Chapter 2.): "The Deal"
Chapter 2 Author's Notes Beginning: Hi Folks! This one's about Tara's deal with Aslan that lands her in a state of Purgatory, and is a "recollection chapter", meaning that she's recalling what happened and how this turned out that she got here.
There will also be elements of other characters lives, and their opinions- I so love to make the characters in some sense "real people", giving them both vices and virtues, as well as personal tastes; one major reason why I take such delight in fanfics giving the characters religious beliefs: it makes them more real, even a total nonbeliever is believable in this category.
Now, without further ado, the chapter...
Tara Maclay knew well that this was a truly scary proposition: to empower all these girls could open the doorway to the First's truest temptations for them, and a good many of them would make up Its armed forces pretty soon thereafter- 'Why build an army of monsters if an army of human monsters is easier to hide and easier to use?' Tara knew the First would reason that out, and the thought terrified her to no end. Tara's stay in Purgatory was due, she well understood, to her seduction of Willow, and leading her into spellcasting, thereby leading her astray badly... this "Aslan" to Whom she had to report, for He'd told her to call Him by that name when reporting on this task He'd given her, was in fact her master in this task- and she had quickly realized she was His slave- but He always treated her well: he never forced her to engage in something she was uncomfortable with, and made sure she was clothed modestly 'He apparently liked it when I dressed modestly.' Tara realized, as she thought it over with those words; with a lot of respect, and she never felt hungry or thirsty- her only real "thirst" was to bring Willow to a state of far better behavior. Tara didn't understand well why she had felt such compassion for her Master, but she thought it was due to her being treated well- He also never beat her, but treated her with respect in every encounter. His only requirement to her was that she help to redeem her ex-girlfriend and that woman's current girlfriend as well.
Tara loved her ex, very deeply indeed, but in their past was a history of lust being mixed in with the love, and it was this that she also had to get rid of to the best of her ability- she also sensed that this woman's current lover also had the same animalistic desires for her, and that Willow reciprocated Kennedy's more animal desires; Tara was well-versed in these animal desires of the flesh, she'd kissed Willow enough times down there to know that she to had such desires of her flesh going in inside her- but now she was no longer tempted by them- those had ended some seven minutes Earth time after her death... why that time amount? She never knew, but suspected something, however, she'd never asked as to why. Nor had she been that curious as to why that amount of time either- suddenly instead all her dark desires, and desires she'd never considered dark even simply lost their appeal and instead turned disgusting for some reason, as if the food turned to ash in her mouth!
Tara now took this as a blessing that her dark desires amounted to the realm of the disgusting, instead of the appealing way it looked to her in life, for instance why did she like the idea of lesbian sex in her life if now it seemed disgusting, she was still attracted to Willow, but now felt totally different in the way it appeared to her!
Tara recalled her trial, and how she'd sold herself to this "Aslan" as His slave to help to redeem her ex-girlfriend and to try to save said woman's current girlfriend all from the grasp of the First Evil, whom Aslan made sure to identify as His adversary in this effort over human souls. He'd made clear to her in no uncertain terms that because she died in a state where she had just engaged in an act of fornication with her girlfriend, this was her only chance to get into Paradise: to enter through His justice's doorway as she'd refused His mercy by intending to carry on fornicating with her girlfriend. Initially she was angry at Him for this suggestion, but He'd made it quite clear to her that her actions had helped to hurt her girlfriend, which is then that he asked her "Do you love her?"
Her response of "I'd die for her." told Him all He needed to know, and they struck the deal: she'd pay for her fornication by helping to redeem Willow, working patiently at this non-stop until Willow was redeemed from this life of sexual sin, as well as her addiction to magick spells- Sorcery.
Tara was alarmed: now she understood that she'd lead Willow into being a sorceress, but added to that, Willow was also a threat to Kennedy now, and that had to be stopped! Tara had made clear to Willow by "That girl loves you, you know..." that Kennedy is younger and weaker than they are, and if they can each control others' muscle movements in a fight, then even someone super-strong like Kennedy would be helpless- what Tara was saying was that Kennedy needs to be treated gently and lovingly, not to have her life threatened or to be abused, she needs to be loved and treated correctly: as a young woman is to be treated: with respect! What Tara had in essence told Willow was that Kennedy needs to be loved, not threatened with bodily harm, and to treat her with proper feminine respect as God's daughter!
"God's daughter." Tara mused, considering the proper term for any female human, and why this woman deserves proper respect- and that that's the proper respect for any female: to regard her as God's daughter! Tara had initially read Kennedy as a type of princess, now she was certain this was correct, but it appeared she'd gained some of this inheritance in this life, and was ruining it by engaging in extra-marital sex. Tara actually felt sad for Kennedy, and a tad sisterly towards her as well- she respected her as a kid sister and deeply wanted to protect her from harm.
What she wasn't aware of was that that interest in Kennedy as a kid sister of hers was in fact of a distinctly supernatural origin; same with all protective platonic concern for neighbor as neighbor., but she knew she enjoyed that trait, it was kind of fun, really, to care for her neighbor's wellbeing in such terms, and an awful lot of fun at that too! She didn't care about her romantically but as if this Latina girl was in fact her kid stepsister; it was tender and protective as well as deepset into her personality, and it was very fun indeed!
Tara knew she had a while yet to work on aiding her ex and her ex's new girl into celibate love for other girls besides themselves; it was a general sense thereof that was hard to nail down; but it was doable, and "Aslan" or Whoever He was/is, had largely left her to work on this task "to pay off her debt" as He'd put it- something she was more than eager to do to aid her girlfriend and friends thereof in perfecting themselves at that, and He'd made it clear that she had plenty of time and resources to carry this task out. She got the general sense that her task wasn't so much that of a female slave as an adopted sibling who'd been bad and now had to work off the penalties; sometimes she received visits from beings who'd best be described as either the "Powers that Be" or, in other words: "Paradise's court", for lack of a better term, and there were benefits too, like the ability to study college material- in fact, her access to the material in there was stronger still, same with the quality of the material she had access to. Her shame was that she'd messed up her gifts, but it felt good to be working on this job, even if practically everything she gained in her work went to paying her "fines" for the horrible behavior, such as occultic activities such as "calling on gangster spirits"- that was dumb, as she knew now. And as a result she felt more than a bit angry at her mom for teaching her to do that to begin with, but also to her other relatives for lying to her about her makeup, DNA-wise; she couldn't be part demon if her brother, Danny, wasn't like that either... none of that made sense either, but nor would it do anyone any benefit to call on a gangster spirit to help her to gain justice- you can't get justice from the Mafia, she knew that well.
End Chapter #2 Author's Notes: Well, what do you think? And please, be candidly honest, I do not expect really anyone to agree with me on anything, let alone on everything; that'd be dumb and delusional to estimate.
More is coming, rest assured.