Half an update ... comments later ... I gotta run off to work. Since everyone kept pushing for it to be a REAL update, you'll recognize bits of this
Title: Answering Darkness Part 44 – Mea Culpa
Author: Sassette
Feedback: Can be sent to
pink_overalls@yahoo.com Summary: More research and things
Spoiler Warning: Up to and including "Tabula Rasa" in Season 6.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. I'm just borrowing them.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: For the purpose of this story, all events of Tabula Rasa took place exactly as shown in the series; however, no subsequent episodes will affect this piece. We're splitting from canon here, because I impatiently began writing this before 'Smashed' and 'Wrecked' aired.
Answering Darkness – Part 44
Mea Culpa
By Sassette
“Look, Giles,” Buffy said, exasperation evident in her tone and the set of her shoulders. “I’m the one who left the book, so I will go get the book. So stop looking like someone kicked your puppy. I’ll take care of it.”
“I really believe we should leave Willow and Tara alone for the remainder of the day, as promised,” Giles replied, a little glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“Do you need this book for the research?” Buffy asked, rolling her eyes.
“Well, yes,” Giles confessed.
“And will this research help us save Willow and the world?” Buffy pressed on.
“Well, actually, yes,” Giles said, looking a little happier about the situation.
“Then I will go get it,” Buffy concluded.
“Yes, you’re right,” Giles relented. “I just wish –“
“Yes, yes – you wish I hadn’t forgotten it in the first place. I heard you the first two thousand times,” Buffy said, grabbing her coat and moving to the front door of the magick shop.
Giles, Buffy and Dawn had spent the evening eating pizza and watching movies with Xander and Anya at their apartment. First thing in the morning, they had come straight to the magick shop, books in hand, ready to start up their research again.
“And if they can’t use it, I should grab Willow’s computer, too,” Dawn piped in. “I mean, she trusts me with it,” she pressed on when everyone looked at her dubiously. “Seriously – I’ll just check the email so the Watcher’s Council can send us files. Nothing else.”
“There is no way I am touching Willow’s computer,” Buffy said, holding up her hands and stepping back.
“You don’t have to. I’ll grab it,” Dawn said.
“Fine,” Buffy said with a sigh. “Let’s just go – and if Willow asks, it was all your idea, you moved it, and I didn’t touch it.”
“I will take full responsibility,” Dawn said with a nod.
The sisters departed, making their way to their home in the early morning fog. It was damp and chilly, and Buffy had to hand over her jacket when she realized Dawn hadn’t had the good sense to bring one. Now Buffy realized why mom-types were always so obsessed with jackets … they probably learned quickly after handing over their own jackets once or twice.
As the sun rose, the haze burned off, leaving thing considerably brighter and cheerier. The sun had brought a renewed sense of hope, and Dawn and Buffy walked in silence, each lost in their thoughts as they considered the idea that maybe things weren’t so bad after all. Maybe the spell worked, and The Trickster would be unable to affect Willow any longer.
When they arrived at the house, Buffy opened the front door, smiling as Dawn continued to laugh.
About a block away, the two sisters had grinned at each other, and Dawn had uttered the two words that caused even the slightest of sibling rivalry to flare up and take over, no matter how adult and mature the siblings in question became.
"Race ya'," Dawn had said with a grin as she took off, getting the obligatory head start.
"Oh, that is SO not fair," Buffy grumbled, standing still for a moment before breaking into a run.
"Like the Slayer Speed is fair?" Dawn yelled back as Buffy passed her with ease.
They were both laughing and breathing hard when they reached the door, though Buffy was more out of breath from trying to laugh, run and talk all at the same time than the actual physical exertion of running.
"You are such a dork," Dawn said, though the smile in her eyes took all the teenage-sting out of it.
"Probably," Buffy said with a shrug as they walked into the house.
"Okay, now I'm just a kid, but even I know that's not safe," Dawn said with a frown, pointing out the still-lit candles around the room. She spotted Willow’s laptop, noting that if was turned off. “Wow – Tara was really serious about this, wasn’t she?”
"I guess they forgot about those," Buffy said with a shrug, moving around the room and blowing out the candles. Dawn scooped up the laptop, and Buffy looked around, trying to find the book Giles had mentioned. He had said it had a black leather cover, and a strange symbol on it.
“Do you see the book?” Buffy asked, looking around.”
"Nope. I wonder if they're up yet?" Dawn said, a note of hope in her voice. The only thing Giles had told anyone about the evening alone he had arranged for Willow and Tara was that they were going to try, and that Tara wanted to have a traditional Shabbat with Willow. Dawn had thought it sounded like fun until Giles had explained that Tara wouldn't allow any electricity - which meant no TV, no stereo, and no computer.
"I don't know," Buffy said, wandering into the kitchen. The oven was on, and she peeked inside, seeing some dish of some sort she didn't recognize warming. "I thought they weren't allowed to cook?" Buffy asked out loud as Dawn came up behind her.
"Well, technically, that's not cooking," Dawn answered. "It's just, y'know, staying warm."
"Hmm ..." Buffy said with a frown. "I just so don't get it."
"Me neither," Dawn confessed. "But it makes sense to Willow and Tara, so ... y'know, whatever," she said with a shrug.
"Right," Buffy agreed. Dawn stepped into the dining room as Buffy continued to look for the book. She made one last visual sweep of the kitchen, noticing a pile of books in the corner. She headed over and started to sort through them, finally finding the one she was looking for.
Buffy looked up sharply when she heard a squeak from the dining room, shutting the over and getting into the other room quickly.
Dawn's hand covered her mouth and her face was beet red as she tried not to laugh, her eyes wide open as she gaped at the floor.
"What?" Buffy asked, coming up to stand next to Dawn. She gaped, then clapped her hand over Dawn's eyes. "I'm sure they were, umm ... doing laundry," Buffy said quickly.
"Laundry?" Dawn asked with a smirk. "Please tell me you can do better than that?"
"Well, you try to come up with G-Rated excuses for a couple pairs of panties lying on the floor of the dining room to share with your impressionable younger sister," Buffy complained.
"Umm ... magick shop?" Dawn asked, trying to pull back from Buffy's hand over her eyes.
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, tugging her sister from the room and heading back out the front door, a wicked snicker escaping as she realized just how much teasing potential this held.
“What I don’t get is,” Dawn said after a long moment as they made their way back to the magick shop. “How come their underwear was there but not the rest of their clothes?” she asked, a puzzled look on her face. “I mean, they had to take off the rest of their clothes to get their underwear off, right? So why would they leave the underwear and clean up the clothes?”
“Ummm …” Buffy stalled, her mind racing. “That’s, a, umm … good question, Dawn. I have no idea. Why don’t you ask them?” she asked innocently.
“Yeah, right,” Dawn said with a smirk. “I can just see those two turning all shades of red and ducking the question.”
“Hmm..” Buffy said noncommittally, letting the conversation die a much-deserved death.
They walking into The Magic Box, and Buffy couldn’t help but wince a little when she heard that stupid cheery little bell. She had certainly gained a lot of satisfaction from ripping it right off the door, but unfortunately it had come back, and she new Anya liked it. Besides, Anya would probably charge her for it if she pulled it off for real.
“We return triumphant,” Buffy said, holding the book aloft.
“And you will never guess what we saw at the house,” Dawn started excitedly, only to stop when Buffy shot her a stern look.
“Private stuff,” she said with a frown.
“Oh, fine,” Dawn huffed, moving to the research table and sitting down.
“Was it naughty?” Xander asked.
“No, it was not naughty,” Buffy said.
“If it wasn’t naughty, then why can’t she tell us?” Xander wondered.
“I’m sure it was neither naughty, nor any of your business,” Giles said, getting the book from Buffy and sitting down at the table, cracking the book and getting to work. “Well?” he asked, looking around at everyone. “Don’t you have any reading to do?”
The gang jumped to it at Giles’ words, everybody finding the book they had been reading last and getting back to work.
“Another day full of excitement and fun for the Slayer,” Buffy mumbled, then got down to the reading.
“Hmm …” Giles said several hours later, frowning at the text in his hand. He spent a great deal of time frowning, he had found, every time they were researching something this big. He usually didn’t like it, and he certainly didn’t like it when things were looking so dire for Willow – or any of the others, really. He wondered how the spell had gone, then immediately shut down that line of thought in his brain. There were definitely things about that spell he sincerely wished he didn’t know.
“Anya,” he said after a moment.
“Yes, Giles?” Anya called from the cash register, her face forming a pout as she lost count of the money. Of course, that meant she’d have to count it again. Anya’s expression brightened.
“Have you sold that star chart?” he asked absently, still reading.
“You know, I wish you’d look at me when you were asking me questions instead of continuing to read your book. Xander says that it’s rude when I talk to people but keep counting the money, so it must be rude for you to talk to me and keep reading your book,” Anya pointed out.
“You’re quite right,” Giles said with a sigh, looking up at Anya with a mildly annoyed expression on his face, marking his place in the book with his finger. “Have you sold that star chart?”
“Which one?” Anya asked.
“The good one – the cloth one,” Giles elaborated.
“Oh, no. It’s awfully expensive. Most people just make do with paper,” Anya sighed.
“Could you bring it here? And some chalk?” Giles requested.
“Chalk? You’re going to … mark it?” she asked, her eyes going wide. “I’ll have to discount the price. It will be a USED star chart!”
“Yes, I’m afraid it will. But think of it this way. If I don’t use the star chart, and the world ends, you won’t make any more money ever,” Giles pointed out.
“Oh, right,” Anya said. “I’ll just go get that star chart right now.” Anya ran off to the back of the shop, rummaging through shelves and looking for the elusive chart.
“So what’s up?” Buffy asked.
“Yes, well,” Giles said, rubbing his eyes gingerly. “I may have found the position the planets need to be in to herald The Trickster’s return.”
“So, wouldn’t that mean we can’t win? If those planets are in those positions?” Dawn asked uncertainly.
“Oh, no, not quite” Giles said, with a slight shake of his head. “Can you, umm … help me with these?” he said, indicating the stacks of books on the table and starting to clear them.
“Oh, sure,” Buffy said, moving the books as Giles explained.
“Astrology is very tricky,” Giles began. “And they do not, in fact, tell the future. The heavens are influential, but they don’t actually make things happen.”
“Like a prophecy?” Buffy asked.
“In a sense,” Giles hedged, his manner making it clear that it was an imperfect comparison. “This book just describes a positioning of the planets and such that would indicate favorable conditions for The Trickster. They don’t assure his success, nor his failure at any other time.”
“Found it,” Anya announced, rushing over with a folded up rough cloth in her hand.
“Thank you, Anya,” Giles said, accepting the bundle and laying it out on the table.
“So what exactly is the position?” Dawn asked. “Like, they’re all gonna’ be lined up in a row?”
“Not quite,” Giles said. “Here,” he went on, handing over the book. “It’s that,” he said, pointing to a paragraph. The Scoobies gathered around, peering over Dawn’s shoulder and reading along.
“What the hell does trines mean?” Buffy asked with a frown.
“It’s like those things on a fork,” Xander said seriously. “So are the planets going to be in the shape of a fork?”
“No, it’s not a fork,” Giles said with a sigh, smoothing out the cloth and regarding it carefully.
“Anya, is there a protractor around here anywhere?” he asked with a frown, pulling out some chalk and making a few marks on the cloth.
The cloth was an interesting depiction of the planets, with odd symbols everywhere, as well as what looked to be a seven calendars running in a circle along the edges.
“Oh, I’ve got one,” Dawn said excitedly, opening her bag and pulling out a hot pink plastic protractor and presenting it to Giles.
Giles looked at the glaring piece of plastic and took it gingerly, a dubious expression crossing his features. “Yes, well, thank you,” he said carefully, leaning over the chart and measuring angles of planets in relation to each other and the sun, drawing lines on the chart that, presumably, made some sort of sense to him.
“Can I help?” Dawn asked after awhile, fascinated with what Giles was doing.
“Well, yes, I suppose you can,” he said, handing back the protractor. He instructed her, pointing out which angles to measure as he went back to drawing his lines, explaining what they were doing with each step. Dawn proved to be an able assistant, and Giles found that as he told Dawn the details, they cemented more firmly in his mind, helping him to avoid mistakes.
Buffy and Xander watched for a few minutes, then Anya went back to counting the money. When it was clear that this undertaking would take hours, Buffy and Xander went back to their books, picking up their reading.
An hour later, Buffy was confused. She was reading the book she had gone back to the house to retrieve that morning, knowing she had never read this book before, yet the passages seemed familiar. She was sure that she had read them somewhere.
“Xander, could you hand me that stack,” she asked, a small frown on her face. Xander looked down, seeing that his chair was surrounded by several high stacks of books.
“Ummm … little more specific please?” he asked, looking at the books.
“That one. By your left knee,” Buffy pointed out, and Xander obligingly slid it over, grunting with the effort. Buffy marked her page, setting the book on top of the chart and sorting through the stack, not entirely sure of what she was looking for.
“Buffy,” Giles said, annoyance clear in his tone. “Please, not on the star chart.”
“Fine,” Buffy said absently, putting the book in her lap and continuing her search. She paused on a book she had been reading a few days before, frowning and picking it up. She flipped through the pages, before finding what she was looking for.
“Hey, Giles?” Buffy said slowly.
“Yes?” Giles said, looking up from his work.
“These two books have the same stuff in them,” she said, holding both books open and looking from one to the other.
“Yes, lots of these books repeat things,” Giles agreed absently.
“Well, this book you had me pick up today has more,” Buffy said. “And it’s the same stuff from this Watcher’s book that you said was from an even older book. Like, The Old Book.”
“Are you certain?” Giles asked, looking up and moving to stand next to Buffy, reading over her shoulder.
“Yeah, see? Here they’re the same, but this one I got this morning keeps going,” Buffy pointed out, stifling a protest as Giles lifted the book with the more complete passage right out of her lap.
“This is … quite remarkable,” he said slowly.
“Yeah? Like, how remarkable? Maybe you’d like to make a few remarks? Maybe something that makes sense?”
“What?” Giles said, looking up. “Oh, right. This seems to be excerpts from a text that was lost – a text that holds … well, let’s just say it’s a good thing that particular text is no more. It’s rumored to hold things that no one has any business dealing with.”
“And the book I got this morning has more of it than the Watcher’s did?” Buffy asked, an odd look on her face. “Who has more information than the Watcher’s?”
“Tara, apparently,” Giles said with a frown. “This book was compiled by one of Tara’s ancestors.”
“Oh, eww,” Buffy said with a grimace. “That’s … a pretty not nice book.”
“Yes, I know,” Giles said, frowning as he flipped through a few pages, skimming over the words. “It … it has some passages I’ve never even seen.”
“So how did they get more of the Big Bad Book than The Watchers?” Buffy asked again.
“Oh, Dear Lord,” Giles said, rushing over to the counter and grabbing the phone. He dialed the number automatically, frowning at the busy signal, then hanging up with a sigh. “Dammit,” he breathed. “We’ll have to go back to the house,” he said slowly.
“Oh, no way,” Buffy said, shaking her head vigorously. “No way I’m going back to the Den of Witchy Lovin’.”
“So you >did< find something naughty,” Xander accused with a smirk.
“I’m afraid it can’t be helped,” Giles said simply. “Tara said she found several of these books in hidden compartments of her mother’s things. This book has passages it simply can’t have. I … I should have noticed. I should have seen …” Giles trailed off, mentally kicking himself in unpleasant places. He was a Watcher. It was his duty to notice these sorts of things, and he had allowed himself to be so preoccupied with the situation, he hadn’t seen what was right in front of his face.
“So … what, exactly?” Buffy asked slowly. “You think Tara has this Big Evil book?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do,” Giles responded.
by Drakkenfyre » Mon Apr 08, 2002 9:28 pm 
at: 4/9/02 3:06:55 pm
at: 4/9/02 5:01:23 pm
