London Rayne. Part One.
Author: WiccanBex
Rating: PG-13 for this part (NC-17 for the whole thing).
Spoilers: Set after The Gift. So if you haven’t seen it and don’t wanna know…
Summary: Willow and Tara take a well-deserved holiday… things never go as planned, huh?
Disclaimer: Not mine. None of it’s mine except, maybe, the plot. Sue me if ya dare – it’ll cost ya more than I got to give.
Feedback: yes please! Pretty please? Love ya forever…
Author’s notes: Set in England.
*****
Willow stepped out of the white taxi and grimaced, “Raining.” She stated, seemingly to herself. “Nice lack of surprise.”
“It’s England, Sweetie… that’s what it does here.” Tara replied as she crept from the taxi into the downpour.
It was dark. Not because the sun had set, but because it was hidden from view by thick black clouds. Willow took her lover’s hand in her own and moved away from the car as it drove into the thick fog behind them.
“Remind me why we’re here again?” the red-haired witch pleaded as they sought shelter from the elements.
“Um… the experience?” the blond witch ventured. Willow raised her eyebrows questioningly. “OK… the, um… the weather?” Tara giggled. She didn’t care where they were, or how Mother Nature chose to greet them. She was with her Willow. Away from Sunnydale and everything that plagued them. “Look on the bright side --“
“No Hellmouth… I know. And thank you… for convincing me to come here.” Willow finished, looking into Tara’s deep blue eyes. She smiled, placing her right hand behind her lover’s head and pulling her close, allowing her fingers to become tangled in the blond hair. She caught the other girl’s full lips in her own and kissed her gently.
“You’re welcome.”
They gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment, oblivious to the rain, before lifting their luggage from the wet pavement and carrying it to the door of the building in front of them. It was tall and wide, but so was every other building within view. The walls were covered in a think layer of soot, disguising any beauty that may hide behind it. Willow lifted her hand to the door and knocked on the dark wood.
“Miss Rosenberg? Miss Maclay?” the voice came from behind them, and Willow jumped when she heard her name.
The two young witches turned to face the man who had addressed them. He was dressed in a smart black suit and wore a pair of thin, silver-rimmed glasses. He spoke with a British accent that was fairly relaxed, especially compared to the one they were used to hearing from Giles, and he had a warm smile. He removed his glasses and polished them against his sleeve before slipping them into his pocket and holding out his hand to the two girls. Willow shook it gently as Tara shifted from one foot to the other, trying not to draw attention to herself.
“Mr Stuart?” she asked, her voice full of hope. She sighed with relief when he smiled and nodded.
“Please, call me James.” He smiled and looked at them both for a second before gasping and shaking his head. “Oh! Look at you both! You’re drenched… and here I am keeping you on the front step.” He reached between them and pushed the door open. “You’d think they’d lock the damn thing once in a while…” he muttered as he ushered them inside.
The interior of the house was completely different to the exterior. The walls were elaborately decorated and ornate sculptures stood on tall antique tables. Willow gasped. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen so many…” she didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she took Tara’s hand in her own and a wide smile crept across her face.
Tara shook her head slowly, “There’s… there’s magick here…”
“What did you expect, Miss Maclay?” James asked slowly. “The Watcher’s Council learned long ago that the only way to fight magick is with magick itself. It’s purely preventative, I assure you.” He promised hurriedly, noting her apprehensive mien.
Willow nodded, “See, baby - preventative. There’s nothing to worry about… OK?”
“Yeah… um… yeah… I just…”
“It’s OK, Tara.” Willow promised, nodding her head and stroking her lover’s hair. “This is just what we need - a holiday away from the Hellmouth. Away from fighting evil.”
“Ah… well… actually, there’s something I need to talk to you about.” The Englishman ventured gingerly.
The two witches turned to look at him.
“There’s something that we may need your help with. Just a slight… demon… problem. It’s nothing… really. It’s just… with your experience of the Craft, I’m sure you’ll be able to deal with it in time to still be able to enjoy your holiday. London has quite a bit to see...”
“Demon.” Tara repeated in a whisper. “So, the magick…”
“I didn’t lie. It *is* preventative. It’s imperative that the demon in question doesn’t gain access to the information held within these walls. If it did --“
“The end of the world.” Tara’s eyes were directed at the floor. She could barely speak; her voice was low and strangled. Willow reached for her, but she backed away, her hand raised and shaking by her face.
“Perhaps. If they knew our secrets, there’d be no stopping them.”
Willow looked at James, her eyes wide. “Why didn’t Giles say anything? He said…” she sighed. “This was supposed to be a holiday away from the Hellmouth. Giles said that you were his friend and… and that we could stay with you for a while. He didn’t say --“
“He didn’t say anything about demons.” Tara finished. “Willow…”
“It’s OK, Tara… we’re leaving…” the red-haired Wiccan looked at James. “We’re sorry… but we just can’t do this. I don’t know what you’ve been told, but we --“
“Friends of the Slayer, I know.” He stepped towards them. “I was very sorry to hear of your loss… the Slayer… Miss Summers… she was instrumental in the fight against the forces of darkness… she died a noble death and will be sorely missed. She can’t help us now, but *you* can. Together, you can prevent the apocalypse.”
“Not interested.” Tara looked up at the anxious Watcher, no longer quite as nervous. “We saved the world… and we lost a friend.” She looked at Willow, tears forming in her sombre eyes. “I won’t do that again.”
London Rayne. Part Two.
Author: WiccanBex
Rating: PG-13 for this part (NC-17 for the whole thing).
Spoilers: Set after The Gift. So if you haven’t seen it and don’t wanna know…
Summary: Willow and Tara take a well-deserved holiday… things never go as planned, huh?
Disclaimer: Not mine. None of it’s mine except, maybe, the plot. Sue me if ya dare – it’ll cost ya more than I got to give.
Feedback: yes please! Pretty please? Love ya forever…
Author’s notes: Set in England.
*****
“Willow,” Tara’s head was hung low, her eyes aimed at anywhere but her lover. “I’m sorry.”
They were standing in the room that James had taken them to after the episode in the hallway. Willow had asked if her and Tara could have some time alone to think about what they were going to do next. There were too beds; Willow had wondered whether he knew about their relationship prior to their arrival; and the wallpaper looked as though it would peel off at the slightest touch… so she avoided going anywhere near it.
Willow smiled and took a step closer to the other girl. She lifted her hand to Tara’s face, caressing her cheek. Tara raised her head so that she was looking into Willow’s beautiful eyes. “I understand, Tara. You don’t have to apologise.”
“But those people… the W…Watcher’s Council… they need you --“
“Us, Tara. He said they needed *us*. But we don’t have to stay; we can just…” she sighed, realising what she was saying. She couldn’t just walk away from someone who needed help, and Tara knew it; the look in Willow’s eyes had already her girlfriend what she was afraid to say.
“You want to stay.” Tara nodded, the disappointment evident in her deep blue eyes.
“I just want to do what’s right, Tara… I don’t want to hurt you, but… I can’t just turn my back on this because of what happened to Buffy… with Buffy gone, someone’s got to fight the good fight…”
“I don’t want to lose you. I’m scared that if we do this…”
“We can do it, Tara! You know we can! We’ve handled much worse than this…”
“I just… there’s just s…something Mr Stuart hasn’t told us.” The conviction on her face told Willow that she wasn’t kidding. “I just think that maybe this isn’t as safe as he makes it sound… Why do they need *us*?”
“Well… I guess they…” Tara raised a good point… Why *did* they need the two young witches, when they obviously had a tight enough grasp of the Craft to fill the Council with so much magick that Tara could sense it as soon as she stepped inside. Willow had to admit that it didn’t make sense. “Well… I don’t see why he would lie… I mean --“
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Huh… I thought James said he was going out…”
Willow slowly turned the handle, stepping backwards as she opened the door. Standing in the hallway was a short, waif-like girl with thick black hair piled on top of her head in a scruffy ponytail.
“Hey. You two look pretty scared for the witches who are supposed to save the world. Did I scare you? Because I dread to think what you’re going to be like when you meet the thing you’re up against. They’re putting a lot of faith in you… you up to it?” her accent was British and high-pitched, and she looked younger than Willow and Tara, a lot younger. She looked as though she had seen much more than was suitable for a girl of her age; she looked as though nothing scared her anymore. She smiled and extended her hand, waiting for the perplexed-looking red-haired witch to take it. “James said you were having doubts…” she said simply, lowering her hand to her side when Willow ignored that it was there.
“We just didn’t know… this was supposed to be a holiday. About a month ago, we --“
“Your Slayer died, huh? Shame… she was stronger than most…” the girl shrugged. “Guess we’re lucky we’ve got you two.”
“Us? Well… we’re not… we’re not Slayers…”
“No shit.” She laughed. Tara gasped and Willow glared at the small girl, looking more than a little bit hurt. “No offence… you’re just…dainty.”
“Buffy was hardly butch! I mean, she was really…” Willow held her hand level with her shoulder, “really tiny… and her arms - I’ve seen pencils with more--” Tara cleared her throat, bringing Willow out of her babbling. “And… that’s… really *not* the issue here…”
“Who *are* you?” Tara asked gingerly, speaking for the first time.
“Me? I’m The Third.” she replied shortly, smiling widely.
“Oh… huh?”
end of part two
London Rayne. Part Three.
Author: WiccanBex
Rating: Just short of NC-17.
Spoilers: Set after The Gift. So if you haven’t seen it and don’t wanna know…
Summary: Willow and Tara take a well-deserved holiday… things never go as planned, huh?
Disclaimer: Not mine. None of it’s mine except, maybe, the plot. Sue me if ya dare – it’ll cost ya more than I got to give.
Feedback: yes please! Pretty please? Love ya forever…
Author’s notes: Set in England.
*****
“The Third.” The girl repeated, seemingly shocked that they were so confused.
“We heard… we just don’t…” Willow wasn’t sure what to say. She looked to Tara for back up, only to find that her blond girlfriend was backing away from the door, her eyes wide and her arms wrapped around her waist for comfort. “Tara…? Honey…? What’s wrong?”
Tara stood still and shook her head. “You… you can’t b-be The Third… it’s not possible…”
“Sure it is… I don’t know what you’ve been told, but --“
“Willow, this is bad.” Tara’s voice was low and broken. Willow placed her hand on her lover’s shoulder and looked into her eyes, desperately trying to find what it was that was scaring her so much. “The Third is a legend passed through Wiccan circles… t-they say the… they say The Third is… is supposed to rid the world of it’s final evil…”
“Final evil? Then… surely she’s one of the good guys, right? I mean… why are you so scared…?”
“Because she’s smart.” The two witches turned to look at the small girl still standing in their doorway. “Sounds like your little girlfriend knows what she’s talking about… thank the Gods one of you does…”
Willow said nothing; she wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to say. Tara swallowed and inhaled deeply. “The Third is supposed to save the world with the help of two others… t-two witches who don’t know about their destiny…”
“Bingo! We have a winner! Tell her what she’s won!”
“Who are you? Why are you here?” Willow was confused. She didn’t understand what was happening; all she knew was that if Tara was so scared, she should be, too.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” the girl sighed. “OK. The name’s Rayne. I’m The Third… bought here to help the Watcher’s Council save the world from the biggest bad ever seen. You are Willow. She is Tara. You are here to help me.” She spoke in short, sharp, impatient sentences. Willow was shocked. Her eyes grew wider and a frown appeared as she struggled to find the right words to react to this. “Look. I can see that you’re going to need a little time to let this sink in. That’s cool… I’ll just come back later.”
With that, Rayne left and closed the door behind her. Willow and Tara stood in silence, each waiting for the other to speak.
“This isn’t good, huh?”
Tara shook her head, “No… it’s not good…”
*****
“Tara, we can just go home…”
“No, Sweetie… that isn’t a option anymore. If Rayne is The Third… and she’s here… and *we’re* here…”
“You mean, we’re the other two?” Tara nodded. “Oh. OK… well… this isn’t so bad… I mean… we rid the world of the final evil, right? So we succeed… right? I mean, that’s what we’re here for… our destiny. We get to save the world!”
Willow sounded so excited. Her voice was lilting and her eyes were brighter than Tara could remember them ever having been before. She couldn’t bear the thought of watching those bright eyes fade and she hated knowing that she would have to. “Willow… legend says… it… it says that we… we don’t…” she couldn’t say it. She couldn’t bring herself to tell the woman she loved that by saving the world… “We don’t survive.”
“Oh.” A beat. “There’s a downside…”
“You’re taking this better than I expected…”
Willow smiled and nodded slowly, “Well… you know… prophesies always say that someone’s going to die saving the world… we’ve beaten hundreds of prophesies that say that. Well… some… We’re not going to die, Tara.”
Tears began to form in the corners of her previously bright eyes and she began to sob between words. “There’s a way around it… right? I mean… we don’t… we’re not going to… we… we can’t…”
Tara shook her head, “I d-don’t know… I’ve never… this isn’t something that I know much about… I just…”
“No. Tara, there *has* to be another way! We only just found each other… we can’t…” the tears escaped her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks. She shook her head slowly from side to side, still not completely believing what she was hearing.
Tara went cold, feeling the other girl’s turmoil, and lifted her hands to Willow’s face to wipe away her tears. She stepped closer and pulled Willow in until her head was resting against her lover’s. She closed her eyes and caught Willow’s lips in her own, kissing her passionately. Willow wrapped her arms around Tara’s hips, pulling the girl’s body towards her own until she could barely tell where her body finished and Tara’s began.
Tara trailed her fingertips from the back of Willow’s head down to the small of her back, sending shivers down her spine. She pushed her hands slowly beneath Willow’s green shirt, stroking the soft skin and letting her fingers explore her back and abdomen; goose pimples erupting all over Willow’s body.
Willow planted soft kisses around Tara’s neck, slowly unbuttoning the deep red blouse and making her way towards the soft breasts that hid behind it. She lifted her gaze away from the beautiful body before her and looked into Tara’s cobalt eyes.
“Let’s think about it later…”
end of part three
London Rayne. Part Four.
Author: WiccanBex
Rating: PG-13 for this part (NC-17 for the whole thing).
Spoilers: Set after The Gift. So if you haven’t seen it and don’t wanna know…
Summary: Willow and Tara take a well-deserved holiday… things never go as planned, huh?
Disclaimer: Not mine. None of it’s mine except, maybe, the plot. Sue me if ya dare – it’ll cost ya more than I got to give.
Feedback: yes please! Pretty please? Love ya forever…
Author’s notes: Set in England.
*****
“They seem unsure… the blond - she knows - I’m sure of it.”
“Rayne, this is not something we can afford to let them walk away from.” James sounded impatient, his voice shaking. He removed his glasses and polished the lens before pushing them back over his nose. He paced from one end of the room to the other, checking his watch at regular intervals.
“They’ll come round.” The girl assured him. “They were friends of the Slayer. They won’t walk away.”
“How can you be so sure? They watched their friend die, Rayne…”
“She died saving the world… maybe they think it’s the noble thing to do.” Rayne scoffed and shook her head, letting out a sigh.
James smiled. “You mean, it’s not?”
“Living for the world is noble, James. Dying for it is stupid - what use are you to your precious world if you’re dead?”
She had a point and James nodded slowly. “What if they don’t agree to it?”
“They’ll agree. They think they’re going to save the world, James… and if they do it right, maybe they’ll find a way to save themselves in the process.”
“You know that’s not possible, Rayne.”
“Do we? Besides, they don’t. Witches… always the optimists… They’re probably trying to find ways around the whole prophecy thing even as we speak.”
*****
“There’s got to be a way around this prophecy thing, Tara. And… if there is… we’ll find it, OK?”
Tara nodded. She wasn’t nearly as confident as Willow, but she knew if there was a way, Willow wouldn’t let her down. They were sitting amongst a pile of books they had collected from the Council Library. Each book was as dusty as the last; it was obvious that they hadn’t been read for some time.
Willow smiled, “Tara, we’ll get through this. I’ve been reading some of the books they have here… the library here is… they have more books than *Giles*!” she sounded so excited that Tara couldn’t help but smile. “This one mentions the prophecy.” Willow continued. “It says that we save the world and ‘time stops for us’ - not overly descriptive… but, I guess that means…”
“We die.”
“Well… yes… but it won’t happen, Tara. I promise.”
Tara smiled; if Willow promised something, she knew she could trust her. “How l-long do we have?”
“Huh?”
“Until… until time stops?”
“Oh… I’m not sure… Giles usually… well, he usually works that stuff out. But I’m guessing it’s soon, because it says we save the world ‘under the summer sun’ and the summer’s nearly over already.”
“Right.” Tara nodded. “You think maybe there’s a… that there’s a spell we could do? To protect ourselves?”
“Well, I… I don’t know, Tara… I mean… it says that time stops for us… how can we stop that?”
“I-I’m not sure… but I think I have an idea that might work… if we work together…” Tara bit her lip and gazed into Willow’s eyes, waiting for a response.
“Just tell me what to do.”
end of part four