the vamp nurd,Hee… thank you, sweetie. I’m glad you’re curious. Hope I don’t disappoint you.
Look below for updates.
shuyaku,Hello there. Thank you.
Well, the changes weren’t too drastic, but none the less… they were changes I wanted and needed to make. I hope you will like the changes as well. : )
Thanks again and enjoy the updates.
Hey kittens,
Um… Chapters 1-3 were really the only chapters I needed to make changes to. If you guys want, I can repost chapters 4-12, just so you have something to read until I can get something new written. Just let me know if you want me to.
Thanks again to all the kittens who have read and responded and not responded but took the time to read this.
And now… onto the update.
Title: Eyes Of The Soul
Author: Jennifer
Copyright © 2002 – 2003 by Jennifer JohnsonFeedback: jennpurr@yahoo.com or
willowtaralove@netzero.com">
willowtaralove@netzero.com Please, give me feedback. Good or bad. Feel free to tell me what you think. Or just post it here.
Disclaimers: All characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. This is solely for my entertainment. Please do not copyright this story.
F/F romance: If the idea of a same sex relationship bothers you, please do not read this story.
Pairings: W/T eventually, X/A
Spoilers: Season 6. This is set after Seeing Red, but Tara never dies at the hands of Warren. The rest is just my own creativity. Oh, and Giles never left.
Summary: Tara is missing, or so the Scoobies think. What will happen when they find her?
Rating: R. Angst, violence, and adult content (eventually)
This part is PG-13?
My Thanks: To Sam (Blue77) and Danie. Thanks for being my betas and for helping me out with all the suggestions. You truly are gifted for writing, both of you. I hope you continue to do so.
And Danie, don’t forget the catnip.
Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at writing Buffy fan fiction, so please tell me what you think. I usually write fan fiction for ER. I apologize for the heavy subject of W/T angst in this story, especially after what has happened to Tara. These thoughts have been floating around in my brain lately and I just wanted to see if I could turn them into a story. Willow and Tara WILL have a happy ending, if that helps. Let’s just hope we get that on the show. Some of the inspiration for this came from
“Unexpected Consequences.” Lisa’s a genius. Thanks for your story Lisa.
Eyes Of The Soul: Chapter 2/?
By: Jennifer
The morning sun poured in through the window illuminating the far left side of the cemented floor in the cage. A big black tail was slowly sweeping back and forth across the blanket it lay upon. The sun highlighted the bottom portion of the tail, making the hair shine richly as it twitched. Suddenly it flopped up and then lightly smacked the floor before sweeping from back to front again.
A great, powerful paw pushed down beside the tail and was now bathing in the light of the sun. The leg momentarily stretched out as far as it could reach, followed by another back leg, making the huge black claws they were armed with, extend and contract in time as a throaty purr broke the silence in the stainless steel cage.
The feline’s ribcage rose and calmly fell with each breath, content in its slumber. The morning sun warmed the cat from head to toe, as the heat traveled the whole length of its feline form. The thick black coat of fur was like a heat magnet, very easily activated. The large cat’s right ear twitched several times as if the hairs were being tickled. Its massive head was resting comfortably on its front paws that were stretched out, with the front half of the cat’s body lying upright.
With another stretch of all its limbs and a healthy yawn, which bared all it’s large, sharp white teeth, the feline’s eyes fluttered open and blinked several times. The cat slowly rose to its feet and stretched its front legs out in front of its body, its chest almost touching the floor. A contented growl escaped the feline’s jaws as the lower half of its body rose up in the air; tail tucking between the back legs. Once it was standing again, the cat stretched its back legs, one at a time.
The stretches lasted for several seconds each. This was followed by another yawn, revealing again its large fangs.
Turning around, it paced over to the water dish in the far left corner and lapped its tongue at the cool refreshing liquid, some of the water splashing up onto its whiskers as it drank contentedly.
Mid lap, its ears perked up and it froze. A brief growl escaped its lungs. Lifting its head, a drop of water trickled down its jaw.
The door to the basement creaked shut as someone began to walk down the stairs.
The feline backed away from the water bowl and stood territorial. Its ears flattened back and the cat’s stance was a little lower to the ground, eyeing the intruder wearily.
“I see you’re awake.”
Tara followed Amy’s every movement with her eyes, as her pupils began to enlarge.
“What… you’re not going to say good morning? Oh… that’s right. You can’t.” She laughed menacingly. “Jaguars can’t talk.” She took a tentative step towards the cage then crouched down in front of the bars. “And since I changed you, you can’t perform magic on me.”
The Jaguar growled its disapproval and took a step back.
“Well now… you’re not acting very nice to me, this morning. Are you asking to be punished?”
A loud hiss was her only answer.
Amy held her hand out in front of the cage and with a few words in Latin, a lightening bolt shot through the cage.
Tara ducked to the ground in time before it could hit her.
Standing to her feet, “Smartening up, I see.”
Tara charged the front of the cage, but stopped when she got to the bars. A growl penetrated the room. Her ears lay flat against her head with her tail hanging low between her back legs. A ridge of hair laid visibly standing on her back, tail somewhat ruffled.
Tara’s stance was in fighting position; pupils enlarged and her large white fangs bared, the feral form taking over her nature.
“Now, now… be nice or I won’t miss this time. I think just for that little nasty behavior, I might not let you out tonight.”
The cat’s large blue eyes hardened, as she looked the blonde witch up and down.
‘Just wait till I get out of here, Amy. Maybe I’ll lock you in here for a few days,’ She threatened in her thoughts.
Amy turned toward the stairs and started to walk back up them. “Don’t have too much fun now.” She laughed wickedly as she reached the top step and opened the door. “See ya, Tara.” The door shut firmly behind her.
The Jaguars features softened and it turned and looked up at the window, where it could see the outside. ‘Willow… I need to get out of here.’
Realizing the only thing she could do was stay cooped up in the cage till Amy came back, Tara walked back over to the soft blanket and lied down. A whimper escaped her throat. The only thought on her mind was Willow.
*****
“You could help me, Buffy,” Willow said excitedly. “Yeah… you could do the spell with me.”
“I don’t know, Will.”
“Come on. It’s not dark magic and I’ve done this a couple of times… a-and it won’t be like I’m breaking any promises, since I won’t be using dark magic. Then I could tell Tara that we found her together… and she won’t be mad at me…”
Buffy smiled at her best friend’s babbling. “Alright. I’ll help you. Tell me what I have to do.”
Willow grinned from ear to ear and ran over to Buffy and hugged her close. She rocked her from side to side before stepping back. “Thank you so much.” She hugged the slayer again.
“Will… feeling the need to breathe, here.”
The redhead pulled away. “Oops… sorry, Buff.” She looked at her apologetically.
“It’s okay. So, how does that tinker bell thing work? And are you sure you should be doing this?”
Willow sat down on the floor in front of Buffy, beside her and Tara’s bed. “Do you think it would be okay? I mean… I don’t want to upset her or break any promises or anything. It’s just… this is going to help. This will find her. Wouldn’t she be happy that we found her?”
Buffy squeezed the redhead’s knee. “Hey, calm down. I think it’ll be fine. You’re doing so well with the magic thing and Tara knows that.”
“I know. I just don’t want to upset her by doing this.”
Cocking her head to the side, “We’ve gotta do something. And this might be our only way, right?”
Willow suddenly found the floor very interesting. She knew Buffy was right. This might be the only way to find Tara. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t do this before. Big dummy. I should have thought about it earlier. She could be home by now, but no… I had to be stupid and not think about it. And now Tara could be mad at me for doing this spell…and I just…’
“Will?” Buffy waved her hand in front of Willow’s face.
“What?” She finally looked up. “Oh… sorry, Buffy. What did you say?”
The slayer just laughed, “I said, do you want to do this?”
“Uh…” Willow contemplated. ‘If I don’t do this… we might not find Tara. And if I do… she might be mad at me for using magic. Ahhh… I hate this. What do I do?’ She looked into Buffy’s eyes for some kind of answer. “I just don’t want to mess things up again. I couldn’t live through that again. I can’t lose her.” Her eyes welled up with tears at just the thought.
Buffy scooted in so her knees were touching the other girl’s and she put her hands on Willow’s shoulders. “I know. You’re scared… and you have every right to be, but I think we should do this. We have to. Come on… let’s find your girl.” She squeezed her shoulders.
Willow just nodded. “Okay… you’ll need to sit where you are, right in front of me. Um… tuck your feet under your legs, like me.”
The slayer did as she was told.
“Now… sit like your meditating, but I need you to hold my hands.”
The blonde looked at Willow apprehensively. “Um… this is really touchy feely stuff, isn’t it?” She joked.
“Buffy… this is serious. Take my hands.”
“Sorry… I was just fooling around.” Buffy gripped onto Willow’s hands.
“What I’m going to do is recite the spell. You just keep hold of my hands and concentrate on Tara, okay?”
“Got it. Concentrate on Tara, I can do that. How do we know if this works?”
“You’ll know. Now… close your eyes and concentrate.”
Willow held tight to Buffy’s hands as both girls closed their eyes. All of their thoughts moved towards Tara. The redhead sat in silence for a moment, before she squeezed Buffy’s hands tightly and began to recite the spell.
“Araydia, Goddess of the lost.
The path is murky.
The woods are dense.
Darkness pervades.
I beseech thee.
Bring the light.”
As she said the last words of the spell, two tiny lights of energy appeared before them. One was green, signifying Willow’s essence, the other red for Buffy. Willow briefly opened her eyes to make sure the spell had worked. ‘YAY… it worked. Okay…’
“Lead us to Tara,” Willow said, once she had closed her eyes again.
And that’s when they could both feel it. Their essences were moving down the stairs and through the front door, flying out into the daylight as little forms of energy balls, appearing much like fireflies.
Once outside, they were confused. They hummed around, but could see nowhere to go. There was a barrier holding them back; like a wall of some sort. They tried to move forward, but were pushed back. Something was holding Tara back. There was a mist around her that was masking the spell.
Willow could feel her energy being tugged back toward her body, as could Buffy, but they couldn’t give up. They had to find Tara.
The green energy pushed forward again, flying around Buffy’s red. The two met in the air and buzzed around each other as if they were playfully chasing each other and then they zipped forward together. Flying a few more inches through the air, before they were pushed back. The barrier around Tara once again held them back.
The two energies tried to fly higher, but it didn’t help. They were still pushed back.
They hovered in place for a moment, bumping into each other as if communicating. Willow slowly floated around Buffy’s essence before slowly pulling back and floating back in the direction of the house. The red energy soon followed and they were momentarily pushed back inside their bodies.
“No!” Is all Willow could manage to squeak out as she collapsed forward and fell into Buffy. She sobbed loudly at the turn of events. “Tara…” she breathed.
All of her hope collapsed around her and she felt herself giving up. Willow couldn’t bear the thoughts that were floating around in her mind. She just couldn’t. The only thing the redhead wanted was to throw her arms around her beloved and never let go, but now it seemed impossible. Would she ever find her? Her grip on Buffy tightened.
Buffy’s thoughts toyed with her as well. She hated seeing her best friend like this. This was worse then anything she could ever dream about; it was too much.
Pulling back slowly, she put her hands on the other girl’s shoulders and pushed her back. “Will… it’s gonna be okay. We’ll find her. Tell you what, instead of me just sitting here, I’m gonna go out and look for her. Okay?”
Willow nodded, her bottom lip trembling. She watched as her best friend jumped to her feet and headed out of the room. A couple of seconds later she heard the front door shut.
Her body fell back till she bumped into the bed. She stared up at the ceiling willing it to move. ‘Just collapse, why don’t ya? Get it over with.’ As soon as that thought formed, the redhead knew she didn’t mean it. That would mean giving up. And that was not going to happen. Not with Tara still out there somewhere. She shook her head, shaking the thought away. Tears still slithered down her pale cheeks.
Bringing a hand up, Willow brushed them away. “Why didn’t that spell work? It was all avoidy with the finding. I don’t get it,” she said out loud, as if the air could answer her back. ‘Maybe I should call Giles. Or… should I go with Buffy? No… she probably wants to do this alone.’
Slowly, she stood to her feet and grabbed her house keys off the dresser. Taking the stairs two at a time, she quickly yanked the front door open and locked it, before taking off running in the general direction for the Magic Box. ‘I hope Giles can help.’
*****
The bell above the door chimed as the door was lazily pushed open. For an early Saturday afternoon, the shop was unexpectedly empty.
Two feet padded along the carpet and once they reached the research table, Willow collapsed into one of the chairs, slightly out of breath from running most of the way there.
“Ah… good afternoon, Willow.” The watcher came in the room from behind one of the stacks of books.
“Hey Giles,” she said, rather unenthusiastically.
This made Giles look over at her more observantly and he took in her tired features. The wrinkles on her forehead were more pronounced as if she had been thinking intensely. “Are you quite alright?” he asked worriedly.
“Just peachy,” she said sarcastically, before looking up into the eyes of the man she considered to be a second father to her. “No… I’m not. I can’t find Tara. The spell wouldn’t work and… and… Buffy went out to look for her. And to top it off… I have a headache. So, no… I’m not alright.”
Giles frowned at Willow. “Did you say spell?” He pulled one of the chairs over to sit in front of the redhead.
“Yeah. Buffy and I were doing the guiding spell to try and find Tara, but it didn’t work. It was like something was holding us back.”
“Holding you back?” he asked curiously.
“There was like a wall or something. We couldn’t get through. And then, we were back in our bodies.”
The former librarian squeezed Willow’s forearm reassuringly. “I’m sure Tara’s fine.”
“I need her to be,” the redhead whispered, sadly.
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing. “Now, about the spell. You said there was some type of barrier, not allowing it to work?”
“It was weird. It was like a wall or something holding Tara back. Like a masking spell or something? Do you think she would do that? Wouldn’t she want me to find her? Why would she do that? She can’t…”
“Willow, calm down. Getting worked up about this won’t help. You must keep your thoughts rational. I don’t think Tara would do this willingly. Someone probably put her up to it, or did it without her knowledge.”
The redhead nodded, but a frown still formed on her lips. “Is there a way around it? Can we make it go poof? The barrier…”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to consult my books. Perhaps you could help me?”
“Sure. Where do we start?” Willow was happy to offer her help, if it meant finding a way to get to Tara.
“Start what?” Anya said as she came back up the stairs from the storage room.
“A spell Willow and Buffy did, didn’t work and we’re trying to find out why,” Giles explained.
“A spell? I thought you gave up magic?”
“It wasn’t dark magic,” Willow said defensively. “And I did give that up. Nope… no more dark magic for me.”
“Then what was it?” questioned Anya.
“It was a guiding spell,” Giles offered.
“Oh… well, why didn’t it work?” said the ex-demon, looking confused.
Willow puffed out a long sigh. “That’s what we’re trying to find out. Do you want to help?”
Giles was handing over a few books he thought might help, as Willow looked questioningly at Anya.
“I have, uh… things to do, Willow. We’re not all students!” she said annoyed, as she trotted over behind the counter to the cash register.
“Fine… count the money. I might as well have asked you to go without sex for a day.” Willow said this under her breath, out of earshot from Giles.
“I do want to help though. I like Tara. She’s an outsider, like me,” Anya pointed out.
“She’s not an outsider!” Willow said, angrily.
“Well… she used to be then, but not now. She’s a Scooby, kinda like me now.”
“Yes… she’s a Scooby,” the redhead said proudly. ‘A Scooby who should be here right now.’ She whimpered sadly at that thought.
Coming back over to the table, the watcher sat down. “Alright. We should start with these and then move on accordingly.” He motioned to the books on the table.
*****
TBC...
Jen
||My Fan Fiction and More!|| ||My Yahoo Group||
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"Because you would have done anything for, ME... but look what you did for a complete stranger. In greater love, hath no person, nor Angel, then to give her life for another." ~ Zach to Monica, "Touched By An Angel: I Will Walk With You, P2"
Edited by: Jennpurr at: 6/22/03 9:14 pm
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Glad things are going well for you. 
) 
I'm sooo sorry it's taken me so long. 
I'm glad you added it to the same thread, cuz after I read the new version, I just HAD to go back and reread the original to see exactly what you changed.
i'm never disappointed when i read one of your fics, you always seem to amaze me! thanks for sharing! krrp it up, well i can't wait for the up-date!
