Dawn's little secret. You've been dying to know - well this next update might die, too.
eccentrictulip - Okay here we go. Hope it was worth the wait. And cliffhangers - I grew up with "Dr Who", what more can I say?
Part 3
Rating: PG-13 - Lameness
Only Dawn, Tara and Giles remained standing. Anya had taken a seat as well. The ex-Watcher still held his cross, but it dangled in his hand, half-forgotten as he waited to see what Dawn had to say.
“It was the day you went shopping with me,” Dawn began, addressing Buffy. “Actually, it wasn’t so much shopping, it was more walking around the middle of town and me pointing out all the stores and remembering what I’d stolen from them.” Buffy rolled her eyes in frustration as she recollected it.
“We got home, you were checking the mail and I checked the answering machine. Tara had left a message that she wanted to meet me at the Magic Box. She said it was important and that I should come right away. So I did.”
“I don’t remember you telling me about this,” Buffy commented.
“All I said was I was going to visit a friend. Which was true.” Dawn smiled at the vampire. “When I got to the Magic Box, Tara was there waiting. She was – I don’t know, she looked like she had something big on her mind. She told me she wanted my help to do a spell.”
“Why you?” Buffy asked.
“That’s what I asked. Tara told me, ‘It’s a special spell, and I need the help of a special girl to cast it.’ I thought she was just trying to butter me up, but then she said, ‘it’s because although you’re human in every way, you’re still the Key. If I can borrow a little bit of that Key energy, this spell might just work.’ So I was all, ‘Cool! What will it do?’ Tara said, ‘You’ll see.’ So Tara got some stuff from the Magic Box -”
“Did you pay for it?” Anya interrupted.
“I left some money,” Tara said. “Go on, Dawn.”
“Was there an itemised account? For stock control purposes?” Anya persisted.
“Anya, please,” Giles groaned. “A few cents’ worth of spell ingredients is neither here nor there. Now, I know that I’ve probably just shattered all of your illusions, but I believe this could be important. Please continue, Dawn.” Giles took his glasses off exhaustedly and shuffled over to the seats, dropping into one of them with a sigh. He slipped the cross back into his pocket.
“We locked the shop and closed the curtains. It was wicked exciting. We sat at the table and Tara mixed her ingredients and chanted. That got a bit boring, but she started this fire in a bowl and burned a few things. Then she held my hands and did this long incantation in Latin, I think. She closed her eyes, there was a big puff of smoke from the bowl, and then Tara opened her eyes and said, ‘We’re done’. I asked her, well you know, did it work, because everything looked the same. And Tara said, ‘I don’t know, that’s the really tricky part.’”
“And what manner of spell was it?” Giles asked, intrigued.
“Tara said it was a kind of a protection spell; that if it worked, certain bad things wouldn’t happen. I asked if it meant she would come home soon to Willow and she said that it sort of had nothing to do with that, but after that she said, ‘Yes, I’ll be back soon, and I’ll never leave.’ She also made me promise not to tell anyone about the spell, not even Willow, unless Tara said so. Afterwards, when Tara was – when you were killed, I just thought the spell hadn’t worked. But I still kept my promise.”
“I don’t think I approve of you involving Dawn in magic,” Giles said to Tara, rather stuffily. “Are you ready to tell us what the spell was?”
Tara nodded. “It was a Claudere; a Lock spell.” Willow stared, fascinated, and the wicca in her was just the tiniest bit jealous that it was a spell she had never heard of.
“A Lock spell?” Giles responded. “That’s a very powerful and dangerous incantation.”
“Um, Giles,” Xander put his hand up. “Could you, um, you know?”
“What? Oh yes, of course. The Lock spell, or Clamp as it’s sometimes called, was a spell occasionally used in Ancient Britain around the time of King Arthur. It would be cast upon knights who were undertaking a task, a quest of a particularly dark and dangerous nature. For example, if they were attempting to defeat an evil magician or were battling soul-eating demons. But, Tara, I find this rather questionable; this spell was only ever designed to be cast on – on heroes, on the most virtuous and – and bravest of – of me- er, folk.” Tara glared at Giles furiously, as if to ask him: your point being? “Oh. Oh dear.” Giles fell silent. After a moment he looked at Tara with new eyes and with a mixture of respect and shame.
“But what does the spell actually do?” Buffy asked after a moment’s pause.
“Oh, yes, right,” Giles stammered, replacing his glasses. “It locks, it fixes the soul to the physical form, so that the soul cannot be torn away from the body, either by magic or by some other mystical force, such as a soul-killing demon.”
“Soul?” Willow gasped. “But that means – Tara! You have a soul!”
“Well, yes, I suppose if someone had this spell cast on them and got bitten by a vampire, they would retain their soul. There is no record of it ever happening, however,” Giles finished.
“But – why can’t you see your own soul if it’s still there?” Dawn asked the vampire.
Tara smiled at the teenager. “That was where you helped, Dawn,” she explained. “That tiny bit of Key energy I borrowed, it worked the same way that the Key works within you; it hid my soul. I can’t see my own soul, but neither can any other vampire, or anybody else. Of course, it also made it kind of hard to tell whether the spell worked or not, which was a bit of a problem – until I found a way around it last night. At least, I think I did. And Willow – the answer was in you all the time, I just had to look at you in a different way.”
“But why, Tara?” Willow asked. “Why did you do it? Why did you hide it away?”
“I was instructed to. It was very specific.”
“Instructed?” the red haired witch wondered.
Tara nodded. “I did a Tarot reading – on myself.”
“Your Tarot cards. I’ve seen them!” Willow cried. “They’re at the Magic Box.”
“Then you know. You’ve seen what I saw.” Tara’s expression was suddenly bleak and apprehensive.
“No. Tara, I didn’t look at them; I just put them away, to keep them safe.”
“Oh Willow, thank you,” Tara smiled. “We should go there right away. I want you to see everything.”
“Oh good Lord!” Giles said suddenly, clapping a hand to his head. Everyone turned to him. “Why didn’t I realise sooner?”
“Realise what, Rupert?” Anya asked.
“The weakness of the Lock spell; there’s a risk. If the physical body is killed, the soul is lost with it. There is no – no transference to a higher plane of existence, no prospect of reincarnation or Paradise. The soul stays locked and simply – dies with the body.”
“No Heaven?” Buffy murmured, her eyes and thoughts fixed on a distant place.
“Willow,” Giles said, agitatedly, “when Tara was shot, you were in the room with her? Close to her?”
“I told you. I was holding her,” Willow said quietly. “She died in my arms.” A tear rolled down her cheek with the recollection of it.
“You may have sensed it subconsciously,” Giles opined. “You not only experienced the horror of seeing her killed, but you – your soul, may have felt the annihilation of Tara’s soul. The total and permanent – destruction – of Tara’s spirit. It would have driven anyone to madness.” There was silence for a minute. Buffy, Xander and Anya were stunned by this new revelation.
“Holy moley,” Xander breathed at last.
“Willow, oh Willow,” Buffy said softly. “What could you have been feeling?”
“Better late than never,” Tara muttered to herself. Dawn overheard her, rolled her eyes and nodded.
“He lied,” Willow seethed. “The Keeper of Osiris, he lied to me. He said it was a natural passing, that Tara was taken by natural order. I knew it, ‘How is this natural?’ I asked. I knew!” It was the first time in weeks that any of them, Tara apart, had seen Willow angry. More than one felt a little uneasy at this.
“Not really a novelty for mystical beings to tell whoppers, Will,” Buffy pointed out. “Look at First Evil.”
“Or perhaps the Keeper already knew that Tara’s return was preordained, but didn’t want you to know about it,” Giles suggested. “But really, Tara, you took an appalling, foolhardy risk with this spell. You should have said something.”
Tara smiled an odd little smile, fixed her gaze on Giles and recited slowly:
“ If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss.”
Buffy’s eyebrows shot up. “I know this one,” she said. She stood, facing Tara and added:
“ If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on…” Buffy swallowed, a lump in her throat, her eyes moistening, then continued,
“ when there is nothing in you
Except the – the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
Willow stood then, her eyes shining with love for Tara. She slowly paced towards the vampire as she said:
“ If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;” Willow turned and looked accusingly at Giles, then continued,
“ If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;” Willow turned back to the vampire.
“ If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating…” Willow’s voice tailed off. “Tara,” was all that she could sigh, as she stumbled forward and fell into her lover’s arms. The vampire embraced the red haired witch tenderly. Eyes closed, faces bathed in bliss, they held each other for a long moment. Tara put a finger under Willow’s chin. The redhead opened her eyes, looking with curiosity into Tara’s gentle blue eyes. And they were – gentle. The angry vampire was nowhere to be seen.
The rest of them converged then, Anya, Giles and Xander rising to their feet like sleepwalkers. It was a rather awkward group hug first, and then they all took turns embracing Tara and Willow. Finally it was Giles’ turn. Tara paused for the briefest instant, then hugged him firmly and said, “Even after all’s said and done, it’s good to see you again, Mr. Giles.”
“What happens now?” Xander asked.
“There is an important question that no-one has addressed,” Giles said. “Who wants two powerful vampire witches, and why?”
“That’s two questions, G-man,” Xander pointed out.
“We won’t find answers to that tonight,” Tara said. “Right now, I’m going back to the Magic Box. There’s something you need to see, Willow. Can someone give Dawn a ride back to town? I’m not letting you out of my sight, ever,” she told the redhead, emphatically.
(To be continued)
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So, sorry.
Will you answer that later? I hope so. Just a wee bit confused with that.
- Thanks once again for your wonderful feedback. You are under no obligation to reply, so no need to apologise, but whenever you do it's always appreciated. Lame? - well, some could say...have you seen the Top Ten Bad Fanfic Signs thread? And the last parts - group hugs, reciting poetry, it was either grand emotion or cringeworthy and I'm still not sure which.
What a choice of phrase!
Anyway, let's try this again.
cool.... *cough cough* um...anyway, back to doing something.... 
as hell! lol
, after several minutes it started to act strangely and i could hardly type anything. After another couple of minutes i couldn't use it at all. Thank god, i could find another keyboard from my dad. *phew*. Friday the 13th, that's sooo my day. 
I know it probably has to be hard for Giles to admit defeat, but I'm glad he backed down though. I think he was a little too hard on himself though. I mean, as much as he pissed me off, he was trying to protect Willow. Although, I do think he shoud have found another way of going about it. I hope they can maybe move past it later.