was like they were scouting but the following groups were trying to 
stay undetected while keeping the lead group visible. We directed 
Giles to an alley and had him wait about fifty yards from where the 
lead group was passing by with the engine off and lights out. After 
they passed by, we all grabbed our weapons and got in position for 
the three trailing vamps to pass by. As they did, I stomped my foot 
and the all turned. Giles and I took out two of them with the 
crossbows and Willow did her stake fling at the third and we were 
dashing back to the car before the dust had settled.

Giles drove up in front of the other two vamps and I jumped out with 
my short sword and a stake. The looked startled but saw it was just 
a tiny little girl and quickly both leaped at me. I also leaped at 
them and kicked one in the head sending him sprawling and 
decapitated the other as I went flying by. The one I knocked down 
was quickly getting up as I landed in front of him. My left hand 
with the stake flashed out as I ducked under his reaching arms and 
he was dust as wood connected with undead heart.

I turned to see Willow holding two stakes. Only Willow can look 
apprehensive and happy at the same time. It's kinda like her eyes 
do one thing but the rest of her face is doing something else. No 
one can multitask like my Willow.

"That was fun, lets go get some more." I said as I kissed her on the 
cheek. Giles, who had barely gotten out of the car, quickly got 
back in and we followed suit. We guided Giles to the other follow 
group, coming up behind them. They were staying in the shadows of a 
residential street, following about a block behind the scout group. 
We had reloaded the crossbows on the way, so as we pulled in front 
of them as they were walking across someone's lawn. I jumped out 
with both crossbows and nailed both of them. I leapt back into the 
car with a cat eating grin on my face and we motored after the final 
pair. They were staying out in the open, it was pretty obvious now 
that they were supposed to be bait. They just didn't know that 
their hook was gone. We pulled in front of them just like we did 
with the other scouting pair but instead of dusting the one that I 
had kicked to the ground, I cut off both his arms and grabbed him by 
the neck. I held him writhing on the ground armless as Giles and 
Willow came up beside us.

"Very good Buffy. I just hope this one can answer our questions." 
Giles voice had a dangerous edge to it that I had never heard before 
and even Willow glanced at him quickly.

"OK dead boy, who sent you." I started.

"I'll kill you." The vamp screamed.

"No, you won't. What you will do is tell me everything I want to 
know or I start cutting you into little pieces. And if you don't 
tell me still, I will mail all those pieces all over the place, 
leaving just your head and torso, so that you stay undead and 
starving for eternity." I spoke softly so that we would know how 
serious I was.

I handed the Sword to Giles. "Would you please cut off his toes?" I 
asked sweetly.

"No No, I'll tell you." The now terrified vamp quickly screamed.

"We're listening." I said.

"It's the Master. He sent us out to find out why his children are 
not coming back from hunting." His voice was breaking up bad. I 
think he would be crying if he could.

"Does the Master have any clues as to what is happening?" I asked 
softly and slowly.

"He thinks it might be the Slayer." He was being very cooperative 
now.

"Do you think he's right?" I asked the vamp staring into his yellow 
eyes.

"I think so, especially if you're the Slayer." The fear in his eyes 
was quite evident now.

"Your eight buddies are dead. How many more are with the Master." 
This one was really important, I had to know if he was telling the 
truth so I kept my eyes locked on his and saw any shred of hope he 
may have been harboring leave at hearing that he was the last.

He stared at me and could see my determination. "He has only two 
children left, but even though he can't leave he can summon others 
to come to his aid." The extra information convinced me he was 
telling the truth.

"How would these others arrive and how do they get into town 
undetected?" I grasped his neck more firmly, driving in my control.

"By ship and train. When they come by train, they leave the train 
outside of the city and enter the main sewer and travel underground 
to the main electrical tunnel. The ones by ship enter the sewer 
under the dock." He was speaking as if he was in a trance now. He 
had relinquished all control to me to escape his fear and the 
knowledge of his ultimate doom.

"Where is the Master?" I finally asked him.

"In an old buried church next to the hell mouth." With this answer I 
broke eye contact. I had previously linked with Willow and all the 
questions asked were ours. I now looked at Giles. "Anything else?"

"I'm sure I could think of something given some more time, but I 
believe that you have covered all the pertinent issues." The 
dangerous edge was gone from his voice. He was regular Giles now, 
not the Mr. Jekyll version.

"Good." I said and drove the stake through the vamps heart and he 
turned to dust with just the smallest of sighs.

While this was going on, Willow had very carefully floated a stake 
up beside the twelve foot high rooftop of the one story building we 
were next to. With the staking of the vamp, I leapt up to the roof 
to confront soul boy who was spying on us.

"Don't you know it's not polite to eavesdrop?" I didn't feel 
threatened by him, but his activities had passed annoying.

He looked startled but quickly recovered with his patented easy 
smile. "You are good. The Master must be screaming right about now, 
I can almost hear him. You got all of them again so none could 
return with the information he wants. No other slayer could have 
done that. He is probably suspecting that another Master has moved 
into town." He chuckled as he finished, amused with himself no 
doubt.

"That was pretty straight, why no cryptic mumbo jumbo?" I asked, 
truly curious.

"The cryptic stuff was just my having fun and I thought a young 
thing like you would find the dark and mysterious attractive." He 
glanced down at Willow below us and continued. "But it appears I'm 
not your type." He shrugged innocently. 

He could be cute, but mostly he was annoying and Willow was agreeing 
with me big time. She was especially not liking the being 
attractive to me line. I know that stake twitched when he said it.

"What could possibly make you think a slayer would be attracted to a 
vampire?" I asked with complete wonderment in my voice.

"Oh, I thought I had disguised the vampire thing pretty well. But 
if you know I'm a vampire, why haven't you killed me?" He started to 
move closer when he said this.

"DON'T MOVE AN INCH." Willow screamed and her floating stake was 
suddenly pressed against his chest.

His eyes got really big. Guess he's not all cool and collected 
after all. 

"You're not dead yet because you have a soul. That and the fact 
that you don't feed on people but get your blood from the butcher." 
This look of utter amazement just spread across his face. Willow 
and I were enjoying this immensely.

"Is there anything about me you don't know?" He finally asked as he 
slowly regained his composure.

"Don't know your name." I told him.

"Angel." He supplied and he was back to smiling again.

"Just Angel, no last name?" I spoke irritably.

"Yes, just Angel." I guess he figured if he couldn't attract me, he 
could irritate me. He might be able to get away with irritating me, 
but I think Willow had some repressed regression she was dying to 
let out as the stake nudged him.

"Hey, can you lay off the stake? I told you my name already." Now 
he looked irritated. Which made Willow happy. I reached out my 
hand and the stake floated into it.

"I've never heard of a Slayer doing the things you do." He went 
serious with this question. We decided that it was his turn to be 
irritated.

"You probably never heard of a slayer who could read before either. 
We're about to enter the twenty-first century, about time the Slayer 
got updated, don't you think?" I spun the stake on the end of my 
finger while telling him this, or I spun it with the help of Willow 
that is.

"Yea, I guess it is. But I'm wondering why I was sent her now." He 
was staying with the serious.

"You were sent here? Who sent you here and why?" I grasped the 
stake and pointed the blunt end at him.

"Supposedly the powers that be. A demon that works for them said 
you would need my help. But it doesn't look like you do." He was 
now sounding almost dejected.

"We can always use help, but maybe you should talk to this demon to 
see if it was something specific that you're supposed to help with?" 
I offered encouragingly. The moment he started sound dejected, 
Willow's big heart opened up and she immediately felt sorry for the 
creature that she wanted to turn to dust five minutes earlier.

"In the meantime, let's jump down and you can meet Willow and 
Giles." 

"I guess that works for now." Their was a real note of sadness to 
his voice. I started wondering if he was just trying to manipulate 
us with this new attitude. The thought did give Willow pause and 
slowed down her help the hurting compulsion.

We jumped down and Giles studied Angel intently. 

"Angel, that's Giles. And this is Willow." I walked up next to 
Willow and after putting my arm around her waist I kissed her cheek.

After the exchange of pleasantries, Angel said he would get in touch 
with Whistler, the name of the demon that he had referred to 
earlier, and see what he could do.

"Can you tell us anything about this Master?" Giles asked him.

"Yes, I can tell you lots. But let me track down Whistler first and 
then we can meet in a better place. It will take awhile to tell you 
everything." He responded after a moments thought.

"Do you know where Giles lives?" I asked him.

He nodded so I told him to leave a note on his door when he was 
ready to meet again. We said our good nights and went home.

In exchange for cocoa and marshmallows, Willow and I gave mom the 
run down on what happened. She was relieved but reminded us before 
we went up to bed to work on Giles to set up the extra credit 
project so that she could finally meet with him. With happy 
thoughts of once again stopping the bad guys before they could hurt 
anyone and no angst of hiding anything from mom, our thoughts turned 
towards the prospect of snuggling into bed together albeit sans ice 
cream. The ice cream wasn't really important right now because 
remember how Willow explained how slaying makes me feel really 
good? Well it also makes me excited if you catch my drift and with 
Willow sharing my thoughts while slaying, well let me just say sleep 
wasn't going to come very soon.


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

As consciousness slowly came upon me, I had this wonderful feeling 
of warmth and comfort. I slowly realized that Willow's warm body 
was draped over me like a personal comforter. Her silky smooth skin 
felt exquisite every where we touched. Chest, stomach, pelvis and 
thighs all were heated by her incredible warmth. I was on my back 
and my arms were flat on the bed on each side of my head held in 
place by her hands interlocked with mine. Her warm breath gently 
flowed in cadence across my neck where her head was nuzzled into. 
Memory of last night slowly crept upon my foggy wits and I 
remembered that we finally passed out in mutual exhaustion. Our 
current position was not too dissimilar to the one we passed out 
in. The only difference being the placement of our hands. Noticing 
the time on the nightstand clock, I very gently rolled Willow onto 
her back and kissed her softly awake.

"Mmmmmmmm, you make a great alarm clock." She spoke dreamily.

"Sorry it can't be more, but it's time to get up." I said softly.

Willow reached over and gently stroked my nipple and as I gasped at 
her touch, she covered my lips with hers. In moment I was lost in 
the feeling and then the next thing I know, I'm left touchless and 
kissless as Willow dashes off to the bathroom leaving me with only 
the sound of her laughter.


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

At school, we were at our lockers talking with Xander and Jesse. 
Xander had just told us that Cordelia made the cheer leading squad 
but Amy wound up as an alternate. Just then I saw Cordelia trying 
to unlock a locker that I didn't think was hers and then she gave up 
and walked by without even seeing us.

I looked at Willow and we both immediately focused on the black 
thread which now had a slightly reddish tint to it. I dashed after 
Cordelia and got her by the arm just before she left the building. 

"Hold up Cordelia, you don't look well." I told her.

"Yea, you look really pale, maybe you should go to the nurse." 
Willow said gently taking her other arm.

"I don't feel well, and everything looks really fuzzy." She spoke in 
a daze.

I looked into her eyes and saw that they were clouding up. 

[ that's enough, let's break this now. ] I said, my mind made up.

[ I agree. Time to take the bull by the horns. ] Willow replied 
just as firmly.

We guided Cordelia into an empty room and sat her down. "We know 
what's wrong Cordy, please trust us for just a minute." I put all 
the concern I could into my words to keep he calm.

"OK, I feel a little better just with both of you here." She spoke 
still somewhat in a daze.

Willow and I had already started pulling on the energy needed to 
cancel the thread. We wrapped it all the way back to Amy and 
replaced it as we did with Giles. As we did so, the cloudiness in 
Cornelia's eyes disappeared. When it was totally gone, we slowly 
shrunk our thread allowing the connections to close normally.

Cordelia was blinking her eyes and then looked at us.

"How are you feeling now?" I asked her carefully.

"I feel fine. What the hell happened. What did you guys do?" The 
normal Cordelia was returning quickly.

Willow couldn't restrain herself. "Well Cordelia, you pissed off a 
powerful witch who cast a curse on you and we just broke the curse. 
Don't bother thanking us or anything." Did I mention Willow had 
repressed anger issues?

"Witch, what kind of fool do you take me for." She was raising her 
voice, there was anger fueled by fear.

"Cordelia, it doesn't matter if you believe or not. You were losing 
your vision and now it's restored. Let's just leave it at that 
because you really don't want to take me on, now do you?" I decided 
to interfere before Cordelia got a full dose of Willow.

Cordelia stared at me for a moment then got up and left.

Willow was smiling. "We broke the spell and I got to tell Cordelia 
off. Looking like a pretty good day."

"Yes my fiery tigress. But I think it's time to put a real end to 
this before Amy or should I say Amy's mom catches on." I said as I 
cupped her cheek with my hand.

"I'm with you. Should we do it from the library?" She then turned 
her head and kissed the palm of my hand.

"Good idea." And we headed to the library.

Giles was out when we got there but his office door was open. We 
went into his office and closed the door behind us. We sat down and 
opened up to each other, fully joining. Checking on Amy, we say her 
out by the parking lot watching Cordelia driving a car through the 
obstacle course flawlessly. The look on her face was not good. We 
fully revived our energy stores and formed a replacement thread 
between Amy and her mom. As we carefully replaced the thread, we 
could feel the essences of Amy and her mom sucked in opposite 
directions as if each was on a rubber band that was suddenly 
released. Once we sensed that they were back where they belonged, 
we diminished the thread until it was gone. We then quickly got up 
and ran to where Amy was looking around her in shock. When we got 
there, she had slumped to the ground and was just sitting there 
crying.

I had run ahead of Willow and gathered Amy into my arms soothing her 
and telling her everything was alright now. Willow reached us and 
helped me guide her to a bench. We noticed some students looking at 
us curiously, but they kept their distance.

"Amy, it's me Willow. You're back in your own body now and we'll 
protect you from your mom." Willow had pulled out a tissue and was 
drying Amy's tears.

"Ho, Ho, How did you know?" Amy finally sputtered out.

"Buffy and I can detect and fight black magic. We figured out what 
your mom had done and reversed it." Willow told her truthfully.

"Are you guys witches?" She was looking back and forth between us.

"No." I explained. "We don't do magic. We work with only the 
positive coherent energy of the universe." 

She now looked at me more closely. "Who are you?"

Willow introduced us. "Amy, this is Buffy. My girlfriend." Willow 
was beaming.

"Girlfriend as in friend who is a girl?" Amy was now looking at 
Willow a little oddly.

"No Amy, girlfriend as in lover and soul mate." Willow said softly, 
keeping a soft and friendly expression.

"Oh." Amy looked back and forth between us. "I guess I'm not 
really surprised Willow. It's just with the Xander obsession I 
never thought you might be gay. But now that I think about it, it 
does make sense." Her voice was small and weak as if there was more 
crying to come.

"So are you going to be OK?" Willow gently asked her.

"Uh, yea, I think so. I feel OK. And I'm OK with you guys but I'm 
worried about what my mom is going to do." Fear accompanied those 
last words.

"Well right now, your mom is home, upstairs in her attic cursing and 
yelling. Buffy and I are keeping watch on her to see what she is 
going to do. And trust me. We'll stop her, no matter what. We 
won't let her hurt you again.

Amy's mom was tossing stuff into her cauldron and chanting again. 
Dark wisps began taking form. Willow and I immediately enshrouded 
her with a shield that cancelled out what she was doing with a bang, 
causing her to be flung against the wall. She was really angry 
now. She ran down stairs, grabbed her purse and keys and went to 
her car.

[ she's coming here. ] Willow stated with certainty.

[ tell amy to stay out of site. We'll confront her before she can 
get in the school. ] I was ready. This wasn't going to be slaying. 
But what we were fighting was worse than vampires. Vampires will 
kill and occasionally turn their victims into vampires, and they are 
evil also but that almost in a wild animal kingdom sort of way. 
This woman was downright selfish, mean, vindictive, cruel and 
totally evil. The slayer title was really a misnomer, created by 
the council to help limit the activities of the chosen one. I new 
that I was fulfilling the true role of the chosen on for the first 
time in millennia.

"Amy, your mom is headed this way. Buffy and I are going to stop 
her, but we want you to get to class and keep low until we come get 
you. OK?" Willow and taken both of Amy's hands into her own and 
spoke with her words with complete confidence and a warm smile on 
her face.

Amy nodded her head, then hugged Willow took a step away and then 
turned around and hugged me also. I gave her a quick squeeze and 
she ran off to class. 

Willow and I looked at each other and now fully joined, gave each 
other smiles that completely conveyed our desire to end this evil.

We walked towards the front of the school as the first period bell 
rang. The last stragglers disappeared quickly just as we stopped at 
the top of the steps leading up to school.

Amy's mom was just pulling up in front of the school and slammed the 
car door. As she reached the first step, she looked up quickly and 
saw us waiting. She stopped, and quickly surmised that we knew why 
she was there. 

"Are you the little bitches who dare interfere with my power?" She 
nearly screamed in her unbridled rage.

A small part of our vision flashed across our memories. The Lady 
with a hand on each of us saying `You are the chosen.'

"We are the chosen." We spoke as one.

She paused for a moment, but was too consumed by her anger to ponder 
the situation more. Craning her neck and stretching out her arms 
she begins casting a spell.

"I shall look upon my enemies. I shall look upon them and the dark 
place shall have their souls." The dark energy swirled about her. 
Lights and reddish violet energy swirled.

Willow and I cast our reflective shield with a regular shield behind 
it just in case.

"Corseth, take them." She screams.

The energy of the spell was launched at us, bounced of the 
reflective barrier and consumed Amy's mom, twisting around her and 
finally taking her away in a roar.

I reached out for Willow's hand. I looked at her feeling all my 
love just welling up and the tears started flowing. We shared for a 
moment and then smile at each other.

"We are the chosen. Very timely memory." I grinned at her broadly.

"You like it? You don't mind being the only one?" She already new I 
didn't but she couldn't help herself. She still needed the 
confirmation.

"Hey, I might argue with one Goddess, but certainly not with two." I 
said winking at her as we turned knowing that Giles was watching 
us. He was the only one around who saw our encounter.

"Do you know what happened to her?" He asked as we approached him.

"She went to whatever dark place she was planning on sending us to." 
I told him feeling just a little quiver thinking of what we avoided 
for ourselves.

"Well, I'm grateful that you two are all right. But I have two hall 
passes for the both of you. You better get to class now." He handed 
the passes to us.

"Thanks Giles." And we headed off, hoping the rest of the day to be 
uneventful.