It's finally happened.
I've caught up to the point where bits are still being written.
Not in a linear fashion, i'm not nearly that logical, but even though there's loads more stuff, some of this i'm writing just before posting.
If it looks suddenly rougher, it's because i haven't had a chance to review it with fresh eyes.
I don't have a beta.
I did have an offer, but when they found out that the story was slightly longer than the Lord of the Rings, they said it was too much to take on.
No stamina this young generation
So, if you spot anything, point it out and i'll try and fix it up
Hi Citanul!
Yeah, it's not pent up rage, it's embarrassment and a little hormones, and some stress, mixed with Faith's generally high-revving personality
Yeah, the Naughty Hufflepuff image stuck in my head for a while.
And Willow has always loved learning. And school. Now she gets her three favourite things all at once
Enjoy!
Reunion“That Hermione Granger is going to grow up to be such a cutie,” Tara said.
“Do I need to start being jealous?” Willow asked, eyebrow raised.
Currently she and Tara were walking hand in hand behind the others.
Up ahead, Xander and Faith were having lightsabre duels with their still-glowing wands, while Buffy critiqued their form.
Eventually, frustrated, she yelled “Expeliarmus!” and pointed her wand at Xander with a flourish.
She gaped when the wand catapulted out of his hand, and ten feet into the evening air.
She looked over at Willow, who was making a terrible attempt at looking innocent.
And while Buffy was looking at Willow, Xander caught his red glowing wand, and poked her in the stomach with it. “Yes! Chalk up a win for Xander!”
Buffy yelped in surprise.
Willow joined in the laughter, and revelled in the warm feelings that flowed through her.
Just watching her friends messing around made her feel happy and fulfilled.
Tara leaned into her and squeezed her in a hug.
She smiled and leaned into her hug. She would never tire of Tara’s warmth, or her scent. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, drawing in the scent of vanilla and honeysuckle with a happy sigh.
“Hey there Mrs Rosenberg-Giles.”
More gooshy feelings flowed down their link from Tara. “Hey there Mrs Giles-Rosenberg.”
Whatever Willow was going to say next was lost, as Anya appeared in a shimmer of light.
“Hello lesbians!”
“Eeek!” Willow yelped, jumping about a foot in the air.
Buffy’s pink glowing wand instantly bounced off of Anya’s head, thrown with pinpoint accuracy.
On anyone else that probably would have stung, being hit with a high-speed bit of wood. If it had any effect on Anya, it didn’t show.
“If everyone is finished pretending to be small children, you should come inside. Cordelia is coming for a visit, and she’s bringing a surprise guest with her.”
“Who?” Willow asked, slightly worried about what the erratic woman was going to say.
“It’s a surprise,” Anya said, as if to someone terribly slow. “And she asked me to keep quiet about it. Although, you only have to wait a few minutes, so it shouldn’t tax even your limited patience.”
Buffy frowned and stopped walking. “I don’t like surprizes. Except surprize presents.”
Anya rolled her eyes impatiently. “Fine. The leader of the resistance wants to talk to all of you. Given that the Moon Pool is messed up, and the entire heavens are in an uproar, she figured now was the best time.”
She waggled her finger admonishingly. “Now you have to act surprized, ok? Otherwise Cordelia will get angry with me.”
“Uh, sure.”
Willow looked at Tara. Tara shrugged.
“I must admit, I’ve been curious about this leader person,” Tara said.
“Mom. We call her mom. You’ll see why in a minute,” Anya said.
“Uh, should we change?” Buffy asked, looking down at her robes.
“You look fine, other than looking like you belong to some weird cult,” Anya said.
She cocked her head thoughtfully. “Which is a reasonably accurate description, so stay as you are.”
“I am
so changing,” Buffy said.
“No time. Really Buffy, if you run off to get changed now, you are going to regret it.”
“Ok, fine. But you get to explain Harry Potter to her,” Buffy said.
“If you want. Though I’m not sure she’s had time to catch up on the latest movies, what with the revolution to run.”
Anya impatiently herded everyone inside, steering the group to the library. Giles, Xander, Dawn and co were already inside, surrounded by books.
Dawn looked up from the couch where she was snuggling with Heather. “How was the movie?”
Tara smiled. “Good, really good.”
“Someone has a crush on Hermione,” Faith said.
“I do not,” Tara said. “I
do like smart girls, but I do not fancy Hermione. She’s a teenager for starters.”
“You dressed up for it?” Dawn said, taking in the robes and house colours.
Willow laughed. “We were not the only ones.”
“Yeah, there were like, a dozen kids dressed up,” Faith said.
“We were professors,” Tara said. “I taught charms.”
“I was professor of potions,” Willow said. “I always wanted to be good at potions. Because, y’know, I stink at it.”
“Though you do make great soup,” Xander said. “Also much prettier than Professor Snape.”
“True,” Tara said with a sneaky smile.
“Er, weren’t we supposed to be getting visitors?” Buffy asked.
“Don’t be impatient Buffy. They’ll be along in a minute,” Anya said.
Buffy glared.
“Nice beady-eyed look. You realize that you’ll get many unattractive frown-lines like that?”
Buffy’s glare continued unabated. Anya smiled back beatifically.
With a shimmer of white light, Cordelia appeared. Unlike Anya, she appeared at the door, rather than right in the middle of everybody.
“Hi guys!”
A chorus of hello’s greeted her.
She sat down, looking somewhat tired. “Well, I have no idea what you guys were up to, but you stirred up a hornet’s nest.”
“How do you know we were up to anything?” Giles asked mildly.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Oh please. The doom bell rang, the sky turned green, and people have been speaking about an invasion. We haven’t been able to get anything useful out of the Powers That Be, It’s like
they’re panicking.”
She fixed Giles with a knowing look. “Of course you guys are involved. What
were you up to?”
Dawn simply held up the unassuming-looking codex.
Cordelia’s eyes went comically wide when she saw it.
“What the hell is that?!”
“That my dear, was the reason for our little visit,” Giles said.
“It’s the White Codex,” Anya said simply.
“The White… that thing is real? And you stole it?!”
Anya smiled. “Yes to both questions.”
Cordelia’s head fell into her hands. “Ohmigod. No wonder everyone is panicking up there.”
Anya looked thoughtful. “Well, I’m pretty sure they don’t know we’ve got it. If they did, it would be a lot different upstairs. Less panicking, more horrible death and destruction.”
Cordelia groaned. “You people are a menace. So, have you found anything useful?” Cordelia asked, curious despite her shock.
“Oh yeah,” Dawn said. “There’s stuff in here about how to screw up pretty much all our relationships.”
“Uh, what? Just… What?”
“This thing has all sorts of prophesies and stuff. But it also an inordinate amount of stuff about messing up all our relationships.”
“That’s… oddly focussed. And a lot creepy.”
“Yeah. There’s stuff about Angel, Buffy, Faith. Even Willow and Tara.”
“More creepy.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Is there anything in there, besides creepy stalker stuff?”
“Oh yeah. It’s like a badly written how-to guide, to prevent the future from happening.”
“Prevent it? That seems a little weird.”
“Yeah. It’s not written in here, but there’s something that they are afraid of. This whole book is about stopping whatever it is.”
“Cordelia?” Giles said. “Do you know anything about the third age?”
She shook her head. “No idea. What is it?”
“We don’t know either,” Dawn said. “But there is this prophesy about it.”
She flipped through the book, searching for the right bookmark.
“Here’s the prophesy: There shall be three signs. Three signs that mark the end of the Third Age, and world that we know. The thrice-born shall walk the earth. The heavens shall become as emerald, and a child shall be born to the fallen and the dead. She shall be the first true child of Lilith to be born since the second age, and if the child be born, nothing can stop the heavens from falling.”
Cordelia looked thoughtful. “So that’s the missing prophesy huh?”
Dawn nodded, somewhat subdued. “We’re pretty sure that’s it.”
“And that’s why they’re after Faith,” Buffy put in.
“What? Why?”
“Because I got a bun in the oven,” Faith said. “Didn’t the crazy blonde tell you?”
“No. I’ve been staying off the radar, largely by staying here,” Anya said. “It wouldn’t exactly be ‘off the radar,’ if I went back to base, would it?”
“Oh. Crap,” Cordelia said.
“Yeah.”
Cordelia frowned. “So we have to hold out for nine months?”
Buffy flashed her a wan smile, pleased that Cordelia had automatically sided with them, without even thinking.
This was clearly not the Cordelia from her old school days.
“Uh, we got lucky there. Sorta,” Faith said. “Turns out the little tadpole is growing extra fast. So she should be done baking a little quicker.”
“Should I be worried? Is it going to pop out now?” Anya said, looking worriedly at Faith’s midsection.
“No,” Buffy said, unamused.
“Because I have been to a lot of births, and it’s just messy. All that straining, sweating and fluids. You’d be amazed how many women want to curse their men when labour starts.”
“Sorry. Well, before we get too far into planning things, I think mom is about to arrive. I think she’s kinda grateful about the havoc you guys caused. We wouldn’t have been able to sneak her down here for months otherwise.”
The familiar shimmery glow appeared on the other side of the frosted glass library doors, and faded to reveal the fuzzy outline of a tall blonde woman, wearing the now-traditional white outfit.
“I feel weirdly nervous,” Willow said.
Buffy nodded her agreement, as the doors opened.
There was stunned silence among the assembled Scoobies.
Though Anya, Faith and Cordelia had broad grins.
“Mom?” Buffy whispered, her eyes glittering.
Joyce nodded, with a soft and watery smile. “Hello darling.”
“Mommy?” Dawn squeaked.
“I’ve missed you, girls. I’ve missed you both so much.”
Joyce opened her arms, and both her girls flew into her embrace.
It may have been two years or more since Joyce’s death, but no amount of healing, or acceptance could prepare the Summers girls to see her again.
For the next few minutes, there wasn’t a sound in the room, save the sobs of the two girls, and the murmurs of reassurance from Joyce.
Reunited at last.
Faith fell on her butt, such was the strength of the motions thundering down the link she shared with Buffy.
Somehow seeing Joyce again brought forth all the feelings of loss once more, though this time they were mixed in with an inexpressible joy, so powerful and so sharp that it physically hurt.
She sat, unnoticed on the floor with a dazed look, simply letting the torrent of feelings thunder through her.
Joyce stroked Dawn’s hair as her youngest cried out all the tears of her loss, and joy at their reunion.
Buffy was no less overcome than Dawn, as squeezed her sister and her mom
‘Mom!’ tight.
“Shh girls. It’s going to be alright.”
Buffy and Dawn both looked up, their eyes still brimming with tears.
“It is?” Dawn asked hesitantly.
“I promise you darling, it’s going to be alright.”
Buffy still looked worried.
Joyce lifted her chin gently. “Buffy, I started a rebellion in heaven for you. By the time I’m finished, heaven itself will be on your side.”
She stroked Buffy’s hair. “Who knew all those PTA meetings would be useful for something?”
Buffy smiled a watery smile. “Somehow ‘Thanks mom’ doesn’t seem to cover it.”
Dawn giggled and sniffled.
Joyce smiled warmly. “It’s all part of being a mom.”
She cleared her throat. “Which I understand is something you’re going to find out about shortly.”
Buffy looked at her feet. “Uh, yeah. I kinda um, got Faith pregnant.”
Joyce chuckled. “You know, somehow I imagined this conversation going quite differently.”
“Yeah. I’m a little thrown, my own self,” Faith said, from the floor.
“Buffy, how could you be so irresponsible?” Joyce said, shaking her head in mock disappointment. Her small smile took the sting out of it.
“Mo-om!” Buffy whined. “It’s not like we were planning it. It’s just… one thing lead to another and… oops.”
Joyce laughed.
“Well before we get into the serious stuff, won’t you introduce me to your fiancé? I think it’s only fair, given that I’m your mother.”
“C’mon Mrs S, it’s not like we didn’t talk upstairs,” Faith said.
“True. But
then you weren’t carrying my granddaughter.”
Joyce laughed slightly. “I really wasn’t expecting to say that to my daughter’s fiancé. Buffy maybe, but not you.”
She stepped forward and pulled Faith into an affectionate hug. “Congratulations. And welcome to the family.”
Faith suffered herself to be hugged. Though it was pretty obvious to most, that despite her grumbling, she was enjoying the contact.
“Now, how is everyone else doing? I see some new faces, and some I have missed for a long time.”
She let Faith go, and moved on to Xander. “Hello Xander.”
Xander needed no prompting. He stepping forward and hugged her, the woman who’d been more of a mother to him than his own biological mother.
“Hey Mrs Summers. It’s… really good to see you again.”
“Joyce remember? And have you been looking after my girls?”
“Absolutely.”
She touched the side of his face gently, taking in his eye patch. “Oh Xander. What happened?”
“Mislaid it somewhere. Sunnydale I think.”
Joyce gave him a look, which made him look distinctly embarrassed.
“Uh, lost it fighting a priest. Doing some of that looking-after that you mentioned.”
Joyce hugged him extra tight.
“Hey, it’s ok. I’m not afraid to sacrifice for my friends. I look in the mirror, and I’m proud.”
“Family, remember?” Buffy said, softly punching him in the shoulder.
Xander just grinned.
“Looks like the Summers are growing almost as fast as the Giles’.”
Joyce looked across at Giles with a questioning expression.
“Ah, nothing untoward I promise you,” Giles said awkwardly. “Tara, ah, joined the family.”
Joyce looked at Tara for an explanation.
“I needed a new identity,” Tara said. “Um, and I didn’t want to be Tara Maclay anymore.”
“So she asked Giles if she could be Tara Giles,” Willow said. “And some point in the future, she’s going to be Tara Giles-rosenberg. Or Rosenberg-Giles, we haven’t decided. And so am I, but Willow because… yeah.”
Joyce smiled broadly. “Congratulations you two.”
“And Buffy and Faith too! Hey, are you going to be Summers-Lehane, or Lehane-Summers?”
Buffy shook her head. “Sorry Will. We haven’t even thought that far ahead.”
“Though we can’t get married in this state,” Faith said. “I looked.”
“Or any states,” Willow said. “But we can in Holland.”
“Sweet. Trip to the land of weed and kink.”
Joyce shook her head in amazement. Her eyes shone as she took in Buffy, standing with an odd mix of happiness and nerves. “My little girl. All grown up.”
Buffy cleared her throat. “Dawn too.”
“What?!” Joyce said, her head snapping around to focus on her youngest.
“No!” Dawn shrieked. “I am not getting married! I only just got a
girlfriend. It’s waaaay too early to even be thinking about all that stuff.”
“Well at least I can’t actually
get a heart attack any more. Please be a little more careful with your words Buffy. I’d say you just took ten years off my life but…” she shrugged sheepishly.
“Great. Just what we need, more gallows humour,” Buffy grumbled.
Joyce ignored her. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Joyce said to Dawn.
Heather jumped up from the couch, and looked like she was seriously considering running for it. At least until Dawn snagged her hand.
“Mom, this is Heather, my girlfriend.”
Joyce looked at her youngest, standing next to a tall girl with a similar build, wearing an odd mixture of punk clothing and pink. She stood proudly, with a slight air of defiance, as if expecting to get told off.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Heather. How did you two meet?”
“Uh, Dawn’s sort of a watcher in training. I’m a Slayer, also in training, and that’s how we met. We were best friends for ages, then one day she just planted this kiss on me. Uh, we’ve been dating ever since.”
Jules coughed and muttered under her breath. “Two days ago.”
“Everyone’s got to start somewhere,” Dawn said. “And just because we’ve only been together a few days, doesn’t make her any less my girlfriend.”
She looked nervously at her mother. “Uh, mom? Are you ok with me having a
girlfriend?”
Joyce chuckled. “Yes sweetie, I’m fine with it. I worked in an art gallery remember?”
Dawn looked puzzled.
Joyce explained. “Let’s just say the stereotype for artistic people? It isn’t
completely wrong.”
Buffy cleared her throat and looked at her mother pointedly.
“And
my first love was a woman,” Joyce continued smoothly. “So jumping down your throat about it would be rather hypocritical.”
Xander’s good eye was wide enough that Willow was worried it was going to pop out right out. His mouth just gaped as he stared in shock.
“Close your mouth Xander,” Anya said. “It’s not a good look.”
Xander closed his mouth with a click.
Joyce turned to Heather. “Do you love my little girl?”
The struggle was visible in Heather. At first she looked down, staring at her feet. Then she gathered herself and looked up, proudly. “Yes. I do.”
Joyce smiled warmly. “Then that’s all I need. And I’m happy for you.”
Dawn and Heather smiled at each other.
“Mom? What was she like?” Buffy asked softly. “Jo, I mean.”
“Golden-brown eyes, hair like a fall of chestnut waves, utterly gorgeous,” Joyce said dreamily.
She looked at Faith. “It seems that Summers women have a
type.”
Faith’s eyes went wide… and then she grinned.
“Blue eyes,” Dawn contended softly, smiling.
Buffy cleared her throat. “Uh, mom? Is everyone in our family gay?”
Joyce smirked. “Not exclusively dear, otherwise there wouldn’t be a family. Well, not in the traditional sense.”
She looked at Giles and gave him a significant look.
He flushed a little pinkly, despite his attempt at control.
“But we certainly are… female-friendly.”
“So aunt Arlene’s roommate…”
“Is her girlfriend, yes.”
“And aunt Lollie?”
“Not that I know of. Though if I ever brought it up, she got really upset and defensive. So she might have, for all I know.”
Giles cleared his throat as politely as possible.
Joyce smiled indulgently. “Don’t worry so Rupert. I haven’t forgotten why we are here.”
“Dawn honey? Would you be so kind as to introduce everyone?”
“Sure mom.”
She gestured like Vanna White. “This is my best friend Jules. She leads the Valkyries, they’re our heavy hitters.”
Joyce smiled, and Jules waved back cheerfully.
“This is Ethan, Giles’ really
really shady friend, who helps with the magic.”
Ethan grinned from where he was sprawled across a comfortable chair. “I’d complain about her impugning my good character, but it’s a completely accurate description.”
Joyce looked at him intently. “I assume the chaos upstairs is some of your doing?”
He nodded, still grinning unashamedly.
“The doom bell rang. That sort of thing only happens for things like invasions by evil gods. How on earth did you manage it?”
Ethan shrugged. “No idea at all, sorry.”
“And the sky turning green?”
He grinned.
Jules stuck her hand up hesitantly. “Uh, Mrs Summers? That was probably Dawn.”
“I'm an evil god now?” Dawn said.
“No, dope. I meant the sky turning green. It’s like, a thing with you. Your spells are green, your aura is green… everywhere, greeny green green.”
“Well, at least it’s not as bad-sounding as ‘The DOOM BELL,’” Heather said. “I don’t like the connection between you, and DOOM.”
“Green is a nice colour,” Dawn said.
“The nicest,” Heather said sweetly.
Jules just rolled her eyes and made gagging noises.
When Dawn had finished making goo-goo eyes at Heather, she resumed her introductions.
“So, this is Reggie, Giles’ other friend, who flies planes, so he’s called Bomber.”
Bomber bowed slightly and grinned roguishly. “Charmed.”
Giles cleared his throat and shot him a look, which he ignored.
“Oz you know.”
Joyce smiled at him. “Good to see you again Oz.”
Oz smiled in his low key way and nodded. “Likewise.”
“And um, the one hiding in the corner… that you might just recognize… is Buffybot, Buffy 2.0 or Anne, depending on how formal we’re being.”
“Goodness!” Joyce said. She looked at the purple-clad girl who was doing her best to hide behind Oz. Sadly he was nowhere near big enough to hide the petite blonde from Joyce’s gaze.
The Buffybot seemed oddly reluctant to meet Joyce’s gaze.
She also seemed to have lost the power of speech.
“What? Who? How?” Joyce sputtered.
Buffy groaned. “Uh, mom? Try not to freak, but this is Anne. She’s… a robot… person,” she said awkwardly.
Buffybot shot her a grateful glance.
“And I have no idea why she’s so quiet, she’s normally like Willow, after she been mainlining the espresso’s.”
Still amazed, Joyce looked closely at Buffy, as if analysing her. “She looks just like you.”
“Yeah, it’s a thing. People keep using me to make other people. And no one ever asks!”
Joyce turned back to the worried-looking bot. “Are you alright dear?”
She was having trouble just comprehending the frightened girl.
On one level, she looked
exactly like Buffy. But despite that, she also seemed much younger. It wasn’t just the dress and socks, the girl radiated an innocence and a
need that she hadn’t felt from Buffy in a long time.
The girl looked at her with sad eyes.
Something clicked inside Joyce. She’d seen that expression before, behind Willow’s green eyes. It was the look of someone with a desperate need for a mother.
Instinctively, she stepped forward, and swept the sad blonde girl into a hug.
Buffybot/Anne whimpered gratefully and hugged her back.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Oh for the love of kittens,” she muttered.
“Oh hush Buffy,” Joyce murmured good naturedly, as Buffy’s duplicate snuggled happily into her embrace.
“Yes mom,” Buffy said in a much-put-upon tone.
“Creating Love file,” Buffybot murmured.
Buffy huffed slightly and glanced at Dawn.
Dawn was smiling slightly, and her smile turned into a grin as she saw Buffy’s mildly annoyed expression.
“Looks like there’s another Summers girl,” she said lightly.
Buffy smiled a little. “Yeah, we pick up a lot of strays.”
Dawn poked her tongue out. Buffy responded in kind.
Joyce smiled a little. Some things never changed.
+++
Some minutes later, not letting go of the happy blonde bot, Joyce spoke to Giles. “How on earth did you break into heaven?”
“My sister Emily, though she goes by the name of Brie these days. With her help and Willow’s casting of a teleport spell, we were able to make an entry. With Ethan’s help we were able to cause such confusion and chaos, that they still do not know of the theft of the Codex.”
“Won’t they suspect it’s missing?”
Giles shook his head. “Not only is it unthinkable that mere mortals be able to steal it, we had another team causing as much damage and chaos as possible.”
“Even still,” Joyce said. “Won’t they wonder what you were doing in the library?”
“I took the precaution of quietly stealing a number of valuable artefacts. If they should investigate beneath the distraction, they will find the missing items, and hopefully look no further for an explanation.”
Joyce raised an appreciative eyebrow. “Cunning.”
Giles looked a little embarrassed. “Yes well, I had help.”
Ethan waved from his spot, still looking stylishly untidy.
“And what have you found from the book?” Joyce asked.
“A lot of terrifying stuff,” Dawn said, resident expert on ‘The Big Book.’
“Really mom, they were hell-bent on keeping Buffy and Faith apart. They even arranged the whole ‘Angel’ mess to make it happen.”
Joyce looked deeply offended. “Why?”
“Because if they have a kid, it will signal the end of the third age, and the end of the world.”
She cleared her throat. “Also they wanted to keep me away from my guardians, whoever they are.”
“It would have been nice to have these ‘guardians’ around, when we were dealing with Our Lady of Clairol,” Buffy grumbled.
“Yeah,” Xander agreed. “Though I gotta say Buff, smacking the bitch with a wrecking ball has to be one of the high points of my life.”
Willow giggled. She hadn’t had a chance to appreciate it at the time, but she could almost
taste Xander’s satisfaction.
Buffy got a faraway look. “Yeah. It was gooood,” she said appreciatively.
“Shame we can’t do that to more baddies,” Willow said.
“Well, I could borrow a crane….” Xander said. He was grinning like a pirate. A pirate who’d just found an unsecured cargo of rum AND gold.
Giles cleared his throat. “Collateral damage is just a word to you lot, isn’t it?”
Buffy blinked. “Huh?”
Giles sighed. “Americans,” he muttered.
“Eh,” Xander said with a shrug. “Go big or go home I always say.”
Willow looked puzzled. “When do you say that?”
He grinned sheepishly. “Just now?”
Giles looked annoyed.
Everyone’s response was to simply grin madly at him.
He sighed. “You know, in theory, you lot are adults. And yet I still feel like the only grown-up in the room.”
He glanced across at his blonde friend. Both he and Ethan were grinning in a way that promised no good.
“Ah. That would explain it.”
Joyce cleared her throat and gave Giles a pointed look. Giles looked away, a little abashed.
Dawn giggled. “Ohmigod! It’s normally him that does that to
us!”
“Years of practice,” Joyce murmured.
She looked down at the blonde bot. “Feeling better?”
Buffybot looked up and nodded wordlessly, smiling a little.
“Welcome to the family dear.”
Buffybot snuggled some more, and murmured something happy and unintelligible into Joyce’s white sweater.
Joyce chuckled and squirmed just a little. Apparently being dead didn’t stop you getting ticklish.
“Let’s sit for a while shall we?”
She steered the clingy girl to a vacant couch.
She sat next to her, one arm around her shoulders.
“So how did you get here, dear?” she asked.
“I came with Ethan, who is now my friend,” Buffybot answered. “I couldn’t be paired with him anymore, as Buffy 1.0 is gay.”
Joyce gave Buffy a funny look. Buffy just shrugged.
Willow cleared her throat. “Um, when she was built, she was designed to be as perfect a copy as possible.”
Buffybot nodded, some of her customary brightness returning.
“I am feeling much better about myself, now that I have put on some weight.”
Buffy hid her face in her hands, and most of the Scoobies unsuccessfully tried to hide snickers at Buffy’s embarrassment.
“I also have a soul! And I’m a Slayer too!”
“How?” Joyce asked, still catching up with her mental leaps.
“She got a piece of my soul, apparently,” Buffy said wryly.
“When I cast the spell to bring Buffy back, um, not quite all of her ended up in her original body,” Willow said.
“And like a seed, that fragment grew into a true soul,” Tara said softly.
Joyce smiled. “You really are a Summers, now.”
Dawn glared at Buffy. “You complained way more when I showed up.”
“Nah. You never had a knock-down fight with her,” Faith said. “That puts you one up on BB here.”
“Plus I’d gotten used to you,” Buffy said.
“Buffy, no hitting your sister,” Joyce admonished.
“Wait, she’s my sister now?”
“Well what would you call her?”
“Can we try for crazy out-of-town cousin?”
“Sister it is,” Joyce said firmly. “I want to sit with my girls and catch up a little more, but right now we have a war to plan.”
Giles cleared his throat. “Ah, we have help, for a change.”
Joyce smiled at him. “That does make a change. Who’s coming?”
Giles grinned. “The Daughters of The Flame.”
Joyce raised an eyebrow in question.
“They’re a religious order of female warriors, spell-casters and artisans. They also have several hundred extremely well trained Slayers.”
“How well trained?”
“The Daughters are some of the most skilled mystical combatants in existence. Add Slayer abilities to that, and I would say they are probably the deadliest fighting force in the history of the world.”
Joyce looked impressed. “That good?”
Giles nodded. “Individually they are a more that match for anyone, save Buffy or Faith. And even that would be a close call.”
She nodded. “Finally, help comes.”
Faith grinned evilly. “You got no idea, Mrs S.”
“Ah, Brie said that they are bringing all their order that they can spare. There are some ten thousand of the Daughters on their way.”
“Their Goddess gave them direct orders,” Tara said. “They tend to take that sort of thing seriously.”
Joyce gave a low whistle. “That’s… impressive.”
“This is going to take some planning,” she said. “I’d best get my advisor down here.”
“Is it safe?” Giles asked.
“As safe as can be expected. He’s not a… what did you call us? Whitelighter?”
She concentrated for a moment, eyes shut.
Behind her, in what was rapidly becoming the default orbing spot, two white dressed figures appeared behind the frosted glass door.
“I think some of you have already met,” Joyce said with a smirk.
Behind her, the doors opened, revealing Cordelia and another, taller figure.
“Jesse?!”
+++
“Giles, do you have a minute?”
Giles looked up from his paperwork and saw Dawn, standing by his door frame.
Gone was the confident young woman. When he looked, he saw a girl as worried and insecure as anyone he’d ever met.
“Of course. Do come in.”
She closed the door behind her and sat down in the comfy chair, still looking distraught.
“Is everything alright?” he asked gently.
Dawn shook her head.
“Erm… a spot of tea perhaps?”
Dawn nodded gratefully, and he got up to make tea.
Watching Giles potter around the kitchenette attached to his suite was a welcome touch of familiarity.
A faint smile played across her lips. The sight brought back memories of late nights at his house, while Buffy was off saving Sunnydale from its latest catastrophe.
He had been most emphatic that he was NOT babysitting her, because that was not what watchers did.
And she had been just as emphatic that she was not being babysat, because she wasn’t a baby.
The making of tea was almost a ritual for them, Giles never being particularly adept at talking to young girls.
And it was a ritual that at first had ineffectually smoothed over their awkwardness, and then brought the comfort of familiarity and friendship.
When they had been supplied with both tea and cookies, they settled in to appreciate the company.
After a calming couple of minutes, Giles spoke up. “Would it be alright if I asked what was the matter?”
Dawn sat silent for a moment, gathering strength.
“I found something in the book. About me this time.”
Giles sipped his tea.
“Would I be right in assuming it was something disturbing?”
She nodded. “Oh yeah, hugely. That’s why I came to you. You’re the only one I could talk to. Buffy would explode, and Tara would never… I just can’t do that to her.”
“What have you found?” he said gently.
Dawn looked at him sadly. “I’ll tell you Giles, but you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”
He nodded solemnly. “Of course, dear girl.”
Dawn let out a huge breath, one she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“The shell must be destroyed for the Key to be freed. Unless the key be freed, it shall never know its true power. The great seal shall remain closed, and we shall remain inviolate.”
Giles looked not horrified, but sad. Deeply sad, as though he’d been expecting something like this.
“Blast,” he said tiredly. “I knew we’d had it too easy.”
“I’m starting to really hate prophesies,” she said.
“A perfectly sensible reaction,” he replied. “Was there anything else? Something that might clarify matters?”
She nodded slightly. “It was at the end of the book. I got bored picking through everything, so I skipped to the end… and found that. There are no prophesy lines beyond that point. It’s the end for the Powers That Be.”
Her voice hitched. “There’s a whole bunch of stuff that has to come first, some of which has happened already, or started to.”
She let out a big breath, sounding defeated. “But yeah, that’s where it ends.”
“I… I wish this had never happened,” Giles said awkwardly, emotion thickening his voice.
Dawn looked at him, her eyes bright with tears, as sad and lost as he had ever seen her. “Giles… I’m eighteen! I don’t wanna die.”
Giles’ heart broke. To hear those words spoken by
another Summers girl was unbearable.
“But I will,” she continued, in a more level tone.
“What?” Giles said hoarsely. He was more shocked than he had words for.
“Giles, Buffy gave her life for me. It’s my turn now.”
His teacup rattled against his saucer as his hand shook. He fought to keep his voice steady. “This is not some contest of bravery, you know. No one doubts your courage.”
“That’s not what this is about, and you know it.”
She looked at Giles, the man who was a father-figure to them all, her especially.
He was in pain, and she felt a stab of guilt for bringing him that pain.
“I may not be real, but I’m a Summers. And we don’t run away from the hard choices.”
“Dear girl, you are most definitely real. And you definitely
are a Summers.”
Dawn smiled a small, sad smile. “I’m not trying to throw my life away Giles. My life is awesome. But if there’s no other way to stop the Powers That Be, than to stop being a person and become the Key again… I’ll do it.”
Giles’ expression was pained. “Please Dawn, help me understand why.”
“Buffy. And Faith. And their new daughter.”
Giles nodded. He understood the grim calculus of war, all too well.
“It would devastate her to lose you, you realize? In truth it would hurt all of us terribly.”
Dawn nodded. “Yeah, I believe you. But imagine what she would be like if she lost Faith
and her daughter. If we all did. I couldn’t live with that Giles.”
Giles lowered his gaze sadly. “To lose them both would destroy her. Thought their relationship is new, and their daughter is unexpected, I can see the depth of love they share. To take that from Buffy, after all she’s been through, would be like…”
Dawn interjected while Giles was searching for words. “-Like taking Tara from Willow. Only without the restraint.”
Giles nodded sadly. As much as it pained him to think of such things, Dawn was right.
It was horrific to have lost Tara, and Willow’s following decent into madness and rage had almost destroyed the world.
The madness unleashed if Buffy followed the same path would be worse.
And while Buffy lacked Willow’s magic, Buffy had a power all her own.
“Forgive my obtuseness Dawn, but while I agree with you that it would be a terrible tragedy, how does it necessarily follow that you must give up your life?”
Dawn nodded slightly to herself, glad that she had chosen Giles, of all her family, to speak to.
Out of their crazy little group, only he was able to analyse a horrible situation so dispassionately.
“Because if I don’t become the Key again, they’ll just be able to keep coming after Faith until they get her. I don’t want that for Buffy, or Faith. And I sure don’t want their daughter to die before she’s even born.”
“I understand. But tell me, how does becoming the Key again, stop the Powers That Be?” he asked. “Say for the sake of argument that you do this, how will the Key then stop the Powers?”
“I will throw them outside creation,” Dawn said, her voice resonating strangely.
Giles shot her a glance. That hadn’t sounded like Dawn at all. Her voice had chimed like crystal when she spoke.
“Ah, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but that sounded rather odd.”
Dawn blinked, sleepily. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“Your voice sounded quite different.”
“Okaaay,” Dawn said slowly. “Well, that was weird.”
Giles looked thoughtful. “Perhaps, as a human, the powers of the Key are limited? It may be that to exercise your full powers, you need to have that limitation removed.”
“Makes sense, I guess.”
She sighed, a sound of infinite fatigue. “I just wish there was a way that involved me being alive afterwards.”
Giles shook his head. “You’re talking like this is a forgone conclusion. Remember, Buffy was prophesised to die at the hands of the Master. And though she technically did, she’s still here today.”
Dawn absorbed his words, looking slightly more hopeful.
“So don’t throw in the towel just yet.”
“Well, that would be good. This is why I came to you for advice. You didn’t just explode and start shouting.”
Giles gave her a sad smile.
“I guess why I’m really here, is to ask you… how to be brave,” she said sadly.
+++
“Rupert, whatever is the matter?” Joyce said.
Giles looked defeated. He seemed emotionally battered, more so than she had ever seen him.
After the long exchange of information, she had left Jesse catching up with Xander, and planning their next move with Bomber and Ethan.
She had wanted to catch Giles for a quiet conversation, but he had been in a private discussion with someone, and she hadn’t wanted to pry.
And so she waited for him in his suite.
Whatever they had discussed, it had hurt him profoundly.
He almost fell onto the comfortable couch across from her.
Without a word she sat down on the couch next to him.
“I… I may have just had the hardest conversation in my life,” he stammered.
She took his larger hand in her own. “Rupert, what is going on?”
“I am sworn to secrecy. But one of my charges has just told me that they will lay down their life, to protect your granddaughter.”
Joyce squeezed his hand in shocked, silent support.
“And they came to me for advice… on how to be brave enough to go through with it.”
“Oh Rupert,” Joyce said softly, her voice filled with sympathy.
“And god help me, I gave it.”
She enfolded him in a hug, giving what support she could.
They stayed like that for a few moments. Eventually an awkwardly grateful Giles politely extracted himself with an embarrassed, but thankful smile.
“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Joyce said. “I don’t want anyone to die. But if there was ever a reason to do so, I think that would be a good one.”
“And death is not the end,” Giles whispered. “As we have discovered.”
“I would have preferred not to die. But yes, there is a widening of perspective that comes, after the physical form has been left behind.”
“But I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on all that
this life has to offer, unnecessarily.”
Giles smiled sadly. “We did rather miss our chance, didn’t we?”
Joyce smirked. “No. We haven’t.”
+++
“Giles, have you seen my- Gah!”
Buffy stood open mouthed at the sight of her mother. On the couch. Making out with Giles.
Joyce broke their lip lock just long enough to look at her eldest and say “If you stand there with your mouth open like that, something is going to fly in there.”
Buffy closed her mouth with a click.
“Darling, can we catch up in a little while?”
“We’re rather indisposed at the moment,” Giles said indistinctly, from underneath Joyce.
“Gah!” Buffy said. “There has
got to be something in the water!”
“Grownups like to kiss too,” Joyce said.
Giles muttered something indistinct. With Joyce sitting across his lap, his face was engulfed by her cleavage.
“Just… ah, leaving now,” Buffy said.
She turned, and still looking rather horrified, locked the door behind her as she left.
Joyce turned back to Giles. “Where were we?”
The passionate kissing resumed.
+++
“Dude, this is awesome!” Jesse said.
He was staring raptly at the giant screen in the ‘war-room.’ Currently it was showing the X-Box logo.
“Man, it sucks that I got killed before the X-box came out.”
Xander gave him a look.
“Don’t give me that look, man. I’m the one who got killed. It isn’t that bad.”
“You’re not the first person to tell me that. But we all missed you.”
“You mean you and Willow missed me.”
“Yeah.”
“Wow. Will’s all grown up now. And gay.”
“Gayer than Christmas,” Xander said with a grin.
“And did you see her girlfriend? Damn!”
Xander chuckled. “Yeah, Will’s got game.”
He shoved in a disc in the machine and sat down, handing a controller to his friend.
“All we need now is-”
He broke off as Xander handed him a cold beer, from the small snack-fridge they kept in the war-room.
“Buddy, you read my mind.”
+++
“Where is everybody?” Buffy said, a hint of whine in her voice.
Faith shrugged. “I figure Xan and Jess are of doing male bonding and crap, you know, measuring their dicks and grunting. I figure Glinda and Red are smooching some place.”
They strolled down the corridor to the nerve centre of Slayer Central. They passed the library, where Giles, Joyce, Tara and Brie were all having a civilized discussion over cups of tea.
Faith frowned. “Where the hell is Red? I thought those two were welded together?”
Buffy opened her mouth to make an amazingly witty reply, when Willow’s voice could be heard shouting in triumph over the sounds of digital violence. “Woohoo! In your face buster!”
Faith snorted. “Found her.”
Pushing open the doors to the war-room, they found that most of the Scoobies had gathered to watch the showdown.
Willow was wedged into the couch between the two guys, bouncing madly in her seat, as she mashed buttons with alarming enthusiasm.
Xander was grinning madly as Willow’s character, a woman with an impressive chest, beat the stuffing out of Jesse’s overly muscled male character.
The terrible three were shouting encouragement to everybody simultaneously, while Anya sat on the arm of the couch, graciously avoiding comments about orgasms.
Xander waved his hands in the air and yelled in triumph as Willow’s character pounded Jesse’s guy into the ground, and then jumped up and down on his unconscious form.
“Aww man! Did you have to stomp on my body?”
“Yep. You totally had it coming, buster.”
“Aww man,” Jesse complained. “You come back from the dead, and your best friend beats you up. And then she jumps up and down on your body.” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “Not cool Willow, not cool.”
His feigned sadness had no impact on her jubilation. On screen, her scantily clad character did a victory dance. Willow hopped up and did her own, slightly more spazzy victory dance.
That was too much for Jesse and he cracked up, taking Xander with him. Even Anya was smiling at Willow’s antics.
She froze when her victory dance let her catch sight of Buffy and Faith both grinning like maniacs.
She shrugged and went back to her dance, for a few long, uncoordinated seconds, before flopping back on the couch.
“Man, this rocks! I gotta get one of these,” Jesse said admiringly of the controller in his hand.
“Are you gonna be around for Hanumastice?” Xander asked.
Jesse grinned. “Sure. Upstairs, I’m nobody special, so I can come down any time I can hitch a lift.”
Xander raised the eyebrow over his good eye. “Catch a lift? Can’t you just-” he waggled his fingers.
“Nah. I’m not a Whitelighter. Just a dead guy.”
“He will develop ‘Whitelighter’ powers eventually,” Anya said, complete with air quotes. “But it takes decades or even centuries. Being empowered by the Powers That Be, short-cuts the whole thing.”
“Cool. I know what you’re getting for Hanumastice, Jess.”
“Cool.”
“Ooo! Ooo!” Willow said, bouncing excitedly. “It’s our big birthday bash next week! You have to come!”
He grinned. “Will, I wouldn’t miss it. Uh, hey Anya, any chance of a lift?”
“I like you on Xander’s behalf, Jesse. Especially as he’ll be all cheerful and frisky for the next few days. But I don’t like you enough to risk going upstairs.”
Jesse waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Xander. “Got yourself a live one there bud.”
“Man, you have noooo idea,” he drawled.
“Technically, I’m not alive, but I do still enjoy a vigorous sex life,” she said with a bright smile. “Very vigorous.”
Xander coughed.
“Damn.”
“Ok,” Willow chirped. “Who’s hiney am I kicking next?”
“Me,” Faith said. “Shuffle over.”
“You can sit here if you like,” Jesse said, patting his lap.
“Sure,” Faith said.
She grabbed him by his collar and yanked him out of the seat. “Thanks.”
She flopped bonelessly into the vacated seat. “Hey Red, ready to get spanked?”
“No. Tara’s still being all grownup and stuffy. So
that will have to wait till later. I
can kick your hiney though,” she said with a smirk.
“Damn,” Faith said, eyebrow raised. “Always the quiet ones you gotta watch.”
Buffy sat down on the arm of the overloaded couch next to Faith and smirked at Jesse. “Struck out huh?”
He got up and rubbed his butt ruefully. “Looks like.”
Buffy wrapped herself around Faith, acting as her backrest. Faith snuggled back against her with a purr and a smirk at Jesse.
Jesse’s eyes widened slightly. “Oops, sorry. Not just Willow huh?”
Buffy smiled and shook her head. “Nope. This is Faith, my fiancé.”
He met Faith’s eyes. “Uh, sorry about that.”
Faith shrugged. “No worries.”
She smirked. “I’ll kick your ass later.”
She looked at the screen and saw Willow’s scantily clad, big breasted character. She smirked at Willow, one eyebrow raised.
Willow blushed but said nothing.
“Showing your weakness huh? I can work with that.”
She fiddled with the controls and selected a different, scantily-dressed female.
“Can’t win against Slayer reflexes Red. No shame in losing with a disadvantage like that.”
Willow just grinned. There was a lot of confidence in that grin.
“This is
my domain Faith. This is
my kung-fu, and it is strong.”
Twenty minutes later, Faith had learned several new phrases.
Phrases like ‘stun lock’ and ‘unblockable combo.’
She had also seen Willow’s victory dance more than once.
She couldn’t be mad though. Willow had beaten her fair and square, and was too cute and spazzy in her celebration to be mad at.
That, and Buffy was giving her world-class hugs. Hard to stay mad with that happening.
A tinkling laugh rang out, as Tara entered the room, and joined in with Willow’s impressively uncoordinated victory dance.
“Woohoo! Go geek powers!” Willow crowed cheerfully as she bounced against Tara enthusiastically.
“What are we celebrating?” Giles asked mildly.
“Willow’s geek-fu,” Buffy said. “Poor Faith got her butt kicked. Slayer reflexes were no match for Will’s geek powers.”
She gave Faith a big squeeze, and nuzzled softly into her neck just behind her ear.
Faith went a little cross-eyed and had a dazed smile on her face.
“Yeah. Butt kicked. All good,” Faith said dreamily.
“And thus everybody wins,” Anya commented. “Except him,” she said, pointing to Jesse.
Jesse sighed. “Yep. I lose.”
“You are a very poor military advisor,” Anya said.
Jesse fell into a chair and looked at her with a glare. “Who said I was a military advisor? Also hello, computer game?”
“My job usually is to watch over you guys, from the Moon Pool. I help Mom try and figure out where things are going to go.”
“You call mom, Mom?” Buffy said.
“Sure. She’s like a mom to all of us, so that’s what we call her.”
“Military-wise, the big kahuna is James, the one that Faith got on so well with.”
“How’s it goin’ up there?” Faith asked, still wrapped in her warm blanket of Buffy.
“That’s one of the things we were talking about,” Tara said as she sat on Willow’s knee and was cuddled in turn.
“We’re getting more support,” Jesse said. “A whole lot of people know that something is wrong now. There are people looking for answers, and they’re used to getting them.”
“Not helped by The Powers That Be,” Anya said, looking pleased with herself. “Their normal, totally counterproductive response is to clamp down, and not tell anybody anything.”
“Jesse, what does everyone think is going on?” Xander asked.
Jesse shook his head, almost in disbelief. “The Powers haven’t told anyone diddly-squat. Which makes sense, because if they told anyone what’s going on, people might ask
why the champions of light have a contract on their heads.”
He grinned. “Luckily, we leaked pretty well everything. So now most people have some idea what’s up.”
“We should count ourselves lucky that they think they are in the dark ages. Especially when it comes to public relations,” Giles said dryly.
“Oh yes,” Anya said. “They relied far too much on awe and reverence to get things done. Now that they’re acting like your ordinary soulless corporation, a lot of people have started re-thinking things. Like ‘are they always right.’ And ‘why are you in charge?’”
Buffy shook her head in wonder. “I still can’t get my head round the idea that my mom is leading the revolution. We need to get her a beret or something. You know, like that guy I see all the time on t-shirts.”
“The name ‘Summers’ has weight upstairs,” Jesse said.
“I’m sure there must be some reason,” he said, looking pointedly at Buffy.
Buffy grinned, then frowned at Faith. “Hey, didn’t you say that this mysterious leader had fancy blood or something? How’s that my mom?”
“Summers is a proud name, honey,” Joyce said.
“Uh, it is? Is dad a prince or something?” Buffy asked.
Joyce shook her head with a fond smile. “No. He’s just a regular old architect.”
“Uh?” Buffy said. “Little help here?”
“You know when a woman marries, it’s tradition to take the husband’s name?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well it’s a tradition, not a rule. Didn’t you ever wonder why your cousin Cecelia, your aunt Lolly and aunt Arlene all have the surname Summers?”
“Uh, no? I just figured ‘hey, they’re family.’” Buffy said.
“Well, the Summers family has a tradition too. The women in our family keep our names when we marry. Your father is only Hank Summers because he took my name.”
“Oh. Cool.”
“So does that mean I’m gonna be Faith Summers?” Faith asked.
“Oh honey, I hadn’t though even that far ahead.”
“I like ‘Summers.’”
“I like your name Faith,” Buffy said softly. “How about Summers-Lehane?”
“Sure. I could live with that. What about you?”
“Me too. It’s only fair. Plus, hey, I want a little piece of you too.”
Faith smiled. “Wicked. I’m looking forward to this just a little more now.”
“Anything I can do to make this easier for you, ok?” Buffy murmured into her ear.
“Thanks B. But it ain’t bad. Looking forward to all o’ this. Just never done anything this big and this scary before.”
Buffy squeezed her tight. “Me either. But I wouldn’t do it with anyone else.”
“You know what they say Buff, it takes a village to raise a child,” Xander said with a soft smile.
“Hell of a village right here,” Faith said seriously.
“You realize, you are all volunteered for babysitting duty, right?”
Willow nodded seriously. “Sure. Just realize Buffy, turnabout is fair play.”
Buffy blinked. “Are you… is Tara… uh.”
Willow’s face broke into a smile. “No. Not yet. But one day Buff, one day.”
+++
“There you are!” Joyce said.
Willow froze like a deer in the headlights, a stolen slice of Buffy’s cheese part-way to her open mouth.
“I see you still sneak off with Buffy’s cheese. Did you think you’d get away without a hug?” Joyce said with a touch of humour.
She noticed Willow’s frozen look, a worried look appearing on her face.
“Willow honey, are you alright?”
Willow’s mouth opened and closed inarticulately.
Without further thought, she enfolded Willow in a hug, holding her tight and giving whatever comfort she could.
Eventually Willow sniffled and looked up, watery eyed.
“Willow, what’s wrong dear?
Willow buried her face in her top and mumbled something inaudible.
“Honey, you might have to look up a little if you want me to hear you.”
Willow sniffled again, and did as she was asked.
“I said, I didn’t want you to be ashamed of me,” she said in a tiny voice.
Joyce looked utterly lost. “Ashamed? You’re almost Buffy’s
other sister. Why would I ever be ashamed of you, Willow?”
Willow still looked woebegone. “Because of what I did… after Tara…”
Joyce nodded, understanding at last. “Because you killed Warren?”
Willow nodded, shamefaced.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have killed him,” she said gently.
“But I understand your anger Willow. And I understand why you lashed out at Buffy, and the others. Pain like that fills your world, to the point that you can’t even see the people that love you most.”
“But you don’t have to be ashamed. I’m not sure I’d react any differently if I was in your situation, I just don’t know.”
“I did hit Spike with an axe that one time. So I
might have done the same,” she said with the tiniest hint of a smile.
Willow brightened very slightly at the tiny dose of humour.
“Willow, you’re one of the family. You looked after my girls when I was gone. You stayed with Buffy and fought the good fight, when you’d lost everything that made your life bright. Whatever else you might have done, I will always love you for that.”
Willow squeaked happily and redoubled her Joyce-hug.
“Now, where’s Tara, and why do I get the feeling she’s avoiding her hug?”
“Er, um, ah,” Willow said.
Joyce sighed. “So many hangups, so little time.”
“Um, you’ll really need to talk to her about it, but I don’t think I’ll be giving anything away if I say it’s to do with her coming back from the dead, and, um, Dawn.”
“Dawn?” Joyce said, puzzled.
Willow nodded, her eyes large.
With a final squeeze, Joyce let Willow go. “Don’t worry Willow, I promise I won’t be mad at Tara.”
Willow relaxed a bit and mimed wiping her brow. “Um, she’s talking in the rear courtyard with Buffybot, if you want to talk to her.”
Joyce gave her a curious look. Willow responded with a shrug. “It’s a witch thing.”
“Alright, I’ll go and find your missing other half. And I promise, no getting angry.”
Willow smiled nervously in relief. “Well, I’ll go hang out with Jesse and Xander for a little bit. So you can talk,” she added.
+++
Tara could feel Joyce’s approach, as she sat on the wall in the back courtyard.
Overhead, their purple flag snapped in the breeze.
One small change she had noticed since her resurrection, was a tendency to perch on things, or sit in a raised position.
She imagined it was a subconscious need for take-off height, or wing clearance.
On some level, if she was perfectly honest with herself, she had been avoiding Joyce as much as possible, given the circumstances.
She sighed slightly.
And she knew why.
Guilt.
Joyce sat down quietly beside her, leaving her the space to think.
Tara sighed again. No sense putting it off.
“I’m sorry Joyce.”
Joyce frowned. “What are you sorry for?” she said softly.
“Um, avoiding you?”
She cleared her throat. “And some other things.”
After a pause to process this, Joyce said, “I’m sorry Tara, I have no idea what you’re sorry for.”
Tara finally met her eyes. “Really?”
She touched Tara on her shoulder. “I wouldn’t hide something like this honey. I haven’t seen much from upstairs, to be honest. But what I have seen and heard of your actions, has been nothing but good.”
She smiled sadly at Tara. “So why don’t you catch me up?”
Tara nodded to herself and took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry that I let so many things go wrong. That I didn’t teach Willow about the philosophy of magic better. I’m sorry I didn’t put more effort into learning magic. And… I feel really bad about trying to… to take your place.”
There, it was out. Tara felt a little scared, and a lot relieved. It still amazed her, given what she had seen and survived, that this sort of thing was still so hard. But then it was Joyce she was facing, the original ‘Mom’ to all the Scoobies.
Joyce gathered her into a warm hug. “Sweetie, you did your best. That’s all we can hope for. And I’m glad that this group had a Mother. Especially Dawn.”
She pulled back a little, so she could meet Tara’s blue eyes. “If I had to pick a mom for Dawn, other than me? I’d pick you in a heartbeat. I’m glad she had you sweetie.”
Tara smiled with relief. She knew it was silly, but she had been worried.
It’s not every day that the person who’s ‘spot’ you’d taken, came back from the dead.
“So why don’t you fill me in on what you’ve been doing since I died. I was really worried when I didn’t see you up there.”
Tara blinked in surprise. “Oh! I hadn’t even thought about that, sorry.”
“Darling, where were you?”
“Even now it’s a little vague,” Tara said. “I couldn’t bear to be parted from Willow, so I stayed with her… as a ghost I suppose.”
Joyce rubbed her back comfortingly, as she worked to process memories she’d been deliberately ignoring.
“I sang to her, I know that much. I thought I might be getting through to her, but then I was pulled away.”
She took a deep breath, this next part was very hard. “I was pulled so far away. Across an endless void. It felt like it took forever to cross.”
Joyce frowned. Up until then, this had sounded a lot like her own experience. But, for her, there had been no void, just a sensation that she needed to be somewhere, and then everything snapped into focus, and there she was.
“I remember a voice. Vast, ancient, cold. It asked me if I would do what was necessary to return, and… I told it yes. I told it that I would do
anything to get back to Willow.”
Tears ran down Tara’s face, unheeded, lost as she was in memories she’d tried so hard to ignore.
“The next bit was kind of blurry, but I remember chanting, and I could feel dark magic. I heard a woman’s voice saying ‘fly, be free!’”
“I felt something pushing against the darkness, pushing me out and away. It felt like I was tearing in half.”
“I remember falling, and then I hit the ground.”
“And that was it. I was alive. It took days before I could remember how to walk, and a couple of weeks before I remembered how to talk.”
“That must have been very disorientating,” Joyce said, sympathetically.
“It wasn’t so bad. The bad part was later. I was mostly ok, but had no clue who I was, or why I was here.”
“Did you ever find out?” Joyce asked hesitantly.
Tara nodded. “Yes. Vampires. The most powerful vampire in another world wanted to be made human again. They used dark magic to resurrect me, so I could use my mortal magic to resurrect her.”
Joyce made a face. “Vampires. Nothing but trouble.”
Tara nodded more emphatically. “Well, my friends took care of the vampire queen, and helped me get home. It took almost two years to do it, but here I am.”
Joyce hugged her again. “Well, I’m glad you’re back. You look very well. And I see you’ve bleached your hair again.”
Tara chuckled. “No, no bleach here. It’s a side effect of heavy magic use.”
Joyce nodded. “I can feel it. The power, it’s just crackling off you.”
“It’s only partly my power. The other part is a side effect of how I was resurrected.”
“I don’t understand Tara. Please remember, I might be a Whitelighter now, but I don’t have a very good working knowledge of magic.”
Tara nodded. “They made me a new body. One that was a good fit for my soul.”
Joyce looked at her with new eyes. “You look very much the same. Fitter perhaps?”
Tara shook her head with a shy smile. “No, that’s just exercise. A lot of walking, climbing and even running. And flying.”
Joyce blinked. “You can fly?”
Tara nodded. “My new body is just like my old one. With a few small differences. I’m missing a few moles, I don’t get cramps every month and… I have wings.”
She stood and let her wings unfurl.
Joyce was wide eyed as Tara’s wings almost seemed to light up the rear courtyard. The floodlights shone through them and added to the natural glow.
“Oh my!” she said breathlessly.
After a moment she gathered herself. “You know, I really thought I’d seen everything. I mean really. My daughter is the Slayer, her best friend is a witch, and my other daughter was a mystical blob of light. And then I died, started a rebellion in heaven, I’m going to be a grandmother, and the father of my grandchild… is my daughter.”
She paused for a moment.
“I was wrong, obviously.”
She stood to admire Tara’s wings. She’d stretched them up high, so they didn’t trail on the ground.
“They’re beautiful honey. Absolutely stunning,” Joyce said admiringly.
She reached out a hand almost unconsciously to see if they were real.
“So warm, so soft.”
Tara blushed a little at the awed attention. “Um, Whitelighters don’t get wings?” she asked.
Joyce shook her head. “Only in the metaphorical sense. We are kind of glowy and can move from place to place. We learn a few other tricks, but nothing like this.”
Joyce frowned. Something about Tara’s wings, and the way she was sitting was niggling at her. She mentally poked and prodded a little, but it wouldn’t come. Too many interesting things were happening at the moment. She’d need to sit down and have a quiet think about things.
In the middle of a rebellion in heaven, she was fighting to protect her grand-daughter, her daughters and all their friends. Plus she had prophesies of the end of the world to deal with.
She thought back wryly to the days when she worried about delayed art shipments, and Buffy’s clothing budget.
‘Oh to have first world problems again,’ she thought to herself.
“Well, whatever happens next, I’m glad you’re here,” Joyce said.
Tara smiled gratefully. “Me too.”
“So what was it like, this other world?” Joyce asked.
“Have you ever read lord of the rings?” Tara said with a slight smirk.
Joyce shook her head. “No. I know it’s a fantasy book, but that’s all I know. Why?”
“Ah. That would have made things a bit simpler.”
Joyce gave her a questioning look.
“Well, it’s like this…”
+++
“Ah, there you are,” Giles said.
The two women had been talking for some time, and it had taken him a while to track them down.
Joyce and Tara looked up to see Giles looking oddly ill-at-ease.
Tara looked between him and Joyce, noticing something of a connection there.
“This looks private. I’ll give you some space if you like.”
Giles flashed her a grateful smile. “You are too kind dear girl. But there is no need. And while I don’t relish a huge audience, it’s not as though any of this is going to be secret. Carpe diem and all that.”
Tara raised an eyebrow. She had seen many sides to mister Giles, but this bordered on babbling.
That was definitely a new side to him.
“Rupert?” Joyce said.
“Ah. I seem to be making rather a hash of things,” he said sheepishly.
Tara clicked. He was never like this when the world was ending, and it was a matter of record that the only thing that really got him flustered were matters of the heart. She looked at Giles with wide eyes. There was only one thing that could make him
this nervous.
“Joyce? I don’t know if this is possible, or even the cleverest thing to do, but I would not be able to live with myself if I didn’t…”
He gave up on attempting to explain himself and knelt formally, slipping a satin pouch from his pocket.
From it he removed a ring.
“Joyce my dear, will you marry me?”
Tara stared, shocked. So did Joyce.
Joyce thought for a moment.
In the past, she would never have agreed to anything so sudden.
But, like her daughter, she was re-evaluating her life choices.
Things looked different when mortality has passed by the wayside.
“Yes Rupert. I’ll marry you,” she said. “Eventually.”
“Ah…” Giles said, clearly caught by surprise.
Joyce chuckled. “Oh Rupert. Give me the ring.”
He obediently slipped the ring on her finger.
“What I meant was, I want a nice long engagement before the wedding. I did just kiss you for the first time in two years, not a couple of hours ago.”
He smiled a little sheepishly. “Of course.”
“Congratulations you two!” Tara said happily.
“Thank you my dear,” Giles said.
“Now, I have to be off in the morning. So I want to spend the evening with my daughters, and the night with you,” she said to Giles. “You won’t be getting any sleep Rupert, so plan accordingly.”
Tara was impressed and more than slightly shocked.
Giles blushed furiously, and took off his glasses to polish them on his tie.
“Mind out of the gutter everyone,” Joyce said with a chuckle.
“I meant that we haven’t talked in a long time. We have a good deal of catching up to do.”
“Of course.”
“How do you feel about long distance relationships?”
“I’m sure we’ll make it work,” he said with a small smile.
“Um, can I see the ring please?” Tara asked
Joyce smiled. “Of course. Actually, I didn’t get a good look myself.”
Tara bobbed her head cheerfully. They both held out their hands for inspection.
They both were interested in Joyce’s ring, which was a shining silver band decorated with tiny gold letters.
Giles cleared his throat. “The ring has been in my family since time immemorial. The legend is that the first watcher gave it to his first charge.”
“It’s very pretty,” Tara said. “What do the letters say?”
Joyce took it off and looked closely. Though a simple polished band, the gilt inlaid letters gave it a lovely baroque look.
Most of the words were in unrecognisable languages, but words in German, Latin and French could be seen, along with a couple of English words.
“Hope, Faith, Courage,” Joyce read out the words she recognised. “What’s this?” she asked of the largest and strangest word, written in tiny circles connected with straight lines.
Giles shook his head. “I don’t know. I recognize many of these other words, Enochian for example. I think that it’s the first word engraved on the ring, but I don’t recognize the language.”
“Love,” Tara said softly. “It says ‘love.’”
Giles looked surprised. “You can read it?”
Tara nodded.
“Your magic?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t had a chance to cast the translation spell. All I know is that it says ‘love.’”
“For an engagement ring, that’s a fine sentiment,” Joyce said.
Giles cleared his throat and looked embarrassed again. “Ah, it’s not actually an engagement ring.”
“Well, it does look a lot like a wedding ring,” Tara said.
“Yes. Well there’s a reason for that,” Giles said, rosy cheeked.
Joyce laughed. “Oh my! Rupert, you cheeky devil!”
He sighed. “Well, I’m sorry. I only had the one heirloom ring. At the moment, it’s doing double duty.”
“I’ll forgive you this once,” Joyce said with a smile. “I suppose I’ll have to take it off for the big day, then you get to put it back on me again.”
“Quite,” Giles said softly.
“Um, guys? I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, given,
you know,” she said sheepishly. “But don’t you think this is rather sudden?”
“Yes, and no,” Giles said. “I have admired and cared for Joyce for a long time. I was slowly working my way up to asking her out when… well, let’s just say I acted too slowly. I would like to say I’ve learned from at least
some of my mistakes.”
“It should come as no surprise to discover that I have long admired and respected Rupert. After the band candy incident, things were… awkward. But I was dating again, working my way up to asking Rupert for a date. Or, let’s be honest, hoping he’d ask me for a date.”
She sighed. “And then I had my funny aneurism moment, and that was that.”
“I think what we are both trying to say is: no more missed opportunities,” Giles said.
Tara smiled. “I’m happy for you both. And Dawn will be over the moon!”
“And Buffy will be traumatized,” Joyce said dryly.
“Um,” Tara said.
“Don’t worry dear. I know how badly Buffy reacts to change. I’ve gotten used to it. You should have seen her when I told her we were moving to Sunnydale.”
“Oh? Did she throw a tantrum?” Tara asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
Joyce shook her head with a chuckle. “No, not at all. She moped around for ages saying things like ‘my life is over.’ And ‘Sunnywhere?’”
Tara chuckled.
“That’s my Buffy, always a big fan of drama,” Joyce said wryly.
“I have a suggestion,” Tara said with a grin.
+++
“
OMIGOD, THIS IS AWESOME!!” Dawn shrieked.
Giles winced. “A little less volume please, those windows are expensive to replace.”
Heedless, Dawn flung herself at her mother and hugged her so tight that she lifted Joyce of the ground.
Joyce laughed. It was so nice to see this side of her youngest.
After an enthusiastic hugging session with her mom, she turned to Giles and hugged him too.
He chuckled slightly and hugged her back.
“Tara suggested that you’d want to know, first of all,” Joyce said.
“Yep!” Dawn chirped. “I’m so totally pleased you told me first,” Dawn said. “But if you told me first, how come Tara knows already?”
“She was with me when Rupert got down on one knee.”
“Yep, that’ll do it. So, do I get to tell everyone?” Dawn asked cheerily.
Giles cleared his throat. “Well, we weren’t intending to make a big performance out of the whole affair. But I have no objection if you want to be the one to break the news.”
Dawn’s eyes brightened and she looked at her mom.
“Of course dear.”
Dawn grinned. “Wicked!”
Dawn stood. “Well, first I’m going to tell my girlfriend, because that’s what a good girlfriend would do. Then I’m going to go make Buffy have a meltdown.”
“Rather you than me,” Giles said wryly.
“All part of the job when you’re a big sister.”
“She’s the big sister, Dawnie,” Joyce admonished.
Dawn waved her had dismissively. “Pfft. She’s a midget. Plus I have always been… oh hey! I need to show you something mom. Like, right now!”
“Right now?”
“Yep, absolutely!”
She grabbed her mom’s hand. “C’mon, I’ve got to show you this, mom!”
Joyce allowed herself to be towed from the room, with Giles following along in their wake.
Dawn excitedly towed her mother out of the room, down the hall, down the back staircase, and out into the rear courtyard.
The books and scrolls were long gone, put into storage until Giles and Dawn’s busy worker bees could sort all through it all.
And work was proceeding apace, though there was still a lot of work to do to catalogue it all.
The tree however, was still there, and seemed to be doing very well. Someone had planted bright cheerful flowers around the base.
“Ok mom. You see the tree?”
“Yes,” Joyce said uncertainly. “It looks like a small apple-tree.”
“Yep! The fruit is super yummy. Ok well, this tree used to be me.”
“Honey?”
“Like, before I was Dawn, I lived in this tree. Now I live in here,” she said, gesturing to herself.
She patted the tree affectionately. “This is my old home.”
Joyce reached out and touched the smooth bark of the trunk.
She smiled. “Yes it was.”
Dawn blinked. “Uh, I was expecting to have to work harder to convince you.”
“It feels like you, darling. It feels familiar.”
“Oh. Cool. Is that a Whitelighter thing?”
Joyce smiled. “A little bit. Mostly it’s a mom thing.”
“Huh. Do all moms get super-powers like that?”
“If they’re paying attention, dear. So how did you find the tree?”
“Uh, we found it in Bohemia. It came home with us. We’re still not sure how.”
Joyce chuckled. “Well, it’s a
little different from a puppy following you home.”
“Well, it’s easy to care for,” Dawn said. “Doesn’t make a lot of mess.”
She smiled again as she touched the tree.
“It’s important to me, so I wanted to share it with you.”
Joyce hugged her youngest. “Thank you honey. I’m glad you shared this with me.”
Dawn grinned, “Plus fruit.”
She snagged an apple from the tree. “Here you go.”
The apple she put in Joyce’s hand was huge and bright green.
“Thank you dear. I don’t need to eat, but it’s nice sometimes.”
She took a bite out of the apple. It was crisp, sweet and juicy, despite being the size of a cooking apple.
“You’re right, it is yummy.”
“Would you like an apple Giles?” Dawn asked politely.
He smiled. “Indeed I would, thank you.”
He watched carefully as Dawn casually plucked another bright green apple from the tree.
“Most kind,” he murmured as he bit into the fruit. It was crisp and delicious.
In his mind he was quietly going over what he had just seen.
Dawn had plucked an apple from the tree.
An apple that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
“Interesting,” he murmured, and filed the observation for later contemplation.
Dawn excitedly dragged her mother (and an ever attendant Giles) around the sights of Slayer central.
Highlights were the field lush with bright flowers, the obstacle course, and the grove.
Giles enjoyed the field, but was struck almost speechless by the appearance of giggling blue and green fairies.
Dawn had been out to see them herself, and personally thought they were too cute for words.
She knew about the spell Willow and Tara had cast to keep them here, and she was glad they hadn’t faded away.
Joyce found her gaze fixed on the tree at the top of the hill.
“There’s something special about that tree, I can feel it,” she said thoughtfully.
Dawn bobbed her head excitedly. “Yep! That’s Buffy and Faith’s secret special tree. That’s where they had their first cuddle and big talk.”
Joyce gave her a ‘look.’ “Dawn, if it’s secret, how is it that you know all about it?”
Dawn put on her best innocent expression. “Because I’m awesome?”
The look continued.
“Fine,” Dawn huffed. “I overheard Faith talking with Willow, and afterwards I asked her about it.”
Joyce chuckled, shaking her head affectionately. “Some things never change.”
“Do you know why there are so very many flowers?” Giles asked.
He was amazed. The flowers were riotous, waist deep and every colour of the rainbow.
And the scent was heavenly.
“Sure!” Dawn said brightly, happy to talk about her second favourite subject, magic.
“Well, you’ve seen those two already?” she said, pointing at the tiny faeries playing in the flowers.
Joyce and Giles nodded.
Dawn took a deep breath. “Well, the tiny blue Tara was something Willow created, as part of her rehabilitation. Learning control, and all that good stuff. Well Tara liked her, but said that she’d be lonely without a Willow of her very own. So she made the tiny green Willow faerie. But they were basically just very fancy lights, and they didn’t want them to fade away, which they would have when they left. So after Willow ended up in the sky, they cast a fertility spell on the field, so the little faeries could live off the magic in the field. There weren’t any crops in the field, so you ended up with an amazing harvest of wild flowers.”
Both adults looked impressed. While it wasn’t quite up to Willowbabble™ standards, Dawn’s excitement left her speaking impressively fast.
“Breathe dear,” Joyce said with a chuckle.
Dawn caught up on her breathing.
“Er, mom?” Dawn said hesitantly.
Joyce looked at her youngest, who at this moment, had her attention focussed on one foot, poking in the grass.
“What’s it like? Being…”
“Dead?” Joyce said softly.
Dawn bobbed her head.
Joyce thought for a moment. “Here, let’s sit and I’ll try to explain.”
She matched actions to words, and sat in a small clearing amidst the flowers.
Dawn flopped down bonelessly and Giles sat crosslegged on the grass.
“When I died, it was very sudden. All I remember was a strange whooshing sensation, and I passed out. I died shortly thereafter I imagine.”
“I wish you hadn’t died,” Dawn muttered sadly.
Giles found himself nodding his agreement silently.
“Me too,” Joyce said. “Death is not the end, and what comes after your first life is pretty amazing. But I wish I had never left.”
She reached out and took the hand of her youngest, squeezing it reassuringly.
After a pause, she did the same with Giles.
He smiled shyly, but seemed bashfully happy with the gesture.
“A few aches and pains and a few more wrinkles, would have been a small price to pay, to not have been separated from you all.”
“But you wanted to know what it’s like. It was a little like sleep, in that I don’t really remember it. But the next thing I remember was a floating sensation and bright lights. After a little while everything started to come into focus, and I ‘woke up.’”
She squeezed both Giles and Dawn’s hands. “Contrary to popular opinion, there’s no pearly gates. There are quite a few gates up there, but when you awaken, you’re in a pool. It’s this big, outdoor place like a roman bath.”
“It sounds nice,” Dawn said.
Joyce smiled. “It is. There are guides around to tell everyone what’s going on. It’s rather like seaworld, or a museum tour.”
“I got my own personal tour guide, James. It seems everyone thought I was someone special. Can’t imagine why.”
“I can,” Dawn said.
“Myself as well,” Giles added.
“Have you seen the movie ‘what dreams may come?’” Joyce asked.
Dawn’s eyes widened. “The painting movie? Wait, you get movies up there?”
Joyce chuckled. “Yes, we get movies. We can use the moonpool and other lesser pools to watch all sorts of things. Usually the antics of our loved ones, but we can watch other things if we want, including movies.”
“So, tell me about it?” Dawn asked.
“I’ll try. But language is so limited for this sort of thing.”
“There are no words in heaven,” Dawn said.
Joyce looked surprised.
Dawn shrugged. “Buffy told us.”
Joyce smiled. “Good. Well, that makes things a little easier. But there’s more to it than that.”
She thought for a moment.
“Do you remember how you used to speak and think when you were two years old?”
“Wuh?” Dawn said. “Technically, I am two years old, but… nope. No idea. Goo-goo Ga-ga?”
“Oh no, you were a talker. You started very early, unlike your sister. My point is, you have grown so much since then. Not just physically, but in how you think. Can you even put yourself into that mindset any more?”
“Not really.”
“Well, it’s the same once you shed your body. You begin to grow again, to expand. And it becomes harder and harder to remember how to think like you used to. That’s why they constantly recruit new people to act for them. Because the older and more powerful you become, the harder it is to even communicate with the living.”
“Fascinating,” Giles said.
“Which is why Whitelighters are all recently deceased, or even occasionally still mortal. Cordelia is valuable that way. Her main advantage is that she will remain much more like a mortal, and still be able to communicate.”
“Um, what can you tell us mom?”
“Thoughts. Feelings. A constant flow of information. I imagine it’s a little like the bond Buffy and Faith share, but with everyone.”
“There are more dimensions as well. They’re hard to understand, but you pick it up as you slowly forget how it is to be limited to four dimensions.”
“Wow,” Dawn said. “What’s that even like?”
“I don’t really know. Don’t forget, I’m new at this. I get glimpses every now and then, but I can’t really wrap my head around it.”
She smiled again. “There is one thing I can see though.”
“Really? What?” Dawn said excitedly.
Joyce tickled her tummy. “You!”
“Eek!”
+++