< BearCave > Fic: RR&R Book IV (2a/?) NC17 see header for pairings

Title: Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation Book IV

Author: The Bear!

Spoilers: None really, this is in the Triadverse AU and follows RR&R Book III (it’s about a month later)

Pairing: Willow/Buffy/Tara Joyce/Giles Dawn/Xander Faith/Non-BtVS Characters

Summary: An enemy begins a campaign to bring down the Scoobies; plus, the Watcher’s Council is coming to town, but I repeat myself.

Warnings: NC17 (People will be having hot, sweaty, sticky, kinky, yummy sex in this story! (This chapter also has some smut in it.) If that offends you, feel free to PISS OFF)

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

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

Chapter 2

“Dawn, that’s lovely!” Tara whispered enthusiastically.

Dawn’s lips widened into a smile, her heart warming at the praise. The smile was her only answer as she continued to focus her attention on the candle flame before her.

‘I can feel the flame!’ she thought, amazed at the intimacy of the experience. ‘It’s like...I am the flame.’

She and her mini-coven of Tara and Willow were in their casting room, or ‘Wicca world’ as Buffy usually referred to it. Today’s exercise was one of fine control, rather than power. She’d already made the flame change colors by selectively suppressing the combustion of certain elements present in the wax fuel.

‘Now for something new,’ she thought, a slight feeling of trepidation. ‘Something they haven’t shown me before...maybe even something they haven’t thought of before!’

Proximity of the flame to the wax causes the wax to melt, drawing it up the wick to feed the flame. Dawn created a channel of heat from the flame downward, allowing her to lift the flame up from the wick. Simultaneously, she caused the melting wax to flow upward through and past the wick, continuing to feed the flame even as it rose up and away from the candle.

She halted the upward travel once the flame was hovering almost half a meter above the candle.

“Goddess...” Tara exhaled gently.

“That’s so cool!” Willow agreed, her voice almost giddy.

Dawn’s smile widened, though she refrained from expressing her own excitement otherwise. ‘Now for the really tough part,’ she thought, taking a moment to will her heart rate down towards normal.

She took a deep breath and then began to manipulate the natural air current as directed by the flame’s heat. Instead of the normal upward flow, Dawn began to curve it sideways, not increasing the speed, thus distorting the flame, but rather changing angle in which the flame pointed. Once it was pointing about forty-five degrees upward to the floor, she added another element, twisting the current in a spiral.

It wasn’t readily apparent in the shape of the flame due to its short length, so she increased the flow of heat to the candle, and the flow of the wax to the flame.

“Wow!” both of her sister witches sighed as, within seconds, Dawn had created a spiral of flame taking on a helix shape that stretched a good thirty centimeters in length.

Dawn noticed the candle was rapidly being consumed and as one last touch, she ran the flame’s color through the rainbow spectrum, ending just as the candle disappeared entirely. The flame lasted only a second longer until the wax that fueled it was consumed entirely.

Tara actually began clapping, joined immediately by Willow. Dawn blushed, but felt extremely pleased by the response.

“Sweetie, that was amazing!” Tara gushed, her mouth bearing her trademark lopsided grin.

“So pretty!” Willow added, her hand coming to rest on Dawn’s knee and giving her a gentle squeeze.

“Your control is excellent!” Tara said more seriously.

“Thanks,” Dawn replied. “Lately it’s been really easy to find and maintain my focus.”

Tara just smiled in response, but Willow seemed less reticent to comment. “I guess regular sex is really helping?”

Dawn blushed. “Oh yeah!” she agreed with a giggle.

“So, how was dinner the other night?” Willow asked, waggling an eyebrow.

“Mmm,” Dawn hummed with pleasure, knowing exactly to what the redhead was referring. “Well, we started with desert,” she said blushing at the memory even as she reveled in it.

“Really?” Willow said, clearly hungry for more details.

Dawn glanced at Tara, seeing the blonde roll her eyes at Willow’s prompting. ‘Hmm, I notice you don’t tell her to stop though,’ she thought with a smirk.

“Uh huh,” she responded. “And, seriously, I have to thank you for finding that dark-chocolate syrup...we both really, *really* like it!”

“Yeah?” Willow asked, bouncing with excitement. “Well, give us details!”

Though not at all reticent to share with Willow, Dawn glanced at Tara uncertainly and stammered, “Um, well...there’s...well...”

“It’s ok, Dawnie,” Tara said with both amusement and assurance in her _expression_. “I’m tough, I don’t think I’ll be scarred for life by hearing the word penis.”

Dawn took a deep breath and said, “Okay! Well, basically we barely got in the door and Xan had me naked on the kitchen counter....”

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

“Hey Giles,” Buffy said, feeling upbeat as she entered her watcher’s flat.

“Would it kill you to knock?” Giles said resignedly, as he often did.

“We’ll probably never know,” she answered in a teasingly serious voice.

She hid a smile as he began to rub the bridge of his nose. ‘Poor Giles,’ she thought indulgently.

“You do realize that, with your mother living here now, you run the risk of walking in on...” he trailed off, raising an eyebrow and staring at her intently.

Buffy's eyes widened as she caught his gist. “Ack! Let’s not go there!” she protested. “I so don’t need the mental trauma right now.”

‘Yeah, score one for the Watcher,’ she thought sourly upon seeing his poorly concealed smirk. ‘Moving on to safer territory...’

Buffy walked over to Giles’s couch and dropped down onto it, relaxing into its shape with cat-like grace. “So, did’ja find out anything about the wanna-be super-vamp’s bling-bling?” she asked.

“I-its what?” Giles stammered, apparently taken aback.

“The amulet thing,” Buffy explained, rolling her eyes.

“I often find myself wondering why they’re even bothering to teach English in schools any more...” Giles said, staring at her dumfounded. “Clearly it isn’t doing a bit of good.”

She smiled at the age-old argument. “Oh yeah,” she countered. “Like ‘poofter’ or ‘bint’ or ‘wanker’ are real words...”

She smiled even wider at the look of indignation on his face. ‘Game, set, and match to the Slayer!’ she thought happily.

“I gain more and more respect for your mother with each passing day,” he muttered under his breath, turning away from her. “It’s a wonder she managed to remain sane...”

“Hey! Slayer hearing, remember?” Buffy cried out, pretending to be outraged.

“As to the amulet, I’ve been unable to reach anyone at the Devonshire Coven,” he blithely changed the subject as though she hadn’t even spoken. “The markings on it appear to be roman—there are symbolic representations that I believe to be regarding a goddess Libitina...”

“Huh, never heard of her,” Buffy said, immediately forgetting their language argument.

“Yes, well...rather a minor deity as I recall,” Giles began.

‘Great, now entering watcher-lecture mode,’ Buffy thought with a resigned sigh.

“She was the goddess of, well, death...a-and corpses,” he continued.

“Makes sense,” Buffy interrupted—because she could. “What goes with death and corpses—survey says; Vampire!”

“Hmm, not necessarily,” Giles countered. “Though she was the goddess of death and corpses, her temples became the first...well, mortuaries essentially. She wasn’t in any way associated with the undead that I recall...”

“Huh,” Buffy grunted. ‘so what’s that mean?’ she wondered.

“Another issue of concern,” Giles went on. “Is the fact that someone, or something provided that particular vampire with this, and apparently lead him to believe that it would make him invulnerable.”

“You think someone was setting him up?” Buffy asked. “Why would someone do that?”

Giles _expression_ showed surprise. “I hadn’t considered that...it does seem unlikely; the amulet is definitely magical...but for what?”

“You got me,” Buffy interjected. “That’s why we brought it to you—Giles the answer-man, research-guru...”

“Hmm?” he asked, shaking his head slightly as though distracted. “Yes, well...rhetorical questions at this point, I suppose.”

“So, if the books aren’t giving it up, how we gonna figure it out?” she asked.

“Yes, well, as I mentioned, I’ve been trying to reach an associate of mine who happens to be a member of the Devonshire Coven. I recall having a discussion with her once that involved an artifact, and I’m nearly certain that it had to do with Libitina...”

“Her, huh?” Buffy said with a smile. “This a ‘former-honey’ type ‘her’?” she teased.

The blush on Giles face caused her to change gears in a hurry. “It is isn’t it? Forget it, say no more, I don’t wanna know!” she protested, covering her ears melodramatically.

“Buffy!” Giles objected sternly. “Really now, this could be a serious issue! What if the amulet had given this vampire the invulnerability he claimed?”

‘Jeeze!’ Buffy thought, in no way feeing Giles’ anxiety. “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. It’s no big.”

“Buffy...” he began, clearly dismayed by her response. “I realize that your, um...slaying abilities...have markedly increased of late; however, that is no reason to take such a threat lightly!”

‘Doesn’t he remember?’ Buffy thought as she cocked her head and frowned lightly at him. “Um...Giles?”

“Yes?” he said, sounding slightly exasperated.

“Three words...Gem. Of. Amara.” She said with a placidly.

Giles straightened as if he’d just touched a live wire. “I...well...that is...” he stammered.

‘It’s like I can see the wheelie things turning in his head,’ Buffy thought with a highly amused smile as he absorbed her comment.

She leaned back with a pleased sigh, lacing her fingers behind her head while she waited for him to respond.

“I...well...I suppose that...that was a, ah...similar situation,” he haltingly allowed.

‘Yeah, if by similar you mean identical,’ Buffy thought with a smug grin. “Soooo...” she began, drawing out the word until Giles focused on her again. “Anyway, I’m all on board the ‘let’s-figure-out-what-the-amulet-thingie-is’ train, but I don’t think we’re really in crisis mode or anything.”

“Yes, well...I suppose you make a good point...” he began. “However...”

“No!” Buffy whined with a petulant pout. “How come there has to be a ‘however’?” she demanded. “Why can’t you just say, ‘Yes, Buffy. You were totally right, and I was totally wrong!’?”

“However...” he reiterated, ignoring her interruption with the exception of one raised brow. “We mustn’t forget that someone turned over a potentially powerful magical device to a vampire...”

“And again with the ‘yeah, so?’” Buffy asked when he trailed off. ‘Still not seeing the big deal,’ she thought confidently.

Giles removed his glasses and began polishing them with his ever-present handkerchief. “Yes, well...without actually knowing the motivation behind such an action, I can only presume that this was an attempt to, well...to target you...or perhaps Faith...or perhaps both of you.”

“Cause the first thing a magically powerful vamp is gonna do is go after the Slayer...I get it. You’re saying there’s a new big-bad in town and they’re gunning for little old me.” She said with a sigh.

“I must say, Buffy,” Giles began, his face radiating disapproval. “I’m rather concerned about your cavalier attitude.”

‘Bad Buffy,’ she thought, slightly chagrinned. ‘Don’t want to push the watcher too far...he’s just worried for me.’ She sat forward, bracing her hands on her knees as she leaned her upper body towards her watcher.

“I’m sorry Giles,” she said, slightly repentant. “It’s just...it’s not like this is new or anything, you know? There’s always a big-bad, and they always want to kill me, either personally, or, you know, the whole world plus me. It’s not like I don’t take it seriously, it’s just...I just can’t be afraid and stuff. I know I’m gonna win. The only way I ever lose is if I try to do it all on my own; without you guys—and I’ve totally learned my lesson on that! With the Scooby gang backing me, I always win.”

Giles stood silently; eyes wide and mouth ajar at her soliloquy.

She smiled brightly and added, “Plus, now with the new and improved Slayer power, I totally rock! Those twelve vamps the other night were like nothing!”

“Twelve!” Giles yelped, finally finding his voice.

“That’s not counting his not-so-unkillableness, or the two that went after Will and Tara.” She added.

“Good Lord!” Giles whispered.

“And they didn’t even land a single punch, Giles!” she said in excited wonder. “I totally kicked their asses and they didn’t even touch me...well, except for where I touched them when I, you know, punched, or kicked, or elbowed, or...”

“I think I understand...” Giles interrupted. “I must say, that is extraordinary! Amazingly so...”

The warmth she felt at his praise was tempered, “I hear a ‘but’ coming...”

“I agree that a conventional foe would have little chance at defeating you Buffy...” he began in a conciliatory tone.

“Still waiting for the big ‘but’,” she interjected.

“Yes, well...” he dropped his gaze slightly. “We cannot ignore the fact that this foe, whoever—or whatever—it may be...has access to magical resources that have confounded our two resident—and most puissant—experts.”

‘Pwe-sent?’ Buffy thought, her knee-jerk objection deflected by the unfamiliar vocabulary.

“While I do agree that it is very likely that we can, and will, defeat this new foe,” he continued while she was still chewing on the foreign terminology. “We must, as always, take care to understand what it is that we are facing, and then develop a plan of action...”

“Right, we Scooby-do the research, figure out what it is, and then I slay it. I’ve got Will and Tara to back me if it’s all, like, magical and stuff,” Buffy agreed with a casual shrug.

“Yes, well...something like that,” he said with a resigned sigh.

‘See, it’s all good,’ Buffy thought with a satisfied smile, relaxing back into the couch.

“Speaking of magical...and stuff...” Giles began, his voice once again hesitant.

‘Uh oh,’ Buffy thought with a frown. ‘now what?’

“Assuming I’m able to reach anyone at the coven I’d mentioned, I’d like to suggest that Tara or Willow...well, that they take the amulet to England,” he said softly.

“So these witchy pals of yours can look at it?” Buffy asked—all the while thinking, ‘why is he all with the worry?’

“Yes, well, that...and for safe-keeping. The Devonshire Coven has an excellent collection of artifacts entrusted to their care. They have a reputation for reliable containment of the more dangerous items in their care.” he explained.

“Cool,” Buffy chirped. “It’ll be like a vacation, except without so much of the sunny-beachy goodness.”

“Hmm, yes,” he muttered, his smile looking rather sickly.

“Ok, spill already,” Buffy demanded with a raised eyebrow. “What’s with the tragedy-face?”

“Ahh, yes,” he began, his eyes dropping to the floor. “Well, that is...I’m not certain that it would be a good idea for you to...um, that is, what with this unknown adversary about...”

Buffy sat up, frowning. “What are you saying, Giles?” she asked, her heartbeat increasing as though in imminent peril.

Visibly grabbing hold of himself, Giles brought his gaze back up to meet hers. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave the Hellmouth unguarded right now, what with some new foe stirring up trouble...”

“So? Faith’s here...” Buffy began.

“With Quentin due in this week, I’m not sure Faith will be sufficiently focused...” he immediately countered.

“Giles, what are you telling me?” she demanded, her heart starting to race, and her breath quickening.

Giles face softened, and his voice was gentle as he answered, “I think it would be best if you were to stay here and continue to patrol, while either, or both, Tara or Willow consult with the coven.”

Buffy immediately stiffened, her back popping up away from the couch as she sat upright. Her mouth was suddenly dry as she tried to lick her lips. Her head began to shake side to side. “No...no, no. No, Giles!” she rasped.

“Buffy?” he asked, his voice at once surprised and concerned.

“Bad, bad, bad, badness...” she muttered, her hands feeling suddenly cold and clammy as she continued to shake her head in the negative.

“Buffy, it would only be for three or four days...a week at most,” he said with a conciliatory tone.

“Days!” she immediately leapt on the word as though it were particularly nasty vampire. “Days? No, Giles!” her heart was hammering in her chest and a bitter taste filled her mouth. “Minutes! Minutes I can do, even hours...”

“Buffy, what are you...” his bewildered voice barely registered.

“But days!?” she continued, her voice rising. She shot to her feet and a roaring filled her ears as she screamed, “No! No, I won’t!” She immediately turned and ran, tearing the door open in her haste to escape. She poured on the speed, racing for home with the image of her lovers in her mind—one thought shrieking through her brain over and over, ‘Need you! Need you, now!’

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

“...so then we pretty much did it all over again in the shower, except without the chocolate.” Dawn finished the story.

‘Oh, I think I mighta sprained poor Tara’s brain,’ she thought, glancing at the blonde. A brief look to her other side netted a far different result. ‘Willow just looks, um...hungry.’

Ignoring the hormonal quagmire of Willow’s reaction, Dawn focused her attention on Tara. “Too much information?” she asked, trying for a sympathetic rather than humorous tone.

“Goodness!” Tara said with a gulp. “I...I guess I never really pictured...um, you know...”

Dawn raised her eyebrows, waiting for the stunned witch to gather her thoughts. ‘This is kinda interesting...how she’ll think about it.”

“Sex with boys?” Willow interjected when Tara remained silent.

“Um, yeah...” Tara agreed.

“Boy, not boys,” Dawn clarified with a chuckle. “Xan and I haven’t done any threesomes, and besides, I don’t think he’d be open to another man in our bed.”

“Eep!” Tara squeaked, her eyes widening even further.

‘Now, that was just evil, Summers,’ Dawn thought, unable to continue suppressing her grin.

“What about another woman?” Willow asked, startling Dawn.

“Willow!” both Tara and Dawn yelled, shocked.

‘What the...’ Dawn wondered as she met the redhead’s eyes and saw a strange glimmer.

Dawn watched as Willow’s eyes left hers and moved toward Tara.

The salacious look on the redhead’s face immediately dropped away. “What?” she asked defensively. “I didn’t mean *me*...” her voice trailed off quietly while her gaze dropped to her wringing hands in her lap.

‘Uh oh, Dawn thought, glancing toward Tara. “Somebody’s in trouble,” she sing-songed.

“And you’re not helping matters, missy, egging her on like that!” Tara said, turning on Dawn.

‘Mmm, hmm,’ Dawn thought, catching a sly grin on Willow’s face. ‘Somebody *likes* being in trouble I think...’

“You’re both lucky Buffy’s not...” Tara suddenly frowned in mid-chastisement. “not...here....”

“Something’s wrong,” Willow suddenly interjected.

“What is it?” Dawn asked as both of the other witches began to stand up and head for the door.

“Buffy,” they both breathed out, their faces and voices emoting concern.

“What? Is she hurt?” Dawn asked, a tendril of worry threading through her psyche. She got up and followed as they quickly exited the spell-casting room.

“Angry,” Willow began.

“Upset,” Tara added in.

“Afraid,” Willow finished.

‘Buffy afraid?’ Dawn thought, her own concern increasing at the thought. ‘But...what would make Buffy afraid?’

“She’s on her way here,” Tara muttered, her _expression_ one of concern and concentration.

An uneasy silence filled the room as Tara and Willow stood by the door, wringing their hands.

It didn’t take long before the door to the mansion swung open hard and Buffy came running in, out of breath and crying. “Tara! Willow!” she howled, distraught.

‘Oh God!’ Dawn thought, watching her friends instantly attach themselves to the weeping blonde. A huge lump rose in her throat as she watched her sister break down. ‘She sounds like something horrible happened!’

“Don’t go!” Buffy wailed, collapsing in her lovers arms. “Don’t let him send you away!”

Dawn watched in shock as the three women dropped to the floor together. She felt tears of her own start at the raw pain in Buffy’s voice.

“Go? Buffy, what?” Willow cried, clearly confused and frightened.

“Please? Please don’t leave me!” Buffy sobbed.

“Never!” Tara cried out, tears streaming down her face. “We won’t leave you Buffy.”

“Never!” Willow bawled in agreement, weeping openly.

‘It’s like watching a car wreck,’ the thought popped into Dawn’s mind as she witnessed the spectacle unfolding before her. ‘I shouldn’t be seeing this....’ She felt nauseous as fear and guilt and embarrassment churned in her gut, but she couldn’t drag her gaze away from it.

“Promise?” Buffy asked, her voice thready and piteous.

“I promise!” Willow swore intently. “Mistress, I’m yours forever, you know that I could never leave you!”

“I couldn’t live without you, without either of you,” Buffy’s voice was filled with despair, but her look at Willow had a glimmer of hope in it.

‘Oh God!’ Dawn thought, feeling guilt like a punch to the solar plexus. It was enough to make her turn away and stumble across the room to the couch, facing away from weeping triad. ‘And I was almost flirting with her...’ she agonized, suddenly feeling as though she’d betrayed her sister and her best friend with her earlier teasing. She sat, hunched over and clutching at her stomach, trying to block out everything happening behind her.

“What the hell happened?” she whispered to herself as her mind spun in circles.

Minutes later she barely noticed that the sounds in the room had quieted. “Dawn?” Tara’s soft voice broke into her reverie.

“Hmm?” Dawn looked up. “Tara, what happened?” she softly asked.

Tara wiped at her tear-soaked cheeks and said, “I...I’m not sure exactly.” She gulped audibly before continuing, “Something about Giles wanting to send us—Willow and me—away for something...she’s not exactly making sense yet.”

“Is she...” Dawn sniffed back her tears before continuing, “Is she gonna be ok?”

“Of course she is, Dawnie,” Tara reassured, managing an altogether unconvincing smile. “We just need to get her calmed down.”

Dawn nodded, not challenging the statement. “Okay, I’ll um...I’ll go home I guess,” she said, part of her wanting to stay and find out what happened, the other part wanting to give Buffy some privacy.

“Could you go talk to Giles?” Tara asked hesitantly.

“Absolutely, of course I can!” Dawn immediately agreed, leaping on the opportunity to do something constructive. “I’ll find out what happened and I’ll call you right away!” she said, standing up to leave.

“Um, how about...” Tara interjected sounding somewhat chagrinned. “How about we’ll call you after....” she trailed off, blushing.

“After...oh!” Dawn broke off, nodding her agreement. ‘Comfort sex, right.’ She cleared her throat and said, “I’ll go get Xan and we’ll head over to Giles’s. You can just call there, um...later.”

“Thank you Dawn,” Tara said with a genuine smile.

“Hey, you know I’m totally there for you guys,” Dawn answered. “Any time, you know, whatever you need and stuff. Anything, just ask!”

Tara nodded—a flash of gratitude in her _expression_ before she turned back to where Willow was leading Buffy to the bedroom.

‘Beyond bizarre,’ Dawn thought as she left the mansion. ‘This is weird even for Scooby-drama....’

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

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