Repost FIC: To Cross the River Styx (4b/?)

[PChazzman@xxxxxxx]

TITLE: To Cross the River Styx (4b/?)
AUTHOR: Chazzman
E-MAIL: Pchazzman@xxxxxxx 
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They all belong 
to Joss and the WB network. Please don't sue. 
SPOILERS: Open season on Season 4. 
SUMMERY: I'm re-inventing season 4.
RATED: PG
DISTRIBUTION: Just ask me, please...
FEEDBACK: Is very welcome.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you again to all the wonderful people who have sent me 
feedback saying they are interested in seeing more. 


To Cross the River Styx
Chap 4b

Tara sat on the floor in Rupert Giles' apartment working her way through the 
finder spell. She wasn't quite certain how she had gotten here. Within 15 
minutes of meeting her, Buffy had managed to get her to admit to having some 
spell capabilities and having been practicing magic since she was very young. 
Before she knew it, Buffy was walking arm-in-arm with her of the campus as 
if they had known each other for years instead of five minutes.

Tara had been working magic for as long as she could remember, but this girl, 
who barely knew her, was so enthusiastic and was pinning so many hopes on her 
success that Tara couldn't help but be nervous. Buffy had generated an 
urgent need in Tara to be successful.

When Tara began the casting she felt the power begin to slowly build and 
start to swirl about her. Suddenly, the spell abruptly sputtered out. Panic 
immediately began to grip her.

"I told you, Giles. The Havalich had to be fresh," murmured Willow from the 
counter where she sat.

"S...S...Something's wrong. I could feel the spell s...start, but it didn't 
hold," she said apologetically to Buffy.

"Well at least she didn't summon little Timmy the Tinkler again, eh Rupes," 
said Spike with a smirk.

Giles ignored the jab and moved to look over the spell components, "Maybe the 
translation of the phrasing is wrong-"

"Phrasing is fine," said Anya as she bit into an apple. "It's the dried 
Havalich. It looses potency over time. The best is fresh."

"See Giles, even demon girl knows better," Willow sighed.

"Are you certain about that?" Giles asked.

"Why would I have said so if I wasn't?" Anya said irritably. "Look, I've 
been around for 1100 years. Demon powers are great, but occasionally I 
needed to cast a spell to find someone." 

Tara's eye widened slightly at that statement and she looked at Buffy. 
Rolled her eyes and sighed. She would have to do some explaining. She 
noticed Olivia giving Giles a look and grinned. Looks like she wouldn't be 
the only one having to explain. "I'll explain later," she whispered to Tara 
as she tried to smile reassuringly.

"Ok fresh Havalich. No problem. We just hop on down to Mage Depot-" Xander 
began to say.

"They won't have it," interrupted Anya. "It's too temperamental. You need a 
specialty shop, maybe in LA."

"On it," said Buffy and she moved to pick up the phone and begin dialing. 
She listened for a moment. "Hello Angel? Hi, do you know of any magic shops 
down their that might carry fresh Havalich. We need it to cast the finder 
spell for Willow. You do? Great. Uhm do you think you could get some up 
here tonight? Maybe send Doyle or Cordy if you can't come? Angel? Angel, 
what's wrong?" Her sudden stillness caught everyone's attention. "Oh. Oh 
god." Giles was by her side in a flash. Tears began to escape as she 
continued to listen to the phone. "Angel, I-. Oh god, I'm so sorry. I- 
How's Cordelia? I see. No. No you don't have to. We can wait. Oh. OK 
then. We'll be at Giles'. OK. See you in a while."

She hung up the phone as she turned toward the apprehensive and questioning 
looks directed at her.

"Doyle...died last night."

****

Maggie sat next to Eve and watch as she rapidly answered question after 
question on the computer. She now only experienced the slightest twinges of 
guilt about what she had done to the body of Willow Rosenberg. After all she 
was dead. Now, Eve would help her solve the problems that had arisen from 
her death, and she could get on with her work on Adam. Her real 
accomplishment. She knew Dr. Ackerman had been astonished by what she had 
achieved with 'Eve', but that was because he did not understand what she had 
done. 

She had cheated.

She had done what she had promised her father she would never do.

She had used "The Book" and created an 'abomination'. 

She knew most people would consider Adam to be the abomination. Because most 
people were fools, who would only judge him on his appearance. But his 
appearance was of no concern to her. It was what he would be capable of 
when he finally was complete. The ultimate warrior. Designed by science.

Eve was a couple of left over parts that could be hidden in a dead body over 
which she had several spells cast in secret. In truth she hadn't needed the 
parts, but then Dr. Ackerman would have certainly known that something was 
wrong and might have let slip to Jude Law what was really going on.

Jude Law. She really hated that man. He irritated her in a way that no one 
else ever had. His control over HER project. His snide comments. He was a 
thug. A bully. He had no respect for her or the people under her, and she 
could see the way it was slowly wearing them down. Eve had to be a 
spectacular success so that she could once again get back control over her 
whole project and get him off of her back. 

"Finished," said Eve as she completed the final question. 

Maggie looked at the screen and entered the check code. The results appeared 
within seconds, showing Eve to have answered 99% of the 500 questions 
correctly.

"Very good," said Maggie. "You only missed 5 questions."

"Actually, I didn't," said Eve. "I intentionally entered them wrong."

"Why did you do that?"

"'To err is human'," Eve said with a shrug. "While Willow Rosenberg is 
smart, she is still capable of mistakes. To be perfect would draw more 
attention to me. Since this was a test of my knowledge as Willow Rosenberg, 
I decided to provide a few errors that would have been in character for 
Willow. Even if she would have preferred to have received a 100%."

Maggie smiled. "Very good Eve. You are perfect."

Eve smile at the praise. Just like she would have if she were a real girl.

****

"Who are you people?" Tara asked Buffy directly and without any of her 
characteristic stammering. "If you expect me to do a spell for you I have to 
know your intentions."

Buffy looked at Tara who held her gaze steady. Tara normally would have 
looked away but she needed to know before she went any further that her 
instincts about Buffy were right. She really wanted to trust her. But 
Anya's demon comment had thrown her for a loop. 

"How much do you know about demons?" asked Buffy. 

"Only that they exist. My mother...she knew about a few, and I've read a few 
books."

"And did you by any chance happen to come across a reference to 'The Chosen 
One' or 'The Slayer'."

"Oh yes. A girl blessed by the gods and goddesses with the strength and 
skill to fight the demons..." Tara trailed off as she looked at Buffy.

"Blessed is not how I would put it," Buffy said with a shake of her head.

"And Anya?" 

"She used to be Anyanka. A vengeance demon. Only something happened and she 
lost her powers and now she's human again."

"And Spike? Cause I've noticed that nobody seems to like him and he's not 
really very nice." 

"Spike. Spike's an annoyance. He is a vampire who can't hurt people because 
the commandos who took Willow put something in him. He came to us for help 
in exchange for information about them."

Tara's eye's got even wider at this information.

"There's something else I suppose I'd better tell you. The guy I called who 
is coming up here. Angel. Well, he's a vampire too, only he got cursed with 
a soul. So he's good now, and he helps people who need help."

"OK" Tara said slowly. "That leaves the question 'Why did the commandos take 
Willow?'"

Buffy bit her lip. "I don't know. The only thing I can think of is that 
they took her cause they thought she was a vamp and then haven't released her 
because they found out she was a witch. At least I hope that is all it is."

****

It was after midnight when Angel finally knocked on Giles' door. As Tara and 
Anya prepared the Havalich for the spell, Angel told Buffy, Xander, Giles and 
Olivia about Doyle's sacrifice.

"How's Cordelia taking it?" Giles asked.

"She's having a pretty rough time. She was just beginning to get close to 
him. I tried to bring her, but she insisted that she didn't want to see 
anyone." Angel frowned. "Which in an odd way makes Dennis the perfect 
person to take care of her at the moment."

"Dennis?" asked Xander.

"He's a ghost in her apartment," Angel explained.

"Oh," said Xander as he nodded his head. A second later her lifted his head 
to stare at Angel and ask, "Say what?"

"A ghost?" said Willow suddenly perking up. 

"His mother bricked him up in the wall in the 1950's to stop him from 
marrying a girl she disapproved of," Angel explained.

Xander blinked. "Suddenly, the idea of my parents charging me rent to live 
in the basement seems quite charitable of them."

"Argh!" Willow clutched at her head. "Buffy why didn't you stay the night at 
her place, maybe I could have talked to him."

*****

"So what are you thinking about," asked Forrest.

Riley took a long pull on the beer. "I'm think about how much I would like 
to be out there kicking some hostile's ass."

"Yea, I hear you," nodded Forrest. "Still it shouldn't be too much longer 
before they let us back out for some action."

"No, I don't care about that. I just want to beat the hell out of something. 
I just can't believe this whole thing is happening. I mean, we're the 
'Good' guys. Even though we weren't allowed to tell people, at least we knew 
we were doing something to be proud of. Now, hell I can hardly look at Buffy 
because I feel so guilty. What am I gonna do when I see her with that...that 
thing."

"You're gonna do nothing. Move on Riley. It's for the best. Don't screw 
your career over because you wanted to nail some girl."

"I'm not Parker."

"Damn right you aren't. And you got a lot more to loose. So listen up to 
your buddy. Don't be chasing after this girl. Let her go. There's to many 
chances you'll let something slip. Why risk it. OK."

Riley said nothing, choosing instead to take another drink from his beer.

*****

Meanwhile in downtown Sunnydale, within a clock tower, tall sinister shapes 
began to prepare a ceremony of their own. The center of their attention was 
on a little wooden box that had been gently placed upon the table.

*****

It was past one in the morning, when they began the spell again. Tara sat 
calmly in the center of the room.

"Diana, Goddess of the hunt. To you we appeal to show us the way to she who 
has been taken from us. We-" 

Tara felt a sudden sharp pulling in her throat and she paused to swallow. 
She began to speak again, and nothing came out. She raised her hand to her 
throat. Buffy tried to ask 'What was wrong?' and when nothing came out she 
realized what she too couldn't speak. Seconds later everyone in the room was 
trying to say something, anything, to even get a whisper out but to no avail. 


In an instant, their voices had been stolen.

Willow, however, had seen it happen. A faint whisp of what looked like white 
smoke had escaped from everyone's mouth. She follow the whisps outside where 
they joined others in a swirling cloud like mass that began to rapidly move 
towards downtown. Willow tried to follow but soon reached as far as she 
could go from Buffy. "Dammit!" she cursed as she watched the cloud like 
substance disappear down the street. An idea occurred to her and she flew up 
into the air. Rising high above Sunnydale she watched as from all across the 
town, the white cloud whisps converged on a clock tower. Willow 
concentrated, trying to focus in on the tower. To her amazement she was 
suddenly seeing colors from all across the spectrum. The town was glowing 
with energy and she could see dozens of lines entering the town from all 
directions, throbbing and pulsating with power and color. It was beautiful, 
entrancing and she lost track of how long she stared at the shimmering 
panorama before her. But then she noticed something else. 

It was difficult to tell for certain because she was so far away. But the 
line that passed through the clock tower seemed to dim as it exited the 
tower. Something evil was in there; of that Willow had no doubt. The only 
problem was, how would she inform Buffy.

****

End Chap 4b