========== BtVS ==========
Chapter 4 Concluded
“Hey sweetie,” Tara said as she walked up behind Willow in the kitchen.
“Hey baby,” Willow replied as Tara wrapped her arms around the redhead’s tummy.
“What’s for lunch...besides you?” the blonde witch asked teasingly.
“Mmm,” Willow hummed, saucily pushing her ass up against the taller witch behind her. “I’m making chicken salad, and there’s grapes, and plums, and I’m gonna slice up some nectarines to go with.”
“Yummy,” Tara said happily, placing a kiss on her lover’s neck. “And maybe a little Willow cream for desert?” she whispered in Willow's ear.
“Wouldn’t say no,” Willow sing-songed in reply.
Tara giggled and released her lover to go back to her preparations. “Where’s Buffy?” she asked, not seeing her other lover in the area.
“She went out on the patio,” Willow explained. “I’m not sure...I mean she says nothing’s wrong, but you know Buffy,”
“Being little-miss-mopey-Slayer again, is she?” Tara asked with hands on her hips and a slight frown on her lips.
“I think she’s still a little bit upset about the whole freaking-out thing the other day.” Willow postulated.
“Humph,” Tara grunted, considering her options.
“Since she doesn’t want to talk to me about it, maybe her Mistress can help her out,” Willow suggested.
Tara giggled. “You’re so smart, sweetie,” she laughingly praised. She followed it up by stepping beside the redhead and leaning in for a brief, but deep kiss.
Willow hummed in pleasure and then said, “That’s me, always thinking, thinking, thinking!”
Tara couched her voice low and seductive, and said, “Smart chicks are so hot!”
“Darn tootin’!” Willow affirmed strongly.
Tara laughed again and then left the room, saying “I’ll let you prove that yet again later, now Mistress Tara has to go take care of her Slayer.”
“If she ends up needing a spanking, can I watch?” Willow teasingly called out after her.
“Vixen!” Tara teased right back.
“Darn tootin!”
Even the prospect of dealing with a sulky Slayer couldn’t erase her smile at Willow’s behavior. ‘Goddess I so love that little girl!’ Tara thought happily as she walked through their living room.
As she approached the glass door, she could see her blonde lover walking along the stair wall, her hand reaching out to stroke some of the plants growing there. ‘My poor little Slayer, she looks so lost sometimes,’ she thought, a pang in her heart at the sight.
She went out the door and approached her lover from behind as she had with Willow moments earlier.
Buffy gave no sign of noticing Tara’s approach, yet the moment the she stepped up against the smaller girl’s backside, Buffy leaned back into her with a deep sigh, one hand reaching up to cup behind Tara’s neck, and the other covering Tara’s arms as they wrapped around Buffy’s stomach.
“They’re lovely, aren’t they, my Slayer?” Tara began the conversation obliquely.
“What’s that, Mistress?” Buffy quietly replied.
“The lavender,” Tara answered, gesturing with one hand toward the flowers that Buffy’d been touching.
“Mmhmm,” Buffy hummed softly. “They smell nice.”
‘Typical Buffy,’ Tara thought when Buffy didn’t offer anything more. ‘All this time with us and she’s still hesitant to talk about her feelings.’
“You seem kinda quiet this afternoon,” she ever so gently prompted.
Another dramatic sigh from the shorter girl caused Tara’s lips to twitch into a smile. She nuzzled the side of Buffy’s head, then lightly kissed her ear and whispered, “Tell me pet.”
“I guess I’m just still kinda freaked out,” she began.
‘At least she’s not trying to play the “I don’t know what you’re talking about” routine anymore,’ Tara thought. ‘That’s progress...right?’
Out loud, Tara replied, “About us leaving you?”
“No,” Buffy immediately answered, shaking her head slightly. “No, I’m more worried about the fact that I freaked out in the first place...I mean, why? I know better.”
“You know better? Better than what?” Tara sought further explanation.
“Better than to think you guys would ever leave me...for good I mean.” She answered. “I mean, if I thought you were gonna, like, *Leave me* leave me, I could see getting all worked up and stuff, but I know better than that.”
“Of course we’ll never leave you Buffy!” Tara ardently agreed.
“I know, I really do, and that’s why I’m freaked out—because there’s no reason why I should have freaked out, you know?”
‘I have no idea what to say to that,’ Tara thought, stroking Buffy’s belly in an attempt to reassure her physically when she couldn’t do so verbally.
“It doesn’t make any sense, Mistress!” Buffy whispered emphatically. “Even though I know better, the thought of not seeing the two of you for more than an hour or two...even right now, it feels like this wave of panic is trying to crush down on me,” her voice had dropped into a harsh whisper.
“Look at me Slayer,” Tara demanded, turning the smaller blonde around in her arms.
She saw that tears had started just at the corners of Buffy’s eyes, and her own grew moist in response.
“I know, Mistress!” Buffy all but wailed. “I know it’s not real, but I feel it—not in my heart, but in my body I feel it!”
Tara stroked her face. “We’ll figure this out, Buffy, I promise. Somehow we’ll figure it out.”
Then the Slayer said something that caused a chill to run through Tara. “It’s not fair! How come I’m the only one that has to feel like this?” she complained, her voice bitter and angry.
“W-what?” Tara stammered in shock.
Buffy froze, her eyes growing wide. “Oh God!”
The smaller girl immediately dropped to her knees. “I’m sorry! Oh God, please Mistress, I’m sorry I said that! Please, I didn’t mean it!” she babbled, sounding panicked.
“Buffy, Buffy, stop,” Tara began.
“I’m sorry!” Buffy burst into tears and hugged Tara’s legs, crying aloud.
Finally, Tara had to grab the sobbing Slayer by the shoulders and pull her up. “Slayer! Stop it this instant!” she commanded.
Buffy immediately stopped crying, sniveling slightly as she pulled herself together.
“I take it from your tone that you’re angry with Willow and me about this?” Tara said after a moment’s consideration.
“I don’t mean to be,” Buffy said mournfully.
“But you are,” Tara said flatly, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice.
Her lower lip pouting out like an errant schoolchild, Buffy nodded her head. “But, I don’t mean to, I swear!” she quickly reiterated. “I try not to think about it, but every time I feel that panicky feeling, the thought pops into my head...’How come I feel this way, but you don’t?’ I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it,” she trailed off desolately.
“Oh Buffy!” Tara cried, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. She pulled her lover into her arms and said, “You should have told me.”
“How could I?” was Buffy’s response. “It’s horrible and wrong, and I shouldn’t be thinking it, but I can’t stop myself.”
“But it’s not your fault,” Tara tried to reassure her. “We’re supposed to be in this together, but you’re the one being affected...it’s natural that you’re going to feel some resentment. We just don’t want it building up and coming between us.”
“I’m sorry! Can you ever forgive me?” Buffy cried.
“Yes, of course my love,” Tara replied, hugging he tightly. “Nothing to forgive.”
In her mind she was seething. ‘If I find out someone did this to her I’m going to make them wish they’d never been born!’ she vowed silently.
========== BtVS ==========
“So, Ms. Lehane, we finally meet face-to-face,” Quentin Travers voice was dry and cool.
“It’s just Faith,” she answered somewhat hesitantly. Her mind was racing even as she tried to keep her body from falling back into a defensive stance. ‘Jeeze, this guy is seriously settin’ off my friggen alarm bells!’ she thought, not for a moment reassured by his smile.
“Faith then,” he said, his smile not faltering a bit, though his disapproval was clearly conveyed by his tone.
She shrugged slightly, not knowing what to say in the silence that followed.
After a moment, he resumed speaking, “I suppose I should begin by apologizing for the council’s...overzealousness...several weeks ago. I recommended against sending a retrieval team, but—regrettably—was unable to sway the majority opinion.”
‘Yeah, I’m sure you were real sorry...only ’cause it didn’t work!’ she thought distrustfully.
“I do hope that you understand that the council has no personal animosity towards you, they were simply concerned about your state of mind, given the situation.
“Sure,” Faith offered even as she was thinking, ‘What a load of crap!’
“Nevertheless, it seems that you have acquitted yourself well enough since the hellgoddess was dealt with,” he added smarmily. “If I might inquire, how is your reintegration into the Sunnydale team proceeding?”
Faith offered another slight shrug, “It’s goin' ok, I guess. ’Bout as well as you can expect, you know?”
“No issues with lingering animosities then?” he asked.
‘Like you really care,’ she almost snorted out loud. “Stuff’s workin’ out,” she said noncommittally.
“I don’t suppose it’s been particularly easy on you either, seeing them all again after your estrangement,” he offered with clearly false sympathy.
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude or whatever, but...What do you want from me here?” she interjected as the insincerity became too much for her to stomach.
“Yes, well...to the point then,” he said—his smile even wider if anything. “I am here to determine your status so that I may return to the council and convince them—in light of past events and alliances—that you deserve to remain free and active in the defense of the Hellmouth.”
Now she did snort disbelievingly. “Well, then you’re straight outta luck.” She said flatly.
“How so?” he asked unflappably, leaning back and lacing his fingers together on the table.
‘Asshole!’ she thought, bristling at the amused indulgence his posture indicated.
“Hey, I helped save the world, and you know what?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning at him. “It still don’t make up for the crap I did...the people I killed.”
He raised one eyebrow slightly in response.
‘Ha! Bet'cha didn’t expect that!’ she thought.
Aloud, she continued, “I’ll never be able to take back what I did...it ain’t even worth tryin’. All I can do now is try to do things right, Slay the vamps and demons and protect people and stuff. The only thing I can say is that I can’t be any use to anybody in jail.”
She stared right into his eyes as she added, “Better off killin’ me and callin’ the next Slayer than lockin’ me up some more.”
‘Damn, I knew it!’ she thought angrily when she saw the momentary gleam in Travers’ eyes.
He rapidly schooled his features and spoke almost as though she hadn’t said anything at all. “Yes, well...there are a few questions I’d like to go over in order to make my assessment. Lets begin then, shall we?”
‘He’s human...you can’t kill him, just remember; he’s human...you can’t kill him,’ Faith told herself with a resigned sigh.
========== BtVS ==========
“Well, here we are...this is the place,” Dawn said, looking at the door but making no move to knock.
“Nervous?” Xander asked with a half-smile.
“That obvious, huh?” Dawn asked with a dry chuckle.
“Well, it was either that, or you’re suddenly really interested in the door itself,” Xander explained, “what with the staring at it and not knocking or anything.”
“It is a nice door...” Dawn began with a grin.
“What’s to be nervous about?” he asked—genuinely curious—as he rubbed her gently at the small of her back.
“I dunno, it’s like...if it was you, going in to a room of all these master-carpenters and you didn’t know any of them and what if they wanted you to build something to, you know, prove that you were a carpenter too, and you know you can, but what if you aren’t as good as you think and it’s not as good as they do it and what if they all laugh at you and stuff...” she babbled out in one long string before finally gasping for breath.
Xander laughed lightly. “Jeeze Dawn, Willow's really rubbing off on you!”
That apparently broke Dawn’s tension, because she laughed and teased him, “Yeah, you wish...perv!”
“Hey!” he protested. “I didn’t mean it that way...not that it makes for a bad mental image or anything...” he trailed off suggestively. ‘Hey, she brought it up,’ he justified to himself. ‘actually...she kinda brings that up a lot...nah—that really would be wishful thinking.’
She slapped him lightly on the chest before turning back to the door. “Well, here goes,” she muttered and then knocked firmly on the door.
A moment later, the door opened slightly to show half of a short brunette’s face. “Yes?” she asked, looking back and forth between the two Scoobies.
“We’re here to see Sarah,” Dawn said, sounding confident despite her earlier nervousness. “Rupert Giles sent us.”
“Your names?” the woman asked with a polite but unrevealing tone.
“Dawn Summers and Xander Harris,” Dawn answered in a matching tone.
“One moment, please,” the woman said, closing the door.
After several uncomfortable moments passed, the door re-opened and the woman said, “This way, please.” She turned and walked away without waiting to see if they followed.
“After you, love,” Xander said with a smile, tamping down his own sudden nervousness.
She preceded him into what turned out to be a large room, dimly lit and decorated unlike what one would imagine for a hotel-room. ‘Kinda reminds me of Tara’s old dorm room...kinda sorta, but not exactly,’ he thought.
Peripherally he noticed about a dozen women lounging about in low chairs, or on floor cushions. ‘High creep factor,’ he thought with a shudder as all of the women’s eyes followed him and Dawn. A tiny grin took over his mouth as Dawn’s hand sought and grabbed his own. ‘I guess I’m not the only one,’
Their guide silently led them to a dim corner of the room, lit only by a handful of candles. A woman in a simple white dress was seated behind a small table and was laying out cards in front of her. ‘Looks like tarot,’ he thought with a slight roll of the eyes. ‘Jeeze, could this whole scene be more stereotypical?’
The woman who had led them across the room did a tiny bow towards the seated woman and then left without a word. Xander and Dawn’s eyes met and both had similar raised brows at the overly-dramatic proceedings.
They waited in silence while the woman finished laying out her pattern. Finally, she looked up at them and spoke. “So, Rupert’s sent you with a puzzle that he cannot solve.” She made it a statement rather than a question.
“You’re Sara?” Dawn asked, somewhat hesitantly.
“I am.” She intoned. “And you’re the witch Rupert said he’d send?” She looked pointedly toward Xander and Dawn’s joined hands, adding, “I was under the impression that you were partnered with another witch?”
“Oh, no,” Dawn began to explain. “Originally, Giles wanted to send Willow and Tara, but they couldn’t come. I’m, like, their student, I guess you’d say.”
“Ah,” she said flatly.
‘I can’t tell if she’s pissed, or if she’s just playing with us,” Xander though, suddenly a bit worried. “We’re pretty much screwed if they pull something...I really don’t like 6 to 1 odds; especially with the whole magic thing.’
“How long have you been...studying?” Sara asked tonelessly, yet still giving off a feeling of disapproval.
“Um...about three months or so,” Dawn answered.
Sara frowned, the disapproval clear in her voice as she said, “Three months, and you think to call yourself a witch? You’re barely a neophyte.”
‘I’m getting a seriously bad feeling about this...’ Xander thought worriedly.
Dawn shrugged as though it didn’t matter to her what this woman thought.
‘Oh, she’s pissed,’ Xander realized, despite Dawn’s nonchalant gesture.
“Can you even cast?” Sara asked; her voice now overtly snide.
‘Bitch!’ Xander thought angrily as he heard quiet laughter from several of the women in the room.
“Look, we’re here to give you the amulet because Giles said you could help identify it.” Dawn answered sharply. “What does my being able to cast have to do with anything?”
“So, you cannot...” Sara began.
Dawn interrupted, “God, what is this? A Harry Potter novel? Could you get a little more juvenile?”
“A witch who cannot cast is no witch,” Sara continued as though Dawn hadn’t interrupted.
“I was taught that one shouldn’t cast frivolously,” Dawn answered just a bit haughtily.
For the first time since they’d encountered this woman, Sara smiled. “That is wisdom,” she allowed. “However, a demonstration of ability to fellow witches is not a frivolous act. Perhaps if you were further along in your...studies...you would have known that.”
“Ok,” Dawn sighed. “What do you want me to do?”
“Surprise me,” Sara said.
‘This should be interesting,’ Xander thought. ‘I never seen her do anything but that glamour...and that didn’t really have anything to see.”
Dawn gave his hand a squeeze and then stepped back away from him a couple of meters. She stood silently with her eyes closed for a moment and then opened them back up with a wicked grin on her face.
‘What?’ Xander wondered when it appeared that nothing was happening. A gasp from Sara caused him to glance back toward her. ‘Holy Crap!’ he thought with a gasp of his own as he saw the candle flames on her table stretch toward his lover.
He quickly scanned the room to see that every open flame in the room was stretched out, reaching towards Dawn. When they’d stretched out about a half-meter in length, the flames leapt away from the candles and sped towards the lithe brunette. ‘Dawn, No!’ Xander had a brief moment of panic but the flames didn’t impact with her, rather they began to spin around her body like a tornado of flame instead of air. Another moment later and the flames began to change colors, going from orange to yellow, a nd then to green, blue, violet, and finally pulsing red for a second. Then they began to cycle through the colors faster and faster.
‘She looks like she’s in a flaming rainbow blender!’ he thought bewilderedly. A few seconds later the flames shot away from her like scattering raindrops of colored fire, landing back on the candles, which he noticed were significantly burned down.
“Good enough?” Dawn asked in the resulting stunned-silence.
Instead of being impressed, the women in the room suddenly began to hiss in anger. “That was no witchcraft!” Sara said sounding angry.
“What do you mean?” Dawn asked, sounding surprised. “That was *so* magic!”
“Sorceress!” several of the hissing women spat out.
“We are daughters of the Goddess. We have no truck with sorcery!” Sara continued heatedly. “It is anathema!”
Dawn and Xander both gaped at the pissed off witch.
“Get out!” Sara growled.
“What about the amulet?” Xander interjected, speaking for the first time.
‘Damn, if looks could kill!’ he thought at the glare Sara levied on him.
“Leave it,” she spat. “I will repay the debt I owe, but be sure to tell Rupert Giles that he will hear from me on this! Sending a sorceress, and trying to pass her off as a witch! It’s repugnant!”
“Whatever!” Xander muttered. ‘Great of Giles to send us to see a bunch of psychos!’ he thought angrily as he fished out the amulet from his pocket and set it on the table. He quickly turned and put his arm around Dawn to lead her out of the room.
“But...but,” she was sputtering, clearly shocked and upset.
“Later Kitten, lets just get out of here!” he whispered in her ear as he half-dragged her to the door.
The door opened for them and slammed shut behind them, nearly striking their heels. “Boy; am I glad to get out of there!” he muttered as they rapidly walked down the hall. ‘Never have I been so happy to be leaving a room full of beautiful women before in my life!’ he thought.
“What in the hell was that!” Dawn spluttered as they entered the elevator at the end of the hall, finally finding her voice.
“I dunno, but Giles has some ‘splainin’ to do!” he vowed as they began to travel down.
========== BtVS ==========
‘He can’t be human, no human could possibly be this friggen stuck-up and boring, could they?’ Faith asked herself in amazement as the Senior Watcher’s Council Member continued to drone on as he had for the past twenty minutes. She’d tuned out the actual words proceeding from his mouth five minutes into the monologue.
‘Jeeze, first this asshole makes me relive every crappy thing I’ve done since being the freaking Slayer, and then it’s the “Honor, responsibility, duty” speech. It’s like he thinks I should be thanking him personally for me bein the Slayer! What a tool!’
“...and therefore it is vital that you remember, Faith; being the Slayer is not only a sacred calling, but a privilege. A privilege that must be constantly earned with every thought, every deed.”
“Privilege, right. Got it,” she said when he seemed to have finally wrapped up his lecture.
He stared at her with a sour look on his face for several seconds before imperiously allowing, “Very well, Faith. You may be excused.”
‘What? Why you...’ she thought, but immediately shut herself down. ‘Crap, don’t want another friggen lecture,’ she thought—disdaining any response as she got up and walked out of the room.
Fuming, she ran down the stairs to the lobby rather than taking the elevator. “I need to work off some steam before I end up beatin’ someone down for lookin’ at me funny,’ she thought. And I’m thinkin’ I’m gonna hang out outside for a while and see if this prick goes anywhere...cause there’s no way he came all the way to Sunny-D just to talk to little ol’ me!’
========== BtVS ==========
It hadn’t taken long—within half an hour of his interview with her, Quentin Travers had exited the hotel.
‘Arrogant prick!’ she thought, not for the first time, as he walked up to the valet and had him hail a cab. ‘He’s not even looking around!’ she thought derogatorily. ‘This guy thinks he’s Mr. friggen important...or he’s used to bein’ surrounded by bodyguards or something.’
It didn’t require any great expenditure of effort, even though she was on foot, to keep pace with the yellow cab as it turned the corner and headed towards one of the town’s residential districts.
Cutting down alleyways and hopping people’s fences, Faith ran full-out, as much to burn off some of her anger-induced energy as to keep up with the taxi.
‘Hey, I’ve been down this street before,’ she thought with a vague sense of unease beginning to manifest in the pit of her stomach.
She popped out of one yard and crouched down next to a parked car, looking toward the intersection to see which way the cab was going to go. ‘It’s gotta go straight, no way it’s turning here...just a coincidence...just a really freaky coincidence.’
It was as though her heartbeat paused when the cab slowed as it approached the intersection. “No...no, please,” her voice was that of a frightened child as the car’s turn-signal lit up and it turned left, coming towards her position.
Frozen in place with adrenaline coursing through her body, she nearly let herself be exposed as the car passed her position. In the end she just fell on her ass and it was only luck that neither the cabbie nor Travers glanced to their left to see her.
“Can’t be...it’s a mistake...” she sat in stunned horror as the cab came to a stop in front of one of the houses.
The house in question was known to the dark-haired Slayer. In fact, she just happened to have the key to that house on a ring in her front pocket.
========== BtVS ==========
‘This is actually pretty cool!’ Xander thought, surprised as he looked up at the lightshow above them.
“Isn’t this cool?” Dawn asked with an excited voice. “Fairmont Street’s one of my favorites, but the best is the one at the Bellagio! I can’t wait to show you that one!” she gushed, giving his hand a squeeze as she bounced up and down on her toes.
“Me either,” Xander answered, looking down at his lover’s face. ‘I love seeing you like this,’ he thought happily. ‘So excited and joyful...and so very beautiful!’
“Xander!” Dawn chastised him with a laugh. “You aren’t watching the lightshow!”
“I can see it reflected in your eyes,” he responded with a soft smile.
“You’re such a sap,” Dawn said, playfully bumping her hip against his.
“Must be all the honey in my diet,” he said with a leer.
She just rolled her eyes and laughed, returning her gaze to the lights above.
‘Once again I have to marvel at how I got so lucky!’ he thought, contented. ‘I can die a happy man, now.’
Everyone around them had their heads tipped back, focused on the lightshow playing above them, and so Xander was the only one to notice the passing SUV slow to a stop. He looked up from his girlfriend’s face, focusing on the vehicle. A cold shiver ran down his back as the heavily tinted driver’s window began to slide down.
‘Oh crap,’ ran through his mind as his subconscious began screaming ‘Danger!’ The sounds of the crowd bled away as the thump of his heart filled his ears. Before he even knew why he was doing it, he pulled Dawn into his arms and turned them so that he was between the truck and his lover.
Her head snapped down as her eyes locked onto his. “Xander, wha...” he saw cross her lips though he couldn’t hear her confused exclamation.
‘Firecrackers?’ the word appeared in his consciousness for a moment as a string of loud snapping sounds filled the air. Then the burning pain bloomed in a line up his back, the pressure of it pushing him forward, his grip taking Dawn down with him as he fell forward.
He winced more at the pain in Dawn’s face as they hit the concrete than he did at his own agony. ‘Sorry!’ he wanted to say, but he couldn’t inhale the air to speak.
Tears started in his eyes at the fear in her eyes as she called out his name. ‘I didn’t mean it!’ he screamed silently, his mouth wide open as his body struggled futilely to draw in a breath. ‘Dawn, please I don’t want to leave you!’ he thought miserably, knowing from the pain in his back and the feeling of cold seeping through his unresponsive limbs that death would be soon upon him.
‘I love you!’ he mouthed over and over, his eyes locked on the panic-filled gaze of the girl he loved, barely noticing the tears falling onto her cheeks from his own.
‘At least I got to go out saving her,’ was his dying thought as darkness stole over his vision.
And then there was nothing.
========== BtVS ==========
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