A/N: I'm SO incredibly excited and SO incredibly nervous about this, I can't decide which, either way I present to you Chapter 11: The Tale of the Strawberry Flower. Hopefully it'll answer some questions. Whether your just lurking about on the internet or letting me know what you think I just wanted to say a big thank-you for casually-skimming/reading/following/reviewing my little story so far. Just like my Grandad use to say "it only gets better from here".
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the words I type.
Previously on Cobwebs and Silk...
"You got nothing on me Buffy. And in case you don't remember you're not big with killing humans. To high and mighty to watch the sinners blood boil." Amy taunted, as a shrill chuckle forced through her throat.
Giles found himself wondering again what makes a person so much better than a beast.
It was then that Tara, who had remained quite all afternoon, stood slowly, walked to where her girlfriend (well most likely ex-girlfriend by now) was lying strapped to a chair and promptly kicked her in the face with one solid motion.
"I am having the worst day, and I really couldn't care less that I've been dating a manipulative psychopath for over a year. I don't care who the hell you are. I don't care why the hell you did it. I just care where she is. So tell Amy Madison, where's Willow?" Tara spoke through clenched teeth, tears escaped blue eyes but they didn't have any effect on her voice. She didn't' stutter once.
Chapter 11: The Tale of the Strawberry Flower
The air stilled. Tara could feel everyone looking at her, she hated when people looked at her like that. It was the way her father had looked the night she told him her "dirty little secret" as Donny use to call it. That was over a year ago now, and that was the last time she' d seen him.
Blood began to seep from Amy's nose, Tara had never made someone bleed before. Not once.
I did that. Tara shuddered at the thought, and for the briefest moment she felt absolutely terrified but the emotion dissolved into her determination and was lost almost instantly.
They had to find Willow.
It was a matter of necessity. Willow was special; Tara had always known that, but she was rapidly coming to understand the true extent of that simple truth. "You think she was channeling it directly?" Giles voice echoed in her thoughts.
In the sewers Willow had cast, she hadn't meant to, but she had, what was troubling Tara was that she didn't draw her power from a source. Tara had studied witchcraft her entire life, there always has to be a source.
See a witch has the ability to access power and manipulate it, to create the physical embodiment of spirit. This power can be in almost anything, there is power in nature, there is power in cursed objects, there is power in enchanted words, there is power in spells, you can make power if you combine herbs and potions, you can even be granted power in times of need from a higher being. That's why people pray, their begging for power they don't have.
Power has to come from something. But Willow's power...it had come from herself. Tara knew what that meant, she wished she didn't. I need to stop it, we have to get her away from Rack, she shouldn't be near magic at all, we have to get her away from the hell mouth. Far far away
"I don't know." Amy said adamantly. Stressing each syllable. For the first time that afternoon the hostage reminded the others of the Amy they grew up with. The Amy who'd insisted on researching from home when things got boring and always ate the last of the jelly donuts. She'd stopped shaking, she just lay on her side tied to a chair.
"Amy." Tara warned. There was a threat embedded in the inflection. They needed more than that.
"I don't know where they are I swear. I blacked out after Willow...after she...wait how did she?..." Amy suddenly twisted her head to the side so that she could look at Tara directly. Her brow knitted in confusion for a moment before her jaw dropped at the realization.
"Oh my god... " came Amy's voice through an astounded expression.
Tara swallowed. Why would that shock her?
"Willow's a source...A living source!" Amy announced as if angry she hadn't realized the fact earlier. She's surprised?
"You didn't know?" Tara clarified cautiously.
"She must have, why else separate the witch's essence from her physical form if not for that reason?" Giles interjected quite logically.
Buffy strode past Tara and yanked the chair back up on all four legs so that the conversation could be continued with everyone upright.
"That bastard! He's gonna use her as a beacon! He'll have a direct channel! Never-ending supply! She was mine! It's my world! My magicks! I should get the source! He stole it from me! It had be Willow, sweet little Willow, that should be MY power! I showed it to her! Gave her a taste. She was suppose to pay me back!" her voice became hurried a slurred with rage as she spat each word out and began twitching against the chair, whatever lucidity Amy had found after Tara's assault was quickly waning.
"Amy!" Buffy shouted.
"He used me..." Amy snarled loudly. She suddenly remembered Rack's sultry voice the night before "Your mother tasted like cheap perfume and vodka." He had know where it was "in the bedside draw she kept under lock and key, under the pearls and the broach in the shape of a peacock." Her mother wouldn't have left it there. Her mother would have used it. Wished her way right back into her glory days. Which meant it was someone else...which meant it was Rack.
"Amy!" Buffy yelled, but Amy didn't hear her.
"He's been planning this all along! He said I could drink when she was dry! Liar! He wants it all for himself the greedy pig!" Amy was screaming now as if accusing Rack to his face. But the warlock wasn't there, just the Scoobies and the growing volume of Amy's voice.
"Buffy the neighbors." Xander pointed out.
"Argghhhhhhh!" An uncontrollably shrill scream tore through Amy throat. The other's shot hands over ears in an attempt to preserve there violated eardrums. Amy threw her weight vigorously about the wooden chair and it's frame threatened to buckle as it warped with the thrashing movements of its occupant.
"He just left me there! All covered in filth! Left me alone to itch! Itch! Itch! Itch under the skin, claws deeper deeper deeper into the bones beneath my chest!" Amy was screaming. It was difficult to discern exactly when one word started and the next begun
"Someone's defiantly going to here that!" Anya yelled over the chaos.
"AMY!" Buffy grasped the girl roughly by the shoulders in an effort to silence her. Amy's head bent crookedly left to right as to avoid Buffy's eyes as she continued murmuring in a softer tone.
"She's insane." Dawn stated in a horrified little voice from the corner of the room.
"Amy I need you to stick with me here for a second, then you can go play in crazy town all you like." Buffy said clicking her fingers in Amy's face. Amy could hear it SNAP SNAP SNAP, but couldn't manage to focus her eyes long enough to identify the cause of the sound. She could feel her blood grating against her veins like salt. Every noise was amplified. Every movement an attack. SNAP SNAP SNAP.
"Have to help them. Have to help them catch kill the bastard." Amy muttered, she flinched as her left arm started to spasm despite her restraints.
"That's the spirit!." Anya said in a awkward but cheery voice.
Amy commenced rocking gently, it was a comforting motion. Like being a baby. Rock them to sleep. She couldn't remember if her mother ever did that.
"Why did you make Willow a ghost?" Tara asked softly from over Buffy's shoulder.
"Didn't mean ghost. I meant alone. I meant desperate." Amy replied shakily.
"Why?" Tara asked quickly.
The basement seemed so quite now.
"Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided...I had to help her choose." Amy answered in a riddle. Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided, the words seemed to loop through her thoughts over and over and she let them escape in a chant.
"Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided."
"Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided."
"Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided."
"Okay I think we get it." Xander said a shifting a little uncomfortably om his feet.
"I've heard that before, is that an ancient poem?...a prophesy?...a passage from a famous text?" Giles questioned.
"Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided." Amy answered rather unhelpfully.
"Amy?" Buffy tried to pull the girl from her repletion.
"Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided." Amy whispered softly to herself.
"Amy!" Buffy shook her a little without result.
"I think we broke her." Dawn suggested form where she sat, backed up against the bookshelf.
But Amy wasn't listening to anyone in the Summer's basement anymore. All she could hear was those words as the resonated through her body.
They'd lost Amy. Well not literally, she was still in the basement. Just, you know, insane. The Scooby's were assembled at the Magic Box, full research mode, and Buffy began to regret leaving a crazy-witch-bitch tied to her generator while they were out of the house. I really can't afford to cover any damages if she spazs out and magicks my basement into a hell dimension or something...maybe I could claim insurance? Unexpected mystical occurrence cover...that's not a real thing...okay maybe I could claim that the molten lava was a result of some freak fire caused by faulty circuits...that could work...wait do I even have insurance? I should really know that sort of thing. She cringed. Note to self: Ask Giles if I have insurance.
Buffy's attention span had flown out the window about twenty minutes ago. Who knew searching through hundreds of ratty old books to try and find a single sentence that Giles thinks he might have read in the last decade is not the where the parties at? She smiled a little and tried look studious.
Anya kept saying, "Oh! Oh!" as if she'd found something before announcing something like "This was me! I was the one who flayed that villager in 1899! Funny story actually..." and then retelling some gruesome tale, with much to graphic descriptors. Dawn seemed intent on whatever text lay before her; she ran her finger quickly through every line before turning to the next page. It was a very analytic approach, Buffy was impressed, she's like a baby watcher. Xander was quite, and to his credit there was a book open on his lap, but he looked like he was struggling to remain awake and occasionally shot Buffy a kill me now look, which would make Buffy giggle. Giles was rummaging through another box of dusty covers saying he'd recognize the text if he sore it...he thought it was green...or maybe blue...defiantly a cool color. Buffy had to hand it to him, if she'd read as much as he had there would be no way she'd remember something like this. Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided. That was their only lead. Well, they'd worked with less.
It was getting late and Buffy thought she'd wait another five minutes before taking Dawn home and doing a quick patrol. Maybe she should ask Tara to come with her? She didn't want her friend to be alone right now. Tara was sitting tightly-strung at the table. Her impeccable posture revealed the tension between her shoulder blades. She was frantically scanning book, after scroll, after random clay tablet. Anything she could get her hands on with writing. The crease between her eyes was threatening to become permanently engraved, and Buffy thought she must have a head-ache by now. Occasionally she would quickly wipe the palm of her hand down the length of her face, squint her eyes closed as if banishing unwanted thoughts and then recommence vigilant searching. She needs to get out of here for a bit, clear her head, SLEEP! Oh wow I wish I was sleeping right now.
It was then that Dawn called Giles over to check something and he happily announced that they'd found it. Great darkness, great light, in a moment to be decided.
Those words were recorded in a dusty old manuscript in a passage entitled Cobwebs and Silk. It was the tale of a strawberry flower that had both the potential to poison and the potential to heal. A thick ink line had been drawn to divide the tattered pages of the text, each side telling a version of the parable.
On one side the strawberry flower desiccated the soil of the earth so that no living thing would ever come to grow there again, the flower withered and cobwebs infested its roots.
On the other the flower bloomed. It's stamen was pure, it's seed ever-growing, and it's petal's white silk. The Powers That Be blessed it's fruit so that all who ate of it were protected from harm, comforted through pain and found peace within.
At the end of each segment it repeated great darkness, great light, in a moment decided.
"Fragaria ananassa, a strawberry flower." Giles translated as her read the final lines.
The shop was warm, protected against the nights chill, but even so Buffy felt a shiver run through her body as they all sat in silence, not knowing what to do with their new found information.
"So Scarlet's a hypothetical flower that's either gonna kill us all or make us into fruit salad?" Xander joked, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work. If anything the admission made things worse.
"Willow. Her name's Willow." Dawn whispered after no one else made an attempt to correct him. Buffy noticed her little sister move to sit with Tara about halfway through the first segment of story. She couldn't help swell with pride at Dawn's kind eyes when she squeezed Tara's hand under the table. Thats my girl. She'd thought
"It's curious, it ends in a question...perhaps to challenge the reader on their personal values? Help them critically reflect on what the parable means to them?" Giles suggested.
"What's does it ask?" Anya inquired simply, she seemed to have picked up on the tension, maybe there's hope for her yet. Buffy smiled as Giles cleared his throat.
"If found but what an innocent plant, whose fate is not determined. For you, dear friend, what must occur for justice to remain on course? The age-long quest, un-ending doubt, what shall she be, what is to come. So ask yourself, what can you see, is it cobwebs or is it silk?" He dictated.
There was another pause and Buffy shifted uncomfortably on her stool. Then after a few seconds came Tara's gentle voice.
"I like that." She whispered.
"How you doing Tare?" Buffy asked. She had managed to convince her to come patrolling with her and left Xander to watch Dawn. Well that and check that Amy hadn't burnt the house down. He'd called, apparently the house was still in one piece, but Buffy was sceptical.
"Hmm?" Tara replied vaguely, as she had to every question in the last twelve minutes.
"Feelings? You? Got any bobbling around in that head of yours?" It had been easy to get Tara to come, especially after they'd followed up their only clue. Step 1:Identify weird prophesy thing, Check. Step 2: find Willow. And well Buffy figured that wondering around the streets of Sunnydale was as good a way as any.
"Defiantly got feelings." Tara replied stoically.
"Okaaayyy...anything you'd like to share?" Buffy pushed as she dogged around some mysterios slug in the gutter.
"Eek." She muttered at the strange smelling substance.
"Cold. I feel cold." Tara answered.
"Middle of winter will do that to you." Buffy offered.
There was a silence. Buffy looked out at the deserted street and tried to focus on any possible vampiric activity.
"I'm not upset about Amy." Tara said quietly.
"Why would you be? She lied to you, manipulated you and dated you all in one swing. That and she's been out to get the women you in love with." Buffy said lightly. She'd expected Tara might react to the statement, at least flinch, but she didn't she just kept walking as if she hadn't heard it.
"Tare..."
"No Buff really. I mean I think about when we first met, and I remember thinking. Those eyes. I could loose myself forever in those eyes...but then I see her and her eyes are like this pale blue. It's the same colour as my Dad's and Donny's and it makes feel...cold. I don't think I'd ever look at the shade of blue and feel anything but cold. Last week the day you had the dream, do you remember?" Tara asked.
Buffy nodded.
"I was watching her, and suddenly everything she did made me think: I don't like it when she does that."
Buffy let the words hang in the night air for a moment as she hugged her coat tighter, she was glad she'd picked the sheepskin one. It was freezing.
"You think you we're never with her? In the real world?" Buffy asked.
A distant street light started to flicked up ahead of them but neither of the girls took any notice.
"I dunno, I've got some pretty serious self-esteem issues." Tara smiled and it made Buffy laugh.
The light continued to flicker erratically, and it made the girls shadows strobe in and out of existence. Still neither noticed. Buffy stepped around another pile of slug and grimaced.
"Seriously what is that stuff? I've got enough problems without having to worry about slug soiled boots." Buffy muttered and Tara let a small smile touch her lips.
They walked on, closer and closer towards a flickering traffic light.
"Tare, you want to actually talk about the person on your mind?"
"Buffy. Please." Tara whispered. It sounded like a helpless plea.
"Okay, I'll leave that topic alone." Buffy had known Tara long enough to know she'd only close up if pushed on the matter. And I want open Tara. I want not running away from home and sleeping in a park with a ghost Tara.
"How about Christmas presents? Is that off limits? Because I need some serious Dawn-related guidance, I mean it's the middle of December and I have no idea what I'm supposed to get her!" Buffy looked sideways and realized Tara had stopped dead in her tracks a few steps ago.
"Tara?" Buffy whispered.
Tara held up a finger as if to tell Buffy to wait a moment.
"What can you hear something?" Buffy asked, it seemed unlikely that she wouldn't able to hear it too, slayer senses and all. But Tara was definitely onto something. She was closing her eyes as if concentrating, and the crease had returned between her eyes.
"Taste..." Tara stated simply. Huh?
"Because that last sugar doughnut is just really worth savoring all night long?" Buffy asked lightly.
Tara didn't laugh. She just looked up abruptly and began urgently searching the dark street.
"What is it?" Buffy asked as she looked around trying to find some indication of what was going on.
"Strawberries..." Tara answered.
Buffy's eyes settled of the flickering street lamp and she suddenly remembered the light from above the sewers. What's that? There was a shape, under the light post. It's moving!
Buffy sprinted full speed ahead towards the mysterious shape she'd seen from a distance. It's moving. Knocked over rubbish bins don't move, mail boxes don't move, left out old furniture doesn't move, weird piles of mystery sludge don't move but whatever this was, it moved.
A person. Buffy realized only when she was very close, because the person was covered in something... the slug? It made them look like part of a puddle the way it pooled around their form. There so small. Buffy thought as she reached the puddle.
"Hello? Can you hear me?!" Buffy asked as she waded into the substance. The figure let out a little groan, female, it was a girly groan. They were shivering violently curled up in the tightest ball of limbs and torso. Need to get her out of here. Buffy pulled the girl onto the pavement with strong arms.
The girls limbs unfolded slightly through the manoeuvre and her face tilted up to meet Buffy's as the slayer crouched down to meet her eye level. Green. The hugest green eyes shone through mud covered skin. Buffy decided with perfect clarity in that moment that whatever the hell was going on, this girl was the victim.
"It's okay, you're gonna be okay." She assured rubbing her hands up and down the girls ice cold forearms. She could hear Tara's running footsteps beat against the pavement coming closer. She was still far away, no match for the slayers speed.
"We'll just call an ambulance and..."
"Buffy?" Came the mysterious girl's voice. It was child-like and sweet, but also tainted with fear.
"You can speak! Good! Speaking is good!" The green-eyed girls breath gasped in and out of her throat and Buffy was scared she was dying. Wait did she just call me Buffy?
"Willow!" Tara cried out from a few meters away before she slammed down hard on her knees in front of the quivering girl, slightly nudging into Buffy in the process.
The girl flung herself into Tara's arms as quickly as Tara closed them around her.
"Tara." She whispered desperately into Tara's hair, who seemed to be holding on for dear life.
"I've got you." Tara whisper back.
"It's okay Willow I've got you." She kept saying.
Then Buffy heard a loud creaking noise and the bulb in the street light shattered. She attempted to shield her friends as the glass showered down on them. A large gush of wind howled through the abandoned street, picking up fragments of glass and pelting the sharp objects toward them.
"Not cool!" Buffy yelled.
She pulled Willow out of Tara's grasp in one swift motion, scooping her into carrying position and pulling Tara to her feet.
"We gotta go." Buffy explained as the glass shot towards them.
TBC