Chapter 10 part one

Willow grinned happily as she found that 'Jolinar' was emailing her again, they were always swapping advice about magic and encouraging each other, her friend had advised her to learn the basics before learning the rest.
That was a good idea.
The redhead had been getting emails from 'Jolinar' for the past few days and had enjoyed talking to her immensely, she had easily worked out who was talking to her, and there was only one person who would use a Tok'ra's name. Samantha Carter.

Willow didn't call her up on it because she didn't want to make Sam leave, she was after all the only wiccan friend she had. Well, there was Giles but he never encouraged her and he always clucked his tongue disapprovingly and hid the spell books, Ms. Calendar was a good magic teacher when she had the time to be, but she had her computer classes, homework to grade and Giles to be all romantic with.
So that left Willow without a friend to share magic with, then Sam came along and now she was getting advice from a responsible adult how to be responsible for the power that she had and the power that she might gain.

She had told Xander about the emails because she knew that he wouldn't tell anyone and because they were a lot closer than they had ever been.

The redheaded witch was trying a few good techniques that she hadn't done. Willow prepared to work her magic, she got off her chair and climbed onto her bed and sat in the middle cross-legged; she closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, she concentrated on inhaling and exhaling and trying to control it.
She needed to do this a few times a day to keep her balanced and to center herself, especially if she was doing magic. She shut out the noises outside her bedroom window, she ignored the twittering birds and the wind jostling the trees.

It was sorta like Kel-no-reem Willow remembered that Teal'c did that a lot. She could vaguely feel the magic in her, she could also feel the odd stuff running through her veins along with her blood. It scared her slightly because the magic and the stuff in her veins connected and mixed, she wondered if that would make her magic different.

There was one way to find out…

She opened her eyes slowly and concentrated on the half-melted ice-cube in front of her, she reached inside her and drew up some magic, "Ignis incende." The ice burned but only melted quicker than normal, but she did see it smolder slightly before sputtering out.
"Huh, the fire was a nada," she sighed and then looked at the wet patch on her bed. "Well, at least something happened."

The redhead typed to 'Jolinar'.

MagicSoldier: Nothing, nada, zilch.

Jolinar: Just keep trying, just remember don't skip past learning the basics and just respect your magic okay.

MagicSoldier: Okay, oh, well. The ice cube did melt quicker and there was a LITTLE fire- it was just…real puny.

Jolinar: that's great, at least something happened- I still can't lift a heavy book up from the table yet. Don't expect too much of yourself so soon. You remember Uncle Ben's words right?

MagicSoldier: oh yeah, "With great power comes great responsibility." Hey, thanks for telling me about that, I haven't been much with the responsibility so far. As for the Telekinesis, it'll happen soon, I guess it just takes practice.

Joliner: Thanks, and don't forget Uncle Ben's words- they're true, even if it is from a children's cartoon.

MagicSoldier: I won't. Still, my magic isn't 'great' though, it's kinda little. Not that I want it to be great, that would be scary.

Jolinar: the saying basically means that however big or little your power is you're responsible for every last bit of it. Besides, I think you're doing great.

MagicSoldier: Thanks (: I don't think you're doing too bad yourself :D

Jolinar:D uh oh, I have to go, work's calling me! I'll speak to you in a little while (:

MagicSoldier: okay, bye

Jolinar: bye.

Sam was right, she shouldn't expect so much of herself. She wished she could though.

She wished that Giles would teach her how to do magic but he had his responsibilities with Buffy, Sam didn't know much about magic but she was teaching Willow some things that had slipped her own mind. She was just a kid, a sensible kid, but still a kid and she made mistakes, hopefully Sam's advice would prevent many of them.

After all, Sam didn't have the foolishness that teenagers did, even smart teenagers could slip up.

Willow looked slightly worried and held that feeling, she needed to be careful.

Willow scowled a little after a minute, "Why can't it be as easy as just saying "Ignis incende" then my problems would be solved."

As she said the incantation the second time she waved her hands a little in agitation and failed to notice the three candles on the small desk light up on fire as she walked out of her room.

Ten minutes later

Willow bounced down the stairs two at a time while holding tight to the wooden railings and then jumped over the last three steps and raced to the front door as the doorbell rung for the hundredth time in the last few minutes. The redhead wrenched it open feeling a little irritated and saw that Buffy was at the door looking a little pissed off.

"Buffy, what-" Willow didn't get to finish her question as her blonde friend pushed her way passed her and into the house, she noticed that the blonde had some crispy-looking leaves stuck in her hair.

"Demon, ugly, weak-looking demon," she said looking a little tired. "Can I use your phone to get Giles?"

Willow nodded and led her to the phone immediately, she bit her tongue to stop herself from asking questions that the blonde obviously wouldn't want to answer. She watched as Buffy grabbed the phone and started punching in the numbers, then she paused and waited for the answering male voice.

Buffy's hazel eyes widened slightly as her Watcher answered the phone, "Giles? We got a demon-problem." She listened to what Giles was saying then said. "We'll be there in an hour."

She hung up and turned to Willow and was about to say something before she stopped as she finally properly looked at her redhead buddy, "Willow, what are you wearing!?"

Willow grinned and snickered, the look on Buffy's face was priceless!

Willow then frowned and looked down at herself, she was wearing cargo pants, a black long-sleeved shirt and boots- so why was Buffy looking like that? "What?" she asked in confusion.

Buffy looked at her shy, redheaded friend dressed in what looked like soldier-clothes and then looked at her wide and confused green eyes, "Willow, what…what are you wearing!?" she repeated looking a bit freaked.

The witch shrugged, "Just my patrol gear, Buff." What did she expect her to wear when fighting vampires- flowery skirts?! Well, okay so she used to do that, but since she'd been possessed at Halloween she realized that pants were easier to fight in than skirts.

Buffy looked surprised, "'Patrol gear'?" she repeated with her eyebrows raised. When has Willow ever worn patrol gear? Was there a patrol gear that she didn't know about? No, she didn't think so.

Willow smiled humorously, "Yeah, ever since the Halloween incident I've been thinking that wearing skirts isn't such a good idea in combat situations, the combatant would be…well, restricted in terms of movement. So I think this is the appropriate attire for engaging in a fight against vampires…" she gulped as she realized that Buffy was looking at her like she had grown another head.

She cringed; she wished she didn't keep slipping up like this without meaning to. Even if the stuff she was saying was true, the thing that bothered her was that the OLD Willow hadn't and wouldn't ever think like that. She wondered how much she had changed in the eyes of her friends.

"Wow, Willow," said Buffy looking almost lost for words. "Um, well, I guess you can wear whatever you want to." She smiled at her friend, her little Willow seemed to be growing up; it was good for her.

Willow nodded, "Xander's probably going for the same outfit." Add that to Xander cutting his hair and it really looked like they had actually grown up, which they had.

Buffy nodded and said, "So…the demon."

Willow nodded, "Let's go."

A few hours later

The Sunnydale High school library was in a state of disarray; books were strewn across the large table beneath the wooden railings above it that went around the numerable stacks full of books. The large table was currently occupied by Willow, Xander, Buffy and Giles who were researching- well, Willow and Giles were researching while Xander juggled three soft balls and Buffy twirled a stake in her hand.
Willow turned over a page of the book she was reading, she looked at the illustration of a pale, weedy-looking demon covering the left page and blinked; she turned to Buffy and said, "Buffy, is this the demon?" she pushed the book towards the blonde. "It's called 'Daelus'."

The blonde Slayer stopped twirling the stake immediately and studied the picture, she nodded slowly, "Yeah, I pretty sure it is." She looked at Willow and said. "It was dark out, but I'm still sure it's the demon we're looking for."

Giles and Xander had both stopped what they were doing to look at the two girls, the Slayer stood up and grasped her stake tightly, "How do I kill it?" she asked.

Xander smirked, "Snap the guy like a twig?" the demon was skinny enough.

Buffy shook her head, "Don't underestimate it, Xand. It's stronger than it looks." It had been a struggle for her to get away from the demon.

"You need to use a wooden weapon, Buff," explained Willow as she looked at the text. This demon looked harmless, but you should always expect the unexpected.

Buffy held up her stake and grinned, "Problem solved." She jumped off her chair and looked ready for a fight, but Willow stopped her and elaborated on the text.

"The wood needs to be Oak, apparently they're susceptible to it," she stated and then looked at them and away from the book. "The Daelus demon has a very thin layer of Oak wood over its skeleton, but that wood has the demon's blood mixed in with it. According to this the fact that the wood in its body had been so contaminated that another contamination will kill it even if it is something that's already analogous to its interior."

Willow finished and looked at her friends, the Slayer looked as confused as hell, Xander was half asleep and Giles was looking quite surprised at her. Xander shook himself awake and looked at her exasperated. "Bottom-line it for me, okay."

"Uh, we need Oak wood to kill it," she said looked vaguely uncomfortable.

Xander threw his arms up into the air and said, "You couldn't have just said that?" Willow rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"How are we going to get Oak wood?" she asked pointedly. Giles stood up and polished his glasses before replacing them.

"In the cemetery near the Ice cream place," informed Giles after a second. They looked at him confusedly. "I remember reading about how many cemeteries there were in Sunnydale before arriving there- one chap commented on most the trees there being oak."

Xander looked incredulous, "And you remembered that?" Giles nodded.

Forty minutes later the Scoobies were walking around the dark cemetery quietly, the blonde turned to the redhead and asked, "How do we know if we're using the right tree?"

Willow answered, "We don't, we just pick a few trees each and then we're likely to get the right one." Buffy nodded and continued picking some trees to snap the branches off.

Willow wanted to take the branches of all the trees home so that she could analyze them properly, but she knew that they didn't have the time to do that or the equipment so she kept the thoughts to herself. She wondered where the demon was now.

She vaguely heard some crumbling sounds, the pre-possessed Willow would have failed to notice this but the Sam in her did and she turned around in time to flip a young vampire over her shoulder and onto the ground preventing her from being bitten by it. She grabbed her stake and plunged it into the vamp's unbeating heart; he disintegrated into a cloud of dust.

Xander looked concerned as he watched her, she smiled at him triumphantly to let him know that she was fine, he grinned, "Nice one, Will."

The redhead nodded, "No problem, sir." Buffy's eyebrows were immediately in danger of disappearing into her hairline while Xander looked befuddled.
Damn it! She hated it when she slipped up like this, and now she'd slipped up in front of Buffy…again! Oh well, there are a lot stranger things than calling your best friend 'Sir'.

"'Sir?'" asked Buffy looking confused. "Willow, you and Xander have been acting wiggy the last couple of months, what's going on?" You didn't call your best friend 'Sir' because you're growing up.

Willow gulped inaudibly and wracked her brains for an explanation that didn't involve the truth, it was Xander who saved them, "It's nothing, Buff. Willow's just got a bad headache and neither of us has been feeling too good. Maybe we've got a cold or something."

Buffy nodded taking the explanation at face-value and then turned to her redheaded buddy, "Great technique you used there, how did you learn it?"
Willow wasn't a physical-fighting person; she had made that fact known a few times over the two years that they'd been fighting the forces of darkness. So why was she suddenly flipping vampires like pancakes?

"Uh, I watch you fight vamps, Buff," Willow said trying to keep her voice steady. She wasn't a good liar, the soldier-possession had improved her lying capabilities a little but whether or not she was good at it she hated lying. Especially to her friends. "And you know that Xander and I have been using the gym a lot."

The Slayer nodded and smiled, "Look at you, fight-y Willow!" Willow grinned and pushed the guilt down.

"Children!" they turned as they heard Giles calling them. "Enough talking, we have got a demon to kill."

They nodded and stashed their branches in the big leather bag that was usually used for carrying axes and crossbows.

By two in the morning, three and a half hours later, they had left the library for the second time after breaking into the school in the night. They'd found six oak branches, they used knives to shape the ends of the branches into sharp, thick points and then had shortened the handles of the branches. They now had a couple of weapons each.

Willow rubbed her tired eyes sleepily and tried to cover her yawn, Buffy caught it and said, "Are you sure you wanna come out, Will?"

The redhead nodded, "You bet I am! Demon ass-kicking here I come!"

Buffy smiled, "Thanks, Will."

Willow noticed that Xander was a little behind them and turned, "Hey, Xand, you know that you could just leave those things there. It's not like there's anyone here to find the stuff."

Xander put one of the books that were strewn across the library and was about to shove it into a random shelf, "I know, but if Snyder get suspicious again and decides to come out to the school and finds this stuff we're screwed."

Willow rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on!" she walked over to him and grabbed his forearm. "What are the odds of that happening?"

"But-" he started protesting, but the redhead dragged him through the library door to catch up with the others.

Giles had done a locater spell to find the demon's 'home', it was in one of the other cemetery's many crypts, now all they had to do was find out which crypt held the demon, before it killed another innocent person.

Willow came out of one crypt with Giles behind her, she looked at Buffy who came out of the crypt opposite them and shook her head tiredly indicating that they hadn't found the demon. The blonde slayer sighed and turned to Xander who was coming out of the same crypt, he looked bored and was juggling his two stakes.

Buffy made a beeline to Giles and Willow quickly, "Giles, are you sure you did the spell right?" she hoped that her mom hadn't noticed her absence at the house or she was in deep shit.

Giles looked offended, "Yes, of course I am," he took his glasses from his nose and started polishing. "I suppose we just need to look harder, we should branch out so we can cover more ground.

They nodded and went off to search for the demon again.