"Fairy dust."
Angelus spun around. "What?" he asked.
"Fairy dust," she repeated. "That's how I got here." She could tell that he had no idea what she was talking about. Buffy sighed. She had decided to take a leap of fate and open up a little to these people. Maybe she would get answers in the process, too. "I was told while in another land that I should come here," she told him. "Obviously everyone knows that is impossible but I was given a small vile of fairy dust and I was told if I made it out here I should throw some onto the wall from the other side and I would be granted entrance."
"And it worked?" he asked, his forehead wrinkled up.
She nodded. "When I finally got to the other side of the wall, I threw dust at it like I was told. At first, nothing happened but then suddenly there was a little cubbyhole that appeared. I had to climb up the wall to get to it as it was several feet off of the ground but I made it. I opened the door and there was a tunnel, so I climbed inside and followed it. It seemed to take forever but finally I found the end, running into it I might add. But, I opened the door on the other side. It was raining and even colder than it had become inside the tunnel. I was several feet off the ground still and there wasn't as much help on this side on getting down so for the most part I just fell from the hole. When I landed, the rain stopped and light fell on me. I looked up and the cubbyhole in the wall had vanished."
"Why were you told to come here?" he asked.
She shrugged, falling into a chair.
"Someone told you to come here, of all places, and you just did it?"
She shrugged again. "It sounded like a good idea to me, the best plan I had heard so far."
"And why is that?"
"Because it's the end of the line and no one would ever give a passing thought to whether I would be here or not. I mean, it's supposed to be impossible right?"
"What was your plan when you got here?"
She sighed. "I don't know. I didn't exactly expect the sun to start stalking me," she said. "All I wanted to do was to sneak in and remain unnoticed. That plan rather got shot to hell, though, wouldn't you say?"
"What's fairy dust?"
Buffy's fingers reached up to the small necklace around her neck that hid the remains of what she'd been given. "Magic," she answered.
"Where does it come from?"
"Fairies."
"What the hell is a fairy?"
"Is it true that everyone here has supernatural powers?" she asked instead of answering.
He looked annoyed for a moment. "Yes. Some more than others."
"But you don't have fairies here?"
"Not that I am aware of. There's witches, healers, fortune tellers..."
"Fairies are kind of a whole breed of their own," she finally said and did her best to explain what she knew of them and described the one who gave her the magic dust.
"Does this fairy dust only create doors to places?"
She shook her head. "It has many powers, but it depends on who gave it to you and why. Some can make a person fly, erase memories, things like that."
"Do you have fairies in your land?"
"No, but they are found in a handful of others as far as I know. People are always looking for them from my understanding, but they always seem to find you instead."
"So the one who came to you... she was looking for you?"
"I guess. Either way, she found me and led me here."
"Did she say anything else?"
"Nothing that pertained to me coming here." Which was true. The fairy had spoken to her briefly about where she came from and who she was, but nothing more than that. She didn't exactly want to share that much with him so kept it to herself.
OoOoO
When it came time to eat, this time she joined the others in the main dining hall. The King was there, as were his 'watchers' as he called them, Wesley and Mister Giles, a few servants she recognized, some she didn't, there was a woman in a business suit standing by Angelus then two other women who looked about her age.
Giles hurried to help her to her seat and introduced her to the others. She had heard Tara and Willow mentioned and brought that up and she was told how they helped get her found in the first place.
During the lavish meal, she decided she liked the two girls well enough.
OoOoO
Buffy had retold the information about the fairy experience to Giles and Wes after dinner then left them in the library to do their research. As she was rounding a corner, she nearly ran over the redhead from earlier. "Oh, excuse me! Willow, right?"
She smiled. "Yeah. And trust me, all my fault, I haven't gotten used to this place yet."
"You don't stay here?"
Willow shook her head. "No. Well, we have been for the last couple of days... but before that, no, not even close."
"Oh."
"Can I show you something?" Willow asked suddenly, before she could say anymore.
"Um... I guess?"
Willow smiled and led her down the hall and to the room she and Tara were sharing. The girl went over to the bed, bent down and picked up a large bag and put it on the bed. She unzipped it and pulled out a few disks then went to go play them. "I think you play a much bigger part than you realize," Willow told her.
"What do you mean?"
Willow patted next to her and Buffy walked over. "It's not just the sun and the rain that you changed."
Buffy asked her again what she meant but Willow only pointed at the screen then started the disk. On it, the other girl, Tara, was shown... looking nothing like the girl she had met hours ago. Yes, her face was the same, but that was all. She seemed out of her mind, talking in riddles and more-so plain gibberish, with a few coherent words here and there. Her eyes and face seemed so blank, staring off into space, unfocused on anything.
"This was Tara... last week."
"What... what happened to her?"
Willow clasped her hands together. "Many years ago, there was a witch named Glory here. She started getting into the dark magicks apparently. One day, she attacked one of our schools." Willow looked down. "It was where the more 'gifted' children went. The more powerful. And she started going after the children. Some she, I guess, had no use for and killed. Others she drained them of their power. Some... some she just left broken like this."
Willow played a small news report next.
"Tara was always the happiest person I ever met. So smart. So carefree. But after that day... she was never the same. It was like... 99% of her was just gone. Stolen. She'd been living with the effects ever since."
"I'm so sorry," Buffy told her honestly. She could tell there was special bond between the two young girls.
"But... I think... I think you coming here fixed her."
"I didn't do anything, Willow," Buffy argued.
"Maybe not, but that's what I think happened anyway. She felt you coming, she'd babbled on about it. And at the time no one thought anything about it. But then, when the rain stopped and we saw the sun... it was like she returned to me."
Buffy felt like her chest was going to crush in. "I... I don't..."
Willow gently grabbed her hand. "I don't understand any of this either, not really. But I just wanted you to know. And I wanted to thank you. I think something big is going to happen, and I think you're going to be in the middle of it all."
OoOoO
"You look like you're about to get sick. Everything okay?"
Buffy sat down again, took in a few deep breaths. "I have no idea what is going on here. I really don't."
Angelus knelt down next to her, placing his hand on her back. "It's okay," he whispered a few times over.
"Willow told me all this stuff about Tara and other children and some witch named Glory and how it's all different now, the rain stopping, the sun following me everywhere, lights coming on... I just... I don't understand any of it."
"It's okay," he said again, his hand rubbing her back gently. "We're going to figure all of this out, alright? We're all thrown through a loop with it right now, but we will get to the bottom of it all. I promise."
Buffy just nodded, unsure of what to say.
OoOoO
Feeling very overwhelmed and suffocated, Buffy stepped out onto a balcony and enjoyed the night air, the soft breeze hitting her. She closed her eyes and asked The Powers That Be for the countless of times in her mind why her? Why was this her life?
Her life was split into two decades. One where she was back in her own land, she had a family, friends, a life. The other was this... always on the run, having nothing, doing nothing but trying to survive.
Sometimes she wondered if the old memories, the good ones, were even real. If they weren't just some fantasy she created in her head.
OoOoO
Rupert Giles touch his lord's shoulder when he got up to go after the young blonde. "Give her a few minutes," he said softly. "Then I'll go talk to her."
"I don't think probing for more information right now is going to help her."
He gave a small smile at the king. "There will be none of that tonight. I just want to get to know her a little better, and vice versa. Maybe she'll open up more to us the more comfortable she is."
"Fine."
OoOoO
"Are you alright out here, dear girl?" Giles called out, stepped onto the balcony after several moments had passed.
She let out a huge breath. "I don't feel quite as boxed in," she gave.
Giles smiled a little. "It's rather beautiful out tonight," he commented, looking up. "Can't believe we even have stars now," he said.
"Yeah," she breathed, looking up herself. "That has to be pretty odd for you all too, huh?"
"You could say that."
"Do you know much about them? The stars?"
"Hmm? Oh, well, yes and no. On paper I do, the systems, the names and all. I've been studying such for as long as I can remember. But this..." he shook his head. "It is one thing to read about something, to study it, but another to actually see it like this."
"I can relate so well to that," she told him.
A comfortable silence fell between them.
"We have all had so many questions about you, you must have plenty for us as well," Giles said at last.
She looked at him, then away. He didn't think she was going to respond but then, "What happened to Glory?"
His hands came up, brought his glasses down and began wiping them. "Angelus killed her," he said simply.
"He do that often? Kill people?" Buffy asked, a little bit of fear creeping in but mostly it was just curiosity.
Giles' lips twisted up at her tone. "No," he replied. "That was his first and, so far, his last kill."
She nodded. "Hmm."
He put his glasses back on his face.
"How do grow food here? With all the rain, lack of sun? How do the animals..."
He sat down for this one, it was a long and complicated story for how they had managed that. A lot of underground greenhouses where it wasn't so bad with the downpour, engineering to perfection...
"How long have you worked here?"
They continued like this for over an hour. Her questions were broad, one topic to another, profound to silly at times. He did his best to answer, and found himself actually enjoying the interaction with the young stranger. He found her intelligent, funny and very curious. Something about her reminded him of Angelus, too, when he was younger and not so worn down from this life.
OoOoO
Giles opened the door and allowed the girl to pass before he followed suit. He smiled and gave a nod toward the king, watching the girl start for him. He couldn't help but smile as he watched them. The air seemed to lighten whenever the two were in close quarters, not to mention he had heard seen the effects otherwise that came about when the two were together. He was at a loss for what any of it meant, but it was rather fascinating.
He started walking towards his partner to get back to work when he gave them one last look. And that was when he saw it. Elizabeth was yawning and stretched her arms up. Her shirt pulled upward just a little and he squinted, seeing some hint of a marking on her flesh. But just like that, her arms lowered and it was gone. But he knew he'd seen it, and for some reason he thought it was almost familiar somehow, as if he'd seen it before.
And this was only with the a mere glimpse of a piece of whatever it was.
He heard Angelus and Elizabeth saying they were off to retire for the evening and made out the sounds of their departure, as well as Wesley rambling off to one of the others who were currently down in the library with them. He was more focused on his task at hand though, finding a sheet of paper and trying to draw whatever was hidden deep in his memory.
OoOoO
Angelus had just climbed into bed when there was a frantic knocking on his door.
For a second he started growling and grumbling, then he felt his heart beat pick up as his mind went to the girl. What if something had happened? What is she decided to take off? What if something new came about? He jumped up and ran to the door, opening it to find an excited-looking Giles on the other side. "What is it?" he breathlessly asked.
He looked downright giddy to be honest. Giles' white teeth flashed, he held a piece of paper that had something drawn on it. "I know who she is." Giles pushed his way past Angelus, entering the king's chambers. Angelus watched him, still completely dumbfounded. And a second later he heard Wesley following in from down the hall. He walked in with his arms full of books and papers, looking quite out of breath.
"You know who she is?" Angelus finally asked. He didn't know why this made him so impossibly nervous, but it did.
"Yes," Giles said, his white teeth flashing as he smiled. "She is the product of true love."
There was that phrase again. True Love. He hadn't told anyone about his visitor in the mirror yet, but had a feeling he would be by the end of this conversation. "The product of true love?" he repeated.
"Yes."
"What the hell does that mean?" he asked, growing annoyed.
Giles couldn't seem to keep still. He put the papers down and went over to Wes, sorting through books until he found the one he wanted. "Let me back up just a little," he said and began telling them how he had noticed the marking on Elizabeth's skin earlier, how it had looked familiar for some reason. "I tried to think back, and to see if I couldn't draw it. When I had an early sketch, I hurried to my books to look in there and that's when it all clicked." Giles reached over to grab the white sheet he had been holding when he came and handed it to Angelus and began describing it briefly. "It's the seal from Acathla."
Angelus was aware that centuries ago they started the tradition of marking those from their land with this symbol but he listened all the same as Giles found an article about it in one of the books and began explaining it.
Angelus pinched the bridge of his nose letting this information sink it. He thought back to all the information he knew about this other land. In terms of actual size Acathla was the smallest kingdom, though moderately populated compared to others. It also happened to be the wealthiest "Do you have a map?" The King asked the two watchers.
A large cloth map was pulled from another one of the books and laid across the bed. Giles smoothed it out once more then pointed to where Acaltha was.
That was just what he'd been picturing in his head as he tried to place the land in question. "Acaltha is more than five kingdoms over from here," he said. One or two away he could wrap his head around, but the small blonde had to have traveled through seven entire worlds just to get here. That was no easy feat for anyone, let alone with some of the lands he knew were between here and there. It was no longer what was she running from so bad that she would come here at all, but go to such lengths just to get here.
As if reading his mind, Giles continued. "She's on the run from their king."
For as long as he had the title here in Wolfram And Hart, Hank Summers had in Acathla. Angelus had never been very fond of their leader to begin with but over the past decade Summers had really gotten under his skin. At the last two meetings between the leaders Hank seemed to take it upon himself to take over, ranting and raving about the same thing, his consuming desire for revenge against his late wife and anything that had to do with her. "What makes you think that?"
"Because that young woman we have taken in is Buffy Summers," Giles said. He paused briefly. "Elizabeth Summers."
OoOoO
Ten years ago Angelus had been given a pile of notebooks from one of the other kingdoms. It was probably his favorite thing he'd ever received at the gatherings as it was the most personal. Not only that, but it almost served as the only other closest thing he had to real interaction with anyone outside of The Dark Realm's walls. It was given to him from the then-king of Amara, which was the kingdom furthest away from them, at the other end of the world so to speak. Inside the pages of the books held hand-written words from their king... stories from their land, recipes, sharing some of their customs. The pages had sections in them dedicated to each of the kingdoms... he was told in them about the various lands, their customs, their descriptions, brief history, interesting facts. There were stories of the current leaders, gossip about the different lands.
It was the closest he got to being outside of these walls, and he truly cherished the gift. He'd read over it countless of times, and still felt like he found something new in it every time.
It was in these journals that Angelus had learned more about Hank Summers. Some he'd known from information passed in the meetings during his run as king, but most came from these presents from Amara.
Hank Summers had not been born into royalty like most leaders. Instead, he'd made a challenge for the throne, and won. Many believed he'd cheated somehow, but nevertheless, he became king. And he used the power to wed Joyce Du Lac.
It was no secret that Hank had been in love with Joyce according to the journals, but she was spoken for. As few in any land marry for love as it were, it was infuriating to Hank that she continued to turn him down, even after taking the throne. So, in order to get her to accept the position of his queen, Hank began threatening Joyce and her love's families. When threats alone did not work, he made good on his word and killed every member of her family. Before he could go after Ethan's family she called for him to stop, agreeing to marry if he would.
Summers banished the entire Rayne family from his land, marring the entire family to try and rid them of even the mark to show where they came from. Joyce was forbidden from seeing Rayne again, even from mentioning his name.
Apparently, this did not stop the two lovers though. While Joyce remained unhappy in the marriage, she would use any chance she had to flee using one excuse or another from the side of Hank and meet up with Ethan. Many actual knew, but no one dared mentioned it to the king. Fear of being the messenger of bad news, people just mining their own business, those rooting for the pair, even the few who helped sneak Joyce in or Ethan out so they could see one another.
When Joyce eventually fell pregnant, Hank obviously assumed it was his and was overjoyed. Just as he had with everything that had to do with Joyce, he brought out all the stops for the new baby. After she, the daughter, Elizabeth, was born it was clear Hank had no fathering instinct in him really, it was more he felt he had gained more power and control, not to mention more to boast about.
For ten years Hank was led to believe Elizabeth was his own. But when he found out the truth... Nobody seemed to know for sure the details of how the information was shared, but most believed Joyce was sick of the charade. In any event, the king found out that his wife had betrayed him this entire time. That she had secretly been meeting with Ethan, bringing Elizabeth along when she was older as well, telling the girl the truth at a young age... that when she'd fallen pregnant she had been tested to make sure it was Ethan's child and not his, which was true... That no matter what he did, Joyce would never truly be his.
Hank went on a rampage. He announced to the kingdom his wife's indiscretion and that there would be hell to pay. The Rayne family were hunted down, imprisoned at the castle until all were found. Then, one by one, beaten, torture, slaughtered. Ethan was saved for last. Joyce and Elizabeth were taken from their tower where they had been forced to watch and brought down to them. Hank made a mockery of the situation, doing everything he could to hurt the three of them. When Hank finally ended Ethan's life he turned towards his wife and the child only to see the girl start running as fast as her little legs would carry her in that moment and Joyce already dead on the ground, her life ending the very second Ethan's did, her body hitting the ground at the same time as his.
Hank had been hunting the girl down ever since. Hunting parties, threats, reward money offered, ect. Any type of plan he could think of it was put out there. Angelus had just assumed the girl had probably died out there on her own long ago or who knew what... but this?
OoOoO
"True Love is the rarest thing that we know of," Giles said as they talked about the situation. "And the most powerful."
Angelus sighed. It wasn't like he knew anything about that. "People fall in love all the time," he said.
Giles shook his head. "People marry for a number of reasons, or are drawn together for any number of reasons. There's fondness of someone, liking them, and yes sometimes even loving them... but to truly be one with someone else is a rare gift. And that is what Joyce and Ethan had, and their daughter was even more of a treasure, made from this unbreakable bond."
"Which begins to explain a lot," Wesley said.
"Not to me it doesn't!"
Giles sighed, removing his glasses. "That girl is of the purest love, the purest light. She's more powerful than any evil could ever dream to be. That's why- part of the why- to the light following her here. Why the curse has been tapering off."
Angelus looked annoyed, the watcher's anxious. That only made him more on edge. "What?"
"I think there's more... and I think it has to do with you."
"Like what?"
Giles looked down for a moment, his eyes scanning over a few books that had been laid out in front of him. "I... I believe she's not only the product of love," he said. "I think she's someone else's half, too." Giles swallowed. "I think she's supposed to be yours."
Angelus growled loudly, his eyes flashing. "What?"
"I think she's supposed to break the curse, help break it anyway, but beyond that... I think she's supposed to save you," Giles rushed out.