FIC: Right In Front of You Ch. 30 (W/T, B/W) PG-13

["CDS" <callistosdarkside@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Long time no update. Here's chapter 30.

Yes, there's angst coming, so be warned.

Enjoy!

-CDS

Direct Link: http://www.geocities.com/callistosdarkside/rifoy30.htm

? Title: Right In Front of You
? Author: Callisto's Dark Side
? Email: callistosdarkside@xxxxxxxxxx
? Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.
? Distribution: Can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/callistosdarkside/RightInFrontOfYou.htm (My Site),
http://www.geocities.com/last_days_of_pern, and
http://www.peccath.com/extraflamey/mainframe.htm
? Spoilers: All of Season 5, but events take place before some events in
Tough Love.
? Rating: R to NC-17
? Pairings: W/T & B/W
? Disclaimer: All characters from Angel & Buffy the Vampire Slayer are
copyright Joss Whedon & 20th Century Fox.
? Summary: Willow/Tara fic in which the two love birds must manage to deal
with the consequences of a spell that threatens to tear them apart forever.


Chapter 30


"The temple," Tara breathed, as she commanded the horse to come to a stop.

Dawn rubbed her bleary eyes from the long, bumpy trip. It had taken them a
few days, but they were finally here.

"It's night time," Dawn yawned, stretching out her arms.

"Yes, it is."

"Should we get a room and wait until morning?"

"Are you tired?" Tara queried, worried for the younger girl's health.

"Kind of," Dawn admitted, "bumpy sleep, not exactly fun, but if you want to
try now, we can."

"No, it's okay. We'll wait until morning. I don't want anything to happen
when we try the spell."

Dawn dismounted, quickly followed by Tara as the two went looking for an
Inn.


******

"What's the first thing you plan on doing when you get home?" Tara asked, as
she slipped into bed beside Dawn.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Dawn asked with a wink, as she laid her on
Tara's shoulder.

"You know what I'm going to do." Tara smiled.

"Should I warn Willow to run for cover? Or does she like you like that?"

"Dawn?" Tara chastised.

"What? I was just teasing."

"You shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that."

"Oh, and like you only had pure thoughts when you were my age."

"Well, no, but still, it's nice to think that it's possible."

"Possible? Unless they remove the hormones from puberty, it's more like
im-possible." Dawn emphasized.

"True. You have a point."

"So, what's the first thing you're going to do?" Dawn asked, eagerly.

"Would a kiss and a hug, be disappointing?"

"Well, if that's all you want to do with Willow after all this time, then
yeah."

"You asked first thing, not all." Tara winked.

"So you've been holding out on me."

"Yup. So what are you going to do?"

"Well, I have to hug Buffy, because she's probably worried sick, and Willow
too, if I can pull you two apart."

"That might be a problem. You might have to get to her first if you want to
hug her. I'll be busy sweeping her off her feet."

"Fairytale dreaming. I like." Dawn grinned.

"Okay, enough talkie. We have to rest for tomorrow. The spell will be
mentally and physically draining on both of us."

"Will, do," Dawn yawned, before closing her eyes to fall asleep.


******

Tara and Dawn paid the temple guard the entrance fee.

Tara held one book, while Dawn held the other.

Surprisingly enough, the spell did not require anything other than the two
books, and the two woman that were supposed to be granted the powers of the
green crystal.

Luckily, as the two entered the chamber that housed the glowing crystal, no
one else was there.

Dawn hesitated, not wanting to experience another green bolt of energy.

"It's okay, Dawnie, I'm here," Tara held out her hand to soothe the young
brunette.

Dawn took Tara's hand as they walked cautiously further into the chamber.

The green crystal began glowing more furiously, as it hovered in mid air.

"We should do this quick," Tara commented, as she opened the book she held
to the right page.

Dawn immediately followed suit with her book.

"Ready?" Tara asked, one final time.

"Ready," Dawn answered nervously.

Tara and Dawn began chanting in a low rhythm.

The crystal, as if on cue, began to glow less furiously, and in more gentle
tones, its aura softening with the words of the two women.

"It's working," Dawn smiled, as she noticed the drastic change in the
crystal's behaviour.

"Shh," Tara shushed, "We have to continue."

Dawn mentally chastised herself, as she continued with the chant, before she
heard loud footsteps coming from the hallway.

Tara and Dawn turned to look at the figure now looming at the entrance to
the chamber.

"Well, well, well. Weren't you going to invite me?" Glory smiled, hands on
her hips.

"What are you doing here?" Tara spat.

"Well, when mommy told Anna where you girls went, I put two-and-two
together, the second two being all the covert info Anna's been giving me,
and figured out you two were leaving without me," Glory answered in a mock
pout.

Dawn stepped behind Tara grabbing a hold of the Wicca's hand.

"Go away, before I hurt you," Tara threatened as she pointed her finger at
the former goddess.

"Hurt me?" Glory laughed, "Puh leez, how do you hurt one of the two most
powerful women in this filthy dimension?"

"What are talking about?" Dawn shouted, from behind Tara.

"What do you think I'm talking about, Dawnie? Wait a sec, don't tell me you
thought that the two women mentioned in the prophecies were both of you?"
Glory asked in mock surprise, pressing a hand to her chest.

"We are the two most powerful women here," Tara seethed, grasping tighter to
Dawn's shaking hands.

Glory let out a blood-curdling laugh, "That's rich girlfriends, but have you
two forgotten who truly is the most powerful woman here?" The blonde smirked
as she walked up to the hovering green crystal.

"No! It can't be!" Tara screamed, as she watched the former goddess approach
the glowing crystal.

"It can be Sweetie, and it is," Glory smirked as the crystal's green aura
spread throughout the chamber and encircled her body. "Now this is what I'm
talkin' about," Glory smiled as she felt the familiar sense of power enter
her body once again.

"Nooooooooo!!" Tara cried.

The green aura began encircling Dawn as well, as Tara let go to Dawn's hand,
almost as if the energy was avoiding Tara.

Dawn could feel a surge of power enter her body, something greater than
she'd ever felt before. Her young body glowed with a green-blue energy as
she absorbed everything the crystal had to give her.

"Dawnie?" Tara cried, looking on in fear at Dawn's sudden change. Even
though Tara and Dawn had suspected they would both be changed by absorbing
the aura, she was still shocked to see Dawn glowing.

But what worried the Wicca the most, was that Glory was absorbing as much
energy, if not more than Dawn was.

Glory cricked her neck back and forth, before turning her eyes on Dawn.

"My key," Glory stated in a surprised tone, as the realization hit her that
it had been under her nose all this time.

Dawn stared back at Glory with utter hatred.

"My beautiful, wonderful, yet bratty, key." Glory smiled, clapping her hands
together.

"I'm not your key!" Dawn seethed, as she began floating inches off the
ground.

"How soon we forget, huh, pumpkin? You're the key to my ultimate powers,
Sweetie."

"Don't you have enough power already?"

"Please, this crystal is only giving me back what I had in your world. I
want what I had back on my world, back in my dimension."

"I won't give it to you!"

"We won't give it to you!" Tara stated adamantly as she stepped next to
Dawn, and took the brunette's hand.

The energy instantly flowed from Dawn's body into Tara's, lifting Tara
several inches off the ground to join Dawn.

"What the freakin' hell?" Glory screamed, as she saw the sharing of power.

Glory lifted her hand and sent a bolt of energy towards the two.

Before Dawn or Tara could react, the bolt of energy knocked them both to the
ground in a heap.

Glory laughed loudly at her accomplishment.

"Auntie Glory?" A small voice asked, breaking the Hell-God's laughter.

Glory turned to Anna, who was carrying a box in the hallway.

"Auntie Glory?" Anna asked again, as she approached the floating Hell-God,
with no apparent fear.

"What are you doing here?" Glory demanded.

"I brought you a present," Anna smiled.

"Not now, I have business to attend to!" Glory boomed, hoping it was enough
to shoo the girl away. For some reason, she didn't want the little girl to
be anywhere around the confrontation she was having with Tara and Dawn.

Maybe it was the result of being mortal for so long, but right now, Glory
didn't have time to mull over the reasons she was feeling sympathetic for
the young girl. Right now, Glory had to get rid of Tara and take possession
of the key.

"But you've been looking for it for so long," Anna insisted, as her tiny
hands went to open the box.

Glory laughed, thinking that the only thing she'd been looking so long for,
was the key, and now she had it within her grasp.

But before she could send Anna away with her newly regained powers, Anna had
opened the box, to reveal her missing red pump, all fixed up.

"I thought you said you didn't have it?" Glory questioned.

"I didn't," Anna replied, "The shoemaker did."

Glory laughed lightly. "Who taught you to be such a good technical liar?"

Before Anna could answer though, a tremendous bolt of energy smacked Glory
in the back sending her flying into a wall.

Tara and Dawn smiled at their handiwork, but immediately went back to work,
casting another bolt in Glory's direction.

"Nooooo!" Anna screamed as she ran towards Glory.

As Anna ran into the path of the bolt, her young body disappeared into thin
air. Fortunately, she re-appeared, outside the temple entrance, as Tara and
Dawn instinctively teleported the girl outside.

The second bolt continued on its path and slammed into Glory, sending the
Hell-God through the wall and into another chamber.

"We need to bind her now," Tara stated, almost out of breath.

"No problem," Dawn replied confidently, realizing that the new power they
had gained would allow them to do almost anything.

The two seemed to cast without even knowing the words to the spell, the
words simply came to their lips as if the crystal's energy was providing
them with knowledge as well.

The powerful binding spell, took hold on the Hell-God in the other chamber.

"What the freakin' hell?" Glory screamed as she was unable to move, her body
limp against the floor.

Soon Tara and Dawn hovered through the hole in the wall into the chamber
Glory had been thrown into, and began chanting again.

"You bitches, what do you think you're doing?" Glory demanded.

"We're bitch-slapping you back to your own dimension," Dawn explained.

"Yes," Tara added, "Only we're going to drain your powers first," Tara
smirked, as the two began chanting once again.

Soon, all the power that Glory had absorbed, drained from the Hell Goddess
and entered both Tara and Dawn's bodies.

"No, you can't do this to me!" Glory screamed wildly, but she was still
unable to move. "Wait, if you send me back to my dimension, I'll get my
true God powers back and just come back and kill you," Glory reasoned
desperately.

"No you won't Glory," Tara stated matter-of-factly, "because we're taking
those powers too."

"You can't, they're not in this dimension."

"Yes they are." Tara smiled. "Your God powers are still locked inside you,
you just can't access them until you get back home. We're just going to tap
into them and use them to get us back home, as well as, you."

"You can't, they'll kill me!" Glory pleaded.

"Don't worry, you'll still be immortal, just without powers," Tara smirked.

"That's even worse," Glory retorted.

"Live with it," Dawn laughed.

Glory felt her inner God power completely drain.

"Ready?" Tara asked Dawn, before they both began chanting away, and in no
time, Glory disappeared.

"Do you think she'll like being back in her old dimension?" Dawn asked.

"Probably not. After all, she was banished to our dimension for being a
pain. She'll probably be forced to push a boulder up a hill for all
eternity," Tara laughed.

Dawn laughed as well, glad to finally be rid of the biggest threat on her
life.

"Was it true about her still being immortal, just without powers?"

"I don't know Dawnie. I just made it up. But she'll find out soon enough."

******

Buffy returned home after an uneventful night of patrol, silently closing
the front door.

Buffy headed towards the living room, seeing the light flicker from the
television, in the darkened room.

Expecting to see Willow on the couch, she instead saw Anya.

"Anya?" Buffy said, as she approached the ex-demon.

"Took you long enough. How long does a girl need to avoid another girl?"
Anya huffed.

"What are you talking about?" Buffy replied, crossing her arms over her
chest as she stood by the couch.

"I'm not blind. I know you went on patrol to avoid Willow."

"I wasn't avoiding her."

"I'm an ex-demon, not a moron."

"Fine. Enlighten me oh great one."

"You were afraid that you two would get home, and then go to bed, and then
things would get awkward again."

"Awkward? There's no awkward," Buffy denied unconvincingly.

"Please, I can read awkward a mile away. Mostly, because of Xander, he's
like Mr. Awkward. I can tell when someone wants to have sex, but isn't
getting any."

"You withhold sex from Xander?"

"Sometimes, when I'm mad, but I usually give in, for me, not for him."

"Okay?" Buffy said, rolling her eyes.

"Despite what I said before, I can tell you two haven't done it yet."

"What do you mean?"

"If you've had sex, you wouldn't be here talking to me. You'd be up there
right now, wanting to do it again. Right now, you're just afraid."

"You know, you're blunt, but freakishly observant."

"That's me. You really don't care too much about etiquette after 1000 years
of living as a demon."

"I can't believe I'm asking this, but what do you suggest?" Buffy asked,
knowing she'd probably regret it.

"Go up there, shower first, definitely shower, then put on some perfume,
some sexy lingerie, maybe some edible lingerie, and maybe some handcuffs,
those are always good, and then there's the?"

"Got the picture, Anya," Buffy cut off the over-excited ex-demon.

"Good, now go get you some," Anya encouraged, slapping Buffy's behind as the
Slayer turned to head upstairs.

"Okay, tell me you didn?t just smack me on the ass?" Buffy asked, turning to
look at Anya.

"I did it for encouragement. Xander's got me watching football, and they do
that all the time. Now go get her!" Anya smiled as she went to slap Buffy's
butt once again, but Buffy caught Anya's wrist first.

"Only one girl's got spanking privileges." Buffy smirked.

"Ooh, I like. I should go home now and tell Xander."

"No telling, but you can go home."

"Fine, I guess we'll have to resort to the VHS solution for Xander's problem
then," Anya pouted, as she grabbed her jacket on the couch.

"Didn't need to know that," Buffy said rolling her eyes, as she headed
upstairs.


To be continued.