Yup! New chappie.
School is such a nuisance.
Enjoy!
Chapter 29
"What was the point of Willow and I being there if we didn't have to face any trials?" asked Wes as they walked back to the car from where Willow had teleported them to.
"Well, you figured out how to open the door, and Willow got us out. I'd say that was reason enough." said Angel as they got into the car, him and Buffy taking the front, while Willow, Wes and Connor squeezed in the back. No sooner had the doors closed than it began to pour.
"True I suppose."
"So… what did you guys have to do?" Willow looked at the three of them with eagerness.
"Don't want to talk about it." said Connor and Angel at the same time, in the same tone. Willow's eyes widened.
"Ok, fair enough. Buffy?"
"I met them. The men who made the First Slayer. They tried to do to me what they did to her.
"That's what the smoke was? The demon they used to infest the Slayer?" asked Connor.
"Yeah. They tried to stick it in me, to make me stronger. But I wouldn't let them. I won't win with that thing inside me."
"You made the right decision Buffy." said Angel, reaching out and squeezing her hand, while keeping one hand on the wheel as he drove them back towards the city.
"Did I?" Buffy's voice was soft. "They offered me more power, but I didn't like the loophole."
"So, you turned it down? It's OK, Buffy. We'll get by. We always do." Willow tried to be encouraging. Buffy shook her head.
"I don't know. They showed me..."
"Showed you what?"
"That they were right –it isn't enough."
"Why, Buffy? What did you see? What did they show you?"
"…An army. An army of Turok-Han, thousands of them."
There was a tense silence for a few moments before Connor nodded, "I know."
"You know?" Buffy looked at him. Connor's eyes met hers and the two warriors seemed to reach a kind of understanding for the first time.
"As Destruction's representative, I'm big on the sensing things that promise a lot of death and destruction. The First's army? Very high on the list."
"Why didn't you say something before?"
"Because none of Buffy's team trusts me. You guys wouldn't have believed me if I'd told you. I was hoping Cordy would have a vision or something to back me up."
"Connor… I'm sorry I was so hard on you. You made mistakes, but so has everyone here, in fact I'd say our mistakes are pretty worse than yours. I mean… you love-"
"Calista." murmured Connor, staring out the window.
"Yeah, you love her and-"
"No, no I mean, look, it's Calista."
Buffy looked through the windshield of the car and saw a lone figure walking through the rain at the edge of the road. They were hugging themselves and they were drenched.
"You sure?"
"Positive." said Connor, already winding down the window. Angel slowed the car down and beeped the horn. The person jumped and whirled around, revealing it was indeed Calista. "Calista, what are you doing here? Are you mad?"
"I don't know." said Calista in a small voice, looking very lost. Angel stopped the car and Connor threw the door open.
"Get in." he said, the words were an order. Calista hesitated. "Cal, get in here before you get sick."
Calista bowed her head and did as she was told, climbing into the car. Willow, Wes and Connor had to squeeze in together even more to fit her, until Connor pulled Calista into his lap and shut the door.
"You're soaking." said Connor, sounding exasperated. Calista said nothing, only stared out the window opposite her. Her face was blank now, her eyes inscrutable.
"Hey Calista, check it out." Buffy held up her weapon, "Nice big weapon. We might be able to win now."
Calista said nothing. Buffy's smile faltered and then fell, "Well… I think it's neat."
"Buffy can you still feel something from the weapon?"
"Oh yeah, it's powerful, I can feel it."
"Can I?" asked Willow, holding her hands out. Buffy passed it to her, the sharp stake at the end of it narrowly missing Angel. Buffy shot him an apologetic look. Willow held the weapon and closed her eyes.
"Can you sense it Willow?"
"Gotta say no. Must be a slayer thing."
Calista's hands shot out and she grabbed the scythe from Willow, drawing it to her. Her eyes were closed and she had a strange expression on her face, an almost blissful look. Connor's eyes were fixed on her face as she sat like that for five minutes. Then he tried to take the scythe out of her hands. Calista's eyes snapped open and she snarled at him like a ferocious animal. Connor recoiled and held his hands up in surrender. Calista stared hard at him for a moment, still like an animal. Then she turned her head away and she closed her eyes again and tilted her head back, that blissful expression on her face again.
"Connor?"
"I haven't a clue."
"We're home." said Angel, parking the car. Connor shook Calista, who recoiled away with a whimper.
"Cal, we're home, time to wake up."
Calista's eyes opened and she looked around. Then she sighed and held the scythe out letting Buffy take it back, before she climbed out of the car. Connor followed her quick, reluctant to let her out of his sight.
"How'd it go- Calista! We were getting worried about you." Cordy walked up to the two with a smile of relief. "Where'd you go?"
"Nowhere… just walked." Calista sounded dazed. Cordy's eyes flicked to Connor, who shrugged, looking helpless.
"Ok, sweetie. Connor, how'd the weapon quest go?"
"We got it. Looks cool."
"Way cool." agreed Buffy as she came in, holding the scythe aloft like a trophy.
"Damn…" said Faith as she walked over to her sister-Slayer, holding her hands out. Buffy handed her the scythe. Faith looked amazed. "And damn that's something."
"I know."
"It's old. And strong and it feels like… like it's mine." Faith then reigned in her excitement and handed it back to Buffy, "I guess that means it's yours."
"It belongs to the Slayer."
"You mean the Slayer in charge." said Faith in a matter of fact way, "You."
"Does it matter at the moment?"
"Guess not. So… you got the weapon."
"Yeah. Met the guys who made the Slayer too. They tried to knock me up with a demon."
"Ugh! So not fun. I should know, since it's happened to me twice now." said Cordy.
Faith and Buffy looked at her, Cordy shrugged, "Buffy dies a lot, I get knocked up by demons a lot."
"Ok… moving on very fast, Angel and Connor took on trials to prove themselves worthy of being our champions."
"Why them?" demanded Spike
"Because they were there." said Buffy in exasperation. She was getting really sick of this.
"Um… Buffy!"
Buffy looked at Connor and was surprised to see him restraining Calista, who was reaching out for the scythe, a hungry gleam in her eyes.
"Calista?" Buffy passed the scythe to Faith and walked over to Calista. Calista's eyes followed the scythe, ignoring Buffy completely. Buffy took Calista's chin and made Calista look at her. "Calista what is it?"
"I want the feeling back." she moaned, "I want it back!"
"What? What do you want?"
"I want to feel the possibility, I want to feel the Potential."
"I don't understand."
Connor reached out with one hand and touched Calista's brow, "She's burning up."
Buffy touched Calista's brow and saw he was right. "Connor, bring her upstairs and get her out of those wet clothes, and wrap her up well."
"But she's already roasting."
"She'll start to shake, which will make her warmer. Keeping her wrapped up will help. Willow, call a doctor."
"On it."
Connor lifted Calista into his arms and carried her up the stairs. Calista struggled for a moment, and then sagged in his grip, burying her face into his neck. Her skin burned against his.
"What else is gonna happen to you Cal?"
Calista groaned.
Connor reached their room and lay Calista down on the bed. He stripped her clothes off and then found her fresh pyjamas. But Calista didn't want to be dressed. Every time Connor tried to get her dressed she pushed him away, moaning and squirming away. Connor sighed, feeling tired and frustrated. Finally he gave up and grabbed Calista roughly and wrapped her up so tight in the blankets she couldn't squirm free.
"It's too hot!" Calista whimpered, "Take it off Connor."
"No, Cal. You need to stayed wrapped up." Connor tore his fingers through his hair, trying not to snap at her when she wasn't well. But he was so tired. He hadn't slept in days and he was stressed.
Buffy and Angel came into the room, followed by Willow and Spike.
"Good, she has to stay warm." said Willow. Connor nodded, rubbing his brow. Calista's face was shiny with sweat. "Wonder what brought this on."
"Maybe her immune system's low since she just had the babies." suggested Spike, leaning against the wall, hovering but staying out of the way. Connor shook his head.
"I think the scythe did this."
"Why?"
"Because she only got sick after she touched it."
"But… why would it make her sick?"
"I don't know, but if the fever's mystical, then that's your area. I don't know anything about magic except that you can't trust it."
Willow reached out and touched Calista's cheek, closing her eyes in concentration. After a minute she pulled away and said, "I think he's right. I'm getting something mystical from her, but it's not right."
"Ok. So… what do we do?"
"We need to learn more about that scythe."
"Ok, well, you, Giles and Wesley get started on that. Faith and I will keep training the Potentials, and Connor?"
"Yeah, I know, look after Calista." sighed Connor, fighting a yawn.
"No. Go get some sleep in another room. Spike will keep an eye on Calista and Cordy will handle the babies. You need to sleep."
"But-"
"Don't argue with me. You're exhausted, I can see it on your face. Now I don't care if I have to get Willow to brew you a sleeping potion, you are going to rest."
Connor looked at Angel and then sighed, "Ok. Fine. Whatever." He turned on his heel and walked out of the room.
"Buffy, would you really have-?"
"Force fed him a sleeping potion? Oh yeah. Connor's no good to us if he's falling asleep on his feet."
"I know… what can I do to help?"
"I want you to find out what's happening in Sunnydale, get as much intel as you can. I need to know what's left in the town, how bad it is, everything."
"Ok, Lorne and I can do that."
"Why the hell am I playing bloody babysitter?" demanded Spike.
"Because Calista likes and cares about you. You'll have a better chance at keeping her under control than anyone else other than Connor, and Connor needs to sleep."
Spike sighed, "Fine."
"Ok, keep her hydrated and warm Spike, until we know what's made her so sick, that's all we can do. I'll tell the doctor not to come." said Willow as she walked out.
Buffy nodded, throwing a final glance at Calista, feeling sympathetic and annoyed at the girl for causing so much trouble at the worst possible time. Then she left, with Angel right behind her.
"What are we trying to find out exactly?" asked Wesley as he poured over his books.
"We want to see if there's any information at all about the scythe." said Giles, his glasses hanging from his mouth.
Willow spoke up from behind her laptop. "Well, I did a check, the area where the cave was, it's an old vineyard. But before the vineyard was just, you know, a vineyard, it was a monastery. Could've been put there then. Some creepy monks messing with powers they don't understand."
"No, it's older than that. It's pre-Christian." said Giles, scratching his head, "And don't forget, both Connor and Cordelia mentioned something about Guardians."
Willow nodded, remembering, "OK. Well, I found reference to stories the monks used to tell about something older. Uh, like, some kind of pagan temple."
"Native American?" asked Wesley, looking up. Willow scrunched up her brow in frustration.
"No. I don't know. Ugh. OK, maybe we're just going about this the wrong way. Maybe we should research the weapon itself. Like...look. Maybe it's the Axe of Dekeron, said to have been forged in hell itself. Lost since the Children's Crusade, where it was said to have killed- Oh. Children. I hope that's not it."
Wesley looked at the redhead and smiled a little. It was touching that Willow, despite all she'd been through, could still sound so sweet and innocent.
Giles looked over a page of the book in his hands, "Well, I have reference to the Sword of Moskva, the, uh...Reaper of the Tigris—how are we supposed to narrow this down? The illustrations are never clear enough." He snapped the book shut and dropped it on the table, removing his glasses from his mouth and rubbing his forehead, "Oh, damn. We're running out of time. We really haven't got anything useful."
Willow stood up and walked to the weapon and picked it up. Wesley looked at her,
"Are you sure you don't sense any of the power that Buffy spoke about?"
Willow sighed, "Still gotta say no. Definitely a slayer thing." She ran her hands over the handle.
Giles walked over to Willow and stood beside her. "Tapping into magicks might help with that."
Willow's eyes widened, "Maybe. But, I mean, if Angel and Connor refuse to say what they had to do to win this thing, it must be pretty dangerous. And tapping into that..." She put the weapon down carefully
"Willow, you could do it without endangering yourself. Look at what you were able to do with Calista." said Wesley in a quiet voice.
Willow was apprehensive, shaking her head, "If I tried something big, I'd change. And then it's all black hair and veins and lightning bolts. I can hardly do a locator spell without getting dark roots. I know what I did with Connor and Dawnie and Calista was huge, but I was just the conduit, I didn't actually do the fighting. That makes a big difference."
Giles looked at her with severe eyes, but his voice was soft and kind, "And if it was necessary?"
Willow sighed, "Honestly? I don't know." She went back to her computer, looking disheartened. Wesley pinched the bridge of his nose. Giles sighed.
"All right. Do what you can. That's all any of us can do."
Willow nodded, "I guess so. Ugh. Man, none of these sound right." She scrolled down a long list about the history of the axe. "I mean, look. Here's one that's just "m" question mark. What the heck is that?"
Giles and Wesley both looked up at once. Giles moved to Willow's side,
"Let me see." He stared at the symbol for a few moments. "It's not a question mark. It's the international phonetics alphabet symbol for glottal stop."
"A whoey?" Willow looked bewildered. Wesley stood up, explaining,
"It's sort of a gulping noise like-"
Giles interrupted him, "I'm...remembering something here. Um... Ah. Hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs stand for sets of consonants, as you know."
Willow widened her eyes in an attempt to look sincere,
"Yes, absolutely."
Giles began to pace,
""M" plus glottal stop is represented by a picture that's commonly thought to symbolize a sickle or a scythe. It's in thousands of carvings. In Egypt, throughout the ancient world."
Wesley's eyes widened, "Carvings like you'd have on a pagan temple?"
Giles nodded, "Go back. See what else we can find out about this temple. The scythe is a symbol of death. Let's see where these pagans buried their dead." Giles picked up the scythe and looked it over as he spoke. Wesley felt hope stirring in his stomach and heart.
So who here is hating Calista right now and who feels sorry for her? Be honest!! Lol. And who wants to cuddle Connor?
Night's Darkness
