NEW Fic: To Cross the River Styx (6a/?)

[PChazzman@xxxxxxx]

TITLE: To Cross the River Styx (6a/?)
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. Skipping a few eps to get to 'This Year's 
Girl'.
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 6a

"Hey there," Buffy said as she strolled into the room and sat down in the 
chair near the bed. She slipped a book from her backpack and settled back in 
the chair. It had become a ritual of sort. Willow was at one of her weekly 
psych-therapy sessions to help her cope with the after effects of being 
kidnapped, so Buffy had come to the hospital to see Faith. Sometimes she 
talked to her about what had been going on, other times she read aloud from 
her texts to the girl.

"I got a B on my Lit essay, and I got to beat up Ethan Rayne for turning 
Giles into a demon. So it's been a good week." She proceeded to describe how 
Giles had awoken one morning and found himself transformed into a Fyarl 
demon. Fortunately, Spike who had still been staying with Giles was able to 
speak Fyarl and had immediately called Buffy. A quick search of the magic 
shops had revealed that Ethan was back in town, and an even quicker search of 
the hotels, thanks to one of Riley's frat buddies, had enabled Buffy to catch 
Ethan and make him reverse the spell.

An hour later, as Buffy finished reading to Faith the latest chapter in 
'Ancient History 103', she looked up to find Tara standing in the doorway 
waiting for her to finish. They would go and spend the next hour or so 
practicing Tara's witchcraft and Buffy's sorcery, as Giles insisted on 
calling it. Of her friends, only Giles and Tara knew about her trips to see 
Faith. And Tara only knew because they had been spell-casting together.

The first time they had practiced together, Tara had immediately sensed 
Buffy's convoluted feelings about Faith and had cautiously asked her about 
it. After Buffy had told her about what had happened, Tara had seemed to 
understand Buffy's need to do something, anything, to ease her heart over 
Faith's condition. Not that she wouldn't have done it again. But it was 
still painful to Buffy that it had been necessary at all. Tara had listened 
to her and had gently encouraged her to do what she had to do in order to 
purge her heart of the anger she felt from Faith's betrayal.

Buffy smiled and closed her book. "Hey. How's it going?"

"Good," Tara smiled back. "All set for tonight?" 

"Excuses ready to go," Buffy nodded. Although she had finally told 
Willow about Tara, she was still keeping quiet about her new powers to the 
rest of the gang. Willow been quiet subdued when Buffy had introduced her to 
Tara, and Buffy had felt that Willow would have been too upset by the 
information about her new abilities. Additionally, to prevent any accidental 
slips of the tongue, she had not told Xander and Anya. Giles helped her 
cover by claiming to be giving Buffy more training time, which technically 
was true. He had mapped out a course of concentration and meditation 
techniques for Buffy to practice control of her new abilities in addition to 
working on her Slayer skills.

***

Willow slowly emerged from Faith's body. It felt like pushing through 
warm jello. There was no resistance but it felt like something clinging to 
her as she moved. She had been experimenting to see if she could communicate 
with Buffy by using Faith's body. Use her voice. Move her hand.

In other words, she was trying to posses Faith's body.

Not permanently, she had promised, but since Faith was in a coma and all, 
it seemed logical that someone should get some use out of her body...

Not that it mattered. Although she felt as if she should have been able 
to do it, thus far she'd had no success at any sort of control over Faith's 
body. It was frustrating. Almost as frustrating as her attempts to move 
objects. Since that night over the Hellmouth, Willow had been unable to do 
so much as lift a feather. She had finally put it down to Buffy being 
'super-charged' that night from the amulet being close to so many lines of 
magical power. So she had moved on to attempting possession of the comatose 
Faith. And failing utterly.

Not that it had been a total wash out. She had found herself able to do 
certain things that she had not yet been able to do in Buffy's body. One of 
those things was an ability to occasionally link into Faith's subconscious 
and see her dreams. They had frightened her at first. Some were violent 
distorted images from Faith's childhood and from slaying. Others were an 
incomprehensible mishmash of images, not really frightening, just surreal. 
Then there were the nice dreams: Training with her first Watcher, Christmas 
at Buffy's house, the Mayor taking her on a picnic. However even these 
pleasant dreams often ended in horror with Faith's first Watcher being torn 
apart by Kakistos, and Buffy walking up and stabbing the Mayor.

Willow had had enough after the third time she watched a stone-cold 
killer Buffy disrupting Faith's gentle memories of the Mayor.

"That's not what Buffy is and you know it!" she shouted at the Faith.

"What the-," Faith looked around with a puzzled expression as Willow 
strode forward. 

"He was the monster, Faith, not Buffy," Willow growled out, "At least you 
could have the guts to face the facts in your own head."

"She's too much of a coward to face the truth!" snarled Buffy as she 
stepped forward with the knife still dripping with blood.

"I- I- What are you talking about?" Faith stepped back from the angry 
duo.

"What am I talking about?" Willow looked over at the bloody body of the 
Mayor and suddenly the scene shifted to that of Graduation and the Mayor 
shifted and grew into a 60-foot long demonic serpent, which began gulping 
down people. "That's what he wanted to become. Buffy fought to save lives. 
You gave up and just tried to destroy 'em."

"You don't understand!" Faith yelled back. "He did more for me in a few 
months than anyone else in my entire goddamn life. He cared about me!"

"You don't deserve to have anyone care about you," growled the Buffy 
image. "You're nothing. A slut. A killer. You should be dead. You were 
supposed to fight for good and you betrayed everything. You're EVIL. You 
belong in Hell!"

Willow was suddenly alarmed at the way Buffy was acting. "Now wait!" 
cried out Willow but neither Faith nor Buffy heard her. Buffy dove at Faith 
fully intent on stabbing her again

"No!" Faith cried out in fear and stumbled backwards. She flung out her 
arms to protect herself and suddenly Willow felt herself being expelled from 
Faith's body. After that experience, Willow decided that rather than 
confront Faith she would simply manipulate the scenes and hope that maybe 
they would have some influence on how Faith viewed things. 

It was a shocking realization to herself that she had done the same thing 
to Faith in her own mind that Faith had done to Buffy. Replaced the person 
with a simple character that exaggerated the perceived faults of that person. 
Slowly, Willow was beginning to see beyond the picture she had developed in 
her own mind of Faith as nothing more than 'psycho-girl' and instead she 
began to see her once again as a person. 

As she left Faith's body to follow after Buffy and Tara, she did not 
notice the small tendrils of energy that remained behind, linking them to the 
dark slayer. Giving her energy. 

Hastening her awakening.

*******

The door to the closed as Riley Finn left the meeting. He had done his 
best to control himself but there was no mistaking the aura of anger that 
exuded from him at many of Eve's comments. Finally, when his report was 
finished and the cross-examination over, he had been allowed to leave.

"He's getting nowhere and he's really more of a liability right now," 
snapped Eve. "He almost blew it at the magic shop the other day, when he 
called for help on tracking down Ethan Rayne."

"I honestly don't see the need, either," Maggie added. "Eve has provided 
us with plenty of details regarding her activities. This foolishness 
endangers the main project, 314. The risk is unnecessary."

"Riley stays," said Jude calmly. "My interest in Miss Summers is not 
your concern and has no bearing to your project."

"Wrong. You're using my people for 'Your Project' and that makes it my 
concern."

"Does Agent Finn know about Adam? Is he aware of what you have done to 
him? No. Besides, there is still the whole outstanding question of whether 
314 will be truly feasible. You're still a long way from success, Doc. 
Meanwhile, the successful recruitment of this 'Slayer' gives way to a whole 
host of opportunities and possibilities."

Jude stood up. With a glare at Eve, he ordered, "Riley stays and you are 
to do everything to help him establish a relationship with Miss Summers." 
With that he walked out of the room.

Dr. Ackerman took a nervous drag on his cigarette. "Well, that was fun," 
he grumbled sarcastically. "Why do you let him get to you? Shouldn't we be 
preparing the teams for tonight's hunt?"

"You're right," sighed Maggie, as she ran her hand through her hair. 
"It's just that there's something about him that irritates me."

Eve handed a few sheets of paper to Maggie. "This is all I was able to 
find in Giles books on Polgara demons. I don't believe the Glormgist would 
be prudent due to potential difficulties with disease."

"Difficulties?" asked Dr. Ackerman.

"Glormgist demons tend to lair with rodents."

*** 

Giles looked about with a sigh as the wind began to pick up. The clouds 
were moving in rapidly so it looked as if they would have to cut the practice 
short. Still, he had been very impressed with Buffy's progress in developing 
her mental powers. His research into past slayers with similar powers had 
unfortunately been stymied by the lack of access to the resources of the 
Watcher's Council. He and Buffy had decided to try and keep Buffy's new 
powers secret, not even Willow and Xander had been told. Willow had not been 
told because Buffy worried how she might react. When Buffy had told her 
about Tara finally, Willow's only comment had been to accuse Giles of 
purposeful neglect. He still cringed whenever he remembered her softly 
spoken words: 'Maybe if you had trained me properly I could have defended 
myself and might not have had my brain chopped up.' Since then, Willow had 
only once been over to the apartment, and that had only been because he had 
been turned into a demon by Ethan. 

Tara smiled as she felt Buffy expanding her spell to include her and 
Giles. It felt as if she was being enveloped in her mother's arms. A 
sensation of warmth and security passed through her body as Buffy's detection 
spell expanded outwards.

Buffy felt a sense of pleasure as she stretched the detection spell to a 
circle 20 feet in radius where she finally detected Giles and Tara. Being 
careful to hold the detection spell steady, she used her mind to pick up a 
book and a crystal. The book she floated over to where she 'felt' Giles was 
and the crystal she held in the air by Tara. She then reached up and removed 
her blind fold.

"How did I do?" she asked as she blinked to adjust her eyes and looked 
over to the two figures in hopeful expectation. Her smile slipped and 
shoulders slumped as she saw Giles holding the crystal and Tara holding the 
book.

"Drat."

"No," Giles and Tara both said at the same time. They looked at each 
other, and Tara, blushing, indicated for Giles to continue first.

"Buffy, what you have managed to do in such a short time has been nothing 
short of amazing." Tara nodded firmly. "And in no small part, a little 
frightening." Buffy looked shocked at that statement, but when she glanced 
at Tara she could see that the blond witch agreed. Giles noted the surprise 
and worry on Buffy's face and continued. "It's not that I am afraid of you 
become evil. I've known you too long and after all that you have faced, well 
let's just say that I believe you have too strong of a moral character to 
ever seek to do evil with this power. Many magic users tend to be unaware of 
the potential for evil overwhelming them when they seek the easy path to 
greater power. A path that you don't seem to need, frankly. I'm not sure 
how strong your powers are but we haven't even begun to stretch them with 
what we've been doing here. These... exercises are simply thing to teach you 
control. That you are still making some mistakes is actually in a strange 
way, reassuring."

"I'm getting credit for mistakes? Why can't you be one of my professors?" 
Buffy grumbled.

"And I'm also very pleased that you haven't let this power go to your 
head and start using it every day during slaying. It is important that you 
not become slack on your physical aspects just because you can float a couple 
of stakes in the air."

"Ninety-eight," said Tara softly.

"What?" 

"She's up to being able to control ninety-eight different stakes in the 
air at the same time. Of course that was last week..." she trailed off with 
a small sheepish shrug.

Giles looked shocked while Buffy just smiled.

"So what next Obi-Wanita?" Buffy asked Tara. "Try again?" Suddenly a 
rumble was heard from overhead.

"M-Maybe we should stop for the night," Tara said as she nervously looked 
up.

"Quite right," said Giles still trying to picture the vision of Buffy 
patrolling with 98 stakes floating around her. Vampires would never be able 
to even get near enough to touch her. He began to pick up some of the 
supplies.

"OK. Hey Tara, tomorrow Willow's gonna be studying at the library till 
eleven, you wanna go to the Bronze? I'll call Riley. Maybe we'll get lucky 
and find you that special girl?" Buffy grinned at the now blushed Tara. 
Tara had finally told Buffy about her homosexuality in order to stop Buffy 
from trying to set her up with any of Riley's friends. Buffy had blinked for 
a moment after Tara's revelation, Tara had been certain that she had heard 
the shifting of gears, and then Buffy had proceeded to talk about working on 
finding 'that special girl for her'. 

Tara smiled back at Buffy. She had finally become used to Buffy's 
teasing and cajoling. Her confidence was still quite low but being around 
Buffy always seemed to make her more daring. She met the challenge in 
Buffy's eye, flipped her hair back in a nonchalant manner and nodded. 
"You're on."

It would have sounded better without the stutter.

*****

"What the fuck is your problem?" snarled Riley as Eve stepped out of the 
front of Lowell House. 

Eve look calmly at the angry young man. "Problem?"

"Every goddamn meeting it's 'Riley is screwing up', 'Pull Riley', 'Get 
rid of Riley'. I'm having enough trouble with this mission without you 
trying to sabotage my every effort."

Eve arched an eyebrow and began to walk off. When Riley didn't follow 
she stopped and called back over her shoulder, "Walk with me." After a 
minute of walking in silence Eve began to speak.

"What exactly is your mission, Agent Finn? Get in close with the Slayer? 
Why does Jude Law want you next to Buffy? I am already there. I can 
provide all the needed information on Buffy and her activities. Instead my 
orders are to slowly isolate myself from everyone until I receive orders to 
tell them that I am leaving Sunnydale. That I can't handle the constant 
fear. That I need to get away and start fresh. And after I have left, do 
you know what will happen to me?"

She stopped walking to look him straight in the eye.

"I will be shutdown. Program completed. End of run. I'm a loose end 
that the government can't have running around. Jude Law is afraid of me and 
wants me packed up and liquidated. I know this and still I will follow Dr. 
Walsh's orders. I have to. But don't expect me to enthusiastically welcome 
you when you're doing such a pitifully poor job."

Riley's face had blanched when she had mentioned being liquidated, but 
then he thought about what she was and calmed down. Eve did not miss the 
change in his face.

"That's right. I'm just a thing. I don't deserve to exist. Keep think 
that. After all, you've got enough on your conscience what with killing me 
once already," Eve said with a smirk. Riley took a step back as his face 
flushed with guilt.

Eve started to turn away but stopped and looked back over her shoulder. 
"Here's something else to think about. Jude told you he wants to recruit 
Buffy, but do you really think that Buffy would join a group that traumatized 
her best friend the way my cover story has been put forth?"

"So what are you saying?" 

Eve cocked here head to the side. "I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but I 
don't think you're here to recruit Buffy by getting her in the sack. Jude 
Law came here to eliminate problems. Buffy Summers being in jail for murder 
would solve a lot of his problems."

"Wha- Wait a minute. Why would she be in jail for murder?" Riley asked 
in frustration.

Eve smiled coyly at the soldier. "Be honest Riley. You've seen her in 
action. Do you think you'd have the slightest chance of surviving an angry 
Slayer if Buffy ever found out what you've done behind her back and how you 
are deceiving her with every kiss?"

She walked off leaving a very troubled Riley alone with some very dark 
thoughts. 

*****

As Giles drove them back to the campus, Buffy thought about the problem 
of fixing Tara up with someone, and compared it to her problem of trying to 
fix Willow. With Tara the problem was self-assurance hampered by an almost 
painful shyness. Willow was actually now very self-assured and confident, 
even more so than before her kidnapping, however her trust in people had been 
destroyed. 

She worried about how solitary Willow seemed now. Buffy had kept Tara 
away from Willow since the incident with Giles, not wanting the shy blonde 
witch to become a target of Willow's anger, which seemed to erupt at the most 
inopportune times. Last week she had suddenly flared up over a minor joke by 
Xander and proceeded to rip into him over his currently aimless life, lack of 
any career goals or prospects, and had told him to just stay away from her 
with his 'Demon Lover'. Buffy had tried to smooth over the hurt by talking 
to Xander but a number of Willow's comments had cut too close to home leaving 
him in a deep depression. 

"I don't want Xander around her any more. She's not getting better, 
Buffy. She's getting worse and she's starting to affect everyone around 
her," had been Anya's comment on the whole situation, and Buffy had been 
surprised to find herself agreeing with the former vengeance demon. Buffy 
had recently found herself not wanting to be around Willow because whenever 
she was she felt a continuous sense of anger and rage inside over what had 
been done to her. Most of the time, Buffy would quash those feelings because 
she saw that Willow was alone and needed somebody, even though she said she 
didn't.

Thoughts about Willow inevitably led once again to thoughts about the 
'angel' she had seen several weeks ago while dangling over the Hellmouth. 
Was it truly an angel? How had she been able to see it? Why had it looked 
like Willow to her? Another odd thing was that now whenever she thought 
about the angel, it would always seemed to produce a surge of warmth, comfort 
and a deep sense of love within her. Why? She had even talked about it with 
her mom, again leaving out the detail of it looking like Willow. Joyce had 
simply found comfort in the idea that as the slayer, perhaps she wasn't as 
alone in her fight against evil as had always been thought and that maybe it 
was a guardian angel. Giles had been unable to find anything after weeks of 
research, as most of his texts dealt with the demonic end of the supernatural 
spectrum.

Tara watched Buffy as she stared out the car window. She could tell by 
the look of bliss on her face that she was thinking about the 'angel'. The 
first time she had seen Buffy looking this way she had asked if the slayer 
was daydreaming about her new boyfriend. "Hardly," Buffy had laughed and 
then she had frowned as she realized that her thoughts about the angel had 
giving her a more fulfilled feeling than any of Riley. Buffy had simply told 
Tara that she was just trying to remember what the angel had looked like, but 
Tara wasn't fooled. The look on Buffy's face had been one of enraptured 
adoration. 

Riley was in for a major disappointment. Just like she had been.

*****

TBC...