Disclaimer:All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc., are the property of Joss Whedon. The original plot is the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Original Publish Date: 2018-12-25


Chapter 29

Cordelia screamed as pain erupted inside her head. It brought her to her knees. It had been so long since she'd had any contact from the Powers that Be that she had all but forgotten how painful the visions they sent her could be, had almost believed that the toll they had taken on her body was finally paid.

Disoriented by the pain, it took her several precious seconds before she was able to think clearly enough to focus on the images and sounds flashing in her mind.

Giles walking around what looked like a shop. He is holding a book in his hands and his face is contorted in a frown. The same book is lying on a table and a male hand is writing down a list.

Anya, Xander, Willow, and Giles standing around a table with lit black candles. Smoke is coming from a cauldron in the middle of the table. A blast of power knocks everyone to the floor and everything goes dark.

Blindingly-bright fluorescent lights flash. Commotion. An alert from somewhere is deafeningly loud. A person in a white coat is working on a body lying on a hospital bed. "I'm calling it," a voice announces.

As suddenly as the vision had begun, it was over, and Cordelia's sight cleared. She found Tara and Wesley both staring at her with worry written all over their expressions.

Slumping down on her bent legs, Cordelia took several deep breaths and allowed her eyes to close as she attempted to sort through her thoughts and commit to memory every detail of the images she'd seen.

"Here, take this," Wesley said quietly, and she felt him press a cool glass into her other hand.

Wishing for her pain killers, Cordelia sipped the clear liquid in the glass and groaned. "I hate these visions. I know that the Powers gave them to me so that I could help others, but did they have to throw in mind-numbing pain with each message?"

Tara smiled. "If you're grumbling, that means you're feeling better."

Cordelia paused. She was surprised to realize that she was indeed feeling better. "What the hell? What was in that water you just gave me, Wes? I've never recovered this quickly and without some serious pain killers."

"It's something Tara created." Wesley's expression went blank. "I told her about how the visions were hurting you."

"And I remembered an old family remedy that could help," Tara finished. She bit her lip and looked down.

I might have to do something about those two, Cordelia thought, but now is not the time. "Tara, remember telling us about the spell Giles and the others were going to attempt?"

Tara nodded. "I was able to temper with the list Willow compiled."

"Well, it didn't work," Cordelia said. She repeated what she saw in as great a detail as she could. "If I interpret what I saw correctly, Giles will realize that the list is incorrect, and they are going to cast the spell. Worse, I saw that someone would die, presumably because of it."

Tara went pale before cursing under her breath, and Cordelia nodded, feeling her own fears begin to surface.

"I was hoping it would take them longer to realize that the spell is incomplete," Tara whispered. "We need to do something to stop them. We can't let them rob Buffy of her strength, not now. If your vision is right, it could kill her!"

Raising a brow at Tara's cursing, Wesley decided not to bring attention to it. He helped Cordelia to her feet and led her to sit on one of the soft chairs in the library. "We will stop them," he said.

"How?" Cordelia demanded. "I don't want to put Tara in danger, but all I can think of is having her sabotage the spell-casting in some way."

"I don't want to place Tara in danger either," Wesley said. "There is no telling what those idiots might do if they realize that she is working against them."

Pleased to see that Wesley was on par with her, Cordelia offered him a small smile. "What's the plan, Watcher?"

Wesley sighed. He no longer held that title in such high regard. "I don't have one yet."

"But you have an idea," Tara said hesitantly. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

"A beginning of one," he corrected. "I'm uncomfortable with adding more spells aimed at Buffy. With the Initiative throwing only God-knows-what at her, and those idiots doing a power-stripping spell, I think we should focus on someone else. Tara, do you know which of them is going to be the main caster?"

It was the first time since she had told them about her soulmate that Wesley spoke directly to her, and Tara breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Giles. Willow wanted to, but he told her it was too dangerous."

"Okay, in that case, we'll focus on him. Now, here's what I suggest…"

o.O.o

Rupert Giles rubbed his tired eyes as he closed up the Magic Shop. It had been a surprisingly active business day, with much traffic, and he was pleased. His little side-project was working out better than he had expected it to. If only he could say the same regarding the rest of his life.

He sighed. He couldn't understand where he had gone wrong with his Slayer. Buffy was like a daughter to him, and he could not, for the life of him, understand why she would not see sense.

She is only a teenager, he tried telling himself. I did stupid things at her age, too.

Unfortunately, some remnants of his dark and stupid past had been exposed to his young protégé when Ethan Rayne paid a visit to Sunnydale.

She still has a chance to learn from her mistakes, he thought as he turned off the light at the front of the store. As soon as Angel's influence is removed, she will see things clearly again. He had to believe it, for doing anything else would mean that he had lost Buffy forever, and he would not admit defeat.

Glancing at the clock, Giles noted that he still had a couple of hours before everyone would gather in the back room of his shop to perform the spell. Willow had stopped by earlier to set aside the ingredients they would need for the spell, meaning to have everything prepared.

He smiled as he thought of the bright young woman. She was eager to learn, but she had listened to his advice to take things slowly and carefully. He had promised himself that he would help her avoid the mistakes he had made in his youth, and he was pleased to see that he had been successful so far.

Giles knew that Willow was hoping to convince him to allow her to cast this spell, but it was far too dangerous for her to attempt. Even if she knows the value of being well-prepared and organized, he noted as he took stock of the back room. The ingredients for the spell and the book were all laid out on the table, measured out and ready for use.

Upon second inspection of the table, Giles frowned. He could have sworn that the spell called for powdered Asphodel—a plant in the lily family—but he could see none set out.

"Perhaps I'm confusing something," he murmured as he opened the book. It was unlike Willow to make a mistake, but as he gazed at the long text, he understood how she might have accidentally skipped it. The list of ingredients was incorporated into the instructions of the spell, which made it easy to overlook something.

He went to his office and grabbed a notepad and pen before returning to the book. Carefully reading through the instructions once more, he noted every ingredient mentioned and realized that there were several missing from the table. Luckily, he had all of the missing components readily available in the shop, although he did make a mental note to restock on Solanaceae seeds.

Of their own accord, his thoughts returned to the details Riley had given him regarding what the Initiative had found in Angelus' mansion. Flowers, burnt candles, and traces of herbs. Obvious evidence of a ritual of some sort. Giles shuddered as he paused to consider the possible rites Angel could have performed.

"Hang in there, Buffy. You're almost free of that monster's influence," he vowed quietly.

Chasing thoughts of the evil Angel was capable of away, Giles turned to ponder Tara. He was the first to admit he was not too astute when it came to inter-personal relationships, but he thought he'd sensed some tension between her and Willow. He had no interest in interfering in Willow's private affairs if he could help it, but he wished for her to be happy and safe. He just wasn't sure what, if anything, he could or should do about it.

After giving the subject several more minutes of thought, he came to the conclusion that he should keep an eye on Tara and be there for Willow if she needed him. Tara appeared to be a meek creature, painfully shy, but Giles suspected that she had great power. Perhaps, she herself was not even aware of just how much. If Tara proved to be a threat, Giles had no qualms about eliminating any and all threats to those he cared about. He had failed Jenny, and that still pained him deeply, but he would not fail again.

o.O.o

The ringing of Tara's cell phone caused everyone in the room to still. Gunn had arranged that all calls made to her dorm room would be transferred to the new device Wesley had gotten her. Seeing as Cordelia, Gunn, and Westley were with her, she knew that the caller had to be one of the Scooby Gang.

Answering with a quiet, "Hello?" she heard Willow's voice greet her from the other end of the line. She listened for several moments before speaking again. "I-I am sorry. I c-c-can't. M-my aunt called, a-and I m-must leave for Los Angeles. F-family emergency."

"Oh."

Willow sounded disappointed, but before she could say anything more, Tara continued, "I m-must go. I d-don't want to m-miss my bus. Goodnight." She disconnected before Willow could say anything more.

"Good, now that that's out of the way, let's go back to the planning," Cordelia said.

Laid out before them were several sheets of paper depicting the Initiative HQ's different levels, several piles of books, and Gunn's computer equipment.

"I'll drive us here," Gunn said, turning back to their previous discussion of their plan to infiltrate the compound. "While I'm in the van, I'll be able to tap into their network and disable any alarms they have. I have a…friend," he smirked at the term, "who'd provided us with short-range wireless ear-pieces to communicate between us. We can use those to coordinate our efforts."

"First, we move to rescue the Fae," Wesley said. They'd decided against splitting up, as that would end up making it much harder for Gunn to keep track of both teams. Having no idea in what condition Angel and Buffy were, they decided that having a fae that could heal the two would be a good idea.

Gunn nodded. "This is the shortest path to the room we think she is being held in," he said and continued to trace it on the map with his finger. "You will go through here, down to the basement, cross over here, and reach the holding cells. Once you're able to determine which of the cells she's in, let me know, and I will open the door."

"Better be certain about that door, though," Cordelia muttered. She'd looked up some of the demons Tara had said were held by the Initiative, and she had shivers running down her spine every time she recalled what she'd read about them. "There are some nasty monsters in there."

"We will be," Tara said with conviction.

o.O.o

On the other side of Sunnydale, Giles, Willow, Xander, and Anya gathered inside the magic shop in preparation for the spell. Giles's face was cast in stern lines as they began the ritual by casting a protective circle. It was an extra precaution he'd added as the spell was possibly one of the most dangerous they'd ever attempted—excluding the one Willow had done when she'd called Angel's soul back into his body, but that was a subject he didn't want to ponder right at that moment.

Dutifully, Willow dropped the ingredients into the caldron one by one and added her voice to the chant that followed. Anya handed out the ceremonial black candles that she'd helped carve earlier and then she, too, joined the chant.

While the others chanted in English and Latin, Giles wove the spell in a language that had been dead for hundreds of years and held a silent prayer that he was pronouncing the words correctly. As he placed his hands over the smoking caldron, everyone's eyes focused on him, their lips moving in a continuous mantra that was meant to keep a protective shield around the room.

Anya barely kept a smirk off her face as she listened to the older man. She hadn't told anyone she understood and spoke the language he was speaking. It was simpler to let the foolish children forget that she'd walked the earth for so long that she'd witnessed civilizations rise and fall.

As Giles shouted the final words of the spell, they all felt the rush of power sweep through the room, throwing them forcefully to the floor before enveloping the room in total darkness. The candles blew out without even a trace of the smoke that should have been there, and silence stretched for several heartbeats. Then, the room turned bright again, the lights coming back up, but the candles remained snuffed.

"Did it work?" Willow asked, looking anxiously at Giles as they all got slowly to their feet, or attempted to do so.

Giles appeared to be a little worse for wear, and Willow bit her lip in concern before letting out a small cry as he collapsed back to the floor.

Xander was the first to reach him.

"I'm okay," Giles mumbled, groaning as tried to sit up with Xander's help. "I could use some brandy, probably, but I'm fine."

Willow gave a nervous chuckle of relief.

"I'll get him a glass," Anya said and turned to go to the small room that served as an office.

Xander, in the meantime, helped Giles to the nearest chair, and the older man nearly collapsed into it.

"Maybe not too steady on my feet just yet," Giles muttered. He accepted the glass of amber liquid that Anya presented him with a short, "Thank you," and gulped it down in one go. He made a face as the liquid burned going down and held out the glass for Anya to take back.

"Feeling better?" Xander asked, barely holding back a chuckle at Giles' expression.

"Marginally," he replied. "Give me a few moments before we attempt an upright position again, though."

"Take as long as you need." Willow smiled down at him. "Should I call Professor Welsh and update her?"

"If you could bring the phone over here, I'll call her," Giles replied.

"I'll get it," she said cheerfully. She disappeared briefly into the office and returned with a cordless phone. "Here."

"Thank you, Willow." Giles, who had managed to move himself to one of the chairs, slowly dialed the number.

"While you update her, we will clean up here," Willow said. "Xander, could you help me take the cauldron to the bathroom? I'll wash it. Anya, can you take care of the candles so that we could wipe the table clean?"

"Sure," Anya said with a frown. It was clear she didn't like Xander going anywhere with Willow, but both seemed oblivious to it.

It didn't take long for them to tidy up and remove all traces of the spell from the room. The last step was to cleanse the floor, which required some white magic to remove the stains. The black residue would have been impossible to remove any other way. Giles wanted to do that, but as he was still unstable enough to nearly keel over as soon as he tried to stand, Willow volunteered to do it in his stead.

"You don't look strong enough to lift a feather, Giles," Anya observed in her usual tactless manner. "It's better if you don't cast any spells for now. I don't want to be blown up."

"Anya!" Xander's reprimanding tone was, as usual, lost on his girlfriend.

o.O.o

Willow sighed as she placed the now-clean cauldron back in its place. Tara was avoiding her. It had been this way for several weeks now, and Willow didn't know what to do. It felt like high school all over again. The person she was interested in only saw her as a friend or only wanted to use her. Her thoughts briefly touched on Xander—who was currently arguing about something with Anya—before she pushed them aside. That ship had sailed long ago, and she had moved on, hadn't she?

Another sigh escaped her, and she found herself sitting on a chair in the small office at the back of the store, staring out the small window overlooking the back alley. Thinking back to the events of the past months, Willow tried to think what could have happened to cause Tara to pull back when things seemed to go so well for them.

We went out on a few dates, and we even shared that amazing kiss, she recalled with a smile. That kiss was brief, but it definitely shook her. Me, kissing a girl! Who would have thought I'd be brave enough to initiate it?

She allowed herself a few more moments of fond memories before pulling her thoughts back to the subject at hand. She recalled the evening she'd introduced Tara to the others. What a meeting that had turned out to be!

Willow frowned. They'd argued with Buffy that night, confronting her with the lies she had been telling them to cover for Angel. She was still hurt by those lies. Buffy had never felt the need to lie to her, to her best friend! Not until Angel.

Well, he's gone now, and we are doing everything we can to eliminate his bad influence on Buffy, she thought hopefully.

Thinking back about that night, she couldn't recall walking Tara back to their dorms. In fact, she couldn't remember seeing her leave at all. Then again, things were a bit wacky that night. I was so hurt and angry.

Was that the answer? Had Tara been scared by the emotional outburst and pulled back? It was possible, she supposed. Tara was shy and didn't like confrontation. Perhaps once she was back from dealing with whatever family emergency she had in LA, they could start over. Willow refused to even contemplate the possibility that Tara was serious about ending things between them.

No, she's just confused. Once she'd had time to think about things, I'm sure we can make it work.

Feeling much more optimistic than before, Willow left the office and returned to the rest of her friends in the back room of the magic shop.


Merry Christmas,Happy Holidays, and Wonderful Tuesday! There, I think I got all my bases covered, lol.

I can't believe how much I have been and still am struggling with this story. I had a very clear idea of how I wanted it to end, but Musie has taken it upon herself to make sure that nothing of what I had planned would work now. She's a hard master to please...

Here's to hoping next year would help me break through this writer's block and allow me to finally write the final chapters of this story.

Next time onBring Me to Death: Gunn and the rest of the AI team are launching their rescue mission with the help of a mysterious friend.

As always, thank you all very much for reading, enjoying, and reviewing,

Alley Cat.