FF: The Prophecy (3/6)

The Prophecy (3/6)

Next Giles and Anya rose from behind the counter with a large magicks volume, both chanting in Ancient Sumerian. A vortex of glowing green energy gathered around them then flew towards Buffy to be sucked right into her chest. Buffy looked over towards them and smiled.

"Invigorating," she said. Giles blanched and Anya stamped her foot in annoyance.

"Hey Buffy-Monster," taunted Xander running between the witches and his friend and waving a large wooden cross in her direction. "Back off or be crossed by me."

With careless grace the Slayer simply snapped her right leg up to catch Xander under the chin with a high kick. He flew back and she darted forward and grabbed a retreating Willow by the arm.

"Carn niche tal tala mien noner karnay!" she said forcefully. Or at least that's what it sounded like to Willow.

"Oooh, demon-tongue!" said Anya.

"Which one?" asked Willow and Giles simultaneously staring at the Buffy creature.

"Don't know but that's my guess," said Anya self-importantly. "Could be it's trying to communicate with us."

"You think?" a groggy Xander asked sarcastically, levering himself up off the floor with some difficulty.

"Tallon mah nonti say inga larn ho djornai na," said Buffy, staring intently at Willow's face gripping her arm even more tightly.

"Ow," said Willow and, "hang on, I have an idea." With an arcane gesture with her free hand she muttered a translation spell she'd worked out the fortnight before.

Buffy opened her mouth and spoke again, only this time Willow understood her perfectly.

"I am lost here in this place, Magick Woman. I should not be here. I have lost my connection with the heart of the Slayer. I am still in her essence because I am a part of her being, her corporal and spiritual entity but she has blocked me from her consciousness."

"She has?" gasped Willow only to the Scoobys it sounded like, "Loth eldan lood fluck. Fying fluck."

Xander gaped and pointed. "Did she just swear? In Demonese? Because that's what it sounded like!" He turned to Anya and Giles. "Didn't it sound like that to you?"

"Fluck yes," said Anya. Giles rolled his eyes.

"Oh no," said Willow, no longer even feeling the Slayer's too-tight grip on her arm. "This isn't good, is it? I mean, Buffy needs her force of goodness. Is that why she's been so...empty?"

"She has lost her way," stated the Force Of Goodness. "I am here, appointed by the Powers That Be, according to Divine Prophecy to aid you in restoring the Slayer."

"Gosh," said Willow.

"Yes, Frall indeed," echoed Anya. "Burn in frell you Fluckin' Force of Goodness!"

"Anya!" hissed Giles. "Quiet! You'll attract its’ attention. Which we most certainly do not want.”

"What do I do?" asked Willow, badly wanting to help Buffy in any way possible and hating herself for the fear she felt in the pit of her stomach.

"Follow The Prophecy, Magick Woman," said the Force seriously. "Firstly, you must create the raging torrent within the Slayer."

"Her emotions? Get her to release her pent up emotions?" hazarded the witch nervously. "Is that what you mean?"

"And more."

The Force Of Goodness sure was intense Willow thought to herself. What with the boring-into-your-skull silvery eyes and the squeezing-your-arm-off in time to her words. Not to mention the hard guttural voice sounding all these so-serious proclamations of destiny and whatnot.

"More?" she repeated stupidly.

"Pullsit?" wondered Anya aloud. "I don't believe I've heard that one." She turned brightly to Giles. "What does it mean?"

"Shhh, Anya!" snapped the Watcher and her boyfriend in sync.

"I'll tell you," offered Dawn, popping around the corner, having laboriously snuck her way back over to them.

"More," said the Force ever so meaningfully. Willow stared at her, turning the cryptic words over and over in her head and then suddenly...

"Oh. Oh! Oh my! Ah you don't happen to mean, that is, you're not talking about er, physical stuff, are you? No, of course not. I didn’t think so, only the raging torrent could be a metaphor for you know what but that's ridiculous, Buffy's straight and I have a girlfriend whom I love very much and I can't believe the innuendo these prophecies come up with! Scandalous! That's what it is!"

"It's when a male cow does you know what," Dawn instructed Anya imperiously.

"No, I do not know," returned Anya. "I don't know much about male cows in general. And I believe they are termed, 'bulls'. That's the technical term I believe."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Hey guys?" she looked over at Giles and Xander who'd finally, groaning, managed to make his way over to their safe haven. "What's the plan? Willow's got the Ferengi all distracted so how do we like, boot it out of Buffy's body?"

"Next Magick Woman, you must burn alive with her in the fire."

Willow stared back at the Force aghast. "Oh my Goddess. More of the uh talk of physical um stuff. More of it. Oh my Goddess."

"You will burn together. For each other." The Force stared at her. "Is this not your will? It is the Divine will."

"It is?" squeaked Willow. "Oh my Goddess!"

Giles gestured the other Scoobys nearer and started outlining his plan in a low hurried voice. "Right, this is what we do. I should imagine that exorcising the Force from Buffy is going to be much harder than we hoped. Therefore our first priority should be to get Tara to safety while Willow still has it distracted."

"Good plan," Xander agreed, "but how?"

"You run over and attempt to carry her frozen form back here," instructed Giles. "Anya and I will find an appropriate unfreezing spell in this tome, if our luck holds out. Dawn, you sit tight."

"No fair!" wailed Xander and Dawn together.

"Why do I have to do the hard, dangerous, probably impossible part?" whined Xander.

"Why don't you treat me like I'm older than six?" griped Dawn. "It's not fair! I never get to do anything fun. Let me get Tara. I'm not a big scaredy-cat like Xander."

"Alright, alright, I'm going," muttered Xander, dashing out and towards the Wiccan.

"Shhh, Dawn, we'll talk about this later," said Giles sternly.

"Yes," said the Force. "You must scale the final mountain; you must break through the impenetratable defence."

"Impenetratable defence?" squealed Willow frantically. "Surely you don't mean her...oh my Goddess. You don't mean her..."

Anya stopped flicking through the tome to look up at Dawn and Giles and remark sagely, "now that sounded particularly dirty."

"The walls that have risen inside her to shut the outside world out," instructed the Force looking slightly confused for the first time.

Willow blushed bright red. "Oh. Oh well that's a relief. Kinda."

"When you achieve all this," stated the Force Of Goodness, "then the Slayer will die."

"She will WHAT?!" yelled Willow. "Oh no, no way, I don't think so, buddy. You're not tricking me into doing your dirty demonly bidding. Nuh uh." She tried unsuccessfully to pull away from the vice-grip on her arm.

"She must die," said the Force.

"No," whispered Willow. "No."

"Yes," said the Force. "The Powers That Be will it. What they will, what they prophesy must be fulfilled. Will be fulfilled."

"NO!" screamed Willow desperately.

Xander reached Tara and went to pick her up. Surprisingly it worked. She stayed rigid but he had her in his arms. Staggering back to the others, so very glad that the Buffy-Monster hadn't noticed him he set Tara down just as Willow screamed out 'no'. The Scooby's all looked up at each other in shock. "Not good," Xander said.

"I'd say Willow's about to die right about now," said Anya, flipping the tome's pages faster.

"She is not!" said Dawn. "Buffy wouldn't hurt her..." she trailed off as she remembered that it wasn't exactly Buffy in control. She shuffled over next to Tara and stroked her cheek. "Is she gonna be okay?"

"Sure she will be, Dawn," reassured Xander as he edged over to the corner of the counter. "Just as soon as we find that spell." He risked a glance out at the action. "They're still just standing there," he reported. "Staring deeply into each other's eyes and talking gibberish. It's enough to make you bored."

"Well at least they're not killing each other," snapped Giles, seriously annoyed at this point. "This book I have is useless. Give me yours, Anya; you're not doing any good with it."

"Yes," the Force Of Goodness said strongly. "You will release the raging torrent, you will feel the burning flames, you will scale the final mountain and break through the impenetratable defence. You will die."

"I will die?" Willow shook her head desperately. "Me too? No way am I doing this prophecy. It sucks!"

"Die in each other's arms," proclaimed the Force, ignoring her interruption. "Die and be reborn as One."

TBC in 4/6