See part one for
pairing/disclaimers/etc.
---
Class ended, children were retrieved by parents, and before long,
Buffy, Willow and Faith were the only people in the gym. Buffy locked the front door and hung a
sign in its window which read "We are next door at the Magic Box." She then led Willow and Faith into the
back office and through a doorway which led into the old training room behind
the magic shop. Converted and
heavily warded, this room now served as a magickal workroom for the
Partners.
Faith felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle as she felt
the set-spells and wards in the room.
"Wild," she murmured to herself.
It was something quite similar to the feeling she'd had at the
henge. Could there be set-spells on
the stone circle? Giles or Tara
might know. The prickle went away
when they entered the sunny front room of the Magic
Box.
"Hey, Giles!" Buffy exclaimed as the entered the shop. "Look who's here to pick your
brain!"
Giles looked up and smiled at the sight of the three women. "Faith! How lovely to see
you."
"Faith?" Nicki's
tousled and bright turquoise head popped over the railing of the upper
catwalk. "Hey, Miss
Faith!"
"Nicki? What did you
do to your - never mind. Have you
been behaving?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically. "I love it here, Miss Faith. Can I
stay?"
Faith glanced at Giles and grinned. "We'll see, Nick. You go on back to work for
now."
"Okay!" The shocking
hair disappeared again.
"You let her do that?" Faith asked Giles with a
grin.
He looked disgusted.
"I didn't let her do anything. She came back from a night at a friend's
house that way. And it doesn't wash
out, either."
"Good God." Faith
hoisted herself up onto the counter.
"Whatcha got her doin' up there?"
"Cataloguing the demonology texts," Giles responded. "You'd be very surprised, Faith. Ungodly hair color notwithstanding,
she's matured a lot over the past year."
So have you, Faith thought, taking in
the new streaks of silver at the Watcher's temples and the new lines creasing
his face. The thought suddenly
entered her mind that he was aging.
He must be fifty-five or sixty by now, she thought, and determined
to find out for sure soon. In the
meantime, Giles was asking her what had brought her back to Sunnydale. She pushed her thoughts aside. "It's this." She rummaged in her backpack and
retrieved a packet of photographs.
"Oh, my," he breathed as he flipped through
them.
She nodded. "It's
obviously a stone circle, like Stonehenge, but it's smaller, and there's this
crazy vibe about it. When I came
through the training room, I prickled all over the same way. It's
crazy."
Giles looked thoughtful.
"There are a number of set-spells and permanent wards on that room. It could be the same with this
circle. Is there anything else you
can tell me about it?"
"It's twenty feet in diameter," Faith replied, consulting a set of
notes, "giving it an area of three hundred fourteen feet. Approximately. Each of the stones is nine and a half
feet tall, roughly four feet wide and four feet thick. There's an altar stone in the center of
the circle, too," she added, flipping to a particular photograph and pointing to
details as she spoke. "It's got a
depression in the center of it, reminds me of a kitchen sink, and these crazy
grooves that run down to the edge, here.
If you pour water into the depression, the water lands here," she added,
pointing to what appeared to be a low spot in the
ground.
"Is there anything there?" Giles
asked.
Faith nodded. "Krista
dug down a couple of feet and found this."
She flipped to another photograph.
It was the same view, but the earth in the low spot had obviously been
freshly turned and in that low spot sat a basin of what appeared to be pure
gold.
"Is that...?" Giles inquired breathlessly, touching the photograph
gently.
"As far as we can tell, yes.
One hundred percent pure."
---
I'm not entirely sure," Tara mused, flipping idly through the
photographs. "I mean, it could be
anything, really. The only thing -
well, not the only thing, but the main thing - that gets me is this basin." She glanced up at Giles. "I may be wrong, but it speaks to me of
sun-god worship. I mean, ceremonial
basins like this are usually silver.
You know?"
Giles nodded. "I
agree. I thought the same
thing. And what do you make of
these channels?"
Tara pursed her lips, studying the images. "As I see it, some kind of ceremonial
liquid was poured into the depression.
Probably wine or water as an offering to whatever deity they
worshipped. It was probably
blessed, then let to drain into the
basin."
"Well, I coulda told you that," Faith
exclaimed.
Giles cocked an eyebrow at her. "Faith, why don't you go train or look
in on some of the girls or... something."
Buffy laughed.
"Translated from Giles to English, that would mean 'Get out of here
before I strangle you,' right?" she teased. "Come on, Faith, let's go next door and
kick each other's asses for awhile."
The two Slayers stood to go, but Willow stayed in her seat at the
research table. At Buffy's
quizzical look, she smiled weakly.
Faith noticed that she was just a touch pale as she spoke. "You go ahead, honey. I'll just... sit here. For
awhile."
Instantly, Buffy and Giles were at the redhead's side. Buffy had Willow's wrist, checking her
pulse, as Giles felt her forehead and cheeks. Willow simply sighed and submitted to
their ministrations.
"No fever," Giles stated.
"Her pulse is a little high," Buffy replied. "Wills, baby, do you wanna lay down on
the couch in the office?"
"No, Buffy. I'm
fine. I promise. I'm just a little tired. I'm just gonna sit here and rest,
okay?"
Slayer and Watcher shared a significant look, and finally Buffy
leaned down and kissed Willow gently.
"Okay, sweetie. Yell if you
need anything, okay?"
"I will, baby," Willow replied, smiling
softly.
Buffy and Faith moved into the gym next door and Buffy flopped
down on one of the training mats.
Faith dropped gracefully down next to her and eyeballed her. "What's wrong with her?" she asked
quietly.
Buffy sighed. "She
almost miscarried in the fifth month," she replied. "She was in the hospital for over a week
and on bed rest until two weeks ago.
When the doctor finally let her get up, he warned her that if she doesn't
take it easy, and I mean really super easy, she could go into labor
early."
"Holy shit, B," Faith breathed. "That's
harsh."
Buffy nodded glumly.
"At this point, according to yesterday's sonogram, she could deliver now
and the baby would live. Probably
spend time in an incubator, but would live. The problem is that an early delivery
could kill Willow."
"What?"
Buffy sat up briefly, then flopped back down again. "They're going to have to deliver by
C-section. She... she's not really
built for babies. Natural delivery
could kill her."
Faith blinked in astonishment. "Your specialist didn't say anything
about this before the procedure?"
Buffy goggled at Faith.
"What procedure?"
"The IVF, moron," Faith snapped. "You know, when Willow got
pregnant?"
Buffy blushed.
Faith's jaw dropped.
"You didn't."
Buffy nodded.
"Holy shit, B," Faith exclaimed. "And it didn't make things weird between
the three of you?"
Buffy shook her head.
"Surprisingly enough, no. We
were all perfectly okay with everything.
I... I think, in a strange way, it's brought us closer together." She paused for a moment, then said
quietly, "We're finally a family."
---
They didn't find anything in research that day or the next, and by
the third day, Faith was going stir crazy.
Fortunately for the sanity of everyone around her, a call came in about a
Vahrall demon menacing a small community in northeastern Pennsylvania. Faith took Kerry and Kate - the K-team -
with her and headed off. The
Scoobies breathed a sigh of relief.
The day after Faith and the K-team left, Nicki found the first
reference in the Black Chronicles that pointed to possible prehistoric sun-god
worship in Europe and specifically among the Celts. It wasn't much, but it was a start, and
it gave Giles a direction to look in.
Research was suspended for a day when Willow began having early
contractions and had to be hospitalized, and then returned to strict bed rest
for the remainder of her pregnancy.
Her obstetrician told her firmly that she was not to step foot out of bed
for any reason except a trip to the bathroom until it came time for the baby to
be born. Giles and Buffy brought
her home and put her to bed immediately.
Unable to do anything else, Willow set about researching as best she
could from the bed. By the time
Faith and the girls limped back, the search had been narrowed
considerably.
"We're pretty sure it's some kind of offshoot cult," Tara
explained as she unwrapped the haphazard bandage around Kate's calf. "Most of that area in pre-Roman times
was devoted to goddess-worship, though they did worship a god as well. This cult, though, seems to focus on the
god only."
"Prehistoric monotheists," Faith mused, then glared around her at
the shocked expressions she got from everyone. "What? I can know big
words."
"So, are there any references to this cult being magick users?"
Kerry wanted to know.
"Only in the nature-and-herb magick sense," Nicki told her. "Not the heavy mojo like what we
learn. At least, not according to
the books."
"The type of magick Nicki is referring to would actually be more
appropriately defined as sorcery," Giles interjected. "And, as she said, there is no record of
these cults being involved in the use of sorcerous
magick."
"Would you be able to find out anything more if you went to the
circle itself?" Faith inquired.
Tara glanced at Giles with a thoughtful _expression_. "Maybe," she mused. "It'd be better than just looking at the
pictures. And we could check out
this vibe you've mentioned."
Giles nodded in agreement and Faith grinned. "Sweet. Pack your bags, yo! We're going to
England."
---
******
Buffy: Oh! When I had psychic power, I heard my mother think
that you were like a stevedore during sex... Do you want me to continue?
Giles: Actually, I beg you to stop.
Buffy: What's a stevedore?
--"Who Are You?"--Buffy ep 4x16--
******
Buffy: Oh! When I had psychic power, I heard my mother think
that you were like a stevedore during sex... Do you want me to continue?
Giles: Actually, I beg you to stop.
Buffy: What's a stevedore?
--"Who Are You?"--Buffy ep 4x16--
******
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