Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation Book I (8a/8) W/B/T NC17

Title: Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation

Author: The Bear!

Spoilers: None really, this is in the Triadverse AU and follows The Please Trilogy and The Triad Trilogy

Pairing: Willow/Buffy/Tara primarily, but other Scoobies are hooked up as well.

Summary: With Glory defeated, things should quiet down for a while... shouldn’t they?

Warnings: NC17 over all (Part 8 is pretty much Rish)

AN: Why ‘Book I’ all of a sudden? Yes, well, I decided to wrap up everything so far into a section of it’s own, since I spent 8 chapters on one day of activity. Don’t worry, Book II is already in progress.

Disclaimer: If I owned ‘em, they’d have to show it on the Xstasy Network.

========== BtVS ==========

Part 8

‘Earthquake? The bed is shaking!’ Tara thought, feeling confused and bewildered as she awoke. ‘Unh, not my bed,’ she realized as she became aware of the unyielding flat surface on which she was laying.

The squeal of brakes and the sudden lurching sensation, followed by relative stillness clued the witch in to her situation. ‘In a car... or a van,’ she thought. ‘Dark...’ She tried to reach out and feel around her when she discovered, ‘...unh, hands are bound.’

The darkness was suddenly flooded with light, as the door to her prison was opened. She blinked furiously and tried to ask what was going on, when she discovered that her mouth was covered with something that restricted any movement of her lips.

“Alright, pull her out of there,” a cold, flat voice commanded quietly.

‘English accent... it has to be the watchers council team...’ Tara thought with a thrill of fear. ‘Surely there isn’t another group of Englishmen running around kidnapping people in Sunnydale tonight.’

Two men reached into the van and pulled Tara out none to gently. They dragged her to the center of the room, and unceremoniously dropped her to the floor.

Tara struggled to move herself into a seated position, unwilling to lie on the floor. ‘Duct tape!’ she thought angrily as she looked down at her bound feet. ‘They tied me up in duct tape! That’s going to hurt when I pull it off...’

As her head cleared, Tara began to look around the room. ‘It looks like a warehouse... not being used much, I’d guess. It’s pretty dusty in here...’ She inhaled deeply through her nose and was assaulted by a very pungent and easily identifiable smell. ‘Smells like rotting fish and burned motor oil... Buffy was right, they are using the docks again... that’s probably how they plan to get Faith out of here, on a ship.’

There were only three men as far as she could see. One of them pulled a pistol out of his belt and walked over to crouch down next to her. The other two stepped several feet back and also drew pistols, pointing them at her and glaring.

“Listen to me girl, we aren’t interested in you, we just want the rogue Slayer. I don’t know why you lot are hiding her, and I don’t care.” The man said in a menacing voice. “I’m not here to argue, I’m here to do a job, and that’s take the rogue back to the council for a proper trial.”

‘I’m sure... followed by a proper execution I’d bet.’ Tara thought angrily.

“Now we know you’re important to the Slayer, and as long as she’s willing to cooperate, you don’t have anything to worry about...” the man continued to drone on.

Tara tuned out the diatribe and reached out through her connection with her lovers. ‘Ohh, worry and fury!’ she thought, shivering at the intensity of emotion she felt. ‘They’re coming and they are really, really mad!’

“So you just sit tight and this’ll be over before you know it...” the man finished his speech, lightly slapping her on the cheek a couple times.

Tara looked at his face as he stood and contempt and arrogance written clearly upon it.

“Yeah, dinna ya worry, lassie,” one of the other men said with a crude laugh. “We’ll gi’ yer lil chickadees a shout and y’ll be back t’ quim-quaffin’ in nae time a’tall!”

‘You...!’ Tara ground her teeth as rage built up inside her at the situation and the men who had put her in it. ‘Oh I am so tempted to just let them find me like this! Buffy would hammer that smirk off of your face... if Willow left you a face in the first place!”

“Oh, and don’t think y’ll be spelling y’r way oot o’ this one, witch! We’ve taped y’r hands an mouth right proper, so there’ll be no magic here.”

Despite the uncomfortable pull of the tape, a smile tugged at the corners of Tara’s mouth. ‘Oh boy, are you in for a surprise!’ she thought as she began to gather energy from the earth and sea around her.

========== BtVS ==========

‘Mmm, they’re getting close. I should deal with these... men... before they get here,’ Tara thought, almost spitting in her thoughts at the idea that these creatures could be called men. ‘Much as they might deserve a messy end, I can’t have my pets taking a human life... that’s some guilt we definitely don’t need to be dealing with.’

Having drawn as much power as she could in the time she had, Tara used the concept Willow had shown her earlier that evening. ‘don’t need a spell... you just look at something, see the very structure of it, down to the atomic level...’ the pride she felt for her lover rose up in her, overshadowing her anger for a moment. ‘Goddess, Willow. I would never have even imagined something like this was possible... but watching you do it... it’s so simple! I’m sure no one else in the world would have been capable of such a thing... only you Willow!’

Tara reached out with her inner eye and saw the structure of the tape binding her limbs and covering her mouth. ‘It’s woven together... like fabric almost,’ she thought in wonder. ‘I just pull here, and... It all unravels!’

“What the bloody hell?!” came a surprised shout from one of the men.

‘Oops! I should have done the guns first!’ Tara realized as she felt the tape on her mouth dissolve and fall off of her face.

Her eyes snapped open in time to see three surprised faces. Unfortunately, their surprise wasn’t enough, as she also saw three pistols coming to bear on her. Tara reacted instinctively, thrusting her hands out in front of her and unleashing a blast of power that sent not only the three men, but everything in front of her tumbling away like leaves in the wind.

Quickly, before the three could recover, Tara reached out once again with her inner sight and found the firearms. ‘Willow could probably finesse them so they just wouldn’t fire, but I’m not taking any chances!’ she thought. As she had unraveled the structure of the tape that had bound her, she unraveled the fabric of the steel that formed the bulk of the guns’ structure.

When the council team shook off the impact of being hurled into the corrugated steel wall of the building, they found themselves holding rubber grips and aluminum magazines full of bullets, but missing the pistols in which they had been.

By the time the men had shaken off their shock at this newest magic, Tara had cast the same spell she had used to immobilize Angel. The council team’s first step toward the blonde witch was also their last, as the major muscle groups in their bodies completely relaxed and they fell to the ground like rag-dolls.

Tara took a deep breath and stretched the kinks out of her shoulders and back. Her nose twitched at the unpleasant smell and she thought, ‘Why did it have to be the docks?’

Dismissing the thought, Tara focused her attention once again on the three who had abducted her. Shaking her head sadly, she cast the Spike spell, drawing the men up by their feet to hang in the air before her. “Well, this didn’t go quite like you planned, did it?” she asked, feeling almost sorry for them. “The watcher’s council is supposed to be fighting against evil, not against the other’s who also fight evil. Don’t you realize you only serve evil’s purpose when you do that?” she asked.

“Shoulda kept you unconscious,” the lead man muttered, his words slurred due the lack of muscle control rendered by the spell.

“Oh no, that would have been a big mistake. Right now, my lovers are on their way to save me... in fact they’re very close. The only reason you aren’t about to be very badly hurt, is because I’m standing here, and you’re hanging there.” Tara felt a pang of fear at the thought, “If they had found me unconscious on the floor, with you three standing there pointing guns...

‘Willow might have killed them by accident if Buffy couldn’t restrain her fast enough...’ Tara shuddered at the thought. ‘She wouldn’t mean to, but it wouldn’t take much, and our last two times were against a room full of vampires and a hell god. Ordinary men wouldn’t stand a chance.’

Any response the dangling men might have made was interrupted as the building began to shake violently.

“They’re here!” Tara said, feeling excited and proud and worried all at once.

She whirled around to face the door, expecting to see it open rather violently. ‘Willow and Buffy both love to make an entrance,’ she thought, remembering how, while enjoined, they had blown Glory’s doors off their hinges.

What happened next shocked even Tara, never mind the council team. Instead of the door ripping open, the whole metal structure was ripped from the foundations as though snatched up by the hand of God himself. Tara’s eyes involuntarily followed the flight as it sailed into the harbor several hundred yards in the distance.

The incoherent cries of fear at her back were barely a blip on Tara’s radar as her eyes returned to the place where the door had stood. The awesome sight of her lovers, standing larger than life, overwhelmed her as pride and lust filled her being.

Buffy seemed to radiate an aura of imminent violence, as though she were a drawn bowstring, ready to snap forward and slay whatever foe might lie in her path. Just looking at the barely-restrained fury in her _expression_ would be enough to strike terror in the heart of any demon.

Willow though, was radiating more than just an invisible aura. Her eyes were solid orbs of glowing cobalt blue, and tendrils of magical energy fanned out before her. The sight of the magic crawling across the concrete floor made Tara think of something puissant and primeval, moving with almost malevolent intent- as though stalking its prey in order to wreak horrible vengeance.

She was so caught up with fascination that she remained unmoving until the energy reached her, crawling up her body. Where she might have expected pain though, instead the blue tendrils stroked her like the hands of a lover.

“Tara!” the flame-haired witch breathed- her voice almost a sob. Immediately the crawling energy retreated into the redhead’s body, and the smaller girl was running into her lover’s arms.

Buffy moved more slowly, almost hesitantly. The fury in her gaze had been traded for an equal portion of what looked like guilt and fear.

Tara whispered, “I love you Willow!” In the redhead’s ear, then looked up at her blonde lover with confusion. “Buffy? What’s wrong?” she asked, worried by the Slayer’s diffidence.

Buffy looked miserable and fell to her knees when she was just about in arm’s reach. “Mistress,” she cried softly. “I... I failed you! Oh God!”

“Oh goddess Buffy, no!” Tara’s heart clenched at the anguish in her pet’s voice.

“They took you!” Buffy cried with agonizing intensity. “They took you and I wasn’t there to stop them! Oh Mistress, I’m so sorry!”

Tara’s own voice was a barely restrained sob as she reached out to her lover, “Buffy, oh my love, no!”

When Buffy wouldn’t even meet Tara’s gaze, she immediately moved, dragging Willow along as she dropped to her knees and threw her arms around the distraught Slayer.

“I failed you! I failed you! Oh Mistress I’m so sorry!” Buffy wailed, her body shaking with sobs as Tara and Willow held her, kissing her face and hair, trying to reassure her.

‘Oh Buffy, don’t do this!’ Tara thought. Her stomach was flooded with cold fear that her lover might be on the verge of some kind of break down.

Finally, Tara grabbed Buffy’s face and forced her to look at her own. “Slayer! Listen to me, you did not fail me! Stop saying that this instant!”

Buffy’s seemingly instinctive desire to wallow in self-recrimination was evident by the effort it took for her not to continue her apologies. Her voice was obediently silent, but her mouth kept moving.

Tara didn’t wait for her pet to regain control of her voice, instead she spoke slowly and clearly, reminding Buffy of the facts. “Even if I hadn’t been able to handle the situation, you and Willow were only minutes behind- you would have been here in plenty of time to save me! Do you understand me? You didn’t fail, you were magnificent! You made your Mistress proud!” She released Buffy’s face and looked back and forth between her two lovers. “You both make me so proud to be your lover, always, and especially right now!”

The adoration on Willow’s face was matched by her voice as she whispered, “We were so worried Tara! We should have known you could handle it.”

“Honestly, the only thing I was worried about was that you would get here before I had taken care of it and do something we couldn’t take back,” Tara said with a smile.

Willow seemed reassured, but Buffy once again dropped her gaze and bowed down.

“Buffy? I’m really ok, please don’t beat yourself up for this...” Tara said emphatically.

“Yes Mistress,” Buffy said softly, her voice pensive.

“What is it, Buffy?” Tara asked, getting the impression that there was more to the Slayer’s reticence than the guilt she was inflicting on herself. “Tell me...”

Buffy looked up, not at her Mistress, but rather past her, focusing on the still suspended council team. “I want... I want so badly to hurt them!” she whispered harshly. “Oh Mistress, I hear a voice screaming at me to tear them apart, to beat and shred and bathe in their blood!”

Tara gasped at the look of pure malice twisting her Slayer’s normally beautiful face. ‘Oh goddess, she would have killed them!’ she realized fearfully.

Buffy looked back at Tara, and then at Willow. The blonde’s face crumpled into a look of shame and horror. “Horrible, terrible things, Mistress. When I see them, or think about them... all I see is blood and death!”

‘She sounds afraid, not angry... maybe that’s a good thing...’ Tara thought, terrified herself at the thought of Buffy giving in to her dark impulses and treating these men like the denizens of the night that she so routinely destroyed without compunction.

“Oh sweetie...” Tara sighed, holding both her girls tightly to her chest. She looked over them and noticed for the first time Gunn and Faith standing not far away. They were holding onto each other with looks of awe and fear on their faces as well.

‘We’re definitely not getting to Willow’s surprise tonight...’ Tara realized tiredly. ‘I don’t think Giles and mom are going to be willing to wait until tomorrow to talk about this...’

“What are we going to do with them?” Willow asked as Tara loosened her embrace. Her voice sounded more curious than violent.

A glance at Buffy showed that any answers she might have for that question involved violence.

With a sigh, Tara moved, pulling them all to their feet. “Let’s go ask Giles...” she said, wanting to get Buffy away from temptation. “Oh, and Willow?”

“Yes?”

“Could you please make Mom and Mr. Giles look like themselves?” Tara asked with a smile. “It’s kinda weird seeing them like this...”

Willow laughed and said “Of course.”

Even Buffy sounded like she was in better humor as she commented, “You think looking at them is weird? Getting a mom-hug from Faith may have scarred me for life...”

Tara laughed at that, feeling a sense of relief. “We’re going to be ok. We’ll need some time to work through Buffy’s guilt, but I think we’ll be ok,” Tara thought. Seeing the looks on the other two’s faces, she sighed again. ‘Looks like we’ll have to work through some fear issues there too...’

========== BtVS ==========

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Dawn asked, her voice laden with concern.

Xander’s answering laugh was somewhat strained. “Well, we know Tara’s spell worked...” he said in a raspy voice.

Dawn had almost been skipping with happiness as she left the travel center with two bags of food for the road. ‘God, all I could think was how I was going to drive Xan to distraction now that I know he likes me... or at least he’s attracted to me...’

When she’d gotten back to the rental car, instead of finding a smiling Xander to tease, she’d found him curled up in a fetal position on the front seat of the car. He had tears streaming down his face and he was muttering and growling in what sounded like rage and frustration. ‘All he’d say is ‘they took Tara!’ over and over.’

Dawn had dropped the bags on the floorboard and moved herself so that Xander’s head was using her left thigh like a pillow while she stroked his hair and tried to make reassuring noises. ‘Any other time I’d have loved to have his head in my lap... oh, that could be taken the wrong way... or maybe the right way!’ She thought. Of course she had immediately chastised herself, ‘So not the time to be lusting!’

Twenty minutes later Xander had suddenly relaxed and with deep breaths he gasped, “She’s safe, she’s safe!”

“What do you mean, Tara’s spell?” Dawn asked, now even more confused by the whole situation.

Xander rolled onto his back as he explained, “Right after you guys left for Vegas, Tara cast a spell that linked the four of us, you know, in case Glory took one of us... so the other three would know.”

‘Oh Xander...’ Dawn thought with a pang of sorrow as she saw his face fall. ‘You’re remembering it again, aren’t you...’

“So what happened? Who took Tara? How did they save her?” Dawn asked. She was ignoring the fact that she kept combing her fingers through his hair.

“Probably those council goons... since they can’t find Faith, they must have grabbed Tara, hoping to get intel... though, I can’t even begin to guess how they managed to get her away from Buffy and Willow in the first place....” Xander broke off, a thoughtful look on his face.

“Probably?” Dawn asked, still upset over both the Tara situation, and the effect it had had on Xander. “Don’t you, I don’t know... don’t you just know? I mean, if you guys are linked together...”

Xander laughed, his smile more genuine now. “It doesn’t work like that Dawnie. We can’t read thoughts or anything, we just get strong emotions, and stuff.” His smile faltered into a more serious _expression_ as he added, “Oh, and remind me to never ever make Buffy really angry.”

He shivered as his gaze focused inward. “I’ve lost my temper in a pretty big way on more than one occasion... but I’ve never felt rage like that before.” He shook his head and focused once again on her eyes as he continued, “It was like, blinding! I wanted to hurt whoever took her, I wanted to rip them up into little pieces and then kill the little pieces slowly, I wanted to...”

Dawn’s eyes had been widening at the look on Xander’s face and the violence hinted at in his voice, let alone the graphic depictions. He must have noticed because he trailed off with an embarrassed blush and muttered, “Too much information, huh?”

Dawn forced a chuckle and said, “Uh, a little...”

“Yeah, well...” he said sheepishly. “like I said, she was pretty pissed...”

“But they’re all ok? Willow and Tara and Buffy?” Dawn asked, seeking reassurance.

Xander closed his eyes and scrunched his brow as though he was trying to feel for the answer. After a moment, he relaxed again and opened his eyes. “Yeah, they’re ok... I’m getting some guilt that I think is from Buffy, but mostly relief and happiness... I’m not so good at figuring out who’s who... we never really had to use this, what with no one getting kidnapped and all...” he finished with a light voice and a reassuring smile for her.

Dawn smiled at Xander’s response. “And you’re ok?”

His smile warmed her heart.

“Yeah, I’m good. I could use something to eat though, it’s been a long time since lunch,” Xander said, however, he didn’t seem terribly inclined move from where he was laying.

Dawn felt her face warm slightly as she looked down at her long-term crush. She was about to say something when his last comment was punctuated by his stomach growling loudly.

They both burst into laughter as the sound.

Xander sat up at last, turning back around so he was facing her, and asked, “So, what did’ja get?”

Though she felt a pang of loss as he sat up, Dawn quickly covered it with a smile before he finished turning around. “Well, they had a Burger King, so I got a bag full of cheeseburgers. And I got some candy bars, and some chips and pretzels and some soda, of course, and...” she paused dramatically, grinning with exaggerated enticement.

“And what?” Xander tentatively asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Twinkies!” Dawn exclaimed, grinning madly now.

‘I knew the moment I saw them...’ Dawn mused, delighted with the way his face lit up. ‘They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and Twinkies are Xander’s idea of snack heaven!”

“All that and Twinkies too...? you’re like, the perfect woman! Dawn, will you marry me?” Xander asked with a grin.

Dawn froze. ‘It was a joke Dawn! Just a joke! Calm down...’ she thought as her heart tried to hammer it’s way out through her ribcage. ‘Oh God, say something! I’ve got to say something...’

Dawn licked her suddenly dry lips and whispered, “Um... sure...”

‘Argh! No, not that!’ she instantly castigated herself. ‘Gotta think fast...’

“Um, I mean, I would, but... we, uh... well, all the wedding chapels are back in Las Vegas...” she stammered.

‘Could I be more pathetic?’ Dawn thought, closing her eyes and feeling her face burn with humiliation. ‘Oh please God, someone just shoot me now...’

========== BtVS ==========

TheBear!

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